New Weird Al Album!

Musical genius Weird Al has a new album debuting tomorrow. he's done EIGHT videos for it which is way more than usual.

the first released today, a parody of Pharrell's "Happy" called "Tacky". Video has Aisha Tyler, Jack Black, Margaret Cho and others.

http://www.nerdist.com/vepisode/weir...arrells-happy/

He's releasing one a day for 8 days.

It's goofy as heck but he's still one of my favorite artists. It's tough to get old and not lose the imagination and irreverence you had as a child but instead enhance it with the skills you learn along the way.

here's one of my all time fav songs/videos of his, a great reference for our generation given the subject matter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLnapb-30hA

This has to be my favorite though, sheer brilliance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos

I know I'm having a conversation with myself (well I know DAllen has taste and likes some Weird AL stuff), but what is going on with him and his marketing approach is really brilliant and insightful, even a vision of how media and the internet will merge.

He's doing an "8 videos in 8 days" release for the album, and it's working. While album sales are so down it's not as high a bar as it once was, he's on the verge of having his first Billboard #1 album. He collaborated with Nerdist, Collegehumor, Yahoo and others with the videos, so each of them basically paid for the video and they got the exclusive release for it.

So he's got no money in the promotion of the album, you know the videos that make not much money, he's gotten on Fox Business and many other sites both broadcast and internet, and made a huge splash.

The guy with the accordion who is the last vestige of the Dr. Demento show is getting more album sales and exposure than a lot of big time artists. Al graduated with honors from Cal Poly and it's clear why, there's no moss growing on this guy.

he's gotten rich and had a good life doing something that is both fun and his passion. Can't get much smarter than that, and his artistic ability is as high as anyone in music. He and his band can perform any style, he can arrange any music, work with any kind of instrument, and is also a top notch video director/producer.

Pretty cool guy, and a personal hero of mine. really happy to see him have a big successful release with this album.

Last thought -- he has a Che Guevara t-shirt thing for this album, I have to get one. A parody album that includes a parody of one of the great (and false) statement t-shirts of all time? Too cool. Not Firefly cool, but really cool.

Forgot to mention, today was the 8th video, a CSNY style parody that pokes fun at corporate double speak. Where did the exclusive debut occur? Why the Wall Street Journal site of course. Just watched it, think Dilbert set to music. Really funny if you have a foot in that world.