Why I Love Weird Al

So, Weird Al Yankovic's new album Straight Outta Lynwood is pretty good. "White & Nerdy" is a nerd classic, but I think that since it is a comedy song it doesn't really count as nerdcore. Chamillionaire and other people are apparently impressed with Weird Al's flow, which amuses me greatly.

"Don't Download This Song" is an original song, but is obviously a parody of 80's fundraiser songs. (Think "Do They Know It's Christmas?" or "We Are the World".) The song pretty hilarious, and so you should probably give it a listen. (But don't download it illegeally! You will die of the irony.)

Even though he wrote "Don't Download This Song" Weird Al has expressed an amount of disdain for p2p music downloading. Since he is a such a prominent comedy song artist, a lot of songs that aren't his are attributed to Weird Al. Many of them actually contain explicit content and Weird Al, who is proud to have clean lyrics, feels that this is bad for his artistic image.

Imagine that, and artist how is actually concerned with the effect of p2p downloading on his artistic reputation (and not the money he makes!) Not only does Weird Al have a more legitimate complaint about p2p downloading, he also isn't a bitter old hag about it. (Metallica comes to mind.)

Cause you start out stealing songs
Then you're robbing liquor stores
And selling Crack
And running over school kids with your car
-- Weird Al Yankovic, "Don't Download This Song"


He was pretty much Napoleon Dynamite as a kid.

Sam's Town

So, The Killers album Sam's Town came out a week ago, and I've probably listened to it a hundred times since then. It's a really sweet album. The first single "When You Were Young" may have some Bruce Springsteen-esque lyrics, but people are way off when they characterize the album as a Bruce Springsteen imitation.

The synth-rock sound from Hot Fuss that people loved so much is gone now, except for the beginning of "Bones" which is very Hot Fuss sounding at the beginning and kind of Cure sounding afterward. (It's also, I'm pretty sure, my favorite song from the album.)

Also, the music video for "When You Were Young" is a pretty amazing piece of work, so you should watch it sometime. Tim Burton is in charge of the upcoming video for "Bones" so that's another one to look forward to. (As far as music videos go, The Killers tend to deliver too.)

So, I'm pretty sure I love every song from this album.

To heck with the sophomore curse.

I love The Killers.