Yank Blog

Wow! You readers are the greatest! Apparently Yank Blog is one of the top 5 sites for “Best Weblog about Music”. Woohoo! Like they say, it really is an honor just to be nominated. Thank you so much, everybody. Hmm, I gotta say, this ain’t too shabby for a blog with a very tight niche. Now for the tough part, beating those other four music sites down to a bloody pulp and running off with the coveted award. Voting will close at 10:00 PM EST on Friday, February 2. Once again, thanks to all who voted.

Happy Birthday Steve Jay!

G’day mate. Al has been nominated in four categories for the Yahoo! Music Australia Online Music Video Awards. Be sure to vote for him in “Most Sexy Male”, “Funniest Video”, “Video Of The Year”, and “Video Hall Of Fame.” It appears that you can vote as many times as you want, so do so.

And while you’re stuffing the ballot box, go to AmIAnnoying.com and click on the little button next to “Not” for Al’s entry. As of this writing, he’s #8 on the least annoying list, out of 19,574 entries!

Special thanks to Patti for getting us the full scoop on this:

Debuting this Friday, January 26, 2007 on XM Comedy
XM 150 Stand Up Sit Down: “Weird Al Yankovic”
As a teenager, Al began sending homemade tapes of his songs to radio host Dr. Demento. Thanks to Dr. Demento, “Weird Al” Yankovic broke into the novelty song business in 1979. The rest is history. Join Sonny Fox for an exclusive look at “Weird Al Yankovic”.

Encore broadcasts will be on Tues. 8 AM Feb 2nd / Wed. 3 AM Feb 3rd / Thurs. 8 PM ET Feb 4th

Friday’s show does start at 10 pm Eastern.

Also, if you go to the XM radio website, you can try XM for 4 days on a trial basis, so all you non-subscribers can still hear the show.

Thanks to the many emails we received about Al’s recent appearance on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! show. Well, appearance is not the right word since it’s radio…and he just called in for it, but he was on in any case. You can just surf on over to the episode website and listen to the full show or just Al’s time on it. Apparently, he really know his Pia Zadora trivia.

As a quick reminder, while many people are making Super Bowl plans, they’re overlooking making GRAMMY Night plans. The Grammys are handed out a week after the Super Bowl, and Al’s up for Best Comedy Album with Straight Outta Lynwood. If you organize any parties, be sure to spread the mayonaise on the lawn!

Ya know, Al works a lot. He tries to let us know of everything he’s doing, but either things slip through the cracks, he forgets to tell us, or just wants to see who’s paying attention. In any case, a new little gem was just uncovered. According to the VERY detailed discography maintained by Bermuda and Jeff Morris, Al recently appeared on the album Here Comes the Sun or Eia Mai Ka La by Kapo Ku. The disocgraphy simply lists this as

Al plays accordion on Pua Pi Anuhea, credited as Aloha Al.

So all you who like to have complete collections of everything Al ever lended his axe to, you’ll want to be sure you pick up a copy or twenty seven of this. You never know where Al will appear next! He could be on the next …Ozzy Osbourne or Yanni (an anagram of “Nina Y”, by the way) album. Wait, no who are we kidding. That’s not gonna happen.

Ya know, back in 1992, a year before the release of Alapalooza, on the 6th installment of Al-Tv, a video for Bohemian Rhapsody was played. But it wasn’t by Queen. Oh no it wasn’t. Instead, it was this classic gem, by Bad News.

This particular version looks like it came from Dr. Dementos Top 20 Demented Video Countdown in. Once you are done with that version be sure you listen to Al’s polkafied version, called Bohemian Polka. Enjoy!

Another date has been added on the Official Weird Al Tour Page:
March 13, Sydney, Enmore Theatre

If you want to see “Weird Al” live and in person make sure the dates are listed on the official sites http://www.WeirdAl.com, http://www.myspace.com/weirdal, or your favorite fan sites like http://www.Yankovic.org or http://www.Al-oholicsAnonymous.com for example. Why are we stating the obvious? Well, according to Pollstar someone is going around claiming to be Al’s promoter and booking him for shows then collecting the cash. This first happened in some Chicago area clubs, which, honestly, are too small to even host our favorite artist. The article reports that the scam is apparently spreading across the US.

What’s even MORE bizarre is that this is not the first time that someone has been involved in fraud and Al’s concerts. Back in 2000, an individual promoting himself as an ostrich farmer took money from investors and instead of using it for ostrich farming, instead produced a “Weird Al” concert. An reprint of the article from the LATime can be found here. Scroll down to “Fraud in the news”. In 2001, he was sentenced to four years in prison. (full article archived). At the moment, it cannot be assumed that this is the same individual. That is for the courts to decide, not us.
For the moment, if you don’t live in Austrailia where official tour dates ARE officially scheduled, you’ll just have to watch “Weird Al” live in the comfort of your own home with the “Weird Al” Yankovic - Live! DVD.
Obviously, Al and his management are in no way affiliated with these individuals are cannot be held responsible for the actions other people take in their name.

Thanks to Steve Allen for sending us the link to the Pollstar article.