Watch This Now: “Weird Al” Yankovic – “Perform This Way”
“I’ll wear a porcupine on my head on a w-h-i-m…”
He’s ba-ack! It’s been about five years in-between albums for that ever-reliable parody overlord that is “Weird Al” Yankovic. One thing we knew for sure, though – upon his imminent return, one of the first acts he’d be after would be frenemy of the blog Lady Gaga. Sure enough, here we are – after a myriad of bullshit behind the song’s release, Al has finally given us his version of Born This Way. It’s twisted and freaky, but like you’d get anything less from a “Weird Al” take on the Mother Monster, right?
Yankovic is not in the clip in bodily form, but rather has his face superimposed onto a couple of Gaga lookalikes as he/they parade about in a series of downright outrageous outfits, from tributes to actual things worn by Gaga to some shit so insane that Gaga will be kicking herself that she didn’t come up with them first. Of course, if you didn’t dig Weird Al’ schtick before this, you won’t find anything here to change your tune. It’s just old mate Yankovic doing what he loves, and that’s poking a bit of fun at those we send straight to the top of the charts. He who is tired of “Weird Al” is tired of life…
My Favourite Video: MC Lars
MC Lars is an American hip-hop musician, known for his satirical hits such as “Signing Emo” and “Download This Song”.
His latest album, This Gigantic Robot Kills, came out last year.
His favourite video is Smells Like Nirvana by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
My favorite music video is “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Smells Like NIrvana”. He recreated the Nirvana video flawlessly and even incorporated some of the original actors. It’s a hilarious commentary on Generation X’s nihilism and still makes me laugh to this day. ”Weird Al” made me want to make music.
Old Favourites: Ben Folds – “Rockin’ The Suburbs”
“You better watch out, ’cause I’m gonna say fuck!”
Ahh, Ben Folds. An artist I grew up with, although not quite as the involved fan that I am today – I spent years singing along to the Ben Folds Five hit “Brick” before I ever knew what it meant. In terms of videos, however, I’ll always remember the first clip he did as a solo artist – the title track to the awesome Rockin’ The Suburbs album.
This is one of those videos where, at the time, I’d never seen anything else quite like it. Folds performing as every member of a full band could have just been him stroking his ego, but it was also pretty symbolic of becoming a solo musician for the first time, now that I think of it. The energy with which each version of him performs is also a bold message of being free and ready to be the piano-pop smartarse he really wanted to be. Ripping on the nu-metal fad by dressing up as Fred Durst and also throwing in a subtle message of “Korn sucks” (look out for it!) was also incredibly timely and entertaining. There’s just too much fun to be had in this video, which is probably why I remember the whole thing so vividly. I’m not a massive fan these days, but you get me to this era of his career and I’m more than willing to worship at the altar of Foldsy. Another tip: look out for the sound engineer near where the bridge kicks in – pretty “Weird” dude, right?
