I just got back home from seeing “Weird Al” in concert for my… fourth time. As always, it was a fantastic show. I was surprised to see how he switched up the format this year, with a lot more audiovisual effects and “Albuquerque” as the encore (no seriously, that is an amazing feat to perform that every night). Well worth the trip. Unfortunately I didn’t see any of the fair, since I didn’t take any time off work. There’s always another year, I guess.

Yesterday I picked up Weird Al‘s new album, entitled “Straight Outta Lynwood.” I don’t know why I keep buying his CDs, since I don’t listen to them very often. However, I do enjoy his humor and I thought the song “White And Nerdy” was awesome and the video even more so.

In fact, this album wasn’t even a CD; it is called a DualDisc, with a CD potion on one side and DVD on the other. The only problem is this arrangement interferes with converting said CD to MP3. Nonetheless, the DVD extras (5.1 surround and a bunch of music videos) is a nice bonus and more than justifies the $9.99 that Circuit City had it on sale for.

There are some great songs on the album, such as “I’ll Sue Ya,” a Rage Against The Machine style original that is awesome for a number of reasons, “Confessions Part III” which I found funny even though I have never heard an Usher song in my life and certainly not the one that is being parodied, and “Trapped In The Drive-Thru” which is six degrees of awesome. It’s pretty amazing that “Weird Al” is still capable of such amazing work. Now I just need to keep an eye on tour dates 😀

Totally out of the blue, a free download appeared on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s official website yesterday. It turns out to be a parody of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful,” and is indeed quite funny. It hasn’t been clarified yet why this was put out there, but characteristic of the Internet when it comes upon something good and free, the website is practically dead. (Here is a temporary mirror that will disappear shortly!)