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One week from today (Tuesday, August 25), my 5-track digital EP “Internet Leaks” will be officially released.  It’ll be on iTunes, Amazon… you know, all the usual places.

 

 

All right… even though I need to join another social networking site like I need another orifice in my cranium, I’ve decided to wake up and smell 2009… and join Facebook.

My page is at www.facebook.com/weirdal. If you’re my MySpace friend, why not be my Facebook friend too? Come on now - don’t make me go out and get a whole new set of friends.

Besides the argument that “that’s just what sentient organisms do now,” I got on Facebook partly for the same reason that I originally got on MySpace – there are people out there pretending to be (or at least represent) me. I assume that these people are just enthusiastic, well-meaning fans, so no harm done… but just for the record, anybody on Facebook who ISN’T www.facebook.com/weirdal … definitely isn’t me.

And you know what else? I just signed up for Twitter too. Yeah, I know. I figured I’d better hurry up, because somebody already snagged twitter.com/weirdal… so I’m at twitter.com/alyankovic. Feel free to “follow” me if you like, but for what it’s worth, I really don’t intend on documenting every single one of my bowel movements – and truthfully, there’s probably only 40 or 50 people that would be interested in that kind of thing anyway.

So what have I been up to other than Facebook-ing and Twitter-ing? Outside of the usual “enjoying my life” and “spending quality time with my family” stuff, I’ve been writing new songs and working on Al’s Brain.

I’ve mentioned Al’s Brain here before – it will be a pavilion and interactive exhibit at the Orange County Fair this year, the centerpiece of which will be a 10-minute 3-D movie written by, directed by and starring me. It will premiere on July 10 (the first day of the fair) and run though August 9. And then hopefully it will travel to various other places around the world after that. It looks like it’s going to be pretty cool, so if you’re going to be in Southern California this summer, try to check it out.

And I’ve been writing a few original songs – we’re looking at being in the studio in late April / early May to cut some tracks. And then my plan is to release 3 or 4 of those tracks digitally (hopefully with accompanying videos of some sort) over the course of the summer. I have no idea when the next album is coming out… but at least you’ll get to hear parts of it in the not-too-distant future.

And I’m involved with developing a few other things too, but I’m being told that I can’t spill the beans about them quite yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Tweet ya later,
Al

Well, my new single "Whatever You Like" came out exactly two weeks ago, and there was good news and bad news surrounding its release. The bad news was that iTunes, in what I can only assume was a drunken stupor, neglected to include my single with the rest of their new releases that Tuesday and wound up releasing it an entire 24 hours late, causing rabid fans around the world to lose their freaking minds. The good news, of course, was that the DOW dropped a thousand more points that day, bringing us ever closer to the brink of a devastating financial apocalypse… and thereby making my song that much more topical! Yay!

The song debuted at number 104 – "bubbling under" the Hot 100 chart. Not great, but – considering the delayed release, lack of iTunes promotion and absence of a music video – not terrible either. It also was on the Pop 100 chart (!) at number 67, and came in at a respectable 56 on the Hot Digital Songs chart.

As to why iTunes has the single listed as "Pop" instead of "Comedy"? You got me there. I asked them to change it a week and a half ago. But you know, changing stuff is hard.

So… What I Learned From All This So Far:

Overall, I'd have to say that the digital experiment was a success. It was very gratifying for me to be able to put a parody out while the original song was still at its commercial peak – and it seemed to be gratifying to the fans as well.

I probably won't be as inclined to announce new singles in advance, though. I've learned from hard experience that iTunes is not able to guarantee a time – or, apparently, even a day – that a song will go live on-line. So perhaps it's best for me to wait until a new song is actually available, and THEN announce it.

Also, I'm not sure that I'd agree to give iTunes any kind of an exclusivity window in the future – it seems like the amount of publicity I received from them didn't really compensate for the sales I lost by not also having my song available elsewhere.

Speaking of which… My 2-week exclusivity window with iTunes is now officially over, so for all you Apple-phobic people out there, the new single is currently available on Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster and pretty much everywhere else that digital downloads are sold.

Or if 99 cents would place too much of a burden on you during these difficult economic times, please don't hesitate to listen to the song for free on my YouTube page.

Many thanks,
Al

Okay, okay, I guess I can now officially spill the proverbial beans.

My new single – which is being released on iTunes tomorrow (Tuesday, October 7) – is a parody of T.I.'s smash hit "Whatever You Like." The T.I. song has been number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 5 weeks now – and this will in fact mark the first time in my career that I've been able to release a parody while the original song was still number 1.

The name of the parody, of course, is "I Kissed A Squirrel."

Just kidding.

Actually, the name of my song is ALSO "Whatever You Like." For you history buffs, I believe this is the first time that my parody has had the exact same name as the song I was parodying. Just so you know, I'm only doing this as part of my on-going effort to confuse as many people as I possibly can. But I promise you, even though my song title is the same as T.I.'s, I DID change the lyrics. Somewhat.

Big thanks go out to T.I and his manager for their support - not only was he nice enough to give me his permission and blessing for this parody, but he responded so quickly that I was able to make everything happen insanely fast. In less than a two week period – seriously - I was able to come up with an idea for the song, get legal permission for the song, write the song, record the song, mix the song, master the song, upload the song to my label and deliver the song to iTunes. Talk about instant gratification!

One of the other cool things about putting out music this way is, there's not really enough time for Internet leaks to happen. I try to maintain a certain amount of secrecy around my projects for obvious reasons… and this time, as far as I can tell, the only person leaking information to the Internet has been ME!

I won't say any more about the song at this point – you'll all hear it soon enough. Hope you like it!

Al

Remember when I said I was going to start releasing tracks to iTunes as soon as I finished recording them? Well, I'm in the studio this very moment – and the first track released from my next album will be available on iTunes a week from today (October 7)!

This is extremely exciting for me. One of the hardest things I've had to deal with in my career is keeping my material topical even though I only release albums every 3 or 4 years. Now, with the advent and popularity of digital distribution, I don't have to wait around while my songs get old and dated – I can get them out on the Internet almost immediately. It kind of boggles my mind – I thought of the idea for this new song a week ago, and next week it's getting released!

I'm only supposed to "tease" this release right now – I'll post more info about it in a couple days. But I will say that it's a parody of a song that very recently was (or perhaps still is) the number one song in the country. That would be another first for me – I don't think I've ever released a parody of a song while the original song was still number one!

iTunes will have an exclusive on this song for two weeks, after which I guess it will be available wherever else digital downloads are sold. But I'm really kind of hoping this sucker will chart, so if you can, please buy it the first week it's out!

If this release goes well, there will be more to come. Thanks in advance for your support!

Al

Well, I'm finally back home – the Straight Outta Lynwood Tour is officially over. We traveled over 100,000 miles and did 166 shows in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Wow, what a great time. Huge thanks go out to the band, the crew, the drivers, the promoters, the cheerleaders, the members of the 501st Legion - and most importantly all the wonderful fans who came out to see us. I don't know when we'll be touring again, but I'm afraid it won't be any time soon. And I promise the next time we play live, it will be with a substantially different show.

So what will I be doing now that I'm not living in a bus? Well, first and foremost I'll be enjoying some quality time with my family – but I've also got some interesting projects on my plate. Some deals are still being hammered out, so I can't really discuss them… but I can briefly talk about "Al's Brain." That's the name of the short (9 or 10 minutes) 3-D movie which I'll be shooting in November. I wrote it and I'll be directing and starring in it as well. It's an educational (but hopefully also funny and entertaining) film about the workings of the human brain. It will make its debut in July 2009 at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, California, and ideally it will travel to various science centers and similar venues at some point after that. This is a very exciting project for me – I'm working with the top 3-D and CGI people in the business.

Of course, as promised, I'll also start writing my next album very soon. I think this time I'm going to try something different – instead of waiting for the whole album to be done before I release it, I'm going to start putting out a track at a time on iTunes – pretty much as soon as I'm done recording each one. That way you won't have to wait so long to hear new material, and my songs hopefully won't ever feel too "dated." Anyway, let's see if that works – I'll obviously let you know when I start making any new songs available.

And I just finished going through a bunch of tour pictures with Bermuda - so if you weren't able to make it out to any of our shows, you'll be able to see a small sample of what you missed in the photo gallery at weirdal.com any day now.

Thanks again for making the Straight Outta Lynwood Tour our most successful tour ever! Looking forward to the next one!

Al

Yes, I'm blogging from the back of a tour bus this very minute. The last leg of the "Straight Outta Lynwood" Tour has officially kicked off. We did our first show in over 8 months last night in Henderson, Nevada, and I didn't pass out from exhaustion on stage… so I'm going to call it a rousing success!

We'll be playing around North America non-stop for the next 9 weeks or so, and then we're really truly DONE with this tour… so if you want to catch the show, this is your last chance! (I should probably also point out again that this is pretty much the exact same show we did in 2007, so if you're coming again this year, don't expect anything different!)

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to seeing everybody out on the road, and rocking the proverbial hizzouse in a town near you. Check the tour dates on this page and see if I'm coming anywhere near your neck of the woods!

Your pal,
Al