Our heroes in the hot British rock combo Radiohead may be great at doing hilarious, revealing, and poignant song-parodies of such beloved rock icons as CAN and George W. Bush, but even their recent announcement of a special appearance on an hour-long episode of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report pales in comparison with what “Weird Al” Yankovic has in store when he retuns to the small screen with his first cable special in 12 years. I mean, unless they plan on doing some polka stuff on there, in which case, fuck.
First of all, Comedy Central will debut the World Premiere of Al’s new special, entitled “Weird Al” Yankovic Live! — The Alpocalypse Tour on Saturday, October 1 at 9:00 PM EST. Then, on October 4, it’ll be released in North America via Comedy Central Home Entertainment on a variety of hilarious formats, including DVD (a parody of LaserDisc), Blu-ray (a parody of HD-DVD), and digital download (a parody of computer porn). Shot this summer at Toronto’s Massey Hall because of that venue’s renown for accordion-friendly acoustical specs, the DVD and Blu-ray are “extended editions” that include almost 60 minutes of axed concert footage and over 30 minutes of bonus features, including music videos for the new Lady Gaga-spoofing “Perform This Way” and “Polka Face,” three extra live performances, and some of Yankovic’s personal (hopefully not too personal) YouTube videos. Here’s hoping accordion music is still funny to you!
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Alpocalypse is his newest album, released this past June by Jive/Sony. Thanks to the already-pretty-much-a-parody status of top 40 radio’s current hucksters (Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Brittney Spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, et al.), it debuted at #9 on Billboard’s Top 200, which makes it Yankovic’s highest-charting album ever. In fact, “Perform This Way,” (which parodies Gaga’s “Born This Way,”) garnered over six million views in its first week, which puts it right up there with such past classics as “White & Nerdy,” “Amish Paradise,” and “Fat.” Meanwhile, Radiohead is out there hand-cranking a bunch of scary newspapers like a deranged, fear-mongering cat-lady and willfully leaving their coolest song off their record. Sheesh. Take some notes, Thom. Learn the accordion, Jonny.
Alpocalypse tour:
09.22.11 - Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
09.23.11 - Houston, TX - Verizon Wireless Theater
09.24.11 - Austin, TX - ACL Live
09.25.11 - Longview, TX - Belcher Center
09.28.11 - Mobile, AL - Saenger Theatre
09.29.11 - Montgomery, AL - Montgomery PAC
09.30.11 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
10.01.11 - Atlanta, GA - Cobb Energy Center
10.04.11 - Hollywood, FL - Seminole Hard Rock
10.05.11 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Orlando
10.06.11 - Clearwater, FL - Ruth Eckerd Hall
10.08.11 - Charlotte, NC - Ovens Auditorium
10.09.11 - Durham, NC - Durham PAC
10.11.11 - Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theatre
10.13.11 - Allentown, PA - Allentown Symphony Hall
10.14.11 - New Bedford, MA - Zeiterion Performing Arts Center
10.15.11 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
10.16.11 - Concord, NH - Capitol Center for the Arts
10.18.11 - Albany, NY - Palace Theatre
10.19.11 - Washington, DC - Warner Theatre
10.21.11 - Morristown, NJ - Mayo Performing Arts Center
10.22.11 - Huntington, NY - Paramount Theatre
10.23.11 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
11.02.11 - San Luis Obispo, CA - Christopher Cohan Center
11.04.11 - Santa Cruz, CA - Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
11.05.11 - Reno, NV - Grand Theatre
11.06.11 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre Oakland
11.07.11 - Santa Rosa, CA - Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
11.09.11 - Modesto, CA - Gallo Center for the Arts
11.11.11 - Anaheim, CA - City National Grove of Anaheim
11.12.11 - Los Angeles, CA - Pantages Theatre
• “Weird Al”: http://www.weirdal.com
• Comedy Central: http://www.comedycentral.com
• Jive: http://www.jiverecords.com