The relationship between “Weird” Al Yankovic and Portugal. The Man is a long one. And the two added a new chapter last week in Brooklyn at the band’s show at the Music Hall in the Williamsburg neighborhood. Continue reading »
Dec 112025
Mar 252025
Many artists have stepped up in the past few months to help raise money for the people affected by the LA wildfires. This past Sunday was yet another, gathering up performers to help support the community. This concert, dubbed “Let’s Get L.Aid,” was subtitled “a night of comedy and music.” Headliner “Weird” Al Yankovic, whose work covers both of those descriptions, wrapped up the show with a special performance of Tom Petty‘s “Free Fallin'”. (Petty was a long-time Los Angeles resident.) Yankovic brought out Puddles Pity Party and Tim Hedecker to join in the song. Continue reading »
Dec 192024
Follow all our Best of 2024 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.
A great cover song is hard enough to pull off. Doing it over and over again enough times to make a great cover album is something like a miracle. This year, miracles abounded. We awarded only the third or fourth five-star album in the site’s history. That’s our number one, naturally. But if we’d run a full review of our number two album, it might have gotten five stars too.
Our list includes tributes to everyone from Lou Reed to Low to Tom Petty—twice. It includes jammy experimental covers of ’90s alt-rock, fingerpicked guitar covers of Kraftwerk, and skankin’ ska covers of Weird Al. It translates Leonard Cohen into Hebrew and Talking Heads into Spanish. It honors Fleetwood Mac before Fleetwood Mac and deeper Bob Dylan cuts than you can imagine. (Seriously, imagine the most obscure Bob Dylan song you can. These are more obscure than that.) It was that kind of year.
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Jul 252024
Weird Al Yankovic has been quiet on the new music front for about a decade after Mandatory Fun, his last studio album, was released in 2014. So his newest single “Polkamania!” has smashed together some of the last decade’s biggest hits, all in the style of his signature medley genre, a polka.
But which songs are covered in Weird Al’s “Polkamania”?
- Adele – “Hello”
- Ariana Grande – “Thank U, Next”
- Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy”
- Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion – “WAP”
- Cast of Encanto – “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
- Ed Sheeran – “Shape of You”
- Lil Nas X – “Old Town Road”
- Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee – ‘Despacito’
- Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
- Miley Cyrus – “Flowers”
- Olivia Rodrigo – “Vampire”
- Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off”
There’s not much to say about this song sonically – all the covers are straightforward, but done in a polka style, with the exception of “WAP,” which cleverly utilizes sound effects to get the same message across.
Definitely one the Weird Al fans will love, but there’s enough silliness in here for everyone else as well.
Apr 012024
Aoife O’Donovan — The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Bob Dylan cover)
Bartees Strange — You Always Hurt The Ones You Love (Mills Brothers cover)
Beyoncé — Blackbird (The Beatles cover)
Oct 312023
Deer Tick – Dancing In The Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover)
“For me, ‘Dancing in the Dark’ isn’t a song about romance, but instead a desperate plea to break out of some degraded, stagnant situation. The narrator is filled with angst, self doubt, and the only way out is to the sheer force of unwavering will power,” says Deer Tick guitarist/vocalist Ian O’Neil. “Bruce really shows us who he is on this one and it looks an awful lot like the rest of us.”
Die Sauerkrauts Polka Band — Now That’s What I Call Polka! (Weird Al cover)
There are a lot of Weird Al covers out there (okay, maybe not a lot, but more than you might think). This is new though. This band didn’t cover one of Weird Al’s parodies. They didn’t even cover a Weird Al original, like “Dare to Be Stupid.” They covered one of his polka medleys (a subject I interviewed Al about in Cover Me the book—excerpt at The AV Club). Meaning, they covered polka versions of hits by Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Gotye, and many more, all in a brisk medley. A very silly music video brings it home. Continue reading »