Venue

Family Arena

2002 Arena Pkwy.

St. Charles, MO

636-896-4200

http://www.familyarena.com

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Weird Al Yankovic

Date/Time:Fri., August 8, 7:30pm

Weird Al Yankovic at Family Arena

Ryan Wasoba

Weird Al Yankovic at Family Arena

"Longevity" is not a word we usually associate with novelty artists, but "Weird Al" Yankovic has trumped his Dr. Demento peers by releasing twelve albums and capturing three Grammys since 1980. In advance of his August 8 performance at the Family Arena in St. Charles, B-Sides spoke with Yankovic, who proved that he is serious about making funny music. B-Sides: Straight Outta Lynwood is more hip-hop oriented than your previous work. Are you ever stifled by the limitation of only being able to parody what's popular? "Weird Al" Yankovic: I think it's just part of my job description. Parodies are a reflection of what happens to be popular in modern pop music. I'm constrained by whatever happens to be the current trend and the current genre of choice among the general population, but I don't feel stifled in any way by it. Do you have preferences in what you parody? I don't always parody my favorite style of music. My choice of parody material isn't based on what I personally like as much as what's popular. Having said that, I tend to pick songs I actually like, because I know I have to live with them for a very long period of time. But it's really about what's a crossover hit instead of what's on my personal iPod. Have you ever thought you had a great parody idea but by the time you got around to it, the song was too dated to put out? Well, I think of the album as kind of a time capsule, so it's not always filled with the most current songs that are out there. When I put out Poodle Hat, "Ebay," the Backstreet Boys parody, was a few years old -- and that was quite dated when the album came out. But I'm glad I put it out, because it's a huge fan favorite and it gets a good reaction in the live set. If it's a good idea, it doesn't matter if it's the freshest idea. At the beginning of your career, your songs were more accordion-based, even the parodies. Were you less concerned with getting your parodies to sound like the originals, sonically? Well, my first album was recorded so quickly that we didn't have the luxury of painstakingly recreating the original production. And now that we have that luxury, I find that it's something I like to do. I like to suck people in so that if they hear my parody on the radio they think they're actually hearing the original song and suddenly they realize something went horribly wrong. Yeah, I remember when "Amish Paradise" was out, every time the intro came on I'd have to wait until the first words came in to know which song I was listening to. Exactly! I guess there's a certain charm to those recordings that feature the accordion so prominently, and there are certain people that actually prefer that over the painstaking recreation of the original production. I'm obviously leaning more towards getting the sounds to emulate the original. Have you ever been tempted to just buy the karaoke version of the song and just change the words and record over the bad Midi pre-recorded version? Not really, I mean we've always just done things from scratch. Not only would that be not as good as what my band can do, but we might have to pay master rights for the karaoke company! So when do you decide that it's time for the world to have another Weird Al record? I wait until people are running wild in the streets, screaming and gnashing their teeth and crying "Where's the new Weird Al record?!" I see, I see. But seriously, when do you decide that it's time for a new record? [chuckles] Whenever I get around to it.

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