Mandatory Fun Timeline/Spoiler Updates

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Killingsworth
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Mandatory Fun Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by Killingsworth »

I'd like to start up another "spoiler timeline" like we had for Alpocalypse before it was released. I still thought it would be fun to keep track of the developments for this album.

2012
9/4: Al tweets that he and the band went into the studio today to record three new songs for the album. These dates are added to the archives of the mothership.

2013
3/1: Bermuda posts that shooting for the first live action video for the album starts.
4/8: Kimo's fan email newsletter says that Al and the band will go back in the studio in May to record more new songs for the album.
4/25: In an interview with Calgary's Fast Forward Weekly, Al states that this album will be his last under contract with this or any other record label and that he may seek to release more material independently in the future.
5/3: Al tweets that he went into the studio to record three more new songs with a whole horn section.
5/8: Another day where Al and the band start recording a song
5/23: Al tweets that Amanda Palmer recorded vocals for a new song on the next album.
6/2: Alinite27 posts two things Al and Bermuda revealed to him after a concert. Al stated that all six originals were done. Bermuda stated there would be two songs on this album that would be as long as "Albuquerque" and "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me".
6/3: In an interview with the Leigh Valley Music blog, Al confirms his statements from the 4/25 Calgary interview. Goodbye traditional physical albums, hello indie digital distribution!
6/6: Al addresses the "last album" rumors on his blog. He says he would merely be "carefully weighing his options" to either renew his record contract or go down the digital route after the next album and that he's definitely not retiring. He also confirms that his album is "half done".
6/16: On the I'd Hit That podcast, Bermuda speculates that Al may not resign with his label after all. His reasoning is that the label may not be around that much longer and that Al has a good enough relationship w/iTunes as an established artist. He also discusses the possibility of the band pressing their own CDs as concert merchandise.
6/18: In a YouTube video interview with the Artisan News Service, Al states that he has asked some act(s?) at Bonnaroo for their permission to parody (or polka) their song, but doesn't say who. When asked if Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are being considered, Al states that while it might be a fun it would also be redundant as "Thrift Shop" is already a "tounge-in-cheek" humorous song.
6/25: At the Houston, TX stop on his recent book tour, Al teases 2014 as "maybe" a possible release date for the next album.
8/6: Al tweets that he shot the cover to his next album today, but says the release date is still pretty far off. Also, Alinite27 states that Al has begun working on the parodies based on evidence he has seen.
9/10: Bermuda reveals that Al came up with the album's title back in February. Obviously, the title itself still remains a mystery.
9/28: Elvis posts a new spoiler in this thread based on something Al revealed about one of the new songs from the album at his New York Times Q&A event with David Itzikoff. When asked about the petition to get Al to perform the Super Bowl Halftime show, Al revealed that he wrote and recorded a song for the new album that was worthy of a Super Bowl performance after realizing he didn't have any in his catalog.

2014
1/6: Jim Kimo West's newest fan email newsletter once again states that Al and the band are planning to go into the studio either later this month or early in February to work on the album.
2/3: Al tweets that he will be back in the studio this month and he hopes to release a new album this year. At this point in time, it is still unclear what day or how many songs he will record.
2/23: Tim Thompson tweets that he directed/animated Al's video shoot last March and VFX editor Steven Wong tweets that he had a cameo.
3/13: Reddit user beardface909 posts that his college marching band is shooting a video with Al complete with photographic evidence. Reddit user LeCoorBoozier (a friend of the cinematographers) posts that it is a video for the next album produced and financed by Funny Or Die.
3/17: The mothership archives are updated to once again include the 9/4/2012 and 5/3, 5/8/2013 recording dates. The February dates are not included, but this update also reveals Al apparently recorded three songs in December 2013 without mentioning it on social media.
3/18: Bermuda clarifies that the band recorded their parts for Al's newest songs in December and Al just recorded his vocals in February.
4/7: Al appears as a guest on Comedy Bang Bang and states that he will be back in the studio next month to record some new songs, but that he hasn't found his big lead single/video yet.
4/15: Bermuda posts a photo on facebook of him and Steve in the studio and the recording dates on the mothership are, once again, updated to indicate they began recording two more new songs for this album just today!
4/19: Lisa Popeil posts on Twitter and Facebook today that she went into the studio w/Al to record a track for his album.
5/13: Bermuda further speculates that Al may release all future songs as stand alone singles as he writes/records each of them individually.
5/14: Al tweets that he's finished 11 tracks for the new album and is now "one song away from fulfilling a 32-year-long recording contract."
5/16: After hearing tracks in advance, Patton Oswalt posts a series of tweets in which he claims that the new album has "the best polka medly [sic] he's ever done" and a parody of "one of the MOST influential, MOST respected 90s outfits" that isn't Nirvana.
5/22: Bermuda states that all the parody titles so far are based on the originals and that they should be instantly recognizable.
5/27: Bermuda confirms the inclusion of a 9-minute song, indicating that it is not the 90s band pastiche Patton Oswalt was referring to.
6/7: Al confirms in a local radio interview that he intends to approach Iggy Azalea for permission for the lead parody (and apparently traveled all the way to her concert appearance Colorado that day in an effort to do so.) If he gets it, he'll record the track tomorrow, with the album released in July!
6/8: TMZ publishes an item about Al's meeting w/Iggy complete with actual footage of Iggy saying "yep" to Al after he presents her with proposed lyrics.
6/12; Al tweets, facebooks and Instagrams that the new album is COMPLETE as he just finished mastering the whole thing today!
6/14: As promised on 6/13, Al tweets and Instagrams his "big, important, cryptic announcement" of "July 15". The recording dates page in the mothership archives confirms that this is the release date for the new album and also that Al recorded the Iggy Azalea parody sometime in June. At this point, the title is still unknown. Also, Kristen Schaal tweets that she shot a video with Al today.
6/15: Al Instagrams a SFW photo of a "nude bicycle race" that apparently interrupted his downtown LA video shoot the previous day. Also, Al retweets a link to a new Rolling Stone article confirming the album will be released this summer and that it is his last one under his record contract. Additionally, the mothership front page is drastically updated to include listings of upcoming TV appearances including a guest spot on "The View" coinciding w/the album's 7/15 release where he will "world premiere" a new video from the album.
6/16 Al posts a ten-second teaser clip on YouTube and Instagram that takes the implied Soviet Russia/Communist Dictatorship theme even further w/grainy footage of soldiers marching, hammers and sickles and moving tanks complete with a tagline "Prepare For Mandatory Fun - July 15". After the albums' real cover is posted on Al's RCA press page (along with the publicity photo used for the "cryptic" 7/15 announcement) and a major splash page update is added to the mothership (much like the ones for SOL and PH except there is a link for you to click through to the actual site where the mention of Al's "View" appearance has since been removed) the new album's title is all but confirmed to be Mandatory Fun. Also, board member erkman27 posts his industry friends' Instagram photos from the most recent video shoot and even a cast list including cameos from the likes of Jack Black, Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho and Eric Stonestreet (in addition to Kristen Schaal, of course).
6/17: Al himself finally gets around to tweeting and Instagramming the cover (and title) to Mandatory Fun as well as putting them on the main page of the mothership thus finally making it official.
6/18: Mandatory Fun is available for pre-order on Amazon. After the sheer volume of orders crashes the site, Mandatory Fun becomes Amazon's #1 Best Selling album! However, it is only available as an audio CD. At this point, it's still unclear whether a Deluxe CD/DVD pacakage will be released for this album.
6/19: The catalog page of the mothership is updated to include a link to the Amazon page for Mandatory Fun. Also, Mandatory Fun becomes available for pre-order on Al's MyPlay Direct page as an audio cd and vinyl record. At this point, the real tracklist remains a complete mystery.
6/21: Forum user bizarreblair posts that Dr. Demento revealed at FumpFest that he has a brief 30 second cameo in one of the new videos (for a song he hasn't even heard in its entirety yet) which was shot in MC Lars' apartment. Also, poster Cheerios, Applejacks, Cheerios posts that "a friend of a friend" says the song for which the marching band video was shot will be easily revealed by its title when the real tracklist is posted. Additionally, the pre-order info for Mandatory Fun on My Play Direct has since been moved, yet the page is still decorated w/the album's cover for some reason.
6/24: Al tweets and Instagrams a new never-before-seen photo that appears to be album artwork. It does continue with dictatorship theme, but this one evokes more Red Chinese propaganda than Soviet Russian propaganda.
6/25: Al tweets that the tracklist will be revealed on July 1st when Mandatory Fun will be available for pre-order on iTunes. Also, the preorder info returns to Al's MyPlay Direct page (for both the CD and MP3 albums).
6/27: Al YouTubes and Instagrams another "transmission" teaser video for the album. This one actually takes the communist dictatorship theme even further as it is modeled after a soviet propaganda film complete w/revolutionary slogans, marching, tanks and footage of parliament and public square gatherings. It also opens with the tagline "Enlist Now - A Series Of Four Required Films" which may indicate that we should expect to see two more transmission/teaser videos in the coming days.
6/28: Al tweets that Mandatory Fun may not have a "lead" single rather the album will have 12 "singles" all released at once on 7/15.
6/29: Over two separate tweets, Al informs us that Mandatory Fun will have just 8 videos and he will premiere a new one every single day for eight days in a row starting on Monday 7/14. Also, Al confirms on facebook that there will be no "lead" single for Mandatory Fun and that he'd rather the listeners decide for themselves which of the twelve tracks will be his next big hits!
7/1: As promised, the tracklisting for Mandatory Fun is made available with the iTunes preorder...and it is baffling as the iTunes listing doesn't yet list the parody subjects right next to their titles much like Alpocalypse did when it went up for pre-order. There are still two parody targets that are too easy to confuse for each other! At this point, the parodies are believed to be "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea ("Handy"), "Royals" by Lorde ("Foil"), "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke ("Word Crimes"), "Raditoactive" by Imagine Dragons ("Inactive") and "Happy" by Pharell ("Tacky"). "Handy" and "Tacky' seem like they could go either way, parody wise. Some sincerely believe we are genuinely mixing up the two for each other. The six originals are believed to be titled "Lame Claim To Fame", "Sports Song, "My Own Eyes", "Mission Statement" "First World Problems" and "Jackson Park Express". The polka is titled "NOW Thats What I Call Polka!"
7/2: Tim Thompson tweets that his video for Mandatory Fun will debut on 7/20. Elvis posts info on TruScribe being another possible animator for a Mandatory Fun video. Eddie Pepitone Instagrams a shot of himself w/Al dressed as a handyman from a video shoot that supposedly took place today. AmazonMP3 lists Mandatory Fun for pre-order as a digital album.
7/3: More of what may be album artwork shows up on Al's social media. This time, it's a depiction of Al as Che Cuevara.
7/5: TMBJon posts that a source close to him has confirmed that the first track "Handy" is indeed the much anticipated Iggy Azalea "Fancy" parody and that "it's a very funny song."
7/7: Al releases his third "transmission" teaser on YouTube and a shortened version on Instagram. this one carries the Red Chinese theme further than it does the Sovient Russian theme. Also, the mothership is updated to reveal Al will appear on Conan on Thursday July 17 performing a song from Mandatory Fun.
7/9: Poster Good Enough For Now manages to get their hands on the first ever physicla copy of Mandatory Fun to ever surface and posts two pictures as proof. The first is of the album's cover sticker confirming that "Handy" is the Iggy Azalea "Fancy" parody and "Tacky" is the Pharrell "Happy" parody. The sticker also confirms that Lorde, Imagine Dragons and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" to be parody targets. The second picture is a page from the CD booklet which confirms that Amanda Palmer does NOT sing on "My Own Eyes" and that three of the polka targets are "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus, "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People and "Best Song Ever" by One Direction.
7/10: Good Enough For Now posts a few more minor spoilers from the booklet and indicates that Al did in fact reveal his style parody targets in this June 2013 interview. Also, poster Well, Well, Well posts what is allegedly the entire tracklist of songs appearing in "NOW That's What I Call Polka!" claiming his source to be a last.fm user wishing to remain anonymous. Suffice it to say, it includes the same three songs revealed to us in the booklet post by Good Enough For Now the previous day.
7/11: Al posts Transmission #4 on YouTube. It is mostly clips of soviets marching in a public square.
7/12: The album has officially leaked. Dr. Demento plays a selection from the album on his show. Al does an NPR interview where the host plays snippets of "Word Crimes", "Mission Statement" and "NOW That's What I Call Polka!". He also reveals on air that "Mission Statement" is in fact the CSNY pastiche and confirms once and for all that this is his last conventional album release due to his contract expiring. Al also appears on the weekly "etiquette" "The Dinner Party Download" where another "Word Crimes" segment is played and confirms that "First World Problems" is the Pixies pastiche.
7/13: Amazon posts a picture of the back of the CD case. Also, Al tweets that all of next week's videos are scheduled to premiere at 11AM EST/8AM PST.
7/14: The video for the Pharrell parody "Tacky" is posted on Nerdist (who produced the video specifically for their site). It is a live action single shot video featuring all the celebrity cameos listed from the Instagram cast list post wearign various brightly colorad "Tacky" outfits. The front page of the mothership is updated to include a link to "Tacky" as well as tentative links for the other videos to be released soon. Later on, that page is update to include a thumbnail indicating that "World Crimes" will be the video premiering on the release date.
7/15: Mandatory Fun and the video for "Word Crimes" is officially released on VEVO and YouTube. The "Tacky" video is also added to the Nerdist YouTube page. It is another kinetic typography video directed by Jarrett Heather. Al appears on The View where a clip of "Word Crimes" is shown and he speaks about what inspired this song. He also reveals that his next video may be "Foil". Al also appears on Comedy Bang Bang and reveals "Handy" (along with "Foil") will be one of the next two videos to premiere. It is produced by CollegeHumor and will feature cameos from Tom Lennon, Ben Garrant and Patton Oswalt. The videos page on the archives of the mothership are updated to reflect this information and also reveals Dr. Demento will cameo in the "Lame Claim To Fame" video and that Al directed all of the live action videos ("Tacky", "Handy", "Foil", "Sports Song") set to premiere thus far. Amanda Palmer tweets that she will appear in the video for "First World Problems".
7/16: The CollegeHumor produced video for "Foil" premieres on YouTube. The video for Sports Song somehow finds its way to VEVO (possibly days early?) and is posted on Reddit. Also, the videos for "Mission Statement" and "First World Problems" supposedly leak on VEVO but are also taken down very quickly.
7/17: The video for "Handy" premieres on Yahoo! Screen.
7/18: The video for "Sports Song" premieres on Funny Or Die.
7/19: The live action video for "First World Problems" directed by Liam Lynch premieres on PopCrush and VEVO. This video gets quite a bit of press coverage that acknowledges it as a Pixies pastiche. However, it is inexplicably not available to stream everywhere. Also, the video for Mandatory Fun (all except for "Word Crimes" and Handy for some reason) are available to purchase on iTunes everywhere.
7/20: The stop-motion animation video for "Lame Claim To Fame" (directed by Tim Thompson) debuts on Al's personal YouTube channel (rather than his VEVO YouTube page).
7/21: The whiteboard animated video for "Mission Statement" debuts on the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog. It is subsequently added to the alyankovicVEVO YouTube page. Early reports also indicate Mandatory Fun will debut at #1 album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With that, the #8Videos8Days campaign and what may be Al's final "album cycle" ever both draw to a close.
7/22; Mandatory Fun officially debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts at #1. This marks not only the first time Al has ever had a number one album, but also the first time ANY comedy album has made it to number one since Allan Sherman and Bob Newhart accopmlished this feat in the early 1960s!
8/5: Mandatory Fun is released on vinyl.
10/17: Jim West's reveals that Mandatory Fun has been entered into the categories of "Album Of The Year", "Best Comedy Album" and "Best Engineered Album, Non Classical." Also, "Word Crimes" was entered into the category of "Record Of The Year" and "Foil" was entered into the category of "Best Music Video".
12/5: Grammy nominations are announced. Mandatory Fun is nominated for "Best Comedy Album" along with Patton Oswalt's Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time, Jim Gaffigan's Obsessed Louis CK's Oh My God and Sarah Silverman's We Are Miracles.

2015
2/8: Grammy awards are announced. Al WINS his fourth Grammy for Mandatory Fun!
Last edited by Killingsworth on Mon Feb 09, 2015 2:59 am, edited 100 times in total.
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Re: Album 14 Timeline

Post by Alinite27 »

Spoiler:
A couple updates from the album: From Al, all six originals are done and recorded. From Jon, there are two long songs: one super long like an Albuquerque and a medium long like a Stop Forwarding This Crap To Me.
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by just2good »

Not really a spoiler, but Al is shooting the cover for the next album today. Definitely an update, though.
https://twitter.com/alyankovic/status/3 ... 2694443009
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by Elvis »

Spoiler from last night's Q&A
Spoiler:
A little background first. Someone asked about the superbowl halftime show thing. Al said even though he knew the possibility of that happening was zero, there was a small part of him that was putting together a setlist in his head just in case and while the setlist would be all the big hits of course and he'd invite the original artists to perform with him where he could, he realized he didn't have a big superbowl caliber song to perform. So one of the songs on the new album was written with that in mind that it could be performed at the superbowl.
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by bermuda »

Something in that last spoiler... there's another clue out there. :)
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by TMBJon »

From Kimo's January newsletter:

" Weird Al" and band are gearing up for some more work on the next CD. We will be heading to the studio later this month or early February.
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by Teh Dingo »

And boom goes the dynamite:
Back in the recording studio this week. Fingers and toes crossed for a new album release this year...
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by Killingsworth »

Some new info on the videos for this album has surfaced via Twitter. One director and one editor have tweeted about taking part. Since MC Lars is mentioned in the last tweet, this could be the video shoot form last March that he was at.
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by Mashed Potato »

Ha ha hello
Spoiler:
http://i.imgur.com/xBwQkxb.jpg
Al at a video shoot for Funny or Die, which is apparently for a song on the new album
Context and more info
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Re: Album 14 Timeline/Spoiler Updates

Post by yankochick38 »

From commenter LeCorboozier:
Spoiler:
My friend is the Cinematographer for it.

Edit: Funny or Die is financing it, and its a song off his album to my understanding. I guess the record company only pays for so many music videos for him, so funny or die picked it up.
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