2006’s Straight Outta Lynwood, Yankovic’s 12th album, debuted at #10 on the Top 200, making it his first Top 10 album ever. Its first single, the wondrous “White and Nerdy,” reached #9 on the Billboard Hot Singles chart, making it both Yankovic’s first Top 10 single and his highest-charting single ever (besting the personal best set by “Eat It,” which reached #12 on the singles chart back in 1984). The video for “Nerdy” was in iTunes’ top 10 for like a year. More weirdness: “Nerdy” performed a second-week jump on the singles chart from #28-#9, making Yankovic one of a very few artists to have only one top 40 single in three successive decades.

Part of this is due to the Interweb machine, which Yankovic has been using masterfully of late, part of it is nostalgia for us dorkwad 30somethings who grew up with this stuff and are gleefully fascinated to see that it’s still funny, and part of it is the UNBRIDLED BARELY CONTAINABLE GENIUS, which is collected this week in a new greatest-hits comp, The Essential ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, featuring two discs of material picked by the man himself and liner notes from music snob Stephen Thompson. But you don’t care about that. All you want to know is HOW you can get your sticky, slightly orange hands on one of these things without paying for it. This is where Popdose becomes your angel.

E-mail us a reason, in one sentence – seriously, if we see periods in there, you are TOAST, Sally – why you deserve this magical collection sent to your home. We will either pick the best response, or the winner at random, depending on how late in the day we end up reading them.

Al performs tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; he’ll be doing the new White Stripes style parody “CNR” and a Web-only exclusive performance of the classic Even Worse nugget “Good Old Days” for the Web. It is OK to cry at that second one. Or the first, for that matter.

As Cohen followed Hendrix’s set, onlookers and (fellow festival headliners) Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Judy Collins and others stood sidestage in awe as the Canadian folksinger-songwriter-poet-novelist quietly tamed the crowd. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner (From Mao To Mozart, Festival, Message To Love), perfectly captured Cohen’s performance. Likewise, Columbia Records staff A&R producer Teo Macero did a brilliant job of supervising the live audio recording.

This CD/DVD package contains the new, beautiful film documentary by Lerner featuring interviews with fellow festival performers, as well as Cohen’s full performance on CD. All tracks are previously unreleased (sans bits of “Suzanne” which were featured in the documentary Message to Love, also by Lerner). Included are live versions of classic songs from the first two Leonard Cohen LPs: “So Long, Marianne,” “The Stranger Song,” “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” “Suzanne,” “Bird On The Wire,” “You Know Who I Am,” and “The Partisan” as well as spoken word and poetry.”

We would like to offer a copy of this set to one lucky Popdose reader (I wish I was eligible!) The winner will be the first reader to send an e-mail to ken with the correct answer to the following question:

Which well-known singer released the 1987 Leonard Cohen tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat?

Let the games begin.

In order to win, all you have to do is be the first person to e-mail me, ken, with the answer to the following question: Bill Champlin started a seminal San Francisco Bay Area band in the late ’60s, the Sons of Champlin. They were signed to Capitol Records. What was the name of the Sons of Champlin’s first album for Capitol, which was released in 1969?

Here are Bill Champlin’s tour dates. Remember, enter only if you have a reasonable expectation of being able to get to the venue on the date in question:

Friday, November 6 • San Juan Capistrano, CA
Coach House
949-496-8930

Saturday, November 7 • San Diego, CA
Anthology
619-595-0300

Sunday, November 8 • Redondo Beach, CA
Brixton South Bay
310-406-1931

Tuesday, November 10 • Santa Cruz, CA
Moe’s Alley
831-479-1854

Wednesday, November 11 • Mill Valley, CA
Throckmorton Theatre
415-383-9600

Thursday, November 12 • Tuolumne, CA
Black Oak Casino
209-928-9322

Friday, November 13 • Lodi, CA
Hutchins Street Square
209-333-6782

Saturday, November 14 • Santa Rosa, CA
Last Day Saloon
707-545-5876

Sunday, November 15 • Newcastle, CA
Constable Jacks
916-663-9385

Tuesday, November 17 • Dunsmuir, CA
Sengthong’s Blue Sky Room
530-235-1046

Thursday, November 19 • Portland, OR
Jimmy Maks
503-295-6542

Friday, November 20 • Langley, WA
Mukilteo Coffee Roaster
360-321-5262

Saturday, November 21 • Langley, WA
Mukilteo Coffee Roaster
360-321-5262

Sunday, November 22 • Seattle, WA
Triple Door
206-838-4333

Popdose isn’t judging one way or the other, of course, unless you’re dressing up like a lady to advance your acting career, because there’s nothing sexy about that. Funny? Yes. Oscar-worthy? Ooh, girl! But sexy? No, baby. No.

After eight long years of pondering what the title of his next album would be, R&B star Maxwell returned to the charts in July with BLACKsummers’night, the first in a planned trilogy, with blackSUMMERS’night set to debut next year and blacksummers’NIGHT to follow in 2011.

He also returned to the road this SUMMER, performing concerts at NIGHT and probably even dressing in BLACK at some of them. If you live in the Boston area, and you enjoy Maxwell’s music as much as you enjoy capital letters, then Popdose has a contest for YOU!

On Wednesday, September 2, the soulful crooner is performing at Boston’s House of Blues as part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush concert series. Maxwell wants to spend a temporary nite with you, girl!

All you need to do to win two free Priority Access tickets is answer the following trivia question: What’s Maxwell’s connection to English singer Kate Bush?

Click below to find out more about the Summer Krush series!

To enter, e-mail Jason Hare with your answer, but please, baby, don’t break his heart and enter the contest unless you can attend the show, which should let out before the cops come knockin’. We’ll choose a winner this Saturday, August 29.

Behold: DKNY Be Delicious. Now, I’m not one to just give away anything that’s offered to me. And you’re thinking: Jason, I know you’re plenty girly, but why would you be the one to give away perfume? The reason is this: I love this stuff. No, not on me. My wife wound up with a small tester bottle a few years ago, and I thought it was the best-smelling perfume she’d worn in years. The only thing I like better is White Musk from The Body Shop and she won’t wear it, half because she doesn’t like it and half because she automatically doesn’t want to do anything I want her to do. But I seriously love Be Delicious. My wife describes it as “sort of fruity, floral, and light.” I’d agree. And it smells apple-y, too. Which makes sense. I love it so much that last December, she ran out, and I went to Macy’s at the height of holiday shopping season to buy a new bottle. That’s love. Michael McDonald could be on fire in the middle of Macy’s at Christmastime and I would seriously think twice before going in to save him. (Unless he was singing “Minute By Minute” in a Santa outfit.) But for this scent? No question.

Be Delicious has been around for a few years, but recently they’ve re-launched the fragrance in a new pop-art bottle, with a new commercial as well. According to someone who writes better than me, “The illustrated spot was created by comic artist Brad Hamann and features a comic transformation of the DKNY Be Delicious experience, including ben-day dots, lettering and speech balloons in a nod to the visual art movement that flourished in 1960’s New York.”

I don’t know from ben-day dots. All I know is that it smells good, and I want to send you a bottle. I want you to smell good too. Because, like Ambrosia, that’s how much I feel, feel for you, baby.

Technically, anybody who’s made it this far into this ridiculous post deserves to win a bottle, but there can be only one. So send your name and address in an e-mail to Jeff Giles and we’ll pick one lucky recipient at random. Actually, his four-year-old daughter will probably pick the name. (Tip: A lot of her stuffed animals are named “Little One,” so if that’s your name, she’ll probably pick you.)

Good luck! And don’t forget to check out DKNY Be Delicious, available at fine stores everywhere!

Oh, Darius. Now that you’re a bona fide country star, I guess we can forgive you for that surreal Burger King “TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch” commercial. After all, you’re the first solo African American artist to chart a Number One country hit since Charley Pride in 1983. That’s gotta count for something. The truth is, you’ve got a great voice, you put on a good show, and you love Popdose. In fact, we could hardly believe it when you called us up and said you wanted to give away two PRIORITY ACCESS tickets to Popdose readers for your show on August 24th at the legendary Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, courtesy of Samsung and AT&T.*

Hootie Darius is performing as part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush Series, and we do indeed have two totally free PRIORITY ACCESS tickets for you! Winning ‘em is a snap, too. Here’s how. All you have to do is tell us: What’s the name of the dude that founded Samsung in 1938?

To enter, just send an e-mail to Jason Hare with the answer. We’ll pick a winner on Saturday, August 22. And don’t enter if you can’t make the show. If you do, we’ll send the other guys from the Blowfish after you. And you know those guys are angry.

We’ll be offering tickets to one more Samsung AT&T Summer Krush show featuring the sexiest artist of all, Maxwell, so check back soon! And click below to find out more about the Summer Krush series!

*Note: Darius Rucker did not call us up, and as far as we know, has no idea who we are.

Look at Dierks Bentley, readers. So handsome. And we have it on good authority that he’s sitting on this motorcycle, thinking, “Man, I sure wish I could have some Popdose readers at my concert on August 18th at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA. I’d even give ‘em two free PRIORITY ACCESS tickets, courtesy of our friends at Samsung and AT&T.”*

Dierks, we’re here to make your sexy wish come true.

On August 18th, Mr. Bentley will be performing in Atlanta as part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush Series, and we do indeed have two totally free PRIORITY ACCESS tickets for you!

To win, all you have to do is connect Dierks Bentley to this dude:

That’s TV’s Richard Kind. The two are connected by a certain affiliation, and it’s not their hairdresser. Wikipedia is your friend, people.

Enter the contest by e-mailing Robert Cass with your answer. A correct answer will be chosen at random on Sunday, August 17th. Please don’t enter if you can’t make the concert; it makes us angry, and you wouldn’t like us when we’re angry.

We’ll be offering tickets to future Samsung AT&T Summer Krush shows, including Darius Rucker and Maxwell, so check back soon! And click below to find out more about the Summer Krush series!

*Note: Dierks Bentley may not actually be thinking any of the above. But he sure is handsome.

Hey, what are you doing Tuesday? Feel like seeing Green Day and Kaiser Chiefs (out promoting their latest album, Off With Their Heads) at their sold-out Madison Square Garden show?

For free, even?

Well, Universal Music is here to help. They’ve given us two tickets to give away, and we’re celebrating with a good old-fashioned contest!

It’s super simple, too. To enter for a chance to win, all you have to do is e-mail Jason Hare with the most creative “your mom” insult you can think of. We’ll choose a winner on Monday at 5 PM. Ready? Go!

Last week, we here at Popdose unveiled a contest to determine who should replace Robert Plant as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. We’ve slimmed the choices down to a field of our favorite twenty choices. The winner from last week’s submissions will take home a brand new copy of The Who at Kilburn: 1977. The losers will have to BUY THEIR OWN!  After the jump, submit your vote for the only contest that really matters today.

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As you’ve surely heard by now, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham are planning on launching a Led Zeppelin tour and album without Robert Plant, and are “trying out a couple of singers.” They’ve said they aren’t looking for a Plant soundalike, so we thought we’d see if we can’t all put our heads together to come up with a suitably bizarre list of left-field candidates for the job.

We’ll get the ball rolling with three of our favorite choices:

1. Kenny Loggins
2. Clay Aiken
3. Art Garfunkel

Now we want to hear your nominees — and we even have a prize for you: The person who submits our favorite wildly inappropriate fill-in for Robert Plant will receive a brand spanking new copy of The Who at Kilburn: 1977, a DVD release from the Who’s archives that’s reaching shelves on November 18. Follow the link to check out details (and watch a 93-second clip), then help the Led Zep remnants find their new lead singer! You can enter as many times as you like, right here in the comments, and the contest will remain open until we say it’s over. Good luck!