"Oh, do the monkey now!!" -Jon Spencer
In 1996, all the downtown NYC hipsters were doing the monkey (whatever that is) with Jon Spencer and his Blues Explosion. Any cool kid south of 14th Street in that era would agree that no faux-blues freak exuded more sexiness than Spencer.
Which is why it's such a curiosity that Spencer selected none other than our nation's spoofmeister general, Weird Al Yankovic, to direct the video for his potential breakthrough hit, "Wail." (Spoiler alert: it didn't break through.)
The video offers up a heavy dose of silly art-damaged realness from the mid-'90s. It's not a parody of anything, like say, "Amish Paradise" or "Smells Like Nirvana" -- two of Al's masterpieces. But's it's actually holds up as a goofy indie-rock gem from the Max Fish era that's worth checking out.
