What’s the Deal with Danny Weinkauf?

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “What’s the deal with Danny Weinkauf?” Who is this guy? Where did he come from? Why is he everywhere? How does he have time to be everywhere? Does he have superpowers? If so, which superpowers does he have? Can he give me superpowers? Why not? These are all very good questions, and I will try to answer at least a few of them for you right now.

Now, I suppose it is possible that you have no idea at all who Danny Weinkauf is, since he is not a famous athlete nor is he running for president, so let me take you through my own history with the guy. I first saw his name in the liner notes of a They Might Be Giants album. He is their bass player. I quickly forgot his name, because TMBG is John and John, right? Everyone else was a later add-on. Besides, people only care about lead singers! Except then TMBG released a children’s album in 2002, and one of the tracks (Where Do They Make Ballons?) was listed as “featuring Danny Weinkauf.” Huh. Marty Beller never got his name on a track. This must be something special.

So it turns out Danny wrote that track, and he has written a song for every one of their children’s albums since, including their latest album “Why?” for which he wrote the track “Elephants.” You will remember this, because I mentioned how much I liked that one in my brief review of the album. I also found him on the Heartbeats compilation album that I reviewed, only this time he got top billing and superstar Laurie Berkner was “featured.” Wow! He got Laurie Berkner to sing with him! He must be pretty cool.

Turns out he is pretty cool. That track (Our Love Fits) was from his own album, which he created with his family, and he still somehow has time to tour around with TMBG, plus according to his website he also does pediatric physical therapy. So, pretty much he does everything all the time and helps everyone and makes awesome things. That is the deal with Danny Weinkauf. I assume. I’ve never met him. Maybe he’s a real jerk who is only pretending to be spectacular as a way to lure us into his trap. If you know about his secret plot, please comment below to warn us.

So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Danny Weinkauf. His latest thing he did was to record a song with Jumpin’ Jamie called “Astronauts Love.” Who is Jumpin’ Jamie? Well, let me tell you, he is a guy with no Wikipedia page, that’s who. Therefore you will have to ask him yourself. But when a guy like Danny Weinkauf, who does have a Wikipedia page, agrees to record a song with a guy like Jumpin’ Jamie, who does not have a Wikipedia page, well, I’m just saying that it gets harder to believe those rumors I just started about the evil trap. And like everything else he has done, the song is awesome. Seriously. Good luck getting it out of your la-la-la-head. It dropped on Friday, and you can watch the video for it now or grab it on iTunes if you want. Thanks for the song, guys!

You can check out more Jumpin’ Jamie or Danny Weinkauf by, you know, googling them. Or this post is filled with links. Click on them. I’m just trying to show you guys some cool stuff, but there is more out there to find!