Brian Robert Jones Shares Comedic Musical Theater Album About The Louisiana Purchase (And Hayley Williams Is On It)

If you've seen a Vampire Weekend, Paramore, or Hayley Williams show in recent years, Brian Robert Jones was the guitarist onstage with the big afro. When not playing sideman for some of the best alt-leaning pop-rockers in the biz, Jones has been working on a behemoth project of his own.Today Jones has released Weezyana: The Louisiana Purchase Musical, a nearly two-hour audio adventure through the life of Thomas Jefferson. It spans 42 tracks, including very Broadway-esque songs and narrative passages that remind me of Veggie Tales stylistically. It's filed under "comedy" on DSPs, and given the subject matter, it's easy to interpret it as a non-rapping sendup of Hamilton. But Jones is deadpan throughout, even when reciting a prologue about alien civilizations the Garlaokans and Vulbarians or introducing Napoleon Bonaparte "pooping and farting loudly atop a gaudy golden toilet." He definitely didn't half-ass the music, either. This thing really sounds like musical theater. Also: Hayley Williams makes an appearance. Here's what Jones wrote about Weezyana on Instagram: This is a concept album. It will tell you the whole story of the musical with songs and plot summaries in between each ...