Grab your over-sized soft drinks, fresh kicks, and fly sunglasses, because The Lonely Island and Netflix are gearing up for something special later this Wednesday evening. According to the comedic trio's official Twitter account, the band is set to release "A Lonely Island Visual Poem" on the subscription-based streamer tonight at midnight. For the moment, the band made up of Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone have not released any information regarding what their "visual poem" will be, nor has the streamer revealed a run-time for the surprise musical event.
Currently, The Lonely Island are preparing to hit the road in support of their first ever tour. On deck for the series of live gigs are a number of North American territories, including Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Detroit, Boston and New York.
It's been a while since we've heard proper news from The Lonely Island boys, so perhaps a little refresher is in order? Back in the early 2000s, Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone were brought on as writers of Saturday Night Live. During their tenure, the group found an audience after their "Lazy Sunday" sketch was the talk around every water cooler and entertainment site under the sun. Not long after arriving on the comedy map, the trio established SNL's Digital Shorts, which played host to several of the group's infectious songs and outrageous music videos.
With regard to the band's musical catalogue, The Lonely Island have released three studio albums to date – Incredibad (2009), Turtleneck and Chain (2011), and The Wack Album in 2013. Throughout their time in the spotlight, the group also released two major motion pictures, 2007's HOT ROD as well as 2016's POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING. Both are hilarious, in my personal opinion, with Popstar being among one of my favorite comedies of the past decade (plus two years).
The last time that The Lonely Island teamed with Netflix was in 2017 for Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special. As for their future with the streamer beyond tonight's midnight release, the trio are also executive producers of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, a sketch-comedy series for which Schaffer co-directed all of the episodes.
Welp, I guess I'm staying up until midnight tonight to find out what this thing is. Could is be a tour prep diary? A series of new music videos? A short film detailing where the band has been these past few years? Your guess is as good as mine. Thankfully, we won't have to wait too long to find out.