They Might Be Giants - C/D, S/D, OPO etc

Linnell definitely has the stronger melodic gifts of the two. Flansburgh is no slouch, and makes up for it in ideas and personality, he's just a bit less consistent or subtle by comparison.

Well "Judy is Your Vietnam" off Join Us is definitely a highlight. Agreed that Linnell usually writes the better melodies (he has a superhuman gift for that) but I can't talk shit about the guy behind "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head", "Narrow Your Eyes", and "See the Constellation"

what i'm saying

Flansburgh being better than usual is i think what made the difference in Join Us being an improvement from other later albums

This is all reminding me of an incomplete project I began sometime in the late 90s with the intent of "proving," Paul-Is-Dead-style, that John Flansburgh conspired to have John Linnell murdered and replaced by a robot duplicate, all of which was spelled out in their songs before, during, and after the crime.

Man, I got a lot further along with this than I thought!

March 1992: Apollo 18 (1992) This bleak, darkly-shaded album is the core of the entire murder theory. It seems apparent that the attack and switcharoo took place directly after the completion of these recordings, which are top-heavy with references to death, murder, and duplication. There is little of the (admittedly black) humor that made "Miscellaneous T" so easy to swallow; Linnell has reached the nadir of his Hamlet-like state of inaction, writing and performing songs which refer without much artifice to his own very imminent doom. As a final general note, the album's cover art is again significant here: a whale and a giant squid are depicted locked in mortal combat, with a spaceship floating nearby. So it was with the band: the original duo was stalemated, and a machine waited in the wings to take the place of one of them.

The songs themselves, up until the Fiingertips Medley that concludes the album with a barely-concealed murder song-cycle, trade more than usual in images of death, from both singers. In fact, the two sing together more than usual, perhaps again due to Linnell's resignation. They cooperate on the scene-setting album-opener "Dig My Grave" (could it be any more obvious?), as well as "The Statue Got Me High," in which an automaton (statue) "makes" Linnell "fry" and "die."

We must linger on the extended narrative of "Turn Around"...

Linnell seems to recognize that Flansburgh will kill him, but wants to leave a final message to his one-time friend: After you kill me, don't forget me. Look behind you and see my skull on the ground. Flansburgh would later throw this request back in the metaphorical face of his deceased collaborator by titling the band's next major release Back to Skull - by implication refusing to turn around and behold Linnell's legacy.

yes, and now the Linnell-bot is going to murder Flans, hence "When Will You Die?"

Flood book coming: 33 1/3 Series of books

YES, will buy without hesitation.

screw the 33 1/3 book, I want Doctor Casino's Linnell-is-dead book!

hahaha, I wish I still had a really stupid, geeky, cornucopia-of-random-articles type website, it's kind of hard to think of what venue this sort of thing belongs on...

The Awl? =

Sure I saw some John-on-John slash fiction once

these guys are another one of those 80s bands - kind of like the Cure - who I have a hard time thinking up clear antecedents for. Spike Jones? a bit of Devo?

Sparks?

I think the answer's even simpler than that, IMO they pretty clearly date back to the power pop era of Big Star, Todd Rundgren and even XTC, but their combination of Apple II-level production (in the early days) and an affinity towards oddball lyrical concepts makes them seem a lot more gonzoid. I'm sure they were huge fans of Sparks too!

i know their image is goofy jokesters but if you listen to the early stuff they're more clearly part of the NYC '80s art-rock scene

Sparks! of course.

I don't hear any Big Star. Rundgren I'm not familiar enough with. And XTC was only ahead of them by a couple years, right? They seem more like peers, but I agree there's some similarities in the aggressive nerdiness dept.

NYC '80s art-rock scene

I know that's where they came out of, but who else was doing drum-machine-and-accordian with the occasional fuzz guitar art-pop in that scene?

Sonically, I don't know but in attitude/humor this is right on. Especially in the minor tracks and Dial-axSong only material, there's a self-conscious fakey weirdness ''LISTen to the SOUND...of my VOICE'' which is very Laurie Anderson. Talking Heads also have to be huge here.

i don't know about that scene to say specifically who, but asking who else was using their specific instrumentation seems like a different question from who their antecedents were

They were kind of a poppier version of bands like Fish & Roses and Orthotonics maybe, if that means anything to anyone.

I just relistened to an old tribute album I had sitting on my hard drive: "Hello Radio: The Songs of They Might be Giants"

Hearing these songs performed by other bands has been eye-opening. They sound totally unnatural; most of these bands (OK Go and The Wrens for two) sound like rather standard indie/alt-rock groups, most of whom try to add some quirks to match the kind of thing that TMBG does, but nearly all of them struggle to figure out how to cram so many syllables into a mostly standard 4-chord rock song. Like no one can get the timing right. Nor figure out how to transition between the verses and the choruses which are often wildly different from each other. It's as if they're trying to cast these as more "normal" rock sounds to reveal how profound they really are minus the "jokey" arrangements but in the process kill most of the profundity that the songs had in the first place.

TMBG are pretty singular. I'm glad I never knew they had a tribute album.

TMBG seems like a band who would be on a lot of tribute records of other acts; dont think it works the other way around

I'm still quietly lobbying for them to be Colbert's house band when he takes over for Letterman, btw.

YES

I mean, yes, this is a great idea, not Yes should be Colbert's house band

Although....

TMBG used to do a thing in their live show where they'd try to find a bunch of local radio stations and would play along to whatever they found. They definitely have the talent to fit whatever the show needs. I would imagine Colbert is a fan.

They're already tied into the Daily Show universe by having done the current incarnation of the TDS theme music.

I have a theory that TMBG do a lot of TV/commercial music without anyone knowing. I think Flansburgh has referred to this in a few interviews; they're listed in the Daily Show credits and for the kids shows they do but I believe they do a lot just as working musicians. I remember an interview long ago where they were asked what they thought when fans accused them of "selling out" - their response was "it's our dream to sell out"

Like, Tim and Eric do a bunch of commercial work but nobody knows it's them

https://www.tmbgifc.com/
apparently the future of music is what TMBG used to do

Three CDs, 1 DVD, 1 T-shirt, weekly new songs in mp3 format all year, random swag and tickets for two to a show for a hundred bucks.
So let's say $20 per ticket, $20 for the shirt and $15 a disc; all eminently reasonable prices and the swag and MP3s are free and you get to directly support the band. It's an equitable deal.

Oh hmph. THey've booked a spring tour, so I guess my Colbert dream will remain a dream.

Wait, all the shows are in Williamsburg, so the dream is alive!

I realize I'm just having this conversation with myself, but the band just posted this on their fb page in response to someone's inquiry about what cities they were playing: "April-May means Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison, Cleveland, Albany, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, Portland OR, San Francisco, Dallas, Austin, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Columbus OH"

Makes it kind of hard to be a late night show's house band if you're doing that much touring.

they would be a good late night house band. but maybe darnielle will step up

Johnny Fever, I think you should take your Colbert dream public ... or if you already have, then, like, MORE public. Start a campaign! It's a brilliant idea and should happen. The spring tour is just a bump in the road, doesn't mean it can't happen.

Just this morning I was randomly thinking about how many times I saw TMBG as a teenager (6 or 8?) and how many of their shirts I owned (probably 4 or 5?). I love these guys forever, even if I stopped paying attention.

Might have to hit that tour.

the Colbert idea really is great. he's supposedly not starting on CBS until around September, so there's still time that it's plausible!

I'd love to see that too, I think what's kind of lost on a lot of people who haven't seen them live is that they're both really funny in person, especially Flansburgh.

Oh, September really? The dream is alive!

they'd seriously be perfect for the job. personable, talented and versatile, very funny/quick-witted, quirky but can rock if necessary, based in NYC, probably not super expensive?

this has to happen. someone start a tumblr or something

RIP early TMBG booster and showbiz legend Joe Franklin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFRjVXh9_8E

new video by Mark Marek!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okT-EgXUD0M

these lyrics from "Answer" made me laugh out loud:

You wanted tall
I came in under 5'4
Then you asked for dark
I tend to sunburn a lot
As for handsome, well
Can't help you there
So make of it what you will

It may take an ocean of whiskey and time
To wash all of the letdown out of your mind
And I may not be the one you expected but
I am the answer to all your prayers

Dud.

like 'em, don't like 'em, at least watch their cover of Bills, Bills, Bills

it's good!!

http://www.avclub.com/video/they-might-be-giants-covers-destinys-child-221191

i love that song and that band too much to ever watch that

^