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

I remember being a little upset at Flansy for saying "we didn't put it on the album because it was too close to Spiralling Shape (another excellent tune)", then they put out The Spine which had like, seven or eight songs in a row that were basically all the same

Again, this is what I'm really liking about Join Us, every song is its own thing and nothing really sounds like anything else. Right now I'm obsessed with the one that sounds like a Pure Guava-era Ween outtake ("Dog Walker")

After a couple listens, seriously digging "Can't Keep Johnny Down" - which is to say, I really dig "Here Comes My Baby" by Cat Stevens. Generally an enjoyable listening experience although few things are really jumping out at me - there's something generally flat and even about their sound these days, not sure how to describe it...just sort of "clean studio rock band" or something. Not sure it needs to be 18 tracks. But I'm gonna keep it in rotation, I suspect there's some growers here....

the disconcertingly clean sound of Join Us is actually one of its strengths imo, struck me as off-putting at first but then i realized how well it served the lyrics

"Join Us" may just be my jumping off point for these lads. It just hasn't made an impression at all. I liked "The Else" though I can't remember much from that either. The kids albums were all much catchier and fun for me.

I was so disappointed State Songs was original songs and not Linnell just singing the official state songs. Really wanted him to bust out the old accordion for the nice waltz that is "Here We Have Idaho." I just couldn't listen to the album because of flase advertising!

It's just kind of weird, like... these guys used to be able, just the two of them, generate a really full and interesting sound. And yet with a full band they either do kind of generic uptempo stuff in the general sonic territory of "Boss of Me," or, inexplicably, something like "Cloisonne" which just seems totally lazy, demo-button-on-the-keyboard stuff. I mean, even "Which Describes How You're Feeling" has a more interesting and surprising arrangement.

Don't get me wrong, though, the good songs on this are probably the best songs I've heard from them in over a decade, although I guess I didn't really give this many listens to the other post-Factory Showroom records. Definitely a lot of good stuff to cherry-pick from this. Still think it could be pruned and tightened a bit, although at least at 47 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.

I basically cosign every word uttered by Doctor Casino itt

Picking this album back up again, still liking it okay, still convinced it's got too many tracks, or too many things that feel like they'd make solid endings. I would happily cut "Three Might Be Duende," "Cloisonne," and "Protagonist," and there's a few others that are good but not that good. Just kind of dilutes the impact of what could be a pleasant, chewy platter of songs a la Factory Showroom.

incidentally, pulling out Factory Showroom - - - how did this cover art get so bad? Really one of the ugliest things I've ever seen.

tbf NOBODY had a good album cover in 1996

Has our burgeoning 90s rock revival hegemony yet produced a "worst album cover of 1996" poll? Because that would be HARD if this one wasn't in the list.

no but that would be a competitive poll

But the Factory Showroom artwork is good

I was so disappointed State Songs was original songs and not Linnell just singing the official state songs. Really wanted him to bust out the old accordion for the nice waltz that is "Here We Have Idaho." I just couldn't listen to the album because of flase advertising!

If you feel like doing some looking, I know he sang a whole bunch of the real state songs when he did his solo tour around that time.

he did stuff like "California Uber Alles" too, which is hilarious

the whole "State Songs" project was really one of the least ambitious albums of all time and I love it for that. here's a quote from Linnell himself:

"I don't think that the songs are liable to be adopted as the state anthems of the actual states, sadly. I was thinking initially that that might be a nice thing, but thinking about it I think songs like 'Oregon is bad' are not likely to go down very well in Oregon."

frogbs, i'm curious what you mean about "high school band" and "least ambitious" and "cheaply made" re State Songs -- to me the recording is indistinguishable from TMBG records of the same period

oh the arrangements are definitely more spare than live band era TMBG (and less polished and drum machine-driven than early TMBG)

It's similar to some early stuff, but there are more horn players, and none of the musical parts are tricky like, say, "Puppet Head". IMO it's very distinguishable from Apollo 18 and beyond. I have no idea if it really was cheaply made, but the synthesizer sounds all make it seem that way; most of the musicians really do sound like high schoolers. As far as the ambition goes, I can't speak for Linnell, but to me it's always felt like he was doing it because TMBG was on break, the only concept was "I'm going to write a bunch of songs titled after states, that are only vaguely about those states", y'know, just to keep his muse strong or whatever. It's very charming.

yeah it was during that long period after they got dropped from Elektra where they seemed to be actively avoiding doing a new studio album until they knew if they were going to another major or whatever; live album, internet-only rarities album, EPs, side projects, endless tours, etc. also feels like the beginning of them just picking a theme to write tons and tons of songs around (Venue Songs, Here Come The ABCs/123s/etc.)

They wrote a lot of good tunes in that period; it's a shame that so few of them ended up on Mink Car (and the ones that did were often in inferior versions). I think I've been a fan since '97 (as an 11 year old!) and I remember how frustrating it was for the "new" TMBG album (Long Tall Weekend) to be basically inaccessible. It was pioneering in retrospect but having no physical product was a pretty bad idea at the time.

Yeah, that was exactly the period where I fell off as a fan, and I don't know if that's because the content was really in decline, or because it felt sort of ephemeral and stopgap, or because my own tastes were shifting or what.

see i only bought Flood like less than a year before Factory Showroom and saw them live for the first time '98 so that was a whole period of me getting into the band and exploring the back catalog. although by the time Mink Car came along i'd kind of exhausted my interest in them and didn't cop it or see them live for a few years.

2 of 70 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Hmmmm! Time to make lemonade!, November 23, 1999
By Bruce Richardson (Herscher, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: State Songs (Audio CD)
(Updated from previous review after some more listening)
I was sent to this album through a link on the State Song Web Site. Even though I recognized the TMBG name as something I wouldn't normally buy, I was totally unprepared for the disappointment I was soon to feel. They are far from the Official state songs, as one would be led to expect from the title, etc.

I was hunting for a reference recording to use with my music students. I now have a recording for when I want to play Crazy music for my 1st graders. This music should prove very enjoyable to those fans of Barney and Teletubbies.

Can you tell I am sincerely disappointed in this album. My colleague sympathized with me on this Dog purchase

That's pretty much OTM, and I like the album

haha the album really does serve a nice function as a rickroll

I love the line on the first song: "The songs of the 50 states/The songs of the 50 states/I'm not gonna say they're great/I ain't gonna say they ain't"

I feel like any album that serves well as "Crazy music for 1st graders" is a must-buy for me

one of the main reasons State Songs is great is that Flans didn't write any of the songs

I have nothing against him, but especially lately his melodies haven't exactly been setting the LPs alight

Melody wise Linnell's always been at the front for me anyway...most of the early singles 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.