Tag Archives: They Might Be Giants

From I Like Fun, out now on Idlewild Recordings.

They call me the greatest
Because I’m not very good
And they’re being sarcastic

It’s wild to think that these guys have been around for over 30 years. And even now, there are not a lot of bands making this kind of “high geek” music. Sufjan Stevens came closest during his Illinois era, I guess. But it’s impossible for me to hear TMBG without flashing back to being a know-it-all nineteen year old, drunk on my own egocentrism (and Bacardi). Those were heady days, stumbling around college campuses, soaking up influences and experiences like a sponge, but still absolutely convinced I already knew more about everything than anybody. They Might Be Giants made you feel like you were part of a society of intellectuals, passing around tapes of Lincoln and Flood like a secret handshake, unlocking clues in the lyrics. “It’s from the point of view of a nightlight…get it?”

Fast forward to now, and John Flansburgh and John Linnel are still at it. Still doing the Dial-a-Song thing (844-387-6962), and still writing and recording quirky songs that don’t sound like anybody else. Nick Offerman is perfect in the video as the narrator, slowly getting tortured via voodoo. His faux gravitas as he sneers “G-O-A-T” is worthy of an academy award.

They Might Be Giants: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Continue reading New They Might Be Giants video: The Greatest →

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Streams: ScarJo, Apples, Bondy

August 31, 2009 Jake Brown Leave a comment

AOL/Spinner is streaming the following albums through Sunday, September 6, so listen while you can.

• Scarlett Johnasson & Pete Yorn, ‘Break Up’

• Apples in Stereo, ‘#1 Hits Explosion’

• A.A. Bondy, ‘When The Devil’s Loose’ (MP3)

• Radiohead, ‘Kid A – Deluxe’

More streams after the jump, and as always, let us know if you hear anything good!

Continue reading Streams: ScarJo, Apples, Bondy →

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They Might Be Giants interview

February 21, 2008 Jake Brown 1 Comment

Alternaparenting site Offsprung interviews John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants about the band’s new new CD/DVD set, Here Come the 123s (out now on Disney Sound). Flansburgh reveals some of his musical inspirations as well as some of the nuts and bolts of creating kids’ music in the shadow of ~~the Man~~ the Mouse:

Playhouse Disney decided it couldn’t really afford to broadcast interstitial songs – that’s the show biz term for songs between their TV shows – for much more than a minute and a half. That interstitial exposure is a big part of what makes folks aware of these discs, so it’s important that the stuff work on the Disney Channel. It kind of fell to us to restructure the videos for broadcast to either fit the new length, or live with the longer songs getting edited down in some blunt way. So, to really just make it easy on ourselves, and to make sure the songs being broadcast would have the right structure, we just started writing all the new songs shorter. Of course writing short songs was pretty natural for us…

My question is: Isn’t the whole idea of a TMBG children’s album a bit redundant? Why not just let your kids listen to Lincoln and Flood? They’ll love it.

MP3s