Continuing with the lunar theme, here's a song that comes to mind when I think of the word "moon." No, not "Blue Moon," "Paper Moon," or "Whalers on the Moon," although those are also good ones. I'm speaking of "Nightgown of the Sullen Moon" by They Might Be Giants, which originally appeared as a B-side on the They'll Need a Crane EP in the late eighties, and later reappeared on the Miscellaneous T and Then: The Earlier Years collections. The liner notes for the latter say that the name came from a child's drawing, and later turned out to be the name of a book. The book is real, and apparently deals with the phases of the moon, but the notes suggest that John Linnell wasn't aware of it when coming up with the song. The "child's drawing" explanation sounds suspiciously similar to what John Lennon said about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and it does seem like the Johns (of TMBG, that is) have an interest in Beatles anecdotes. Linnell's solo song "Idaho," for instance, is based on an apocryphal story about Lennon dropping so much acid that he thought he needed to stay up all night and drive his house. Also, the same EP as "Nightgown" features the John Flansburgh song "I'll Sink Manhattan," about which he's told a story along much the same lines, namely that the title came from a piece of Manhattan graffiti that turned out to be referring to a band, but Flansy didn't find this out until after the song had been released. Anyway, "Nightgown of the Sullen Moon" is certainly an intriguing title, and I could see the Johns wanting to use it for a song without bothering to check on its original source. Hey, I've done the same kind of thing myself.

While a somewhat obscure part of TMBG's oeuvre, "Nightgown" seems to be a favorite of many fans. I know I've read accounts of people asking why the band never plays it live, to which the response was that Flans didn't find it fun to play. Makes sense, but you'd think it wouldn't get too boring if they just brought it out occasionally. I have heard "It's Not My Birthday," another B-side from the same EP (and probably my personal favorite TMBG song) played live a few times, so why not "Nightgown" as well?

The song is pretty typical of early TMBG, with a catchy, peppy melody accompanied by somewhat bizarre and possibly disturbing lyrics. I don't think there's ever been an official explanation as to what the lyrics actually mean, but it kind of seems like it's about a sudden loss of consciousness, or something of the sort. It specifically says it's "not a drug trip," so there's no need to take that direction with an interpretation. The lines "looking up and abruptly forget what you're thinking/fire alarms go off in your head" make me think of the Kurt Vonnegut short story "Harrison Bergeron," in which people with above-average intelligence are handicapped by being equipped with devices that interrupt their thoughts with loud noises every once in a while. Linking it to another TMBG song, there's a "screaming fire engine" in "The Statue Got Me High." Living in Brooklyn as they do, the Johns are probably quite used to hearing alarms and sirens. The line "there's a feeling of boredom of the big whoredom" brings to mind the band's song "The Big Big Whoredom," but I don't know which came first. I believe I've read the line "forever is a long time" somewhere (it might have been in Catch-22), but I don't know if that's where it originates.

Any other thoughts on this song? Are there any other songs you'd like me to address? Let me know!

The latest They Might Be Giants album has been out for a while now, but bethje and I just bought our copy recently. Honestly, I have to say I'm a little disappointed that they brought out another children's record so soon after the last one. I mean, it's better than nothing, but the first two albums they did for Disney had The Else released in between them. That said, however, I get the impression that the subject matter of this new one was more fun for the band to work with than the alphabet or numbers. As with the other two "Here Comes" albums, there's a DVD to accompany the CD. Instead of the puppet Johns who appeared on the last two, this is hosted by crudely drawn cartoon professor Johns in lab coats.

( Yes, I've reviewed every song separately. )

So, this was enjoyable, but let's hope TMBG can put out a regular, non-educational album next, as I think they work better when they're not limited by subject matter or intended audience. Still, there are many other directions they could take with these children's records. Look forward to Here Comes Art History, Here Comes Political Science, Here Comes Abnormal Psychology, Here Comes Comparative Religion, Here Comes Sex Ed, and There Goes Economics!

bethje and I have been to all twelve Monster-Mania Conventions in Cherry Hill, and the organizers just recently decided to have one in Connecticut as well. So we decided to attend, although we're not sure we'll go back if they ever have another one up there. It was kind of a long drive, during which I had to keep hearing the All-American Rejects hoping that it gives you hell, and Fergie announcing that she has that boom-boom-pow. Anyway, we stopped in Manhattan, because Stephanie M. had invited us to her birthday party, and it was my first time driving in New York City. It was pretty crazy, but we survived. What was harder to bear was paying $35 for parking. When I park in Philadelphia, I think $20 is pretty ridiculous. The party was at a bar, and I'm not generally much for bars, as they're just too noisy. I don't regret going, though. We got to meet therealtavie's twin sister Kirsten (who looks nothing like her), and see not_glimmer again before her return to Oregon.

The drive the rest of the way to Cromwell, Connecticut (which is near Hartford, not incredibly far from the Massachusetts border) was pretty uneventful, although we DID see a car that hit the jersey barrier and somehow caught on fire. Also, I learned that the Triborough Bridge is now the RFK Bridge. (Anyone remember when They Might Be Giants had an instrumental called "Triborough"? If they brought it back, would they have to call it "RFK"? {g}) Anyway, we stayed at a Super 8, and ate a late dinner at the not-very-good Cromwell Diner.

In the morning, we headed over to the Crowne Plaza where the convention was being held. I don't think it's as big as the one in Cherry Hill, but since there were fewer attendees, I suppose it didn't need to be. As usual, we primarily attended the question-and-answer sessions, the first three of which were with Ricou Browning (the Creature from the Black Lagoon for the underwater shots), Chris Sarandon (the vampire from Fright Night and the speaking voice of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas), and Tony Moran (one of the people who played Michael Myers in the first Halloween). Tony put his girlfriend on speaker phone for his session, which was pretty cool, but the fact that she was only twenty-four might not be. Oh, well. I guess the dating rules are different when you've played a character in a classic horror movie who wears a mask and doesn't talk. {g}

We weren't interested in seeing the Jason Mewes panel, so we took some time to check out the dealer room and hang out in the lobby before coming back for Sid Haig, who always puts on a fun session. Next came the Ladies of the Evil Dead, who were the three female characters from the original Evil Dead, all of whom have been doing the convention circuit together. I was kind of interested to learn that one of them was named Betsy Baker, which I believe was an alternate name that L. Frank Baum considered for Betsy Bobbin. (It all comes back to Oz, doesn't it? :P) Then came Bruce Campbell, who was quite entertaining, and was followed up by the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street reunions. Robert Englund was there, as was the hall monitor from the first Nightmare movie.

We had dinner at Friendly's, and then drove back home. Quite a long drive by my standards, but I thought it would be even worse if we stopped somewhere, so we just drove the whole distance from Cromwell back home. And that's about all I have to say. Well, actually, it isn't, but I think I should save the rest for another post. I will, however, link to the pictures I took:

Stephanie's party
Monster-Mania

Here's a fandom meme, which I got from poisonyoulove:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think that you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fan fiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

I was given The Simpsons, They Might Be Giants, and Kids in the Hall, so let me start:

The Simpsons:
1. Well, it is (or at least was) an excellent show, and I was about the right age, you know? I watched it from the beginning, but didn't become a really dedicated fan until around the fifth and sixth seasons.

2. I'm pretty sure I'll watch it until it finally becomes unprofitable. And I have the DVD sets, so there's a good chance I'll come back to certain episodes even after cancellation. So yeah, I guess I'm staying.

3. I think the show hit its peak in the fifth through seventh seasons. Ones that immediately come to mind as favorites are "Homer the Heretic," "Bart Sells His Soul," and "Much Apu About Nothing."

4. I used to read and post to the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup back in my college days. Now, my only real contribution is writing reviews of the new episodes on my journal.

5. I'm not sure that's possible. The show has been around long enough and been such a fixture in the past two decades that I can't imagine anyone who has access to a TV not having watched it at least occasionally.


They Might Be Giants:
1. I'd heard some of their songs prior to college and liked them, but it was really during college that I got into them. I lived in a nerd dorm, so there were a lot of other fans around. {g}

2. I'm really not a moving-on kind of guy. I add new interests and sometimes temporarily put old ones on the back burner, but it's rare for me to totally lose interest in anything. So no, I don't expect to move on from TMBG, even if they stop making music.

3. I'd still say my overall favorite song of theirs is "It's Not My Birthday." Other high-ranking ones are "Reprehensible," "Dinner Bell," and "Sleeping in the Flowers."

4. I used to be a pretty frequent poster on the alt.music.tmbg newsgroup and the now-defunct tmbg.org e-mail list.

5. Yes, but annoying frat boys and the like need not apply.


Kids in the Hall:
1. bethje, basically. She was a fan before she knew me, and got me interested as well.

2. Well, I plan to remain at least as long as it takes me to watch the rest of the episodes. {g}

3. I haven't seen all of them yet, so I don't really want to pick right now. I do have to say that "The Dr. Seuss Bible" works for me on several levels, though. {g}

4. No, but I've really only become a fan recently anyway.

5. Yeah, I think so.


And while no one chose this for me, I'm also going to answer these questions for Oz.

1. Return to Oz piqued my interest, but it was my dad giving me copies of the first two books to read that really resulted in my immersing myself in L. Frank Baum's world.

2. While nobody knows what the future will bring, I have to say my interest hasn't particularly flagged in the past twenty years, and I would expect it to remain.

3. The Patchwork Girl of Oz is my overall favorite.

4. Quite a bit, actually. I've written my own stories, participated in both scholarly and light-hearted discussions, and attended conventions.

5. Definitely. More people need to read these books.


If anyone else wants to do this, let me know!

Here's my third visit to this meme, this time with the topics chosen by lozenger8.

1. Old-style video games

Why does everyone choose this one for me? Not that it's not an interest of mine, just that I should think I have enough other interests without repeating any. Oh, well. Video games have always been present in my life, even when I wasn't actually playing them. I remember picking out a Pac-Man pillow and eating Pac-Man popsicles (they were lemon-flavored, I think) when I was a kid, but I don't think I got much of a chance to play Pac-Man. There was just always something about video games that appealed to me, though, and older ones have nostalgic value for me. For some reason, that even applies to the ones I didn't know about until later in my life. I guess it's more nostalgia for the general feel than for the specifics.

2. Futurama

I've been a Simpsons fan for years (more on that in the fifth item), so I was pretty excited when I learned that Matt Groening was coming out with a new show, and one that mixed science fiction and comedy at that! As much as I love The Simpsons, I felt that the nerdier subject matter of Futurama was more directly geared toward people like me. And it looks like it's been gaining in popularity since it was canceled, which is a good sign in more ways than one.

3. Oz

Okay, what do I have to say about Oz that I didn't say last time? Well, plenty, obviously, but most of that is more specific. I can say that one thing I like about Oz fandom is that, while it's small, there are other people involved in it who are just as geeky about it as I am, doing research and discussing Oz as if the stories were real. For me, it adds to the verisimilitude of a fictional land that I often wish WERE real.

4. Frank Black

I got interested in him by way of They Might Be Giants, as there's not only significant overlap in the fanbases, but the Johns are fans of Frank's and vice versa. They both have a large amount of nerdy appeal, but it's more undercover with Frank. While the Johns have kinda whiny voices and use the accordion a fair amount (albeit less so in more recent recordings), Frank sounds more traditionally cool, even when singing about UFOs and Irish mythology.

5. The Simpsons

I still consider this to be my favorite show, and I watch all of the new episodes, even though I consider it to be well past its prime. Old habits die hard, you know? I've been watching the show since the beginning, but I was more of a casual watcher at first, only becoming really obsessed around the fifth or sixth season. Of course, I'm sure there are fans now who weren't even born when those seasons were first being aired, so I guess I'm an old-school fan by modern standards.

This is a continuation of this meme, with the topics chosen by burningofroissy this time around.

1. Oz [of course]

I'm not entirely sure why this particular fantasy series has stuck with me more than any other, but I think a lot of is the combination of surrealism and believability, with a heavy dose of humor thrown in as well. Also, there's a very friendly feeling to them. There was a Futurama episode where Fry says of Star Trek, "But most importantly, when I had no friends, it made me feel like maybe I did." Oz was much the same way for me, especially in my adolescent years.

2. Mythology

Well, I just discussed mythology the last time I did this, so I'll look at it from a different angle. I guess my interest in classical mythology arose when I was in elementary school, and I started reading all the books on the subject that I could. It was mostly Greco-Roman stuff at first, but I later read a bit of Norse mythology for a school project, and found that it was even MORE messed up.

3. Informative posts

Well, my main goal is to entertain, but I like to think you can sometimes learn things from my posts as well. {g} Seriously, I guess it comes out of my general fondness for research. Writing entries expounding on various subjects is sort of like writing research papers without the boring parts.

4. TMBG

My favorite band for over ten years now, I got into them in college, and have been a fan ever since. Their songs have a kind of weirdness that I can identify with to a certain extent, not to mention really catchy melodies.

5. Video games

As I've said before, the role-playing genre is my favorite, but I quite enjoy others as well. I'm just not very good at them. As with books, I like it when the characters and setting have lives of their own, so to speak.

I've already discussed sex and drugs with respect to Oz, so what comes next? The usual answer would be rock and roll, but that style of music didn't yet exist at the time when most of the Famous Forty were written. There is a fair amount about music in the books, though, although not quite enough to tell us what Ozites typically listen to. Most of the songs we see mentioned in the series are dances (like the Oz Two-Step), patriotic anthems (like "The Oz Spangled Banner" [1] and "Ozma and Oz Forever" [2]), and impromptu nonsense rhymes and folk ballads. In The Patchwork Girl of Oz, we're introduced to Victor Columbia Edison, a phonograph accidentally brought to life by Dr. Pipt, who tries to play a few different songs for the other characters. He plays classical music (which he describes as "puzzling" and Baum calls "dreary"), ragtime (which the author calls "a jerky jumble of sounds," and Ojo says is "dreadful"), and a popular song about "coal-black Lulu" [3] which is "sung by a man through his nose with great vigor of expression" (possibly a comment on the recording quality of the time rather than the singers themselves). The latter is often considered to be a parody of the then-popular racist "coon songs." Baum also has a character in John Dough and the Cherub named Tietjamus Toips, a spoof of both his own composer friend Paul Tietjens and on Wagner. Toips exclaims, "Some folks can understand Vogner [sic] a little. No one can understand me at all!" Despite these blanket pronouncements, I've heard that there's some evidence Baum enjoyed Wagner and other classical music, and (regrettably) coon songs as well. It's possible that he didn't enjoy ragtime at all, though. Ruth Plumly Thompson seems to have been a little more open to it, though. In her own Tune Town, a location visited in The Gnome King of Oz, there's a bandmaster who seems to run the town, but the queen is named Jazzma. She offers Scraps to let her stay as a maid-in-waiting and "live in ragtime harmony," and while the Patchwork Girl refuses, she doesn't seem to object to ragtime in particular. In her own book, however, Scraps refers to the style as "extremely bad" and "enough to drive a crazy lady mad" (a line I've always quite liked). Incidentally, in describing Queen Jazzma for Who's Who in Oz, Jack Snow refers to her being "worried about a saucy young upstart named Bee-Bopma who has just come to Tune Town and is even noisier and less melodious than Jazzma." I suppose the trend of each generation hating the next generation's music is just as active in the Oz books as anywhere else.

It's not entirely clear how ragtime records came to Oz in the first place, but the fact that there is one suggests that SOMEONE there might enjoy it, even if it isn't a member of Ojo's party. So did Oz keep with with the Great Outside World's musical trends after jazz? I don't know. Even though Oz HAS electric power, it never seems to become all that widespread (when Leon describes wiring up his house in Wicked Witch, he treats it as a novelty), which would presumably mean few to no electric instruments, on which most musical styles of the latter half of the twentieth century and beyond have pretty much depended. And I can't really imagine the Emerald City getting, say, a disco or a slam-dancing club. But maybe that's just because I view Oz as remaining somewhat quaint by modern standards, despite the fact that the books actually present us with a fair number of then-modern amenities.

So now that I've talked about the music in Oz itself, I'm wondering what music reminds other people of Oz. I know kevenn has said he usually listens to Tori Amos when drawing Oz characters, and I know there are a few other Oz fans (in addition to me, that is) who like They Might Be Giants. I think songs that bring Oz to my mind are usually ones that mention imaginary themed locations, like TMBG's "Cowtown," and the town of Misery from XTC's "1000 Umbrellas" (which I think might be located in the Munchkin Sadlands, not too far from Tear Drop City). Actually, XTC explicitly refers to the Wizard of Oz in "Merely a Man," and references the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman in "Scarecrow People." There's apparently also an Andy Partridge demo in which he mistakenly credits the Oz books to Frank L. Richards, rather than Baum. (Has anyone ever heard this song? I believe it's called "Rip Van Ruben.") Interestingly, it's an old Oz e-mail list that I partially credit with getting me into Tom Lehrer, who seems quite popular among Oz fans. I don't think there's anything particularly Ozzy about his music (although he does mention the book in "Smut," and jokes that he translated in into Latin in his introduction to Tom Lehrer Revisited), but I guess Oz fans also tend to be bibliophiles in general, and hence probably likely to enjoy music that employs unusual vocabulary and clever wordplay. I believe that both Baum and Thompson were fans of Gilbert & Sullivan, who did much the same kind of songwriting in their own day.

[1] This is referred to as the Ozian national anthem in Dorothy and the Wizard, which is interesting because "The Star-Spangled Banner" didn't officially become the American national anthem until over twenty years after the publication of this book. There's no indication that the Ozian anthem has the same tune, and I prefer to think it doesn't, but it would be only fair considering that it was a rip-off of "The Anacreontic Song" in the first place. And, of course, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" reuses the tune of "God Save the Queen."
[2] There's a reference to a song called "The Land of Oz Forever" in Hidden Valley, which could be either a different song or a pre-Ozma version of the same one.
[3] For the Books of Wonder edition, "coal-black" was changed to "cross-eyed." I can sympathize with the desire to remove what could be viewed as racist material, but I must say it's an odd substitution.

Whatever happened to the search function on LiveJournal? I know it was a third-party application, but did they just remove all of the links to it, or what? The thing is, I have a nagging feeling that I might have used this post's title before, but I don't feel like going back and checking. I'm sure nobody but me really cares, though.

Anyway, the subject this time is the solo work of John Linnell, the bottom half of They Might Be Giants. He only had one solo album released in record stores, and that's State Songs, a project in which he wrote songs based on the names of states, but not on the states themselves. Kind of confusing, huh? Read on for the individual songs.

( I can't wait for my favorite one. )

The only other Linnell solo release was an EP called House of Mayors, which he did for John Flansburgh's Hello Recording Club. The goal here was to write songs about New York City mayors. Unlike the State Songs, most of these were instrumentals.

( And the full complement's in attendance at the House of Mayors. )

Next week, I think I'll move on to another band. Unless I receive some better suggestions, I'll probably go with my second favorite music group, XTC.

[1] I seem to recall a quote from a Linnell concert in which he said that Horton had three songs about Alaska. I know one of the others is "Springtime in Alaska," but if John is correct, what's the third?

Having now reviewed every They Might Be Giants album, plus a few B-sides and other projects, I'm going to turn to the Johns' solo projects. Flansburgh was definitely the more productive John in this respect. As part of his Hello Recording Club (which I often wish I'd been able to get in on, but I wasn't a fan back then), there was an EP credited to Hello (The Band). This project was led by joshuafried and DJ Rolf Conant (a pseudonym for John Conant Flansburgh himself). ( Go, go, Satan, go! )

Next week (or thereabouts), I'll examine John Linnell's two solo projects, the excellent State Songs and the kinda weird House of Mayors.

bethje and I just got back from ringing in the new year with They Might Be Giants at the TLA. We'd previously seen them for New Year's 2006, and attended both shows, which turned out to be almost entirely the same. After that, I resolved (since it WAS New Year's, after all) not to see two of their shows in a row again. They were doing the same deal tonight, and Beth was originally planning to go to both, but decided she needed more time to study. So we only attended the second one, which means we were there for the actual changing of the year. Corn Mo opened at both shows, but he only did three songs at the one we saw, which was a shame. I was honestly somewhat more excited about seeing him than TMBG, since I've seen them over twenty times already. Oh, well. TMBG tonight included a horn section, and dropped balloons from the ceiling and played "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight. There was an argument between the two Johns as to whether there was a leap second, which eventually led to John Flansburgh joking that their next album would have a lot of faux-factual songs about extra seconds. There wasn't too much new in the setlist, and I was disappointed that we only got two songs from The Else ("Withered Hope" and "The Mesopotamians"); have they pretty much given up on that album already? There was also nothing at all from Here Come the 123s, which surprised me, since it IS still their newest album. They did, however, play both "Mr. Me" and "Cowtown," the latter of which had John Linnell and one of the horn players both playing clarinets for the introduction. Also cool was getting to hear "Why Does the Sun Really Shine? (The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma)" for the first time. They did play the TLA venue song (AKA "Philadelphia"), both straight and in a remixed version that included solos from most of the band members. The only other Venue Song included in the set was "Asbury Park," which they introduced by mentioning that they'd played shows in that town where it was raining indoors. Beth and I actually attended the show that he was most likely talking about, and being on the inside of one of the band's inside jokes is always fun.

After the show, we wanted to buy a copy of Corn Mo's latest album, but he'd apparently just sold out of the CDs. He did say that we could get a copy by e-mailing him, though. It's available on iTunes, but I'd really rather have the physical CD. Call me old-fashioned in that respect if you must. Going home was pretty uneventful, aside from when we encountered the malfunctioning traffic light at 5th and Market Streets, which didn't even have a cop to direct traffic. And now I'm tired, so I think I'm just going to post this and go lie down for at least a little while. Happy New Year, everyone! And happy birthday to bec_87rb!

Today, I'll be reviewing the non-album tracks on the Why Does the Sun Shine?, Back to Skull, S-E-X-X-Y, and Working Undercover for the Man EPs, all by They Might Be Giants.

( Motel Directive Wigue Wigue Wishnick )

And here are some reviews that I'd already posted, of more recent EPs and such.

Bed, Bed, Bed
Indestructible Object
The Spine Surfs Alone
Cast Your Pod to the Wind

Really, I guess that's about it for TMBG. I know some of you expressed interest in my re-reviewing the more recent material, and I might do that someday, but I'll hold off on it for now. And there's always that issue of McSweeney's that they did the music for, but how much could I possibly say about "Dollar for Dollar" and "Grassroots Internet Revolution"? Next week, I'll start on examining the Johns' side projects, and then it'll probably be on to a different band.

Since it's now Christmas Eve (yeah, that really sneaked up on us, didn't it?), I'm going to take a listen to the They Might Be Giants Christmas EP, Holidayland.

( I've been waiting all year just to let you in. )

And that's it for our trip to Holidayland, which is probably a good thing, as I hear they're currently involved in a bloody war with West Xylophone.

Since it IS the Christmas season, you might want to check out the Nostalgia's Critics countdown of the greatest Christmas specials. And if you've started reading this journal more recently than last December, or would just like a refresher, here are some of my own thoughts on various holiday specials:

A Charlie Brown Christmas
Koopa Klaus (a Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode)
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, and Garfield
A Claymation Christmas, Looney Tunes, and The Flintstones
Home Alone and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
Jack Frost

I'll probably watch some of those today. I also still need to wrap some Christmas presents.

Incidentally, I've had a lot of weird dreams recently, and not holiday-related ones or anything. Two nights ago, there was one where I was really interested in old-time telephone prefixes for some reason, and I'd somehow gotten them mixed up with area codes. Last night, one dream had me in college and getting angry at a shabby-looking professor who told us we'd have to come to class on weekends. Actually, I'm not sure I was in this guy's class, but I still thought it was unfair. There was also something involving pirate ships, but I think I even realized within the dream that it wasn't real, which takes away a lot of the fun.

Okay, the general theme for this week's They Might Be Giants review is the B-sides from the early nineties, from EPs released to coincide with the Flood and Apollo 18 albums.

( White tornado, my foot! That's a REAL tornado! You ain't in New York City, baby! )

Also, I was tagged for this meme by colbyucb, so I might as well start on it.

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail.
3. Tag 8 of your friends to do the same.

Since I actually first saw this yesterday, I'll start out with that. I was glad to get some comments that were quite interesting to read and respond to. Today, I'm happy that I don't have to go to work.

Okay, so, tagging, eh? How about arfies, dragonxbait, ozma914, rockinlibrarian, secretnthewings, suegypt, vilajunkie, and yosef? If you don't want to, you don't have to, but I guess that goes without saying. It's not like I'm hooking you all up to machines that give you electric shocks unless you do this for eight days. Then again, if I DID do that, you could probably use "I didn't get shocked today" as at least one of the happiness triggers, couldn't you?

Since most of the votes in my poll last week said I should move on to EPs and other miscellaneous TMBG material, this week I'm going to take a look at (or, rather, listen to) the bonus material from Then: The Earlier Years. This includes all of the songs that were on the B-side collection Miscellaneous T, aside from the single mixes of "Don't Let's Start" and "(She Was a) Hotel Detective." There are also several early, previously unreleased recordings that were eventually released through eMusic as "Giants Jubilee" and "Mightathon," which I would assume means that the Johns had no role in naming them. Anyway, here we go:

( Read more... )

Get it? Because I'm reviewing the album No!? It's a pun, see? Oh, you're no fun anymore!

Anyway, They Might Be Giants' first children's album came out less than a year after Mink Car, but it was actually a project they'd been working on for some time before that. I think they had trouble finding a record label willing to release it. I think they ended up with a quality product, though. It's short, but in terms of song quality, it's easily on par with the "adult" albums they were releasing around the same time.

( On with the songs! )

One thing I appreciate with this album is that, while it's geared toward kids, it's still something older TMBG fans can enjoy, which isn't as much the case with their later children's records. I've seen interviews with the Johns where they said No! wasn't as good as the later kids' albums because it wasn't aimed at any specific age group, but one of the things I've always LIKED about TMBG is that their music never seems to be intended for anyone in particular. I get the impression that the Johns' attitude is more, "Here's some music we want to make, and if you like it too, that's awesome!" Granted, writing songs for a specific age group is different than writing them for a particular record executive or subculture, but still. If the later records have sold better, I have to wonder whether that was due to anything the Johns did, or more to the fact that they're Disney products, and hence have the Mouse's mega-marketing machine behind them.

There are still a few TMBG albums left, but they all came out since I got this LJ account, so I've already reviewed them. In case you missed them the first time, here are the relevant posts:

The Spine
Venue Songs
Here Come the ABCs
The Else
Here Come the 123s

I'm inclined not to review these again, but I would be interested in knowing what you think, so why not participate in the democratic process?

Poll #1307665 Future Album Reviews
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Would you like to see new reviews of the more recent TMBG albums?

What should I move on to next?

When I'm done with TMBG, what band/artist should I start reviewing?

Which of these do you consider to be official TMBG albums?

After a few years of the Johns saying that the next They Might Be Giants album would come out soon, we finally got Mink Car in 2001. Its official release date was on September 11th (although I'd heard it considerably before that), and the record label went bankrupt or something around the time. Not that either of these affects the quality of the album, but they help to indicate that this was a rather ill-fated record. It shows signs of being rather hastily thrown together, which is kind of odd for an album that they had so many years to assemble. I think this was around when they started doing a lot of music for TV, though, and it almost seems like they released an album just to tell people, "Hey, we still put out records!"

As I indicated here (and you could probably have gathered from that opening paragraph), this is my least favorite TMBG studio album. Still, even a relatively bad TMBG album outranks a lot of albums by other bands, and there's a good amount of cool songs on here.

( The song-by-song review )

I first started really getting into They Might Be Giants in 1997, which probably wasn't the best time to do so. It wasn't long after that that they left their recording contract with Elektra, and started shopping around for a new label. Prior to that, they'd put out an album about once every other year, but the schedule became much more irregular after this. On top of that, they stopped the trend of numbering their albums for a little while. FS was the sixth album and The Spine the tenth, and I would assume Mink Car and No! were the eighth and ninth. But what counts as the seventh? In the years between 1996 and 2001, they put out two new albums, but one was mostly live and the other an Internet-only release. I'd say it's the online album, Long Tall Weekend, that should count as #7, but the Johns really don't seem to acknowledge it anymore, so I don't know.

The live album, Severe Tire Damage, is probably my least favorite of the band's full-length releases. They included songs from several different concerts, which SHOULD have allowed them to come up with a quality collection, but they still ended up with a fair number of sub-par recordings. I really think more preparation should have gone into its creation. Still, it has its moments, and it's the first TMBG album that I bought on the release date.

( The songs )

Long Tall Weekend was released in 1999, and was one of the first albums to only be available online. Some CD's were pressed, and bethje has one, having attended the promotional concert. I'm somewhat jealous of her for that. {g} Anyway, while the Johns tend to ignore LTW, and re-released several of its songs on the rarities collection They Got Lost, it's actually a very good record. A lot of the songs are from the FS era, some of them being outtakes that really deserved to be on a more prominent album.

( Yes, I'm going song-by-song for this one, too. )

Next week, watch me get hit by a Mink Car!

I think it's about time we got to the sixth studio album by They Might Be Giants, Factory Showroom. This was released in 1996, and I started buying their albums in 1997, so it was the newest album at that point. Most of the reviews I'd heard from other fans were less than positive, but it wasn't like I was just going to skip over it. I do think it's probably the weakest of the first six studio albums, but it still includes some classic TMBG songs. It's also bethje's favorite, and the first TMBG album she obtained, so the negative reviews are hardly universal. It's definitely a change for TMBG, in that it has much longer songs and less of them. While all of the previous albums had at least eighteen tracks, this one has only thirteen, plus a hidden track on the CD version. The Johns apparently wanted to include some more songs, but the record company wouldn't have it, and a fair number of the outtakes showed up on Long Tall Weekend. Some of those are better than the songs that actually made the cut, but I'll get to that when I review LTW. I'll also get to the hidden track, "Token Back to Brooklyn," in that review, since it reappears there within the album sequence.

( The Songs )

After FS, it's a bit difficult to discern what counts as an official album. If I have the time, however, I'll be covering both Severe Tire Damage and LTW next week.

The fifth official studio album from They Might Be Giants is the first one they recorded after they began touring with a full band, often including horn players. I've heard that there was a certain amount of backlash at the band and this album back then, but now it seems to be a favorite of a lot of fans. I guess time proved the Johns right. The title is, of course, a reference to the legend of the railroad worker who beat the steam drill, with the live drummer having beat out the drum machine. John Linnell would later name his son Henry, but there's no telling whether that had anything to do with the title of this album.

This remains TMBG's longest album, with a whopping twenty tracks, many of them longer than the songs on previous releases. And I do think there's somewhat of a different sound to it (more horns, more solos, more direct angst in the vocals, more soft verses with loud choruses, etc.), I don't like it any less for that reason.

( Okay, let's look at the songs. )

Next up will, of course, be Factory Showroom. After that, it becomes a little more of a toss-up, but I'm thinking I might try doing a double-review of both Severe Tire Damage AND Long Tall Weekend the week after that.