There's a live show streaming on YouTube RIGHT NOW! They Might Be Giants - Live from the Fox Theatre 3/11/2018
I heard this band's name mentioned on the local alternative radio station here in town all throughout the 90's, but I couldn't tell you what song(s) they ever played by them. Then a few years ago I'm in the grocery store and I hear a pretty kooky song over the store's piped-in music channel that I'd never heard before (not even on the local alternative radio station back in the 90's), so I jotted down a few of the song's lyrics and Googled the song when I got home. That song? By none other than They Might Be Giants. Ya coulda knocked be over with a feather. If one song means anything, they seem like a fun band. Love the song!
I definitely dig them, though I no longer follow them as closely as I once did. I got the first album after hearing Purple Toupee and Puppet Head on the radio. Loved the Snoman picture and wondered what the heck "Mastered by Nimbus" meant. CDs were very new to me back then. I got Lincoln and Flood within days of release and saw them perform at a nearby college. I followed them pretty closely up until John Henry. I'm not sure why that was the end-point for me, but I did still see them live once after that and I was glad to see their music cross my radar every so often like when they did that Homestar Runner song and the songs about presidents.
Yes, I found that out once I searched for the song on Youtube. And while I also like the original version, I think The Presidents version sounds more updated and fresher.
I would agree with your post, but I've since been locked in a closest with Vanna White. And that changes everything.
I liked the first couple of albums. After that I kind of lost interest. Saw them play at Maxwell's in Hoboken back in the day. No backing band, just the two of them. They were the original hipsters from Brooklyn. Haven't listened in ages. I should give them a spin.
Yes. Been a fan since the first album when I discovered 'em in middle school back then on MTV. Going to see them live next month.
Count me as someone else who thinks that they lost "something" when they transitioned from a two piece to a full band set-up. The first three albums were pretty great but Apollo 18 and everything after seemed too forced, IMHO. Their early stuff was absolutely mesmerizing to me, to the point that I saw them three times in the first half of 1990 (twice at the old Living Room in Providence and once at the Orpheum in Boston.) In fact, the very first spontaneous moshpits I was ever in was at the first February 1990 show when they encored with the at-the-time-just-released "Istanbul Not Constantinople" to a mental crowd of RISD students, bored Providence scenesters and suburban teenage kids. Also as it turns out, several of my wife's cousins went to high school with the two Johns, although I don't think they've been in touch with them at all.
Here's two more early live songs - the debuts of the Allman Brothers "Jessica" and "No One Knows My Plan", from Central Park on July 31, 1993:
Love em'. From "Don't Let's Start" (could it be the prototypical indie song?), I knew they were something special. Saw them do a show at the Mercury Lounge in NYC supporting "Factory Showroom", and they put on a typically weird, great show. How can you fault a band who sang the praises of our 11th president?
Same. I had a friend who was obsessed with them and he tried to get me into them back in the mid-to-late 1990s. To me they sounded like children's show rock...and that was BEFORE they started actually doing music for children's shows!
That word perfectly encapsulates what I could never stand about them. *Everything* about them seemed contrived.
Here THEY are, talking to Marc Maron: WTF with Marc Maron Podcast Edit: I'm smack in the middle of this interview and, dare I say, It's more informative that the doc!
Yes although I prefer their first 5 albums over everything that's been released since. Saw them a few times in concert in the early 90s. Very good, fun shows!
Just pulled out "Phone Power".... haven't heard it in like, a year or so.... I like it....... it's better than I remember.
A very funny and inventive band, er duo/band. "What's that blue thing doing here?" And it doesn't get much better than Triangle Man.
I love 'em! I'm especially impressed by their ability to write an infectiously catchy tune with lyrics about whatever they damn well please.
I wasn't that familiar with them but went to see them in Portland, ME on Saturday at the State Theater and was quite impressed with them! I'll have to start looking at their catalog to check out their albums. Any recommendations for a newbie?
