Maybe it's the lyrics you misheard for years (Come on, somebody entered "I don't want the world, I just want to wear hats" into the wiki. Was it you?) Maybe it's the song everyone else in the world seems to love that you can't stand (There has to be a fan out there somewhere that hates Birdhouse). It could be the album you've never listened to, the video you've never seen, the picture of Flansburgh that is tacked to the ceiling over your bed. Anything that puts a ding in your uber-fan street cred or just makes you cringe a little to admit.
Please note, this is meant to be funny, not painful or creepy. Keep that in mind when you are sharing. In other words, that thing you'd really like to do with that member of the band (and I don't mean get a cup of coffee), yeah, keep that one to yourself.
Here goes nothing:
- For probably two years, I thought the line in Till Your Head Falls Off was "There were 87 apples in the bottle."
- I do not actually know all the lyrics to probably about half the songs. I know all the songs, I know at least some of the lyrics of all of them but there are dozens of them that I couldn't sing through without a lyric sheet. Which may not seem that strange until you consider I still know most of the words to the songs in my third grade musical. I blame this mostly on the next thing on the list.
- I do not own all of the albums (and thus I don't have all the liner notes to look at while listening). My boyfriend has everything and I have made a huge series of mix CDs from his albums that I listen to in my car constantly but they are grouped by favorites rather than albums. Which puts me in the strange position of not actually owning my two favorite albums (John Henry and Here Come the 123s) and leads to:
- I can not reliably link songs to albums. Because I don't usually listen to the albums as a whole, I frequently forget which songs are on which records. The only ones I know reliably are Flood (because I have heard it live soooooo many times) and the kids records because they are so nicely themed. Beyond that it's a crap shoot.
- I have repeatedly had to ask my boyfriend if the correct name of the song is Where Your Eyes Don't Go or Won't Go while writing recaps on the road. I never remember the answer from one time to the next.
- I do not particularly care for Particle Man, especially the recorded version.
- I actually tend to prefer the later years to the early years.
- I have an entire collection of pictures of the band's shoes. It's on Flickr. You can go check (and yes, there is a story behind it. I don't just have a thing for shoes, though I now get excited when I see one of them is wearing a new pair.)
- I joined MySpace, Live Journal and Tumblr all specifically to follow band related things.
- My boyfriend and I have created Lego version of all of the band members. It is a work in progress but we have actually gone so far as to order specific parts online for the purpose.
- I skipped most of one of my best friend's bachelorette party to go to a TMBG show.
- Not counting people I work with, I see the band more often than I see most of my friends.
- I bought two different collections of Rock music Silly Bandz so that I could represent each of the guy's guitars (I wanted the Fender and the Gibson and yes, I can tell the difference in Silly Band form).
- I will readily admit that Linnell is my favorite John personally, but I feel somewhat bad admitting that I prefer his songs almost across the board. You might note in my top 25 songs I listed a while back, there are only 2 Flansburgh tunes (plus one he wrote that Linnell sings). I am not actually ashamed of this, it just feels disloyal somehow to admit it.
- Flansburgh actually terrifies me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love him dearly, but I find him very intimidating. I fear him in the way I feared my old boss, meaning I really just fear pissing him off.
- I harbor a fierce loyalty to the members of the backing band and for a long time I would not allow myself to choose a favorite among them because it felt disloyal in the way that picking a favorite child does. I still feel this way, however.....
- (Pssst, as you may have suspected I've got kind of a thing for Danny.)
- I am actually a little disappointed if Danny doesn't smile at me at least once at every show. How's that for stupid fangirl?
- It is my dream to someday conduct fan interviews with each member of the band. This will never happen but I can dream right?
- I secretly hope that I will someday be invited out for coffee with the guys. Really, who doesn't?
- My very fondest wish would be to work for the band. I would love to be the office girl/personal assistant/gal Friday/merch queen whatever. As long as I got to go out on tour I would be happy doing anything. And if you know me at all, you know I would actually be pretty damn good at the job too. Ok, now you can laugh and tell me to keep dreaming.
- And finally, I am in love with this picture. I am not sure why but I keep going back to it again and again. This one and the one of the guys at Sasquatch which I am too lazy to go find right now. http://twitpic.com/19cirz (Sorry the formatting isn't working for me to embed it.)
That's all I can come up with for now. If I think of more I'll add them in. I do actually have one other thing that I could add but I am still hoping there is an outside chance it might happen someday and I don't want to spoil it. I promise I'll share if it ever happens.
Please feel free to laugh and tease (that's kind of the point) but only if you submit at least one confession of your own to be fair :-)
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- I always misheard the lyrics to Never Go To Work as "on Wednesdays I'm never feeling fine."
ReplyDelete- I usually sing "why do you suspiciously change the subject" wrong, substituting "consistently" or "persistently" for suspicious.
- I recently listened to the studio version of Pirate Girls Nine for the first time ever. It never occurred to me that I hadn't heard the album version because I've seen it so many times live.
- I definitely used to get The Pink Album and Lincoln confused, in the sense that you mentioned (thinking a song was from one but it's really from the other) because I don't own either album on CD, just Then.
- I don't own Here Come the ABCs, even in .mp3 form.
- I found a copy of the US version of the They'll Need A Crane vinyl EP in a record store here in Portland, and even though I already own the UK version, I had to "rescue" it from the record store.
- I forget whether it's "leave the nightlight on" or "keep the nightlight on" pretty frequently.
- I have a massive TMBG collage on my wall. It's like those collages everyone used to make in middle school with pictures cut out of magazines, except they're pictures of the Johns.
- I am obsessive about the length of Linnell's hair, and there are videos/pictures from certain Hair Eras that I can't look at because I hate his hair so much.
And possibly the weirdest one: I love pictures where you can see their wedding rings. I have absolutely no idea why, but it makes me really happy.
Hi, I like commenting on this. Apologies. I feel like a creeper!
ReplyDeleteI love that picture too! And if those are the horribly (yet endearingly) beat up Chuck Taylor All Stars in that particular picture, he wore those at my first TMBG show. I miss them. D:
And I too prefer Linnell to Flansburgh. Just recently I've started to feel bad about that.
I do not own any of their kids material. However, I know a few songs.
I don't know the words to the live-only bridge of Alphabet of Nations. However, the first time I heard "Drink!" live, I knew exactly what to do with the "drink, drink!"/"no, wait!" thing.
I have made John Linnell laugh. It is a proud, embarrassing moment. The story:
During my first show's encore, I miraculously made my way from the lawn seats to the standing room area, just feet away from Linnell. It was that moment when you realize "oh my God, my favorite band... they're REAL people standing in front of me."
My facial expression was halfway between o_o and :D. And I realized I was gawking at John Linnell and he was... it was "the stare" of Linnell-fan fame. So I looked away extremely quickly and when I looked back up, he was singing backup ("New York City!") while laughing-- still looking at me! Aaaaand I died.
The moral/secret: John Linnell has giggled at my awkwardness. I was ashamed and thrilled at the same time.
Subsequently, I had a conversation with Danny in which he mentioned that Flansburgh was rather sick at that show. I said "Awww," and as he laughed, I corrected myself: "That was not a fangirly 'aw.' That was a sympathetic 'aw.'"
Most of the time, I feel uncomfortable watching videos of younger John and John. Like the one where they're dancing with large hats to Shoehorn with Teeth. I can't finish it. It just bothers me.
I almost prefer Snail Dust to Snail Shell.
And I think that's it.
Oh my gosh, I feel the overwhelming need to respond to almost everything!!
ReplyDeleteOh man, I don't know how long this will be. XD
ReplyDelete- Birdhouse... I like it, even if it isn't among my favourites of all time, but when I first saw the video on Youtube, I might have skipped over the band entirely if I hadn't heard Ana Ng first - it really weirded me out! Same goes for Puppet Head, which is one of my favourites now.
- Also, Flood is not my favourite album. Not even close. It's all right, but it being apparently the only TMBG album present in any shop I go to has put me off it a little.
- On the other hand, The Spine is (on some days; other days it's John Henry or Lincoln).
- After deciding I wanted to familiarise myself with the band, I torrented all of the studio albums to listen to. Mind, although that's a little embarrassing whenever Flans jokes about Bittorrent in shows and interviews, I don't regret it. (I've since replaced all of those mp3s with legitimate rips, though. It's only fair, and my computers behave nicer with free formats anyway.)
- Lots of fans cringe when the band get political or otherwise opinionated. I... find it kind of hot. ♥ Though I agree with them more often than not, which is probably a factor too.
- With any photo I find online where Linnell is visible, his hair is the sole determiner of whether I save a copy or not. If his hair is sub-optimal, even if it's otherwise an amazing photo, it doesn't get in.
- When I tell RL people I find a guy in his fifties cute and they ask for pictorial evidence, I always show them a Linnell photo from the mid-late 90's. Nobody's called me out on it yet.
- TMBG are the only artists I'm really into, but I still pretend I'm qualified to generalise about lots of genres, sometimes based only on one or two TMBG songs.
- It could've been due to the size of the venue, our very visible position on the front row, plain tiredness or anything else, really, but - at my first non-kids' show, I was actually incredibly nervous. I tend to be pretty timid in crowds, and the place was packed. The feeling went away the moment the guys walked on, about 90 minutes after we went in.
- On both days so far when I've attended shows, I was jumpy for the entire day and had to force myself not to gawk at anyone with remotely the right build / hair colour, in case it turned out to be one of the guys and I made a fool of myself. It never was.
- The only TMBG autograph I own was signed upside down. What's more, it's on the Severe Tire Damage liners, but Marty didn't play on that CD - I'd meant to hand him the liners of The Spine Surfs Alone, which I had in my bag, and took out the wrong one. I treasure it anyway.
- I'm sitting on a short-but-steadily-growing list of people I follow elsewhere online who have ever mentioned TMBG. I keep wanting to add them all to the wiki's Famous Fans page, but I can't, because either they're not really famous (the page does say writers or musicians in particular) or they're not confirmed as fans. Though, even if Randall Munroe only mentioned the Dial-A-Song number in one comic, that seems pretty fannish... Argh.
- I have daydreamed about TMBG getting involved in several of my fandoms, including shows that have been cancelled or aren't American at all. I would die of squee if it were to happen for real.
- I've spent multiple evenings doing nothing but sitting in my room loudly singing along to TMBG songs to make sure I know the words.
- I have a few life goals - getting a degree, having a book published, that kind of thing. One of them would be playing in a band that does TMBG covers. (And other material, but that's not the embarrassing part...)
That's all I can think of for now, but I'll add: I completely agree with your assessment of Flans! I mean, I wouldn't like to get on the bad side of any of them, but Flans' in particular seems like it would be scary.
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ReplyDeleteWow, I was pretty surprised you can't name the album of each song! I guess I'm biased because I'm HUGE into the 'albums as a whole' thing, and before I had an iPod I used to have to bring my CD player to school with a different album every day. But I can almost name every album's tracklist in order.
ReplyDelete-Ok, this is EXTREMELY embarrassing. But I guess that's the whole point, haha. It was at my first concert, in 2006. I was 14 years old. Not only was it my first TMBG show, it was my second concert of any kind I had ever been to, and the first concert where I was anywhere close to the front. Conveniently, Linnell is more or less the first real celebrity crush I ever had, where I actually thought I was in love with him. All this combined to create a situation where as soon as They walked out on stage, I snapped and basically turned into a screaming teenager at a Beatles' show. Like, in between songs I literally screamed "ILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOU" at him. :( I'm so embarrassed now, I can hardly think about it, I hate the thought that I might have made him uncomfortable. I actually met him in 2008 and I was so worried about weirding him out I couldn't talk, in case I said the wrong thing. XD
Alright, we shall not speak of this again. XD In terms of less painful embarrassing secrets:
-Just last month I realized I had been getting Letterbox wrong, I thought it was "Too late or soon to make lots of bad love."
-I have a compound locket that's able to hold 4 pictures. They're all of Linnell. I've worn it every day for the past four years.
-I can judge fairly accurately what year a photo/video is from by the Linnell hair, and to a lesser extent, the clothes.
-I can remember and describe what outfit both Johns were wearing on TV appearances and all shows I've been to.
-When I'm in the mens' department at a store for whatever reason, I unconsciously label each article of clothing "John would wear that" or "John would NEVER wear that."
-I also daydream about shopping for him sometimes. (Wow, I never really realized I had all these weird clothing secrets. I guess I'm the sort of person who notices and thinks about everyone's clothes, so it's not super-weird in the context of my personality?)
-My most common daydream is actually that I'm in a band that warms up for TMBG, and we become friends with them. :)
-When I see pictures of the younger Johns, I just want to cuddle and pet them. Not in a creepy fangirl way, in the same way I get when I see little kids. They remind me of adorable small children, I guess.
Guys, I just have to say that reading all of these comments has made me really happy. I'm not alone in being slightly mental over this band! I feel an incredible sense of camaraderie with you all even though I've never met most of you. And I have laughed so hard at some of these confessions because I can relate to them so well. We are in very good company :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, how I adore this blog! :D
ReplyDeleteKelly, your intro made me laugh out loud. As did many of the things on the lists all of you have posted. Not in a bad way, of course, but in a way such as you described in your latest comment. I may not be as big a fan as most of you are, and I may never be, but I do love They Might Be Giants' music, members, fans, etc. very much.
I really want to see your Lego versions of the band members! :]
And the picture you posted a link to is absolutely spectacular! :D
I have a few confessions that may sound like repeats and may not seem extraordinarily FANtastic (wow, what a terrible pun) but I'm going to post them anyway. Where else could I talk about this stuff?! XD
* I, too, always misheard the lyrics to I Never Go To Work, but somehow (without bothering to look it up until just now) I rationalized that it must be "I'm ever feeling fine", because work is the last thing on his mind. Haha.
* I also favor John Linnell. The more I read that people do, the sadder I feel for Flansburgh. Not that I should, I suppose. I do love him as well, and I'm sure all of you do. But for some reason it makes me sad for him that people favor Linnell. I don't know..
I'm also kind of surprised, to be honest, as I would have assumed that, since Flansy is supposedly the "extroverted one" and seemingly a bit more receptive to fans, he would be the favorite. I don't know why. I just kind of figured it would be that way.
* I've noticed that John Linnell has what looks like a chicken pox scar in the middle of his right cheek, below his eye. I was very excited when I discovered this, because I have a chicken pox scar in almost the exact same location.
* In addition to tending to prefer the songs Linnell sings (which I don't really like to admit, for some reason), I just find him incredibly attractive. I don't know if I would have if I hadn't become fond of TMBG music first. But as it is, I think he is ridiculously good-looking. I especially think so of old pictures and videos of him. He's starting to look more his age now and therefore doesn't have as much of an attraction for me, but I can still see the features of a younger Linnell when I see current photos/videos of him, so the attraction is still there. His lovely brown eyes and beautiful hair are partly to blame, of course. I agree with Megan on what she said about his hair, though perhaps to a lesser extent. His hair is what draws me in most. I find him almost unattractive in the videos for The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) and The Statue Got Me High. (So Apollo 18-era hair, I suppose). I find him most scrumptious in the video for "They'll Need A Crane". But another thing I find physically attractive about Linnell that I don't hear a lot of people mention is his mouth. For some reason, I love his lips, his teeth, and the way his mouth moves when he speaks or sings. I don't know why, but when he sings "whistles and bells" in the Birdhouse video: oy. I also find it refreshing and somehow endearing that he enunciates so well in songs.
* I cannot believe how much I've typed about John Linnell's attractiveness. I'm not generally easily embarrassed by goofy, harmless things, but this is quite embarrassing. I'm leaving it, though. What's the point in erasing thoughts? But it is a bit creepy. I hope I don't come off as too insane. I need to find "real" people to be attracted to. Sheesh.
(I actually had to split up my comment because it was too long. How pathetic is that? Sorry..)
ReplyDelete* At the one concert I have attended, I excitedly danced to several songs, attempting to mimic the dances in their music videos, but probably doing so quite poorly. When the chorus to Ana Ng began, I was so excited that I nearly fell over while doing the dance, and I felt VERY self-conscious and simultaneously ecstatic about the whole thing. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot, but I had fun!
* I've had two dreams about the band. I once had a dream that the Johns and I were in my bathroom attempting to make a black and white movie. ?! Haha.
More recently, I dreamt that there was a They Might Be Giants concert being held in my backyard, with only 20 to 30 people in attendance. But I missed most of the show because I kept going inside to try and find a big t-shirt. ?!
* I once went into a GAP outlet and tried on a turtleneck solely to pretend I was John Linnell. I almost bought it (it was only three dollars), but decided I was pathetic.
* Even though I'm no writer, I find it fun to write down things that come into my head and try to make something that resembles songs out of the words. I would love to have the Johns write a melody for one of my ridiculous brain-vomits. I'm fascinated by the fact that they are able to come up with so many unique and interesting melodies.
* I have an 8 by 10 framed collage memento of my first (and, so far, only) TMBG show. It's sitting on my chest of drawers.
* I printed out pictures of William Allen White's face and "made" a pair of Birdhouse glasses out of some old sunglasses. They aren't nearly as fancy as Flansy's creations, of course, but they're fun to wear. (Until I run into something, of course. Tiny eyeholes plus tinted lenses equals the inability to see well, obviously.)
* I have at least four photoshopped pictures I've created of myself with the Johns. Creepy, I know (not to mention the hardly-convincing editing), but I find it to be such an amusing pastime. X}
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30388345&l=ec7ef78cfc&id=1199070051
* I, too, would love to just hang out with them in any scenario. If it were for coffee, I would just bask in the glow of their majestic presences and sit there breathing in my coffee (as I love the smell but not the taste).
* I'm very interested in their pasts and childhoods and families. I haven't heard much about any of that, and would like to know more.
* I think everything I just typed makes me sound far more insane than I usually sound.
I once attempted to rig Spin The Dial with an MP3 player connected to an FM transmitter. At a show at Irving Plaza, I was prepared to broadcast the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" when Flansburgh went to the radio, which was in fact set up for the show. However, They didn't use it. Dang!
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