Stage Announcements - 7/9/10

I am drastically behind on this entry but I hope you will forgive me as I come bearing a fresh, shiny new interview.

For your listening pleasure, I direct you to the full, unedited interview that the Johns did for Iain Lee's radio program on Absolute Radio in London a few weeks back. It's a really entertaining interview that feels more like a fun conversation than an official "I ask you a question, then you answer" sort of deal. Only parts of the interview were included on air so I am pointing you toward the podcast version that includes the whole thing.  You can listen streaming or download it and enjoy it forever from the Absolute Radio website.

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/podcasts/Iain-Lee-s-Best-Bits/2010-07-07/


Also, the advantage of posting this so late is that I get to wish a very Happy Birthday to the King of the Drums, Mr. Marty Beller! Here's wishing him a fantastic birthday, lots of cake and another fantastic year of wrecking his best shit. You rock, Marty!

In honor of Marty's birthday, please enjoy this episode of Studio 360 from last year, particularly the segment called Watch What You Say, where Marty talks about The List. I would just like to personally thank Marty for pointing out to the world what a completely pointless phrase "it is what it is" actually is. My co-workers use it all the time and it drives me CRAZY.

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/07/17

And in other Marty related news, I just discovered something while I was writing this entry that made me so excited I nearly screamed out loud and actually ran over the top of my bed to get my phone so I could text my boyfriend. As you have probably heard, Flansburgh is producing Jonathan Coulton's next album. If you have been reading this blog for long enough you will know that I am also a huge Jonathan Coulton fan so this made me very happy. It made me even more happy when JoCo announced that he would be doing 2 shows in Massachusetts in July to preview some of the new material. I purchased tickets to both, pretty much immediately. JoCo also mentioned that he would be bringing a band with him to those shows and I was kind of hoping, given Flansburgh's involvement, that that band would include some familiar faces. Well, I just nearly caused reckless injury to myself when I found out that Marty is, in fact, playing with JoCo at those shows. This news pretty much made my month. And I thought I was looking forward to these shows before!

Finally, I shall leave you with two of the videos Flans posted this week. You've seen them already but humor me and watch them again. Celebrate Marty's birthday with the first one but delete everything he says. And then wonder at how bizarre and yet strangely informative the second one is.

There's A Picture Opposite Me - 7/7/10

I apologize, this picture isn't the greatest because I was in a hurry. As suggested, I'm not going to post the lyric now. I'll let people guess for a bit then add it later.

Dont't forget to send me your submissions at theroommustlistentome@gmail.com




"There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left. I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10? Why do you suspiciously interupt me and break my concentration, as I dump the bottle out and I count the Advil up again." Till My Head Falls Off - They Might Be Giants

I Wont Grow Up

Hello, hello from the land of "holy crap, I didn't know the thermometer in my car went that high" and "darn, I would have had a really great view of the fireworks from my apartment if there weren't a ruddy great tree in the way."

As suggested by Jaime, I am working on a list of favorite interview quotes for an Audience Participation entry. However, that is a topic that needs more time and research than I have had this weekend so I am going to save that one for a future date. I am warning you so that you too may start hunting down all your favorites (though you lot are probably more organized than me and have them bookmarked.)

In the meantime....

I was reading someone called DB Telford's recap of TMBG's London shows last weekend (which can be found here if you are interested: http://www.musicomh.com/music/gigs/they-might-be-giants_0610.htm) and was struck by his closing line. "They Might Be Giants are here to remind us all that while we indeed get older by the second, we are in no way required to grow up."

I think that sums up things beautifully and I am taking it to heart in today's Audience Participation topic: 15 Favorite TMBG Songs for Kids (and Grown-Ups Too). We may be adults but that doesn't mean we don't love the children's albums as much as the average five year old! I was going to just do ten songs until I realized how many of those would just be recycled from my 25 TMBG Songs You Can't Live Without List and decided I needed to expand (which probably says something about my musical taste).

And to put you in the proper mood, here is your host and sponsor for this list: BROOM!





15. Impossible - What exactly is an octoflange anyway?

14. How Many Planets? - This is kind of making it onto the list because I love the video and kind of because I love the way Linnell says Uranus.

13. 813 Mile Car Trip - Story of my life with this band....

12. Violin - I realized my boyfriend and I quote this song too much for it not to be here though we probably do talk about hippos more than most people.

11. Sleepwalkers - This one is just really pretty. But it always makes me think of the old Rick Charette song Where Do My Sneakers Go At Night?

10. Can You Find It? - I actually think this song is really clever and I bet it is the only song for children that uses the word "aforementioned."

9. Clap Your Hands - I know this one has some haters in the group. I'm sorry. I just love it. I can't help it. *jump, jump, jump*

8. One Everything - Deep philosophical concepts. Seriously.

7. Seven - We want cake, Where's our cake?!

5. Alphabet Lost and Found - Song = so much fun, especially if Marty is dancing.

5. Alphabet of Nations - No, that's not typo, these songs really are tied. I can not choose between them. Especially when you add in the live versions and they become that much more awesome.

4. Meet the Elements - It Might Be Pizza. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (that is me doing Dan's back-up part in case you can't tell).

3. Where Do They Make Balloons? - We still don't know the answer but I know I love the song.

2. I Am A Paleontologist - Yes, I did just put two of Danny's songs in my top 5. Deal with it. I've loved this song since the first time it was played. I dance like the little dancing dinosaur when I hear this song.

1. Nine Bowls of Soup - This is the song that made me fall in love with the band. No joke.


Now to make up for the fact that I didn't actually include Broom's song on this list, please enjoy this video of him singing it while you compile your lists.

Discounted Prints

Joe Papeo, the photographer who took that wonderful set of pictures at The Stone Pony that I linked to yesterday, has been kind enough to offer my readers a 20% discount on prints of those pictures.

So if you'd like one of those lovely shots to hang on your wall, visit his website and order yourself a print in a variety of sizes. When you checkout, use the code july20ff to get the discount. 


Personally, I think I will be going for photo number 12. I love that picture of Flans :-)


Here is his website again in case you missed it: http://www.joepapeo.com/p735569965

Go get yourself a beautiful photo and support a great photographer :-)

Stage Announcements - 7/2

Small amounts of news to report this week and it is mostly related to the band's gigs in the UK last weekend.

For lack of more newsworthy things to send you to look at, I am going to send you off to go look at all the wonderful pictures that came out of these shows. They are all copyrighted to their owners, so be kind. Look, don't touch.

From Saturday:

There are these by Flickr user Coraline73:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34526827@N07/sets/72157624244929095/

And from Sunday:

This Flickr set from user tepidmunroe who was, I believe, one of the orchestrators of the Cambridge show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tepidmunroe/sets/72157624370734778/

And this one from user StrayToaster. I love the picture of Marty and Flans during High Five:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/straytoaster/sets/72157624244686341/

Also, if you haven't yet, you can still listen to TMBG on Jonathan Ross's radio program, but you have to hurry because it'll only be up for one more day:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00svvbn

You can also listen to the Johns being interviewed on the UK radio program, The Strand. When asked what they plan to tackle next Linnell replies: "We're thinking about making a record for dead people next. That's the demographic we have not touched yet."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0088v3n#p008mh95

The guys were also on Robert Elms radio show, but by this time you read this it wont be available to listen to anymore so I wont bother trying to link.

As I mentioned last week, TMBG also did an interview with Iain Lee while they were in London, for his radio show and podcast. He said on a forum that they were hoping to air it this week but it doesn't look like that happened. I'll keep and eye out for when it does air and post the link.

Unless this blog is your only source of TMBG news  (haha, as if), you probably already know that They Might Be Giants featured in the Final Jeopardy question on last Friday's episode of Jeopardy. I can not tell you how many of my co-workers mentioned this to me. I missed it since I was working but fortunately it is on YouTube. I can't believe none of the contestants got the answer. That noise you heard was thousands of geeks screaming at their televisions sets.





And I shall leave you with a short trip back in time to look at these pictures from the June 11th Stone Pony show taken by photographer Joe Papeo. Really great use of lighting in these and some excellent shots of Flans.
http://www.joepapeo.com/p735569965

That's all until next week. Happy Fourth of July everyone! Now go enjoy some fireworks :-)

There's A Picture Opposite Me - 6/30/10

This photo project now has a name. I'm not sure I am 100% satisfied with it but there it is.

If you are just joining us and don't know what's going on please read this previous entry: Announcing The New, Improved...

And don't forget to send your submissions to me at theroommustlistentome@gmail.com


Today's entry is from Megan.

Rhythm Section Want Ad, They Might Be Giants

Wow, That's Obscure!

For today's Audience Participation we are going to dig deep into the back catalog. The deeper the better really.

The theme is Top 10 "Obscure" TMBG Tracks. You can of course pick out a different number if you want but the point is to pick out your favorite lesser known tracks. The definition of obscure in this case may be a little relative since many of us here are the sort of uber-fans to whom no track is too obscure to be familiar with. You can pick from EPs, bonus tracks, Unlimited, Dial-A-Song, Venue Songs, podcasts, McSweeney's, demos, Clock Radio, soundtracks, pretty much anything except the studio recordings. With any luck we'll expose each other to some long forgotten tracks and probably drive a few people mad, gushing about our favorite track that actually isn't available anywhere anymore.

If my list is lacking in the truly obscure it's because I came into the fandom too late and have not yet tracked down some of the really hard to find stuff. I've listed where I got the songs from though many of them are available (or were) in other places as well.

Ready? Here goes....


10. Too Cool Girls - TMBG Unlimited - I really wanted to get an instrumental onto this list but had a really hard time choosing. This is my favorite at the moment. Sounds like a swing band.

9. Love Is Eternity - Venue Songs CD - The line "Remember love's a verb" is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard and one of my all time favorite lyrics.

8. Mrs. Train - Back to Skull EP - I love how this song actually sounds like a train. No, I mean I really LOVE it.

7. Leeds - Venue Songs CD - I could have filled this entire list with venue songs but I went for my favorite of the not quite so well know ones. Being a bit of a fan of The Who, this one appeals to me.

6. Miniature Sidewalk Whirlwind - tmbg.com - A funny, silly song that makes me smile. Come on, you know you've been there.

5. I'm Your Boyfriend Now - Cast Your Pod to the Wind - This song goes onto my great collection of stalker songs I am someday going to make (along with Every Breath You Take by The Police). For now I will continue to sympathize with the poor delusional main character.

4. Other Father Song - Love the movie, love the song. I even have a Coraline lunchbox! For a tiny little song this has the most wonderful piano part. I could listen to it over and over (and have!)

3. Renew My Subscription - Venue Songs CD - Just a wonderful song. So perfectly Linnellian.

2. Sensurround - S-E-X-X-Y EP - This song rocks. End of story.

1.Am I Awake? - Indestructible Object - This song perfectly describes how I feel every Monday after I've gotten home from work at 11:30 the previous night and have to get up again at 5:45 the next morning to go back again. Also the "is it that time again" lyric reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in Spaceballs. You know the one I mean.


There we go. Now remind me of all the fantastic things I forgot.