#12 - Stripes, Plaids And Geeky T-Shirts

There is something incredibly appealing about the fact that, right down to their wardrobe, the band never tries to be more than what they are on stage. They don't have costumes or some other gimmick to help them get into character. They just walk on stage wearing the same jeans and t-shirt they put on when they got up in the morning. Grounded and comfortable.

On the other hand, the guys are so consistent in their fashion choices, I suppose they might as well be costumes of a sort. One of my friends had the idea to make a list of "You Know You've Been To Just Enough TMBG Shows When..." things (because there is no such thing as too many) and having one of them be "you can name three items of clothing worn by each band member on a regular basis." Personally, I find this aspect of going to shows very comforting. This probably sounds creepy though I don't mean it to be, but I enjoy having that moment at the start of a show when I think, "Oh good, Linnell is wearing the red and navy baseball shirt again. I like that one." I think most fans can identify with the pleasure of seeing them in the same piece of clothing they wore at their first show or their favorite show or their last show or whatever, even if it's just while looking at pictures.



Flans can usually be counted to to wear either a polo or a button-up of some sort, frequently in plaid. And then there are those cardigans, which is just about the least glamourous thing one could wear at a rock concert and yet they suit him to a tea. And I think I can count on one hand the number of shows in the last two years at which Flans has not worn those green sneakers with the orange stripes.



Linnell goes even more basic, nine times out of ten, sporting a plain or striped T-shirt. We make jokes about him having an entire closet full of that red and black striped one. I remember being amused at one he was wearing at a show last spring which he had obviously worn so often while playing that the bottom of the accordion strap had rubbed a hole in it.



And then there is the whole array of wonderful T-shirts I've seen them all sport. From Linnell's caffeine molecule one, to the one Curt had on at The Stone Pony with the question mark with the world as the dot. I love fun T-shirts. In fact, one of my biggest resentments is that I can't wear gloriously geeky tees to work every day. A few of the others that I enjoy are Danny's Sapphire Bullets shirt (am I correct in thinking that one is fan-made? Does anyone know?) and his OK Go one (because I love OK Go and it's the one with the OK Go logo that reminds me of the TMBG logo I have branded myself with). Also Marty's red tee with the floating water tanks on it. If anyone can explain that one to me, please do, because I've been trying to determine the significance for ages.









Also, though I haven't seen it in quite a while, if we are discussing endearing clothing choices, special mention needs to be made of Dan's grey knit hat. It's adorable. (Psst, you know the Lego versions of the band I mentioned in my Fan Confessions? Lego Dan is wearing that hat.)



Thus concludes my mini-ode to the band's wardrobe. That could have been so much more fangirlish than it was.

P.S. Before you cry foul, a whole separate entry shall be devoted to the red pants.

Don't Know Where I Got The Inspiration Or How I Wrote The Words

There is a reason I've been avoiding doing a favorite lyrics list for so long. I am horrible at choosing lyrics. There are so many songs that I just love as a whole. I have picked out a batch of ones I know I love, to share with you but there are certainly others. They aren't in any particular order by favorite (actually they are chronological). There are songs I adore that don't have a lyric on here because there wasn't one line that stood out over the others. And I will most likely think of 20 more lines I love as soon as I post this.

"The words I'm singing now mean nothing more than "meow" to an animal." - Don't Let's Start

"D, world destruction, Over an overture, N, do I need apostrophe, T, need this torture? - Don't Let's Start

"And the truth is we don't know anything" - Ana Ng

"If it wasn't for disappointment, I wouldn't have any appointments" - Snowball in Hell

"I could never sleep my way to the top 'cause me alarm clock always wakes me right up." - Hey Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal

"Bluebird of friendliness, like guardian angels it's always near" - Birdhouse in Your Soul

"Too late or soon to make noise about love and there's no time for sorrow. Run around in the rain with a hole in the brain till tomorrow." - Letterbox

"There's only one thing that I know how to do well and I've often been told that you only can do what you know how to do well, and that's be you. Be what you're like. Be like yourself." - Whistling in the Dark

"He drops his car keys, and crawls on the ground. Finds her old hair comb she'd wear into town. Can't bear to keep it or throw it away. Gets back down on his knees, puts it back where it lay. Back where it lay." - I Blame You

"The bells are ringing, the song they're singing, the sound is bringing the people round. They hear the instructions. They follow directions. They travel great distances to the sound." - The Bells Are Ringing

"They revamped the airport completely. Now it looks just like a nightclub. Everyone's excited and confused." - Man, It's So Loud In Here

"You could be a float for the Fourth of July based on your theme of "Wildflowers Grown Wild." - Drink!

"Hungary isn't hungry and french fries aren't from France. Turkeys aren't from Turkey. They can't fly but they can dance." - Where Do They Make Balloons?

"Is it that time again? Wasn't it already then? So does it have to be the time it was again?" - Am I Awake?

"If you and I had any brains we wouldn't be in this place." - Museum of Idiots

"I'm not much of a natural dancer but I know a girl who's a natural dancer. You could call her a jumping bean. She's got ants in her pants and she's gonna dance." - Damn Good Times

"I was all out of juice, like a moose, like a moose denied." - Stalk of Wheat

"Missing vowels to the left, please. I-N-G, anybody lose an ING? More than two syllables to the emergency room." - Alphabet Lost and Found

"The deep end, the deep end. People talk a lot but they don't know. They pretend. They pretend. They don't really know how deep it goes." - Climbing the Walls

"Hey man, I thought that you were dead. I thought you crashed your car. No, man, I've been right here this whole time playing bass guitar." - The Mesopotamians

"A cell knows what it has to do, to grow into a moss or a shrew, algae or a kangaroo, bug or a sunflower, Dwight David Eisenhower, a frog, a fish or you." - Cells

Also, every single last solitary word of Nine Bowls of Soup. I decided not to pick a line because I'd just end up typing the whole song.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot the lyric that I probably mention loving most often.
"Remember love's a verb" from Love is Eternity. That's a piece of advice we should all heed.

I think when it comes down to it Nine Bowls of Soup, Birdhouse, Don't Let's Start and Man, It's So Loud in Here contain my highest percentage of favorite lyrics. Guess that makes sense since they are all in my top 10.

#13 - The Puppet Johns

"I've got a mustache."

"But I've got...googles."

                                                                                                                                    

"Hey John, what's your favorite animal?"

"Groundhogs."

"Really?"

"Well, thats what it says here."

                                                                                                                                   


"What band were you in?"

"I was in Hot Tuna."

"Oh right, I thought so."

                                                                                                                                   


You've probably realized by now I like the goofy kid stuff. And of all the goofy kid things I think I love the Puppet Johns most of all. The Friday Night Video Podcasts were one of the few pieces of TMBG output that I got to experience as they happened, being a late comer to the TMBG fan club. And I am oh, so fond of them. The silly jokes, the goofy costumes, and the occasional bits of humor that are clearly meant for the adults in the audience. Perhaps most appealing, the puppets are really just miniaturized, knitted versions of John and John, not just in appearance but in personality. They often riff off each other in the same fashion the Johns do on stage. I admit, I was quite disappointed when the puppets didn't appear on the Here Comes Science DVD. I hope we haven't seen the last of them.

Here is one of my favorite episodes of the Podcast.





Incidentally, I was re-watching the Podcasts in preparation for this entry and it occurred to me to wonder about the music playing in the background while the puppets are performing. It seems to be primarily guitar and keyboard. I wonder if the Johns recorded it separately themselves and then laid it on as a track, or if Dan Miller is hanging around in the studio while they record, providing background music? I suppose someone has to be directing, right? Hmmmm. Something to ponder.

Also, was anyone else as shocked as I was to realize how large those puppets are when you first saw the picture of the Johns holding them? They are huge compared to the little hand puppets I always pictured.

#14 - Higher Education

If it weren't for TMBG, I would never remember that James K. Polk was our 11th president. I wouldn't have a clue who James Ensor was. I would not know what causes the nuclear reactions on the sun, or that an echidna was a mammal or that marmalade originated in Scotland (or at least one particular kind did). I would probably still be confused about the difference between speed and velocity and I wouldn't remember nearly as much about the blood cycle as I do. And I most definitely would not immediately think Constantinople when ever I shelf a travel guide to Istanbul at work.

As someone who relies heavily on popular culture for a significant amount of the knowledge I have retained, I am eternally grateful to TMBG for furthering my education and providing me with catchy tunes to help me remember facts that will, hopefully, someday help me win Jeopardy. Or at the very least a game of Trivial Pursuit.

#15 - Melody, Fidelity, Quantity

Ok, so I am really just using that as a handy title that uses melody which is what I am focusing on. (Not to say I don't appreciate the other two as well.)

When it comes to music I tend to be more lyrics and vocal focused, but of course lyrics are just a poem without a good melody (and oddly, I don't tend to like poetry). Sometimes there are melodies or a particular riff that just reach out of a song and grab me. This happens to me more often with TMBG than with any other artist I listen to, partly because I take more care and pay more attention when listening to their music than with most other performers and partly because they have a knack for writing really catchy, pretty, ear grabbing melodies. I also find they do an excellent job layering in the parts of the various instruments to create a whole piece of music, particularly on the later albums with the live band.

Having finally acquired my own copy of The Else recently (rather than coping off my boyfriend's) I've been listening to that in the car a lot and realizing what an incredible album it is musically. I think I discounted it too much at first because not enough of the lyrics grabbed me but I am coming to realize that it's the music and instrumentation that get me on that record. The bass on Take Out the Trash, pretty much everything on With the Dark. And I will say it again. The keyboard part of Withered Hope is probably my all time favorite musical phrase.

One of my favorite things to do at a show these days, when I am listening to a song i have heard a billion times before, is to focus in on one instrument's part and listen to it all the way through. I find this rather eye opening for me as I suddenly discover a really interesting rhythm guitar line in something or a particularly complex bass line that I never noticed before because the music blends together so well.

I seem to have these "Ah-Ha" moments a lot. I was listening to something in the car the other day, I think it might have been My Man, and suddenly realized that it was a really pretty song and I had never noticed.

I keep meaning to make a mix collection of all the TMBG instrumentals. I can't think of any other rock band that has produced so many lovely little instrumentals, partly a product of doing incidental music I'm sure, but also, I think, just out of a love of melody. I'm waiting for the TMBG symphony.

Some of my other favorite melodies: Road Movie to Berlin, Self Called Nowhere, Dig My Grave, We Live in a Dump, Someone Keeps Moving My Chair, Apartment Four, 813 Mile Car Trip, Electric Car, Subliminal (duh), AKA Driver, Museum of Idiots,  End of the Tour, Bangs, Man, It's So Loud in Here, Fibber Island, Sleepwalkers, Damn Good Times, Ana Ng, She's an Angel, I've Got A Match, They'll Need a Crane, Don't Let's Start and The Famous Polka.

#16 - Unusual Instruments

When it comes to atypical instruments in rock music, it's more a question of what haven't They used than what they have. Flex-a-tone, Marxaphone, rauschpfeife, euphonium, clarinet, glockenspiel, stylophone, Kaoss Pad, musical saw, harpsichord, melodica, piccolo, gong, whip, harmonica, mandolin, kazoo, cowbell, ukulele, autoharp, celesta, banjo, and possibly my very favorite of all these The Stick. I'm sure there are countless others. I really enjoy that all of these things are used out of a desire to include things that sound cool and find the sound that works best in the song, rather than as just a gimmick. And all these unusual instruments are just one of the many things that makes the band so unique.

I wish I had a picture of Flans with The Stick or Linnell playing cowbell to share but I didn't have my camera with me at the show that included both. So you will have to settle for this stylophone picture.




More Cowbell!!!

Stage Announcements - 8/27/2010

All reports seem to indicate that the band had an excellent trip to the West Coast last weekend.

There is a review of the Napa show with a few pictures here:

http://spinningplatters.com/2010/08/23/show-review-they-might-be-giants-with-oona-at-the-napa-uptown-8212010/

There are pictures from Stern Grove from Flickr user michaelz1 here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelz1/sets/72157624799031290/

And check out this cute story about an awesome marriage proposal the band helped to orchestrate. I would like this to be me someday.

http://missionmission.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/they-might-be-giants-facilitate-epic-marriage-proposal-at-stern-grove-concert/

And it case you missed it (and I doubt anyone did since they already have 6,533 followers), They Might Be Giants now have a Twitter account. You can follow them here: http://twitter.com/tmbg