They Might Be Giants (
TMBG) is a
double
Grammy Award-winning
American alternative rock band which began as a duo
of
John Flansburgh and
John Linnell, and currently also includes
Marty Beller,
Dan Miller, and
Danny Weinkauf. Formed in
1982, they are best known for an
unconventional and experimental style of
alternative music. The group has found
success on the
modern rock and
CMJ charts, in the
children's music genre, and in
theme music for several
television programs and
films.
TMBG's best-known songs include "
Birdhouse in Your Soul" and
their
cover version of "
Istanbul " (both from the 1990
album,
Flood), "
Don't Let's Start" (from 1986's
They Might Be
Giants), and "
Ana Ng" (from 1988's
Lincoln). Their appearances
on the television show
Tiny
Toon Adventures also brought attention to their songs
"
Particle Man" and "Istanbul". Their
song "
Doctor Worm" was a surprise hit in
Australia, ranking 13th in the
Triple J Hottest 100 for the year 1998.
Two TMBG albums have been
certified gold:
Flood
and the 2005 children's music album
Here Come the ABCs.
Flood
has also been certified platinum.
Their song "
Boss of Me" served as the
theme to the
Fox Television
Network comedy series
Malcolm in the Middle and earned
them a
Grammy Award in 2002. They have also contributed theme songs to
Comedy Central's The Daily Show,
The Oblongs,
adult
swim's
The Drinky Crow
Show,
Disney Channel's
Mickey Mouse
Clubhouse and
Higglytown
Heroes, along with a commercial for
Cartoon Network's shows
Dexter's Laboratory and
Courage the Cowardly
Dog.
The band was the subject of the 2003
documentary film Gigantic , directed by
AJ Schnack. The band has sold over 4
million records in total.
History
Linnell
and Flansburgh (often nicknamed "the two Johns" or "John and John")
first met as teenagers growing up in Lincoln,
Massachusetts
. They began writing songs together while
attending Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High
School
but didn't officially form a band.
The two
attended separate colleges after high school (Flansburgh attended
Pratt
Institute
), and
Linnell joined The Mundanes, a New Wave group from Rhode Island
. The two reunited in 1981 after moving to
Brooklyn
(to the same
apartment building on the same day) to continue their
career.
Then: The Earlier Years (1982–1989)
Taking
their name from the 1971 movie They Might Be Giants, the
duo began performing their own music in and around New York City
— Flansburgh on guitar,
Linnell on accordion and saxophone, and accompanied by a drum machine and/or a prerecorded backing track
on audio cassette. Their
atypical instrumentation, along with their songs which featured
unusual subject matter and clever wordplay, soon attracted a strong
local following. Their performances also featured absurdly comical
stage props such as oversized
fezzes
and large cardboard cutout heads of newspaper editor
William Allen White. Many of these props
would later turn up in their first music videos.
At one point, Linnell broke his wrist in a biking accident and
Flansburgh's apartment was burgled, forcing them to take a break
from performing. During this hiatus, they began recording their
songs onto an
answering machine,
and then advertising the phone number in local newspapers such as
The Village Voice, using
the moniker "
Dial-A-Song". They also
released a demo cassette, which earned them a review in
People magazine. The
review caught the attention of
Bar/None
Records, who signed They Might Be Giants to a recording
deal.
The duo released their
self-titled debut album in
1986, which became a college radio hit.
The video for "Don't
Let's Start", filmed in the New York State Pavilion
built for the 1964 New York World's Fair in
Queens
, became a hit on MTV, earning
them a broader following. In 1988, they released their
second album,
Lincoln,
named after the duo's hometown. It featured the song "Ana Ng" which
reached #11 on the US Modern Rock chart.
Move to Elektra (1990–1992)
In 1989, They Might Be Giants signed with
Elektra Records, and released their third
album
Flood the following
year.
Flood earned them a gold album, largely thanks to
the success of "Birdhouse in Your Soul" which reached number three
on the US Modern Rock chart, as well as "
Istanbul ".
In 1990,
Throttle magazine interviewed They Might Be
Giants and clarified the meaning of the song "Ana Ng": John
Flansburgh said, "Ng is a Vietnamese name. The song is about
someone who's thinking about a person on the exact opposite side of
the world. John looked at a globe and figured out that if Ana Ng is
in Vietnam and the person is on the other side of the world, then
it must be written by someone in Peru." (Derek Thomas,
Throttle, August 1990.)
Further interest in the band was generated when two cartoon music
videos were created by
Warner Bros. for
Tiny Toon Adventures:
"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and "Particle Man". The videos
reflected TMBG's high "kid appeal", resulting from their often
absurd songs and poppy melodies.
In 1991, Bar/None Records released the B-sides compilation
Miscellaneous T. The title
referred to the section of the record store where TMBG releases
were often found as well as to the overall eclectic nature of the
tracks. Though consisting of previously released material (save for
the "Purple Toupee"
b-sides, which
were not available publicly), it gave new fans a chance to hear the
Johns' earlier non-album work without having to hunt down the
individual EPs.
In early 1992, They Might Be Giants released
Apollo 18. The heavy space theme
coincided with TMBG being named Musical Ambassadors for
International Space Year. Singles
from the album included "
The
Statue Got Me High", "
The Guitar ", "I
Palindrome I", and "My Evil Twin".
Apollo 18 was also
notable for being one of the first albums to take advantage of the
CD player's shuffle feature. The song "Fingertips" actually
comprised 21 separate tracks — short snippets that not only acted
together to make the song, but that when played in
random order would be interspersed between the
album's full-length songs. Due to mastering errors, the UK and
Australian versions of
Apollo 18 contained "Fingertips" as
one track.
Recruiting a band (1992–1998)
Following
Apollo 18, Flansburgh and Linnell decided to
move away from the guitar & accordion (or sax) plus backing
tracks on tape nature of their live show, and recruited a
supporting band that consisted of live musicians (
Kurt Hoffman of the
Ordinaires on reeds and keyboards, longtime
Pere Ubu bassist
Tony Maimone and drummer
Jonathan Feinberg).
John Henry was released
in 1994. Influenced by their more conventional lineup, this album
marked a departure from their previous releases with more of a
guitar-heavy sound. It was released to mixed reviews amongst fans
and critics alike.
Their next album,
Factory
Showroom, was released in 1996 to little fanfare. The band
had moved away from the feel of
John Henry, and
Factory Showroom includes the more diverse sounds of their
earlier albums, despite the inclusion of two guitarists, the second
being
Eric Schermerhorn who
provided several guitar solos.
They left Elektra after the duo refused to do a publicity show,
amongst other exposure-related disputes.
In 1998, they released a mostly-live album
Severe Tire Damage from
which came the single "
Doctor Worm," a
studio recording.
Beyond Elektra (1999–2003)
For most of their career, TMBG have made innovative use of the
Internet. As early as 1992, the band was sending news updates to
their fans via Usenet newsgroups. In 1999, They Might Be Giants
became the first major label recording artist to release an entire
album exclusively in
mp3 format. The album,
Long Tall Weekend. is
sold through
Emusic.
Also in 1999, the band contributed the song "Dr. Evil" to the
motion picture
Austin Powers: The Spy Who
Shagged Me. Over their career, the band has performed on
numerous movie and television soundtracks, including
The Oblongs, the
ABC
News miniseries
Brave New World and
Ed
and His Dead Mother. They also performed the theme music "Dog
on Fire", composed by
Bob Mould, for
The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart. More recently, they composed and performed the
music for the
TLC series
Resident
Life, the theme song for the
Disney
Channel program
Higglytown
Heroes, and a song about the cartoon
Courage the Cowardly
Dog.
During this time the band also worked on a project for
McSweeney's, a publishing company and literary
journal. The band wrote a McSweeney's theme song and forty-four
songs for an album that was meant to be listened to with the
journal, with each track corresponding to a particular story or
piece of artwork. Labeled
They Might Be Giants vs.
McSweeney's, the disk appears in issue #6 of
Timothy McSweeney's
Quarterly Concern.
Contributing the single "Boss of Me" as the theme song to the hit
television series
Malcolm in
the Middle, as well as to the show's
compilation CD, brought a
new audience to the band. Not only did the band contribute the
theme, songs from all of the Giants' previous albums were used on
the show: for example, the infamous
punching-the-kid-in-the-wheelchair scene from the first episode was
done to the strains of "Pencil Rain" from
Lincoln. Another
song to feature in the series was "Spiraling Shape". "Boss of Me"
became the band's second top-40 hit in the UK which they performed
on long running UK television programme
Top Of The Pops, and in
2002, won the duo a
Grammy Award.
On September 11, 2001, they released the album
Mink Car on
Restless Records. It was their first full
album release of new studio material since 1996, and their first
since parting ways with Elektra.
The making of that album, including a
record signing event at a Manhattan
Tower Records, was
included in a documentary directed by AJ
Schnack titled Gigantic . The
film, released in 2003, won rave reviews and several awards, and
was featured in dozens of film festivals. The film was released on
DVD in 2003.
In 2002 they released their first album "for the entire family",
No! Using the
enhanced CD format, it included an interactive
animation for most of the songs. They followed it up in 2003 with
their first book, an illustrated children's book with an included
EP,
Bed, Bed, Bed.
Recent activity (2004–present)
In 2004, the band created one of the first artist-owned online
music stores, at which customers could purchase and download MP3
copies of their music, both new releases and many previously
released albums. By creating their own store, the band could keep
money that would otherwise go to record companies. (
TMBG MP3
Music Store)
Also in 2004, the band released their first new "adult" rock work
in three years, the EP
Indestructible Object. They
followed that up with a new album,
The
Spine, and an associated EP,
The Spine Surfs Alone. For the
album's first single, "
Experimental Film", TMBG teamed up
with
Homestar Runner creators
Matt and Mike Chapman to create
an animated music video. The band's collaboration with the Brothers
Chaps also included several Puppet Jam segments with puppet
Homestar, and the music for a Strong Bad email entitled "Different
Town." More recently they recorded a track for the 200th
Strong Bad e-mail, where Linnell provided the
voice of The Poopsmith.
On May 10, 2004, they made a guest star appearance on episode 140
of
Blue's Clues called
"Bluestock" alongside several other stars, such as
Toni Braxton,
Macy
Gray, and
India Arie. They Might Be
Giants were in a letter for Joe and Blue.
Drummer Dan Hickey left the band around this timeframe and was
subsequently replaced by
Marty Beller,
who had already played with TMBG for kids' shows and other
projects.
TMBG also contributed a track to the 2004
Future Soundtrack For
America compilation, a project compiled by John Flansburgh
with the help of
Spike Jonze and
Barsuk Records. The band contributed
"
Tippecanoe and Tyler Too",
a political campaign song from the
presidential election of
1840. The compilation was released by
Barsuk and featured indie, alternative, and
high-profile acts such as
Death Cab
for Cutie,
The Flaming Lips,
and
Bright Eyes. All proceeds
went to progressive organizations such as
Music for America and
MoveOn.org .
Flansburgh and Linnell made a guest appearance in "
Camp", the
January 11, 2004 episode of the animated
sitcom Home Movies. They voice
both a pair of camp counselors and members of a strange hooded male
bonding cult.
Following the
Spine on the Hiway Tour of 2004, the band
announced that they would take an extended hiatus from touring to
focus on other projects, such as a musical produced by Flansburgh
and written by his wife,
Robin "Goldie"
Goldwasser, titled
People Are
Wrong!.
2005 saw the release of
Here Come
the ABCs, TMBG's follow-up to the successful children's
album
No!. The Disney Sound label released the CD and DVD
separately on February 15, 2005. To promote the album, Flansburgh
and Linnell along with drummer Marty Beller embarked on a short
tour, performing for free at many
Borders
Bookstore locations. In November 2005,
Venue Songs was released as a two-disc
CD/DVD set narrated by
John Hodgman. It
is a
concept album based on all of the
"venue songs" from their 2004 tour.
TMBG
cover the
Devo song "Through Being Cool" in the 2005
Disney movie,
Sky High.
Since December 2005, They Might Be Giants have been making
podcasts on a monthly, sometimes bi-monthly, basis.
Each edition includes remixes of previous songs, rarities, covers,
and new songs and skits recorded specifically for the
podcast.
The band contributed fourteen original songs for the 2006
Dunkin' Donuts ad campaign, "America Runs On
Dunkin'", including "Things I Like To Do", "Pleather" and
"Fritalian". In the aired advertisement, Flansburgh sings
"Fritalian" along with his wife, Robin Goldwasser. In a 2008
commercial, "Moving" is played.
The band has produced and performed three original songs for
Playhouse Disney series: one for
Higglytown Heroes and two
for
Mickey Mouse
Clubhouse. They also recorded a cover of the
Disney song, "
There's a Great Big
Beautiful Tomorrow" for the movie
Meet the Robinsons and wrote and
performed the theme song for
The Drinky Crow Show. The band was
recruited to provide original songs for the
Henry Selick-directed
movie of
Neil
Gaiman's children's book
Coraline, but were dropped because their music
was not "creepy" enough. Only one song, entitled "Other Father
Song", was kept for the film with Linnell singing as the titular
"Other Father".
Their twelfth album,
The Else, was
released July 10, 2007, on
Idlewild
Recordings (and distributed by
Zoë
Records for the CD version), with an earlier digital release on
May 15 at the
iTunes Music Store. Advanced copies were
made available to stations by mid-June 2007. The album was produced
by
Pat Dillett (
David Byrne) and
The Dust Brothers (
Beck,
Beastie Boys). On
February 12, 2009, They Might Be Giants performed the song "The
Mesopotamians" from the album on
Late Night with Conan
O'Brien.
In the rest of 2007, They Might Be Giants wrote a commissioned
piece for Brooklyn-based robotic music outfit
League of Electronic
Musical Urban Robots and performed for three dates at the
event, and covered the
Pixies "Havalina" for
American Laundromat
Records Dig For Fire - a tribute to PIXIES
compilation.
The band's thirteenth album,
Here
Come the 123s, a DVD/CD follow-up to 2005's
critically-acclaimed
Here Come
the ABCs children's project, was released on February 5,
2008. On April 10, 2008, They Might Be Giants performed the song
"Seven" from the album on
Late Night with Conan
O'Brien. In 2009, the album won the
Grammy Award for "Best Musical Album For
Children" during the
51st Annual
Grammy Awards.
The band's fourteenth album was
Here Comes Science, a science-themed
children's album. This album included songs about paleontology,
evolution, astronomy, chemistry, anatomy and more. It was released
on September 1, 2009.On November 3, They Might Be Giants sent out a
newsletter stating "The Avatars of They", a set of sock puppets the
Johns manipulate for shows, will have an album in 2012, suggesting
another kids album.
Name
The band took their name from the 1971 film
They Might Be Giants
(starring
George C. Scott and
Joanne
Woodward), which is in turn taken from a
Don Quixote passage about how Quixote
believes
windmills to be evil
giants.
According to Dave Wilson, in his book
Rock Formations, the
name They Might Be Giants had been used and subsequently discarded
by a friend of the band who had a
ventriloquism act. The name was then adopted
by the band, who had been searching for a suitable name.
A common misconception is that the name of the band is a reference
to themselves and an allusion to future success. In an interview
John Flansburgh said (paraphrasing) that the words "they might be
giants" are just a very outward-looking forward thing which they
liked. He clarified this in the documentary movie
Gigantic by explaining
that the name refers to the outside world of possibilities that
they saw as a fledgling band. In an earlier radio interview, John
Linnell described the phrase as "something very paranoid
sounding".
On the compilation album
Miscellaneous T, on track 13
("Untitled"), a confused caller to TMBG's Dial-a-Song named Gloria
talks to an unknown third party (presumably unaware that the entire
conversation is being recorded) about the mystery of "There May Be
Giants", as she mistakenly refers to the band.
In the commentary for the "Experimental Film" music video on
Homestarrunner.com, Strong Bad incorrectly refers to "They Might Be
Giants" as "those super giant guys".
In the
Terry Pratchett Discworld novel
Soul
Music, a group of musically gifted dwarfs call themselves
'We're Certainly Dwarfs' as an homage to TMBG. This is confirmed by
the author in
The Discworld
Companion.
To promote
Flood, TMBG
performed "Your Racist Friend" on
The Today Show, where
Bryant Gumbel called them "They Must Be
Giants". On the
Severe Tire Damage album track "They Got
Lost", John Flansburgh refers to this error when he jokingly
introduces themselves as "They Must Be Giants", to audience
laughter.
Discography
Throughout their career, They Might Be Giants have released 14
studio albums, 8
compilation, 6
live
albums, 21
EP, 5 videos and 11
singles. They have also collaborated
on many other projects.
Charting singles
Music videos
The band has released music videos for twenty of their songs:
- "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" (1986)
- "Don't Let's Start"
(1986)
- "(She Was a) Hotel Detective" (1986)
- "Ana Ng" (1988)
- "Purple Toupee" (1988)
- "They'll Need a Crane"
(1988)
- "Birdhouse in Your Soul"
(1990)
- "Istanbul
" (animated) (1990)
- "The Statue Got Me High" (1992)
- "The Guitar" (1992)
- "Snail Shell" (1994)
- "Doctor Worm" (1998)
- "Boss of Me" (2001) (abridged version
premiered on FOX; some airplay on MTV2 and other stations; featured
in an episode of VH1's Pop-Up
Video)
- "Cyclops Rock" (2001) (live-action combined with CGI for the
"cyclops" scenes)
- "Experimental Film"
(2004) (animated, with Homestar
Runner characters)
- "With The Dark" (2007, created by Mizushima Hine)
- "The Shadow Government"[5408] (2007)
- "I'm Impressed"[5409] (2007)
- "The Mesopotamians"[5410] (2007)
- "Davey Crockett in Outer Space" [5411] (2008)
- "Employee Of The Month" (2009)
Other videos include:
- "Rabid Child" (1986) (home video, not released publicly, clip
can be seen in Gigantic)
- "I Am Not Your Broom" (1990s)
- "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (1990) (produced by and
featured on Tiny
Toons)
- "Particle Man" (1990) (produced by
and featured on Tiny
Toons)
- "Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent
Gas)" (1997) (animated/live action, premiered on KaBlam!)
- "Doctor Worm" (2000) (animated, premiered on
KaBlam!)
- "The Oblongs..." (2001) (from the
TV show by Mohawk Productions:
the Oblongs… who came 2001 ended
2004)
- "Courage the Cowardly Dog" (2002) (computer animated, aired on
Cartoon Network)
- "Dee Dee & Dexter Japanese theme song" (2003) (animated by
Klasky-Csupo, aired on Cartoon
Network)
- "I'm All You Can Think About" (2004) (animated in Macromedia Flash by John Linnell)
- "Damn Good Times" (2005) (animated, appears on tmbg.com)
- "Bastard Wants to Hit Me" (2005) (animated, appears on tmbg.com)
- "Dallas", "Los Angeles", "Anaheim", "Vancouver" "Asheville"
"Glasgow", "Albany", "Pittsburgh", "Asbury Park", "Brooklyn" and
"Charlottesville" (2005, on the Venue
Songs DVD)
Notes and references
External links
Official sites
Other
See also
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