Lyrics:WNYC Segment 1
| WNYC Segment 1 |
| By: They Might Be Giants |
| Year: 2003 |
John Schaefer It's time for Soundcheck here at 93.9 WNYC and wnyc.org. And in this uh, week leading up to the 4th of July, we're taking a week to survey the state of American song with a number of singer-songwriters joining us in the next five days, culminating in a special 4th of July program in which we will be examining the Mermaid Avenue Projects by Billy Bragg and the band Wilco in which they took, uh, unpublished lyrics by Woody Guthrie and set them to music. We'll begin, though, with an ensemble that's built around the songwriting talents of John Flansburgh and John Linnell. For over twenty years they've been making music as They Might Be Giants. Birdhouse In Your Soul (opening of the song) JS You're listening to Soundcheck at 93.9 WNYC and online at wnyc.org. I'm John Schaefer. It's not often that we have music performed here in our studio that you can also hear on commercial radio, at least occasionally, but that is the case with this song, Birdhouse In Your Soul, a hit for They Might Be Giants, and They Might Be Giants have joined us in our studio for a bit of live music. The group, essentially for twenty years, has revolved around the two Johns, John Linnell and John Flansburgh, although, uh, they've brought a, a ringer into the studio with them this afternoon. One of, one of the band of Dans who occasionally accompany them, Dan Miller, who will be uh, joining in on guitar. The group is the subject of a documentary called Gigantic, the story of the two Johns. It's been playing in New York for awhile, and has now, uh, moved on to other parts of the country and to, uh John One and John Two, thank you both for joining us. John Linnell Thank you John Three, or is it John Zero, or John A? JS Yeah, thank you, "John Zero" John Flansburgh John A, John A, John A JS Now, songwriting has, you know we think of songwriting as a kind of solo thing, you know, the, the, the person kind of struggling in his or her garret somewhere. JF Right, right. JS But for the two of you, I mean They Might Be Giants, really is, has been a collaborative process. JF Yeah, well you know I think also we don't, I mean we approach things sort of as an uh, sort of as like a recording experiment. We started as um, like home taping enthusiasts. We had uh, I had a four-track, uh, like a TI4 open-reel four track, and uh, John had a Moog synthesizer and we really started the band kind of, uh it revolved around us sharing equipment, so we were both making these home recordings that were kind of for ourselves, they were really, uh, lopsided, kind of awkward, uh you know, stabs at, you know, art rock, and, um, uh, you know, pretty unlistenable stuff for awhile, but uh, but you know it was, we started playing on each other's recordings, and, and uh, you know, sort of worked together more that way, and um, so, in some ways there's something essentially untraditional about just the very begin, from the very beginning about our, our take on what it is to be a band, and then um, being in New York in that beginning moment of, of like Hip-Hop culture where drum machines were really dominant on the radio, uh, we, we, we got, um, we got a very inexpensive, well actually, our first recordings we basically, um, were using the synthesizer to kind of recreate the sounds of the drum machine because we couldn't... drum machines were really expensive, um, so we would , uh, you know, make these rhythm tracks and then we would play, you know, clubs in the East Village, uh, to these uh, pre-recorded tracks, and uh, it was all very uh, it's all very sort of New Wave/Art School kind of uh, stuff, but it was a lot of fun. JS Well, you know, you mentioned Hip Hop , and, and, and the Punk Rock scene as well, there was a strong DIY quality to it. JL Exactly. We, we love, we love the Punk Rock, you know. In some ways I feel like we're the very last New Wave band, it just took us a really long time to even, you know, get out of the house. JF We started, we started in 1983, '82. JL Uh, our first show was in '82, the summer of '82, and uh, you know that was very much, you know, well I mean the Mud Club was, we tried to get a gig, we actually booked a gig at the Mud Club and then the Mud Club closed down. JS Right, They found out that John Linnell had an accordion, they were like, "Ahhh! No, no , no, that doesn't happen." JL They were like, "It's over. The whole thing is over. Sorry, guys the scene just ended." JS So, rather than bring you guys in, they just decided to go belly up. JL Yeah, yeah. The whole New York New Wave scene just basically folded up when we were came, hit the... JS And, and so, what, what was the very first They Might Be Giants gig? JF Our very first show was a duo. JL Well, yeah. We did, we did a show in Central Park with, uh,um, without a name basically. We just um, wanted to play some of the songs we'd written, and a friend of ours got us a gig which was just performing at this rally of a coalition, uh in support of the, um, Sandinista... you know, it was something like the third anniversary of the Sandinistas, so they had this enormous SFLN banner and everyone spoke in Spanish from the stage, and they introduced us as El Grupo De Rock and Roll, and um, and we came out and did these songs which were utterly unrelated and incongruous, but you know I mean surprisingly the crowd was in to it, you know. We spoke to some people afterwards and they, they were kind of, you know, offering their support, or condolences. JS I think the accordion, the accordion was a real, uh social lubricant in that situation JL But, so that was our first gig for awhile, and then we played as They Might Be Giants at the very beginning of, of 1983 and that was a, actually it made the other gigs seem like incredibly pleasant and comfortable, because it was during a blizzard, uh, and we had a very tiny crowd, and you know it was kind of miserable. It was, it was the, it was this, the beginning of a long set of route... JS A long set of miserable performances. JL These dues paying... JF Like, you know, it was, it was, like February 23rd, there were 23 people there... JL Yeah, there was a lot of numerical, uh... JS You were 23 years old. JL Right, um... JF It was, it was a good... JS You made 23 dollars... JF I have to say that, you know what was strange is um, we uh, yeah, we'd never really done a show, I mean playing for the, the Sandinistas was, there was no way to gauge, I mean just the fact that they weren't like, like booing seemed fine. Um, but then, like actually playing for, you know, like a crowd in a bar, we really didn't know how, the, the, what we were doing would be perceived, and just like speaking of like the new wave thing, you know we were doing these kind of weird songs, but we thought they were much more messed up, and, and, in...impenetrable, and then immediately as we were playing, you know, people kind of started laughing, and sort of like a gently amused, sort of knowing way. JS Uh, huh JF And, and it wasn't, I don't think, you know, we'd spent like a good month putting the show together. I don't think we really had any notion that what we thought of as being kind of like this Pere Ubu art, you know, difficult, you know, awkward and strange, I mean this is really, you know, a time when asymmetrical hairdos, you know, had a lot of cultural uh, you know, uh, uh, uh gravity to them. You know, it's like people, people were believing in a strange and a pretty active way, and uh, we just didn't think what we were dong was going to be perceived as, as being sort of directly funny, um, so it was a little bit to get used to
JF I mean, not, not like willfully obscure, but just like, you know, sort of artistically obscure, you know, like JS Yeah, yeah JF And, and uh, you know, I mean, it wasn't, there wasn't, certainly wasn't the strangest show around, but, but uh, I mean, you know, and as we played in the East Village we were continuously reminded how, how completely normal we were, I mean we'd play a lot of shows at the Pyramid Club, um and, 8BC, and those were, you know, some of those bills were, uh, you know, really like, "Well the Lunatic Asylum is off at, you know, right before you guys, they're gonna to leave a lot of blood on the stage, but uh, you know, it's fine" JS Uh, you wanna, there always has been, though, this kind of, you know, oddball quality to a lot of the music that you guys do. JF Um, hmm JS Uh, maybe we get a little dose of that in the first piece you're going to do JF Sure, sure. This is a uh, brand new song. Um, it's, uh, this, this isn't on a record yet, but we're, we've cooked up a way to play with this very inexpensive-sounding drum machine. Check. Check. Just to blow you away. JS This is inexpensive sound, I guess. JL Yes JF That's right JS OK JL Very expensive. The song is called Au Contraire JS It's They Might Be Giants live on WNYC Au Contraire (live) |
