Difference between revisions of "John Linnell"

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Linnell - Now

Linnell - Then

File:Jl-kid.PNG Linnell - The Earlier Years

Biography

John Sidney Linnell (born June 12th, 1959) is one half of rock duo They Might Be Giants. Linnell co-founded the band with John Flansburgh in the early eighties, and is a primary songwriter and singer for the duo. He generally plays accordion, baritone saxophone, and keyboard for the band.

Before joining TMBG, Linnell claims to have been in a full-on jazz band called The Baggs, and was also in a New Wave band known as The Mundanes. After joining TMBG, he took on a side-project of State Songs. He said he had always had a problem with finding titles for songs he'd written, so he decided to start naming after states, since it gave him 50 guaranteed titles. The unique thing about Linnell's state songs is that, due to the nature of them, they're almost never actually about the states after which they are named. Rather, they tend to be about literally unrelated things, such as bicycle wrecks and acid trips. (Interpretations can always be made to associate anything to anything, mind you.) The first State Songs album of Linnell's was released in 1999, and is still in print on Rounder/Zoë. As of yet, there's been no word on a release date for the second album, although he does reportedly have plenty more songs written for it. Linnell has also been an active member of American Accordionists' Association, appearing in Missionary/Mercenary: The Accordion in the Workplace seminar.

Describing his role in They Might Be Giants, Linnell once said, "I have a personal, a real obsession, with melody and harmony. I can really never get enough of that kind of thing. I don't think too much about the cultural context of what we're doing. I think John is more on that end of it. He thinks more in terms of the larger picture, the larger meaning of what we're doing. I'm more into the technical end: the chords and the rhythms and the melodies." -- The Splatter Effect, 1994

Linnell has signed a million different things, but generally writes "John Sid" when giving autographs. He claims to be 5'10" tall. He and his wife, Karen Brown, have a son named Henry Linnell, who appeared in TMBG's documentary, Gigantic. (Linnell even had Henry 'sign' his name a couple times when autographing copies of Mink Car for members of TMBG Unlimited.) His sister's name is Julia.

Even though Linnell is usually thought of by fans as not needing corrective lenses, he's quite seriously farsighted, and he always wears glasses when he is off-stage.

Likes

• Adventures in Stereo
• Laurie Anderson
• Bach
• The Banana Splits -- says they were his favorite band when he was growing up
• Band of Weeds -- band of Kurt Hoffman, horn player for TMBG; released a CD on Flans's Hello CD of the Month Club
• The Beach Boys
• The Beatles
• Beck -- particularly enjoys his Stereopathetic Soul Manure compilation album
• The Candy Butchers -- band of Mike Viola, who has subbed for Linnell in TMBG concerts
• The Comedian Harmonists
• Constance Towers -- Japanese band, opened for TMBG in Tokyo in 1990, "Their songs and arrangements were all first rate, though I didn't have a clue as to what the lyrics were about because they're all in Japanese."
• Elvis Costello and the Attractions
• Encyclopedias -- he collects them
• Gorillaz -- reminds him of The Banana Splits
• The Harmonicats
• jazz.com/fho.html Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra
• Chris Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music
• Ice Cube -- likes the way he raps
• Japanese pop music -- "Often there's something automatically interesting to me about [it]...."
• The Kinks
• looking out the window
• Music with melody
• New Wave music
• People who don't harass him after concerts
• Pixies -- band of Frank Black, who has also subbed for Linnell in TMBG concerts
• Prince and the Revolution
• Ramones
• The Pugs
• The Raspberries
• The Residents
• riding his bicycle -- used to be a bicycle messenger; broke his wrist in a bicycle accident and prompted Flans to start Dial-A-Song (in a roundabout sort of way...)
• "The Sign" by Ace of Base -- sang it spontaneously in concert many a time, and played the music video while VJing an Australian music program
• The Smiths
• "Songs I Tried To Resist", an iTunes playlist
• Television -- A late 70s post-punk band. He mentions them in an interview, stating that he wishes they had stayed together longer.
• Pere Ubu
• The White Stripes -- attended a concert with his wife, later saying that they had appeared to be the oldest people in the room.
• Wilco
• Frank Zappa -- credits Frank as a strong influence during his younger years

Dislikes

• 70's art rock/70's heavy guitar rock
• being called quirky, wacky, zany, etc.
• listening to music in a motor vehicle
• loud music -- "I really have a problem with loud music now that I'm old. I really can't go see even a medium-volume band without wearing earplugs."
• people who do harass him after concerts
• The Rolling Stones
• signing autographs
• spilled kitty litter

Favorite foods/drinks

• coffee -- subsists on it; likes it black with sugar
• flat Coca-Cola
• everything in Rome
• milk
• peanut butter
• pizza
• root beer
• creamed corn
• deep-fried bacon

Side project releases of note:

• State Songs (Hello EP) (1994)
• House Of Mayors (1996)
• Olive, The Other Reindeer (Flexi Disc) (1997)
• State Songs (1999)
• Montana (EP) (1999)

Instruments

Linnell has played the following instruments in recordings or live:

• accordion
• baritone saxophone
• acoustic guitar
• banjo (Particle Man (Demo))
• bass clarinet
• bass guitar
• bass harmonica
• bass saxophone
• chainsaw
• clarinet
• Dustbuster (Iowa)
• electric guitar (West Virginia and possibly Am I Awake?)
• harmonica
• Kaoss Pad
• keyboard
• Marxophone
• organ
• piano
• stylophone
• tenor saxophone
• turntables
• violin (Counterfeit Faker)
• xylophone

See also

• Family Life
• Monikers

External links

• John Linnell's songwriting repertoire on BMI
• MP3 of an interview with Linnell on NPR's All Things Considered, 10/12/1999
• 1998 self-biographical New York Times article by John Linnell
• John Linnell - article on Wikipedia