1990-04-26 Lansing State Journal
Rock duo delivers interesting mix of music
By Kathleen Lavey, Lansing State Journal, April 26, 1990
Sections not quoting John Linnell excerpted for length.
What happens when you take a couple of guys named John, an accordion, a guitar and a tape player booming out bass and drums and put them in front of several hundred people?
"It's an interesting show. It's entertaining, but there's all sorts of stuff going on," said John Linnell, who with high school buddy John Flansburgh make up They Might Be Giants.
[...]
"Flood" contains an astonishing 19 songs, including the current release "Birdhouse in Your Soul." "We're getting paid only for 10 songs on the album," Linnell said. "There are nine free gifts to Elektra, but they're also free gifts to the audience. We wanted to continue to make records that we liked and part of that meant having a lot of songs."
Linnell switched from organ to accordion about six years ago after borrowing one from a friend. "There's nothing oldworld about the way I play the accordion," he said.
Flansburgh came at music from a different direction: "He had a tape recorder when he was very young and was always interested in doing tape projects," Linnell said. "When he was 17 or 18 somebody gave him a guitar and he put three strings on it, then he added more strings one at a time until he could play the complete set."
The two spent about two months together writing songs before going into the studio to record the humorous, catchy and often astute "Flood."
"You hum things and sing things and write things on paper," Linnell said. "Eventually you come up with something interesting. It's very hard to say where it comes from. If I knew where ideas come from, I'd go there more often."