1996-08-12 Hits
He Might Be MONO PuFF
By Camden Joy, Hits, August 12, 1996
JOHN FLANSBURGH, the brains, brawn, beauty and everything else behind Mono Puff (and one of two Johns in They Might Be Giants), may be the most approachable person on the planet. Approach him from across the street with a relay baton in hand, approach him from a Greyhound station with a gleam of recognition in your eye, approach him from below the Williamsburg Bridge when your bungee cord hits apogee and rebounds from several hundred feet away, hurtling towards him at some ridiculous rate and John Flansburgh will smile a welcoming smile, his eyes lit up, sticking out a generous hand as you approach and, in a voice of pure gladness, say: "Hey man! How's it goin?" If it's early in the morning, he will buy you coffee, if you want, and a bagel; if you need to get crosstown, he'll offer to drive you. He's a nice guy, in the manner you only expect to come across in quaint books from less complicated times. He's also got an album, "Unsupervised," with his new band, on Rykodisc. HITS' slumming Gen X novelist and mad pamphleteer, Camden Joy "To The World," severely tests the man's generosity.
What is a Mono Puff?
Well, the story behind the band name is I was in the John Coltrane Church in Haight-Ashbury, where they worship John Coltrane as a saint.
Church of 'Trane.
They have a free improvisational jam as part of the service, just like, you know, a dozen musicians. There are also a lot of children there participating in the jam session, playing tambourines and stuff. And there were a couple of girls... one had typical Afro puffs almost like Mickey Mouse ears: two big circles of Afro hair. And another girl had this hairdo reminiscent of Betty Wright... it was a complete perfect circle on top of her head- just her head and a dot of hair. I pointed her out to my friend Dan Levine and said, "I think that would be called a Mono Puff."
Is this something you're gonna be moving into, hairstyle-wise?
I don't think it's for me. But there is groove-oriented stuff in Mono Puff, like the song "Distant Antenna." The whole thing about Mono Puff is that, you know, it's loose, it's casual, it's just for fun, everyone can see what's going on.
Compare working with Mono Puff to They Might Be Giants.
You know, it's funny for me to have worked on this solo project Mono Puff, because I really enjoy my role as, like, one of two relatively faceless rock performers in They Might Be Giants. It's really weird for me to go to a radio station and be by myself. It's me and the dj., asking me questions. If I suddenly have an aneurysm or slip into a deep coma, I don't have my good buddy John Linnell to bail me out. And that has happened before. And I would like to apologize right now to the d.j.s I've done it to.
So how did Mono Puff start?
I have this project I started a few years ago called the Hello CD of the Month Club and it puts out different CDs by different people every month. Every year I would do an EP for Hello in one form or another - I'm doing one this year as well which generates these songs that are officially non-official TMBG songs.
When I did this Hello showcase last year, I put together a band to back me up and perform the songs. It turned out much better than expected, so we got a deal with Rykodisc. The bass player was Hal Cragin, who is actually on tour with Iggy Pop. There was Steve Calhoon, who's with this band Skeleton Key, who just signed to a big deal, and this monstrously talented songwriter and guitar player Mike Viola, who's now signed to Blue Thumb. So if nothing else, Mono Puff is proving to be a good luck charm for all the sidemen who have participated with us.
So how do you know whether you've written a Mono Puff song or a TMBG song?
The first Mono Puff disk that I put on Hello was almost all done on synthesizers because that was the thing I wasn't doing with TMBG. TMBG had become a completely electric rock band. But now that TMBG are coming back to their electronic roots a little more, Mono Puff is quickly moving into the two-guitar, head-on, Marshall stack, rock dinosaur thing. With TMBG, I'm the guitarist in a group that for a long time has been known as "the band with an accordion in it." Mono Puff gives me the opportunity to have a full rock agenda without apology. Being in a guitar band is always fun.
For me, it's really exciting to not be working on the same set list that I've been working on for 12 years. I care too much about TMBG's audience to just go, "Oh, we're not gonna do our old songs anymore; go to hell." People pay far too much money to see you perform and there's a reason they're there - they want to hear the songs that they like, not the songs that you don't even know quite how to play yet.
You also direct music videos. What's your most popular one?
You know the Edwyn Collins song "Never Met A Girl Like You Before"? It was in the Buzz bin, baby. My most famous video! Actually, the Frank Black video with the hovercraft ["Los Angeles"] is probably the one people will remember. That one's on Beavis and Butthead. As soon as you're on Beavis and Butthead, you have a whole new level of street cred. Last week, I was working on a Soul Coughing video that will probably be out next week.
You started Hello, you're getting married, you've got this new band. Are you restless?
I am a complete workaholic; I work day and night. I've got big emotional problems when it comes to figuring out where my off switch is. But I love what I'm doing and it's not hard to find the energy to do it. In some ways, I think the Mono Puff record will give people the chance to reassess what TMBG is all about.
Is it true you do all your business from the bathtub?
The apartments I've lived in for the last 12 years, neither of them have had showers. One of them had a water heater that was about as big as a bottle of Evian, so it would be like an hour-long experience to get the tub actually working. I'm open for business 24 hours a day. I do talk on the phone from the tub. I feel like it gives me a competitive edge.