2000-08-24 Yahoo
They Might Be Giants live chat
Yahoo!, August 24, 2000
Archived from: https://web.archive.org/web/20001102143451/http://chat.yahoo.com:80/chat/events/transcripts/music/082400theymightbegiants.html
Thursday, August 24 at 6pm ET and 3pm PT. Originally broadcast as audio with a live transcription. Some minor typos have been corrected.
yahoomusic: here they are chat lunatiques... give a warm welcome to They Might Be Giants!!
tmbg_live: Hello! Hello!
mrbean43 asks: Guys, any plans for a song book?
tmbg_live: We started moving slowly then it ground to a halt. I still think it's a great idea, but what is there a demand for?
tmbg_live: A traditional piano song book? Or lyrics, which they can get at our website.
tmbg_live: We could burn a CD of midi files and send that around!
Sarlakk asks: Any release dates for "No!" and the "Malcolm" soundtrack?
tmbg_live: JF: I think the Malcolm soundtrack is slated for the last week in Oct. There is no release date yet.
tmbg_live: The record is finished, but Rounder might be pushing it back into the spring, if not for Christmas.
Sarlakk asks: When will we hear a studio version of "Museum Of Idiots"?
tmbg_live: I guess we're still compiling material for the next album that's not a children's album.
tmbg_live: We don't have a date for that....
tmbg_live: We only played that song for the first time...it was written two weeks ago!
tmbg_live: We're hard at work just learning how to play it!
tmbg_live: Rounder does a lot of children's records. John Verrante from Rounder had come to a couple of our shows in Boston and was interested in working with us.
tmbg_live: They had done children's records with NRBQ, and they have Raffi and stuff, it was just a natural idea.
tmbg_live: We're very happy with it, it's very in the spirit of the band.
tmbg_live: For people who like the messed up stuff we do, people will like it, it's a nutty record.
tmbg_live: I think kids will respond to it because it does have that Dr. Seuss like, fun ride quality.
tmbg_live: When we started it, there were things that didn't work for kids - I have a new song, it's called Burning School! - then you realize that's not quite right.
tmbg_live: All kids are different, and it might only appear to a certain kind of kid but I think it will work.
saferkefka4000 asks: Aside from music for Malcolm In the Middle, are you planning to work on any other TV shows in the near future?
tmbg_live: We have done music for the Jon Stewart Show, pretty much all the incidental music in the show, is us....
tmbg_live: We actually tried to do that Back In Black version, but it was too much an original composition....
tmbg_live: This is for the Daily Show, it's a news show, and they need some newsy music.
tmbg_live: We are careering now as TV composers, it has become our thing.
EricTheMonkey asks: Having worked on Malcolm, would you consider doing feature film scores?
tmbg_live: Film - ditto.
tmbg_live: The Malcolm gig requires so much music it's kind of crazy.
tmbg_live: Doing a film might be peaceful in comparison.
tmbg_live: Films only have a dozen or 20 cues, Malcolm has 25 or 30 a week.
tmbg_live: And in television you have set deadlines.
thatslogic asks: Are you guys fans of the show "Malcolm in the Middle?"
tmbg_live: Sure! (Really, I like the dad in the show actually, he really shines, he's very fearless as a comic presence).
tmbg_live: There are episodes where he has bees climbing over him, he learned how to roller skate for the show, really cool....
breegeek asks: do you like red or black licorice more?
tmbg_live: Wow! I don't really like licorice, it always seems stale.
tmbg_live: I think black is the essence of licorice, red tastes like red, black licorice tastes like licorice, it's got the anise flavor.
teedeekay42 asks: John & John, why didn't "Clowntown", "Nice Is Good" or "Shooting Star" make it onto the kid's album?
tmbg_live: Wow! THat's very inside!....Clown Town was one of those Burning Skull kind of songs, not quite right for kids!
tmbg_live: Shooting Star is a beautiful song written by this fellow Hy Zaret, he wrote Unchained Melody, a lot of ballads in the fifties...
tmbg_live: He basically, it was just business, there were 17 songs on the record and we would have had to pay 10 percent to four publishing for this 45 second thing, and not that he didn't deserve the money, but we deserved it too!
tmbg_live: If you put any cover on a record, (complicated publishing conversation follows....!!!)
tmbg_live: It's not a good deal to put cover songs on your record!
triggergoldberg asks: Huge fan, blah blah. Question for Linnell specifically: your studio and publishing company are both named after the Colyer Brothers. Who are these mythical siblings?
tmbg_live: JL: That's a good way of putting it.
tmbg_live: THey are legendary.
tmbg_live: They were brothers whose dead bodies were found in their apartment in the 40's, buried under stuff they had been hoarding.
tmbg_live: They had collected so much stuff, they had to dig tunnels to get around their house. And had also booby trapped the house....
tmbg_live: It was a big story at the time. There was an expression at the time, people would say of someone who was a packrat, 'One day you'll wind up like the Collier Bros.'
tmbg_live: They had a Model A Ford, a lot of books....they were dead inside their place for a long time before anybody knew it...
tmbg_live: How did they make their money, again....?? They were very wealthy.
tmbg_live: That was the name of my studio, and I was living with this guy Brian, and we had too much stuff basically....
Sarlakk asks: I love the acoustic guitar sound on "I Am A Human Head". How did you get a sound like that? Is it some altered tuning?
tmbg_live: It is not an altered tuning. The acoustic guitar stylings of Mr. Dan Miller our lead guitar player.
tmbg_live: He has this very natural kind of way of arpeggiating the guitar, kind of his personal, a very large bag of tricks when he plays guitar, and that is his special wild card....very Birdsy and folk rock influenced.
tmbg_live: A great sound.
tmbg_psychophant asks: How important are woodchucks (and other woodland creatures) to the creative process
tmbg_live: They have a destructive influence....I have a house in the Catskills, and there are some woodchucks - or are they groundhogs --
tmbg_live: I thought they were voles - like field mice, a frightening version of a regular mouse -
tmbg_live: And I have these total shmoo-like groundhogs, blobs, gak, or something unreal, but they don't really play a big part in the creative process.
zimhead2000 asks: Is Spiraling Shape about depression?? my cousin and i kinda figured it out that way.
tmbg_live: It could be, it's a very open ended lyric.
tmbg_live: Mainly it's about getting mixed up in some fraudulent fad kind of thing, I think depression is included in that kind of experience.
tmbg_live: That's a depressing thought - a fake depression!
breegeek asks: why don't you play Become A Robot live? ever?
tmbg_live: We played it last year, at the Bowery Ballroom in April was it?
tmbg_live: FOr all you people far away, we are doing a stand in November in New York every Thursday for five weeks.
tmbg_live: So you can reserve your seat now, if you want to...it's kind of a great thing...we do these very radically different shows. Like a jazz orchestra, with an eight piece brass section.
tmbg_live: And we did a show where we do just me and John and a drum machine. That's when we did that song -
tmbg_live: it's kind of drum machine specific, like a lot of songs in the Duo show....we will definitely being doing a Big Band Show in November....
tmbg_live: I know tix are already available and selling.
tmbg_live: What orchestral works?
tmbg_live: You mean our orchestral arrangements to our pop songs?
tmbg_live: Last year Linnell did this song for Austin Powers made very much in the spirit of Goldfinger, but that's a genre of music that's pretty well established.
tmbg_live: One example of writing for strings, is the music for the Daily Show, most of that is a cartoony version of Stravinisky's Firebird, it's supposed to sound pompous.
tmbg_live: And they came to the right people! Pompous is our thing!
tmbg_live: And things sure are pompous.
teedeekay42 asks: John & John, do you have any plans to make a video for Boss of Me or any other new songs?
tmbg_live: Yes, we are going to make a video for Boss of Me, we have to think about what it will be very soon, we have to find a director, I want to find a way not to direct it myself.
tmbg_live: The Malcolm Show has kept me on the ropes in terms of nervous exhaustion....we'll probably do it at the end of September.
tmbg_live: There are some different concepts, but none we can share!!!
breegeek asks: what are the names of flansburghs cats?
tmbg_live: That's a kind of private question!!
tmbg_live: I don't want people to know the names of my cats...there has to be boundaries here!
tmbg_live: I don't want to come home with somebody on my fire escape going here, and knowing that cat's name!
martin_van_buren5 asks: I love "What Is Everyone Staring At?", Any plans to release it soon?
tmbg_live: No, actually that song was completely cannibalized this summer and turned into one of the songs on the children's record. It's been gutted, and is part of the chop shop!
applepop_girl asks: Are you fans of disco music?
tmbg_live: You know, it's strange, we grew up in a time when a lot of people were very anti-disco music, but a good friend of ours was very into it.
tmbg_live: We didn't take it seriously, which I think is the way it should be taken.
tmbg_live: I think the strange thing is, there is a lot of identity politics in the way people enjoy music.
tmbg_live: People identify themselves with certain kinds of music. I think disco really is about having fun, and there's something really great about that idea.
tmbg_live: A lot of it is vapid and pointless, but there are some great productions.
tmbg_live: You could include a lot of funk stuff, which is more my personal bag.
tmbg_live: Abba songs are cool!
tmbg_live: One nice thing about getting older, is you stop worrying about stuff and can take it at face value more.
tmbg_live: It's not really our thing, but it can be cool.
corpsshaft asks: you guys opened for elvis costello and the attractions. what was it like touring with them?
tmbg_live: Actually we did a stand opening for the Attractions at the Beacon Theater, about five years ago. It was interesting.
tmbg_live: The way the Beacon works backstage is that the dressing rooms are all around the stairwell in a vertical line.
tmbg_live: Our dressing room was five stories up and his was four stories up.
tmbg_live: We could hear him warming up every night, which was intimidating, he's a really good singer, it was kind of mind blowing.
tmbg_live: I got the impression that our being booked there was kind of an accident, I think they thought we were still a two piece, and I think they thought it would be an easy set up for the band.
tmbg_live: We showed up with the whole band, and they looked a little bummed out....
tmbg_live: Production guys always look forward to the solo singer songwriter opener, it's easy...
tmbg_live: About three months ago, I spent about a week in a room with Elvis Costello rehearsing for this performance, an opera, called Welcome to the Voice, written by his keyboard player, very interesting music....
tmbg_live: Very modern art music, a string quartet, the Brodsky quartet, and four female opera singers, and three male rock singers.
tmbg_live: I was the chief of police, and I sing this very crazy, Brechtian over the top song.
tmbg_live: And Elvis was the lead drunk man who stood accused of raping this girl. It was very interesting.
tmbg_live: Just being with opera singers and Elvis Costello for a really long time, it was really interesting....
tmbg_live: To be honest, it was a very difficult piece of music, it had the potential to be the most embarrassing moment of my life.
tmbg_live: I have a lot of respect for Elvis Costello, and to have to stand next to him and sound terrible, was mortifying.
tmbg_live: It was only a one off performance, it would be nice to do it again somewhere.
abethescott asks: Have either of you ever considered collaborating or doing individual instrumental albums? You've come such a long way with your compositions since the early days of simple guitar riffs and drum machines, as seen by songs like "Mississippi" and "Guitar Was The Case".... any chance of an diversion from the rock field into an all-orchestral/instrumental side career, ala Frank Zappa?
tmbg_live: Hmmm. It could be interesting...we do all this instrumental music for Malcolm, and I get wait to get back to regular songwriting at the moment.
tmbg_live: That seems like the most exciting potential thing.
y2ktoilet asks: Mr. Flansburgh, what's up with Mono Puff?
tmbg_live: Hal Cragin, who is kind of the spiritual core of Mono Puff, has been on the road a lot. He's been in LA and on the road, it's kind of out of the question.
drorganist asks: John Linnell: Who is your favorite poet?
tmbg_live: Wallace Stevens.
tmbg_live: Wallace Stevens.
tmbg_live: I don't know...I never got into the classic American guys till recently,. but I really like Walt Whitman,
chadd_vz asks: John L -- have you ever tried playing the glass organ?
tmbg_live: I never got my hands on one, it's a cool instrument, I've never even seen one, but I've heard recordings of them.
breegeek asks: are the johns sick of all the napster questions
tmbg_live: Yeah, yeah!
tmbg_live: I've gotten a lot of....I've tried to, I was approached to write a couple of articles about Napster.
tmbg_live: It's hard to back up far enough to have a thoughtful discussion on it, and people's emotions run very high.
tmbg_live: There is a way, I think, to think it thru in a thoughtful way....but yes, I'm tired of it.
rplass asks: John, where's the best pizza in Brooklyn, in your opinion?
tmbg_live: I don't know! There's Patsy's down by the Brooklyn Anchorage.
tmbg_live: And Baldo's - a funny name for a pizzeria, in Greenpoint, and they deliver.
mugsy2121 asks: On Feast Of Lights, is that a toy piano playing?
tmbg_live: Yes, it's a sample I made of a toy piano.
isbert27 asks: What is your fascination with HEADS? There are so many songs with head in the title.
tmbg_live: You got the face, you got the hair, you got the brains, there is so much to recommend in heads.
j_mosk asks: PLEASE ASK!!!!: Did you get to listen to the internet tribute album WE MIGHT BE GIANTS TOO? If so, what is your opinion and favorite tracks?
tmbg_live: I heard some of it, and I liked it. It's very cool, really strange.
tmbg_live: It's a very weird experience for John and I to listen to unsolicited covers by people we've never heard of of our songs.
tmbg_live: But there were a lot of really cool covers - it was really cool.
kriztalinn asks: How old were you when you wrote your first song?
tmbg_live: i don't know what you consider a song, we were making up songs pretty early on.
tmbg_live: The first song that we probably ever used, I was about 18. When I started writing songs that I thought other people should listen to.
tmbg_live: I wrote Cowtown when I was 18 or something like that.
tmbg_live: - I could hum songs you wrote before that.
tmbg_live: - Yeah, but they weren't on any records.
tmbg_live: We started checking out the idea when we were 15, 16, 17.
foofriend asks: who is in your cd player right now?
tmbg_live: Hmm. I took a Malcolm In the Middle cd in to make sure it worked.....the Burt Bacharach collection, volume 1.
tmbg_live: The Stan Harrison solo...that's kind of an interesting record.
tmbg_live: This guy Stan Harrison plays sax with us on a few gigs, we don't know him that well, he's a very talented saxophone player.
tmbg_live: He started with Southside Johnny, and does a lot of rock gigs, he's very talented.
Ppppf asks: I'm a BIG FAN! Thanks!! What is Boat Of Car about?? The lyrics are so weird, I love it!
tmbg_live: I think the great thing about that kind of song, is that it begins and ends with the lyrics, there's no other explanation, there is no hidden message.
Martinera asks: Do all your songs have a specific meaning, or are some of them just something you thought sounded cool?
tmbg_live: OK, in the spirit of this, I'd have to pick #2.
mbrannon27 asks: Why did you decide to release "Long Tall Weekend" as MP3s only?
tmbg_live: It came out last year, and we actually had another MP3 release on Emusic, working undercover for the man, and if you get it we'll send you a free cd with your purchase.
tmbg_live: We were in between deals, and the people at emusic had supported Frank Black and other artists we support....
tmbg_live: we had all these songs, and we just put it out. It's sold really well, and got an extraordinary amount of press attention.
tmbg_live: It's only at emusic.
chadd_vz asks: What is the last book you guys read?
tmbg_live: Hmm. The last book I finished was the book about the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough.
tmbg_live: John: I can't remember the last book I finished, I'm not a big reader, I've been meaning to read that David Sedaris book....
tmbg_live: I read the spine and the inner jacket.....
agentstuhmer asks: Are you guys fans of South Park?
tmbg_live: I wouldn't say I was a fan. I was very amused at the first episode. I heard the movie was great. The music was insanely good, I heard it as I was falling asleep while my wife was watching it.
tmbg_live: Actually it did seem exceptionally good.
tmbg_live: But it's a strange show....
tmbg_live: It had it's Ren & Stimpy cultural domination moment. and now that it's past, it seems like they're hellbent to lowering it to keep it going....
tmbg_live: Maybe it's silly to say that there are topics on South Park that seemed gratuitous....
quiet_thy_neighbor asks: In 1998 and 1999 in september, they was webcasts from the house of blues, this year in september, will there be a house of blues webcast?
tmbg_live: Sure it'd be fun. The House of Blues has a great setup for that stuff.
tmbg_live: I'd like to a webcast from the Bowery Ballroom of the big band stuff.
tmbg_live: It's definitely about live performance....
yahoomusic: what about tour plans?
tmbg_live: We're running down to DC and Boston, and if things go well, we'll probably do some monstrously big radio festivals...We'll play for 20,000 vaguely interested people at RFK stadium.
tmbg_live: But there are no plans to crawl into the tour bus.
tmbg_live: The Malcolm show keeps us really busy, and that doesn't really end till February, it's a long run.
tmbg_live: We will definitely doing some touring, we have two records coming out....
tmbg_live: We are overdue for a European tour, but the question is can we organize that end of it.
tmbg_live: We should find a house in London and stay for three weeks and organize a comeback on the English charts.
tmbg_live: It would be nice to drive up and down the coast! All that chocolate! British chocolate is good, and the coffee isn't as bad as it used to be!
tmbg_live: Why do you think they're missing all those teeth?!?
tmbg_live: Thank you so much for having us!
tmbg_live: And thanks to the typist!