Bangs

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Bangs
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Mink Car, Special Mink Car Sampler, Tracks Taken From The New Album 'Mink Car', Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, A User's Guide to They Might Be Giants: Melody, Fidelity, Quantity, Podcast 21A, 50,000,000 They Might Be Giants Songs Can't Be Wrong
year 2001
first played September 19, 2001 (99 known performances)
run time 3:09
sung by John Linnell


Trivia/Info

  • "Bangs" is a North American English term for strands or locks of hair that fall over the scalp's front hairline to cover the forehead, commonly known as a "fringe" in British English.
  • This song inspired a story by Zadie Smith, called "The Girl with Bangs",[1] which appears in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. The Mink Car version incorporates the first line from the story, in rearranged form. At the TMBG vs McSweeney's event in London (October 4, 2003), Zadie Smith read "The Girl with Bangs" while the band played a more instrumental rendition of "Bangs" in the background.
  • This version differs from both the TMBG Unlimited version and the They Might Be Giants Vs. McSweeney's version. The Mink Car version is a complete re-recording, with some new lyrics written and other lyrics juggled around.
  • This song was once played over the end credits of an episode of the MTV show Daria. Executive producer Glenn Eichler is known to be a fan of TMBG (his favorite song is "They'll Need A Crane").
  • This song is used in the movie Mayor of The Sunset Strip, which hit theaters on March 26, 2004, although it was not included on the official soundtrack. However, it was included on a promotional soundtrack sampler, which was given out at the movie's premiere.
  • "Bangs" is one of three TMBG songs Bob Dylan selected for his "Theme Time Radio Hour" program on XM Radio.
  • In an interview with Altercation in 2002, John Flansburgh mentioned that "Bangs" was originally intended to be a UK single:
We had this very catchy kind of pop song, so we sent out a tape to Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley who produced "Birdhouse In Your Soul" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and we were trying to work with them on something ever since. They've done a lot of big stuff since then, and they really loved the song, so we were like cool, let's do it. Then while we were recording we found out that the phrase bangs doesn't exist in the UK, they call bangs 'fringe.' So they'd have no idea what we're talking about, so it was vaguely depressing as we finished recording the song knowing that it wouldn't be a likely contender on BBC 1.

Song Themes

Body Parts, Clothes, Forgetting And Remembering, Hair, Hands, Heads, Love, Money, Oblique Cliches Or Idiom, Titles And Honorifics, Not In Common Time

Videos

Current Rating

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Bangs is currently ranked #294 out of 1005. (148 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.60)