Dan Spock
Dan Spock is a childhood friend of both Johns. He attended both Lincoln-Sudbury High School and Antioch College, where he played alongside John Flansburgh in the band The Black-Outs and alongside Bill Krauss in The Functionaires. It was through Dan Spock that Bill Krauss and Flansburgh first met.[1]
His grandfather was famous pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, who is namedropped in the song They Might Be Giants.[2] This line gave the name to the 1992 bootleg Dr. Spock's Back-Up Band.
Spock graduated Antioch with a degree in art and has gone on to become a museum exhibit planning consultant.[3] When They Might Be Giants were working on their educational children's album Here Comes Science, he introduced them to fellow museum professional Eric Siegel, who would serve as their science consultant and fact-checker.[4]
Spock has remained a fan of They Might Be Giants to the present day, and has been seen participating in online forums discussing the band. In 2021, he shared a story on Facebook explaining the genesis of the song "Shoehorn With Teeth" and how it was inspired by another mutual childhood friend of the Johns.