Elektra Entertainment
Elektra was TMBG's record label from 1989 to 1997. In 2004, the company folded into Atlantic Records.
TMBG releases on Elektra[edit]
TMBG Signing to Elektra[edit]
According to Linnell, the band first tried to contact Elektra in 1986 in advance of their first record, but were rejected.[1] Their first real talks with the label came through Artist & Repertoire representative Susan Drew. Drew recalls:[2]
I first became aware of They Might Be Giants when I worked at PolyGram, and I thought they were amazing. I was following them around and getting to know them. I wanted to sign them to PolyGram, but then I got the offer to go to Elektra. [PolyGram was] about to make an offer, so I said to the guys, “Look, I’m going to be leaving here, but I’m going someplace better. I think you’re going to be happy, so hang on for a moment until I get there, and you’ll be the first thing I bring in.”
Flansburgh: "Peter Lubin said to us in our first meeting, 'Are you ready to be in the show?'... and he was sincere."
Thanks to the efforts of Sue Drew and Peter Lubin (another Elektra representative who had formerly been with PolyGram), Elektra extended an offer based on the strength of their first two records with Bar/None. The Johns were impressed by the variety of alternative acts which Elektra represented, and felt that the label would not interfere with their creative process.[4] As TMBG manager Jamie Kitman told Manhattan, Inc, "[head of Elektra Bob Krasnow] sure didn't say anything stupid, and that distinguished him from every other record company executive I've ever met."
TMBG signed a 7-record deal with Elektra in February 1989.[5][6] The departure from Bar/None was described by Linnell as "a little awkward", as their former label hoped they would tour in support of Lincoln for a little longer.[7]
Working With Elektra[edit]
They Might Be Giants' major label debut was highly successful, with Flood becoming the band's best-selling album of all time. The Giants generally remember their time at Elektra as exciting and productive, though culturally bizarre. Speaking to AV Club in 2025:
JF: [Sue Drew] really had a very clear-eyed vision of what we were as a band. She understood how pretentious we were and how personal this project was to us. And that understanding sort of shielded us from the more crass conversations. But I think for a lot of people at Elektra, their notion of the best They Might Be Giants could do would be to hook ourselves into a dance craze. [...] It was interesting being at the Elektra offices listening to people talk about other acts. I spent a lot of time coming in there, since they were a New York-based label, it was very easy to just hang out there.JL: Just to give you a picture of the culture of Elektra Records: It started as this really free-form, folky thing. And then by the time Bob Krasnow took over, they did things like pulling up all the carpets on the floor of the Time Warner building and replacing it with leather. This was a massive show of largesse, which seemed completely weird to us. Like, “Really? That’s Elektra Records? That’s their thing?”
One occasional point of contention was the label's push to bring in outside producers. When recording Flood, the band worked with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley on the potential radio singles, but chose to produce the other tracks themselves.[8] During the making of Apollo 18, Susan Drew approached Elvis Costello as a potential producer without consulting the Johns, causing a temporary rift in their working relationship.[9] Ultimately, Apollo 18 was self-produced.
Contrary to some fans' fears at the time, TMBG did not attribute their transition to a live band in 1992 or their use of live musicians in the recording of John Henry onward to pressure from the label.
TMBG's Departure from Elektra[edit]
In late 1992, Drew left Elektra. Linnell, speaking to AV Club in 1998:
At some point on the heels of Apollo 18, the staff [at Elektra] started disappearing. All the A&R people we had worked with, who were kind of our friends, had left the company, and then the president left the company, and then the whole company was sort of taken over by another company called East/West. And that was really a disaster for us, because we were no longer working with people we knew, and I don't think there was very much interest in what we were doing. [...] We were making these records, and then there would be no budget for promotions or anything. We didn't make videos. The record would be put out, and it would sell kind of a reliable—but not very high—number, and Elektra would make back the money they spent manufacturing it. And they were happy with that arrangement, because it was a very easy thing for them. But it was a real problem for us: We felt like we were standing still.
During the 1995 tour, the label began to push the band into taking on more shows than they were comfortable with. In Gigantic, tour manager Mike Kelley describes a moment during the Japan leg of the tour when an Elektra rep showed up to bring the band to a gig that they had already repeatedly turned down.[10] A few dates scheduled for June had to be canceled, with the band stating they were "too tired to continue touring, and realistically wanted a vacation".[11]
While Factory Showroom was released through Elektra in 1996, the album's unusually short tracklist was partly in response to the band's deteriorating relationship with the label.[12] Flansburgh recalled, "We put the entire sequence of the album together on our own, and the label had exactly zero notes, and zero thoughts, and no real formal response beyond 'received'."[13]
They Might Be Giants were ultimately bought out of the three albums remaining on their contract.[14][15] The band officially ended its association with Elektra in November 1997.[16]
External links[edit]
- Official website
- They Might Be Giants' page on the Elektra Website (archived)
- "How Elektra Records ushered in the alternative music revolution—and then helped kill it" (AV Club article featuring quotes from Sue Drew and John Flansburgh)
- Article on Wikipedia