Mailing List Archive/2002-04-16

Hey everybody- John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants here. Back in Brooklyn for a moment and I wanted to drop you all a line to bring you up to date on all things Giant.

First I want to thank all the folks for coming out to the mid-western and southern fried leg of our spring tour. The premiere of "Gigantic" at South by Southwest was a real thrill, and all the shows were a gas. The band and crew were really happy with this tour and where the show is at. It was cool getting so many new songs into the show, and big props to Jeremy Chatzky who did an excellent job subbing for Danny "Pops" Weinkauf. And the final show in Columbus was a big treat- not only did we get to give away the old tattered glockenspiel (we might get another one) and rent a dry ice machine, we also had the insane thrill of seeing our tour manager Brendan do a full on fire-breathing act while we played "Why Does The Sun Shine?"

For a photo of our soundman Brian and our firebreathing tour manager Brendan with their close personal friend Barry Manilow, check out this link:

http://www.theymightbegiants.com/pics.htm

For an interview with TMBG on Gigantic in Hybrid magazine, check out this link

hybridmagazine.com :: indie counter-culture dai

And to read a review of the film along with an explanation from director AJ Schnack about the difference between TMBG and Flock of Seagulls check out this link The Daily Texan - They Might Be Giants film one…

So many things are going on- but the big news is we've got a brand new web site up! This is where it's at: www.giantkid.net

Version 1.0 is up now, and we encourage you to check it out straight away. It is a specialty site in association with our upcoming kids' album No! which will be in record stores on June 11 on our own imprint (!) Idlewild through the kind folks at Rounder. Like the "enhanced" CD, the site includes flash animated sequences by those super-talented folks at the Chopping Block. Most of the tracks on the album include a cool game-like thingy, and you can check out four of them, as well as get sneak previews of all the songs on the album at giantkid. As you probably know, this release has been long in coming, so we are very excited to see it finally coming to fruition.

We will be doing some special "kid-friendly" gigs in some cities, but the best way for all you family-folk to stay in touch is through www.theymightbegiants.com for upcoming announcements. You might also want to check in there for a description of our victorious Grammy night, as well as a bunch of other news items regarding TMBG.

To check out the super-fly "Cyclops Rock" ecard, check out this link: http://www.tmbg.com/ECARDS/4.swf

Lots of people have been asking what the plan for "Gigantic" is- and I have to tell you a lot of it isn't in our hands. It will be included in other film festivals, and the producers are looking for a theatrical release in the fall at art houses. It is inevitable that it will be available on DVD, but it

seems unlikely that that will happen before the late fall. We will keep you all up to date on that.

We definitely will be releasing a 20th Anniversary anthology through Rhino this fall. It's going to be a 2 disc set with a book and will be a comprehensive survey of our entire recorded history, with all the "hits" and long time favorites, as well as a healthy sampling of the best lesser known songs. The title is something like "Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants." The set won't be actual Dial-A-Song recordings, although virtually all the songs began there. THAT set would have a much smaller audience, perhaps just y'all and us, and while it is being discussed as a specialty release for Idlewild, like our Battle of the bands project, breath-holding is not encouraged.

Here is a full schedule of up-coming events:

5/11/02 North Adams, MA Mass MoCa
6/11/02 No! is released
6/11/02 New York and Company/ WNYC 1:20 pm
6/27/02 Nashville, TN Dancing In The District
6/28/02 Atlanta, GA On The Bricks
6/29/02 Washington, DC G Street Live

Hope to see you all a the t-shirt stand out there soon!
John F.