Mailing List Archive/2003-05-21
www.theymightbegiants.com!
Until the real thing returns, www.dialasong.com!
Flansburgh here! What is happening? Like, a bunch.
I have four special things I want to make you aware of.
First- we are ROCKIN' THE PONY this Friday. That is
right, Asbury Park NJ. The Stone Pony. Me. Linnell.
The Dans. You. All rockin' Bruce-stylee. Second- Gigantic
is in real theaters in the next few weeks all over the US
of Indie A. You gotta check it out. AJ Schnack, the fine
fine director behind the project has a letter for you at
the end of this email to tell you all about it. Third- Did
you know 2003 is TMBG HIstory Month? Well it is, and
on Sunday June 8 as part of our Quarterly Report
series at Joe's Pub (where TMBG performs a unique
show every three months) we'll be bringing back
Apollo 18 in its entirety. I say bringing back, but we've
never ever performed it before in its entirety, so this
is actually a debut. We are doing two shows, and it is
unlikely this will be repeated too soon, so come on out.
And Number Four- People Are Wrong! with me and a lot
of my favorite people will be at MassMOCA in North
Adams, Mass. for just one night- Saturday June 21.
It ain't that far from Albany, and we'd love to see
everyone's summertime faces there.
http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=2324
For tickets to the Apollo 18 show at Joe's, we
suggest stopping in at their lovely box office, where
there is no service charge. For ticket info call
(212) 239-6200. The address is 425 Lafayette
Street (on Astor Place), Sunday & Monday 1pm - 6pm,
Tuesday - Saturday 1pm - 7:30 pm or, if you're feeling
fancy, go to www.telecharge.com.
I have also attached an interview between me and
Linnell that some have called "amusing and very
revealing." I found it ponderously long and very
revealing, but it is here for your email enjoyment. I
don't remember which magazine it was for but I found
it floating around online.
Read an interview in New York's hometown paper on TMBG and Gigantic- http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/85033p-77716c.html
THESE ARE THE PLACES "GIGANTIC" IS HAPPENING!
Opening MAY 23 in NEW YORK CITY www.cinemavillage.com
Opening MAY 30 in SILVER SPRING, MD / WASHINGTON DC www.afi.com/Silver/Theatre/
One Night Only JUNE 24 in SANTA CRUZ www.riotheatre.com
Opening JUNE 20 in BOSTON www.brattlefilm.org
Opening JUNE 20 in CHICAGO www.musicboxtheatre.com
Opening JUNE 20 in LOS ANGELES www.laemmle.com/theatres/sunset.html
One Night Only JUNE 24 in BIRMINGHAM, AL www.sidewalkfest.com/cinematheque
OPENING JUNE 27 in MINNEAPOLIS www.oakstreetcinema.org
Opening JULY 2 in PHILADELPHIA at the Prince!
Opening JULY 4 in PITTSBURGH The Oaks Theatre
Three Days Only JULY 10-12 in OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma City Museum of Art
Opening JULY 18 in ST. LOUIS The Tivoli Theatre
Two Days Only JULY 26 & 27 in CLEVELAND, OHIO Cleveland Cinematheque
Opening AUGUST 1 in AUSTIN, TX The Dobie Theatre
Opening AUGUST 8 in SAN FRANCISCO The Castro Theatre
Opening AUGUST 15 in SEATTLE The Varsity Theatre
And now- I turn the email over to Mr. AJ Schnack:
Dear Friends,
In just a few days (May 23, 2003), our movie about
the enduring New York City alternative-pop band They
Might Be Giants, "GIGANTIC (A Tale of Two Johns)",
will make its national theatrical debut at the Cinema Village Theatre in New York.
As we prepare for this Friday's opening, we wanted
to write to all of you who have been so incredibly
supportive of this endeavor and give you our deep
thanks. We feel extremely fortunate to have received your good will and your kind words over the past two years.
Now, as they say, is the moment of truth. Much of
the enduring success of Gigantic will be conditioned
on the audience turnout for this opening weekend.
Many theatres in smaller markets will wait to book the
film until they see how it did during its debut. Likewise,
media outlets, cable channels and video stores (both
the big chains and local independents) will be looking to
see if we succeed before deciding to cover the film or
stock it on their shelves. Although the big studio releases
make a big deal about their opening weekend grosses,
it's really the small independent films that
live or die by their debuts.
So as we thank you for your past support, we also
ask you to help us make this weekend truly Gigantic.
If you're in New York, come out to the theatre this weekend.
Bring a bunch of friends with you. Tell your parents about
it. See it twice (or more). Talk about the movie with people at work and at play. Make sure to tell them that you don't have to be a fan of the band to dig the movie (tempt them with the appearances by such great folks as Frank Black, Dave Eggers, Janeane Garofalo, Ira Glass, Michael McKean, Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Harry Shearer, Jon Stewart, Syd Straw and Sarah Vowell). Or read them a few of our great reviews. Tickets for this weekend are on sale now on the Cinema Village website at www.cinemavillage.com.
As an added bonus, John Flansburgh and John Linnell will
be making appearances at the Sunday evening and Monday
afternoon screenings. And we will be at the Cinema
Village on Friday and Saturday night to talk about the
making of the film. (Check out our website at www.giganticfilm.com for exact times).
If you're not in New York, email friends or family
who are there and encourage them to come out and
see the film. Then, when Gigantic finally arrives in
your town, you too can drag a bunch of friends and family
and co-workers to the theatre. We've already booked
dates in a number of major cities (listed below) but
many more are waiting to see our numbers this
weekend before committing to the film.
This is an exciting time for us and for non-fiction
films in general. We ask you to help us take advantage
of this great opportunity and make this opening
weekend a huge success.
All our thanks,
AJ Schnack and Shirley Moyers
Director and Producer
Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
PS - Forward this email to everyone in your address book
and you'll be our friend forever.
GIGANTIC (A Tale of Two Johns)
WINNER - BEST DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR - CHLOTRUDIS AWARDS, BOSTON
"Irresistible" - Joan Anderman, The Boston Globe
"Engaging, Entertaining, Informative and Most Tuneful" - Glenn Kenny, Premiere
"As Clever and Inventive as the Duo it Chronicles" - Wendy Mitchell, IFC
Magazine
"Truly Funny, Charming and Even Touching" - Nylon Magazine
"A Celebration of a Lasting Collaboration, Creative Integrity and the Right to be Different" - Paul Sherman, The Boston Herald
Opening MAY 23 in NEW YORK CITY
Cinema Village Theatre
with special guests John Flansburgh and John Linnell (May 25 & 26)
with special guests AJ Schnack and Shirley Moyers (May 23 & 24)
tickets available now at www.cinemavillage.com
Opening MAY 30 in SILVER SPRING, MD / WASHINGTON DC
AFI Silver Theatre
special guests TBA
www.afi.com/Silver/Theatre/
One Night Only JUNE 24 in SANTA CRUZ
The Rio Theatre
www.riotheatre.com
Opening JUNE 20 in BOSTON
The Brattle Theatre
special guests TBA
www.brattlefilm.org
Opening JUNE 20 in CHICAGO
The Music Box Theatre
special guests TBA
www.musicboxtheatre.com
Opening JUNE 20 in LOS ANGELES
Laemmle's Sunset 5
special guests TBA
www.laemmle.com/theatres/sunset.html
One Night Only JUNE 24 in BIRMINGHAM, AL
Sidewalk Motion Picture Festival
www.sidewalkfest.com/cinematheque
OPENING JUNE 27 in MINNEAPOLIS
Oak Street Cinema
www.oakstreetcinema.org
Opening JULY 2 in PHILADELPHIA
The Prince Theatre
special guests TBA
Opening JULY 4 in PITTSBURGH
The Oaks Theatre
Three Days Only JULY 10-12 in OKLAHOMA CITY
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
Opening JULY 18 in ST. LOUIS
The Tivoli Theatre
Two Days Only JULY 26 & 27 in CLEVELAND, OHIO
Cleveland Cinematheque
Opening AUGUST 1 in AUSTIN, TX
The Dobie Theatre
Opening AUGUST 8 in SAN FRANCISCO
The Castro Theatre
Opening AUGUST 15 in SEATTLE
The Varsity Theatre
more to come.....www.giganticfilm.com
FLANS AND LINNELL- THE INTERVIEW
JL= John Linnell JF=John Flansburgh
JF: Linnell, do you ever wonder if you will run out of nouns in your songs? JL: I think I probably have already. The thing now is to go back and readdress the nouns that were covered by earlier, younger versions of us. I'm looking forward to the next round of songs that use "dog," "skeleton," "pants" and so on.
JF: Linnell, you've written so many songs. Do you worry about repeating yourself? Have your standards changed? What do you want to achieve in the future with your writing?
JL: These are the kind of hard hitting questions I have been avoiding asking myself.
JF: I have two completely contradictory threads going: I really want to write more complete songs that really hold up to repeat listening, but at the same time I want to get freer and more messed up with my ideas, and try to write as fast as possible.
JF: When you are writing a song like "Older" (with the line "you're older than you've ever been and now you're even older"), do you consider how it's going to work theatrically in front of an audience, or is it just an internally pleasing idea?
JL: Oh, I think that that song in particular was created with the live audience in mind. I normally don't think very specifically about how a song functions but that one works much better in front of people than on record. Especially if they can hear each other reacting to it and then they have that kind of communal experience. It sounds very touchy-feely, but I think that internal audience feedback has played a special role in our best shows.
JF: Do you think of yourself as an electronic musician? ...A rock musician?
JL: To me this gig is, at the core, a desk job, which is the part I like best. That's why even in the live show I stand behind a desk, or maybe it's a podium.
JF: The reason I ask is I sometimes I think if it wasn't for recordings, I would never have made music. It's really the "otherness" of recordings that make me feel like I've done something. Playing music is actually just kind of relaxing to me, and I never feel like I've done anything at all. That's why, even if we just make a song with regular instruments, I still feel like the project is really to make a recording, and is therefore really an electronic music project.
JL: I think that performing came second for both of us, like an added feature that was included in the box.
JF: Linnell, what kind of music do you like that has the least to do with what you write?
JL: One thing that I can't do myself is be deliberately naive. Sometimes I hear playful, unschooled music that gets me feeling inspired and yet it's a road I can't really go back down. I mean I could write something similar, but the motivation is completely different, so the effect is not the same. I'm thinking of something like the Shaggs. I am probably unschooled and naive in ways I can't appreciate.
JF: But I do notice you are more comfortable writing more simply- or more specifically, arranging things more cleanly- these days, which I, a simpleton, appreciate.
JL: Why thank you Mr. Flansburgh. I'm probably getting simple in the head. Not the worst that can happen. I guess there's a difference between naive and simple. Lots of primitive music is complicated, and some very Spartan things are schooled.
JF: When we were a two man band, did you think we were a real rock band like I did, and then figure out years later we weren't?
JL: I remember at some point saying that our backing tracks seemed "quaint". You were surprised by that.
JF: I guess it was really a few years into settling in with the live full band, when we were doing some show for some radio station that was just really unambiguously loud and short and hard hitting, and realizing that our original set up was really not a rock show at all, which I can honestly say I never even suspected during our time as a duo. This realization made me feel really un-selfaware.
JL: Is there some way the whole band could actually tour with suits or is that impossible?
JF: I know they'd be impossible to clean... I have felt good about the couple of "suit" shows we've done. There is something really edgy about the whole band wearing suits. It's like we're from another planet- the PLANET OF MEN!
JL: I really like the anti-rebel quality of the suits. The idea that you need to rebel against having to wear a uniform is pretty tiresome. Especially when you consider where that rebellion usually leads. Funky doesn't really work for me. However, wearing shoes, a suit and a tie for a two hour performance under lights can get uncomfortable. I guess that's why I wear a pocket T-shirt. I'm not saying it's a good solution.
JF: I think the uniform thing is interesting. I wish there was an easy way to do it besides suits, but the matching shirts remind me of the Beach Boys stripe thing, or a softball team.
JL: Do you think people who like us generally "get" what we do? Do you think there's something to get?
JF: I wonder sometimes. Sometimes I feel like there is something much more simple going on for our audiences than for us artistically, which is that they just find the band entertaining, and what we are working out in our music is not really so important to them. I feel like much of the merit of what we do is built far enough into the music that it's actually untaxing for the listener, which is good.
JL: That's true. I'm reluctant to say that we have some kind of higher insight into music, even our own (in the first place it's a reprehensibly snotty attitude, and also it's so clearly not the case), but there is a point where you can't get inside the ears of the people who aren't personally invested in it. Particularly the untechnical music fan who appreciates ideas unencumbered by music theory and musical references.
JF: A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I freak out at how snarky people think we are with musical elements. I really want to scream out that we are not musical parody half the time when I read a review, even when it's positive. Maybe it's just impossible to incorporate the various rhythms and production ideas along with the personal, humorous nature of our lyrics and not confuse people as to what our intentions are. I think it probably seems like a really outward looking thing, like a parody or a pastiche. I know it might seem wrong to willingly declare that we are just totally isolated and self-absorbed songwriters who happen to be working in the widely trafficked pop music idiom.
JF: I am really enjoying making this children's record, even though I really have great trepidation about being a children's entertainer. I feel like it's coming at the exact moment in our careers when most artists would be opting for the instrumental, or jazz standard, or "rock meets classical" integrity project, and instead we've kind of backflipped into the Seussian thing that kind of started us as a band. Your thoughts?
JL: I tell myself that it takes guts to dispense with a tempting fantasy that we as aging statesmen of rock should be canonizing our own work or producing something that declares itself to be Art when we have reached this point by doing something less pretentious. We've seen this enough times with other artists. They start to believe their own press, that their longevity and the respect of their critics gives them some kind of special license to write oratorios, as though working in archaic modes is more befitting their dignity, rather than something merely outside of their own area of expertise.
JF: Did you like New Wave? Did you ever really like 70's art rock?
JL: I'm still into New Wave music. It's something Karen and I have in common so I often go back to the well of skinny tie records for a sentimental journey. Concerning art rock: I'm a little embarrassed to say that yes, I was kind of entranced by that stuff our friends were so into in high school that was written over its own head, so to speak. Yes, Brian Eno, and even the dreadful Pink Floyd seemed so interesting to my teenaged mind. I have a knee-jerk reaction against that stuff now. It's a useless prejudice I need some aversion therapy to get over. I recently listened to "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" by Rick Wakeman, but it still left me with a funny taste in my mouth.
JL: Is there some other period in the history of mankind in which you could imagine yourself being as self- actualized?
JF: Well, it is fun being in a band. I think I would have liked to have been a graphic artist in the first half of the twentieth century, but not now. I feel a tremendous affinity for the cultural history of the twentieth century. Maybe it's just growing up with my Dad (who is a Modern architect) but I really love the arc of it. I could do without the catastrophic historical moments, but the evolution of Modernism, and graphic and industrial design seem really cool. I really find the high-tech looks of today kind of a nothing, and a little nothing at that.
JL: Then there's the problem of a previous time seeming a little more authentic than the current one. I probably suffer from this delusion.
JF: Yeah, but I feel very authentic for a WASP. It might actually be the falseness and polish of all these design things that gets me going. It's as materialistic as anything I enjoy. Junk stores remind me of Christmas mornings (now there's a WASPy sentiment for ya).
JF: Linnell, if you were organized would you feel better about disorganization?
JL: I feel okay at the moment. I get to the most important things on my list and if there isn't time to do everything that's just the way it is. I have a latent desire for maximum efficiency of movement which is motivated by laziness. I spend a fair amount of time thinking of the easiest way to do things. I guess I should return my calls more, especially to friends and relatives. I hope people realize that my being disorganized doesn't mean I don't care.
JF: I feel like I simply run from deadline to deadline. I try not to worry about having too much stuff stacked up in the future, because stuff always falls out.
JL: What was up with our high school science teacher Ouida Bailey? Elaborate.
JF: I was just explaining Ouida Bailey to my friend last night, and how we named our publishing company after her until our lawyer told us we would just get sued later, and changed it. She was really a character, with completely shaved eyebrows that had been replaced by what looked like orange magic marker, and a voice which resided in one very low octave and one really high, making everything she said seem insane. She was the head of the science department, and in my sophomore year I got into a pointless argument with her over her concept of evolution, which seemed completely and impossibly under-informed to me.
JL: She was kind of wise to everything, so she must've known that everyone thought she was bizarre. The first day or two of a semester, everyone in the classroom would just be falling over every time she opened her mouth. It didn't seem to bug her. Eventually we got used to her.
JF: I never got used to her.
JL: Will you ever have the "eye-planing" laser surgery or is it just too freaky? I would have it if I could but apparently it won't help people who are farsighted, at least not yet.
JF: Maybe they could turn your eyes INSIDE OUT and then do it! No, eye surgery is something I really fear. I am really fascinated by this "botox" thing they are doing in Hollywood which actually PARALYZES YOUR FOREHEAD with POISON BACTERIA. You can't create wrinkles because you can't raise your brow. Sounds like a good idea, but if you look at some of these aging starlets it might appear their faces are frozen, BECAUSE THEY ARE.
JL: I'm hoping they come up with a bacteria that they can use to KILL MY EMOTIONS. That way I won't ever look sad or tired. Or one to AMPUTATE ALL NEGATIVE THINKING.
JF: Sad and tired has always worked for you. And it's better than bitter. I'd lay off the bacteria til your fifties.
The End
