Mailing List Archive/2003-06-13
FLANSBURGH in PEOPLE ARE WRONG! in western Mass JUNE 21
FREE SHOW IN ST. LOUIS / LINKS TO RADIO SHOWS, SPECIAL VIDEO, AND LINNELL SPEAKS ONLINE- TRANSCRIBED BELOW
TMBG's TOTALLY FREE FULL LENGTH ROCK SHOW!
JOIN US IN ST. LOUIS, JUNE 27 4pm WASHINGTON AVE. SUMMERFEST www.entertainmentstl.com
SPECIAL COMPUTER USERS' EDITION
Live unplugged TMBG radio interview and songs including Dan "Stormy Black" Miller on guitar:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/spinning/episodes/06062003
See why Flansburgh thinks Kid Rock could be President in this cool streaming video thing:
http://www.rcom.tv/special_edition/south_by_southwest/john_flansburgh_interview.html
Full length print interview with Linnell at the bottom of this email!
Flansburgh here. There is a lot going on, online and outside your
house. We really want you to check this out- it's so neat.
DOWNLOAD THIS BRAND NEW THING NOW AT WWW.TMBG.COM!
TMBG's Clock Radio at www.tmbg.com. The ultimate streaming experience. Two full bands of songs (AM is recordings, FM is live) and special announcements on the EBS band. Hours and hours of TMBG pleasure await you. Includes the boss- boggling "mute" feature that kills the volume when people come snooping around. Works with PC & Mac! Brought to you
by the cool cats at the Chopping Block!
"GIGANTIC" THEATRICAL RUN IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE!
NOW PLAYING:
-NEW YORK, NY at the Cinema Village -- ONE SCREENING DAILY 6/14 & 15
-WASHINGTON, DC at the Silver Theater -- LAST SCREENING THIS SUNDAY
-CHICAGO, IL at the Music Box OPENS 6/20-6/26 special event with Director AJ Schnack & Ira Glass June 21
-BOSTON, MA at the Brattle 6/20-6/26
-BIRMINGHAM, AL ONE NIGHT ONLY! at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 6/24
-LOS ANGELES, CA at the Sunset 5 OPENS 6/25 -- FILMMAKERS IN PERSON JUNE 25 & 27
-MINNEAPOLIS. MN at the Oak Street Cinema OPENS 6/27 -
-PHILADELPHIA, PA at the Prince OPENS 7/2 -
- special event with John Flansburgh to be announced
-PITTSBURGH, PA at the Oaks Theater opens 7/4
-OKLAHOMA CITY, OK at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art 7/10-7/12
-SALT LAKE CITY, UT at the Tower Theater OPENS 7/11
-ST. LOUIS, MO at the Landmark Tivoli OPENS 7/18 - 7/24
-OLYMPIA, WA at Olympia Film Society OPENS 7/26 and runs to 7/31
-CLEVELAND, OH at the Cleveland Cinematheque7/26 & 7/27
-AUSTIN, TX at the Dobie OPENS 8/1
-SAN FRANCISCO, CA at the legendary Castro 8/8-8/14
- special event with Josh Kornbluth to be announced
-SEATTLE, WA at the Varsity runs 8/15-8/21
-HARTFORD, CT at the Real Artways 9/12-13; 9/19-20
SEE FLANSBURGH AND THE LOSER'S LOUNGE IN PEOPLE
ARE WRONG! OPENS MASSMoCA SUMMER CONCERT
SERIES JUNE 21 in NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS
free mp3s of Flansburgh and the Loser's Lounge await you at
www.peoplearewrong.net
John Linnell of They Might Be Giants interview by
Adam Swiderski, senior editor from the very cool site
www.ugo.com:
UGO: How did the idea for a movie come about?
Did AJ Schnack [the directorof Gigantic] approach you?
JL: It was his idea, and he kind of had to sell it to us.
Once he had given his speil, then we were concerned about
it being a film that talked about us without us having
any control over the content, which was the explicit
plan atthe beginning. We would not get to see any of it until it was done. It seemedkind of risky. But on the other hand, he seemed like this total fan, you know,
and it seemed like he wanted to make a movie that was a little deeper than a movie about how glamourous it is to be in an indie rock band. We were very happy with what he wound up doing, and, I guess, mainly relieved.
UGO: You've said before that you weren't interested in
being indie rock icons, like, the "legendary" They Might
Be Giants, but now a documentary has been made about
you. What do you think about that?
JL: I think the movie is a little more tasteful than that. It's not
talking about us like we're already dead and buried. You get a sense from the movie that it's a dynamic project. We're obviously still doing new stuff all the time, so that comes through. You know, to us, our picture of ourselves, which
is sort of how we want to present ourselves, is not about the history of us. We do have a long backlog of songs, and we do play the old songs at the shows, but
that's not really the point of what we're doing. We're actually about the next thing. So I think AJ was empathetic with that. I mean, he wanted to tell the story, but he didn't want it to be, like, memory lane.
UGO: Was it a collaborative effort, or did they just film
you as you went about normal business?
JL: Well, we put on a live show in a very controlled
environment, where there were multiple cameras and an
audience that came from our fanclub. For the rest of it,
he was just following us around for a long time with
cameras, so whatever happened was what he got. I think in some of the interview segments, John [Flansburgh] and I were not as articulate as we believe ourselves
to be, however wrongly. I mean, watching the movie, I kept thinking, "Oh, I could have said that in another way that would have made more sense." I think John
felt the same way. We didn't really have a way of controlling that. We didn't get to prepare speeches or anything.
UGO: Was it weird to see yourself 20 feet tall on the screen?
JL: Yeah, it was a good time to check out the old facial
blemishes. I mean, I have to admit that I was a
little distracted by that.
UGO: But weren't you voted the 9th most beautiful
person in that People Online poll?
JL: Yeah. I think they were talking about inner beauty,
though. You have to keep in mind that the winner of the
poll was Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf. It was a classic
Internet poll. Very "anything goes."
UGO: But that's a testament to the online fanbase
you have. You were one of the first acts to start
releasing stuff online (Dial-a-Song and "Long Tall Weekend").
What's your opinion on the way technology is really affecting
music production?
JL: Well we get asked that a lot, and I've come up with
kind of a capsule answer, because people wonder if we
are angry about, well, getting ripped off, basically, which
is sort of a loaded question. But I sort of feel like on the
one hand, I do understand the appeal of getting free stuff. I'd like to get everything for free. I think in some weird, imaginary fantasy world, like some version of the Soviet Union that actually worked, that we would get
houses and cars for free and we wouldn't have to think about whether we could afford stuff. It would just all be available. But on the other hand, I do sort of want to
get paid for the work I do. There should be an incentive to do work rather than, just give it up, it's not yours anymore, you're doing it for the love of it, someone else gets it for free and they give it to all their friends.
We run into this situation multiple times, of people turning up with CDs that were burned and asking us to sign them. It's like, "Will you sign my CD?" And we're
like, "You didn't actually pay for this, did you?"
UGO: Do you guys do a lot of interaction with the fans online?
JL: Actually, no. Not really. I mean, I suppose I should.
That would be good. But you know, I don't know. It seems
that people that do often get into a really neurotic
relationship, like with Courtney Love and people getting
into this really strange relationship with their fans. I don't know. I like the fans. When I meet people that are into us, I find that, more often than not, they are, and this is not a coincidence, they seem like people that actually
remind me of friends of mine. Or usually younger versions of friends of mine. But it's weird to hang out with people who know about you when you don't know about
them.
UGO: And anonymity online allows them to say things
that they might not ordinarily say.
JL: Yeah, I suppose so. I like the fact that people say
whatever they think. People don't tend to censor themselves,
because it's anonymous. They can say, "I thought your
third album sucked," which is fine. God damn them.
UGO: In the future, do you foresee a time where
there are no albums? Do you think the MP3 craze will go that far?
JL: I don't know. I feel like I've been miserably bad at predicting
what's going to happen with each coming year. I'm sure things are going to be really weird and different by the time we are old, unrecognizably different, but I
don't really know the shape that things are going to take. I think that sometimes it's surprising that people, because of their humanness, just get up to the same kinds of things. In some ways, people like transgression and humor and stuff that's not too self-important or pretentious, and that's kind of a constant thing. I think those things will probably drive culture in the future.
But as far as how people get music or culture, that's anybody's guess.
UGO: Were you aware of the brief online movement to
get They Might Be Giants action figures made?
JL: No, I hadn't heard of that. We made action figures
for the Malcolm in the Middle video that we did. Yeah,
somebody sort of sculpted these figures. Basically, they
took the bodies of existing action figures and made little
heads of me and John and the three Dans. And in the
video the kid from the show, Dewey, is playing with them
and dragging them around behind his bike.
UGO: Were you happy with the way yours turned out?
JL: My figure? Well the face looks like me and the rest
of it has, like, rippling, washboard abs.
UGO: Which is accurate, right?
JL: I'd like to say that it was...but I can't.
UGO: If you could add a special feature to your action
figure, what would it be? Kung Fu grip? An accordion
that fires missiles?
JL: [Laughs] I'd have to think about that, actually. I think
my special feature would be a curvature to the spine, and
you'd have a fake Advil that you would give to the
action figure and its spine would straighten out a little bit
or something. I don't know, I'm not articulating this very well. I'd have to think harder about this. Mine would be the one with back pain.
UGO: Speaking of the Malcolm in the Middle theme song...
you did The Oblongs, you did The Daily Show, you have
an Austin Powers theme song. What is the secret to
writing a theme song as opposed to writing another song?
JL: Well, they are all different. Each one of them is different.
Sometimes people want a catchy melody. I feel like that's where we kind of feel that we can confidently bring something into it, because that's what we've been
doing, is hooking up little hum-able, memorable melodies. But occasionally, we're asked to do stuff - like we were just ask to do a theme for a show that's going to be on The Learning Channel, and it's a documentary show about
emergency rooms and interns. It's about these guys who stay up all night. You know, they work really terrible hours. What they wanted was a gloomy techno sort of
vibe to it, and so I wouldn't say we're automatically the people you would choose to do that. But, it was really fun and interesting doing it. It was a challenge,
and they liked what we cooked up, so it'll be on TV sometime in the Summer or the Fall. It was originally called Rounds, as in the doctor doing his rounds, and then they changed it to New Docs, and now apparently they've gotten rid of that name and I think they have not yet settled on a new name. It's going to be on The Learning Channel and it's connected to a new venture called New York
Times TV. So when that comes out, you'll recognize our beats.
UGO: So how do you go about writing the theme song?
JL: Well, we've gotten into this practice of just pushing
ourselves on people. We got to do the theme for this
local radio show in New York, The noon show on NPR, with
this guy Leonard Lopate. We've been on his show a bunch and
at some point he said, like, "You know, I really need a new theme." And we were like, "We'll do your theme!" And of course it's for an NPR talk show, so obviously it's not going to be like the Malcolm in the Middle theme,
it'll be like something else. But he really likes it, he plays it everyday and announces our name. It hadn't occurred to him that it would be remotely appropriate
for us to write his theme. With the Malcolm thing, they called us. They wanted something that sounded like They Might Be Giants, so that was pretty easy. And with
other stuff, we've established that we're able to do a number of
differentthings, and we're not too expensive, so we're getting different jobs.
UGO: Was it weird for you to be at the Grammys when
Malcolm in the Middle won?
JL: Yeah, it was weird. I mean, we felt for the whole
thing that we were imposters, basically. And that
was even just when we had been nominated. We were
sitting there thinking, "Well, if they announce the winner and it's us, do we walk down the who aisle to the middle row and walk straight up?" We had this
conversation about how to get to the podium. And then we're thinking, of course this whole thing is ridiculous, because there is no possible way we're going to win, so why are we even having this discussion.
UGO: How did it come about that Tiny Toons used
your songs in its show?
JL: They asked to use them. That was the entire extent
of our involvement and work. It was really easy. They
just took the tracks off the record and did these really
amusing animations, which millions of 8 and 10 year olds
saw and, ten years later started coming to our shows. It was great. It was really a great thing for us.
UGO: Were you at all aware of the show at the time?
JL: No, not really. The show was new when they cooked
up this stuff, and we didn't really know it. It sounded
pretty bogus, to tell you the truth. They were saying,
"This is a Steven Spielberg thing, it uses Warner Brothers
characters, but they are cute, baby versions of them," so we were like, "OK...whatever, fine. They're going to pay us money for this." And now it's like this classic cartoon that people fondly remember, so we actually got
permission to put the two cartoons they made on our DVD, which has just come out. The DVD is all the videos that we made, plus these two Tiny Toon Adventures and some
other stuff. It's nice, they hold up. My son actually only really likes those two things. For him, that is the apex of our work.
UGO: Are you guys still making music videos? Because
that was a big part of the TMBG thing back in the day...
JL: Well, we made one for the Malcolm in the Middle thing,
but we haven't been on a major label for about six years.
It's just too expensive. We can't really make one ourselves.
There was a time when record companies were very into
spending money on videos. I mean, Elektra, even before we left Elektra, was sort of backpedaling and saying they couldn't see spending that much money to promote every single band that's on their roster.
UGO: Do you think that had to do with the kind of
avant garde videos you were making, that it was different
from the mainstream?
JL: It was a general thing. They are hugely expensive.
The problem, at that time, and still, is that if they didn't
play them on MTV, specifically, it was a big waste of
money. And the only time MTV would play a video is if the
song is already a hit. So, in a way it was sort of pointless. If a song was being promoted on MTV to make it into a hit, but they wouldn't play it unless it was a hit, basically we were kind of out of the loop in that regard. We didn't
qualify. We do do a lot of Internet-y, very low budget-y visual stuff. We love doing that. Making little movies with a handy cam and then editing them together for the web. That kind of stuff. It's very low rez, but it's fun.
And I'm actually kind of interested in Flash now. We've had
all this animation done in Flash for the children's record.
If you take the children's record and stick it in your
computer, it brings up a little animation for each song.
So I'd like to develop more Flash stuff for our website, because it's cheap and easy and fun to look at, and it enhances the experience of the song. And I like the fact that it's animation. I mean, how many times do you want to
watch me and John lip-synching to our songs? As long as it's cheap and easy, I think it's a good idea.
UGO: Is that something you guys are planning on sticking
with, the enhanced content on your CDs?
JL: One thing we're talking about now is, instead of putting
out a CD - Flansburgh had this brilliant idea - I don't know
whether we can do this, it might be prohibitively
expensive, but we could make a CD, and on the flip side
would be a DVD, and it would be a thing we would sell for not much more than CD, but we'd include all this extra content. You can definitely do two-sided DVDs. You never see two-sided CDs, however. I mean, could you have that? Why
don't they have that? I guess there'd be nowhere to put the label.
UGO: You guys should patent that. You'd make millions.
JL: Mmmm...probably too late.
UGO: How do you feel about having your movie come
out during the big summer blockbuster season? Do you
think you can take down The Matrix?
JL: Absolutely, yeah. The Matrix thing is just going to drop off.
People are just gonna be like, "I can't see that, I gotta see the Giants movie. I was gonna see it, but I gotta see the Giants movie a second time." Actually I don't
think we exist on the same plane. We've got our own matrix.
UGO: Are there any summer movies coming out that
you're looking forward to seeing?
JL: Well, I saw A Mighty Wind already, and I know a lot
of people didn't like it, but I thought it was really great.
I loved the music. I thought it was really beautiful, personal,
and way better than it had to be for a comedy. In a
way, I don't think that A Mighty Wind was all that funny, but I think it was an excellent movie.
UGO: There are pages and pages on the Internet
dedicated to interpreting your lyrics. How do you guys
feel about that? Do you think it's cool that people
are looking so deeply into it, or do you ever wonder where the hell some of this stuff is coming from?
JL: I do think it's cool. I think that when we cook up
these lyrics, we're not really thinking, "This song is about
this." We're just trying to come up with something that's
good, without it having to be translated into something
else to make sense. I think the songs are what they are, and sometimes they click in people's minds, and sometimes maybe they don't, and I like the fact that
people think about them and try to make sense out of them. I've had occasion to sit down and try and make sense out of songs that I wrote, particularly if I
wrote them a while ago and I'm coming back to them, and I kind of understand the appeal of trying to cook up an explanation. But when we're writing them,
we don't explain what we're doing to ourselves. We're trying to just do something that's interesting and fun and musical.
UGO: One aspect of Gigantic that I found interesting
was the group of segments in which celebrities like
Michael McKean and Janeane Garafalo are doing readings
of your lyrics. Was this an interesting experience for you, seeing that?
JL: I was actually slightly disturbed by that. I didn't know
what to make of it, really. I mean, I actually haven't said
this to AJ, the director. I think that it was a weird
experience for me because the songs are not really
meant to be read like poetry. And yet, I was touched. AJ told me that Michael McKean actually commited some of them to memory, so he was able to just reel
them off by heart, and I was just blown away when I heard that, because I don't really think about the lyrics as being in other people's heads. It was interesting,
it was cool.
UGO: Did you discover any new angles hearing the songs
coming out of someone else's mouth?
JL: Nothing that I could articulate. Actually, another one
that struck me, I had to sort of wonder what people
would make of it, was the specter of Andy Ricter. He was
reciting the lyrics to a song called "I Should Be Allowed
to Think," and the way the song is written, it's one of the sort of unreliable narrator lyrics, but he was reading it in such an earnest way with a furrowed brow.
It just became its own thing, listening to him reciting like that. It's a different experience.
UGO: If you were confronted by a giant Abraham Lincoln,
as seen in the poster for Gigantic, how would you defeat it?
JL: Lets see, how would you defeat a giant Abraham
Lincoln? That's like a riddle. I think you'd need a giant
John Wilkes Booth.
UGO: But, of course, you'd then have to figure out how
to defeat the giant John Wilkes Booth.
JL: Yeah, then you've got more trouble on your hands.
UGO: Having lived there, how do you feel about Brooklyn
becoming the hot new place for up and coming indie bands?
JL: Well, I moved out of Williamsburg about 10 years
ago, so I'm not in the vortex of the hipness, anymore.
I moved out to Park Slope, which is sort of anti-hip.
There are a lot of people pushing strollers around. That part
of Brooklyn is the same as it's always been. If anything, it's even more staid. My friends who still live in Williamsburg say that you can't park your car there anymore. So, I think mostly it's negative. There are some more restaurants, which is convienient if you eat out at restaurants. I don't know. I've lived most of my life in Brooklyn, at this point. It's always changing.
UGO: Do you want to take credit for being the pioneering
indie artist coming out of that neighborhood?
JL: Not really. I never felt like we were at the center of
that scene, particularly. I mean, we were there, we were
kind of around, playing in little clubs. But it's had its own life.
UGO: What happened to the stick that you used to use
for percussion before you had a full band? Were there
many sticks?
JL: There were many sticks, and there still is a stick.
We've got a stick in our warehouse that we pull out from
time to time.
UGO: Are you so used to having a full band now that
you wouldn't want to go back to the duo thing?
JL: I think we'd have a hard time doing a whole show as
a duo, now. I think we'd have to really spend some time
rehearsing and working on the show to get it up to where
we like it, if we went back to the duo. But in the course
of the rock show all the guys named Dan sometimes leave the stage and John and I sing some songs as a duo, and that always works. It creates a nice contrast.
UGO: So the stick still does come out from time to time?
JL: The stick does come out.
UGO: Finally, if you could have super powers, what would
they be and why?
JL: I think I would have the super power of taking
Advil and making my back feel better.
UGO: I sense a theme.
JL: You know, I'll be completely honest with you. I'd
like to be able to fly. And I know I'd be crashing into
Nelly Furtado up there, but I still think it would be very cool.
UGO: Would you use your powers for good or evil?
JL: I would have to make that decision when the time
came, but I'm open to suggestions.
UGO: Thanks very much, John. Good luck.
