Smiles
From This Might Be A Wiki
| song name | Smiles |
| artist | They Might Be Giants |
| releases | Unreleased |
| year | 1983 |
| first played | July 7, 1983 (2 known performances) |
| run time |  This unreleased song has only been played live,and therefore has no definitive run time. |
| sung by | John Flansburgh |
Trivia/Info
- Only known from its inclusion on 1983 setlists and the 1985 "TMB Songs" list, John Flansburgh would describe the song on Tumblr in 2012[1]:
Smiles was a crazy crazy explosive rant of a song—much closer to a No Wave kind of song—like a Pere Ubu or DNA track that almost any other song we did. It makes "You'll Miss Me" seem square. It really was emblematic of the no wave moment where there was a lot of expulsive screaming. For some folks it was probably the the only "current" feeling song in our show, for others it was just a UFO. It was a very different time—but standard issue pop rock song craft just did not have too much cultural currency in the subculture of downtown NYC.
- Flansburgh would also mention on Tumblr in 2023 that this song and "I Wouldn't Be Mad" were directly inspired by the No Wave genre, but similarly to "You'll Miss Me", both were difficult to replicate when recording due to their performance art nature.[2]
Song Themes
Videos
Current Rating You must be logged in to rate this. You can either login (if you have a userid) or create an account with us today. |
