Talk:Hello Radio: The Songs Of They Might Be Giants
What? Does TMBG actually like emo? I thought John Linnell said that it wasn't cool to cry in public...that's the definition of emo. And 8 out of the 14 tracks are Linnell-penned.
That really bites. I hate emo. --Overjoy 18:25, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Anybody else slightly worried about other bands playing TMBG's songs? I don't know, but the songs are so special and original to the Johns. And in the article, it says that their intention is to be able to expose TMBG's work through modern bands, but to me, thats not worth it. Who wants their songs exposed by people "more famous" then them. And as they have mentioned many times before, TMBG is more than satisfied with their position in Pop Culture. I think that if TMBG is to be discovered, it should be through TMBG, not through others who already are discovered. I don't know. What does everybody else think? ~ fingertips
I got no problem with it. I figure other bands covering TMBG probably sound better than me singing TMBG songs in the car, and God knows I've heard enough of that.
Thats a good point, my friends who are TMBG fans always yell at me to stop singing along becuase i really make the song sound horrible. ~ fingertips
The bands that are covering the songs seem to be good bands, but hearing someone else doing them just makes me feel.. kinda weird. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right. Does anyone else feel this way, or is it just me? - INeedACrane
- I think cover songs can be a great way to listen to a favorite track from a different "point of view" so to speak. Some people do fantastic TMBG covers; if you ever look up Michael Sanders (if he still has a website), he did this excellent cover of "Destination Moon" that I enjoy much more than the original. That doesn't often happen.
- That being said, some of the tracks on this CD did not strike a chord with me. "Unremarkable" was a word that a couple of people in here used, and I will concur; some tracks sounded like run of the mill stuff you can find on the radio. For instance, "They'll Need a Crane" told a sad story about a dissolution of a relationship to the tune of a happy, upbeat melody. That kind of juxtaposition is something we expect from TMBG and have grown to enjoy about them. This particular cover version does away with that entirely. It just sounded so... normal, I guess. But not all of them were disappointing. I loved "Ana Ng"! --Ms F.
Well, someone else cover TMBG songs doesn't bother me very much, i mean, the covers can never be as good as the origonals. i mean the bruce lee band's version of "she's an angel" is good and mailbox's cover of "nightgown of the sullen moon' are the only 2 tmbg cover that i really like... I don't know, i guess we'll see when hello radio comes out! Bluething 13:48, 16 Jun 2005 (EDT)
I'm looking forward to it. The bands are fans, from what I've heard. I think it must have been fun for them to get to record these songs. And if the John's are okay with it, then so am I. FTCrodis
Hey, what if we wikians put together a more ... amateur ... tribute? By "amateur" I mean "really cool" like the "Metal Detector" cover by Velcro Dan. We could just have a page on the wiki with mp3's and oggs and then we can argue about track order :) The genius of TMBG songs lies greatly in their chords and melodies, not in their technical prowess or "sound", so even amateurs can put out enjoyable covers. --HearingAid
Sounds good to me. I'd be willing to contribute to that/help with production and stuff. tgies, of Velcro Dan
there have already been a couple of those... ever heard of "we might be giants too"? Nathew 14:13, 29 Apr 2006 (CDT)
What disturbed me was that most of them sounded as if the Johns sang them... otherwise, they're half good, and half not so good. -Leonard Carrier
Two finished CDs were sent to the Johns for review around 12:40pm CST today -- TheBlunderbuss 13:50, 14 Nov 2005 (EST)
I just heard Don't Let's Start by This Radiant Boy, it's pretty decent. Different, slightly punky and chaotic, but good.
I'm looking forward to Frank Black's contribution for sure; as for the rest of the album, I've decided to reserve judgment until I hear it (when and if it ever comes out). I will admit I'm a little apprehensive- has anyone heard the Pixies tribute album? It's a regular turd (except for Reel Big Fish's funky disco version of "Gigantic" which I'll admit is pretty fun.) -Martorano
I for one am entirely psyched about this on account of it featuring a few of my favourite bands/artists Self, The Long Winters, Steve Burns and Hotel Lights. Espescially The Long Winters. And Pet Name is just the perfect song for them to be doing too.
I'm looking forward to this, especially the Ana Ng cover, just for how different it seems to be. As for the first comment on this page, well, I'm sure the Four Lads fans went through the same thing when They Might be Giants first did Istanbul (Not Constantinople). -Lars
Im sure it will sound quite alright. I have heard OK Go do several of TMBG's songs and quite frankly they do a really good job of all of them. -Chip
I've been previewing these songs on Best Buy, and they sound terrible. All done by weird emo bands with bad singers, or just a single person (again, no singing ability) recording with what sounds like a Dell PC microphone. Maybe it's just the preview quality, but this album is shaping up to be a suck-fest in my book.--tehbagel ( o ) 22:52, 2 Jul 2006 (MDT)
It must be the Best Buy previews that sound bad. Truth be told, the album sounds very good. We just recieved a copy at the radio station where i work, and it looks like we'll be playing the Steve Burns version of "Dead" at least a few times. I didn't think this was going to be very good, to be honest. But there are some really cool tracks on it- SammyG
Are we in Amazon's pocket or something? All the 'buy' links are directed to amazon, and a lot of the TMBG albums, and Hello Radio, are available on iTunes. Instant Gratification. Just wondering why there's no link on this page directing people to the iTunes listing, since Amazon will take a few days to arrive.
- No one realized that iTunes has it yet, I suppose. We do put iTunes links on album pages, see Apollo 18 for example. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:32, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
Here's my take on the album: They Might Be Emo. That's probably enough to drive half of you away, but being the buddy holly glasses, jean jacket-wearing hipster I am I quite liked most of it.
Start with the negatives:
-Don't Let's Start sounds just like the original except performed by less technically efficient musicians. Seems they couldn't decide if they were going to play it "cool" or "wacky". These guys are just like Ben Stiller: "God, I'm so awesome! but check out how hilarious I am at the same time!" Ok maybe that comparison only makes sense to me.
-Dr. Worm is sucky. What a waste of a great song. I could crap out a better version while rabid dogs were attacking me.
Now the Good:
-Ana Ng. God I hate pop punk. God i hate it when hipsters pronounce the word 'Girl' as "Ghel". So why the hell do I like this version so much? Hell they got rid of the "I don't want the world" part and I don't even care. I think they won me over with the references to Thermostat and Which Describes How You're Feeling. That's gotta be it.
-Good Ol' Frank Black, putting the deleted verse back into Road Movie to Berlin.
-Dead has been available online for a long long time. I'm way sick of that song, but I liked it when it was first made available (even if it's a little disjointed).
-Letterbox might be my favorite on the album. Something about a woman's voice doing the Flansburgh part made me giggle. Nice and broody. Slap your faded tight t shirt on your emaciated body and go outside to smoke and brood while this song is playing. Oh, and don't forget to do that hipster comb-over swoop thing with your hair.
-They'll Need a Crane. The wait is over! Finally we have a TMBG-based song we can slit our wrists to!
On a whole it's better than the vast majority of tribute albums out there. The ratio of covers that actually sound different from the originals is higher than most (but still not high enough).
This is horrible, and I only had to preview it to no it. None of these guys can sing, and if they can, they butcher the song. Ecks
As an album, this is terrible. The only genuinely good contributions are Self's 'Ana Ng' and Steve Burns' 'Dead', for their actually being good covers, and the Fluid Ounces 'It's Not My Birthday' for its competency and enthusiasm. Charles Douglas's 'She's An Angel' is embarassingly amateurish; Frank Black's 'Road Movie To Berlin' grating and tuneless; Jason Trachtenburg's 'Doctor Worm' smug, shoddily-recorded and incompetent, and the Wrens' 'They'll Need A Crane' literally the worst cover song I have ever heard - so bad they can't even work the chords out, and if ever a cover could be construed as virtual libel towards the original songwriters this would be top of the list. Do not buy this CD if you're into any of the things They Might Be Giants stands for. It will send you angrily scrambling to find the receipt. ~ SirDarrell
Emo?! You must be out of your mind if you think Self is emo- may i suggest his last full-length, Gizmodgery. He's nothing short of amazing. And The Wrens version of "Crane" is really well produced, very different from the Johns. Sure, its a pop tribute (for the most part), but emo? That term is just being thrown around waaaay too liberally. 90% of vocalists would sound very emo compared to John & John. I'd say, about 1/2 this album is really good, and the other half falls short. The Steve Burns track is really cool. I may have to go buy his CD next. I can't stand OK Go's take on "Letterbox". And, to show how much i like pop stuff, I really liked the version of "Narrow Your Eyes" that's on there, but I can't remember who sings it. -SammyG
I am really curious as to what the Johns think about this album. They haven't mentioned it as far as I can tell, which probably isn't a sign they're very excited by it. I'm guessing it makes them feel old, well that and about half the covers being pretty lame.
Anyway, I don't want to start something (or maybe I do, since it's really slow here at work)but I do think SirDarrell is being pretty harsh. Sure the Dr. Worm cover sucked but it's my biggest pet peeve when i hear someone say a song sounds smug. How the hell can smugness be conveyed through an audio recording? Did you see his facial expression while he was recording it? To me it sounds like he's smiling nervously.
Lighten up. The world would be a much happier place if people wouldn't act like Comic Book Guy all the time.
Plus the Wrens song is one of the best covers I've ever heard...so neeeah!
Contents
Ana Ng cut off?[edit]
Can someone confirm whether or not Ana Ng by Self is supposed to be cut off at the end? When I listen to it, it seems to just cut off in the middle of a lyric, which didn't sound right to me. I do really like this version of Ana Ng, but I'm wondering if my CD is defective or something.
I'd say the song ends abruptly but my version isn't cut off. It ends with the final 'me for you' lyric.
EDIT: Never mind, I just listened to the CD again on my computer, and realized that it's just a huge volume drop on the last couple of words, something which I couldn't hear on the previous junky device I was listening to it on.
This album is actually good[edit]
I disagree with most of these comments. I think this was an overall excellent effort to cover TMBG songs. If you wanted to hear other artists play the songs just like the originals then listen to the originals and stop whining. I think the cover of "It's Not my Birthday" stays too close to the original version and the cover of "Don't Let's Start" is a shitty amateur sounding rock band playing the songs just as it is. The rest of them are good and deserve credit for doing something new and interesting with the songs. That's what covers are for. The Wrens track is the most inventive and is the stand-out song on the album by far in my opinion. The genius who said they "couldn't even get the chords right" is obviously missing the point here.. they took the song and completely changed the feel and progression to make it slow and sad. Well done.
Indefensible.[edit]
Reprehensible. Unspeakable crimes.
I just got the disk today. Most of the tracks are unremarkable, but these struck me:
Self's Ana Ng - Just awesome. The range of mood here is large and dynamic.
Frank Black's Road Movie to Berlin - This song is drunk, and I mean that in the best way possible. It's up-tempo, off-key and swaggering. I found it surprisingly enjoyable.
Steve Burns' Dead - The interesting evolving elements in the background of the track are a good counterpoint to the repetitive, repetitive lyrics. (I always loved the original, but by the end of it I had always felt that I had heard the same song three times over.)
OK Go's Letterbox - I hear one of these guys has a sister who does their coreography. Another solid cover with some amusing elements. Also, the sister of one of the band members does coregraphy for the band. And have you heard about their coreographer? It's his sister!
Jason T's Doctor Worm - Almost there. A good acustic rendition. If this guy could learn to breate not in the middle of lines it would work well.
Hotel Lights' The End of the Tour - This version never "kicks in" like the original. Instead it stays in a very mellow key throughout. That changes the perception of the lyrics for me, away from the literal always-touring-band interpretation to more the everybody-dies-in-a-car-crash interpretation. Happy!
[[._.]]
...And this is emo how?[edit]
Okay, I can see no reason why this could be construed to be emo. At all. Sure, a lot of it's unremarkable, but as others have said, some really did stand out.
Self's cover of Ana Ng was brilliant. They got rid of my two favorite parts of the original song (the amazing "DA da-da-da da-DA-DA-DA-DA!" guitar riff and the bridge), but they manage to make it work. The Thermostat thing in particular worked brilliantly. It's not the Ana Ng we know and love at ALL...but I'd say that in terms of awesomeness, the two are nearly equal.
For some reason, I also really loved Charles Douglas' cover of She's An Angel. They managed to give the song a whole new feel, y'know? And I think it worked. Most of the people I've talked to about it don't like it, but I sure as hell do.
Another nice one is The Wrens' rendition of They'll Need A Crane. While I definitely prefer the bouncy, upbeat, staccato version that TMBG did so long ago, there's just something I like about this cover. It fits the more depressing interpretation of the lyrics, I think--that it's about a couple breaking up--better than the original, in my opinion. Then again, They have never been known for writing songs with lyrics that fit the mood of the music. (One of those quirky little charms of theirs that I simply adore.)
Those are the three I like best, but I also must comment on the Hotel Lights cover of The End Of The Tour. The original is my absolute favorite song ever--beautiful lyrics, amazing music, raw emotion...it has everything. But the cover just seems...bland. The song just doesn't work right performed all quietly and acoustically like that, and the singer just sounds kinda whiny. Kinda REALLY whiny. The song really only works as a powerful, emotional rock song, not as some bland, whiny pop lament.
Just my three cents. Yes. Three. Because I said so. ~Anna Ng hears your words. 04:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
- Just chiming in! I think some of the older comments were written before the album actually came out, so they were basing their opinions on a couple of previews. Depending on which previews they were, I could see how they'd think it would be "emo". Not that I even know what "emo" means, exactly. I'm not with it, guys. :( --Ms F.
- "Emo" is a term that's thrown around too much these days. I'm nowhere near listening to the self-proclaimed bands of that genre, but I can't see anything on this album that fits within that paradigm. ~bowser724 21:51, 7 August 2008 (UTC)
Late on board[edit]
I just got it, listened to the first half. Will listen to more on my way to work tonight. Nice, refreshing takes on the songs so far. I don't expect to like everything, but so far so good. "Emo"? Have you listened to the lyrics of some of TMBG's songs? We didn't call it "Emo" in the 1980's to 90's, but it's the same malaise no matter the generation.
Question: Who gets the money for this? The publishing company, TMBG, the bands, a charity, who? I'm not really up on the way the money works on tribute albums, and simply curious.--Pittsburghmuggle (talk) 17:36, 8 February 2015 (EST)
- After listening to the whole thing yep - very strong first half, very weak second half. Simply weak - not bad or horrible, but seemed a little empty. Ana Ng was very well done. I also liked Pet Name. It's Not My Birthday, however - one of my favorite TMBG songs - made me think "This is what people expected TMBG to sound like when they were told 'It's two guys, a guitar, an accordion and a drum machine'".--Pittsburghmuggle (talk) 17:00, 12 February 2015 (EST)
