Talk:Here Come The 123s

Again?

Again? Magbatz

Why not? -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 18:14, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)

Eh... I don't really go for their childrens music, to me it's not as deep or interesting and at times can get annoying and repetitive. But it works for them and I guess they like making that kind of music. Magbatz 18:20, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)

I believe you can't go wrong with They Might Be Giants one way or another. -tomthefirst

While I thoroughly agree that TMBG's "adult" music is much deeper and more interesting than the children's albums, I still love No!, Bed, Bed, Bed and HCtABCs. Any new TMBG is good TMBG, in my opinion. And as you already know, they've been working on a new adult album also. :D -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 18:32, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)

Have they? Or is this TMBG's Mysterious Next Album? — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 19:31, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)

Are you suggesting that TMBG is collaborating with Dust Bros. for an album aimed for infants? :) -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 19:45, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)

It sounds silly, but, you know.... Hey, the last one went Gold. That's like tienen mucho dinero. Who wouldn't want to be in on that? — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 23:42, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)

Not even the Johns are prolific enough to release two so very different albums in the timespan -of only a few months, are they? I smell something stinky.

I assume they finished recording the album already, and the videos are being worked on right now. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 09:06, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

I still can't wait for Here Come The Meteors! --badqueso 10:34, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

I say good for them. Their children's albums are what make money, so I don't blame them for wanting to do more. If I had children I'd much rather them listen to TMBG than, I don't know, "Barney Sings the Alphabet". Plus, I'm terrible at math, so I might learn a thing or two from "Here Come the 1-2-3s!" --Martorano

Ehhh... I dunno. I am still way skeptical about this. I mean, doesn't it seem kind of strange that the article is the only place that any exsistance of this album was documented..? It was just something I came across (thanks to good old Google Alerts...) and thought to inquire about. But, who knows if it's even true? Something could have gotten lost in translation easily. -INeedACrane

Flansburgh stated last year in a newspaper article that their next project on Disney Sound was going to be titled "Here Come The 123s". Try Googling for Here Come The 123s in quotes to find it. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 17:06, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

I wonder if "in the spring" means the spring of 2006 or of 2007? It's already Spring 2006. --Nehushtan 16:13, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

One would not say "to be released in the spring" while referring to spring of the next year. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 17:13, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

Prediction: Here Come The XYZs! -(Turnip) 17:35, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

I think they already accomplished that with Z Y X ;D. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 17:45, 21 Mar 2006 (CST)

Well, I did some searching on Google, and here's the info I could find on Here Come The 123s:

"'There's talk of us doing a "Here Come the 123s,"' adds Flansburgh, 'but I'm so terrible at math, I'm afraid I'll get something really wrong.'" You can find the whole Disney Insider article here: Disney Insider Article

"After they released No! in America, they released a DVD about the ABCs, so what's next for children? Numbers? Linnell answers: 'Inevitably, because of the genius of Disney, we will be putting out Here come the 1,2,3s. It wasn't our idea.' No, Flansburgh had other ideas: 'We were going to put out here come the polytheists.' Or, alternatively, says Linnell: 'Here come the elements of the periodic table.'" You can find the whole Intered article here: Intered Article

John Flansburgh: "It's a pretty wide open horizon right now. Hopefully we'll be able to do a sequel, like do a 'Here Come the 1, 2, 3s' They [Disney] really have kind of given us a long leash...." You can find the whole Northwest Indiana Times article here: Northwest Indiana Times Article ~Drew

From an interview on tmbg.com with Time Out here, at the bottom of the page--

Time Out: So, is numbers next?
JF: It's been suggested, but I think we're going to go for punctuation and dingbats.

childrens albums = shark jumping

tmbg and fans always complain about the band being labeled a novelty act. but what other serious rock bands have ever made childrens albums?

the only other popular artist i have ever heard of that has made a childrens album is novelty act weird al yankovic. but tmbg have beaten him with what, 4 or 5 childrens releases now? keep it up and they'll be beating raffi soon.

i just dont get this. it seems not only lazy (it is easier to satisfy the tastes of young children than it is teenagers or adults) but also greedy in that it trades on the tmbg name to sell a different product. what, will they put out death metal and rap albums next? maybe a few new age instrumental or smooth jazz cds? or maybe they should regress further and make a few records for babies with only goos and gahs as lyrics. based on the comments above, im sure some people here would still defend that.

You're talking like this is going to be their first kids' album. I've never heard the term "shark jumping" used outside of the context of television. -TDK 04:16, 23 Mar 2006 (CST)

Haven't they said in the past they just like making children's music? Sure, it may be annoying for adults to have to put up with while waiting for their "real" new album to come out, but children like it and the Johns like making it.

I think it's cool that they make children's albums. Some of the material on them is not as good as their other stuff, but much of it is. I think they (or at least Flans) are getting concerned about their image though. It seems like every opportunity he has, Flans is saying how it's so wierd that They Might Be Giants is making KIDS MUSIC!!! I mean, TMBG is a total adult rock band, right? Not really. Their stuff has always had some what of a kiddie appeal to it, going way back to the days of Tiny Toons. Kids music fits with them well. And they are really good at it too. How much kids music is listened to by as many adults as kids? (For the record, I do like Jim Gill a lot.) --BlarJotunn 8:05, 24 Mar 2006 (PDT)

I don't see how making music for children is jumping the shark- in fact, a lot of popular bands are doing it. Here is one example. Here is another. These CD's include artists like Wilco, Tom Waits, Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene, Hot Chip, Fembots. If anything, I think the success of No! and Here Come the ABC's has started a trend, and, like I said before, I'm all for it. --Martorano

I actually understand feeling skeptical about this. "Here Come the ABCs" was, let's be honest here, slightly boring. Another one (this time with numbers... sigh) is a bit much. --Raceofdoom 20:25, 16 Apr 2006 (CDT)

In refrence to people thinking it's "jumping the shark," I have some opinions. =) Well. John and John seem to be good, maybe even friendly people. Well, why not be friendly to all ages and make some kids' CDs? Some people may reject them for it, but does They Might Be Giants care? NO! I was just saying to my brother that TMBG's a sorta "artsy" band, they don't care what the critics or the fans think. They're just being who they are! I remember that my mom heard Experimental Film and Doctor Worm and asked me if they were a "kiddie band." I laughed, and told her that some is kiddie stuff-- those wern't. I had to explain the whole "metaphor" and "stream of conciousness" thing afterwards. ^_~ So please excuse my rant, TMBG's just trying to be decent in my opinion-- being friendly for everybody. Rock on Linnell and Flansy! --Lemita 06:04, 26 Jun 2006 (MDT)

Well, now it's confirmed that they're working on another children's album. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 03:37, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I totally agree with Lemita up there. No! is one of my favorite TMBG albums. Those purists who thing their kids albums aren't deep or thought-provoking enough, should really be quiet. I think No! is just as good as many of their other albums, spanning tons of styles, (Bed Bed Bed and The Edison Museum are a good example of how diverse the songs are). I used to listen to No! over and over.. I've found some better TMBG albums, but No! is still a very good album. I didn't like Here Come The ABCs! that much, but it was better than some other TMBG albums, like Mink Car or Apollo 18. And if you think TMBG isn't meant for children's music, you've never listened to Particle Man, or Istanbul, or Doctor Worm, all very popular songs. So... yeah.

Although I would prefer an album more similar to No! than Here Come The ABCs!

- AgentChronon

What could possibly possess you to say that Here Come the ABCs is better than, or even comparable to Apollo 18? -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:18, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

=P. Sorry. The first half of Apollo 18 was pretty good, although it took me a while to get used to it, but the second half was just crap. This is all my opinion, though. -AgentChronon

what 07' do you want to see?

we got a hovering sombrero 05'. i'd personally like a my man 07'. how about all of you?

I want to hear Hopeless Bleak Despair '07. Very inappropriate for a kids album, but I still think it would be cool.

The Brothers Chaps doing the music video for a song. About the number 8!

Transcription of some interview thing [1]. Is about 2/3 down the page. Yay! --Valerie 22:53, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, and the video of it can be downloaded with clips from it. Neavers 23:22, 30 July 2007 (GMT)

release

I take it that They are not going to be releasing this in August as planned, eh? I haven't heard of anything in awhile...

have any of you been to one of the johns' childrens shows?

The kids get to run up to the stage while their 40-something parents toss balloons. It's brilliant marketing for their next generation of fans. A-B-Cs, 1-2-3s, birds-and-bees (oh yeah, they did that one already). Schoolhouse Rock was also brilliant and just as memorable 30 years later.

Track listing!

Cool! Track listing! I like, at first glance, One Everything and Pirate Girls Nine and Apartment Four. I am surprised, however, that there's no modern day Number Three (I love the way it sounds with the live band, too!), and I was hoping for some mentioned of 93 Million Miles. Anyway though, two things:

• We need to fill in all of those blank pages. And this would seem like a job for Q-Bot!
• I deleted some of the info about the "Confirmed tracks". I know the info's still on the song page's for those few tracks, but do we still want that info on the album page? The answer's probably no, but I never know.

That said, rejoice and pre-order! And only $13 for both a CD and DVD from the beloved Giants! ~ magbatz 17:08, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Taking bets for the best song based solely on title. Oooo Laaa Oooo Laaa is definately ahead, but I'm personally banking on Nine Bowls Of Soup. The aforementioned Pirate Girls Nine isn't bad either. NINE WILL WIN -j2

Pirate Girls Nine equals epic win. Akagi 01:02, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Amazon bonus tracks

From Amazon.com: This Amazon.com exclusive version of Here Come the 123s includes 3 bonus CD tracks ("One Two Three Four", "John Lee Supertaster (Live)", "Bed, Bed, Bed (Live)" and a bonus DVD video ("One Two Three Four"). I almost tacked those on the end of the tracklists, but then I realized that One Two Three Four is already on the normal album. Hmmm.... -keith.

#1 on Amazon

I'll probably work it into the main article at some point, but i thought i would point out that as of today, this is the #1 seller in Music > Children's Music on Amazon.com --Duke33 16:52, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

As pointed out by AtionSong, it's also peaked at #11 on the main sales list for music.--Duke33 04:53, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Make that #8 for all music! --Valerie 19:42, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

My wife found this site that tracks their sales ranks...pretty cool. --Duke33 00:57, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Pitchfork

Anyone read the Pitchfork review?

TMBG's number-songs, though, aren't anywhere near as neatly crafted, and the problem comes down to the fact that they simply aren't math guys. They're language guys, and they only really have a use for numbers as linguistic constructs.

Wow...talk about nit-picky. --Duke33 18:28, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

They do realize, right, that it's called Here Come the 123s, and not Here Come the Plusses, Exponents, and Integrands? It's not supposed to be math, just children songs (ie- songs meant for children) based around the concept of numbers. ~ magbatz 21:39, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Pah! They just don't get it. --Henry 19:03, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Pitchfork is notoriously snobby in their reviews, so I wouldn't put much stock in this... Though while I haven't received the album yet, I'm not really expecting anything better than "ABC's", which doesn't have much good stuff for adults... --Oddjob 19:25, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Pitchfork has always been quite pretentious about this stuff. They tend to give every new TMBG release a 5.2 or 5.3. Of course, Then: The Earlier Years gets a 9.5. Guess we know which era of TMBG they prefer. :] -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 19:31, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

What gets my goat is that I felt that the guy (Douglas) approached it like it's any indie adult-oriented album. If you were to compare this album to Hannah Montana, The Wiggles, or any of the other albums that are targeted towards kids, this is the cream of the crop. So, a 5.2 in the realm of the kids music world is just not fair. Also, I feel that he didn't pay enough attention to the DVD, as he just kinda casually mentioned it at the end. In this case, the DVD is the meat of the experience, and the CD is just a bonus. --Duke33 20:04, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

After giving it more thought, I am tending to agree more and more with the Pitchfork article. I mean, c'mon...who's going to teach my four-year old about trigonometry and standard deviations, if it's not John and John? How about a song called "Hypotenuse"? Jeez...(sarcasm) --Duke33 02:52, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Here Come The Pythagorean Theorems! ...yeah no. It's for little kids. Not high school honors math students. --Lemita 01:04, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Or rather, with that in mind, Here Come the A²+B²=C²s! ~ magbatz 02:16, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

You totally beat me on that one. Genius. ;) *high five* (Here Come The 123s song pun unintended, but acknowledged) --Lemita 21:49, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Haha. Yes! And this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but TMBG should do Here Come the Do, Re, Mi's. Cause that would be sweet. --Valerie 01:03, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Teaching kids music theory perhaps? ...that would be sweet. :) --Lemita 01:41, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Album Art Mystery?

On the back of the DVD insert, there's a graphic of a kid and a dog in a rocket ship that doesn't seem to correspond to anything on the DVD. My four-year-old replies without a pause that "it's the video to Infinity, because it talks about going to the moon!" Anyone know? --209.180.212.156 10:14, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

See the discussion on Planets--Duke33 11:53, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Why do these have to sell so well?

No! was good. No! was a brilliant idea. No! was TMBG realizing that "wait John, check this out: Doctor Worm, Particle Man, Istanbul, and heck, ALL of our hits are basically kid songs! We could write a kids album!" And so they did, and sure enough, it suited them perfectly. Songs like John Lee Supertaster and Clap Your Hands wouldn't have been at all out of place on one of their "adult" albums. They had the same quirky humor, same imaginitive lyrics, and... well, it was basically TMBG for a younger audience. However, the Here Come series... is not TMBG. Any other band could have made this. It's just standard, boring, educational chirpy annoying tunes. Sure, it's a little better than the norm (Letter Shapes is awesome), but really, there's nothing TMBG-esque about it. But, it's rolling in the dough, so they're going to keep doing it. Shame, really.

Who agrees?

Me. Entirely. See top of page. It disappoints me. It is enjoyable, sure, and I'd even say a step or a flight above the regular children's music scene, but they could at least not call this project "They Might Be Giants." ~ magbatz 23:52, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree as well. Using the name "They Might Be Giants" is fine, but these are not true TMBG albums as far as I'm concerned. They're soundtracks to a side project that is strictly for kids. The music is better than average for kids' music, but I consider the "Here Come" albums to be for kids and completists only.

Some songs like Alphabet Of Nations are great, but for the most part I don't hold these songs in much higher esteem than the Dunkin' Donuts commercials. I don't begrudge the Johns the opportunity to bring in some real money, however. More power to 'em. --Oddjob 19:30, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

As far as I'm concerned, the only people who get to decide what goes under the banner of "They Might Be Giants" is...well, They Might Be Giants! Who are we to say what kind of material "is" or "isn't" acceptable for them to produce? If their muses take them in this direction again in the future, not one person can say, "No, you know what, we're tired of your 'kids' music and we just want adult-only stuff" and expect it to do anything. That fan will simply not buy the album and move on to another band, while others will take it as it comes and enjoy the creative output of their favorite Johns. This discussion is pretty pointless, when you get down to it--will Flans look at the above dialogue and go, "Oh no, there are a couple of fans in revolt! Better switch back to writing about death and skulls again!" No. --50.89.186.12 19:56, 8 January 2014 (EST)

Yes, The Johns are free to do whatever they want, but we're also free to have opinions about it, and I don't think preferring it when a band you love makes music you actually give a fuck about is exactly an unreasonable opinion. Also, we're...not allowed to discuss things without it actually changing their mind about stuff? We're not allowed to just discuss things because we want to discuss things? What? I don't think anyone is talking about anything here on the wiki with the aim of affecting what The Johns do. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 15:07, 9 January 2014 (EST)

Exclusive Tracks

Does Amazon still have those live exclusives? They had the regular one up for awhile, and now it says "Deluxe Edition". It also has "One Two Three Four", but it doesn't say it has the other exclusives, like Bed, Bed, Bed and John Lee Supertaster. --Dunklekuh81

Come on, guys, I need your help. I hate bumping, but I've had this up for about two weeks. --Dunklekuh81

Contact the seller (Amazon). ~ magbatz 01:47, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Number 3

Who else thinks They should've done a kid-friendly version of Number Three for this instead of Triops Has Three Eyes?? Anyone with me??

You're not the only one to think that about "Number Three"--see the "Track listing!" section of the discussion above. However, I think "Triops" is a charming, fantastic song that gives kids a unique way to think about how different things can come in threes. (Also, please sign your posts!) --MisterMe (talk) 15:34, 30 December 2013 (EST)