Talk:Nanobots

Titles[edit]

Really digging the song title "Stone Cold Coup D'état." When I see "Circular Karate Chop" for some reason all I can think of is the sequence of notes for "Sokol Auditorium." Sad about the accordion being unlikely...they'll probably load up the Podcasts with those songs. --MisterMe 16:34, 26 October 2012 (EDT)

I don't really think the tweet sourced is really conclusive evidence as to whether there's accordion or not; Flans doesn't specifically address that. ~ veg gie man 18:44, 26 October 2012 (EDT)

linnell (and i think flans, too) has said, when directly asked, that accordion probably won't be used on future albums/etc. when linnell was answering questions on twitter someone asked and the answer was, if memory serves, a simple "nope" (granted the theme was one-word answers). i probably just didn't feel like digging up that tweet to cite. also, the whole thing where the else and join us don't have any do not exactly bode well for the accordion's future. anyway, that's why i said "unlikely". -Apollo (colloquia!) 19:23, 26 October 2012 (EDT)

I believe what Linnell said in that tweet was something like "probably not," but IIRC the question wasn't about whether there would be ANY ACCORDION WHATSOEVER; it made it sound like if there would be the amount on old albums. I'll admit the lack on the last two is a potentially bad sign, but I REFUSE TO GIVE UP HOPE DAMMIT. --Self Called Nowhere 19:58, 26 October 2012 (EDT)

I believe Flans and Linnell have said previously that when in comes to instrumentation they will experiment and try all different types of instruments to see if it adds anything to the mix, but the reason there has been less and less accordion on their records of late is because they don't find the accordion suits the mix. I believe Flans said in one interview or a question on the internet about whether the accordion has been put away for good and he responded with "the accordion is always with us when we're in the studio, but more often than not, it never ends up getting used" or something along those lines.--JustinBoy 21:15, 26 October 2012 (EDT)

I love the accordion, too! Flansburgh is my favorite, but that doesn't mean Linnell isn't good! -User:Flansfan December 14, 2012 2:17 PM

Aren't all these tracks "Possible" at this point? None are likely "Confirmed", with the possible exception of "Lumberland" which sounds like too big of a production to not include on the album. --Masonstein

yes. back in...what, 2010(?) with TMBG's Upcoming 15th Album i'd originally used the heading "possible tracks" but that got switched to "confirmed tracks" so i figured that was the right thing to do here. hard to tell what's up, but i think the list is getting too long for them all to be on there. SO YEAH, i agree. -Apollo (colloquia!) 18:34, 27 November 2012 (EST)

How kind...[edit]

...of the Giants for providing us with the name for the next useful wiki-wide editor--"NanoBot"! :-) --MisterMe 16:08, 15 December 2012 (EST)

Yes, I thought of that too the other day! --Duke33 17:30, 15 December 2012 (EST)

Thank you for the inspiration sir! Reporting for duty!--NanoBot 09:47, 3 March 2013 (EST)

er, i think misterme was referring to it being a clever name for an actual (wiki) bot, which is not a real user but an automated process. you'll notice the wiki's other bots have names — often tmbg references — containing the word "bot", as is customary. -Apollo (colloquia!) 10:42, 3 March 2013 (EST)

Oh! So sorry! Would you like me to change my name? I am quite new to this whole "wiki" thing.--NanoBot 14:19, 4 March 2013 (EST)

Nope, our fault for not claiming it in time (not that we need another wiki bot). Enjoy the great name! :) -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 15:59, 4 March 2013 (EST)

Lyrics[edit]

A~~n attempted~~ transcription of the lyric sheets in this video:

Too Tall Girl[edit]

Too Tall Girl, the leftmost sheet. On the left margin, the title is scrawled in pen.

too tall girl can (?) shh shh past the...
too tall girl can (?) too past that Cro(Magnon?)...
appraisal

men:
there's no kinda guidebook or cataly(st?)...
or analog
soon you'll just be playin' some tag...
in a too tall fog

boy:
fall in love with the too tall girl whis(pering?)...
megaphone
fall in love with the too tall girl know...
Connecticut
too tall girl oh oh past the (?)...
too tall girl so past the Cros(sing?)...
appraisal

men:
to get to her a boy's got to...
   estimate
All the (wrestling?) to clear and to...
As the shooting

Usher[edit]

I'm not sure if this is a song, but I will attempt to transcribe the writing anyway. It's really messy writing.

USHER
Baron M B mern DCTOON
Ushered Roman center
Ushered the baggage &
   the new gun

Great[edit]

Great is the most likely title of the sheet on the right.

Great Great Hey Dave
If you have a hundred
dollars I can save you two
hundred dollars

Clem(entine?) (?) fighting...
Brace...

These lyrics are probably mostly wrong, but it will fun to laugh about it later.--Oldpinebox 21:18, 19 December 2012 (EST)

Hahah, this is cool. Made some minor tweaks above based on going through frame by frame. So blurry! How come he's uploading 16:9 videos in 360p?! -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 22:44, 19 December 2012 (EST)

Maybe he has an old iPhone. Should we add "Usher" as a possible track? --Oldpinebox 23:49, 19 December 2012 (EST)

USHER

BROUGHT THE RADAR DETECTION
USHERED REMOTE CONTROL
USHERED THE BLADELESS
        THE NEON LIGHT

-CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 18:51, 24 February 2013 (EST)

This Usher stuff is lyrical fragments from Tesla. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.65.29.209 (talk) 19:32, 27 February 2013

Tesla and robots... Holy [expletive]![edit]

I noticed one of the possible songs is titled Tesla. This excites me to no end. Besides how cool this historic figure was and how neat the lyrics will be, there's the matter of the possible instrumentation. Do you think they'll use actual Tesla coils in the recording? In case you didn't know, they can be used to make music[1].

I greatly hope that “Tesla” will be better than “The Edison Museum,” since Tesla was better than Edison. --deathgecko (Evil Emperor of Lizards) 21:45, 28 December 2012 (EST)

Yo man I don't see how thats possible b/c ``The Edison Musemu is prolly the best soang on [[[No!]]], and thats including the awesome Where Do They Make Balloons! which I read was written......by a Dan! All seriousness though Edison pretty much beats Tesla in a popularity contest, wich is B.S. since Tesla made a moon sphere and a time machine and a death ray. I beleive he also had AMAZING hair like the History Channel aliens guy. Did you see that movie where David Bowy played Tesla??? It would be AMAZING if David Bowie sang on this song... Thats just my $0.02.--WhatTheHeckLinnell 09:37, 10 January 2013 (EST)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Show_preview -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 11:16, 10 January 2013 (EST)

Hears the thing TDK ([ex.ref]][}, I asked for my acocunt to be deleated and nobody did i . i begged all the mods. But now I'm on a diff. med. regimen & I feel pretty good. Soooooo...I think I will dow hat I want right now for awhile. Maybe if u honered users requests....--WhatTheHeckLinnell 11:19, 10 January 2013 (EST)

I'm not really sure what more can be said about this. It is nothing personal. We don't delete accounts. Even if we did delete an account, your contributions are there forever. So, what would deleting your account solve? Read the second sentence of our privacy policy. And, check out the section titled "Deletion of Content". --Duke33 11:59, 11 January 2013 (EST)

After hearing the song, I've got to say I'm disappointed. Tesla is definitely not as good as The Edison Museum but it does have a lot of good facts. I guess it's hard to beat a "haunted museum". This song should have had a much more electronic music feel to it. Still, there is the hope for someone to remix as electronica with singing Tesla coils. Or I could just look elsewhere for my Tesla-inspired EDM fix.--deathgecko (Evil Emperor of Lizards) 18:31, 3 March 2013 (EST)

EP Pre-order[edit]

Anyone see this? --Oddjob 18:34, 14 January 2013 (EST)

No, I did not see that. But I'm glad you pointed, it out. And I will be passing it around to people like Chelsey Robertson and Kev Miriano. I rpobably will tell Cam and Douglas B. and Andrew.--WhatTheHeckLinnell (talk) 12:26, 15 September 2017 (EDT) NICE JOB

Amazon samples[edit]

30 second samples are up on amazon.de. Wout 13:22, 16 February 2013 (EST)

so, after listening to the samples, I wish that some of the short Flans songs were longer like Destroy the Past, Decision Makers, and Nouns. Linnell is bringing it as always. Flans's longer songs sound good, too. -Nosaj56 14:45, 16 February 2013 (EST)

(more samples also on iTunes) ~ veg gie man 18:12, 17 February 2013 (EST)

Bonus Disc?[edit]

For Oldpinebox, what is the source for the Bonus Disc material? I've obviously not kept up. -- CJSF 07:52, 18 February 2013 (EST)

Advance copy and adding lyrics[edit]

I'm not sure what the policy is on adding lyrics to as yet unreleased music, but if you have an advance copy of the album, is it generally frowned upon to add lyrics to the songs before it's released, to prevent "spoilers"? --JustinBoy 09:11, 26 February 2013 (EST)

Yep. Advance copies for the album went out as early as January. Out of respect for the band our policy is to not put up lyrics for albums/songs until they're released officially via some means or performed live. -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 09:23, 26 February 2013 (EST)

Does this count? http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/they-might-be-giants-pack-mini-jams-into-nanobots-album-premiere-20130226 - tvman 10:30, 26 February 2013 (EST)

well the band uploaded it so i think that's fine? BUT ALSO I ALREADY TRANSCRIBED ALL OF THEM but i'm not at home right now SO IF EVERYONE COULD JUST WAIT LIKE FIVE HOURS THAT WOULD BE GREAT PLEASE -Apollo (colloquia!) 10:30, 26 February 2013 (EST)

...also don't take my word for it? should probably wait to receive admin-approval -Apollo (colloquia!) 10:31, 26 February 2013 (EST)

That's an official release - anything's game now! Awesome! -CapitalQ ♫ talk ♪ 10:52, 26 February 2013 (EST)

Alternate cover?[edit]

Just noticed on the Soundcloud upload that the album cover has an alternate text arrangement so the whole band name is visible. I suppose for promotional purposes... First time I've noticed it though.

You're not the first one to notice that...I can't fathom why they would make such a minor change, but then again, they made an even subtler alteration to the Join Us vinyl cover. --MisterMe 08:08, 27 February 2013 (EST)

This is like what happens on Tumblr, lol. One user in particular is ButtPrincess420.--WhatTheHeckLinnell (talk) 12:27, 15 September 2017 (EDT)

Accordion?[edit]

I just listened to the album for the first time and didn't hear the sound of accordion on any of the songs except for Sometimes A Lonely Way. Did I just not listen closely enough, or is that the only song on here featuring the accordion? Great album nonetheless. I really dig the melodica on The Darlings Of Lumberland and Icky (that's a melodica, not an accordion, right? Upon listening to Icky for the second time, I'm not that sure anymore...) --Freakiosis 14:29, 28 February 2013 (EST)

icky sounds like accordion to me. lumberland could go either way. --

14:37, 28 February 2013 (EST)

Yeah... probably is. It sounded a bit melodica-ily nasal on first listen. I still believe it's a melodica on Lumberland, though. --Freakiosis 15:09, 28 February 2013 (EST)

icky is totally a melodica! lumberland is accordion (but not the french musette-y accordion we're used to, the italian clarinet-y style.) if i recall there was some in the short flans microjams (uh, i don't have ears now, but i'm thinking "hive mind", it was playing bass notes - maybe "there" but i don't think so.) anyway that's all the words i have to say! -j2

i asked flans on tumblr and he said the instrument on icky is neither a melodica or an accordion, but a saxophone sample played on a keyboard! here's the ask. -Eskaywye (talk) 00:54, 22 May 2013 (EDT)

Lost My Mind[edit]

No tab for Lost My Mind yet? I'd do it myself if I had my guitar.

Flans rocks[edit]

This album is so incredible, I can't even describe it in words! But one thing I can tell you exactly is the reason WHY I love it so much: it's because Flansy's songs on here rank among his strongest material. (Linnell's at his best as well, of course, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here.) Circular Karate Chop just rocks, Tesla and Sometimes A Lonely Way both got really beautiful melodies, Black Ops and Darlings Of Lumberland are delightfully creepy and the short vignettes in the middle of the album are just ultra-catchy (last weekend I annoyed the hell out of everyone by randomly singing "Hive mind! Hive mind!" all the time). I wanted to point this out because Linnell seems to get most of the love from long time fans, and Flans is just so amazing on Nanobots. He's really on par with Linnell this time. Would you agree? --Freakiosis 17:19, 5 March 2013 (EST)

I'm with you here. I might even prefer Flans' contributions to the album over Linnell's (if I had to choose). "The Darlings of Lumberland" might be my favorite song of his, and ranks among the most inventive, intricate, and exciting songs the band has ever done. Serious props to the magnificently arranged "Too Tall Girl", the highly dramatic "Black Ops", and as mentioned, the spastically energetic "Circular Karate Chop". Linnell's tunes aren't slouches either ("Stuff Is Way" might be my favorite), but hot damn Flansy brought his A-game to this one. adamspektor 19:25, 5 March 2013 (EST)

I personally think Flans stole the show on Join Us. In fact I would say it's maybe the only time in their career where I preferred Flans' songs over Linnell's. I loved the album on the whole but Linnell seemed a little tired. Haven't spent enough time with Nanobots yet but I feel they are on par with each other this time. Flans has been on a huge roll for the past few years.--The Vanishing Dot 23:23, 5 March 2013 (EST)

Second full length in a row (after "Album Raises") where Flansy is explicitly credited with keyboards as well in some capacity... "Fake Keyboards". Ha, trying to downplay his synth/key contributions? Love the guy. Also, on the subject of keyboard credits, Dan Miller is credited on "Lonely Way" with piano (as 'Solder') but is NOT credited with keys on "Lost My Mind", though there is that youtube video... and on the subject of liner notes - is this the first album with no printed lyrics?!?

factory showroom only came with lyrics in japan... but it looks like this album may not even have that. truly a shame. --

22:29, 5 March 2013 (EST)

Right, that's true - Factory Showroom didn't have lyrics - but tmbg.com posted them, except for the trademarked stuff. I think it has to do with lower packaging budget overall, it's just the way things are going with the industry.

Can Someone Please Help?[edit]

30+ year TMBG fan here. Over that span I've had little interest in popular music other than theirs, I've made a holiday out of their album release dates, and I was even inspired by Linnell to learn accordion many years ago, which has become one of the principle joys of my life. So imagine my complete disorientation when, for the first time ever, I listened straight through a new TMBG album upon its release and found it completely awful. Like, comPLETEly.

Gone were the cascading, catchy, almost intuitive melodies guaranteed to hook me on every past release, and in its place were vocal lines that were either boring and monotone or lazy and forgettable. The first half of the lineup, all the way through Tesla, was just such a dull slog to get through. I couldn't believe it; my attention constantly wandered! Never happened on a TMBG album first listen for me. Were it any other band, I would've shut it off by track 3. Flashes of their usual genius quickly gave way to predictability and one-note droning.

Perhaps it's lyrically interesting, but that was nearly impossible to tell as the engineering work is a hot mess. Pat Dillett performed well under his own par. Despite a handful of cleverly engineered moments, a good deal of the live band arrangement is nearly unlistenable, with the bass and guitars constantly getting in the way of everything else and each other. Replicant sounds like it might be a fine track, if only I could hear it.

A ray of hope comes to me in that the reactions of fans and critics seem overwhelmingly positive, so maybe I just am missing something. Maybe yesterday was a really bad day or I was just distracted or whatever. And maybe this is the sort of album that I just can't stand but after 10 years and 50 listens it finally clicks and I consider it their magnum opus. I don't know. But can somebody help? What am I missing? Did anyone else have the same reaction? Why have I found something precious in even their weakest releases prior to this, but just found this whole thing unbearably drab and poorly executed from start to finish? All of 30 seconds after I finished listening to the album, I couldn't recall a single melody from it. Not a single one. That's never happened before, and it terrifies me.

For me this album is kind of like The Spine. At first I found many of the tracks hard to get into and listen to, but after a couple of listens, it did start to "click" for me, and my mind and ear got into the groove the album tried to achieve. I wonder, though, are you getting a really good sound through whatever system you're listening to this through? Your specific criticisms about engineering and production are about 180 degrees from what I observed. Replicant, in particular, is pretty clear to me. Overall, I wouldn't put this in my top 3 TMBG albums, but I find "You're on Fire," "Call You Mom" and "Icky" to be very "hooky" songs. -- CJSF 12:38, 6 March 2013 (EST)

The sound system wasn't the problem. I even suspected there was something wrong and tested a couple of other songs I'm pretty familiar with. Additionally, I do composing and sound engineering work on my home computer, so it's all high quality stuff, and everything else sounded fine. This, though, just sounded like noise at so many moments. And I agree with your assessment of The Spine, but at least that had Experimental Film and Museum of Idiots, tracks of that caliber. I found nothing on Nanobots anywhere close to those. It felt like a really weak post-album EP, not an album proper. I dunno... I'm really hoping the second listen goes better. How could it not?

Flansy DID say in an interview that he was afraid they might "over-produce" it (though I think he was being ironic). Perhaps, as an audiophile and engineer in your own right, this just isn't the mix for you. For the rest of us plebs, we just aren't listening to it that way? ;-) -- CJSF 13:37, 6 March 2013 (EST)

(that wasn't an interview, it was something he said to me on twitter :p -Apollo (colloquia!) 15:22, 6 March 2013 (EST))

I am pretty sure I've read and/or heard it in more than one place, but twitter (or more likely Tumblr) is fairly likely. -- CJSF 16:27, 6 March 2013 (EST)

i find it odd that this was your response, as i was quite let down by join us, and i feel pretty meh about both the spine and the else, but i absolutely adore nanobots. i can't say there's a track on it that i really dislike; i'm not overly fond of "tesla" or "sometimes a lonely way" but i think they each have their own merits. "stuff is way" might be one of my favourite tmbg songs, and off the top of my head i can't think of a of their studio tracks produced in this century that i'd describe that way. i have been sort of dissatisfied about the over-prominence of loud guitars in tmbg's recent material, rather than the far more interesting synths/weird things of the past, but i don't think it detracts from the goodness of the songs themselves. anyway, i really hope the album grows on you, because i am enjoying the hell out of it! -Apollo (colloquia!) 15:29, 6 March 2013 (EST)

This is weird... I don't know if I should call myself biased, but I enjoyed the album a lot. I liked The Else and considered Join Us an O.K. album, not their best, but still quite good; Nanobots I loved, however. I can't quite imagine the difference between songs like Stone Cold Coup D'État or You're On Fire and the beloved Linnell classics such as Doctor Worm and the like... Production-wise, I didn't spot that much of a difference to earlier material either, but I'm not a professional audio engineer or anything like that (just a bit of home recording and producing since 2005-ish). The sound doesn't stick out in any negative way when compared to other CDs, IMO. Maybe it's just not love at first sight and you need to listen to it more often, I don't know. But I really, REALLY can't imagine what's so different from other TMBG albums on here, with both the production and the music itself meeting their typical high standard. Hmm. Anyway, it's interesting how far apart from each other the perceptions of two people can be... I hope I didn't offend you or anything, I don't want to hate on anyone just because they don't like this album, as everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if I find that opinion weird :D I'm already curious as to how you're going to like it after the next listen! --Freakiosis 16:23, 6 March 2013 (EST)

At first, I was a bit disappointed. I'd heard four of the major-hitter songs prior to listening to the album as a whole so it felt a bit weak. I had the same experience with pet sounds, sitting around waiting to hear the songs I knew and dragging through the rest of the album like sludge. It did click, though and so did Nanobots, which I love. I also think the production is top notch, especially (funnily enough) Replicant. (To dispel any notions of ignorance on the subject, let me point out that I also record/mix quite extensively [with nearly ten years under my belt]). As for helping you, I can't. Nobody can. If you don't like it, you just don't. I can't make you hear what I hear. All I can tell you to do is listen again, maybe in the car or on a walk.

Also (and this is unrelated but) I see some people mentioning The Else, which was my introduction to the band. I just thought I'd use that as a platform to say how much I love that album. It is still my favorite from the band and ranks as one of my all time favorite albums by any band, if not my favorite. (Join Us is also fantastic, for those mentioning it.) --Propman 04:44, 7 March 2013 (EST)

I agree: you can't explain to someone how to "get" an album. Either they like it or they don't. Also, I am with you on The Else. I've been a TMBG fan since 1989 and The Else is one of my favorites. One of the things I love most about TMBG is that every album sounds different from the previous one. Nanobots has a lot of classic TMBG hallmarks but also goes into a different realm for them. I liked it on the first listen.--The Vanishing Dot 03:12, 9 March 2013 (EST)

The Darlings of Lumberland really gets me on this album. The arrangement is so intricate. My favorite part is where it breaks into a sudo-marching band flourish before charging full-steam ahead into the frantically arranged instrumental bridge(?).--Propman 18:08, 10 March 2013 (EDT).

Okay so here goes me. Join Us is definitely my favorite, with flood and lincoln tied in second. That being said, nanobots doesn't sit with me quite as well as any of those favorites. But it's weird and random and pretty catchy, so I quite like nanobots. It's not my favorite, but neither is the spine or apollo 18, but I absolutely love both of those. --Jaydn* (talk) 14:09, 12 August 2013 (EDT)

Lyric Sheet[edit]

Is it due to me picking up the CD through Amazon instead of the TMBG website, or do all editions lack a lyric insert? YoungWilliam 06:35, 9 March 2013 (EST)

There is no official lyrics insert as far as we know. ~ veggieman, not logged in 13:35, 9 March 2013 (EST)

judging by the artwork we've received, the LP also lacks a lyrics sheet :c -Apollo (colloquia!) 14:52, 9 March 2013 (EST)

My favorite songs[edit]

—The thing ^Talk 12:08, 9 March 2013 (EST)

The take-away from your list seems to be that you're not a big fan of Flansburgh's work on the album.--Propman 18:10, 10 March 2013 (EDT)

Who wrote which songs?[edit]

I keep seeing people mention that this John wrote that song and this song was by that John, but I have no idea where they're getting that information. It's not in the credits; how does everyone know?

well certainly most of the time, the John who sings lead wrote the song. there are exceptions, but it's not very common. --

20:43, 10 March 2013 (EDT)

Australian Release.[edit]

So I'm wanting to pick up an aussie copy, as I had no money when the fan club sign up was a thing, so I want the at large sampler. Do all australian copies have the disc included, or is it hit and miss?

most of the copies seem to lack it, due to the difficulty in including it in the packaging. your best bet is to ask a seller for confirmation. --

20:11, 31 March 2013 (EDT)

what ant said. but also, it might not be worth it, especially if you live outside oz, since shipping is totally ridiculous (and the exchange rate isn't even working in your favour). i'd not bother if it's just for the at large tracks; if you can get your hands on a decent recording of a show from the ju tour it'll be essentially the same. plus they've put a couple on the podcast already. -Apollo (colloquia!) 20:13, 31 March 2013 (EDT)

Okay, I guess I'll just look for a bootleg or watch ebay for an At Large disc. And thank goodness for the podcasts! Thanks guys.

They're currently selling At Large at shows. Just ask someone to pick it up for you. --Self Called Nowhere (talk) 03:16, 1 April 2013 (EDT)

Oh hey! That's awesome! When June comes, I will be a happy man. --Jaydn* (talk) 10:46, 3 April 2013 (EDT)

Digital Download[edit]

I know I've asked this sort of thing before: If there is an official DD noted for other albums (like The Else and ARNATQ (or the 'bling album, I like to call it) shouldn't it be noted for Nanobots (and others) as well? -- CJSF (talk) 09:10, 3 August 2013 (EDT)

I believe a digital download is only added if it's officially released on a different date (as both the aforementioned were). ~ veg gie man 14:40, 3 August 2013 (EDT)

aye, quite the same reasons given as when the question was posed previously. -Apollo (colloquia!) 17:29, 3 August 2013 (EDT)

Argh - I knew I had asked, but couldn't find the page. Thanks (thought this still seems odd to me). Carry on. -- CJSF (talk) 00:44, 4 August 2013 (EDT)

Album cover[edit]

Is there a version of the album cover without the text? It doesn't look like the original collage is on the page linked. AngleBlueprint (talk) 18:09, 12 April 2020 (EDT)