Shows/1987-09-16/Interviews

The following are transcriptions of the interviews conducted on September 16, 1987 on the Frank O'Toole show.

Key:
FO = Frank O'Toole
JF = John Flansburgh
JL = John Linnell

Interview - Part #1

FO: Fade out here? Here?

JL: [distant] Yeah, fade out.

FO: There?

JF: Yeah— quick! Quick! Fade out!

FO: I'm faded! Oh, okay. Stop the tape now.

JF: Okay, yeah, okay.

FO: Oh, that wasn't live? Uh, that was They Might Be Giants, and, uh, both of you are here.

JF: Well—

FO: John and John.

JF: FMU. House of Rock.

FO: Second house of— second home. Second house.

JF: The other house of rock.

FO: The other house is where your parents live.

JF So, it's great to be back, Frank. The magic is back, here at WFMU.

JL: And we're bad.

FO: I was thinking of you guys the other night as I watched the, uh, the Giants play football, the Super Bowl champs.

JF: Really? [???]

FO: Yeah, they got their asses whipped. And I kept thinking, "they might be, they should be..."

JF: But somehow...

FO: "They aren't."

JF: No.

FO: They were pretenders! You guys are the real thing. 

JL: Right on.

JF: Got that right, Frank. Heh.

FO: I'm raising my fists in the air, it's too bad you can't see it. You can't even smell it.

JF: The magic— the magic of radio.

FO: Alright. What was the name of that last song we just heard? 

JL: That was called "Where Your Eyes Don't Go". 

FO: "Where Your—"

JL: Unreleased, anywhere, only available on the radio.

FO: "Where Your Eyes Don't Go". I'm— I'm— I'm sure that's gonna turn up somehow, it's pretty good.

JL: Yeah!

JF: Actually, yeah.

FO: It's kind of, uh, kind of, uh, that noir sound. [chuckles]

JL: That whole, like— yeah. [vocalizing]

FO: Kind of, uh, ''The Fourth Man'' theme.

JL: Right.

FO: Um, you guys are playing, uh, [scoffs] you're always playing, but this is very special.

JL: Yes.

FO: Um, a couple of weeks in a row.

JF: We're doing four Fridays in a row at the Village Gate, starting this Friday. We're doing it with The Ordinaires, performing with us. And, um, yeah, we're doing shows at the Village Gate at nine and midnight, and—

FO: Two shows each Friday night.

JF: Two shows each Friday night. Date night. Bring your friends. It's a big, big thing.

FO: That's right, you guys don't care about gender, or— or cross-section, or cross dressing for that matter, I heard. You like everyone.

JL: No, that— that's not true—

FO: You guys played the Pyramid! [chuckles]

JF: There's nothing wrong...with the Pyramid, Frank.

FO: I didn't say there was, I'm not making a value judgment here, I'm just sort of— I'm— I'm using that as a, uh...as a point of reference. So, you know, people who ordinarily wouldn't go out to shows might want to go out to see you guys play.

JF: Yes!

FO: Speaking of playing, this is a catchy way to, uh, slip into this. You guys have another thing happening here, a live thing. We have a microphone up here.

JL: Sure do!

FO: And don't be distracted by what I'm doing here—

JL: No, no, it's alright. We're just watching you—

JF: Okay.

FO: I'm constantly flipping through paperwork. 

JF: Yeah. I'm just tryna— what exactly are you doing, Frank?

[laughter]

FO: I had some catchy, uh, clever questions that I was gonna ask you, but, uh—

JF: This is like flashbacks to the Joe Franklin show, here.

FO: It's history now.

JF: "What— what— what is that piece right there?"

FO: "We have, uh, Izzy Dedyet, what do you think of They Might Be Giants?" No...

[laughter]

FO: So you guys wanna do a song?

JL & JF: Sure!

JF: Sure.

FO: Go ahead!

JF: Let's close this door, 'cause there's all this noise coming in from— like the alternative— 

JL: From uh, Glenn Morrow.

JF: The alternative radio station out here.

JL: All this noise coming from Glenn Morrow!

FO: The Rude Boys! 

JF: Hi, we're on the radio! We are They Might Be Giants, we'd like to thank you all for listening to the radio. Um, what song are we gonna do?

JL: Uh, uh, I wanna— I wanna first of all, dedicate this one to Glenn's wife, Elizabeth, who is at home, bummin' out.

FO: Ah.

JL: Is this— am I loud enough from this?

FO: She on psychedelics? 

JF & JL: No.

FO: Oh, not that kind of bummin' out. 

JF & JL: No, no.

JL: No, she's just a little sad, and we thought we'd cheer her up with a little Giants Magic. 

JF: Elizabeth, Elizabeth—

FO: New Jersey!

JF: Feel better, about everything. I didn't know that. Why is she bumming out?

JL: I don't know.

JF: So, um, what song are we— let's do—

FO: [chuckle] It's not anybody's business, actually.

Interview - Part #2

JF: Frank O'Toole...is back.

FO: [sigh] I was holding my breath there, as you were holding that note!

JF: [quietly] Eeee!

FO: How are you able to do that in a smoke-filled room?

JL: Circular breathing. 

JF: Rahsaan.

JL: Rahsaan.

JF: Rahsaan-and-on. 

FO: They don't call me a disc-jockey for nothin' you know!

JF: So, um, shall we give away these tickets to the first 300 callers? 

FO: You wanna give away to the first three hundred callers? Say goodbye to your career!

[laughter]

JF: We're giving away tickets to, uh, to the Village Gate, this Friday night, They Might Be Giants, nine o'clock, and midnight. [???] 

FO: With the Ordinaires!

JF: With the Ordinaires, performing first at nine and midnight. We're going on around ten and one. So, we're gonna be giving away free tickets to the first 300 callers, here, on WFMU.

FO: And who's going to introduce you Friday night? 

JF: Mr. Joe Franklin. 

[JL starts playing Axel F by Harold Faltermeyer on the accordion]

FO: Very impressive.

JF: The King of Men.

[laughing]

JF: So, uh—

[laughing]

JF: So, uh—

FO: Isn't there some kind of, like, "Heh heh heh," some kind laughter in the background or something?

JF: No, no.

FO: No?

JF: But there's a—

JL: No, that's only your experience.

FO: I'm a white boy, I can't get into the rhythms, what can I say?

JF: So, uh, uh, what is the num— what is the number here to call for the first—

FO: Well—

JF: After we— after we start the next song, I think we'll start taking calls. Is that— is that the way we should do it?

FO: That was a bad move, right there.

JF: Yeah.

FO: Somebody's gonna be angry.

JF: But we— we are gonna give tickets to the person who's calling right now, and the next 200 and 99 callers—

FO: No, you keep saying that, you're gonna be held to it.

JL: I swear. 

JF: We are, we are. So, um— I—

FO: No, I don't wanna encourage 300 people to call up. We are giving away three pair. 

JF: Three pair.

FO: Three pair. Three...times two, equal six.

JF: So if you are the 300th caller here on WFMU, you will be the lucky recipient of those three pairs of tickets.

FO: I've already counted about 200 and 98 calls in the last two— in the last minute and a half.

JF: So what is— what is the number here, on the air? 

FO: Uh, 201— actually, we should just say that if you know the number, then you deserve the tickets. So let's just see how that works. 'Cause there are enough people out there that call in all the time for these kinds of things. 

JF: Huh. But that's not really democratic, though.

FO: Oh I think it's fair.

JL: And then if this doesn't work, then everyone will know, 'cause we'll be giving out the number. 

[laughter]

FO: No, no, no, no. No, you have to— you know, that's not even— it's a calculated risk, here. And I think, uh, I don't think we're in for a letdown on this. WFMU is a radio station, They Might Be Giants are the two guys, the band. And they will be playing four successive Fridays, starting this Friday, at the Village Gate. The area code is 201. 

JF: The station is WFMU.

FO: The call letters are 91.1. Uh, we're gonna go back to some tapes, and then we'll start picking up the phones, and, uh, we will take the first three— what do we want do go? The first, the third, and the fifth?

JF: A fifth?

JL: [distant] You figure it out.

JF: Where's the— where's the fifth? 

FO: The fifth is under the table. But I—

JL: [distant] Alright! 

FO: But I can't deal with it until we're done here. FCC rules here, you know. Alright, we have a tape here queued up. What do we have on this tape, John?

JF: Uh, this the new, uh, remix of Don't Let's Start, which we're releasing as a 12-inch Maxi Single, along with three other alternative songs on the B-side, which we will be, uh, debuting here as their second live airing, anywhere. 

FO: Are they on the same tape, here?

JF: They're all on that tape, right. They all have, like, five seconds in between them, or ten seconds in between. We can come back and go...no more callers.

[laughter]

FO: We have the answer, thank you.

JF: We have a winner.

FO: Okay, 10:43, 17 before 11 o'clock, WFMU, They Might Be Giants, and Don't Let's Start.