Talk:Eric Schermerhorn

This guy is a real professional and has impeccable technique but sadly was not a good fit for TMBG. Their songs have to walk a fine line between serious and funny to work properly. Schermerhorn's guitar work on Factory Showroom (e.g. on How Can I Sing Like A Girl) pushes the sensibility too far into 'novelty song' / Doctor Demento territory. --Nehushtan 07:23, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

I contend that Eric was a great fit for TMBG during the short tenure he had with them, and with Mono Puff. I will have interviewed him 5 times by next week. He is amazing, very kind and generous with his time. He has the same sense of humor as the Johns - because he's also from Massachusetts, so he instantly got their humor upon joining them. At the end of 1995 they toured as a 4-piece with John, John, Brian and Graham; with Eric's inclusion in the onstage lineup starting in March of 1996, They Might Be Giants became a 5-piece for the first time. He looks back on TMBG's 1996 with fond memories, even if touring with TMBG was grueling compared to what he had been accustomed to with David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He's not talked about a lot now by the band, especially considering their next 5-piece lineups from 1998 and 2004 (John, John, Danny, Dan, Dan / John, John, Danny, Dan, Marty), but I think John, John, Brian, Graham and Eric was a great lineup. As for "How Can I Sing Like A Girl?", it doesn't sound like a novelty song to me. Put it up against "Fish Heads" or "Amish Paradise". Eric Schermerhorn and Jay Sherman-Godfrey have solos on that song, and the guitar stuff works not to self-satirize the song, but to enhance it. The Johns would vehemently resent the notion of any one of their songs being regarded as a 'novelty song'; plus, the Johns actively encouraged Eric to contribute whatever he wanted to any given song, and he often did. --Nicholasname, May 29, 2024, 3:28 PM CT.