Talk:Experimental Film

March 4, 2007

I'm trying to figure out the piano chords in the beginning. Can someone help me out? (Anonymous)

Go to Guitar Tab:Experimental Film. :) Though I could tell ya.

G______F_____C___D__Em___Am_____D_______G

The color of infinity inside an empty glass.

and so on.

__________

Almost a They Might be Giants song my numbers, and it feels slightly forced, as if Linnell is trying to write a single. In that contrivance the song in similiar to the Statue got me High. Gently poking fun at the auteurs one meets at university, it doesn't really go anywhere. The kind of song to sing-a-long to in the car. Worryingly for Flans, even Linnell's fillers are usually equal to his better efforts. (Mr Tuck)

I don't know. I used to agree with you in that I thought it was rather contrived, but now that I have the album here and I'm listening to it...I'm really enjoying it now! And sure, the lyrics don't really go anywhere, but neither do the experimental films that they're written about...and I like the fact that a song with the title "Experimental Film" belongs to one of the most poppy songs they've written! By no means am I saying that this is one of the greatest songs TMBG or even Linnell for that matter have written, but that doesn't stop it from being really good. And just because it has a more traditional structure doesn't mean it's any less enjoyable...and I really like The Statue Got Me High, too! -__- -Stiddy

I know what you mean. A bit of a grower. I can't stop humming it. I love the video too! (Mr Tuck)

Apr 17, 2004

Who can tell us more about the song? We have lyrics now, and enquiring minds want to know where they came from!  :-) - Veloso

Apr 18, 2004

That was me who added them. Maybe I'll create one of them user names one time. I heard it at the SxSW show at the Parish in Austin, and my friend who was also there found by total luck some guy in one of his classes who recorded it, so I got a copy. I like the song so much that I wanted to get the lyrics down. It's a really great song, my favorite of the show, you should all be looking forward to it. - Sparky reverend_beastly@minister.com. - FrankEinstein

June 18, 2004

Do we have permission to direct link to this RAM file? - Veloso

July 13, 2004

Well, now that the album's out, has anyone seen the online video for this single that the Homestar Runner guys were going to do? What'd you think of it? - anon.

July 13, 2004

I have seen the video and heard the song many times. For some reason I was not expecting the video to be using the homestarrunner characters, or be such a direct representation of the song. Its a very entertaining video though, with many tmbg references and classic homestarrunner fun. The choice of Strong Sad to be the main character in the video is a very good choice, one gets the feeling that TMBG music is right up Strong Sad's alley. This collaboration is going to probably be a big boost for TMBG and homestarrunner, fans of one will have a good chance of being fans of the other. And with the ease of getting the songs off the They Might Me Giants web site it will promote the band better than any MTV Video could ever do. I start to wonder how this project got started, who approached who. Maybe one of the Johns is a really big fan of homestarrunner. -Pugly

Well, I've often heard Flansburgh sing the praises of Flash in interviews, and Muckafurgason did do that Flash video that Flans made a cameo in, so if it's only one of them, it's probably him. Plus, there was the whole No! animation thing, so it's really a logical extension of that.- Stiddy

I saw a picture somewhere of Flans wearing a Homsar shirt. He's a fan. - anon.

Also, I remember Flans saying that StrongBad was his favorite wrestler in response to a question in a newsletter. I wonder what Linnell's thoughts on Homestar are... --An orangutan

It's not July 13 anymore, so maybe I'm supposed to mention that, but I refuse to mention that, so don't bother trying to make me mention that. Anyhow, John "Flans" Flans said that Linnell did the Different Town thing all by himself (in an interview in Wired magazine, maybe last month?), and and uh stuff. So yeah I forget what I was on about. --Tgies

July 26, 2004

This is a new classic. I understand the song-by-numbers comment, but so what? Nothing wrong with using a successful formula. Take a look at the votes on this site for favorite songs. The top four are all Linnell, all about the same tempo. Fans like this kind of song! You can yell to it in the car! [amyloo]

The below is from Flansburgh's interview at msn

Speaking of the Web, you've recently teamed up with the guys at HomestarRunner.com, which I'm a huge fan of. Well, we are, too. We live in a split world - people who know about Homestar and people who don't. We actually had lunch with those guys a month and a half ago when we started working on this video for "Experimental Film" together. They said that they had actually seen in some blog a picture of me wearing a Homsar T shirt, and, of course, Homsar is one of the more obscure [characters] in the thing - although the whole site is willfully obscure. The site is enigma at its finest. Now we have this "Experimental Film" video out. It's a video directed by [the Homestar character] Strong Sad. It really references a lot of the classic art-school touchstones of experimental film.

Is this going to air on MTV or is this just for Web? This is just for Web. Frankly, and I'm reluctant to say this in a public forum, but I'm not sure MTV is cool enough to play it. [Laughs.] MTV needs to climb out of their teeny-bop ghetto, dust themselves off and get back to the business of new wave.

--An orangutan

Thanks for the videos, but could somebody try to make it as small as possible, preferably under 7MB? These sizes are too big for me.

When I get my broadband set up in my new house, I think I can probably download it and make it smaller with no appreciable loss of quality. Hang on a few days. -- Tgies

when i first heard this song, i really liked it, as well as the music video. now that i've read the comments of people who say it's somewhat contrived, i think i'd have to agree. still, it's a great song, and i've found its a good song to introduce people to tmbg with- as well as the old favorites, of course.

Personally i think its a great song.. but whilst surfing channels i landed on MTV2 (i'm on the UK).. and they were playing the H*R Video , but im sure there was some subtle differences... thing is it was about 3 in the morning and i've seen it on there that one time

Anyone else having problems playing the AVI of the Conan appearance? Just wondering. -- RichardAshkenazi

This is my all-time favorite TMBG song. The tune....I just love it. Actually, this is my all-time favorite song of any kind. TMBG, I salute you once again!

--MAX

According to THIS interview, there is going to be another music video apart from the Homestar Runner one for MTV. Does anyone know anything about this?

October 1, 2005

hmm. it's october 2005 and there is no new mtv video. what gives? -Nosaj56 12:03, 1 Oct 2005 (EDT)

I don't think there's going to be one after all. I'm 99% sure that the video (with Homestar Runner) has been played on MTV already. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 19:38, 24 Oct 2005 (CDT)

I just realized that the guitar solo-ish part sounds a lot like Purple Toupee's chorus ("Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down"). But that could just be me.

While the tune can get stuck in my head occassionally, I will back up the minority here that feels this song just doesn't have enough going for it. The melody is a little weak, the lyrics are only kind of amusing, and ... theres only two short verses! But maybe the most disturbing aspect is how it points out Linnell's age - on slower songs, like Museum of Idiots, I think his voice is still great, but on this and the Spine recording of Thunderbird ... either he was feeling a little under the weather, or he just can't belt out the louder songs like he used to. Kind of adds to, as others have said, the song sounding 'forced'. --72.224.182.201 17:23, 16 Feb 2006 (CST)

Whoa, so this is so gonna be the worst thing I'm gonna read all day. This is what I get for not being on the wiki for so long, so many missed skull-cracking opportunities. But um. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT OK. He's not, like, gasping for breath or something, geez. That's such a weird thing to say to criticize a song anyway. --Self Called Nowhere 13:41, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

The tune really reminds me of Purple Toupee... hmm. --She's an Angel

Why do we have a theme for the video? It's not like there is one of these on any other song with a video! --liam 18:24, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

Yeah, I've had that thought too. ~ magbatz 19:05, 16 May 2006 (CDT)

I'd rather see them on all pages than take them off. It would be the only indicator of a song having a video, besides the screenshots. - Whirrrlwind (Woosh!) 09:15, 17 May 2006 (CDT)

More people should say "it's" instead of "it is" in sentences like "I already know how great it is."