tmbgsongaday

Hiatus

Adam — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:25:24 +0000

Album #12

blog on hiatus until further notice

EDIT: Just to clarify, everybody is fine, nobody is sick or hurt or suddenly homeless or anything, however a series of events the past couple weeks have significantly hampered our ability to make daily posts. After four days passed on this blog without a post from us, I decided it was better to call an official hiatus until things could get sorted out, rather than leave people wondering whether something really bad happened.

-L.K.

#118 – “Sally Boy Candy Bar” (1983)

Adam — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:28:12 +0000

A.S.: AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

L.K.: This fucking song.

A.S.: SKJVN;SZKNBSZFG LBNFGH’N EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

L.K.: We should’ve done this yesterday when I had my capslocking excitement! It’s worn off since then!

A.S.: I’m trying to recapture the excitement of seeing this pop up in the shuffle.

L.K.: I can’t feign keyboard-smashes… Go copy and paste whatever I did yesterday.

A.S.: Sorry I was busy watching Mon Oncle at My Mind’s Eye and then talking about music and stuff til 4:30 a.m. Ummm… lemme find it. Eh, I’ve closed out the window. Your excitement is lost. But believe me, dear reader, we both have irrational reactions to this song.

L.K.: ”wait what rea;yty fjsdfkahsdljkfansldk the whole review is just going to be me going AAAAHHHHHHHHHH” via Facebook.

A.S.: Right.

L.K.: But yeah man, this song.

A.S.: Guys, “Sally Boy Mothafuckin’ Candy Bar”

L.K.: It is insane that this is such an early TMBG song because actually, uh… it’s a lot better than a lot of later ones. IT’S SO FUCKIN’ GOOD.

A.S.: This ranks right up with “Puppet Head” for me as all-time best John Flansburgh song.

L.K.: I’m sort of torn between whether my love from it stems from the song itself, or just from the incredibly aggressive, incredibly lo-fi recording of it.

A.S.: Yes, that intense, raw, punk/new wave sound is something rare for TMBG. They can get loud, they can get aggressive, and they certainly have plenty of low fidelity recordings, but rarely have all of these excellent qualities melded together so effortlessly in their catalogue.

L.K.: I really wish they had done more stuff like this, because it’s such an anomaly.

A.S.: Flansburgh’s lyrics are just batshit insane, quoting 60s pop hit “Boys” (made famous by The Beatles), toying with gender confusion for the first of a number of times, referencing Hollywood Squares…

L.K.: Oh yeah, nobody has any idea what the hell the lyrics are about. They seem just on the verge of meaning something.

A.S.: Which isn’t unusual for the band, but these lyrics just seem especially odd. Again, it’s probably partly due to the rawness of the delivery and performance. You asked Flansburgh what they meant once!

L.K.: I did! And said it had something to do with language. Maybe. I’m willing to bet he either doesn’t remember what it’s about, or doesn’t want to admit something. Considering that it’s a song that was written and recorded almost 30 years ago, I can understand that.

A.S.: I love this song’s intro. Just this insistent, ominous pinging, very much implying that something is going to happen. And then when it does, it’s just this rough explosion of music.

L.K.: It’s so good. Hot damn. This song, guys.

A.S.: Would you go so far as to say that it’s the best hidden gem in the catalogue? I would.

L.K.: Considering that it never made it beyond the demo tape stage, I’d say yeah. I mean, I love “Hell Hotel” too, but I think this song tops even that.

A.S.: I’d say so. Those five songs we’ve heard from that 1983 demo tape… it really begs the question of whether or not there’s anything else on there because if they’re half as good as the songs we have heard…

L.K.: Since the incredibly raw sound of the recording is part of the song’s charm though, I really wonder whether a cleaned-up album version of this would’ve been as good. And I mean, there almost certainly are tons more old TMBG songs sitting around in boxes of cassette tapes, the problem is just whether we’ll ever get to hear them or not. God, I’m just thinking about this song’s lyrics again (always a dangerous idea).

A.S.: Oh yeah.

L.K.: I feel like this needs to be handed off to an English major and a women’s studies major or something nuts like that, to see what they pull from it.

A.S.: I also feel like they’ll just hand it back and say, “Yeah, this is just gibberish.”

L.K.: Oh yeah. I mean, it probably is just gibberish. But the “boy is a girl” fish-with-bicycles stuff just seems weirdly deliberate to be totally meaningless. It probably ultimately is still meaningless though. Just the title phrase itself… I mean, what is a “sally boy candy bar” anyway? I’ve always wondered that because it’s such a strange phrase. Is a sally boy like a nancy boy? Usually I don’t bother trying to interpret TMBG lyrics because usually they are pretty straightforward. Still, this song is frustrating because it still doesn’t seem to mean anything when taken at face value.

A.S.: I think the allure of the song itself is just drawing you to try to get anything from the song’s lyrics. You love the song so much that you want to understand it completely, and being unable to understand it only encourages you to study it even more closely.

L.K.: It keeps flinging odd juxtapositions of potentially loaded statements at you… while also being totally fucking rocking. Seriously though, I mean, no offense to all the other really old TMBG songs, but I really think it’s a shame this song is as obscure as it is.

A.S.: Oh yeah. You know, I think knowing and loving this song was one of the reasons why “Read A Book” was so exciting when it came out. I feel like that song, polished up as it is (then again, in terms of lo-fi music, “Sally Boy Candy Bar” is pretty cleaned-up, relatively speaking) is a real call-back to the punk energy of “SBCB”.

L.K.: Oh, I remember the earlier, super-rough “Read A Book” from whatever YouTube video Flans posted at 4 am last summer/fall. I don’t know if I immediately connected it with “SBCB”, but I think I see what you’re saying.

A.S.: Both songs are of a common musical root. And it helps that they’re both Flans-tunes.

L.K.: Yeah, for a couple of guys who claim 1977 changed their lives, their music has always been pretty definitely not punk. Especially Flans, Mr. “I-Went-To-London-In-1977″, Mr. “I-had-a-fake-ID”.

A.S.: Well… At least in the musically regimented terms of punk. Spiritually, especially in the early days, that’s a whole different issue. TMBG were pretty punk.

L.K.: Oh yeah, ancient TMBG was definitely full of the DIY ethos though. But musically & lyrically they’ve always been fairly tame and non-confrontational, which isn’t to say that punk is required to be confrontational, but it’s at least usually challenging some assumption in some way.

A.S.: TMBG challenged that assumption though; they were confronting the uh, confronters by not being confrontational. Which is why we love them.

L.K.: Now we’re getting very meta.

A.S.: Well, that’s what TMBG was and is.

L.K.: And it illustrates the way we are.

A.S.: Sally

L.K.: Boy

A.S.: Candy

L.K.: Bar

A.S.: Yup.

L.K.: Man, I want to start a rock club called SBCB’s now. It would be TERRIBLE.

A.S.: Yeah, I don’t know if Sally Boy Candy Bar would be a particularly great name for a rock club, but SBCB’s does have a ring to it.

L.K.: Really getting off topic, did anybody else mistakenly think the CBGB’s awning was hanging over the restrooms at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or was that just me?

A.S.: No, I did. I got pissed.

L.K.: I was all “Whoooa, that’s kinda political”. And then I realized it wasn’t actually hanging over the bathrooms.

A.S.: I think it might’ve been two or three times later, I went down to investigate and found out that those weren’t bathrooms. I also got pretty pissed off when I went to Bleecker and Bowery to find that CBGB’s was some like… high-end clothing store. I mean, I knew it had closed but I was just upset there were no traces of it left.

L.K.: That’s New York City for ya, man. Always rushing to erase its past glories and triumphs with crass commercialism.

A.S.: And it illustrates the way we are?

“Sally Boy Candy Bar” at TMBW.

#117 – “O Tannenbaum” (1993)

Adam — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:01:40 +0000

L.K.: God, my iPod loves having this come up on shuffle.

A.S.: Really? I guess your iPod wants every day to be Christmas for you.

L.K.: Oh yeah, or at least it did until I had to erase all the music from it. It isn’t even a particularly good version of this song though, although it is in fractured phonetic German, which I guess John Linnell deserves some credit for attempting.

A.S.: I love this version! It’s so damn warm!

L.K.: All I can say is that it certainly does sound like it was recorded in a gymnasium.

A.S.: I like that, it sounds like that gymnasium could be in your own home. It’s a very intimate recording.

L.K.: Whoa, the Young Fresh Fellows opened for them at the venue they recorded this at! That’s totally unrelated to the song, but it’s pretty cool to see them opening for TMBG two years after they were namechecked in a song.

A.S.: We’ve discussed the mutual love YFF and TMBG have for each other, which is always nice to see. And here are playing together, in a high school gymnasium, nonetheless…

L.K.: Yeah, what a weird place for a show.

A.S.: Then again, Wilco played at Lakewood High over here in 2007, so I guess it’s not too weird.

L.K.: I was just going to mention that! I guess it depends on how big your high school is, and how appropriate it is as a venue for a rock show.

A.S.: My high school would have blown for anything like that. Our auditorium sounded shitty enough for my high school band concerts as it was (although apparently the auditorium recently got a makeover, thank god).

L.K.: I mean, my high school’s auditorium is the home of the Canton Symphony… Doc Severinsin once warmed up in the band room’s bathroom.

A.S.: Whoa, I don’t think I knew that.

L.K.: True story. No idea what year it was though. But yeah, back to the song.

A.S.: Oh, one more thing tangentially related to the song’s recording. I don’t think we’ve mentioned yet that “Don’t Tread on the Cut-Up Snake” is the greatest name for a tour.

L.K.: Greatest official name for a tour, although I think Flans had some joking names for tours in the early days that were stranger.

A.S.: I wish they still did that. Well, I guess the Beardo tour wasn’t that long ago.

L.K.: “Bring Me the Head of Kenny Rogers” Tour ’87″

A.S.: Oh yeah, that was a good one, if that had actually really been the tour’s name.

L.K.: “We’re thinking about the Wait I Forgot My Jacket tour, but we’re not sure.”

A.S.: Anyway, I still love this version of this song. The brushes on the drums, the gorgeous baritone saxophone counterpoint, Linnell singing as warmly as he can given the language barrier…

L.K.: Is it just me or have they chopped a couple measures out of the song somewhere though? I swear I remember “O Tannenbaum”/”O Christmas Tree” as having somewhat longer choruses.

A.S.: Maybe, I’m not sure? I get a Vince Guaraldi feel from this recording too.

L.K.: Well, there is a version of said song on the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack… Needs a bit more minimalist piano going on to remind me of it, though.

A.S.: Oh true. Yeah, if Vince Guaraldi played bari sax instead of piano. Okay, listening to that version now, it is way jazzier and peppier, so I’m pretty off on that analysis, but they do both achieve the same sort of warmth.

L.K.: I guess I’m just being harsh because I don’t like Xmas music in general, and this is not one of the few songs I like. Also because my iPod kept subjecting me to it on my hourlong drives to the city and back.

A.S.: Yeah, as I think we’ve discussed before, I’m a-okay with Christmas music.

L.K.: Apple should really do something about their shuffle feature. It is pretty damn non-random.

A.S.: As we’re finding out in doing this blog… Ah well, Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you’re all having a wonderful Christmas Day.

“O Tannenbaum” at TMBW.

#116 – “Ana Ng” (1988)

Adam — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:41:23 +0000

A.S.: Oh boy.

L.K.: HOLY SHIT. Can I start this off by saying that this is my favorite TMBG song OF ALL TIME? OF ALL TIME.

A.S.: I wouldn’t go so far with that, but it is impossible to deny its greatness.

L.K.: It is absolute musical and lyrical perfection. Also it is up there with “Accidents Will Happen” on my list of Greatest Album Openers Of All Time. ”Ana Ng” totally grabs you right from that jagged guitar intro and then sort of sucks you in for the next 3 minutes or so.

A.S.: It’s an incredible pop moment, just… yeah, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need us to tell you how amazing this song is.

L.K.: This is John Linnell’s pop genius at work here, full-throttle.

A.S.: I think it’s amazing that this and “Don’t Let’s Start” – probably the two most highly-regarded, canonical songs from the band ’s earlier days have already popped up here. Perhaps it’s because of that high regard, but I’ve always sort of mentally linked the two songs together, even if “Don’t Let’s Start” is much more lyrically similar to another heavy hitter like “They’ll Need A Crane”.

L.K.: “Don’t Let’s Start” is more musically upbeat than either “Crane” or “Ana Ng” though.

A.S.: True. I guess it’s just something about a lot of those songs from the early years were just… I dunno, these jagged, strange, sad, sublime songs. There was something about them that vanished after the 1980s, which is fine because there have been obviously a mass of incredible songs since, but just this song and Lincoln as a whole.

L.K.: Like “Don’t Let’s Start” though, “Ana Ng” sort of hides its lyrical heavy-hitting statements in between lighter stuff.

A.S.: Right.

L.K.: There just some great, I mean god, the imagery of the opening lines I always find really awesome. ”Make a hole with a gun perpendicular to the name of this town in a desktop globe.” I mean, it’s syllable-filling, yeah, but it’s also really distinct. It is the sort of thing that wedges in your brain and you aren’t really sure why. ”Exit wound in a foreign nation.”

A.S.: I guess Linnell found inspiration for that line from a Pogo comic strip: “The other inspiration for [Ana Ng] was a Pogo comic strip. [...] Some of the characters are digging a hole. They decide they’re going to dig to China, but one of the smarter characters pulls this huge revolver out of a drawer and shoots a hole ‘in the desktop globe.’ Then they look at the other side and the hole is in the Indian Ocean.”

L.K.: Yeah, I’ve heard that Pogo story many times, but the opening lines of “Ana Ng” are still just really compelling to me on their own merits. What a way to start a song. It’s even more interesting to compare the final lyrics of “Ana Ng” to the old Dial-A-Song demo.

A.S.: Yeah, the DAS demo is really quite different. Different key [at least in the version I have on MP3], different lyrics.

L.K.: You can tell that the main idea for the lyrics was there, but some of the particular phrases still had to get perfected.

A.S.: ”I don’t want everything, I just want your half” – yeah, the finished version is better.

L.K.: You know, it’s amazing this song is as memorable as it is considering the unbelievable wordiness of its chorus.

A.S.: Yeah, that’s a catchy mess of notes, there.

L.K.: It took me YEARS before I actually knew what the words to the chorus were.

A.S.: Like a much simpler rendition of some of Zappa’s catchy-but-full-of-notes tunes. For uh, lack of a better term. And then we get the album version, which has another iconic music video.

L.K.: Oh yeah. Johns dancing awkwardly and holding photos of their grandfathers, and uh, other things. Lots of vintage junk store props were bought for this video.

A.S.: Maybe another reason I connect this with “Don’t Let’s Start” – both have creepy grinning Flansburghs in the videos.

L.K.: The fish were purchased for this video too, and uh… animals were harmed during the making of this music video.

A.S.: Oh yeah, what was the story with that?

L.K.: I don’t know. It’s briefly mentioned in the commentary on Direct From Brooklyn that the fish did not survive, although I don’t think anybody was quite sure why. It’s not like the fish are really undergoing any dangerous activity on film. They’re just swimming around with a bust of Chairman Mao or whatever. Maybe they were just very, very cheap fish.

A.S.: Speaking of images of famous people in this video, I really really want that JFK glass.

L.K.: I saw one on eBay once! TMBG fans were going nuts over it.

A.S.: That’s some iconic shit there!

L.K.: Yeah, there are so many weird props in this video… Cameras, taxidermied piranhas, rotary phones…

A.S.: And in terms of amazing choreography, as found in a lot of those early videos, I love the running they do around the two minute mark, followed by the long-shot handshake.

L.K.: Flans mentions their desire to avoid lipsynching as part of why there is so much weird dancing going on. There was also apparently some argument about avoiding any literal imagery in the video, and there IS a little bit of that in the video (but just a little bit).

A.S.: Certainly not enough to make it seem contrived or obvious; it ties the song and the imagery together subtly.

L.K.: There are a couple seconds of footage of a bridge though!

A.S.: And a phone.

L.K.: Which, the Johns being the Johns, drove them nuts. Or at least it drove Flansburgh nuts since he was the one bringing it up in the commentary track for the music video.

A.S.: Heaven forbid!

L.K.: TMBG just wouldn’t be TMBG if they weren’t a couple of neurotic control freaks. But anyway, weird video, very little relation to the song, and some very interesting location shooting at a fireman training ground (exterior shots) and an abandoned school on the lower east side (interior shots).

A.S.: And then the song became a “hit” and a fan favorite and remained fairly consistent in concert… until last year. Well, okay maybe not entirely. There was that brief time when they used to open the song with “Somebody Took My Eyeball”.

L.K.: Well, there’s also the variation in the bridge section, which as of recent years has evolved to consist of Flans singing “I don’t want the world, I just want your half” in a high, quiet little voice.

A.S.: To the tune of the chorus of “I’ve Got A Match”, nonetheless, so even though they never play that live anymore, there’s at least a shade of it in a lot of concerts. But I mean, last year saw a pretty major chance in the song’s performance – an extended, heavy, dissonant, almost noise-rock-ish introduction. I adore this change. I adore any chance the Johns get to play heavy.

L.K.: Oh yeah, the beginning of “Ana Ng” has gotten REALLY FUCKING INTENSE in the past 6 months or so. They even played it that way on Conan in January of this year.

A.S.: It’s just this glorious cacophony that is pretty rare in modern TMBG performances, so when it does hit, it hits hard.

L.K.: The most intense version I’ve heard is the one from Mohegan Sun last year. That was nuts.

A.S.: It was perfect, especially transitioning without pause from “Cowtown”.

L.K.: (Here is a very old “Ana Ng”… or this: ”Ok…more songs now, I guess.”)

A.S.: (Oh man from the best early concert on YouTube. Astralbee, whoever you are, you rule.)

L.K.: (“Breasts” - poor Flans)

A.S.: Well fuck that guy.

L.K.: I think it was a woman reviewing the concert, actually.

A.S.: Same sentiment, different gender.

L.K.: L.K.: Yeah but that makes it even WORSE that she’s calling him BREASTS

A.S.: Hey is Flansburgh yelling into the pickup of his guitar in that 1990 performance at the “I don’t want the world” part?

L.K.: Yeah, he is.

A.S.: Noisy TMBG might be the best TMBG.

L.K.: The Severe Tire Damage version also has Flans yelling that through his guitar pickups, though the weird thing about that version is that it’s an overdub on top of a live recording.

A.S.: Yeah, the live version from the 1994 NYC release.

L.K.: John Linnell making static noises. Not as interesting or cool as screaming through your guitar.

A.S.: True noise rockers. That part of the song though, just that line again, “I don’t want the world, I just want your half” is easily one of the most perfect lines I’ve ever heard in a pop song.

L.K.: I have heard stories of people painting said phrase on real-life bridges, but I have yet to see it with my own eyes. Heck, or even a clearly non-shopped photograph.

L.K.: I like how the song’s lyrics effectively just end with “And the truth is we don’t know anything”. I mean, the chorus is repeated a couple more times after that, but that’s where the song’s lyrics end. It’s true, we don’t know anything!

A.S.: It’s like Linnell just gives up and renders all the lyrics prior to it irrelevant. If I can share a personal story about that, because I do really hold that line near and dear to me, and what the hell is music if you can’t hold it near to you anyway, right?

L.K.: Yes, share away.

A.S.: I was in a long distance relationship a few years ago, and my girlfriend was visiting me at home. It was the last day she was in town and we were both getting bummed out about it, and we were driving around listening to music. Whatever we had on was only making us even sadder (probably Pet Sounds or Odessey and Oracle or something along those lines), so she wanted to lighten the mood a bit and put on Lincoln. But when that line came up, I had to just turn off the music entirely because it tore me apart. It just captured everything so perfectly. And then the subsequent launching right back into the song, with Linnell’s intensified vocals, “They don’t need me here and I know you’re there.” It’s beautiful, it really is.

L.K.: Man, I’m glad I spend all my time listening to music in a room by myself. Helps keep unwanted emotion out of it.

A.S.: I mean, it’s not a bad memory by any means, and I have other memories associated with it too (that kick-ass live version at Mohegan Sun), and I’m pretty good at not letting song associative memories get in the way of me enjoying the song on a more objective level. I remember our friend Leia of the Afternoon Naps once posted something on popular social networking website, Facebook, telling people not to ever let anyone or anything take a song from you or taint your perception of great music, which is 100% true, dear reader. But that is a memory I still hold dear, and I think it captures a point of the song pretty well.

L.K.: I mostly just remember listening to this song when I was 13 or so and loving it and having no idea what 90% of the lyrics were.

A.S.: What did you make of the 10% you did know?

L.K.: Oh, I don’t know, I didn’t pay attention. They were lyrics.

A.S.: Oh right.

L.K.: I just liked the music. Oh man, wait, I forgot to mention the 1964 World’s Fair makes a return in this song.

A.S.: Yeah, that’s another thing about the early years, they lost the whole allure of the 1964 World’s Fair. Another thing that ties a lot of those early “hits” together.

L.K.: You know, when I found out what really WAS at the DuPont Pavilion, I was pretty disappointed.

A.S.: I honestly still don’t know What was at the DuPont Pavilion? (Why was the bench still warm? Who had-*gets shot, dies*)

L.K.: This: The Wonderful World Of Chemistry!

A.S.: It’s a cool idea, but the dancing is pretty goofy.

L.K.: You know, both Johns went to the World’s Fair, but I sincerely doubt they actually remember anything from it. It’s just so weird that it had such a lasting effect on them.

A.S.: Oh yeah, they would have been, what 5 and 4 years old?

L.K.: Yeah.

A.S.: I mean, my Dad was slightly older but he still remembers it, used to tell me about it when I was younger. There was something about that fair.

L.K.: I mean, nothing that I went to when I was 4 or 5 made ANY sort of impression on me at all. But then again, there were never any World’s Fairs when I was growing up, and we never really went to anything big or fancy because there really isn’t anything big or fancy in Ohio.

A.S.: I mean there wasn’t really anything huge like that growing up in the 1990s in Connecticut either. Did we have any sort of positive/weird cultural phenomenon that left some crazy mark on us?

L.K.: It’s just a thing that seems really significant to people who actually saw it, but that is kind of lost on subsequent generations.

A.S.: Aye. Well, we’ve been talking about this song for about an hour now, so I think it’s time to wrap this sucker up.

L.K.: Oh jeez. Yeah, we probably should. One last thought—now, I don’t know jack shit about either Vietnamese or Cantonese, but I think Linnell is pronouncing “Ng” incorrectly.

A.S.: Which is bad because if I ever meet anyone with that name, I’ll have to do some serious re-learning. But yeah, “Ana Ng” – a perfect song.

L.K.: Absolutely! Makes up for some of the whining we’ve been doing about some of the less impressive songs that have come up recently.

“Ana Ng” at TMBW.

#115 – “Sketchy Galore” (2006)

Adam — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:46:07 +0000

A.S.: Maybe it’s because we haven’t been Song-A-Dayin’ for a couple of days but this song is sounding really good to me today. Like I’m just diggin’ it more than normal.

L.K.: It’s a fun track from the early days of the podcast. I’ve always dug the shifting time signatures.

A.S.: Yeah, I feel like this song was partly the result of Flansburgh saying to himself, “Hey, I don’t write enough songs in weird time signatures – let’s do one in 7/4!”

L.K.: The 7/4 is effective though! I also like how the different elements of the song start to go out of sync with each other at the very, very end of the song.

A.S.: As if the titular character has just finally run out of steam. The arrangement for this one is pretty neat – the combination of the little drum machine tics with the handclaps and foot stomps is unique, and the Rhodes organ sound adds a warmth to the song, possibly begging sympathy for Sketchy Galore.

L.K.: It’s another Flans song with a sort of vague meaning though–I can’t say that I ever got the sense Sketchy was a good person. (EEK!) Sketchy is, well, sketchy. We’re just not sure in what ways. Some listeners seem to have interpreted him as being a drug addict, but I can’t say I got that impression from the lyrics of the song, taken on their own.

A.S.: Perhaps, I mean standing in a hallway frantically looking for something small on the floor with a flashlight… I’ve never thought of him as a drug addict but I can definitely see it now. Either way, Sketchy doesn’t seem to be a bad person, just a tragic one.

L.K.: He could just be crazy though. Again, the song’s narrator really doesn’t know much more about him than we do. I still don’t get the sense he’s a good or even neutral figure though; the first part of the song seems to suggest other people have to pay for his questionable behavior, along with “no one likes Sketchy” slightly later on. This is definitely the sort of song I could envision as possibly being influenced by real life experiences–surely the apartment buildings of New York City have held their share of questionable people freaking out their building-mates.

A.S.: Apartment buildings anywhere, really. I’ve been pretty lucky in not having to deal with that sort of thing personally, but I know an awful lot of folks who have. Hey can I just say that I’m glad the character’s name is “Sketchy Galore” and not “Sketch Galore”? I hate when people use the word “sketch” as an adjective. That’s probably one of my absolute most-loathed words. I’m not entirely sure why but I think it has to do with people’s’ laziness in not wanting to add a simple “-y” at the end of the word.

L.K.: Flans doesn’t seem the type to use “sketch” as an adjective. It seems a very affected sort of thing to do. Nobody naturally says that. I am not a fan of it as an adjective but since the advent of Tumblr, I have found so many other words that I hate so much more–”feels/feelings” chief among them.

A.S.: I mean, Flansburgh does often try to use youthful colloquialisms, but uh… he probably shouldn’t. Hopefully “feels” won’t catch his ear anytime soon.

L.K.: He seems pretty oblivious to most things teenagers say online, and for that we can all be thankful.

“Sketchy Galore” at TMBW.

#114 – “I’ve Got A Fang” (2001)

Adam — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:56:44 +0000

L.K.: I think “strange” is really the only word I have to describe this song.

A.S.: Oh yeah. Shades of the band’s earlier work really find their way into this one, only with a much bigger budget.

L.K.: It seems like it’s trying too hard though, unlike the more organic weirdness of the earlier stuff.

A.S.: You think so?

L.K.: We have Langer and Winstanley to blame again for production on this, but it’s also got The Elegant Too in there too. To me it’s just an example of stuff on Mink Car getting too cluttered and odd for its own good.

A.S.: I like how cluttered it is, I like the huge sound, the insistent rapid-fire ride cymbal swing beat, the bass saxophones, The Elegant Too’s manic production style here.

L.K.: Also, I don’t know, I’m never really into the simplistic, riff-based songs as much as everyone else is. That’s just a personal preference.

A.S.: It certainly works well on the record, coming off “Another First Kiss”. In context, it sounds like a revelation: ”Oh thank God they’re WEIRD again.”

L.K.: I think I like the Unlimited demo version of this song more than the final version from Mink Car, to be honest. That slowed-down section just sounds so out of place.

A.S.: I wish they’d kept the “The crowd all rushed the stage together” line in, but otherwise I’m all for the studio version.

L.K.: Oh yeah, what was the deal with that? Was that a sample?

A.S.: I don’t know but I wonder if it’s a reference to the “Famous Polka” incident.

L.K.: Oh god, does this really come after “Another First Kiss” in the tracklisting of Mink Car? I’m too lazy and too full of coffee to run up two flights of stairs to look at my CD’s liner notes.

A.S.: It sure does.

L.K.: …sigh. This album is so fucked up.

A.S.: I love it. It was the last adult TMBG album I heard due to its somewhat negative reputation and as it turned out, I was missing out on a lot, ”I’ve Got A Fang” inclusive. It’s probably their most obviously flawed album, but I adore it regardless.

L.K.: One thing I will say about Mink Car as a whole, and the really fascinating thing about this album and this album alone, is that there are demo or alternate versions of basically every track from it floating around. It’s like a lesson in how good songs go bad. I mean, TMBG learned from Mink Car not to basically release demo versions of an entire album’s worth of tracks in advance.

A.S.: Good songs gone bad in a number of instances (“First Kiss”, “Edith Head”), you’re right there, but I don’t think it’s the case with “Fang”. But that’s just a personal preference. I think the slowed-down section works well, if only because when the fast part comes back in, it hits hard. The Elegant Too really let the song explode.

L.K.: First Kiss, Edith Head, there’s a different “Older”, the ska-y “Cyclops Rock”, the rock “Man It’s So Loud In Here”. I could go on.

A.S.: Lies, Bangs…

L.K.: It’s just such a weird thing to do because it really makes you pick apart and analyze every decision they made as to what to go with for the final product.

A.S.: There are tons of reissues out there that demonstrate that sort of thing as well, but yeah, rarely have so many demos been released right around the same time as the finished album. Interesting point.

L.K.: I feel like that’s why it’s so easy to be hypercritical of Mink Car, and it really isn’t fair to that album in particular, except that that was just the way things worked out. You can point at little individual things and go “I liked that, why did you take it away?”

A.S.: Yeah. That’s another fascinating thing about the TMBG catalogue; you can really do that with so many of their songs, and there aren’t many artists you can say that about otherwise. The Beatles, thanks to the Anthology discs. Otherwise, I don’t really know.

L.K.: TMBG have released a lot more of that sort of thing than most artists would feel comfortable doing. However, they’ve been doing it a lot less recently, and I think situations like this are part of the reason why.

A.S.: Although I am curious about the possible demos of upcoming songs that might show up in the IFC stuff, but who knows what that’ll bring.

L.K.: For future reference though, while releasing demos before an album comes out is a bad idea, releasing stuff a few years later is interesting for all us completist geeks.

A.S.: Yup.

L.K.: Oh man, I forgot about the IFC. (You must be thinking of some other band?) Yeah, that’ll be interesting. Of course, we can’t really discuss those in public when they do come out.

A.S.: Discuss what now? Anyway, I guess this song is partly inspired by an old Saturday morning cartoon, Fangface, of which there is probably too much information about it available on Wikipedia.

L.K.: Never heard of it.

A.S.: Nor have I. ”The image of the fang-as-can-opener comes from the vague memory of some Saturday morning cartoon. It might have been ‘Milton the Monster’” – Flans

L.K.: I always just assumed it was about, uh… a guy with a fang. Possibly a vampire, but not necessarily. I never envisioned it as one, I just envisioned a guy with a head that was basically nothing but fang.

A.S.: Whoa, the guy’s head is exclusively a fang? I just pictured him having only one tooth – a giant fang. That’s a pretty cool thought though.

L.K.: Oh, I mean, I meant it as his only tooth too, but just that it was very disproportionately large compared to the rest of his head.

A.S.: Ah. I’m now picturing a guy with a fang for a head.

L.K.: Basically a giant tooth… but then with a teeny tiny little dude’s head. God this song is weird. Speaking of songs with very few lyrics in them… Oh, somewhat unrelated, but this is another song that is in a different key when performed live, is it not?

A.S.: Yes it is, transposed a whole fourth up live.

L.K.: Makes sense since the studio version is so low.

A.S.: Yeah, Linnell’s really got a nutty vocal affect in the studio version, like his nose is stuffed. All sorts of weirdness in this one. I like it.

“I’ve Got A Fang” at TMBW.

#113 – “Processional” (1996)

Adam — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:44:43 +0000

A.S.: Since the technical title of this song is “Processional”, I’ll specify that this is the first “Processional” on the House of Mayors EP

L.K.: Not gonna lie, this is my favorite of the three processionals that serve as variations on the main theme of the EP’s title track.

A.S.: I’m not sure if this is my favorite or the third (the fast, rockin’ one) is, but regardless, this is really a great bit of music.

L.K.: I’m a total sucker for clarinets, man.

A.S.: Same here. Same here.

L.K.: Also minor keys.

A.S.: Same here again. This of course being the minor key variation on the “House of Mayors” theme.

L.K.: I just really enjoy the arrangement and instrumentation of this one a whole lot. I can’t help but wonder if it would sound better if John Linnell’s woodwind skills were a bit more, shall we say, schooled.

A.S.: Yeah, especially his saxophone skills here. I think he’s much better with larger saxophones.

L.K.: I mean, there is still a certain charm to his clarinet playing though, but yeah, his sax skills are less up to snuff.

A.S.: His clarinet playing sounds a bit better, I think – he certainly has an untrained tone, but he can bend notes pretty darn well.

L.K.: Am I the only one who thinks he doesn’t actually tongue anything on clarinet? He always sounds like he articulates solely with his embouchure.

A.S.: I’ve never thought of it that way, but I think you’re right.

L.K.: I am being a total clarinet player here. I’m just saying so because I actually used to do the same thing for a while.

A.S.: Really?

L.K.: Then I got yelled at for it, so I stopped.

A.S.: I never did that, but part of me wishes I did, since I’m not a very good classical clarinetist, so I might have been better off with that wildly untrained style.

L.K.: I think everybody goes through a phase where it’s like, “man, tonguing everything all the time sounds so boring, let’s try sort of sliding around a little bit”

A.S.: Oh yeah, I used to do that in rehearsals.

L.K.: I was doing it in marching band for songs that weren’t classical marches, but still got yelled at for it anyway. I am still a big fan of vibrato on clarinets, but that is ALWAYS frowned upon. Unless you’re in a jazz band or klezmer band. Well, or in this case… a rock band.

A.S.: Really? My badass clarinet professor was never particularly against vibrato. But anyway, Linnell’s embouchure-instead-of-tonguing technique is especially evident at the part that goes “stacked in columns and rows” in the lyrical variation.

L.K.: It’s also noticeable in his solo in “Reprehensible”, and the clarinet playing in the theme for The Oblongs also sounds like him. For as technically “wrong” as it is, it does make his playing very distinct-sounding.

A.S.: And it sounds great in context. I mean a lot of things about TMBG and rock and roll in general is that it’s technically wrong. A lot of bands go out of their way to make things wrong, TMBG included.

L.K.: Yeah, rock is not known for its orthodoxy.

A.S.: So why not apply that to woodwinds? Even in pieces like this, which are much more classical in nature, it works out just fine.

L.K.: I really like how the processionals give this sort of sense of structure to the House of Mayors EP that a lot of other EPs lack. It really is constructed as its own suite of pieces, rather than a bunch of songs stuck together that wouldn’t fit on an album.

A.S.: Oh yeah, as I think we discussed when “David Dinkins” came up in the shuffle. It’s a great EP, probably the most cohesive single body of work in the band’s entire, extended repertoire.

L.K.: It’s just a shame it’s so hard to come across! Fan-to-fan file sharing is literally the only way it’s accessible anymore. Even the original Hello EP itself is almost impossible to come by in a physical format.

A.S.: Yes, as we were mentioning yesterday, this is what ought to be in Podcasts, not just live Venue Songs repeated.

L.K.: Agreed. It’s not like TMBG is able to make any money off of it in the format it’s currently being disseminated in anyway, so why not release it on a podcast?

A.S.: That’s the problem with free stuff, you can’t complain about it without looking like a dick but well

L.K.: I don’t know, we joined the Instant Fan Club, so I think we can complain a little.

A.S.: “If you want to get anything done in this country you’ve got to complain till you’re blue in the mouth!”

“Processional” at TMBW.

#112 – “AKA Driver” (1994)

Adam — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:03:56 +0000

L.K.: Oh I was just thinking about this song earlier, in the wake of the Kanye West “Theraflu” debacle.

A.S.: Yep. Looks like Theraflu won that one.

L.K.: Remember kids, you can have brand names in songs, but you just can’t print them.

A.S.: The company posted a message saying that they in no way endorsed the song, and then I guess Kanye changed the title. But Theraflu did not force him to change it. So I feel like TMBG could have gotten away with calling it “NyQuil Driver”.

L.K.: If TMBG were higher-profile, maybe NyQuil would’ve gone after them, but their lawyer advised them to avoid the whole problem in the first place by changing the song’s title and by not printing the lyrics.

A.S.: Yeah.

L.K.: That being said, it is still a GREAT song.

A.S.: One of the best. We were discussing fairly recently about Flansburgh’s songwriting run in the early 90s. This song is further testament to how exceptional his output was between 1992 and 1994. Obviously, he’s written a whole bunch of incredible stuff outside of those years, but I think so many of his strongest songs were written around then.

L.K.: I think Apollo 18 and John Henry were just two very strong albums in general. I think the whole run of TMBG’s first 5 albums are pretty consistently excellent, despite the horribly dated production on Flood (which is pretty ironic, considering that it sounds more dated than the two albums that preceded it!)

A.S.: I mean, if you ask me they haven’t put out a bad record ever – at least the adult stuff. But anyway, this song.

L.K.: Yes! This song is one of the relatively few songs in the TMBG catalog that is credited to more composers than just the Johns.

A.S.: Yep, also to Tony Maimone (formerly of Pere Ubu!) and Brian Doherty

L.K.: It came about as a sort of joint improvisational thing between the four members of the band at the time. Brian Doherty himself posted a video of the band’s performance of the song on Conan, with a couple interesting comments about the tour and the song’s origin.

A.S.: Most fascinatingly how Elektra pulled their support as soon as the tour started.

L.K.: That’s the major labels for ya.

A.S.: Yep. Love Linnell on the Hammond in this performance.

L.K.: Flans’s insane guitar solo too. He’s not a particularly good guitarist, but no one can accuse him of being an uninteresting one.

A.S.: And then Maimone with the ebow on the bass at the end. Such a great performance.

L.K.: I feel like I’ve seen more videos of TMBG performing this song than any of the other numbers from John Henry, which is kind of interesting. For a song they were afraid to even print the lyrics to, they sure played it on tv a lot.

A.S.: Yeah, that’s true. ”Hey we won’t print the lyrics on this album that not many people will end up buying, but let’s play it on national network television!”

L.K.: Here’s another version from 120 Minutes.

A.S.: This song. THIS is one they need to bring back on tour. I know I say that about a lot of songs, but I really mean it this time.

L.K.: We’re going to say this about every song from John Henry or Apollo 18, basically.

A.S.: Can you blame us? I dunno, this is a pretty impeccable tune – for me the ending makes it pretty close to perfect. When the guitar, organ, and bass cut out and are replaced by – out of nowhere – acoustic guitar and this theremin-y synth sound. Right as the song should end, there’s just this amazing coda that keeps up the intensity while still significantly altering the sound and mood of the song. It’s pretty ominous sounding throughout but there it’s just intensified so dramatically and exquisitely.

L.K.: I just can’t believe that it hasn’t made an appearance on a setlist since 1997. That’s just crazy!

A.S.: 1997?! Come on guys.

L.K.: This is another song with totally straightforward lyrics. It’s a guy tripping on NyQuil and driving. It is about exactly what it sounds like it is about. “Big hand’s on 120, little hand’s on E.”

A.S.: Have you ever had NyQuil?

L.K.: Nope. Have you?

A.S.: Nope. Never really needed it.

L.K.: It’s just another one of those drugs that has a lot of alcohol in it, right?

A.S.: Yeah, a pretty strong depressant. Perfect for operating complex machinery.

L.K.: Oh boy, look at this. Sounds like NyQuil is mostly pretty ineffective as a drug if you’re looking to do anything but fall asleep.

A.S.: Which is its purpose.

L.K.: Wait, this one is even better. ”if you wanna get high stop being a pussy, man the **** up, and buy weed and stop acting like your a little eight grade hot **** druggy”

A.S.: Chugged 3/4s of a bottle down and didn’t feel anything?

L.K.: Kids these days.

“AKA Driver” at TMBW.

#111 – “D & W” (2005)

Adam — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:01:05 +0000

A.S.: “I like to watch the sports.”

L.K.: This isn’t going to win any songwriting awards, but damn is it cute.

A.S.: John Linnell in a dialogue with himself. Can’t go too wrong with that premise.

L.K.: He’s got a secret desire to be a voice actor, I’m telling you. At least he can do amusing accents. The D puppet from the video is really adorable, but that W is terrifying. It’s got that demented little mouth in its middle…

A.S.: You’ll have to take that one up with Robin Goldwasser.

L.K.: I don’t know if it would terrify me if I were a child, but I can say that it frightens me as an adult.

A.S.: I think it’s the teeth more than anything else.

L.K.: Most of the scariest things I experienced as a child were from Sesame Street, so I mean, I’m not totally off-base here.

A.S.: Nah, I was freaked out by entirely irrational things as a child too. I mean, everyone is when they’re younger; it’s part of being a kid.

L.K.: Yeah, but Linda Ronstadt on Sesame Street scared me so much as a toddler that my mom had to turn off the TV and take me out of the room the second it came on.

A.S.: I always changed the channel when the opera bumper happened, so anyway. Getting a little too psychological here.

L.K.: Anyway yeah, back to this song. You know, few things amuse me more than adults trying to interpret the kids songs that have incredibly straightforward meanings. Somebody was trying to interpret the W as being George W. Bush, which is totally illogical and yet makes perfect sense.

A.S.: I can see that, but then who is “D”?

L.K.: I don’t know, because it sure ain’t Dick Cheney.

A.S.: What aging president has the initial “D” in their name?

L.K.: D. Look at D. Shooting an old man in the face.

A.S.: I think the last one was Eisenhower, but he was long dead when Dubya assumed office.

L.K.: Aging president? I don’t know. FDR doesn’t really count.

A.S.: He was dead before Eisenhower was president!

L.K.: I just love the big bombastic music for W.

A.S.: Yeah, there’s a good key change there.

L.K.: Actually, I do love the different nature of the music for each letter. It’s simple, yet effective. This is a good example of a song that is clearly intended for a child-only audience, yet isn’t obnoxious to the adult’s ear.

A.S.: Yeah this song ain’t bad at all.

L.K.: There’s no musical or lyrical depth or anything, but it’s completely harmless.

A.S.: I just wonder why “D” of all letters is old and tired and so forth.

L.K.: Hm… maybe D looks like a hunchback. It lacks the structural integrity of certain other letters.

A.S.: Perhaps. Hey, am I the only person who thinks the “D” and “W” could have something to do with Danny Weinkauf?

L.K.: I thought it was related to the brand of drums myself. It probably isn’t related to either, but who knows.

A.S.: Maybe they’re different sides of Danny’s personality.

L.K.: Danny Weinkauf probably sat around feeling self-conscious about his name afterwards.

A.S.: Then again, he is quite far from fat. Extremely far.

L.K.: And yeah, he is totally the buffest member of They Might Be Giants. By far. The commentary over the end credits of Gigantic is just A.J. and Flans talking about how ridiculously buff and hot Danny is.

A.S.: Oh yeah, during the “Guitar” bass solo.

L.K.: Sarah Vowell and John Linnell wisely decided to stay out of the discussion.

A.S.: One more thing I think: Is there another point in the catalogue where a John has a discussion with himself? I feel like it has to happen somewhere else…

L.K.: The commentary for “(She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future” is all Linnell again. It’s far longer and far stranger than this song. It’s also not even a song.

A.S.: I’m thinking an actual song though.

L.K.: I mean, Flans speaking in a song is always just him exclaiming something to no one in particular. (“This song is called Creepy.” “I’m gonna sing it in Spanish now!” etc.) Most songs don’t have conversations in them is the thing.

A.S.: True.

L.K.: Although both parts of “It Never Fails” are sung by him. Not sure if that counts for your purposes or not.

A.S.: I might be thinking of that. Who knows, maybe down the road we’ll hit it. Maybe it’s just a figment of my imagination.

“D & W” at TMBW.

#110 – “I Can’t Hide From My Mind” (2004)

Adam — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:43:36 +0000

Download: TMBGPodcast34A.mp3

["I Can't Hide From My Mind" begins 4 minutes, 19 seconds into podcast.]

L.K.: It’s kind of a minor song but we still need to radiate the Flans-love today… and all other days, really.

A.S.: Yes, happy Flanso de Mayo, everyone!

L.K.: You drank Mint Juleps and Mexican beer yesterday… I am not sure what the official Flanso de Mayo drink is. Probably something really girly.

A.S.: Probably.

L.K.: But anyway, hey, another Spine song today!

A.S.: Yes, a very underrated one! See, normally I dislike using words like “overrated” and “underrated” but the nice thing is that the wiki song rankings can actually help to justify those statements!

L.K.: Of course the problem there is that those are prone to change, especially among songs with very few rankings.

A.S.: True, but most of the studio songs have enough votes to give us an idea how people feel about any given song in relation to every other song.

L.K.: In a vague but still quantifiable way, yes.

A.S.: Exactly.

L.K.: Hey, this was the song we saw Flans performing for Dial-A-Song in Gigantic, right?

A.S.: Yep. Pretty neat moment in the film, especially since it wouldn’t see a proper studio release until a couple of years down the road. Also speaking of that Dial-A-Song version, if you listen to that and immediately follow it with the studio version, it sounds pretty cool, like the DAS version is a prelude or something. If you have nothing better to do with the next three and a half minutes of your life, go give it a listen.

L.K.: I feel like the final version didn’t necessarily live up to the promise of the demo though.

A.S.: How so?

L.K.: I don’t know, from the little snippet of it in Gigantic, it seemed like it could be interesting, but I think the final version would up being too weirdly… mellow? I don’t even know what the word I’m looking for here is. Just the feel & production & instrumentation of the final recording seems a little on the lifeless side.

A.S.: I feel like the song’s instrumentation could have been a bit more interesting, but there’s also something about keeping it at only the band with nothing really extraneous that works for the song, especially as an album closer.

L.K.: It’s not that it’s slow and quiet, but I think the drums on it seem kind of out of place.

A.S.: I think the drums work better at the end more than anywhere else.

L.K.: Not that there are drums, just the style of drumming. I am terrible at articulating anything about the somewhat disappointing aspects of this song.

A.S.: Yeah, I dunno, I don’t find anything particularly disappointing about it. There’s a nice build throughout and it ends strongly, but not at all overdone. With regard to it being an album closer, I’ll say that TMBG aren’t terribly consistent with what sort of mood they like to end albums with (compare this song to say “The Mesopotamians” or “The Bells Are Ringing” and you have two different ways of closing out an album). I feel like this kind of harkens back to “Road Movie to Berlin” in terms of ending things slowly, leaving a kind of open ending to the record.

L.K.: Yeah, I will agree that TMBG’s album closers have been pretty inconsistent. ”The Mesopotamians” is probably the worst.

A.S.: Oh, we’ll have a day with that song someday.

L.K.: “Road Movie”, “Kiss Me Son Of God”, even “You Don’t Like Me”, they’ve frequently tended towards slower or quieter songs as a way of closing out an album. There’s a weird sort of sad quality about this song and a lot of those songs too.

A.S.: Certainly.

L.K.: I mean, I guess you could theoretically end an album with a totally rockin’ number, but it’s just a lot harder. “Rhythm Section Want Ad” from the first album feels like it could’ve been at home anywhere on that album, really.

A.S.: That definitely fits at the end too – “End of the Tour” is a pretty obvious album closer, really in between the two extremes – rockin’ but sad. There are many ways to close an album; I think “I Can’t Hide From My Mind” is a fine, fine way.

L.K.: I just don’t think it does enough to distinguish itself out of the context of the album, but I am probably just being too hard on it. All songs can’t be “End of the Tour”.

A.S.: This song also reminds me in a number of ways, and also perhaps because we just discussed it recently, of “Extra Savoir-Faire” Both songs take leisurely paces, they’re both written by Flansburgh, and they both get a bit of an undeserved bad rep. I guess where “Extra Savoir-Faire” has a more interesting arrangement, “I Can’t Hide” has a bit of a more interesting structure. But again, I’m probably just making this comparison since “Extra Savoir-Faire” is still fresh in my memory.

L.K.: Both songs’ main sins are the fact that they just aren’t as memorable compared to other songs on the album they’re from.

A.S.: Yeah, I suppose so. Standing alone, they work very well though. Reading the lyrics again, “I Can’t Hide” is pretty sad too – nothing terrifically profound but still pretty sad.

L.K.: Good ol’ TMBG, still managing to still be paranoid even in their own minds.

A.S.: Happy birthday, John Flansburgh; here’s to many more years of complete paranoia.

“I Can’t Hide From My Mind” at TMBW.