Reviews for They Might Be Giants

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The Review is about They Might Be Giants | 05/16/2005 11:00:00 AM

they might be gaints

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THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS


They might be giants is was and still is one of the only bands to ever put a guitar and an accordion together and make it sound good, part of a different sound was the instant recognision for fans and listeners. Tmbg provided a unqiue setup for there live shows two guys and a tape recorder. A that makes them truley unquie things is that both members are named jhon. jhon, linnell and jhon flansburgh. described as “the vanguard of alternative music in America.” (Sew Drew gigantic)

The Johns (John Flansburg and John Linnell) grew up together in Lincoln, Massachusetts. They met through their school‘s junior high paper. After high school they split up, Flansbrug pursing art and Linnell pursing music, but eventually both met up again in Brooklyn where they first started making music together as “El group of rock and roll“. Their first show was in Central Park and was not the most successful gig of their career. Their second more successful show was performed at DR. B’s under the name of they might be giants.

From then on they performed around Manhattan once a month with their four-track recorder filling in the drum section. But just when they started to get going, something bad happened, something that would change the band forever. Linnell broke his wrist in a biking accident and Flansburg‘s apartment was robbed and his instraments were stolen so he was Unable to perform live, they started the most ingenious musical answering machine.
Dial a Song was born.
The idea was simply a phone number you could call to hear a they might be giants song for free. “It was great--you could hear fragments of songs, or things they were working on, all on the same line” (Jamie Kitman, they might be giants manager gigantic)
After Dial-a-Song, they had a large enough fan base to start performing weekly and selling their demo tape, which had most of the songs from their first album, they might be giants. A reviewer for people magazine who was in Manhattan stumbled upon they might be giants in a local club and wrote a review the next morning, saying, “they should change their name because soon they will be giants.” (people magizin) After this several record companies took interest in them. The one they signed up with was Electra Records, releasing their third album, Flood, in 1990, soon after signing their contract with Electra. After this they got a call from Adam Bernstein, a director of music videos. Flansburg’s response? “Linnell, there‘s a guy on the phone who wants to be famous.”(John. f gigantic) Bernstein ended up producing six of their music videos such as “puppet head” “Ana Ng”. All of the videos ran the loop on mtv
After this, one British talk show host said “You‘re really the most successful independent group in the States now, aren’t you?” Flansburg’s response? “Yeah, but that’s like saying you’re the world‘s tallest midget” (john f. Gigantic Even while being a tall midget they cast a formidable shadow on any who tried to follow in their footsteps. One such band, Corn Mo, has had minor success in the they might be giants community, but otherwise remains in the shadows.
(Corn Mo shown here playing with JohnLinell. of they might be giants.)
In 1992 they might be giants released their fourth album, Apollo 18. To go on tour for this album they got together a full band which had drums, saxophone, and bass. The band liked the way it made their music sound and released their fifth album, John Henry, recorded solely with the full band.

Even though it “made live shows ten times better“ (Sarah Vowel Gigantic), some fans protested the shows, saying it was just another step to selling out. Some fans would even stand in front of shows and hand out flyers saying “don’t go to this show” (Jamie Kitman, they might be giants manager.) In spite of some bad publicity, people still went to they might be giants shows and in 1996 they might be giants released FACTORY SHOW ROOM. This album shocked some fans because there were only 13 tracks when previous records had an average of around 20. Because of the decreased number of songs and lower sales, they might be giants for the first time did not release any videos for this album.

In spite of this setback, the machine trugged on and two years later they might be giants released their first live album, severe tire damage. It received even less attention than factory show room, and it started to look like the end for they might be giants. In 2001, however, they released a smash hit, mink car. This album had some of their more famous songs such as Cyclops rock and man its so loud in here.

A real groundbreaker for the band came in 2002 when they released NO!, their first album for children. (Although the band had always dealt with more adult and serious themes, this album may have been inspired by the fact that both jhons had children at strooler age) Not that the other albums had warning, stickers but they might be giants had always dealt with more adult and depressing music and themes. This album may have been inspired by the fact that both Johns were married and had chidren but whatever inspired it was fortunate, because this was one of their best albums to date. The band countinued to perform, now acompanied by the band of dans: Dan hicky, drums; Dan miller, guitar; Dan Weinkauf, bass Now the full house of music (two jhons and three dans) they might be giants released anouther children‘s album and book, BED BED BED.

And a year later they realesed the ep indestructible object witch was almost imeditly followed by the spine and the spine surfs alone thier first not for kids albums to have been released in over 3 years. The band went on one of there first tours in two years to advertise for there new albums. they toured and played with corn mo a fellow accorden player and alternitive weird guy. Now in 2005 they realesed there first album for disney sound HERE COME THE ABC’S. the band countines do things that no one else does for example all of their live proformances are recorded so if you went to a concert you can have a cd of that concert. The jhons countinue to make music and break ground where ever they step and will hopefully countinue to do so for a long time to come.



Thanks to thomas midgett for submitting the review.