From: owner-tmbg-list To: tmbg-digest Subject: They Might Be Giants Digest V1 #39 Reply-To: tmbg-list@tmbg.org Errors-To: owner-tmbg-list Precedence: bulk They Might Be Giants Digest Thursday, 19 October 1995 Volume 01 : Number 039 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Matthew James Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 01:16:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: touring Ya know I was thinking since we've been having this survey asking where people have seen Them and I thought to myself where does TMBG play the most? Now I would assume NY is #1 but where else do they often stop to play many gigs, especially time and time again on various tours? Anyone have any idea? I know they like to hit DC alot but I'm not sure where else. - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Matt James mjames@love.loyola.edu, elrond@charm.net Loyola College "I'm not the only dust my mother raised."--TMBG "Look at the size of that thing!"--Wedge "Hail to the king, baby"-Ash Anything Box--U.S. synthpop claim to fame Warsaw-Joy Division-New Order - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ From: "Anne E. Heidemann" <343SXVT@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 08:25:08 EDT Subject: verve pipe > to the wildly > interpreted Wake Up by an odd band I've never heard of, The Verve Pipe (but > I think I'll go check to see if they have a CD out right now.) the verve pipe is a band from near where i live (mt pleasant, michigan), and yes, they do have osme other cds out. i'm not sure what is widely available to the masses (because their first one [at least] was an indie thing--made by themselves and might not be for sale anywhere in a store) but their most recent as far as i know is called pop smear ( i *think* this was most recent). their drummer, doug corella, went to cmu (where i go) and was in teh percussion ensemble, which my bf is in (hes a bass player, though, not a perc). anyway, that is the scoop on verve pipe. peace, anne ************************************************************ *** Anne Heidemann *** *** anne.e.heidemann@cmich.edu *** *** 343sxvt@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu *** *** *** *** "Let your mind go and your body will follow." *** *** --L.A. Story *** ************************************************************ ------------------------------ From: Inigo Saenz Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 15:31:29 +0100 (GMT+0100) Subject: BRAVE COMBO As nobody has told me not to post it and as they're one of TMBG's influences, here it is: ( thanks again Jason ) BRAVE COMBO On Mon, 16 Oct 1995, Jason Weiner wrote: > Brave Combo formed about 15-20 years ago in Denton, mostly because of an > extremely talented man named Carl Finch, who is still the band leader > today. Many of the members are current or former students of the > University of North Texas, which has an excellent music program, > including world-renowned jazz bands. They play what they like to call > "nuclear polka", which is basically a mix of jazz, Latin, polka, country, > rock, punk, and ska, with alot of "Hey!"s thrown in for effect. They have > released an uncountable number of albums, with the latest featuring the > singing of Marianne Williams, but many of the albums can only be found as > imports from Japan and a few other overseas (to me) countries. This is a > symptom of a chronic problem that plagues the band: while they are > bestselling veteran favorites in other countries, no one has ever heard > of them here. Nevertheless, they continue to make wonderful experimental > music that never seems the same, and show no signs of quitting soon. I > saw them in Austin last spring for the first time, and had a great time, > especially listening to thew title song from one of their recent albums, > "Hey Hey Hey Cha Cha Cha." As far as I know they have never had any > connection to Them. > > Jason So, I hope nobody got angry when reading this but I thought it was worth sending it. Sure, this is the TMBG list but if the TMBG like them why shouldn't we ? Which produces a question in my mind: does anybody know if MADNESS was another of their influences ? Excuse my mistakes once again. I sometimes realize I've made them after I've send them. Thanks for the fab welcome you've all given me. Inigo ------------------------------ From: Brad Tutterow Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 12:10:43 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: touring They play A LOT in St. Louis. On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Matthew James wrote: > Ya know > I was thinking since we've been having this survey asking where people > have seen Them and I thought to myself where does TMBG play the most? > Now I would assume NY is #1 but where else do they often stop to play > many gigs, especially time and time again on various tours? Anyone > have any idea? I know they like to hit DC alot but I'm not sure where else. > > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Matt James mjames@love.loyola.edu, elrond@charm.net Loyola College > "I'm not the only dust my mother raised."--TMBG > "Look at the size of that thing!"--Wedge "Hail to the king, baby"-Ash > Anything Box--U.S. synthpop claim to fame Warsaw-Joy Division-New Order > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------ From: Keith Hyman Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 12:50:25 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Influences 1) Leo: thanks. We needed that. 2) Influences. Do you ever wonder what the record collections of the Johns contain? Do you ever hear echoes of the Beach Boys in Their material? I do. I also hear the influences of the band Chicago from the way they sounded in the 1960s-1970s when they were a real band with brass instead of strings. How about Zappa influence? It's there. What other influences do you hear? 3) I jumped at the opportunity to catch Them live at 328 Performance Hall in Nashville (TN) late last or early this year (can't remember for sure). Then I owned only "Flood." I just had to hear how they pulled off that stuff. I had no idea that JH was out, nor that They were now a Band. It was worth putting up with the all the cigarette smoke and the crush of the crowd to hear Them. The drummer blew me away. He had such a happy grin on his face; seemed to be enjoying himself immensely...I know he worked hard, though. And I was surprised to hear how effective a trumpet-trombone brass section (occasionally supplemented with John's baritone sax) could be. It was inspirational. ================================================================================ Keith Hyman | Nobody tells; everyone understands it's everybody Nashville TN 37221 USA | For Nobody. Anyone for anybody? hymankk70@ccvax.mmc.edu| I will be responsible For Nobody. | ...Gentle Giant/The Missing Piece ------------------------------ From: hsifrevliS Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 13:58:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: I hate sending survey results to the list but everyone else is... won) Don't ask, or I'll give the story about how my brother screwed me out of tickets last May again... too) They Might Be Giants (cd) Lincoln (cd) Misc T (cassette) Flood (cd) Apollo 18 (cd) John Henry (cd) CD singles/EPs: Istanbul, I Palindrome I, The Guitar, Why Does The Sun Shine?, Back To Skull Other redundant stuff I just bought to collect, not necessarily to listen to: Don't Let's Start (3" cd single- still sealed) Hotel Detective (cassette single), Birdhouse (cassette single) thuuurreee) Not a fair question- all of the albums share equal greatness. Well, _Flood_ is the one I recommend to everyone. fore) uhhh... fie[ve]) uhhh... Kerry ------------------------------ From: "Michael C. Lebovitz" Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 17:38:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: thoughtsa I was thinking. Is Flan's "fantisy in a Xerox shop" with the "copy shop clerk"? And does the woman in _She's Actual Size_ make money go broke (... "and food's going hungry"...) anyway... did she make money go broke becuase "she's got all the money, money couldn't buy'? Or am I thinking too hard again? lebo. (?) ------------------------------ From: Russ Josephson x722 Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 16:23:00 MDT Subject: RE: tmbg Influences Based on the JH song .. uh .. what was the title? Well, anyway, Alice Cooper MUST have influenced Them a bit. ============================================================================= Russ Josephson RussJ@btc.adaptec.com "The one man lays down 10 percent, another one trembles and shakes, I save my money. I handle snakes" -- Tonio K ============================================================================= ------------------------------ From: michael.carr@galadriel.otago.ac.nz (Michael Carr) Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 14:39:31 +1200 Subject: Calling you the nicest things In the song "She's An Angel" on the Pink (First album) what's the line in the chorus after 'when you're following an angel does it mean you have to pray about it ......." What are these lines?! Mike ___________________________________________________________________ Life is one crisis after another, each seperated by induvidual delusions ___________________________________________________________________ Michael Carr - email ___________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ From: Chris Bongaarts Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 20:56:05 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Calling you the nicest things In the immortal words of Michael Carr: > >In the song "She's An Angel" on the Pink (First album) what's the line in >the chorus after 'when you're following an angel does it mean you have to >pray about it ......." "When you're following an angel Does it mean you have to Throw your body off a building? Somewhere they're meeting on a pinhead Calling you(?) an angel, Calling you(?) the nicest things." ------------------------------ From: Lokshin Michael S Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 21:14:01 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Hello This is my first time writing to the list...Greetings from the grasslands of central Illinois... Anyway, I am too cheap to join TMBG's HELLO Cd of the month club, yet I am very much interested in purchasing some of the individual CDs, such as the Johns' solo efforts and the Frank Black CD. Does anyone know if I can order them separately? If so, where? On the topic of where the Giants like to tour...I saw them three times in a nine month span in the central/northern Illinois area; specifically, in Chicago (where they played two nights at the Vic), in Peoria, and in (of all places) Eastern Illinois University at Charleston. I think they also played a show at Northwestern (Evanston) a month or so after they were in Peoria. Bye ------------------------------ From: Donel Young Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 23:10:40 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Joshua Fried shows CORRECTION OOPS! Some of the press releases went out with the wrong dates! Sorry for the confusion and for the waste of bandwidth. The Joshua Fried shows will be on Fri-Sat, October 27th-28th. Donel FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Donel Young 908/295-2406 The Club at La MaMa E.T.C. Presents Composer Joshua Fried's New Experimental Vocal Work and Noted Work "Travelogue" The New York Times dubbed Fried's Travelogue a tour de force and Village Voice critic Kyle Gann called it "Brilliant...a Hitchcockian, mind-blowing theater piece." NEW YORK -- The Club at La MaMa E.T.C. presents Joshua Fried's new concert work, Voice Crossing: Experiments for Six Performers. Fried, "a composer of wild electronic imagination and stirring showmanship," (Village Voice) builds on the style of his acclaimed solo experimental music/performance piece Travelogue, using six singers/actors who respond to high-intensity vocal material played over headphones, with electronic accompaniment by Fried. The work is funded, in part, by a National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship and by a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist's Fellowship in Performance Art and Emergent Forms. When: Friday, October 27th, and Saturday, October 28th 10:00 p.m. Where: La MaMa E.T.C., The Club 74 A East 4th Street Tickets: $12.00, call 212/475-7710 Friday performers: Mary Christopher, Paula Cole, Gretchen Krich, Randolph Curtis Rand, Lawrence Rawlins, Susan Thompson Saturday performers: Karen Ginsburg, Robin Goldwasser, Gene Gutierrez, Aaron Landsman, Marlene Tholl, James Urbaniak The vocal technique Fried uses in both works relies on the element of surprise, therefore each performance requires a new cast. In Voice Crossing, only the singers can hear the vocal material in the headphones, each hearing something different from the others. They have never heard these sounds before, and yet they are asked to imitate exactly what they hear -- with every word and expression intact, and with absolutely no lag time. Fried says, "this last requirement makes the task quite impossible and the result produces a bizarre unknown language." Fried uses canonical writing, polyrhythms and phasing in the spirit of Conlon Nancarrow and Steve Reich to structure the highly dramatic headphone material. The electronic accompaniment, which the audience can hear but the performers can't, utilizes the above techniques in addition to dance rhythm and found sound. This work continues Fried's exploration, which he began with the solo piece Travelogue, of communication, individuality and control. It also deals with the inexorability of time. The performers are constantly on edge and the imperative to "don't look back" provides a degree of tension. Occasionally an isolated intelligible word or phrase emerges. Expanding this technique from one performer to six, Fried notes, "creates an automatic Tower of Babel effect, which I comment on in the score. And of course, there's the sheer joy of polyphony!" Fried's Travelogue has been performed at New York's Bang on a Can Festival with Dora Ohrenstein (Philip Glass Ensemble), ISCM's World Music Days Warsaw 1992 with Shelley Hirsch, New York's La MaMa Theater with Dina Emerson (Meredith Monk), The Fourth International Symposium of Electronic Art, and elsewhere. Fried's next major work will be a collaboration with noted choreographer Douglas Dunn in Spring of 1996. Next summer, Fried will be a resident artist at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, on Lake Como, Italy. Fried is also known for his invention The Musical Shoe Tree. It consists of four ordinary shoes mounted upside-down on stands and plugged into electronics, which are activated by striking the shoes. Fried's recording Jimmy Because, with guest guitarist Fred Frith, was released by Atlantic Records. Fried is also credited as re-mix producer on dance records by The Might Be Giants, Chaka Khan, and Ofra Haza. # # # ------------------------------ From: aimac@web.apc.org (Audrey McClellan) Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 23:56:15 -0400 (EDT) Subject: More survey results Hi there all you TMBG-ites, Here goes--my first posting to the list. 1. Two concerts, both at the fabulous Commodore Ballroom with the trampoline floor in Vancouver. 2. They Might Be Giants, Lincoln, Flood, Misc-T, Apollo 18, John Henry, Don't Let's Start, Hotel Detective, Istanbul (Not C), I Palindrome I, The Guitar, WDTSS, Back to Skull Oh, and a Don't Let's Start LP (Nothing illegal; we're law- abiding Canadians up here :-)! 3. My favourite album? Which is my favourite child? 4. Only sometimes 5. innie. don't think I've ever seen an outie! Well, back to my lurking Audrey ------------------------------ From: Tara Lynne Weber <00085244@bigred.unl.edu> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 23:02:18 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: survey OK, here's my survey responses: 1. Concerts-- None. I live in Nebraska and they don't come here. 'Nuff said. This sucks, not only for the obvious reasons, but also because talking about shows from Their previous tours seems to be one of the painfully few *safe* topics left on this list... 2. Albums--Pink, Lincoln, Misc. T, Flood, Apollo 18, JH. I can never seem to find any of the singles/EPs 'round these parts. Anyone have any hints as to some good places to try? 3. I guess my favorite (for now, at least) is probably Lincoln. Maybe that's because it contains what I think is the coolest TMBG quote ("every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that..."). 4. hey, now. don't mock the afflicted! :) 5. Innie. By the way, is there an archive or something that has back issues of the digest somewhere? I thought I heard something like that mentioned once... - --tara (hi tracy! :) ) - -- *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* * | "eVeRy jUMbLeD PiLe oF peRSoN hAs a * * Tara Weber | tHiNKiNg paRt tHaT woNdeRs wHat tHe paRt * * 00085244@bigred.unl.edu| tHaT isN't tHiNkinG iSn't tHiNKiNg oF." * * | --tHeY MiGhT bE giAnTS * *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ------------------------------ From: mdukelan@wyoming.com (Rabid Child) Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 22:16:07 -0700 Subject: Vote Tally For the "Name That JH Girl" contest Send Votes To: mdukelan@wyoming.com with any subject, just start it with *** Under the new system, I think you can just reply to this message and it will be sent to me!!! (And don't worry too much about that *** thing, that's just easier to keep track of, I always read all of my non-Mr.Blobby mail) Here is something odd, I have fifteen votes in currently, and only six names have been voted for! also, there are thirty names on this list!!! Did you people just submit names for other peoples pleasures?!?!?! Vote today, or may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits!!! So here are the votes I have so far...VOTE TODAY!!! The list will be tallied and posted around HALLOWEEN!(Seeing's how she's so spooky and whatnot.) Zoe 1 Madaline Chloe 1 Alice Persephone 6 Persephone Jane 3 Pandora 1 The John Henry Girl(how creative...8o( Hagas Elizabeth 1 Trinni Eunice Astra Phoebe 2 Genevieve (*Pronounced JEN-uh-veev) Genevieve (*Pronounced jean-vee-EHV) soph Stephanie Desdaemona Esmarelda Jane Jennifer Angie Jerry Freak Girl Freakcicle lol Little Lizzie Borden} (Well seeing as she's carrying that pick-axe O.J. Simpdaughter} and looking so demonic and all.) Princess Angelna Contessia Lousia Fransicia Bonana Fana Fo Feska The Third (Tee hee). - -(Thanks to Adam for that one.) If I feel like it, and I receive no decent arguments against, all unvoted for names will get nixed sometime! - -Rabid Child VOTEVOTEVOTEVOTEVOTE * * * * * * * * * * * Send vibes to mdukelan@wyoming.com No other Rabid Child is quite like this...RaAAAH! Rabid Child!!! 8o) Send flames to president@whithouse.gov * * * * * * * * * * * ------------------------------ From: BWTB61B@prodigy.com (MR JAMES A DRESKO) Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:14:04 EDT Subject: Hmmmmm.. have any of you cool guys out their seen that new cartoon on tv where they basically turned space ghost into a talk show.. kind of odd.. but anyway, the opening theme is part of a They song.. PEPSI CHALLENGE (pop quiz, for the layman) what song is being played??!?!?!? !?!?!?!?!? Send your answers to me.. because I am the spider.. (cheeze, i wish we could use high-ascii characters.......) ------------------------------ From: BWTB61B@prodigy.com (MR JAMES A DRESKO) Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 07:14:37 EDT Subject: Hmmmmm.. have any of you cool guys out their seen that new cartoon on tv where they basically turned space ghost into a talk show.. kind of odd.. but anyway, the opening theme is part of a They song.. PEPSI CHALLENGE (pop quiz, for the layman) what song is being played??!?!?!? !?!?!?!?!? Send your answers to me.. because I am the spider.. (cheeze, i wish we could use high-ascii characters.......) ------------------------------ From: apf@caess1.cae.aro.allied.com (Adam P. Fistler) Date: Thu, 19 Oct 95 10:33:11 EDT Subject: Re: Hmmmmm.. > have any of you cool guys out their seen that new cartoon on tv where > they basically turned space ghost into a talk show.. kind of odd.. > but anyway, the opening theme is part of a They song.. PEPSI > CHALLENGE (pop quiz, for the layman) what song is being played??!?!?!? > !?!?!?!?!? Send your answers to me.. because I am the spider.. > Well its not that new of a cartoon its been on almost a year. It is a cool show though. But the intro to Space Ghost Coast to Coast does not have a TMBG song for an intro. It's Cartoon Planet (not a talk show) that has some goof dressed in the Space Ghost costume dancing to No One Knows My Plans (And this IMHO is a discrase both to TMBG and Space Ghost). But this has been gone over many times in many places. > (cheeze, i wish we could use high-ascii characters.......) You can't use the PC's high-ascii because not every system because only PC support thier high-ascii characters and not every system on her is a PC (like my Sun) ------------------------------ From: Brad Tutterow Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:30:55 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Hello  On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Lokshin Michael S wrote: > > This is my first time writing to the list...Greetings from the grasslands > of central Illinois... > > Anyway, I am too cheap to join TMBG's HELLO Cd of the month club, yet I > am very much interested in purchasing some of the individual CDs, such as > the Johns' solo efforts and the Frank Black CD. Does anyone know if I can > order them separately? If so, where? What's the HELLO Cd of the Month Club? How does one go about signing up? - -BraD ------------------------------ End of They Might Be Giants Digest V1 #39 *****************************************