Errors-To: owner-tmbg-digest@tmbg.org Reply-To: tmbg-digest@tmbg.org Sender: owner-tmbg-digest@tmbg.org Precedence: bulk From: owner-tmbg-digest@tmbg.org To: tmbg-digest@tmbg.org Subject: tmbg-list Digest #2-276 tmbg-list Digest, Volume 2, Number 276 Wednesday, 9 October 1996 Today's Topics: Tuesday, 12:01 am Re: Concerts lawrence full band question Re: full band question CD Track 0 FACTORY SHOWROOM!!!!!!!!!! Factory Showroom release settin' myself up for a disappointment Need Interps Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment (none) Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment Ooooooooh, the pain! Re: Need Interps Re: full band question Re: full band question one more lyric question. ?????????Huh?????????? Re: FACTORY SHOWROOM!!!!!!!!!! Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment (none) Re: one more lyric question. Re: Secret Tracks Re: ?????????Huh?????????? Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment More music questions... lyrics fix Re: FACTORY SHOWROOM!!!!!!!!!! Re: full band question XXY + OAT I'm sorry, but Older kicks ass. Guess what this is about FS!!! funny FS story... FS Again Yet another FS message. FS YES!! Jacksonville Show :( and more my craziest tmbg experience ever... Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love Found on "Music News of the World" Long article-- Candy Butcher sings TTYD?! TMBGaholics anonymous! Re: Jacksonville Show :( and more Re: This Car is protected by Viper Salem,oregon........ The tabulated count!oregon... Older kicks ass. Also: FS token? Dead Guy, Metal Detector, etc Factory Showroom Re: YES!! Re: token? Spiral(l)ing Shape track 0 Until My Head Falls Off Lyrics (was Re: YES!!) Re: YES!! Re: Dead Guy, Metal Detector, etc The Bells Re: Found on "Music News of the World" DUH, GUESS WHAT? UMHFO Lyrics damn FS. What else?? an interesting post! 'spensive showroom Re: my craziest tmbg experience ever... Re: This Car is protected by Viper the freak flag is up!!!! (and insanely long other stuff) Re: UMHFO Lyrics More on FS (Sorry!) Older Re: YES!! Ahhh...Factory Showroom! Re: YES!! i'm not your broom Re: Token Back Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-275 Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-275 Re: Jacksonville Show :( and more Administrivia: For all administrative issues, such as change of address, withdrawal from the list, etc., send a message to the following address: tmbg-digest-request@tmbg.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 02:13:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Amy Subject: Tuesday, 12:01 am This was the time that I purchased my copy of FS. :) It's now 2 am and I'm on my 2nd time through it, and on the whole I love it! I especially love Till My Head Falls Off and New York City. And for those of you wondering about the lyrics...you can send for the a lyric sheet, although the address is the info club and we all know how well they operate :) Well, just my little happy post. Amy :) cowtown@tmbg.org Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Concerts From: downmind@juno.com (Amanda G Douberly) Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 02:28:08 EDT this is sort of late in coming, but this is the first chance I had to sit down to my e-mail.... On Sat, 5 Oct 1996 04:13:38 -0400 NitpickR@aol.com writes: >Well, I am back from the show at the Alachua County Fairgrounds. It >was rather groovy. I only found but two people on the list, hi Kay and >Andreas. I got there kinda late, but got my baloons and flag flying. It is a >large outdoor place, and I guess if you others were there, I missed ya. >Sorry. I was there, and I went as far as asking the guy in the sound booth to page "Adam with the Ukranian Flag." he wouldn't do it, of course. :( >The puppet heads in Dead guy are just too cool. Everybody that wasn't >too high (which was a LOT of people) were into it. I thought they were very scary looking! It looked very Lord of the Flies, like they were up for sacrifice or something. >I made a tape of the show (trades?), the sound varies. Some parts >it's good, others are ok. I also took pix, and they will be developed in time. I got a lot of pictures too (I was in the very front) so if anybody would like a copy once they get developed drop me a note. additional notes: crowd surfing was annoyingly rampant. Flans introduced S.E.X.X.Y. by saying, "This song is dedicated to the true fans of the band...the ladies!" another song, I believe it was either Don't Let's Start or Spider, was introduced by him saying, "We are going to play a really old song, but that's ok because we are a bunch of really old guys." after the show I went to the TMBG t-shirt booth and began talking to the guy who was selling shirts. I asked him if he knew the Johns, and he said yes. I then asked if he thought they were nice, and he replied "well, they are human beings. they have their up days and they have their down." I thought that was pretty funny. On Sun, 6 Oct 96 4:20:53 18000 Dane Woodall writes: > the crowd wasn't AS horrible as the one at the Milk Bar. >The moshing (if you can call it that) at Jacksonville in the Milk Bar was >absolutely horrible, so many rude people just bashing through the crowd, >and finally condenced the crowd so tight, I became dehydrated and almost >puked, it smelled bad due to all the sweat too. I really would have liked to >see the full jacksonville show, but not everything works out right, >so I will forget about it. I'm sorry that the Jacksonville show turned out so bad. but, the Milk Bar is sort of an embarrassment to the city, they really should have booked somewhere else. recently it has become overrun with those rude moshing-type people you described. hopefully when they tour in support of FS they'll come back, play somewhere wlse, and put on a great show. :) something else neat: on Saturday, I went to the University of Florida student union to see a showing of the claymation movie "Wallace and Grommit," and while the audience was coming into the theatre they had Factory Showroom playing over the loudspeaker. somebody there had great taste! Amanda D. downmind@tmbg.org www.GeoCities.com/SunsetStrip/5578 ------------------------------ From: mjames@envy.loyola.edu (Matthew James) Subject: lawrence Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 09:17:12 -0400 (EDT) Hi, could Lawrence Solomon pls mail me? Thanks. Matt -- *------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt James polk@tmbg.org Matt.James.K.Polk@tmbg.org mjames@envy.loyola.edu Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America "Cracking toast, Gromit!" New, Official Bruce Campbell Gazette page: http://www.bcgazette.com ------------------------------ From: mjames@envy.loyola.edu (Matthew James) Subject: full band question Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 09:20:08 -0400 (EDT) Iwas thinking as I listened to an in store radio thing today of TMBG about their full band. They had mentioned (this is from Flood era I think) that they had a full band made up of Tony Maimone, J.D. Feinberg, and Kurt Hoffman. Now the question is, how does this full band differ from the officially stated full band of Brian Doherty, Graham Maby, Eric Schermerhorn, and the Johns? Why has TMBG seemingly changed their style around the John Henry era when these members joined to created the full band? John and John still write all of the songs. Any ideas? Matt -- *------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt James polk@tmbg.org Matt.James.K.Polk@tmbg.org mjames@envy.loyola.edu Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America "Cracking toast, Gromit!" New, Official Bruce Campbell Gazette page: http://www.bcgazette.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 10:18:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Lawrence P Solomon Subject: Re: full band question Excerpts from internet.music.tmbg: 8-Oct-96 full band question by Matthew James@envy.loyol > Iwas thinking as I listened to an in store radio thing today > of TMBG about their full band. They had mentioned (this is from Flood > era I think) that they had a full band made up of Tony Maimone, > J.D. Feinberg, and Kurt Hoffman. Now the question is, how does this > full band differ from the officially stated full band of Brian Doherty, > Graham Maby, Eric Schermerhorn, and the Johns? Why has TMBG seemingly > changed their style around the John Henry era when these members joined > to created the full band? John and John still write all of the songs. > Any ideas? The Apollo 18 full band was for touring only, and included: Linnell on Accordion, baritone sax, and vocals, Flans on guitar and vocals J.D. Feinberg on drums Kurt Hoffman on Sax, Clarinet, and keyboard Tony Maimone on bass (not that Linnell didn't play an electronic keyboard in concert until the John Henry tour) The band that recorded on John Henry was: Linnell & Flansburgh Tony Maimone on bass Brian Doherty on drums That was also the band that toured for most of the John Henry tour. I believe the official band now is John^2, Brian Doherty and Graham Maby. Eric Schermerhorn is a guest musician. (listen to the song "They Got Lost" :) I think the members of the full band are whoever's around... ------------------------------ From: Russ Josephson (303) 516-4722 Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 08:23:45 MDT Subject: CD Track 0 I have the new Mike Oldfield Enhanced CD "Songs of Distant Earth" and it's track 0 is a computer program, so maybe track 0 was originally reserved for these enhanced CDs with music and digital stuff. (If I only had a Mackintosh computer to play the enhanced stuff.) TMBG-related: I was a Rocky Mtn. Records in Boulder, and they already had a "Sale" sign in the TMBG section for Factory Showroom. So guess where I'm going today... I'll try and get tickets for the Boulder show on Nov 9. Unrelated thing: The new Ocean Blue CD is due out today, too, and I have tickets for their Oct 17 show in Denver. YAAAAAAYY! ======================================================================== Russ Josephson http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/7158 Berthoud, Colorado, USA mailto:russj@juno.com "... not everyone is passionate about music ..." -- Joe Jackson "I took off the intellectuals, and put on There May Be Giants" -- Gloria "It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" -- 2 Nephi 25:23 ======================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 10:25:40 -0400 From: gonzalez@vitaliy.harvard.edu (David Gonzalez) Subject: FACTORY SHOWROOM!!!!!!!!!! MORNIN' PEOPLE!!! I just BOUGHT FS adn I am totally worked up about it! Nothing can go wrong today!! Do you hear me?!?!?! Nothing!!! Absolutely NOTHING!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! (Mad laughter) drg ------------------------------ From: S0003483@VAX.NIAGARA.EDU Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 10:51:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Factory Showroom release Hi All, I am so excited, I am going out (from my very far from anything important campus) in TEN minutes to buy Factory Showroom. God, if you are listening to me, please allow me the simple pleasure of being able to buy it. Well, that is all I have to say about that... SJL ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 10:58 EDT From: "J. L. Moquin" Subject: settin' myself up for a disappointment but if i didn't *have* disappointments, ... well, you know. :) i have just one question. i'm still on the TMBG info mailing list, but it's sent to my *maiden* name... i would really like to change that, so that i wouldn't have to worry about missing anything due to overzealous mail sorters. i would be distraught if i missed a newsletter... i flatter myself that i'm one of the original members, since my ID# is less than 1700. :) so my question is, is there an address (snail or e-mail) or a phone number that i can contact to update their mailing list? i know this information may be available in actual copies of the newsletter, but i'm pretty sure all my past copies have long since crumbled to dust due to the passage of time. :6 hey, sorry this letter is so chatty and long-winded, but i'm listening to FS for the first time on headphones as i type. boy, did i get ripped off, but that's another story. no amount is too much to pay for they, i suppose. you don't think my boss would mind if i just sat at this terminal and listened to this CD all day, do you? ;D well, thanks! -j.l. "my metal detector is with me all of the time..." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 10:20:04 -0500 (CDT) From: Thomas St Francis Gibson Subject: Need Interps I have not read my digest for the last few days, but I have to say, "WOW!" I never would have thought of the XXY thing. I went to www.tmbg.com and read the lyrics to "S-E-X-X-Y"(That's kind of hard to type correctly), But I've got to say, Even from the makers of "WDTSS" and "Mammal", I would not have expected such. Even from the creators of the Spanish morse code encryption process, I cannot Imagine such subtlety. If indeed, the Johns intended this meaning (and who's to say they didn't), then They have ascended, in my mind, from mere musical geniuses into musical geniuses with way too much free time. And whoever it was that originated that idea, you sir must also be a genius with way too much free time. I like to listen to the music of They MBG, and do so regularly, but whenever I hear a nifty interpretation of a song, it really makes that song even cooler. I know there is some kind of big interpretation warehouse somewhere on the internet, and if one of you We-Might-Be-Fans would kindly show me the path to truth and enlightenment, I would be forever in your great debt. Extra Chromosomes, Who'da Thunk it! Still shaking my head in disbelief, Frank Gibson the First. ------------------------------ From: Matthew Coon Subject: Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 10:39:54 -0500 (EST) > i flatter myself that i'm one of the original members, > since my ID# is less than 1700. :) > Doesn't that mean that you're one of the first 1700 to join the mailing list, which was only started sometime around Apollo 18? Before that, back when we had to send in SASEs, there didn't seem to be ID numbers. Is this correct? m@t ------------------------------ From: Greg Nicholson Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 11:46:43 EDT Someone asked for info regarding Taste of DC. My understand is that TMBG are playing at 3:30, on the 12th street stage. Greg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:06:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Eric Webber Subject: Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Matthew Coon wrote: > > i flatter myself that i'm one of the original members, > > since my ID# is less than 1700. :) > > > > Doesn't that mean that you're one of the first 1700 to join the > mailing list, which was only started sometime around Apollo 18? > Before that, back when we had to send in SASEs, there didn't > seem to be ID numbers. Is this correct? > > > m@t > I think there were numbers cause when I first started listening to TMBG (1990) I met this guy who told me that he had some really low fan club membership number (like less then 10) but back then I didn't know anything about the fanclub and I still don't really know if he was telling the truth or not. Take it easy, Wubba *------------------------------------------------------------------ |Eric Webber- | "We intend to offend and alarm | |erwst9+@pitt.edu | and annoy" -The Penis Wolves | |wubba@tmbg.org | "Maturity is a high price to pay| |http://www.pitt.edu/~erwst9 | for growing up" -Tom Stoppard| *------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ From: S0003483@VAX.NIAGARA.EDU Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:29:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Ooooooooh, the pain! Oooooooooh the pain! Ooooooooh the sorrow! Ooooooh the anguish! I go out to the only accessable mall in this God-forsaken town we all call Niagara, and what do I find? After a summer of being away, the only music store in that only, singularly-accessable-from-where-I-am mall, IS CLOSED! OUT OF BUISENESS! SHUT DOWN! Oooooooh the pain! Now I have to wait for the weekend to get FS! What a huge disapointment! But, you know, "If it wasn't for disapointment, I wouldn't have any apointment", Ooooooooh "Why Must I be sad?" Ooooooooh, to whoevere closed that store, "I hope its a long long rope the use to hang you soon I hope, and I wonder why this hasn't happened, why, why, why?" SJL ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:37:02 -0400 From: jchaffer@tmbg.org (Jonathan Chaffer) Subject: Re: Need Interps >that song even cooler. I know there is some kind of big interpretation >warehouse somewhere on the internet, and if one of you We-Might-Be-Fans >would kindly show me the path to truth and enlightenment, I would be >forever in your great debt. The interp archive is at http://www.tmbg.org/ I have about 100 interps to add to the archive, which I will try to do promptly after midterms. -- Jonathan Chaffer Student, University of Michigan http://www.tmbg.org/~jchaffer/ Funny quote deferred to "finger" My computer (finger, ftp, gopher, http, whois): tmbg.reshall.umich.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:01:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Eric Webber Subject: Re: full band question On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Matthew James wrote: > Iwas thinking as I listened to an in store radio thing today > of TMBG about their full band. They had mentioned (this is from Flood > era I think) that they had a full band made up of Tony Maimone, > J.D. Feinberg, and Kurt Hoffman. Now the question is, how does this > full band differ from the officially stated full band of Brian Doherty, > Graham Maby, Eric Schermerhorn, and the Johns? Why has TMBG seemingly > changed their style around the John Henry era when these members joined > to created the full band? John and John still write all of the songs. > Any ideas? > Matt > I think maybe one reason for the difference is that when J & J write songs now they're writing them for live musicians. The kind of complex drum machine/synth stuff they used to write is not real feasable with live musicians. Some of it is though (don't let's start, ana ng) so this can't always be the casse I guess but I'm pretty sure that you won't hear anything like I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die again :-( Well I just got FS about a hour ago. Sort of a dissapointment but it's not like I didn't expect it. In my opinion spiralling shape is the best but I also like Metal Detector, New York City, Till My Head Falls Off, and of course James K. Polk, which I've always liked. I haven't yet decided if it's better or worse then John Henry but it's a close race. Take it easy, Wubba *------------------------------------------------------------------ |Eric Webber- | "We intend to offend and alarm | |erwst9+@pitt.edu | and annoy" -The Penis Wolves | |wubba@tmbg.org | "Maturity is a high price to pay| |http://www.pitt.edu/~erwst9 | for growing up" -Tom Stoppard| *------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Subject: Re: full band question Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:30:11 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Bongaarts In the immortal words of Eric Webber: >always be the casse I guess but I'm pretty sure that you won't hear >anything like I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die again :-( Then again, they dredged up the old synth and used the sounds from "Youth Culture Killed My Dog" in "Metal Detector". Never say never... -CB ------------------------------ Subject: one more lyric question. Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:42:31 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Bongaarts One more lyric on www.tmbg.com i have to question (besides the obviously different one in Spiralling Shape): In "The Bells Are Ringing": It isn't evil it isn't good it's only What the bells possess This line sounds more like "What the people miss". The bells explain what they've been missing all along I think they say "lacking" here but I don't recall. Should be easy to distinguish one way or the other. We'll have to put together our own lyrics for the rest of the songs and put them on tmbg.org. -CB ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 13:43:02 -0400 From: gonzalez@vitaliy.harvard.edu (David Gonzalez) Subject: ?????????Huh?????????? 'afternoon people, I sent a post earlier stating that absolutely nothing could go wrong today after buying my copy of FS.......... Even though I've only listened to it twice, I'm still thinking to myself, "Huh?". I don't mean a good "Huh?" I mean a BAD "Huh?" with my face all contorted. I feel that it's very Monopuff, except much less eclectic. Not as adventurous. Very plain. Nothing hits me upside the head proclaiming "HEY!! WE'RE THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, DAMN IT!!" It's more like, "Excuse me, we're they might be giants. mind if we play?" Just because I feel this way *now*, dosen't mean that I'll feel this way tomorrow. Maybe it just has to sink in. Yeah...that's what it is! It just needs to sink in.....he he he he (nervous laughter) I hope that's what it is.......... drg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 13:44:04 -0400 From: John Drauss Subject: Re: FACTORY SHOWROOM!!!!!!!!!! David Gonzalez wrote: > > MORNIN' PEOPLE!!! > > I just BOUGHT FS adn I am totally worked up about it! > Nothing can go wrong today!! Do you hear me?!?!?! Nothing!!! > Absolutely NOTHING!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! > (Mad laughter) > > drg I was driving home from college today, racing actually, towards my local record store when I nailed my first roadkill. I think he wanted to die, but I still felt pretty bad. john ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 13:52 EDT From: "J. L. Moquin" Subject: Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment Matthew Coon wrote: >I wrote: >>i flatter myself that i'm one of the original members, >>since my ID# is less than 1700. :) >> >Doesn't that mean that you're one of the first 1700 to join the >mailing list, which was only started sometime around Apollo 18? >Before that, back when we had to send in SASEs, there didn't >seem to be ID numbers. Is this correct? > >m@t no, i sent in my SASEs and joined the list about a year after the pink/first/big blue dog album came out. i got my number then. stop trying to dash my fantasies of eliteness. ;D -j.l. ------------------------------ From: Joe_Gaetz@hhs.dresden.k12.nh.us (Joe Gaetz) Date: 08 Oct 1996 17:44:51 GMT Organization: Hanover HS, Hanover, NH If you are some sort of official Thay Might Be Giants e-mail address. If you are conected to the official web page in any way please put more posters in it. If you are not conected to thay might be giants and know the official address please send it to me. THANKS!! joe_gaetz@hhs.dresden.k12.nh.us ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 13:55:17 -0400 From: jchaffer@tmbg.org (Jonathan Chaffer) Subject: Re: one more lyric question. >We'll have to put together our own lyrics for the rest of the songs >and put them on tmbg.org. That is the intention of the lyrics archive on the .org site. It appears that eventually the .com site will have copies of the lyric sheets for all of the albums; however, it is common knowledge that these are not necessarily the lyrics actually sung. The .org site should ideally contain all of the lyrics as they are performed, not written. Again, I'll be working on it more after midterms--there's no U of M ballgame this weekend, so I don't have to spend all Saturday with the marching band and I should be able to spend a little time with the website working on stuff like this. -- Jonathan Chaffer Student, University of Michigan http://www.tmbg.org/~jchaffer/ Funny quote deferred to "finger" My computer (finger, ftp, gopher, http, whois): tmbg.reshall.umich.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 10:54:30 -0800 From: Adam Kline Subject: Re: Secret Tracks >the most popular one known for this (and I'm ashamed to admit I ever >bought it) >is Green Day's "Dookie" (the "All by myself" song). Don't be ashamed. Green Day writes some of the best pop songs on the market. Also, Flans likes 'em, the filthy rock star that he is. I'm going to go buy Factory Showroom right now! Woohoo! P.S. As far as secret tracks go, the Ziggens' new album, Ignore Amos, has one a few minutes after track 15, then it goes to track 16, which has another secret song directly after it. It's a neat album, too! --------------------- Adam Kline - batura@nccn.net --------------------- | The Beatles - They Might Be Giants - Paul Simon - Ben Folds Five | | Elvis Costello - The Ziggens - Violent Femmes - Freedy Johnston | | Yah-Yah Littleman - Cake - The Amish Ninja - Beck - Tom Petty | | Sublime - Frente! - The Muppets - Badical Turbo Radness - the Rutles | ----------- http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/4233/ ------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 14:52:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Ryan Staib <97starya@james.hawken.edu> Subject: Re: ?????????Huh?????????? Well, I think the funk-infused SEXXY and the singing bell parts and the lyrics all say "We're TMBG." They say "We're J&J + others," as opposed to "We're J&J," but it's still TMBG. I haven't had time to listen to the whole album all the way through, but I have been wishing for a long time to do some complicated music. My time has finally come. I don't know what I'll think after listening to it all, but my guess is I'll like it even more. I think it's a mix of JH, Flood, Lincoln, some weird video game, and some pure instrumental jam tape I have. RS ------------------------------ From: Matthew Coon Subject: Re: settin' myself up for a disappointment Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 13:58:45 -0500 (EST) > >Before that, back when we had to send in SASEs, there didn't > >seem to be ID numbers. Is this correct? > > > > no, i sent in my SASEs and joined the list about a year after the > pink/first/big blue dog album came out. i got my number then. > stop trying to dash my fantasies of eliteness. ;D > Heh, sorry - I was probably just trying to quash my own feelings of inferiority. For some inexplicable reason, I procrastinated after the Pink album and didn't send in my SASEs until somewhere around Lincoln. The thing that puzzles me, however, is that during those following years, I never, ever saw an ID number attached to my name on anything. Obviously, it wouldn't have been on my SASEs, but it wasn't used on merchandise orders, either. The first time I ever saw an ID number was after they went to the mailing list format and I sent in my $2. And let's just say that my number is, well, rather high. m@t ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:15:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Lawrence P Solomon Subject: More music questions... In doing some more sequencing today, I came across the morse code section in Pencil Rain, and have no idea how to represent it using normal musical lengths (i.e. 8th, 16th, etc) in a way that will get it to fill up one whole verse. Does anyone know where the breaks are and how long they are? (my guess so far was that a dash is a 16th note and a dot is a 32nd - it seemed to sound right that way, but didn't fill up the whole space, so there must be some gaps... or perhaps the commas are encoded also?) If anyone can figure this out, I'd greatly appreciate it (I hate having incomplete MIDI files sitting around :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:01:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Eric Webber Subject: lyrics fix I just noticed that the lyrics for Spiraling Shape on www.tmbg.com are not the same as on FS. the section in the lyrics that goes: "And even while screaming and writhing you reach for the Spiraling one that would let you be free" In the song on FS actually goes: "Your terrified screams are inaudible drowned in the spiral ahead and consumed in the shape" Also a few lines before that "No one can" is "Nobody can" Take it easy, Wubba *------------------------------------------------------------------ |Eric Webber- | "We intend to offend and alarm | |erwst9+@pitt.edu | and annoy" -The Penis Wolves | |wubba@tmbg.org | "Maturity is a high price to pay| |http://www.pitt.edu/~erwst9 | for growing up" -Tom Stoppard| *------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:34:43 -0400 () From: BlueDawg Subject: Re: FACTORY SHOWROOM!!!!!!!!!! On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, John Drauss wrote: > David Gonzalez wrote: > > > > MORNIN' PEOPLE!!! > > > > I just BOUGHT FS adn I am totally worked up about it! > > Nothing can go wrong today!! Do you hear me?!?!?! Nothing!!! > > Absolutely NOTHING!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! > > (Mad laughter) > > > > drg > > I was driving home from college today, racing actually, towards my local record > store when I nailed my first roadkill. I think he wanted to die, but I still > felt pretty bad. Hehe...there's nothing like scoring your first roadkill. Mine came this summer, with the top off of my Jeep. I was rewarded with a nice crunch when I hit the squirell. Luckily, nothing sprayed inside. ;) Oh, I got FS, and am listening to it. No Comment. S. M. Bergeron, idiotnot@visi.net, bluedawg@tmbg.org http://users.visi.net/~idiotnot Jeep Driver ObWittySig "Coffee is a Social Disorder"--John Sidney Linnell ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:39:22 -0400 () From: BlueDawg Subject: Re: full band question On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Lawrence P Solomon wrote: > The Apollo 18 full band was for touring only, and included: > > Linnell on Accordion, baritone sax, and vocals, > Flans on guitar and vocals > J.D. Feinberg on drums > Kurt Hoffman on Sax, Clarinet, and keyboard > Tony Maimone on bass > > (not that Linnell didn't play an electronic keyboard in concert until > the John Henry tour) But the Apollo 18 pre-release mini tour was: John Linnell on Accordion, Bass Sax, and vocals John Flansburgh on Guitar Tape machine on everything else. They played three shows in this config, and bootlegs of these shows are prized by collectors. > I believe the official band now is John^2, Brian Doherty and Graham > Maby. Eric Schermerhorn is a guest musician. (listen to the song "They > Got Lost" :) Eric is not a great musician, and unfortunately, it looks like he is now a permanent member. -Dawg, who wishes that he could see the tape machine shows S. M. Bergeron, idiotnot@visi.net, bluedawg@tmbg.org http://users.visi.net/~idiotnot Jeep Driver ObWittySig "Coffee is a Social Disorder"--John Sidney Linnell ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:44:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Joshua Hall-Bachner Subject: XXY + OAT > Back onto topic: WE seem to be dwelling an awful lot about >the significance of the "X-X-Y" -thing. Well, maybe it's just one >of those lyrics that sounds better with the extra syllable - try singing >the song with just one "X". Perhaps it's got nothing to do with >genetics. I'd say that the Xtra X is definitely important...not as a specific reference to any particular genetic disorder, or to any particular form of transvestitism/transexuality/whatever, but just as a subtle way to suggest that something is not quite as it appears. The lyrics back this up with little bits like "she wants to be your man." >1. Has anyone considered that SEXXY is, God forbid, about sex, and not >about extra chromosomes? On the TMBG.com site, They say themselves that >the song is "a pretty big departure, as it's our first ode to gettin' it >on." I'd say that that alone is all you need to understand about the >meaning of the song. I assumed it was about a transvestite and some guy getting an, ummm, unpleasant surprise when he got him/her home. But that's just me. Note the line "She wants to be your man..." BlueDawg: >The Refreshments suck. Period. They can't decide whether they want to be >cynical or whimsical, and fail miserably at both styles. First, is it really neccesary for you to post three different posts in rapid succession, none of which actually had anything to do with TMBG? And second, couldn't you back up your argument with something else rather than just restating what you said last time? And re: after-the-end tracks: Marilyn Manson's first album has six minutes of a phone ringing, then a snippet from some movie that goes along the lines of "Tell your *real* mother that I hate her! And tell your mother that I HATE YOU!" And, no, I *don't* own the album. :) >3.I have one question: what exactly is the reason (if anyone knows) that >the album is short? I've heard many things: Elektra didn't want it longer >(to save on costs?); that they only wanted to focus on a few songs; etc. >I can't blame them if THEY decided to keep it short, since it would be >their choice, rather those record execs who care more about bucks than >artistic integrity. They, along with their producer Pat Dillett, decided that the six mini-tour songs left off the album (and the S-E-X-X-Y single) "fit together" well enough stylistically and musically that they should not be broken up. (I don't quite understand how Counterfeit Faker fits in there, but I see his point on the rest...) These songs, as a block, will probably show up either on one of the FS singles, or on Superfueled Freaksickle next year. >On Superfueled Freaksickle- Do we actually know wheter or not They're >going to put it out? I mean, I was kind of under the impression that the >fun title and the whole idea was something cooked up by the list. Their producer says that (a) it will come out and (b) will be called SF. It'll probably be 2nd/3rd quarter next year. >3) Has anyone possibly considered that maybe, just maybe, S.E.X.X.Y. means >SEX: XY, as in she wants to be a MAN (XY)? Maybe it's not nearly as >complicated as some people think.... BTW, last thing...I'm e-mailing with web@tmbg.com, I've explained the problems with the site to him, he seems like a nice guy who got screwed with a short deadline (that still doesn't explain the lack of ALT tags, but still...) and the site should be much improved soon. Anyway, he asked me to ask y'all: what browser are you using that doesn't support client-side imagemaps? Netscape 2.0 and above, Internet Explorer 3.0 and above, and even the current version of Lynx all support client-side. The only real answers I could think of are people browsing at the library/school computer lab/etc. or people with really old computers. Could y'all please e-mail me telling me what browser you use and whether you can access tmbg.com? This includes those of you who can access it. This survey is for the betterment of tmbg.com, and therefore all of mankind. So, if no one replies and tmbg.com stays how it is, who's to blame? /---------------------------Joshua Hall-Bachner---------------------------\ | particle@servtech.com http://www.servtech.com/public/particle/ | | "The few surviving samurai survey the battlefield. They count the arms, | \--the legs, the heads, and then divide by five." - They Might Be Giants--/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 16:14:38 -0400 From: jtt@magicnet.net (JOHN T THOMPSON) Subject: I'm sorry, but Older kicks ass. I just need to put in my say. I haven't posted in forever. My favorite song from the Gainesville show (yes I was there, no I didn't see any guy with a flag) has to be Older. I really just loved it. I am only saying that because I haven't seen anybody else post on it. It's on FS, right? Anyway. Sorry for my feeble attempt at a post. . . Dan (jtt@magicnet.net) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 16:16:21 -0400 (EDT) From: frankh@awod.com (Bejezus) Subject: Guess what this is about First of all, Garo Yellin used to play for pere ubu, just another reason for yall to check out pere. And now... Okay, lemme put on my flame-retardant clothing before I say this. Okay, I'm ready, here we go, I think Flans is ruining TMBG! I just got FS and the only songs I really like are Linnell sung ones. Excepting NYC (which Flans didn't write) and I Can Hear You (which luckily didn't allow him to put in all his rock crap). I liked Monopuff because it wasn't supposed to sound like TMBG it was supposed to sound like Flans, but now he's brought it into the band and I don't like that. Also, NO LYRICS!?! What are They doing? I feel like I'm watching (hearing?) TMBG fall into a deep, deep abyss.Oh well,give me a days and mebbe it'll brighten up. Regretfully, Brother JohnBejezus ps- Including "Older" and getting rid of "SEXXY" would have improved this album by itself "The aching and the breaking are the making of a soul" - The Residents ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 17:00:09 +0000 From: Jonah Subject: FS!!! Just got my copy of Factory Showroom. My first feelings are mixed towards about half the album, but the other half is cool. Maybe the rest'll grow on me. First impressions: S-e-x-x-y: An abomination, but kinda entertaining. Till My Head Falls Off: One of my favorites. SOunds like linnel is still having fun. Metal Detector: Awesome. I love the synthesizers. New York City: Pretty cool, but doesn't sound like TMBG. Hmmm, I wonder why... :) Spiralling Shape: Cool. Now I'm glad I never gave in and bought the Kids In THe Hall soundtrack. James K. Polk: Good, but not as cool as the old JKP. I Can Hear You: Makes a nice novelty track, but you can see how far technologies have progressed since 1895. The Bells Are Ringing: Quite Good. -- "Get out of the car. Put down the phone. Take off that stupid looking hat you wear." -They Might Be Giants Jonah ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 14:56:18 +0700 From: Emily Lerche Kerr (Ana Ng) Subject: funny FS story... I had planned to get Factory Showroom this morning and be on time to my 11am class. Well, I had stuff to do before I could go, and a friend of mine wanted me to get him the CD when I went, and he figured I'd be back before 11 in time for my class. I went to the store at 11 and skipped class. There were 3 copies of the CD at the store, so I decided to get one for me, my friend, and another friend of ours, because I didn't think they'd get to the store today. I got the 3 CD's and the girl at the counter thought I was weird for getting 3, but I explained about my friends. I left the store with the CD's and went to put them in my friends' mailboxes so they'd get them when they got home. I saw them later and heard that they had been to the same store I was at. They called the store to see if they had it, and were told they had 3 CD's and a tape. They went, and there were no CD's when they got there. They had heard that someone had just purchaced 3 of them. (They could only guess who it was.) They had gotten there just minutes after I had left. *laughs* Well, we all have it now and are happy. I like it a lot. :) *is listening at this percice moment* :) Laters! Ana Ng ------------------------------ From: Dane Woodall Subject: FS Again Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 17:03:40 -0400 (EDT) I got my copy of FS and I'm happy. Thank you. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dane Woodall - woodalld@fn3.freenet.tlh.fl.us WWW: http://www.godby.leon.k12.fl.us/~dwoodall/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 21:05:20 UT From: "Andreas Baeuchle" Subject: Yet another FS message. Yes I'm here to officially declare Factory Showroom rocks. Bought it this morning on the way to class. This was the first time I loved traffic! I ended up driving all the way around my campus just so I could listen to more of it. (only got through NYC) Point #2 No matter how hard I try I always butcher the lyrics to Exquisite Dead Guy "Ba ba bada ba ba bada" I can't get it straight :- ( Point #3 Now the only resentment I have is against Eklectica (Elecktra, Eceleky, Eclaire, Eky eky eky patang zooboing . . . ni! ) I want all 22 songs! Sir A Esquire "That was SEXXY. Were not sure what it means but where pretty sure its about getting it on. Now this next song is called 'Until My Head Falls Off" " -JF or was it JL? (damn) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 17:58:28 -0400 From: Pavlov Subject: FS Yay!! I got FS.. and it rocks... course on the bad side... i've only got a 7 disc cd player, so next album, i'm out of room... oh well :) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Pavlov (Stuart Parmenter) irc servers: | E-Mail: pavlov@innerx.net WarPeD.GA.US.EarthInt.Net | Atlanta.GA.US.Undernet.Org | WWW: http://irc.innerx.net/pavlov "Experimental dog, Salivating dog, Good dog, dinner bell dinner bell do the bell thing, dinner bell dinner bell ring" - They Might Be Giants - "Dinner Bell" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 12:11:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Nicole Carlson Subject: YES!! Hideho, everyone! I am talking with exclamation points because I just went down to Tower (as soon as it opened!) and got FS!!! The salesguy had to get out of the box in the back room because they hadn't put it out yet! And I proudly strode into my dorm bearing FS aloft, and I was greeted with the stunned indifference of everyone in the building! But I don't care, because I have FS in the ol'CD player on "Repeat:All"! *ahem* Ok, I've calmed down now. On to my thoughts: I honestly think that SEXXY is, at best, an iffy song. Mebbe I'm not facing it with the right frame of mind, but for right now I'll skip it, thank you, and listen to Until My Head Falls Off, which I love. And Metal Detector. And, of course, The Bells Are Ringing... Overall, it's a good album. I like it a lot. And including close-up photography of random stuff (a la A18) was a great idea. Long live the strange samples of sound! It strikes me as a synthesis of the Their older stuff and the new power band, and I say hooray! Anyone have the lyrics to Until My Head Falls Off? --nicole the wonder nerd is the poison you love *** "I resemble only half the things I say I don't. The other half resemble me." --James Thurber Visit the (badly dated) City of Nicolopolis! http://www.hooked.net/users/nnicole GCS/GL d?@ H++ s g+++ p?+ au--- a-- w++ v+++(*?) C++ L>++ N++ K+ W(--) M- !V -po+ Y+ t- !5 jx R G tv-- b+++ D-- B- e+ u++(*) h f+ !r n+ x? ------------------------------ From: "David K. Lapides" Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 16:30:11 +0000 Subject: Jacksonville Show :( and more So I drove 275 miles, got a room in a hotel, went to dinner, waited for the opening band, waited for THEY to start playing and Linnell gets sick after playing 4 songs and THEY cancel the rest of the show. As you have heard, the Jacksonville show was a bust, but I want to share my reactions. RE: Their sound MUCH harder and more "punk" than in the past. The opening band was called "Common Thread". They played a cross of punk and popped. Sure whipped them kids into a frenzy. Body surfing and moshing that bordered on slam dancing. THEY went with the energy and played hard. NYC, Twistin were played very fast and the crowd went nuts. At one point Flans said something like, "TMBG live a a world filled with love. Be careful bodysurfing. It's not that we don't like violence, but we feel you should be kicking total strangers in the head. Save that for close friends" Subject next: The fans As an old fart, (I'll be 31 on October 29) it was a pain trying to enjoy a show with a huge mosh pit and people being passed around over everyones heads. Now don't get me wrong, I was dancing and yelling at the top of my lungs, but *I* was paying attention to the music. Subject: Factory Showroom I'm gonna buy it tonight after work and glue it into the CD player in my car (kidding). After listening to on realaudio all last week and reading about it on the list. Here's my two cents---> THEY are talented musicians whose style has evolved ove rthe past ten years. Flood was very "pop" compared to the Pink album and Lincoln. Misc. T. harkened back to the "old" days, but the songs were more uneven than Flood. A18 rocked a lot harder that Flood and the new band on JH diluted the unique Flans&Linnell sound. My point (and I do have one) is that THEY are always trying new things. Imagine if Sgt. Pepper had the same sound as Meet the Beatles or what if Picasso never got over his "Blue period" and how would you feel if Piers Anthony never stopped writing Xanth novels (oh wait, bad example.) Anyway, enjoy the fact that the band is changing. There can only be *one* Lincoln (my personal favorite) but that doesn't mean that I don't listen to the other ones. Subject Final: New Friends Sorry I didn't find Adam at the Jax show. Hopefully Javadrnkr has found this list. And Ignatz (Ignutz?), hope you found your prom date at the show(send me mail!) Extra Credit I told a DJ friend of mine about Linnell getting sick at the Jax show and fainting and he suggested THEY change their name to: They Might Be....Conscious!!! =P =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ David Lapides david@specs-usa.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 14:56:48 -0500 From: the spiralling shape which made me go insane Subject: my craziest tmbg experience ever... well, after getting a few hours of sleep now, my first since 8:30 am monday morning, i am now ready to report about my greatest tmbg show ever. i live in austin tx, a student at UT austin, and yesterday, me and 9 other friends braved a whopping 10 hour car trip, missing classes and all else yesterday, to drive to new orleans and see TMBG play on the night that their new album was released. the show was incredible. after hearing reports of shows being cancelled after only 4 songs, i was terrified that we would make the journey only to find that TMBG had cancelled and we were in new orleans for naught. but no... we arrived at about 8:45, and the opening band came on around 9:30. they were called peabody, a band from new orleans, and were pretty good, but i suffered from my usual desire for the opening band to go away right now so that They could come on. then around 10:45 after a 45 minute break They came out on stage and played. This is the 5th time that i've seen them, and it is by far the most excited i've ever seen the band as a whole. they played around the entire show and made jokes with each other, very fun. when they played how can i sing like a girl linnell started playing it and flans looked over at him like he was crazy, to which linnell replied "we're playing it in a new key..." so flans walked over and watched what linnell was playing, then finally figured out how to play it, and went into the song. the puppets for exquisite dead guy were great, and the show was incredible. when they came out for their first of two encores, J&J asked the crowd what response we'd have if they didn't come out when we were cheering, and waited till the crowd started booing before coming back out, then said that they'd have to try that at the next show they played... so then as soon as they left the stage again, everyone started booing almost immediately, for which we were treated with them coming out and playing TMBG get lost. They played almost all of FS, as well as many other things, however nothing pre-flood, which was a bit disapointing, but still a very good show. one of my friends got to play flans' guitar. we all were less than 10 feet away from them the whole show. definately worth the 10 hour trip out, and then staying up all night to drive back as soon as the show ended... to finish the trip off, on my way back home i went to waterloo records back here in austin and bought FS as soon as they opened... then finally came back here and got to sleep for the first time in 27 hours... definately the farthest i've ever gone to see any band, and without a doubt worth every minute of the trip... paul oh yeah, i just remembered... FULL BAND. eric on guitar, graham on bass, brian on drums, HORN SECTION... very goood.... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 18:36:29 -0400 (EDT) From: CORT Subject: Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love Hi Friends! This is cortney, I just wanted to share the following happy TMBG thought of the day: There's a local drugstore near my college campus, and for a dollar (or more) donation, you can hang a little pumpkin in the window that says 'I helped fight children's cancer today' in a fund raiser which is sponsered by St. Jude's hospital for children. Underneath, there is a large space for the benefactor to sign his/her name. Well, today I stopped to read a few of the names, and was happily surprised to see that one of the pumpkins was anonomously signed 'Brooklyn's Ambassador of Love!' Gosh, it's so nice to know that such incredibly cool individuals exist in this world of ours! =) sun and smiles cortney http://ocelot.uofs.edu/student/ck8 ------------------------------ From: Russ Josephson (303) 516-4722 Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 16:48:32 MDT Subject: Found on "Music News of the World" *---------------------------------------------------------------------------- They Might Be Wet Noodles Addicted To Noise staff writer Gil Kaufman reports: Talking to They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh reminded me of the time I interviewed Seinfeld's Michael Richards ("Kramer") about mountain biking. Richards, an avid biker who doesn't own a car, was not only not funny or wacky like his character, he was downright dour, serious, going on and on about the importance of eliminating cars and building "bubble highways," fully-enclosed bike paths that would run alongside our traditional car-crammed byways. Not a wisecrack or joke anywhere to be found. Similarly, Flansburgh, whose band has given us gems like "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head," "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and now, on their latest, Factory Showroom , "XTC vs. Adam Ant," was not only very straight-laced about his music, he was almost, dare I say, bookish. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The new CD, which pulls the Giants further out away from the "joke band" category, with songs like the girl-group ditty "How Can I Sing Like a Girl?," the soulful "Pet Name" and the trippy, '60s pop of "Exquisite Dead Guy," also further establishes them as more than just a one-dimensional keyboard band, with excellent drumming from Brian Doherty and surprisingly meaty guitars courtesy of lead guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. But what about the first single, "S-E-X-X-Y," a horn-driven disco tune? Isn't that sure to offend all the "Don't Let's Start"-heads? "Now that we've recorded over 100 songs, I think it's safe to call us a cult band," says Flansburgh cautiously, "but that can really be a double-edged sword." He says that while achieving a rabid fan base is a musicians dream (their album Flood has sold over 800,000 copies!), he says it can also be a nightmare. "There are always people there to check it out, which is exciting, but we also keep expanding our musical base and a lot of the core fans don't always go along with what we're trying to do right at first." On the other hand, he adds, their audience wouldn't like it if they just stopped evolving either. Who knew it was so hard to be a Giant... "Every time we bring a new musical influence in or a new musician, like when we started using a full band in our live shows, there's resistance, but had we continued to just perform as a duo to pre-recorded tracks, it would have been too restrictive," says Flansburgh. Which is exactly why the multi-hued sounds of Showroom are so surprising. How about that rippin' guitar on "Until My Head Falls Off?" Or the arch cover of "New York City" by Canada's Cub? "Variety is the hallmark of this band and that has always been what got us in trouble with critics, because if they hate us for being too lighthearted they'll find plenty of that, and if they hate us for something else, they'll probably find some of that, too." Flansburgh, if he rails against anything, though, is particularly sensitive about the view of the band as a novelty act, a joke band that sings songs about dead, forgotten presidents, ("James K. Polk") and Lincoln Logs. "I don't and never have thought of us as a novelty act, a parody band," says Flansburgh. "I'm not at all interested in musical parody or social satire. People think that we're somehow reflecting on popular culture when really we're just totally self-absorbed and insular. I'm not in the mix enough to take the temperature of youth culture." One person who did think they had their hands on the pulse of young America though, was a technician at the Edison Laboratory in W. Orange, New Jersey. If you think song twelve, "I Can Hear You" is a little distant, you're in the right neighborhood, considering it was recorded using the most rudimentary recording equipment there is. According to Flansburgh, the band were asked to trudge out to the laboratory earlier this summer to do a demonstration on the origins of recording. "We wrote that song specifically for that performance, and it had to be short, under two minutes, because the cylinders can only hold a small amount of material. We played it and the vibrations were recorded on this cylinder covered with wax, into which was imprinted the musical code. It is basically the first recording device ever made and it really taught us a lot about the origins of recording and I think it turned out really well." Well, what did you do on your summer vacation, smart ass? One of the most unusual songs on the CD is the bombastic, guitar-squealing, "XTC vs. Adam Ant," a song Flansburgh says was inspired by a tune the band did for an XTC tribute. "We did the song '25 O'clock' for a tribute album last year and we had to come up with all these backwards vocals for this really psychedelic song, which was a big part of the texture of the original song. All this backwards stuff was going to be turned around anyway and not understood, so we cooked up this spoken word part that was a list of all the bands that were contemporary with XTC when they started out and Adam Ant was one of them and the comparison between the two seemed like such an interesting contrast," says Flansburgh. Once he's done weaving his way through a deconstruction of the importance of outrageous figures in rock, Flansburgh gets to the meat of what makes the song most ironic, the fact that just because the two bands came along at the same moment, they'll be forever linked in history even though they're "totally different." In his mind, anyway, Flansburgh just likes the idea of "them battling for their place in rock history." Getting back to the cult aspect of the band, though, I ask Flansburgh if there have ever been any public displays of affection by fans that, how shall we say this, went a little over the edge? Flansburgh, picking his words carefully, says, "lots of people have done lots of things that were way too much. The whole thing can really be a freak-out sometimes." And, although Flansburgh says he doesn't want to give anybody any ideas, so he won't elaborate, he says they've gotten lots of gifts from their fans, who are, for the most part, really great and giving. "When I think of the things that were too much, I don't know, they're mostly so weird and bad, I just don't...I mean, put it this way, some of them were definitely against the law." Copyright ) 1996 Addicted To Noise. If you use our news, attribute to: Addicted To Noise, the on-line rock & roll magazine http://www.addict.com/ ======================================================================== Russ Josephson http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/7158 Berthoud, Colorado, USA mailto:russj@juno.com "... not everyone is passionate about music ..." -- Joe Jackson "I took off the intellectuals, and put on There May Be Giants" -- Gloria "It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" -- 2 Nephi 25:23 ======================================================================== ------------------------------ From: Christi587@aol.com Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 18:59:53 -0400 Subject: Long article-- Candy Butcher sings TTYD?! I was feeling annoyed earlier this afternoon (wouldn't you if you had a $20 gift certificate for Tower and a particular album waiting to be bought, and yet no way to get there?) so I sat down with the newspaper to try to take my mind off it. In the style section, I noticed a photo and thought "Gee, that looks like one of the guys that opened for Them... naahh, couldn't be." Here, somewhat abridged, is the article I was then fairly surprised to read (from Washington Post): *** Lip-Synching Feeling Musician Down About Unsung Movie Role So, just who does do "That Thing You Do!"? Folks seeing the new film, written and directed by Tom Hanks, about a one-hit band called the Wonders may be excused for thinking that the song is sung by Johnathon Schaech, who plays Jimmy, the Wonders' moody singer-songwriter. There's nothing in the credits for the film, or its attendant soundtrack on Epic, to indicate otherwise, even if there's also nothing to suggest that Schaech is the singer. Adam Schlesinger, who wrote the song, is clearly identified as its author. But the artist whose voice is heard singing the song 11 times during the film is buried deep in the listings. Only after a cast list of 100 and a production list of 200, after a rundown of the film's songs and 20 "Additional Musicians," does there appear this credit: "Additional Vocals by...... Mike Viola." "My experience is that when you do something, you get credit for it, " says Viola, half of the New York pop-rock duo the Candy Butchers. ["AHA!!" I thought] To add insult to injury, Viola is listed after the "First Aid," "Catering," and "Animals Supplied by" credits. "There's only one horse in the movie, and I came after *that*, so it just bummed me out." Viola's hardly the first singer to labor anonymously in Hollywood... blah blah blah... Viola, however, has not been silent about the situation. "No one ever said, 'Plese be hush-hush,'" Viola said Wednesday from New York, where he's working on a Candy Butchers album for early next year. blah blah blah... "Everyone knew going in what it was all about," [Gary] Goetzman [, film/soundtrack producer] says. "Mike's a royalty artist on the album and he got paid to do it, so I don't understand why he has this problem. We've always liked Mike's vocal on 'That Thing You Do!' He sang the song great." Let's step back in time. Last year, Tom Hanks sent word to a number of musicians that he was looking for a Beatlesque song with a specific title: "That Thing You Do!" Among the the 300 submissions was one from Adam Schlesinger of the band Fountains of Wayne (whose debut album was released lat Tuesday). "It had to have an upbeat sound... blah blah blah" Schlesinger recalled Wednesday from Los Angeles, where he was promoting his new album. So Schlesinger called in his longtime buddy Viola and together they made a demo, Viola on vocals and guitar, Schlesinger on bass and drums. "We did it one afternoon and tried to keep it as low-tech as we could: a drum set with a couple of mikes, all of us singing backup aound one microphone... blah blah blah." "It was a gas," Viola says. "Just for fun, never thinking we'd actually get the song in the movie. There was a certain energy-- actually, I had a hangover and my voice was all rough, but there was an enthusiastic energy that's hard to re-create." Schlesinger had enlisted Viola because "his voice was perfect for this kind of hit. The day we recorded it, I said, 'Don't be surprised if this isn't the last you've heard about this.'" And that's what happened. The song was accepted by Hanks. Viola went out to California to re-record the vocals for three different versions of "TTYD!" and to do leads on two other Wonders tracks. "My main concern was getting the vocal," Viola says. "I wasn't really thinking about credits and contracts." Viola even did an later session, dubbing a scene in which actor Schaech works on the song witht the band in the garage just before a talent show. "It was weird since the tables were turned, and I had to follow the action on screen and he was taking breaths at impossible moments, not knowing any better because he's not a singer." "You know, I thought I'd be more blown away seeing someone lip-synching to my voice, but it's just such a happy, innocuous film, it just oozed out of the screen." Of course, it's frustrating that Viola's uncredited voice is likely to be heard a lot over the next few months: The single from the soundtrack is beginning to pick up steam at radio stations, and if the movie becomes the hit everyone expects, there will be some major video exposure on MTV and VH-1-- the kind of exposure most artists pray for. What they don't pray for is the opportunity to compete against themselves. "If they want to know who sang "TTYD!", people can find it if they look for it," Gary Goetzman says. "Mike Viola will always get credit for the fabulous vocal he did." *** Ay yi yi! Sounds like a *major* screw job to me. Um, I hope I'm not the last person to know this or something... --Christy ------------------------------ From: KdsInThHal@aol.com Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 18:46:59 -0400 Subject: TMBGaholics anonymous! >>I've only just realized what a sad, pathetic life I lead. Over the summer, I think I've become a certifiable They Freak. I think I'm going to have to make up a certificate, just to prove it. My ideal man? Looks kinda like Flans, acts kinda like Linnell (at least, AFAIK from his letters). My ideal music? Anything that sounds or is They. My favourite clothing? My They shirts. My favourtie kind of people? They fans. I think I need to go to TMBG detox. This is too sad!<< ~Hello, my name is Sarah, and I'm a TMBGaholic. :)~ I couldn't have put it any better. I feel exactly the same way, whoo hoo! Downloading the daily TMBG digest is the highlight of my average day (except for today, when I put FS in my cd player!). ~sarah :) http://members.aol.com/kdsinthhal/site.html "Exquisite dead guy, rotating in his display case..exquisite dead guy, swear I saw his mouth move...." ------------------------------ From: Tom Hare Subject: Re: Jacksonville Show :( and more Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 19:29:35 18000 > > Extra Credit > I told a DJ friend of mine about Linnell getting sick at the Jax show > and fainting and he suggested THEY change their name to: > They Might Be....Conscious!!! =P > > > =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ > David Lapides > david@specs-usa.com > That reminds me! One of the roadies at the They Might Be Giants show in Jax was wearing a black shirt with white letters that said "They Might Be Dead". And on the back it had lots of little white writing that I couldn't read. Anyone know anything about these? They were funny, up until the point where Linnell got sick. . . -- *----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Hare - It's not my birthday, so why do you lunge out at me? - TMBG tomhare@freenet3.scri.fsu.edu particle_man@tmbg.org hare@tmbg.org *----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: KdsInThHal@aol.com Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 18:46:54 -0400 Subject: Re: This Car is protected by Viper >>This is getting ridiculous. When it was just a verse here or there missing, it was okay. Even when a whole song got left out of the JH liner, I dealt with it. But what's this? This album is going to be missing the lyrics to three songs! (NYC, ICHY, and UMHFA)<< Um, I just got my Factory Showroom in the mail this morning (*oooh* yeah!), and there are *no* lyrics printed. I don't know if this is because mine is a promotional copy (since I won it- it has this gold lettering on it *right over* the orange FS arrow! Doh! Stating that sale or other transfer is prohibited, blah blah blah. But it does have TBTB, and-- a bonus: my cd player plays it with out me having to scan!) or if they're all like this. I have a feeling the only difference between mine and the nomal ones are the gold lettering. And heh, ICHY sounds like a Dial A Song! And am I the only one (ooh, a BNL reference!) who's reminded of Sesame Street in Metal Detector, you know the "do-do do-do" synth parts? ~sarah :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:27:43 -0700 (PDT) From: ".o0O-Gr3f1n-O0o." Subject: Salem,oregon........ The tabulated count!oregon... ok here it is.. the tabulated count of cd's in the area and how many sold as of 3:30pm pacific in salem oregon. groovacius platters 8cds/4sold(rest on hold)4cass/1sold blockbuster music 3cds(SOLD OUT) fred meyers -0- will recieve next week..(ERK!) 5 other places aknowledge have the album but, did not say how many or how many sold.. (foot work concluded that.. at the five other unmentionable places i found 2cds and 1 cass) i have a copy on cd.. it's awsome and i will boogy on down to cowtown to enjoy my new prize w/ rabidchild and chesspiece face.. ps.. hi hotcha if your are in oregon please e-mail me! and if your not do so anyway! (\__/) (o o) ----------.o0O--(__)--O0o.--------- | grefin@cyberhighway.net -><-| ----------------------------------- | | HAIL ERIS!! / /\ |_/\/ \ \ \ \ (_) (_) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 18:37:32 -0400 (EDT) From: LiaR Subject: Older kicks ass. Also: FS > I just need to put in my say. I haven't posted in forever. > > My favorite song from the Gainesville show (yes I was there, no I didn't see > any guy with a flag) has to be Older. I really just loved it. I am only > saying that because I haven't seen anybody else post on it. It's on FS, > right? Anyway. Sorry for my feeble attempt at a post. . . > > Dan (jtt@magicnet.net) > I was at the Gainseville show too, and I agree Older was the best song there. I don't know if it was because I have never heard it before or whatever, but it was a great song. It is not on Factory Showroom though, and I and very sad about that. I did however get a wav of it from someone on #tmbg. If anyone else wants it just e-mail me. JoN (--------============_LiaR_=============---------) ( "You seem cool for a naked chick in a booth, ) ( Let's be pals someday." ) ( The Presidents of the U.S.A. ) (------==========_LiaR@GiL.NeT_============------) (--------=========LiaR@TMBG.oRG==========--------) ------------------------------ From: mjames@greed.loyola.edu (Matthew James) Subject: token? Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 19:20:23 -0400 (EDT) Is token back to brooklynm not on some FS CDs? I bought mine today and tried to search back (not track back) and it wouldn't go past the first second of SEXXY. What is the deal? Is this a big hoax? Also, I was listening to the Don & Mike radio show and it was crazy, they called Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers! The bad thing was that they dissed him(which is not uncommon for them). As many know Mike did the lead vocals of the song for That Thing you Do, the Tom Hanks film (the Candy Butchers wrote the song) and apparently they put him way down on the list of credits and he hasn't earned hardly anything off of it. Don & Mike were dissing him for that. Then they said that he nor his management knew how to market themselves and that if they were smart they'd make all of their songs like that song. He said it wasn't his style of music and it was just a 1 time thing. It was too retro for him. Ahh that was sucky but it was neat hearin him on the radio. Matt -- *------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt James polk@tmbg.org Matt.James.K.Polk@tmbg.org mjames@envy.loyola.edu Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America "Cracking toast, Gromit!" New, Official Bruce Campbell Gazette page: http://www.bcgazette.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 19:57:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Ryan Staib <97starya@james.hawken.edu> Subject: Dead Guy, Metal Detector, etc I've wanted to say this about metal detector ever since it was up on whoever's page. The quiet keyboard part sounds like Brian Dewan's 'Any Other Way,' does it not? The samples sound like they're from Star Fox, a Super Nintendo game, do they not? 'Exquisite dead guy, spinning in his display case' (or whatever), correct me if I'm wrong, but, in the video for 'Closer,' wasn't Trent Reznor (or whoever) suspended upside down and spinning in a plastic box? I never really watch tv, so I only saw it once. The bells, in the bells are ringing, I think they sound like 'I'm dreaming of a white christmas' on a Bing Crosby album that my mom has. Dunno. Also, the first little part of the bass line for 'worst enemy' sounds like a nirvana song, dunno what it's called, but it's the same as the first part of weird al's 'callin in sick' as well. That's it. Danke. RS ------------------------------ From: bartush@calweb.com Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 05:23:23 -0700 Subject: Factory Showroom Yes, this is probably one of several "I got Factory Showroom" posts today, so I'll try to keep it short. First reaction: As a whole, I like it. As usual, there's quite a range of styles, some of which I love immediately (Till My Head Falls Off, Exquisite Dead Guy, The Bells Are Ringing) and some that I'll have to give another listen to (Pet Name, XTC vs. Adam Ant) but overall I have to say I'm very pleased. My favorite song is definitely "The Bells Are Ringing" and since a few people have shared their ideas about what this song means, I'll toss in my two cents. It seems as though they may be making another veiled reference to Pavlov's dog in this song, as it seems to me to be about conditioning and conditioned behaviour. The "Bells" in the song may not be literal bells, but rather Government, Advertising, Religion, MTV, or any other driving force which promotes a "herd" mentality. The people hear the bells and immediately know how to act and what to do, not because they are thinking for themselves, but rather because they are told that is what is Right (or "cool" or "moral" or whatever). Then, when one person refuses to follow the crowd and actually think for herself, the rest of the "sheep" pull away her earplugs, so that she, too, will act and think as everyone else, which is exactly what "The Bells" would like. (This reminds me of a creepy scene from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" when all of the pod-people realize that one woman-or man?-was actually not one of them. They raise the cry and FORCE conformity on her.) Of course, this is only MY personal interpretation of the song and has been completely colored, altered and filtered through my brain. Any questions, comments, or criticism is welcome. All in all, though, a very creepy song lyrically, and wonderful musically (the beginning reminds me of the Christmas song "Carol of the Bells"). Sorry for the long post - I hope you're all enjoying FS!!! Matt in Sacramento "I am not your broom, I am not your broom! I've had enough, I'm throwing off my chains of servitude!" ------------------------------ Subject: Re: YES!! Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 17:27:47 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Bongaarts In the immortal words of Nicole Carlson: >Anyone have the lyrics to Until My Head Falls Off? Guess I'll open this up to comments more quickly than i'd thought. I'm missing a bit in the second verse, at least. This is from memory so might not be perfect. -CB ----snnip (two n's just for you, nnicole :)---- Until My Head Falls Off by They Might Be Giants (first attempt) There were 87 Advil in the bottle Now there's 30 left. I ate 47 so What happened to the other 10? Why do you suspiciously change the subject And break my concentration As I tip the bottle out And I count the Advil up again? Don't interrupt me As I struggle to complete this thought. Have some respect for someone More forgetful than yourself And I'm not done And I won't be till my head falls off. ... every pocket On my shirt, pants and overcoat. ... but I don't know where I put my notes. Clearing my throat and ... Smile and face my audience peeringly(?) ... with his hands On the bathroom sink. And when I lean my head Against the frosted shower stall I see stuff through the glass That I don't recognize at all And I'm not done And I won't be till my head falls off Though it may not be a long way off [Instrumental solo] And when I lean my head Against the frosted shower stall I see a broken figure Sillhouetted on the wall And I'm not done And I won't be till my head falls off Though it may not be a long way off I won't be done Until my head falls ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooff. [fin.] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 20:44:00 -0400 () From: BlueDawg Subject: Re: token? On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Matthew James wrote: > Is token back to brooklynm not on some FS CDs? I bought mine > today and tried to search back (not track back) and it wouldn't > go past the first second of SEXXY. What is the deal? Is > this a big hoax? Some CD players won't do it. My Discman won't, the Windoze 95 CD player won't, workbone won't, but my Pioneer 6-disc changer will. > Also, I was listening to the Don & Mike radio show and it was > crazy, they called Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers! The bad > thing was that they dissed him(which is not uncommon for them). As many know > Mike did the lead vocals of the song for That Thing you Do, the > Tom Hanks film (the Candy Butchers wrote the song) and apparently > they put him way down on the list of credits and he hasn't > earned hardly anything off of it. Don & Mike were dissing him for that. > Then they said that he nor his management knew how to market themselves > and that if they were smart they'd make all of their songs like that > song. He said it wasn't his style of music and it was just a 1 time > thing. It was too retro for him. Ahh that was sucky but it was neat > hearin him on the radio. So, I've gotten another person hooked on D&M. Gawd, I miss hearing them. I think the Candy Butchers are supposed to play one of the local clubs next week. Also coming to my area, Cibo Matto and Soul Coughing. I want to say that Cibo Matto is opening for Butthole Surfers. FS is okay, I won't give a full review yet. I don't like S-E-X-X-Y. S. M. Bergeron, idiotnot@visi.net, bluedawg@tmbg.org http://users.visi.net/~idiotnot Jeep Driver ObWittySig "Coffee is a Social Disorder"--John Sidney Linnell ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 17:58:03 -0700 From: Trompe Le Monde Subject: Spiral(l)ing Shape Am I just being really picky here, or has anyone else noticed that "Spiralling Shape" on the Brain Candy soundtrack is spelled with two Ls, while the song is (mis?)spelled "Spiraling Shape" on Factory Showroom. Anyway, I won't be the 3498234th person today to say that I got the album and give my own review and all that. By the way, if anyone wants to trade for a copy of the first Dial-A-Song (or anything else), let me know. Kerry ------------------------------ From: mjames@greed.loyola.edu (Matthew James) Subject: track 0 Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 21:24:31 -0400 (EDT) Well I found out JVC cd players ( or at lesat the 2 I have in my house) do not go back before SEXXY, they are incapable of going to 0 or less than 1 or whatever it is. I tried it on my bro's Pioneer an it worked, damn does that stink! Matt -- *------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt James polk@tmbg.org Matt.James.K.Polk@tmbg.org mjames@envy.loyola.edu Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America "Cracking toast, Gromit!" New, Official Bruce Campbell Gazette page: http://www.bcgazette.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 21:27:36 -0400 From: jchaffer@tmbg.org (Jonathan Chaffer) Subject: Until My Head Falls Off Lyrics (was Re: YES!!) >I'm missing a bit in the second verse, at least. This is from memory >so might not be perfect. I think I got a bit of what you missed. The second part of the second verse: Clearing my throat and gripping the lectern I smile and face my audience Clearing his throat and smiling With his hands on the bathroom sink. Also, in the middle of the instrumental solo: I'm not done talking I'm not done talking -- Jonathan Chaffer Student, University of Michigan http://www.tmbg.org/~jchaffer/ Funny quote deferred to "finger" My computer (finger, ftp, gopher, http, whois): tmbg.reshall.umich.edu ------------------------------ From: Matthew Coon Subject: Re: YES!! Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 20:49:45 -0500 (EST) Chris Bongaarts writes: > > Why do you suspiciously change the subject > And break my concentration > As I tip the bottle out As I DUMP the bottle out (? It'll be easier to tell for sure when I get the actual CD later this week. There's just enough distortion in my dub to me me unsure...) [...] > > ... every pocket > On my shirt, pants and overcoat. > ... > but I don't know where I put my notes. > Clearing my throat and > ... > Smile and face my audience peeringly(?) > ... with his hands > On the bathroom sink. > Hitting every pocket on my shirt, pants, and overcoat I'm hitting them again but I don't know where I put my notes Clearing my throat and gripping the lectern I smile and face my audience Clearing his throat and smiling with his hands on the bathroom sink m@t ------------------------------ From: Jordan1c@aol.com Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 21:37:05 -0400 Subject: Re: Dead Guy, Metal Detector, etc In a message dated 96-10-08 20:16:51 EDT, you write: << The samples sound like they're from Star Fox, a Super Nintendo game, do they not? >> they sound more like DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 1 AND 2 when you kill a crocodile or something. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 21:36:35 -0400 From: Evan Chakroff Subject: The Bells The pulling away of earplugs kind of reminds me of The Sirens in The Odyssey. Odysseus' remaining men put in earplugs, and Odysseus didn't have earplugs, and was tied up so he could listen or something, if I remember correctly. Oh well. Just my random thoughts. On FS: I Really like it, except for SEXXY, and I don't like the slower songs as much as the faster songs. Also, it sounds alot better coming from a CD player 9as opposed to RealAudio) -- Evan Chakroff The Internet Mystery Spot . <-- http://www.GeoCities.com/SoHo/4545 "It's as much fun as a barrel of monkees... and a shotgun." -Another Satisfied Customer ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 22:17 EDT From: kbrodbec@remcen.ehhs.cmich.edu (Kirsten Brodbeck) Subject: Re: Found on "Music News of the World" And, >although Flansburgh says he doesn't want to give anybody any ideas, so he >won't elaborate, he says they've gotten lots of gifts from their fans, who >are, for the most part, really great and giving. "When I think of the things >that were too much, I don't know, they're mostly so weird and bad, I just >don't...I mean, put it this way, some of them were definitely against the >law." Hmm... Maybe those pictures were a *bad* idea... ;) Kirsten -- ______________________________________________________________________________ "Pretend I *did* blow up the school. All the schools." -J.D. "Heathers" Kirsten Brodbeck AKA Crow kbrodbec@remcen.ehhs.cmich.edu ------------------------------ From: Jordan1c@aol.com Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 21:37:11 -0400 Subject: DUH, GUESS WHAT? i got fs, it is pretty good. my favorites--- exquiside dead guy, metal detector ( A LOT, I LOVE THIS),oh what the hell, EVERYSONG!!!!!!! THE only thing im dissapointd in is the spiralling shape. yeah, this is one of my fav. tmbg songs, BUT I HEARD IT ALREADY!!!!!!! braincandy was my favorite movie,i bought the album and to my surprise their was a tmbg song on it. all i mean is, spairaling shape could of at least been a different version (like james k polk). token back to brooklyn, great. short and sweet!!! i think "i can hear you" is the funniest song. the supersize part is hilarios!! perfect depiction of drive through hard-to-hear speakers!!! bells are ringing,heard it on dial a song, but i dont mind,i love this song. one more thing, and please respond--- DOES ANYONE LIVE IN THE FORREST HILLS/KEWGARDENS AREA,(IN NY) OR GO TO RUSSEL SAGE JUNIOR HIGH/HIGH SCHOOL??? IM DESPERATE FOR A CLOSE LIVING TMBG FAN FRIEND. NO ONE IN MY TOWN KNOWS WHO THEY ARE. woops, gotta turn caps off ------------------------------ From: Tom Hare Subject: UMHFO Lyrics Date: Tue, 8 Oct 96 21:32:59 18000 here, if it will work, are the real official lyrics to Until My head Falls Off gotten off www.tmbg.com UNTIL MY HEAD FALLS OFF There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10? Why do you suspiciously change the subject and break my concentration As I dump the bottle out and I count the Advil up again? Don't interrupt me as I struggle to complete this thought. Have some respect for someone more forgetful than yourself And I'm not done and I Won't be till my head falls off. Hitting every pocket on my shirt, pants and overcoat And I'm patting them again but I don't know where I put my notes Clearing my throat, and gripping the lectern I smile and face my audience clearing His throat and smiling with his hands on the bathroom sink And when I lean my head against the frosted shower stall I see stuff through the glass that I don't recognize at all. And I'm not done and I Won't be till my head falls off. Though it may not be a long way off. I'm not done talking yet. And when I lean my head against the frosted shower stall I see a broken figure silhouetted on the wall And I'm not done and I Won't be till my head falls off. Though it may not be a long way off. I won't be done until my head falls off. There you go, guys! now for that one obscure word in New York City. . . -- *----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Hare - It's not my birthday, so why do you lunge out at me? - TMBG tomhare@freenet3.scri.fsu.edu particle_man@tmbg.org hare@tmbg.org *----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 22:31:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Fransburgh Subject: damn sorry to post again, guys, but my school system really sucks, and i lost a bunch of messages from my inbox that i'd been keeping to read later. i dont remember who it was, but could the person who posted that article earlier today please send it just to me again. it was long, and it had some TMBG heading at the top. i wishi could remember who it was. i just want a chance to read it! thanks, if anyone knows what i'm talking about. --fran ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 13:12:47 -0500 (CDT) From: Tara Lynne Weber <00085244@bigred.unl.edu> Subject: FS. What else?? OK, it's times like these that I know I'm going to be way behind because I'm on the digest and not the list, and thus I won't hear anyone else's Factory Showroom responses until tomorrow, but...does everyone else's copy not have lyrics printed? Just wonderin'. I think I'm going to need one of those certificates for me as well. I showed up at the record store BEFORE IT OPENED today to get my copy of FS. :) I've only listened to it all the way through once, so I haven't quite formulated an opinion yet. Oh, and I actually kinda liked the singing saw on James K. Polk! Am I the only one? :) Raising my freak flag higher and higher, --Tara *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* * Tara Weber | "eVeRy jUMbLeD PiLe oF peRSoN hAs a * * 00085244@bigred.unl.edu| tHiNKiNg paRt tHaT woNdeRs wHat tHe paRt * * Ondine@tmbg.org | tHaT isN't tHiNkinG iSn't tHiNKiNg oF." * * | --tHeY MiGhT bE giAnTS * *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*http://members.tripod.com/~TaraW-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 22:25:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Fransburgh Subject: an interesting post! hi all! i can't believe it, i'm posting again! i had another cool thought the other day... my friend and i were joking about a collection of rotted heads (yes i'm sick, and it's great!) randomly, and i drew the analogy between this collection and Princess Langwidere's collection of heads (she changed them daily and they all had different personalities) in the third Oz book by Frank L. Baum, _Ozma of Oz_. she kept dorothy in her tower because she liked dorothy's head and wanted it for her collection once dorothy matured enough... anyway...i was telling my friend about this and referred to langwidere's collection of heads as the "hall of heads!!" i was amazed. i suppose there really is no connection, but it's cool to think about. i dont know how many of you know that frank l. baum wrote more than the forst book, but i think there are...sheesh, it's been too long since i read them but maybe 10 or so?? they're all great, and should definitely be read! even though they may first appear childish, they are really very much more meant for adults...those of you who like to read, check them out! thanks for reading! --fran{sburgh} ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 22:52:01 -0400 From: Amy/Seta Subject: 'spensive showroom FS rules!!! :) i luv like, every song :) i was just wonderin how much yers all costed? mine was $17.99 which came ta $19.43 with tax and stuff...but i still luv it!!!! AmY ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 22:21:16 -0400 (EDT) From: "Jeff Scanlon, Jr." Subject: Re: my craziest tmbg experience ever... On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, the spiralling shape which made me go insane wrote: > braved a whopping 10 hour car trip, missing classes and all else yesterday, > to drive to new orleans and see TMBG play on the night that their new album > was released. > the show was incredible. after hearing reports of shows being cancelled Hey, that sounds quite cool! I envy you .. can't wait to see Them on monday. Do you know if anyone taped that show? If so, I'd be -very- interested in trading, or such ... Or perhaps someone else on this list taped it? Please ... ? Responses would be great As for FS (gotta add my opinion while i'm composing a message :) - I liked it instantly, and I like it much more than JH .. to me, FS has the full band sound and is more polished than JH. All Their albums are great, and there's a definite progression from pre-JH to JH and beyond. Pet Name is the only song that might take some time to grow on me, the piano sound is a bit strange in a TMBG song. So, though we have to say goodbye to the old J&J style, I like the full band style for what it is .. no sense in comparing the two, they are too different. Okay, there .. all done :) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 23:02:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Joshua Hall-Bachner Subject: Re: This Car is protected by Viper At 06:46 PM 10/8/96 -0400, you wrote: >Um, I just got my Factory Showroom in the mail this morning (*oooh* yeah!), >and there are *no* lyrics printed. I don't know if this is because mine is a >promotional copy (since I won it- it has this gold lettering on it *right >over* the orange FS arrow! Doh! Stating that sale or other transfer is >prohibited, blah blah blah. I just got the real thing, and there's no lyrics either. But like I said, when you have to leave three songs out, you might as well just kabosh the whole lyrics thing. >But it does have TBTB, and-- a bonus: my cd >player plays it with out me having to scan!) Whaaaaaat? That's really odd. >or if they're all like this. I >have a feeling the only difference between mine and the nomal ones are the >gold lettering. That seems to be the case. >And heh, ICHY sounds like a Dial A Song! I must say, it's pretty damn hard to listen to. I think they should have cleaned it up enough so that it gave the impression of sounding crappy, without actually being so bad. >And am I the only one (ooh, a BNL reference!) who's reminded of Sesame Street >in Metal Detector, you know the "do-do do-do" synth parts? Um, yes... BTW: did you notice that New York City is actually a *Mono Puff* song? Look at the lineup; it's Flansburgh and the rest of Puff, evidently with no Linnell or the rest of the band in evidence. That *would* explain why Mono Puff has been playing it at their shows... I don't think I agree with Ruprecht. This album is good. Maybe not Apollo 18/Lincoln good, but good; as good as John Henry, certainly. If nothing else, though, it's *completely* different from every TMBG album before it; the feel is just so strange...Detector is awesome, though; the Bells is about as good as the DAS version; that is, pretty damn good. S-E-X-X-Y is okay. HCISLAG was a bit of a surprise, but I like it. New York City is great. James K. Polk is better than the original, definitely (but I miss the la's). Of course Spiralling Shape kicks ass. TMHFA is good, but not great; ditto for XTCVAA. Exquisite Dead Guy is completely strange, but I like it. I Can Hear You...bizzaro. Pet Name has a good story but the music isn't quite up to par. Your Own Worst Enemy is nothing special, but it's still good. Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, TBTB is cool (but the DAS version is better). There's one way I can tell that TMBG haven't sold out with this album -- they didn't include the song names on the CD! :) /---------------------------Joshua Hall-Bachner---------------------------\ | particle@servtech.com http://www.servtech.com/public/particle/ | | "The few surviving samurai survey the battlefield. They count the arms, | \--the legs, the heads, and then divide by five." - They Might Be Giants--/ ------------------------------ From: GoodOmenz@aol.com Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 22:20:39 -0400 Subject: the freak flag is up!!!! (and insanely long other stuff) yes, as of now ive allraedy listenend to my deadly exquisite how can u not love it copy of FS!!! countless times! the fact that ive had a tape for about a month allready is completely beside the point.. i'll spare yall a track by track review tho so dont worry.. a couple interesting things tho: i can hear you: well, no lyrics.. as brooks said if u read over the liner notes (oh, admit it- we all do eventually!) it says u can write away for them.. or visit the web site.. *sigh* if u have the super advanced technology to do that kinda thing.. ANYway, i think the I Can Hear You played on vince scelcas sunday night show is better.. its got la's and we all love la's.. the fact that thats the recording i was at and thats me clapping in the background has nothing to do with this.. the freakfan certificate- *sigh* i could answer a firm yes to most of those questions (i never listen to the radio and i dont do CD's) in a way that sorta hurts... or maybe its just that till my head falls off was never meant to be played this loud.. broom-*grr* i am completely web deprived BUT thanx to the wonderful mat i have I Am Not Your Broom which id be happy to send to anyone else.. the exquisite mr linnell haveing a spirited debate with his rebelious broom (but dont we all sometimes..) sounds like a cross between Old Susanna and some song i can think of.. i love it! token back to brklyn- cool.. however it differs from the DAS version in that instead of "says she killed our parents" its "says he'll tell our parents" i like the original.. but still fun! CONSPIRACY- following the xmas theme (santas beard, careless santa also [sort of] we just go nuts and xmas cards) we've been speculateing on 2 other commom threads.. the first being the hotel detective saga... hell hotel (sort of) the 2 obvious ones and then pet name- "she worked in a hotel, magazine concession" makes you think... dont think i havent thought it.. ANYway, the second and more insidious is JAMES! i mean, we've all wondered as to the reoccurence of Jim in welcome to the jungle and the guitar but then they go on to do songs about james k polk AND james ensore.. and as we all know jim in a nickname for none other then- JAMES! so then this could even connect to the john F/L has been dead/abducted since lincoln and replaced with a disney animatronic robot/ evil twin/ lookalike/ isnt really there at all, just a mass fan hallucination theory.. or it could be an entirely new can of worms! you make the call! this grows insanely long.. this'll teach them to let me near the keyboard when ive got my new tmbg! i leave you now... your own worst friend, liz ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 23:40:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Christian A Wedge Subject: Re: UMHFO Lyrics Excerpts from internet.music.tmbg: 8-Oct-96 UMHFO Lyrics by Tom Hare@freenet.scri.fs > here, if it will work, are the real official lyrics to Until My head Falls Off > > gotten off www.tmbg.com > > UNTIL MY HEAD FALLS OFF > > There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left > I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10? > Why do you suspiciously change the subject and break my concentration > As I dump the bottle out and I count the Advil up again? Well, this is a very minor little one word change, but no matter what tmbg.com says, I hear that line as: As I dump the bottle all out and I cound the Advil up again? happily enjoying FS, -- :) Christian Wedge (Zathyr+@cmu.edu) http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~zathyr "Did I make me up, or make the face till it stuck? I do the best imitation of myself." -Ben Folds Five ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 22:46:04 -0500 (EST) From: Queen Sneepy Subject: More on FS (Sorry!) I've been thining about this fabulous new ablum of ours. Firs thought, Token Back To Brooklen, though elusive, has been played, and boy, is it confusing. I can't understand a thing They say, but that's ok, because its a secret track and that makes it alright. I'm also thinking that I want that wall paper featured in the liner notes, you know, orange with that funky tmbg symbol on it- would that not be the room of swellness? I think so. I like how the DAS number is tucked into the corner of the picture of the multi-plug thing. I want the They Might Be Gothic typeface. The new JKP makes me feel like I'm at a barndance. Not that I've ever been to one, but I'm sure that if I were to go, this is what it would feel like. I must say that the liner notes seem strangely empty without the lyrics. Enough of my rambling, I will leave! *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ Stefanie Elliott "Who'll teach me drama? Who'll be my acting coach? I love the theatre of smelliot@falstaff.ucs.indiana.edu Dr. Kildare!" -Monopuff, "Dr. Kildare" **StarWars*DNRC*Medievalist*X-Phile*TMBG*MiSTie #14672*MacUser*Comics*Reader** ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 22:56:26 -0500 (EST) From: "StatuE (Wayde)" Subject: Older Dan wrote something like: >My favorite song from the Gainesville show (yes I was there, no I didn't see >any guy with a flag) has to be Older. I really just loved it. I am only >saying that because I haven't seen anybody else post on it. I wasn't at that concert, but I'd have to say it was my favorite new song when I heard them in Columbus a few MONTHS back!...I don't really know why, but I think the song is great! "I've got to let you know ... You're one of my mind!" A little They can do soooo much!!! 5:) -Statue et al ------------------------------ Subject: Re: YES!! Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 23:07:28 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Bongaarts In the immortal words of Matthew Coon: >> As I tip the bottle out >As I DUMP the bottle out (? It'll be easier to tell for sure "dump" sounds more like it, yes... >Hitting every pocket on my shirt, pants, and overcoat >I'm hitting them again but I don't know where I put my notes Got the CD now, and this is right, though it's "feeling", not "hitting". >Clearing my throat and gripping the lectern I smile and face my audience >Clearing his throat and smiling with his hands on the bathroom sink Agreed, and I would go so far as to label this particular couplet "Lincoln Quality". The sound quality on my promo dub wasn't the greatest - it sounds tons better on CD. Now to redo my tape with decent equipment :) ============================================ Chris.Bongaarts-1@umn.edu Chris Bongaarts My opinions are my own, http://umn.edu/~cab Univ. of Minnesota and they are right. CBongo on EFnet IRC (#umn) GCS d-- s+:+ a22 C+++ ULHSX++++$ P++++ L++ E W++ N+ o+ K+++ w-- !O M+ !V PS+ PE Y-- PGP-- t+ !5 !X R tv b+ DI++++ D+ G++ e h- !r y? [GeekCode 3.12] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 22:07:03 -0500 (EST) From: Queen Sneepy Subject: Ahhh...Factory Showroom! Everything went as I planned it today. Class, assignments, everything! After my last class this evening, I headed to the computer lab and downloaded "I Am Not Your Broom." Is everyone else;s kind of messed up in the middle? Or just mine? Anyway, it was a hoot and a holler. Then, I headed over and got my copy of FS. The guy there was really rude to me- I thought for a minute there I didn't have a picture ID and he was getting a tad snippy with me. Maybe he doesn't like They fans, but you know what? I'm a gonna raise my freak flag, and dammit, I'll never be alone! S.E.X.X.Y wassn't as bad as I thought- I think its better on cd than live. I still love Metal Detector, and Exquisite Dead Guy, with which my friends have been taunting me for a week, is sweller than swell. By the way, kids, the lyrics in Spiraling Shape are NOT DIFFERENT! At least, not on my copy- it was still the same as it was on the Brain Candy soundtrack. Were they ever different? Im not so sure about Pet Name-it just doesn't have that Them flavour to it, I can't quite put my finger on it. Ooh, "I Can Hear You" is coooool! I'm listening to it now. I can hear you Flansy! I can hear you! Have fun kids, this is the best day of the week so far! *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ Stefanie Elliott "Who'll teach me drama? Who'll be my acting coach? I love the theatre of smelliot@falstaff.ucs.indiana.edu Dr. Kildare!" -Monopuff, "Dr. Kildare" **StarWars*DNRC*Medievalist*X-Phile*TMBG*MiSTie #14672*MacUser*Comics*Reader** ------------------------------ From: Matthew Coon Subject: Re: YES!! Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 23:11:33 -0500 (EST) CB writes: > I wrote: > >Hitting every pocket on my shirt, pants, and overcoat > >I'm hitting them again but I don't know where I put my notes > > Got the CD now, and this is right, though it's "feeling", not > "hitting". > Do you mean the first one? I'd say the second line is definitely "hitting"... m@t ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 00:28:10 -0400 (EDT) From: "M.C.I." Subject: i'm not your broom i'm sorry but i've been in a daze for the past week. could someone kindly post the url where i can get "i'm not your broom". if it's on tmbg.com i would appreciate the exact adress as i am netscape challenged. thanks in advance. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Listen to the victim abused by the system...." PWEI "Help Help I'm being repressed!" - Dennis in the Holy Grail "OW!" - M.C.I. mci@tmbg.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Oct 1996 20:29:02 -0400 From: Jeff Morrow Subject: Re: Token Back >Actually, I've heard that if you have a really cool CD player, you _can_ >go to track zero... But Token is not on Track Zero, regardless of a player's capabilities. It is on Track 1. Jeff Morrow jmorrow@voicenet.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 01:19:31 -0400 From: Gautam Peri Subject: Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-275 To Cortney: >Here you will find out the wonderous things that happened at the >Edison recording sessions in April! (or you can always visit my >page and email me personally - it's my very favorite TMBG story and >I *love* to tell it! =)) You know...I live all of 25 miles from West Orange and I didn't hear about this. I wish I had known...I actually live in the town of Edison, and I'm wondering why they didn't do the recording here at the Edison Tower. Although, granted, the West Orange location is a much larger place, whereas the Edison Tower is just a small little showcase type place...oh well. >I could name off Pearl Jam's Ten, Cracker's Kerosine Hat, Danzig (Don't >remember the album name)... Ten didn't have any hidden tracks to my knowledge... >A Weird Al Yankovic CD, "Off The Deep End" has a few second of Al >screaming at the end. Yeah...this was parodying the extra track on Nirvana's "Nevermind".. >The TMBG page at Elektra has been updated to hype Factory Showroom, >check it out! Ooh Elektra is actually doing their job! Surprise surprise! I picked up Factory Showroom today (as I'm sure most of you did) and I don't care what others say, it's a great album. Incidentally, with Spiralling Shape, some of the lyrics on the tmbg.com site are indeed different...the different lyrics are: Go ahead, wreck your life That might be good Who can say what's wrong or right? Nobody can. Put out your hands as you Fall through the window And clawing at nothing you drop through the void Your terrified screams are inaudible drowned in the Spiral ahead and consumed in the shape. and at the end Linnell is singing "Don't spend the rest of your life wondering." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "I don't know what to believe, sometimes I even forget...And if it's a lie, terrorists made me say it..." -Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip in "Gift Shop" Gautam Peri, Economics (Yes, really), Rutgers University http://mars.superlink.net/peri +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Oct 1996 01:57:23 -0400 From: Gautam Peri Subject: Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-275 To Joshua: >This is getting ridiculous. When it was just a verse here or there missing, >it was okay. Even when a whole song got left out of the JH liner, I dealt >with it. But what's this? This album is going to be missing the lyrics to >three songs! (NYC, ICHY, and UMHFA) I don't see why they can't just >substitute some other word for the trademarked word when they print it, and >only sing the correct lyrics. Try again...the album (I mean the real thing, not the promo) does not contain any of the lyrics... To Boy: > Back onto topic: WE seem to be dwelling an awful lot about >the significance of the "X-X-Y" -thing. Well, maybe it's just one >of those lyrics that sounds better with the extra syllable - try singing >the song with just one "X". Perhaps it's got nothing to do with >genetics. Normally I'd agree...in this case, from reading the rest of the lyrics, I'm not so sure. Although you're right, it might not have anything to do with genetics, or more specifically defects per se...maybe it's more like "S-E-X" between "X" and "Y" (female and male, obviously). Maybe. I dunno. To the person who hates misspelling: >Maybe I'm just anal, but misspelled words irritate me. These are the ways >I've seen Elektra spelled today: > >Electra >Elektra >Elextra >Bar/None hahah...I happen to agree with you, except I don't have a particularly high opinion of Elektra so I think they deserved to be misspelled. :) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "I don't know what to believe, sometimes I even forget...And if it's a lie, terrorists made me say it..." -Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip in "Gift Shop" Gautam Peri, Economics (Yes, really), Rutgers University http://mars.superlink.net/peri +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 01:47:31 -0400 (EDT) From: NoLa Subject: Re: Jacksonville Show :( and more On Tue, 8 Oct 1996, Tom Hare wrote: > That reminds me! One of the roadies at the They Might Be Giants show > in Jax was wearing a black shirt with white letters that said > "They Might Be Dead". And on the back it had lots of little white writing > that I couldn't read. Anyone know anything about these? They were funny, up > until the point where Linnell got sick. . . I have this shirt!! It is from the "Extra Crispy World Tour" 1992. On the back it says that, what I just said, that thing about extra crispy. And it has all the tour dates from that year, and the one I went to, Baltimore, 9/20. Yay! It's darn cool to have a shirt with a big dead bug on it, and I have only seen it twice before, and once was on a roadie... Coincidence? I think not. Lovin' the Factory Showroom, Nola a.k.a. groovechild ------------------------------ End of tmbg-list Digest #2-276 ******************************