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 #2-328 tmbg-list Digest, Volume 2, Number 328 Saturday, 30 November 1996 Today's Topics: TMBG: Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-326 TMBG: "You're Weird" TMBG: S-E-X-X-Y's marketing ploys, Ben Folds Five boycott TMBG: Dr. Demento and 2 S-E-X-X-Y sightings TMBG: Great Sale Offer Re: TMBG: So I rolled down the window and said, Istanbul! Re: TMBG: A dark horse came riding up Re: TMBG: "You're Weird" Re: TMBG: Education Re: TMBG: "You're Weird" TMBG: Mpls Tonite! TMBG: time signatures TMBG: S-E-X-XY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TMBG: St. Paul TMBG: Horn players Re: TMBG: "You're Weird" TMBG: Concert In Clifton Park Re: TMBG: Great Sale Offer Re: TMBG: Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-326 Re: TMBG: time signatures TMBG: How the windows lean into the room TMBG: New page! 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: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 03:14:52 -0500 From: Dwayne Stange Subject: TMBG: Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-326 > From: Josh > Subject: TMBG: Time Signature > > I was listening to Misc T and noticed that When it Rains it Snows seems > to be in 3/4 time. I was wondering if this is the only TMBG song in 3/4? > > Does anybody know another? THe first two that come to mind are Letterbox and Dead both from Flood. In my experience Giants songs tend toward 4/4 and swing 4, then 6/8, then 3/4. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 04:03:04 -0500 (EST) From: "The Famous Mr. Klaw" Subject: TMBG: "You're Weird" The following is a conversation I had with a girl just before class: She: "I work in a music store...I get to work with all this cool music around me" Me: "You should put on They Might Be Giants, although you've probably never heard of them" She: "I've heard of them...don't they do that song where he's larger than he really is?" Me: "Oh, She's Acutal Size?" She: "Yeah, that's it." Me (showing my orange TMBG sticker stuck to my bag): "I love They Might Be Giants" She: "Obsessed?" Me: "Obsessed is a good word" She: "I only found out about them yesterday, because our professor gave us CDs to listen to and copy sounds from, and I got them." Me: "Cool...so you got Apollo 18...that's a great album! The last 17 tracks..." She: "17 TRACKS???" Me: "Yes, the last 17 tracks run about 30 seconds each, and are meant to sound like one of those commercials for a record where they only play you the chorus to each song...it's called Fingertips." She: "Doesn't that get annoying?" Me: "No! It's great!" She: "You're weird." Alex ------------------------------ From: Floopyglop@aol.com Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 04:18:57 -0500 Subject: TMBG: S-E-X-X-Y's marketing ploys, Ben Folds Five boycott Hi! >If you just like "S~E~X~X~Y", why not? Saves you two dollars and two songs >you won't like. For the more open minded buyer, there's the more expensive >version. Radio stations don't play TMBG enough to warrant this option. Seeing as Elektra doesn't seem interested in expanding Their audience and radio stations are more interested in commercial sounding music, the vast majority of people who would buy the single would be the loyal members of Their fan base. Adding all of that up, the two-tiered single format seems to be a ploy geared towards the obsessives who must have everything They put out. >Most things get re-released with time at a lower price. The question is, do >you want to wait that long when you could get the songs now for $5. Another marketing ploy. The record company banks on that uncertainty (what if they don't put out that rarities compilation) and sometimes there's so much B-side material that some of it is not included on the compilation, when it does come out. Groups with at least an album's worth of uncompiled B-side material: Crowded House, XTC, Tori Amos (two albums worth), Pavement, Squeeze (two), R.E.M (two), Pearl Jam, Nirvana (to name a few). >BTW, I think the Factory Showroom album cover is really ugly. It *is* rather dingy looking to me, which makes sense given that the title of the album is *Factory Showroom* and that factories are, by and large, dingy looking places. Joe Keith said: >Tonight, upon commenting on the Norwegian press's interpretation of their >"punk rock for sissies" credo, they used terminology that was derogatory to > the gay community and highly offensive. What, exactly, is this "terminology"? There are certain things which sensitive people take too harshly. But, I agree, if they used the word "faggot" or anything remotely similar, then FUCK THEM. Don't jump to conclusions, Josh. You need to consider the whole story. The guy who posted the boycott proposal (Joe Keith) e-mailed me and this is how he described the incident: >The event...The singer/pianist said that the band were not impressed with the way >the Norwegian pres(s) interpreted their 'punk rock for sissies' credo. "They say that >we are punk rock for faggots....." (pause) "... and poofs".(audience cheers. The >band, and the singer especially, stand with smug grins on their faces, almost >revelling in the reaction). Vocal inflection played a part here. Both terms were _not_ >said with nonchalance (a la-'they said it but we don't care'), but with aggression. It can be reasonably assumed that the quotes are coming from one of the band members, right? This would indicate that the "they" being referred to in the quote would have been the members of the Norwegian press. Assuming Joe quoted him right, it would appear that the band member is speaking about the press's interpretation of their motto, which substitute's Ben's term of "sissies" (which Joe had no objections to) with the press's terms of "poofs" and "faggots" (which he did). In this reasonable enough context, the target of Ben's aggression becomes the homophobia of the local press and the smug grins of the band members becomes non-verbal defiance ('we'd *never* stoop to that'). As for the band member's terminology, would it be unreasonable to think that the journalist's slurs might've actually been the Norwegian equivalent of "poofs" and "faggots"? Ben is simply *relaying* the comments made by another person (or persons) without toning down the severity of the language used. Why should that be a bad thing? Based on Joe's account of the incident, these allegations of BFF's homophobia appear to have no truth to them. Dave O'Connell York PA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 05:05:49 -0500 (EST) From: Amy Subject: TMBG: Dr. Demento and 2 S-E-X-X-Y sightings javaman wrote: > accordion, and they've both been played on Dr. Demento (Weird Al got his > start there, TMBG only recently according to a current thread) Au contraire, my fellow fan. TMBG have been played on the Dr. Demento show since they released their first album. In fact, I believe that Don't Let's Start was on one of Dr. D's compilation albums. And in 1990, Particle Man was played on one of the shows, and I became a TMBG fan because of it. It is true that playing Them in Dr. D. kind of puts Them in the category of novelty or 'goofy' music, but any airtime is better than no airtime, I suppose. A DJ on my college's radio station does a show very like Dr. Demento called the Lunatarium, and he plays at least 4 TMBG songs every show (it's a 2-hour show aired every Saturday night) Earlier tonight, I was at Meijer, the greatest store on the planet, and I was wandering past the music section. This particular store had one of those monitors where you can choose the video you want to see and it shows a clip of it. I remembered someone saying they saw SEXXY on one of these, so I looked. And there it was! The 'video' actually consisted of clips of their previous videos, but it was SEXXY playing. So then I went to Kinko's to make some copies, and SEXXY started playing over the speakers! I asked the guy behind the counter what radio station he was listening to, and he said it was a system that was piped into the store, not a radio station. I was so shocked! I hope everyone in the States had a good Thanksgiving -- I had a conversation with my aunt about tryptophane, while singing it to myself all during dinner :) Amy :) cowtown@tmbg.org Stock up and save. Limit: one. ------------------------------ From: SmartyRG@aol.com Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 12:44:57 -0500 Subject: TMBG: Great Sale Offer Dear Future Buyers, I am offering a great price on a new type of string. I am selling it through regular mail. This string is heavy-duty and will stand all kinds of abuse without ripping. The string comes in spools of fifteen yards for $5.00. The great thing about this string other than its durability is that it is practically invisible. The string is so soft that you can't even feel it. This is a very good price on my invention because I usually sell it for $10.00 a spool. Please e-mail me if you are interested and I will put you on a mailing list for all of my future inventions. Thank you and good day. Very Truly Yours, SmartyRG Rebecca Gedalius ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 13:04:07 -0500 From: Evan Chakroff Subject: Re: TMBG: So I rolled down the window and said, Istanbul! >> >Ah, yes, but what continent is Istanbul (not Constantinople) on? >> >> Or, better yet, what are the three most commonly spoken languages in Istanbul? > > Technically, Asia. =) The official language of Turkey is Turkish. >=) However, I think Constantinople is a much kewler name than Istanbul. =) > >> >But isn't Istanbul part of Turkey which is in Asia? >> >> *sigh*... > >Not really a part, just a city. A very important city because it is >right by the ONLY seaway between the Black Sea and the Miditerranean Sea, >and hence has always been an important port. =) Constantinople was Byzantium, now it's Constantinople not Byzantium... -- Evan Chakroff The Internet Mystery Spot ---> http://spot.home.ml.org The Happy ASCII Squirrel (5,000 ft) ---> . ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 13:25:10 -0500 From: Mismirilda Organization: EROL'S Subject: Re: TMBG: A dark horse came riding up CyburDog@aol.com wrote: > use because nothing is NOT TMBGish... Their musical talents go so far that > they can funk, rock, polka, and do whatever you wanna call their > othersongs... Yes, he speaks truth! Linnell could give an essay report on enchinoderms and it would *still* end up being TMBG-ish. > TMBGish (ugh!) because it's jumpy, got a beat, A guy named john sings it and > you can dance to it.. well maybe the last part isn't that typical (ugh!) None of those really encompass TMBG either. "Self Called Nowhere" and "She's an Angel" aren't jumpy, "Oh Do Not Forsake Me" and parts of "For Science" and "The Guitar" aren't sung by someone named John. The track on Misc. T with that woman talking dosn't fit any of those standards... (Can't argue with the beat part, though :) ) -Mismirilda ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 12:09:23 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew Chapman Subject: Re: TMBG: "You're Weird" On Fri, 29 Nov 1996, The Famous Mr. Klaw wrote: > Me: "Yes, the last 17 tracks run about 30 seconds each, and are meant to > sound like one of those commercials for a record where they only play you > the chorus to each song...it's called Fingertips." > She: "Doesn't that get annoying?" > Me: "No! It's great!" > She: "You're weird." Ah, the memories. Reminds me of an OAC (that's kinda like grade 13) music assignment I did. We were supposed to take a tune, play it to the class, then describe, in our humble opinion, what the musical origins of that song was. I played one of the Fingertips (which one? Can't recall). All 8 seconds of it. You shoulda seen the look on their faces. Classic. This was, of course, shortly after I got my Creative Writing teacher hooked on Them. Ah, the memories. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Speed of Lightning, Roar of Thunder | Rev. Andrew J. Chapman, Esq. Fighting all who Rob or Plunder | Slacker Extrodinaire Underdog. Underdog! | az665@torfree.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 13:33:49 -0500 From: Mismirilda Organization: EROL'S Subject: Re: TMBG: Education Wyatt Glodell wrote: > But what about pink? Looking through i see no educational songs. Another way > their songs can be educational is i pick up new words occasionally on them. The Pink album was educational to me because after hearing "the Day" I had to find out who Marvin Gay and Phil Ochs were. Not to mention all the bands mentioned in "Rhythem Section Want Ad" In fact, a lot of songs are like this (i.e. Who the heck is Alice Cooper and why is he so scary!) The vocab is another great point. I think I'll go talk to my indolent and obsequious friends now. -Mismirilda ------------------------------ From: Jordan1c@aol.com Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 14:10:27 -0500 Subject: Re: TMBG: "You're Weird" that "your weird" chat made me think of something. heres a coversation i had once--- jeremy-"your STUPID" me-"why?" j-"your stupid because you like THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS" me-"what? what the hell is that soppossed to mean?" j- they suck" me-"but youve never heard their music" j- "so,they suck" lisa "why do you like them?" me-"i just do. why do you like your favorite band?" lisa-"i like rage against the machine" me--"well ,why do you like THEM?" jeremy---"GO AWAY!" me- "shutup. they might be giants are just a good band" soon,we argue what kind of music tmbg are..... me-"they are all different kinds of music" jeremy--"yeah,thats why they suck" me--"thats a reason why their good. so you rather have a band where every song sounds the same? a lot of bands all have the same sound now" jeremy--- "NO! lisa- "except oasis" me--"(sigh) thats about it. we also started talking about greenday and rancid. well,theres a tidbit of what i put up with ------------------------------ Subject: TMBG: Mpls Tonite! Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 13:21:17 -0600 (CST) From: Chris Bongaarts Hope those of you going to the Minneapolis (OK, it's really St. Paul this time) concert tonight are revved up and ready. I'll hopefully be at the 4pm in-store at Let it Be (10th/nicollet mpls) in a couple hours as well. I'm in the Dial-a-Song Card Suit shirt; yelling "HEY BONGO" is likely to get my attention if you're not sure who i am. ============================================ 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: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 13:31:54 -0600 From: "D.P. Gumby" Subject: TMBG: time signatures Hi all! Somebody had asked how many TMBG songs are in 3/4 time. Looking back at my collection, I've found 4: The Day, Space Suit, I Blame You, and When It Rains It Snows. Most of the other songs that were listed are likely in 4 with either a 6 feel or a 12 feel. ("Letterbox", for example, is in 4/4 but has a 12/8 feel. Or it could be vice versa.... :-) This is an interesting thread - it got me thinking about what sorts of unusual time signatures They have used. I'm into a lot of "arty" bands that write in 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, etc. TMBG seems to generally stick to 4, but then I started running over "Women and Men" in my head. The chorus of the song is in straight 4, but the beginning section trades from 7/4 to 6/4. Kewl! This makes it sound like They're dropping a measure or two right in the middle, which is a trick They use quite a bit. Can anyone think of other songs where They do this? -- Jim B. "They don't go about being born and reborn and rising and falling like souffle, The dead only quickly decay." -The Gothic Archies ------------------------------ From: Jordan1c@aol.com Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 15:31:04 -0500 Subject: TMBG: S-E-X-XY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I GOT IT! MY MOM WAS IN MANHATTAN,the land of decent music stores,AND IN HMV MUSIC STORES THEY HAD A TON OF'EM IN THE FRONT!!!!! im so happy! review!!!!------ s-e-x-x-y ------i think its cool they dont have the album song for the single,i mean,isnt that the point? but this radio thingy is cool sensurround -----i never heard the one on the....power rangers soundtrack,but i liek this song,even though the music really clouds out linnells voice. i dont know what everyone is talking about with "the ba's",but i like that middle part anyway unforgotten-----i see what peopel are talking about. yeah,its not flansys best song,but its interesting and,nice. we've got a world that swings----heehee! this song is funny. its a nice lounge singer/sinatra parody. and that "ive got a world thats great...atom bombs..." line is funny. i think this song would of sounded good with the accordian instead of the piano in the backround. s-e-x-x-y remix------oooh,heres a long one. i think its cool. yeah,sure it drags on and is repetitve,but id rather that than nothing at all. it is fun to hop to. thanks you's! ------------------------------ From: DarkKnigtX@aol.com Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 15:48:44 -0500 Subject: TMBG: St. Paul Hey, I'm going to this concert as well... If anyone sees a tall kid (6'3", about 16ish) wearing a brown leather cabbie hat, that's me. Doubt I'm going to the Let It Be performance... (Parents... sigh... Can't wait till I get my licence.) Hope to see some of you there! DarkKnight ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 16:45:06 -0500 (EST) From: Josh Subject: TMBG: Horn players Hey, maybe I missed something...but are the horns going to be on this tour? Apparantly they were at some earlier dates but not some of the recent ones??? Josh josh@fyi.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 16:46:06 -0500 From: Kevin McGuire Subject: Re: TMBG: "You're Weird" Heh heh. I got the same vibe from people in my school. For example, the day after I first got LINCOLN, I took it in to listen to in my Art class. The whole hour people were whispering behind my back "what the hell is this crap?" "does he listen to this stuff?" And then, at the end of the hour, someone came up to the CD player, ejected the CD, and screamed "Thank god that's over!" I felt so cool. -- Kevin "100% Curd" McGuire ^ ^ | | -------------That's not butter! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 17:21:55 -0500 From: cyberguy@netheaven.com (cyberguy) Subject: TMBG: Concert In Clifton Park For those of you interested, the radio station that I listen to, WEQX 102.7, is sponsoring a concert that some of you might go to. Here it is, pasted off of their web site, www.weqx.com Friday, December 6 - The 2nd WEQX Holiday Concert for the Hungry. They Might Be Giants, Patti Rothberg, and Subduing Mara at Park West, Clifton Park, NY 18+, Must bring non-perishable food item to get in. I'd like to go, but I'm 14 years old. I hope this is useful to some. Don't interrupt me as I struggle to complete this thought- TMBG ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 16:40:40 -0600 (CST) From: Brandon Callison Subject: Re: TMBG: Great Sale Offer On Fri, 29 Nov 1996 SmartyRG@aol.com wrote: > Dear Future Buyers, > I am offering a great price on a new type of string. I am selling it > through regular mail. This string is heavy-duty and will stand all kinds of > abuse without ripping. The string comes in spools of fifteen yards for > $5.00. The great thing about this string other than its durability is that > it is practically invisible. The string is so soft that you can't even feel > it. This is a very good price on my invention because I usually sell it for > $10.00 a spool. Please e-mail me if you are interested and I will put you on > a mailing list for all of my future inventions. Thank you and good day. > I feel I should share my discoveries also. I would like to notify you that I am selling clues that are so subtle, you can barely notice them. Brandon ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 21:39:36 -0500 (EST) From: Lawrence P Solomon Subject: Re: TMBG: Re: tmbg-list Digest #2-326 Excerpts from internet.music.tmbg: 29-Nov-96 TMBG: Re: tmbg-list Digest .. by Dwayne Stange@wwnet.com > THe first two that come to mind are Letterbox and Dead both from Flood. Actually, those are 6/8. 3/4 is *really* distinctive, and hard to miss. In 3/4, the first beat of each measure (1 out of every three) is stressed (usually). In 6/8, the first beat is also the one stressed (one out of every six). So 6/8/ is not simply an "unreduced" version of 3/4. There are uses for both. Damn. Now I need to resequence Dead... although I suppose all my trouble was coming from the fact that I was trying to sequence it in 4/4. :) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 21:50:50 -0500 (EST) From: Lawrence P Solomon Subject: Re: TMBG: time signatures Excerpts from internet.music.tmbg: 29-Nov-96 TMBG: time signatures by "D.P. Gumby"@lnd.com > two right in the middle, which is a trick They use quite a bit. Can anyone th > ink of > other songs where They do this? Well, Birdhouse in Your Soul switched from 4/4 to 2/4 for the very end of each verse... And Purple Toupee is in 4/4 but it sure feels like 6/8. Whistling in the Dark goes from 4/4 to 2/4 at the end of the first part of the refrain ("Having a wonderful time....") at least that's the only way I could get it to work... New Yok City also does this. But I suppose that's not as big a deal as going from 7/4 or 5/4 to 4/4 because somewhere you'll get an odd beat... 4/4 and 2/4 are effectively played the same in most of their songs... (very hard to tell them apart) It took me forever to realize that the intro to Statue Got Me High was, in fact, in 4/4, and it's 6 measures long... that's the part that really confused me... you don't see too many things divided into 6 like that. (and I think that's another song that does the 4/4/-2/4 thing: 1 2 3 4 1 2 The stone it called to me... and 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 (or something like that) now I see the things the stone has shown to me. wouldn't make sense any other way, would it? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 22:08:00 -0500 (EST) From: Joshua Hall-Bachner Subject: TMBG: How the windows lean into the room >I'm going through my head, adding up the running times of the CD singles and >I'm wondering what exactly They plan to fill up the second disc of >Superfueled Freakcycle with. At first I thought it was going to be the >"mini-tour" songs, but recent discussion leads me to believe that those >tracks will be released as a seperate album next year. So what is the plan? A >bonus live album?! Okay: first, remember to add "25 O'Clock" and "The Last Parade" in there. Second, there are a *heck* of a lot of remixes they can include, especially if they include the single mixes of "The Guitar" and "S-E-X-X-Y," which are different from the album mixes. Third, it's likely that they'll include the "Live in NYC EP" from the John Henry Tour Edition. And fourth, Flansburgh and Pat Dillett have said (months ago...) that "new material" will probably appear on the disc. While this won't be the mini-tour songs, it'll be something. >> 5. get them tickets.. family fun 'till my head falls off" > >Parents at the concert... kinda lame. If your parents are cool then they'll sort of fade off into the background during the show. And if they're not then I'd give up on your efforts right now. :-/ Josh, there's a feeling of boredon of the big whoredom following dressing up... /---------------------------Joshua Hall-Bachner---------------------------\ | particle@servtech.com http://www.servtech.com/public/particle/ | | "I won't die until I'm dead." -- They Might Be Giants, "On The Drag" | \-------------------------- Eschew Obfuscation ---------------------------/ ------------------------------ From: "Tim Lloyd" Subject: TMBG: New page! Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:57:41 -0600 Hey kiddies! java.man here, sending an update from his non-juno account. My new TMBG page is up at: http://www.top.net/tlloyd/tmbg.htm To get the full effect, make sure you have Internet Explorer 3.0 (from www.microsoft.com/ie)! Groovy graphics and tables! And not much stinking content! Ha! java.man ------------------------------ End of tmbg-list Digest #2-328 ******************************