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 #3-353 tmbg-list Digest, Volume 3, Number 353 Saturday, 20 December 1997 Today's Topics: TMBG: Mercury Lounge, 12/18... The End of the Tour... (long) TMBG: Re: irony and They Might Be-rony TMBG: Re: IMBATT is ISBATT TMBG: 12/18 Concert photos! Re: TMBG: Re: irony and They Might Be-rony Re: TMBG: Re: irony and They Might Be-rony TMBG: TMBG vs. The Beatles? Re: TMBG: TMBG vs. The Beatles? Administrivia: If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing send mail to tmbg-digest-request@tmbg.org for instructions on how to be automatically removed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. --------------------------------------------------------------------- tmbg-list is digested with Digest 3.3d (John Relph ). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 08:31:49 -0500 (EST) From: Lawrence P Solomon Subject: TMBG: Mercury Lounge, 12/18... The End of the Tour... (long) well, I just got home from New York, where I saw perhaps the best TMBG show I've ever seen... even with the horns absent... they only played one set last night, but what a set it was... to get things going, they jumped right into Spider, after the new intro that I just can't describe... this then led into the new and improved and way-the-hell-up-tempo They Got Lost, with Linnell singing "Graham said to Dan" in the third verse, and getting strange looks from the audience and himself... (I wonder how Hal felt....) then came New York City, led by the 'fake bell sound,' which, surprisingly enough, only lasted for the intro, then switched to organ for some reason... James K. Polk followed, with the audience poised with our own cheap substitute for a confetti cannon, only to be surprised when the cannon fired from the back of the room, covering both the audience and the band in confetti. then just a bunch of songs fairly standardly done - they commented that they were doing an 'official' recording of the show, and they'd try to play everything as it is on the albums, but make lots of mistakes. not that the bootleggers know anything about that. so we heard First Kiss, She's Actual Size, Counterfeit Faker (with some awesome bellows shaking by Linnell), Particle Man (much to Linnell's dismay) [and in the key of C], Dr. Worm [in F#], and Twisting. then they did Finished with Lies... the first time I've ever heard it so I wasn't sure what to expect... I like the irony of the lyrics, but the song seems to really drag out... especially after something like Twisting. then a tremendously slow Meet James Ensor (with many attempts at the beginning to keep slowing it down), Older (as usual), and, as promised, The Bells are Ringing. no drum solo at the end, but still quite an excellent rendition - it got a great response from the audience, especially those who knew they'd never played it before... back two tracks for Pet Name, in the dark, as usual... followed by Exquisite Dead Guy - the heads were wearing Santa hats and it was neat. but the face on Flans' dummy head is badly damaged... looks like something fell on it or something. The Guitar... uh... one of the two songs I've heard at every show. an interesting version, as Flans kept it going for several refrains at the end... and Spiraling Shape with the vibrophone... absolutely incredible. (although Linnell kept trying to set his keyboard to vibrophone and saying 'whoops!') then the Planet of the Apes segment. I'm really not sure what their point with this is... other than yet another excuse to just jam... but when they were trying to find a rhythm, Dan and Hal inadvertently played the first few bars of Pencil Rain, at which point Flans said 'guys, we've already got one that goes like that...' (amid cries from the audience for them to actually play Pencil Rain) then S-E-X-X-Y with no dedication... and very little originality. maybe I'm jaded from previous concerts... then a fairly fast version of Shoehorn with Teeth. Then an absurdly fast version of Shoehorn with Teeth. Quite fun, indeed. I've heard three versions now of On the Drag... the one they played there had no guitar, and very little keyboard. while I liked the accordion version they played in Philadelphia, I think that if Linnell wants to just stand behind the keyboard, they should do the original version. On the Drag *was* a drag last night... (also, for anyone paying attention to the rhyme scheme, when Flans changed 'time to waste' to 'time to kill,' it no longer rhymed with 'St. Mark's Place.' :) then the Stick was turned on. by 'turned on,' I mean that the Cristmas lights surrounding it were lit. after a little discussion among the band members, they played a brief instrumental version of O Tannenbaum with Linnell on Sax and Flans on Stick. and, since they didn't remember any more of it, they continuted into Lie Still, Little Bottle (as expected :). then some more comments about the show being taped, and how the next song had to be perfect. they played Don't Let's Start, and Linnell played with the lyrics a lot more than usual. At the end Flans commented that it wasn't perfect, and then announced 'This song is called Don't Let's Start,' but they didn't play it again. instead, they played Spy, with the best improv part I'll ever see. Not only did it include I Am Not Your Broom, as was written on the set list, but while Flans was conducting, he broke into Absolutely Bill's Mood, which he sang pretty much in its entirety and almost entirely a capella. it was... nifty. :) then Birdhouse, which came out pretty normal... (the other song I've heard at every show I've been to) and to conclude the show, a reprise of They Got Lost, this time with the correct names. and that was that. it was cool. no Istanbul, which was surprising. also no Triborowhatever or Rest Awhile, which was perhaps more surprising. I got to meet lots of cool people, and if I were to try to name them all I'd end up accidentally leaving one out and they'd be offended and write me nasty email. so I won't even try. it was a great show... who knows what 1998 will hold for They Might Be Giants? ------------------------------ Message-Id: <199712191452.QAA29043@noda.atlasnet.fi> From: "Jarmo Lundgren" Organization: Medusa Promotion Oy Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 16:55:17 +0000 Subject: TMBG: Re: irony and They Might Be-rony (First, I apologize my English... The subjects are a bit too complicated for me to write in English. How about if you took some classes of Finnish first...? ;) > > I can't help but think of all the people that > > wanted to see "New York City" as being ironic, but were disappointed when > > it was discovered that everyone seemed quite sincere about it... There's so much irony in Their songs, that taking some songs by Them deeply, straightforward seriously always takes a lot of time, strength and thinking. New York City was the toughest for me... Finally, after listening about hundred times to it, I just ended up with the final conclusion: "No, it's not ironic. They really mean it! It's a simple, beautiful love song", though some lines of the lyrics _can_ be heard in very ironic way as well... (Can't help thinking: "because it _is_ a TMBG song, it _has_ to be ironic in one way or other..." ;) > > (yes, I > > know it was a cover) It is??? Who made the original? Hmmm... makes me wonder... can there be found some irony in covering the song? Arghh... But about "I Should be..." I have taken it as a very ironic story. The narrator is rebelling against anything just for the rebelling itself. Or saying aloud his (her) thoughts, not noticing (s)he hasn't got any of them. An ironic point of view into the puberty of a midclass child. (hmm... i hope this was _some_ kind of language...) > 2) He doesn't take > the time to think out his ideas before blurting them out: "I should > be allowed to shoot my mouth off" (this is not the kind of thing > Linnell, or most people admire...). About shooting the mouth off... Was Henry released a bit after the Cobain incident...? IMBATT is one of my favourites. They surprise every now and then by making a perfect pop song. IMBATT is one of those, IMHO. ----> jab AKA "Jarmo Lundgren" ------------------------------ Message-Id: <199712191654.SAA29237@noda.atlasnet.fi> From: "Jarmo Lundgren" Organization: Medusa Promotion Oy Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 18:56:56 +0000 Subject: TMBG: Re: IMBATT is ISBATT > IMBATT is one of my favourites. They surprise every now and then by > making a perfect pop song. IMBATT is one of those, IMHO. ... I meant of course ISBATT, not IMBATT, BTW. FOI. IMHO. BFKHGEYOWGHGZZD. ----> jab AKA "Jarmo Lundgren" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 16:19:31 -0500 (EST) From: The Demonic Kangaroo Subject: TMBG: 12/18 Concert photos! Message-ID: Howdy folks. I have just added *76* pics from last night's show at the Mercury Lounge in NYC.. Check em out! -Mike http://www.cybercomm.net/~tdk/tmbg.html now with over 300 exclusive concert pics! ------------------------------ Message-ID: <349B4512.6D2F@geocities.com> Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 20:09:54 -0800 From: Vladimir Drakul Subject: Re: TMBG: Re: irony and They Might Be-rony > New York City was the toughest for me... Finally, after listening > about hundred times to it, I just ended up with the final conclusion: > "No, it's not ironic. They really mean it! It's a simple, beautiful > love song", though some lines of the lyrics _can_ be heard in very > ironic way as well... (Can't help thinking: "because it _is_ a TMBG > song, it _has_ to be ironic in one way or other..." ;) > > > > (yes, I > > > know it was a cover) > > It is??? Who made the original? > Cub, a band from Vancouver BC. They're a three-gal power rock grrl band. Robyn, Robyn, and Lisa, I believe are their names. Sadly, they broke up some time ago. They toured with TMBG as Their opener in '96 (for the FS Tour). -- Vladimir Drakul -- http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/7343/ ******************************************************************* "...so the room must listen to me filibuster vigilantly..." -They Might Be Giants "How do YOU know about my beard growing escapade?!" -Guybrush Threepwood "An eye for an eye only makes the world blind." -Mahatma Ghandi ------------------------------ Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19971219232729.006a329c@130.127.28.14> Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 23:27:29 -0500 From: Adam Tyner Subject: Re: TMBG: Re: irony and They Might Be-rony Geez, I wish they were opening when I saw TMBG in Athens on 10/2/96. Instead we got an absolutely AWFUL band called Thumb. A lot of people seemed really into them, which I found to be more than a little bit frightening. Thumb sucks, to make a really bad pun. In any event...to anyone else who attended that show...what song did they play when the strobe light was going? TTYL, -Adam At 08:09 PM 12/19/97 -0800, you wrote: > >Cub, a band from Vancouver BC. They're a three-gal power rock grrl band. Robyn, Robyn, >and Lisa, I believe are their names. Sadly, they broke up some time ago. They toured >with TMBG as Their opener in '96 (for the FS Tour). /----=========================================================----\ http://www.awod.com/gallery/rwav/ctyner/ The home of He-Man, "Weird Al", Yoo-hoo, Killer Tomatoes, and more! Demented music list admin O- MiSTie #67,326 ------------------------------ Message-ID: <19971220051155.11313.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Kyle Carrozza" Subject: TMBG: TMBG vs. The Beatles? Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 21:11:54 PST was talking to my friend Shannon the all-powerful the other day and the subject came up of "what would it have been like if TMBG was around when the Beatles were hot?" Shannon remarked "[TMBG] would've rivaled the Beatles. They probably would've been bigger! Not to mention... cuter..." Wow. I think the whole problem is under-promotion. I blame electra and I'm glad they left there. I hope whoever their new label is will promote them well.... and even if they don't.... I think MTV's new "12 Angry Viewers" is a godsend. If they review whatever the next TMBG video is, it's definately gonna end up in super-rotation...especially since Their next album is gonna have so many killer songs on it... (I've heard most of them live by now...) If They make a video for any of the following... They Got Lost Dr. Worm On the Drag or First Kiss They will become huge! I really beleive that! Last quarter I had a roommate named Jason. He never listened to TMBG before. I play it all the time arounsd the apartment and he grew to love it... Don't Let's start in particular! I've heard he's even bought some TMBG on his own now... the thing is, Jason's not even the TMBG type. He's one of those "everything that's wrong with America" types. It really wouldn't take much! ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Message-Id: <199712200645.AAA21684@cereal.ncfcomm.com> From: "mal" Subject: Re: TMBG: TMBG vs. The Beatles? Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 00:17:48 -0600 > I've heard he's even bought some TMBG on his own now... > the thing is, Jason's not even the TMBG type. He's one of those > "everything that's wrong with America" types. > You know, Everything Wrong With America Is Right again... ^_^ While I was in my post coma Being-Washed-With-Rags-By- Beautiful-Women phase this summer (early July or so), I happened upon the movie "IMAGINE", a biography of sorts about John Lennon. It was a movie with clips of the Beatles, Yoko and son talking about him, and such. There was this one scene that featured some vagrant crackhead. (Of course, the Lennon Group has cameras at the ready for this sort of thing) He had hiked from a great distance and was under the impression that if he ever met Lennon, "It would all make sense". He believed that certain songs were directed to him or something. Anyway, John explained that he was just some guy who wrote songs that really have no meaning to anyone but the writer. The guy then looks like his universe has collapsed. * ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ "God, why did you make the Universe? Why did you make Life?" God: "Well, it's just a fancy Egg-Timer... I didn't intend to make Life at all. You're accidental bacteria really." "But... what about heaven? What about hell?" God: "Umm... sorry. I just wanted a boiled egg.." * ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Then he gets fed in the Lennon Home. Except for the Feeding, The Filming, and Yoko, I'm sure that this thing could happen to TMBG (or any other band, I guess) Mike "Ed Sullivan vs. TMBG" Leffel ---we've got a mighty big Shoehorn With Teeth tonight, folks! Q: Where Did They Find Chris Farley's Body? .. .. A: IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!!! Bwaaaahahahahahahahahhahahah!!! ^_^ ------------------------------ End of tmbg-list Digest #3-353 ******************************