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 #36-20 tmbg-list Digest, Volume 36, Number 20 Saturday, 23 December 2000 Today's Topics: TMBG: Re: (1)tour dates, (2)The Bobs Re: TMBG: New Tour Dates! Re[2]: TMBG: New Tour Dates! TMBG: Slashdot TMBG interview Re: Re[2]: TMBG: New Tour Dates! Re: TMBG: Slashdot TMBG interview TMBG: HOB Show Re: TMBG: Re: (2)The Bobs TMBG: Hall of Mayors TMBG: Hall of Mayors 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 3.5b (John Relph ). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pzickler@mv.k12.wa.us Message-Id: Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 03:10:11 -0800 Subject: TMBG: Re: (1)tour dates, (2)The Bobs Hey Erich, I'm with you there. last time I saw They was at Bumbershoot more than 2 years ago. I need my fix soon! Keep watching the tour dates, and hopefully we'll see them in Seattle soon. Speaking of Seattle, I saw the eminent acappella gods The Bobs at Jazz Alley tonight. These guys (and one girl) are amazing -- all acappella and all rockin. Anyway, I knew they did a cover of Particle Man, so when they asked for requests I yelled it out right away. Luckily I was sitting down front, and they heard me and decided to do the song. Before they started, the bass, Richard Bob, said, "This is a song we covered by a band called They Might Be Giants. Only since we covered it, a lot of people seem to think it's our song, which They Might Be Giants don't like very much." The tenor guy, Joe Bob, replied, "Well, they've got that tv show theme now, so they probably don't care as much." Matthew Bob, the baritone/lead guy said, "What tv show?" at which point, I of course, yelled "Malcolm in the Middle!" He looked stunned and said, "That's They Might Be Giants? That You're Not the Boss of Me song? That's a great song!" I was, of course, beaming. Somebody in another part of the club yelled out "Rawhide" as a joke, and Amy Bob, the girl in the group, did a little riff about TMBG going back in a time machine and doing the theme from Rawhide, with whip cracks and all... So they covered Particle Man, but Joe, who does the solo, messed up the words on the last verse, singing something like "Triangle man hates person man; triangle man has a fight, he wins, person man..." The rest of them kinda looked at him like "what the hell", which, if you've ever seen the Bobs, happens A LOT (it's part of the show for them to screw up the lyrics and make jokes about it, hard to explain) So the song ends, Joe Bob kinda looks sheepish and says, "What the hell is that song ABOUT anyways?" I guess i could have gone into my interpretation, but by then they'd moved on to something else... Anyway, sorry to bore you, but it was a cool Giants moment for me. PZ ------------------------------ Date: 22 Dec 2000 07:21:08 -0800 Message-ID: <-1234652830ggr@wlg.com> From: Bongo Subject: Re: TMBG: New Tour Dates! Thanks for the info on the new tour dates Erich! That's the news I've been waiting for. Last time they were scheduled to play L.A., the show was canceled. Hope we have better luck this time. Of course the under 21 TMBG L.A. fans are going to pissed because the L.A. HOB shows are always 21+. I don't know if its the same at the Anaheim HOB. In fact, I didn't even know there was a HOB in Anaheim. Maybe its inside Disneyland :) -B O N G O Erich Cannon wrote: > 1/27/01 New York, NY Irving Plaza > 2/2/01 West Hollywood, CA House of Blues > 2/3/01 Anaheim, CA House of Blues > ------------------------------ From: karinh@sterl.com Message-Id: <0012229774.AA977499700@smtplink.sterl.com> Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 10:41:34 -0500 Subject: Re[2]: TMBG: New Tour Dates! BONGO sez: >> Of course the under 21 TMBG L.A. fans are going to pissed because the L.A. HOB shows are always 21+. << What's with that, anyway? I can see different clubs having different rules, but for instance: the Bowery Ballroom will have a 16+ show one week, then an 18+ show & maybe a 21+ show the next week. We went to a 16+ show during last fall's Thursday series, & the bar was open, so it can't be that. Then this year (also Thursdays), almost all the shows were 18+. Same club, same band, same night, different rules? What the hell are the criteria? Anybody? Anybody?? Bueller??? Just curious - - - Karin H ** FREE THE EXPO 67 ** ------------------------------ From: "Miss Karen" Subject: TMBG: Slashdot TMBG interview Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 16:06:41 Message-ID: These are the answers from the AskSlashdot thing a couple of weeks ago. Sorry if this has been posted already. Happy holidays. -Karen Answers From 'They Might Be Giants' Posted by Roblimo on Thursday December 21, @12:00PM from the two-(click)-two-(click)-two-johns-in-one dept. : We put up the 'Ask TMBG' post the Friday before last (Dec. 8) . Here's their response, just in time for the major Judeo/Christian winter holidays. Enjoy! John: (from TMBG) Hello. John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants at the typewriter here. I am answering a bunch of questions that have been scored by someone as to how interesting they are. I would never be so presumptuous as to do this or to publish such a score. I am a bit concerned that this rating system tacitly implies the score is part of my response to their question, which kinda disturbs me. You might disagree, but this is how I would understand it, and I would greatly appreciate it if it were removed. Editorial Note: The scores have been removed; all questions sent were moderated +5 anyway, so it doesn't matter. John also declined to answer question number one, but we have always told interview guests that they were free to skip questions if they like, so no big deal. ------------------ 2) The Future by zpengo Do you guys really think that online music has a chance, or are you doing this out of idealism? I'd personally like to think that it does, but I've heard some pretty powerful arguments against it as well. John: That is a very wide-open question, and idea of "online music" means different things to different people. I wouldn't characterize our on-line efforts so much as being driven by idealism for the specific format as much as our general personal desire to be challenged creatively, which is probably more unrelated than you might assume. It is sort of like writing for your self or writing for the room. Good music (and almost all my favorite music) often only finds a small audience. That's no reason not to do it. 3) Professional musicians by yamla These days, it seems that virtually no professional musicians actually make a decent living. Courtney Love has said that she is pretty much playing for free already. TLC declared bankruptcy. And these are just two examples. Yet during this time, the record industry is reporting record sales, record profits. What do you think the answer is? Is the day of the professional artist over? Is it still possible to make the music you love and make enough to pay the bills? If so, how? How do you see the record industry changing over the next ten years? John: Being broke is not being poor, and one should be skeptical of such complaints, as they often reveal poor judgement more than poverty. In both of your examples, you are talking about people who generate huge amounts of revenue and conspicuously purchased very expensive things. I don't think the era of the professional musical artist ever really existed. Through the course of the 20th Century from the birth of publishing to the explosion of rock as a mass market business, the business terrain has changed for the better, but long term professional employment remains an elusive reality. Musicians are always at the end of the food chain in the music business. It has never been easy making money. 4) Creative process by Masem What's the process by which you come up with and create your songs, at least prior to getting to the recording studio? Certainly with a wide enough berth of unusual topics that your songs cover, there's probably numerous ways that this works, but is there some common occurrence that causes these songs to be written, such as a theme you want to do, or a melody that needs to be written? John: I drink a cup of coffee and try to write something new. We've used a lot of different approaches. A melodic line can hit you at almost any time. Sometimes a title or a couplet is the spring-board, or using a new instrument or effect. As far as lyrics are concerned, we just try to write about ideas that are interesting to us, and seem bold enough to interest other people. 5) Internet distributable music by iamsure If music *could* be distributed securely online, would you as an artist be willing to do so INSTEAD of signing with a label? If not, would you be willing to do so and pressure your label? John: There is a leap of logic within the question. It is not security that keeps musicians from going into electronic music distribution, it is the size of the audience. For a period when we were without a label we did a bunch of on-line things, but they would not ever make us the revenue we can make selling discs. We are planning on releasing all our Restless material online through EMusic, in the unsecured MP3 format. : Finally, if secure transmission of music wasn't possible (as it doesn't seem to be now), are you willing to live with the possibility of people copying your music for free digitally, just to get more people to listen to it? John: I think that is the exact environment I am living in now. The Napster discussion is such a strange cultural third rail, and bores me so completely now, I just can't talk about it anymore. 6) EMusic deal limiting access? by gorsh Hi guys - I've been a big fan of TMBG for some time, and a long-time subscriber to your mailing list. Prior to the introduction of the $10 a month EMusic "TMBG Unlimited" service, TMBG frequently provided free MP3 downloads of unreleased songs and live versions not available on Dial-A-Song to those fans on the TMBG mailing list. Now that the service has been introduced, membership seems to be a requirement for any new MP3 downloads. All the e-mails that I've received from TMBG lately have essentially been advertisements for this new service, with little or no free material offered fans. Because I don't like getting what is essentially glorified spam for Emusic in my mailbox, I've actually unsubscribed myself from your mailing list. I understand that you guys have to make money and all, but are you concerned at all that you may be posing what could be construed a membership fee to be a member of the "official" TMBG fan community, asking fans to pay for material you had previously provided for free? I'm perfectly willing to pay money for new TMBG albums and music, but I'm concerned that asking fans to pay $10 a month to have access to new TMBG tunes may cause you to lose more fans than you gain. John: Our audience means a lot to us, and we respect their interest and email addresses. Virtually all the EMusic emails include some free component, although it is not all free. We personally give away more than any other band I've heard of, and live wonderful, earthbound existences. I don't know what else to say but sorry we bugged you. 7) Stage Crashers by irqzero I was at the Philadelphia show (day after thanksgiving) when that doofy guy jumped on stage and started flailing about. You whispered into his ear before security took him away. I was just curious what you said to him. Other than that and the few sound glitches (ouch) that was an incredible show. Thanks guys. John: I said "Can you please get off the stage?" 8) Tiny Toons Music Videos by Pxtl Honestly, I'll bet a lot of people out there first heard you when Tiny Toons did that music video day with two of your songs (Istanbul and Particle Man, to the slashdotters who don't know).... how much do you think your career owes to that episode? How did that get handled, were you simply approached by WB with a proposal and a contract to sign, or was it more complicated? John: Among a certain age group I think you are right. The Tiny Toons get repeated a lot, which also adds to their secret power. It was just a license that they had to pay the record company and publisher to use the music. We had already made the recordings, and had no creative involvement beyond that. 9) Digital or Analog??? by HamNRye As a musician myself I must ask my role models this burning question: Digital or Analog? Indeed I know there lurks a purist analog soul in TMBG, but who better to get the most out of digital mixing?? John: We do both. We really get a lot out of both mediums. 10) good Vs bad john by ashileedo There are rumors that there is a "good" John and a "bad"John. Is this true? If so, would the Johns care to reveal who is who? John: We are both polite, nice fellows. TMBG is a team effort, and John and I share a lot of responsibilities, but we also have different skills and abilities. As far as business goes, I am the self-declared "bad John." In lot of day to day logistics, especially on tour, the buck stops with me, making me the heavy in some situations. I've had to fire people, which isn't ever fun, but I am willing to do it for the sake of the band. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: 22 Dec 2000 08:33:13 -0800 Message-ID: <-1234648505ggr@wlg.com> From: Bongo Subject: Re: Re[2]: TMBG: New Tour Dates! karinh@sterl.com wrote: >BONGO sez: > >>> Of course the under 21 TMBG L.A. fans are going to pissed because the L.A. >HOB shows are always 21+. << The HOB has bars everywhere so you might think the reason for the 21+ shows is to sell booze. But I've been to other shows where its all ages but they stamp your hand if your 21 so you can show you can drink. Maybe some clubs feel that's not reliable way to make sure under 21ers aren't drinking. (A 21 yr old can bring a drink to to a younger friend.) Also, I imagine different clubs consider their liabilities differently. In the case of the L.A. HOB when TMBG plays, its always to a full house. If they did a 21+ show and the turnout was poor, they might be more inclined to make it an all ages show next time. >...the Bowery Ballroom will have a 16+ show one week, then an 18+ >show & maybe a 21+ show the next week. We went to a 16+ show during last fall's >Thursday series... Its weird that they would have both 16+ shows and 18+ shows. What's the difference? Is Flans allowed to swear more at the 18+ shows? -B O N G O ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 12:31:05 -0500 (EST) From: "Matthew W. Miller" Subject: Re: TMBG: Slashdot TMBG interview Message-ID: On Fri, 22 Dec 2000, Miss Karen wrote: > These are the answers from the AskSlashdot thing a couple of weeks ago. ... > Editorial Note: The scores have been removed; all questions sent were > moderated +5 anyway, so it doesn't matter. John also declined to answer > question number one, but we have always told interview guests that they were > free to skip questions if they like, so no big deal. If anyone's wondering, here's question #1: Street Performer Protocol (Score:5, Interesting) by joshuaos (joshua@terradot.org) on 12:10 08 December 2000 EST (User #243047 Info) http://terradot.org TMBG, do you know about the Street Performer Protocol, and if so, what do you think of it? Do you think it is a viable business model for the production of art, and if not, what changes do you think need to be made? Joshua For more info on the Street Performer Protocol, see http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_6/kelsey/ . Considering how whacky the politics behind it are, I'm not surprised Flansburgh cheerfully ignored it. > John: > Being broke is not being poor, and one should be skeptical of such > complaints, as they often reveal poor judgement more than poverty. Ouch. Heh. > John: > There is a leap of logic within the question. It is not security that keeps > musicians from going into electronic music distribution, it is the size of > the audience. Right. It's security that keeps the *record labels* from going into electronic music distribution. > John: > The Napster discussion is such a strange cultural third rail, and bores > me so completely now, I just can't talk about it anymore. "Bores me so completely"! Ha ha. > 6) EMusic deal limiting access? > by gorsh ... > Prior to the introduction of the $10 a month EMusic "TMBG > Unlimited" service, TMBG frequently provided free MP3 downloads of > unreleased songs and live versions not available on Dial-A-Song to those > fans on the TMBG mailing list. > Now that the service has been introduced, membership seems to be a > requirement for any new MP3 downloads. All the e-mails that I've received > from TMBG lately have essentially been advertisements for this new service, > with little or no free material offered fans. 'Tis spam, 'tis spam, that makes the Net go 'round. -- Matthew W. Miller -- mwmiller@columbus.rr.com ------------------------------ From: "Erich Cannon" Subject: TMBG: HOB Show Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 14:10:08 -0800 Message-ID: This is from hob.com: They Might Be Giants : House of Blues Anaheim date : Saturday, February 3, 2001 door time : 8:00 PM age : All price : $20.00 ------------------------------ From: MikeTheGiant@aol.com Message-ID: <49.5396c4f.2775783b@aol.com> Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 22:38:35 EST Subject: Re: TMBG: Re: (2)The Bobs I have seen The Bobs four times now, and the last time I saw them (Feb. of this year), the did a cover of "Dinnerbell". This completely threw me off guard. They are absolutely amazing, and anyone who hasn't heard of them needs to go listen to either, "Shut up and Sing", or "The Bobs Cover the Songs of...". Mike Stabile In a message dated 12/22/00 6:18:33 AM Eastern Standard Time, pzickler@mv.k12.wa.us writes: << Anyway, I knew they did a cover of Particle Man, so when they asked for requests I yelled it out right away. >> ------------------------------ From: DrSaxx@aol.com Message-ID: <1e.f0f5f1c.27759551@aol.com> Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 00:42:41 EST Subject: TMBG: Hall of Mayors I'm always asking stupid questions like this but, does anyone know what linnell is using while singing at the end if Hall if Mayors to get that almost spit build up type tone? Halan Muir TMBG Ambassador of "Iowa" DrSaxx@aol.com [Attachment omitted, unknown MIME type or encoding (text/html)] [Attachment omitted, unknown MIME type or encoding (multipart/alternative)] ------------------------------ End of tmbg-list Digest #36-20 ******************************