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 #65-18 tmbg-list Digest, Volume 65, Number 18 Tuesday, 20 July 2004 Today's Topics: Re: TMBG: The Spine - review in the Morning Star TMBG: My take on The Spine RE: TMBG: My take on The Spine Re: TMBG: My take on The Spine Re: TMBG: My take on The Spine RE: TMBG: My take on The Spine 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 ). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-Id: Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:50:19 +0100 From: "Richard Hilton" Subject: Re: TMBG: The Spine - review in the Morning Star I mentioned a few days ago that a friend of mine gave me a promo copy of The Spine after he had written a review of it for a national newspaper. Well here is the link to the review! http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/culture.php/culture/music/art_rockers_preach_to_the_converted BTW 'The Morning Star' is 'Britain's only Socialist Daily' so if you are of a politically sensitive nature I wouldn't wander too far away from the review to, say, the front page where they report that 'thousands of trade unionists, peace and justice campaigners and their families commemorated the 170th anniversary of the Tolpuddle Martyrs yesterday"! Cheers Richard ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" Subject: TMBG: My take on The Spine Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 17:40:28 -0400 Message-ID: I'm cross-posting this to the tmbg.org list, the alt.music.tmbg newsgroup, and my blog and livejournal. That way, at least a few people will read it, right? Overall, it seems to be a return to when They Might Be Giants songs were short and catchy; the longest one is only three minutes and ten seconds long. Fans who thought the band had lost their way with their recent albums will probably be glad to discover that these songs are ones that are easy to get into. On the other hand, fans of longer, somewhat more epic songs like "Sleeping In The Flowers," "The End Of The Tour," "Spiraling Shape," and "Hopeless Bleak Despair" might be a bit disappointed to find out that there isn't anything comparable here. Still, I doubt they'll be disappointed for long, since the vast majority of what IS here is done very well, and that's saying a lot for the album. It could probably have used a few more songs, though. I understand that a short but cohesive album can sometimes sound better than a long, rambling one, but I tend to have a particular fondness for albums that pack in as many songs as possible. Call it my completist tendencies, I guess. I like the art in the liner notes. They're definitely in the style of an old-fashioned cartoon, and I like the inverted writing. I didn't think so much of it when I first saw the front cover, but I think the whole thing works quite well. The album is identified as "They Might Be Giants' Tenth Album." I know they considered Factory Showroom to be their sixth, since it says so right in the liner notes, continuing the tradition that they had established in the first five. None of the albums in between Factory Showroom and The Spine are numbered, however, which leaves the true identity of the seventh through ninth albums up in the air. Mink Car and No! almost definitely count, and I'd probably say Long Tall Weekend should be considered the seventh, but a case could also be made for Severe Tire Damage, and possibly even They Got Lost. Anyway, here's a song-by-song review. I'm not sure why I generally only do these for TMBG albums these days, but it just seems appropriate. Experimental Film: Pretty catchy little song, and a good way to get things started. I don't know that it was the best choice for a single, though. As I said before, it seems kind of "safe," giving off a vibe of TMBG trying to sound like they did in their older singles, but not quite succeeding. Sort of like "Bangs," although I like it better than "Bangs," and it works better as an opener. Still a good song, but there are quite a few others I like better. Spine: Not one of the best tracks on the album, but, really, could you expect that from a 33-second song? I like these short themed tracks, and this one has an amusing vocal performance by John Linnell. (Beth says it reminds her of XTC's Andy Partridge, and I guess I can kind of see that. It reminds me of something else, though, and I'm not sure what.) It's also a good introduction to the next song. Memo To Human Resources: I already talked about this track when I reviewed the Indestructible Object EP, and it's the same recording. As other people have said, this really does seem like one of TMBG's more "mature" tracks. Not to say that they were IMmature in the past, but this seems like a song that they really couldn't have done (or at least done so well) on one of their early albums. Wearing A Raincoat: Although there's always been some psychedelic rock influence to TMBG' music (especially in the lyrics), this is perhaps their most blatant foray into that genre since "The Day." There's an interesting structure to the lyrics, with each verse providing an unusual and messed-up transition to the next. ("Turning to drugs to help you sleep will only lead to sleep, and sleeping is a gateway drug to being awake again. Being awake is swimming around in a lake of the undead, and the undead are like a bunch of friends that demand constant attention.") Prevenge: Excellent title. I wonder if anyone has ever come up with concept of "prevenge" before. It seems like an obvious bit of wordplay, but I don't think I've come across it before. The lyrics aren't really what I would have expected from the title. They're good, but I kind of expected more wordplay and/or an explanation of the title concept. I'd say this is the weakest of the album's three "John Flansburgh rocking out" tracks, but it's still quite catchy, and it's already starting to grow on me. Thunderbird: This song was premiered in the live show in 1999, around the same time as such Mink Car tracks as "Cyclops Rock," "Man, It's So Loud In Here," and "She Thinks She's Edith Head." For some reason, though, it was largely ignored by the band, left the live setlists quickly, and didn't show up on Mink. That's unfortunate, since I think it would have been one of the better tracks on that album, while it gets lost in the shuffle here. Others have commented on how this recording doesn't rock quite as much as it did live, and how leaving out certain lyrics ("They devised a plan, they would melt a man, and they called it Thunderbird") wasn't such a good idea. I guess I'd agree, but maybe I'm just not as thrilled by the song itself as I used to be. Bastard Wants To Hit Me: I have to wonder if this title was a reaction to all of the children's songs the band had written recently. Kind of similar to "Man, It's So Loud In Here" in that it uses an equalizer (or whatever it's called) and is sung by a paranoid (unreliable?) narrator. It's not as good as that song, though, although the production seems a bit better. Perhaps that's just because I preferred "So Loud" without the dance beats, though. Kind of forgettable overall (although the title is hard to forget), this might be the weakest of the album's more-than-a-minute-long tracks. The World Before Later On: This song seems unfinished to me. The idea behind it, that we still don't have a lot of the Jetsons-style conveniences that we were supposed to have this century, is an interesting one, but it really seems like a lot more could have been done with it than two brief verses. Museum Of Idiots: I first heard this song at a show at Propsect Park in Brooklyn back in August 2000. Back then, they were doing recordings with a full brass band, and there was talk of a brass band album. I was apprehensive about that, as it struck me as suggesting that there wouldn't be as much variety as on the typical TMBG album, so I'm glad they eventually decided to use this song on an album where it stands out, rather than where it sounds like every other track. The horns work really well here, the lyrics are excellent, and the song is probably my favorite Linnell-penned track on the album. It's Kickin' In: Like "The World Before Later On," this might have benefitted from being a little longer. Not because it isn't complete the way it is, but because a slightly longer version might have made a better single than "Experimental Film." It's equally catchy (if not more so), but it rocks harder than the rather low-key "Film," and the kids still like the rock music, right? I guess it could still be the second single, if they have one, but I'm inclined to think that they'd probably go with the similar but weaker and longer "Prevenge" over this one (not that they'd necessarily pick either one, just that I think "Prevenge" has a better chance of being a single than "It's Kickin' In" does). Musically, this kind of reminds me of the Severe Tire Damage version of "First Kiss," only better. Spines: A not-as-good complement to "Spine." Au Contraire: Another song that was on Indestructible Object, and it's basically the same, although they replaced the flute solo with a guitar solo. The end of the flute solo is still there, though, which strikes me as uncharacteristically sloppy editing for this album. I've heard rumors that there are some copies of the album where this flute bit actually IS edited out, which would be odd if it's indeed true. The song itself is classic Linnell, using the same basic structure (three unrelated verses with a common theme that comes out in the chorus) as "Turn Around," "Certain People I Could Name," and the unfortunately still unreleased "No Answer" (and, for that matter, "Weird Al" Yankovic's TMBG style parody, "Everything You Know Is Wrong"). Damn Good Times: Excellent segue from the last song into this one. That kind of automatic progression from one song to another has worked so well on albums by other bands (particularly XTC's Skylarking), and TMBG hasn't really used it before. I had downloaded this song from tmbg.com, and it was an early favorite of mine, with its relentlessly catchy, fast-paced nature. The guitar solo at the end reminds me quite a bit of Camper Van Beethoven's "Tania," although that song used a violin instead of a guitar. I liked the CVB solo better, but TMBG's version still works. Broke In Two: I think this song hasn't quite clicked with me yet. I like it overall, and the guitar line is cool, but it just isn't a favorite of mine. I have a feeling I'll get to appreciate it better after a few more listens, though. Stalk Of Wheat: Like "Damn Good Times," I heard and loved this some time before the album came out. An insanely catchy (yes, I've been saying "catchy" a lot in this review, but damned if it isn't appropriate for almost every track) song with nonsense lyrics, kind of like "Shoehorn With Teeth," or something of the sort. Nice rhyme scheme, too. I Can't Hide From My Mind: A pretty nice little slow song. The lyrics are especially good here, with a lot of skewed logic. I don't know that this is the best way to end the album, though. It leaves me wanting more. Okay, I guess pretty much every TMBG song does that, but this song doesn't provide much resolution. It's sort of like "Working Undercover For The Man" in that respect. Both good songs individually, but they sort of end their respective albums not with a bang but a whimper, as T.S. Eliot might have said. I'll probably review the companion EP, "The Spine Surfs Alone," tomorrow, after I've had a chance to listen to it a few times. -- I'll still be right where you left me, if you manage to forget me, Nathan DinnerBell@tmbg.org http://members.aol.com/jinnicky/ _________________________________________________________________ Planning a family vacation? Check out the MSN Family Travel guide! http://dollar.msn.com ------------------------------ From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" Subject: RE: TMBG: My take on The Spine Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 17:55:35 -0400 Message-ID: Sorry about all of those HTML tags in my review. I had meant to take them out before sending the e-mail, but I forgot. Hopefully they don't get in the way too much for those of you without HTML e-mail. -- I'll still be right where you left me, if you manage to forget me, Nathan DinnerBell@tmbg.org http://members.aol.com/jinnicky/ _________________________________________________________________ Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfeeR Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ------------------------------ From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" Subject: Re: TMBG: My take on The Spine Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 20:48:01 -0400 Message-ID: Marcus Brannon: >You are one of the few people who have noticed the sloppy edit on Au >Contraire.. I am TRYING to get TMBG to recall the disc because I do not >believe the flute is intentional.. and if it is.. it's definitely a bad >edit.. you can listen to an mp3 comparing the two versions here: >http://www.theworldsaddress.net/download/aucontraire_error.mp3 Actually, quite a few people mentioned it on the newsgroup. I don't know whether or not it was intentional, but I agree it was sloppy either way. On the other hand, I certainly don't think it's a big enough mistake for the CD to be recalled. It's very minor. >I've tried emailing rounder.. haven't heard back.. and Jenn from the street >team.. but I wish I had a better way to contact TMBG.. Have you tried contacting Operator Dot? -- I'll still be right where you left me, if you manage to forget me, Nathan DinnerBell@tmbg.org http://members.aol.com/jinnicky/ _________________________________________________________________ Discover the best of the best at MSN Luxury Living. http://lexus.msn.com/ ------------------------------ From: Kaylum@aol.com Message-ID: Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 20:52:21 EDT Subject: Re: TMBG: My take on The Spine In a message dated 7/19/2004 8:48:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, xornom@hotmail.com writes: Actually, quite a few people mentioned it on the newsgroup. I don't know whether or not it was intentional, but I agree it was sloppy either way. On the other hand, I certainly don't think it's a big enough mistake for the CD to be recalled. It's very minor. I agree, it's VERY minor...people need to get over it! Kay [Attachment omitted, unknown MIME type or encoding (text/html)] [Attachment omitted, unknown MIME type or encoding (multipart/alternative)] ------------------------------ End of tmbg-list Digest #65-18 ******************************