4 TMBG FANS ONLY

4.8.11

5:16 pm

 

I've been immersed in a discussion with Jade over the one, brand new TMBG track, "Can't Keep Johnny Down", that was released earlier this week.

The discussion touched on many subject related to TMBG, ranging from Jade possibly being the One Australian Member of the TMBG Instant Fan Club which opened and then closed on Wednesday to TDK dying horribly to the recent unsettling development in They Might Be Giants' music, namely the shortening of songs, specifically by recording one full verse, then taking the second verse and cutting it into two verses.

Anyway, during my purge, I found myself making some good points.

Or at least loud ones.

So, below is my way-too-in-depth rant about this sorry practice and it's origins and possible solutions.

Unless you're a fan...a big fan of They Might Be Giants', I'd probably ignore this one...

 

As for the "verse splitting" thing, here's what I think happened...

They did Factory Showroom, which I consider the last of the "old, good TMBG".

Each songs had a different feel while still feeling like they were TMBG and belonged on the same album.

One song was 80's shred rock (XTC Vs. Adam Ant), one song had a string AND horn section (S~E~X~X~Y), one was pure TMBG rock ('Til My Head Falls Off), one was dork rock (James K. Polk), one was a straight up Instant TMBG Classic (New York City) and one was a fun curiosity (I Can Hear You). The whole thing was just TMBfuckingG.

Then, they took some time off, each of them dropped a solo album and they put out a live album then they toured for two or three years...and then Mink Car, an album on which every song except for four or five had appeared in some form, either live (Man, It's So Loud In Here and Cyclops Rock) or on some pseudo-album, like First Kiss from Severe Tire Damage, Working Undercover For The Man from the WUFTM EP, Finished With Lies from Dial A Song, Older from Brave New World and Bangs and Edith Head from the McSweeney's disc etc.

Mink Car was their "we have these fifteen songs lying around in different states of disrepair, some that we've been performing live for three years and we should really do something with them" album. So they dusted some tracks off, adding something here, cut something there and put it out just to have done with these songs.

Mink Car was where I noticed some things appeared to be shorter than they should.

Then they did "No!" and everyone was so caught up in the novelty of it and how weird some of the stuff was to notice how short these songs were. But the thinking was, these are for kids, kids have a short attention span...rather than have two full verses, let's cut the second verse in half.

Then they did "The Spine". An adult album with that "kids album" mentality still in place.

THAT is where it happened.

And it's stuck ever since.

There have been exceptions, but that is where this sickness began.

Will Join Us be the cure?

Can't Keep Johnny Down seems to say, "No."

But, we'll get a better idea on April 26th and an even better idea of July 19th.

 

There you have it.

Now leave me alone.