December 13, 2008

They Might Be Giants - Lincoln (hear “Shoehorn With Teeth” and “Cage & Aquarium”)

I was hugely into my Lincoln tape back in 88/89.  That and the awesomest awesomeness of my King Missile Fluting on the Hump / They cassette were my number one Piers Anthony novel background music.

Lincoln is such a hugely ideaful bunch of stuff exploding in every direction at once.  The lyrics are surreal to the breaking point.  The instrumentation veers from odd to classy.  John and John Flansburgh and Linnell sing as though they are explaining that they cannot talk to a telemarketer (selling timeshares in Branson) because their shoes have become inexplicably knotted together.

In my view, Bob Dylan made it OK for a significant portion of overly intellectual urbanites to listen to the blues, or the country blues, or what have you, by attaching “intelligent” words, which truth be told were often just obscure and bitter.  In a sense, They Might Be Giants then harvest the remaining fruit from the highest branches of nerdality, by attaching countless weird and unnecessary postmodernisms to what is essentially folk music.  I love it.

I guess that’s what makes their music so easily appealing to children, because basically kids are very weird people who nonetheless want to be able to listen to very normal music.

ps. adding this to my 33 1/3 list, although there are other people who are much more obsessed with this band/album.

I listened to this on Grooveshark, which seems to be in a legal grey area.  Of course, I still own the tape, so I believe I am entitled to downloaded copies.  Have you ever used the “Autoplay” feature on Grooveshark?  It has very adequate suggestions for similar music.  Why do these algorithms think I only want to hear something similar, though?  Might I not be tired of the sound after a whole album?

Comments (View)
Tags: 33 1/3 Dylan cassette kids king missile they might be giants weird wordplay folk
November 24, 2008
Parts & Labor - Mapmaker

My sister is pretty happy about this band.

Emily introduced me to Sonic Youth, King Missile, Killdozer, The Skatalites, and basically everything beyond The Police and They Might Be Giants.

Because of Sonic Youth, I learned of Glenn Branca.  Because of King Missile, I learned of Kramer and Shimmy Disc Records, on which label was also Eugene Chadbourne, who I witnessed (on VHS) playing the rake and the cow skull in about 1990, much sooner than I would have otherwise.  Because of Killdozer, I knew why Nirvana sounded so awesome - Butch Vig’s production does something pretty similar on the Killdozer albums, but of course Killdozer’s songs and performances are pretty awesome too.  Because of the Skatalites, I can never be unhappy involuntarily.

Parts & Labor sounds like a frenetic collaboration between Richard Thompson and Jeff “Neutral Milk Hotel” Mangum.  They have Thompson’s British folk thing happening, and Mangum’s dedication to the outside edge of the song, all while trying to get a terrified cow out of a burning barn.  It’s good stuff.

Comments (View)
Tags: Emily Brock Eugene Chadbourne Parts and Labor Richard Thompson Sonic Youth folk glenn branca killdozer king missile neutral milk hotel the police the skatalites they might be giants folk-rock