tmbg

You know what's creepy? "She Was a Hotel Detective." I mean, I dig it and all (I just heard it today) but when I heard it I thought, "Hm, who's the woman?" So I looked it up. Evidently, it's John Flansburgh. And now that I listen closely, I can kinda hear it, but it is extremely creepy. I don't half like it. It's just like the first time I heard "Boat of Car." I was new to TMBG at the time but I could tell it wasn't either John, so I looked it up, and it was a woman. Threw me completely for a loop. I don't like that sort of surprise. Also today I heard a live version of John Linnell's "South Carolina" which is off his solo album, "State Songs," which is great (see below) and I was so sad! He didn't sing it in a really deep voice like on the album! I thought it was so cool he could do that but I guess he can't in real life. I would still love to see a John Linnell show. I've seen two TMBG concerts and Flansburgh always does all the talking even though Linnell has a really nice speaking voice. I remember I really wanted to hear his speaking voice. I knew he'd be interviewed on All Things Considered while I was at school one day. Luckily, I fell ill in school (I really did). I heard him interviewed and I was so happy.

I have my alarm set to play a tape each morning when I wake up and this morning the song it played was "It's Not My Birthday" and it was very good. I've been getting into so much other stuff lately and I have so little time to listen to music I'd almost forgotten how great TMBG really is, but today I went on a brief Giants binge and downloaded "She Was a Hotel Detective" from the Better Living Through Better Music webpage and read a bunch of reviews of TMBG albums and all that. It's funny, even as I discover new bands that I like They Might Be Giants remain my favorite and I can connect almost all of the bands I like to TMBG somehow.

Cub: This one is obvious. I never would have discovered Cub if TMBG hadn't covered their song "New York City." I loved it so much I wanted to hear the original, and now Cub is one of my favorite bands.

Moxy Fruvous: About three months ago I finally got tired of being told all Giants fans like Fruvous, that they were very similar. In a sence, I guess they are, because they're both clever and use accordions, but Fruvous is more like the Barenaked Ladies, I think. But good.

Less Than Jake: Recommended by a TMBG fan. Actually launched a huge ska phase which I'm still not over.

The Beatles: Of course, you can connect the Beatles to just about everything, so I won't get to technical. The Beatles inspired They Might Be Giants. They inspired everyone. They rock.

The new albums are coming out later than I thought and I'm not pleased. The Malcolm in the Middle soundtrack should come out fairly soon, as in within the next six months (someone said it was planned for November 21, which is three days after my birthday. I'd like it to come out on my birthday. That would be cool, There's a concert on my birthday but of course I will be in the wrong city. It's in Boston which is not at all fair. They have not been to my city since 1998, and I didn't know about them then, and I don't think they are coming back, because I'm told people threw stuff at them.). What was my point? I've lost it.