They Might Be Giants--Flood

After not having thought about They Might Be Giants since the Egg Babies covered Birdhouse In Your Soul (when was this, Chris'?), I had two reasons to revisit them this past Friday. The first being the obvious nod to them in the Chris Laun list. The second was a little more unexpected. Lady and I decided to go out to dinner at Tapa's Teatro and see Coraline at the Charles. Little did we know that They Might Be Giants did the music for the film. When the following song came on screen Heather leaned over and asked who that voice was. At the end of the movie we both concluded with certainty that it had to be without question John Linnell of They Might Be Giants. Really, after hearing the clip there is no way that it could be anyone else. It is only 30 seconds, and I think it is great so take the time to watch it. Please?



So in two ways on Friday They Might Be Giants came charging back into my life, after having only heard them on the theme to Malcolm in the Middle for a bunch of years. That being said, I still to this day think Flood is a fantastic album. This is the TMBG album that I know more than any other by a lot, and it is pretty flawless from start to finish. Really great song writing, with some goofy twists in most cases, but they always seem to tell interesting stories even if the songs are full of nonsense syllables. The obvious highlights of the album are well known songs Particle Man, Istanbul, and Birdhouse in Your Soul, but for me equally as good as them are Whistling in the Dark, Your Racist Friend, Road Movie to Berlin, and Letterbox. I could have picked more, but we'll leave it at that. If you've heard of TMBG but don't have any albums and want to investigate further this is without a doubt that first album you should get ahold of.

Strangely (maybe not so strangely) my introduction to They Might Be Giants came via Tiny Toon Adventures when I was over Jeff Amrein's house in elementary school. Particle Man was the first clip we saw, and thought it was hilarious. Jeff's older brother Mike bought the album, and after hearing the whole thing I bought it as well (maybe with a gift certificate to Waxi Maxies?). This had to have been one of the first CD's I owned, coming shortly after M.C. Hammer's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (I even had a t-shirt of that one). Anyway, They Might Be Giants were a perfect fit for Tiny Toons, as their style really lent itself to cartoons. Did anyone else discover them through Tiny Toons or was that just me? Regardless, here are a couple of the clips, one for Particle Man (I love that Punch Out opening), one for Istanbul: