What Else?

After A Foray Into Second Childhood, They Might Be Giants Gets Back To Being A “Regular” Band

originally published October 31, 2007

If, as guitarist/vocalist John Flansburgh puts it, the times called for They Might Be Giants to make a studio album that really made an emphatic statement, the group had only itself to blame for being in that predicament.

Although the group, fronted by Flansburgh and vocalist/keyboardist John Linnell, has been releasing albums now for two decades, in recent years it’s been thrown into competition with itself. The culprit has been a pair of children’s albums (No and Here Come The ABCs) and a book/CD (Bed Bed Bed) that have given They Might Be Giants a whole new audience and a new presence in the public consciousness.

“It’s such a man-bites-dog story, that an actual rock band would do stuff for kids, that it completely overwhelmed the coverage of our regular releases,” Flansburgh says in a recent phone interview. “Our adult efforts were barely getting reviewed, and if they were getting reviewed, it was always in the context of the kids’ stuff… I think we wanted to do something that was bold enough to get noticed on its own and not be sort of eclipsed by the natural, by the man-bites-dog story of our kids’ stuff.

”You know, the kids’ stuff has been really great for us and it’s been really, really fun stuff to do,“ he adds. ”But our intention was never to change careers. We have no interest in becoming the Wiggles.“

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So They Might Be Giants made a daring move. The band undertook a surprising - and attention-getting - collaboration with the production team The Dust Brothers. While They Might Be Giants is known for its catchy, quirky and funny pop songs, the Dust Brothers - Michael ”E.Z. Mike“ Simpson and John ”King Gizmo“ King - made their name by bringing a modern, sample-based electro/hip-hop sound to albums by the likes of the Beastie Boys, Beck and the Rolling Stones.

The odd pairing, though, works well on the new They Might Be Giants album The Else. And perhaps what’s most surprising is that the Dust Brothers’ style of production doesn’t overwhelm the usual virtues of the They Might Be Giants music. ”They were very respectful of what we do and what we brought to the party,“ Flansburgh says. ”I think they’re probably the first people to realize that they have so much mad flavor in their approach that they could kind of overwhelm any of the people that they’re collaborating with. I’m actually very pleased with the idea that the band wasn’t just completely recast as a Dust Brothers [production].“

The Dust Brothers do make their presence felt, bringing a skittering beat to ”Upside Down Frown“ and crafting a hyper, vaguely funky rhythm for ”Withered Hope.“ But on songs such as the bright rockers ”The Cap’m,“ and ”Feign Amnesia,“ the production is conventional enough that one would not peg them as Dust Brothers tracks.

In fact, several of the songs co-produced by They Might Be Giants with long-time collaborator Patrick Dillett (such as ”I’m Impressed“ with its robotic touches and ”Careful What You Pack“ with its icy electronic elements) are as sonically interesting as the Dust Brothers productions.

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Still, what speaks loudest on The Else is the sheer quality of the music.

That was not always the case for They Might Be Giants, which started out as the duo of Flansburgh and Linnell, who often relied on tape loops and cassettes for live performances, before expanding to a full-fledged band that now includes Dan Solder Miller (guitar), Danny Weinkauf (bass) and Marty Beller (drums).

On early records like the 1986 self-titled debut, Lincoln (1988) and Flood (1990), the group’s lyrics, which were at various turns brainy and clever, frequently overshadowed the music. That’s not to say the songs didn’t have strengths of their own. They were usually catchy and well crafted, but stylistically they were all over the map. There was also a kitsch factor that caused some to view They Might Be Giants as more of a novelty than a band that would go on to gain such longevity.

As the group’s career has progressed, though, the musical side of the songwriting has grown sharper, and on The Else, the music may actually be the CD’s biggest selling point. ”Take Out The Trash,“ ”I’m Impressed,“ ”The Cap’m“ are among the many hook-filled gems on The Else.

Flansburgh says writing top-drawer material was a priority for The Else, and he and Linnell were also looking to capitalize on the best aspects of studio technology and the live energy of the band.

”We want to make really intense, ultra-vivid recordings,“ he says. ”Sometimes it’s actually easier to achieve that with our freaky tool box of electronic stuff. And actually getting back to the Dust Brothers, one of the really nice things about working with them is that they were completely comfortable with that challenge. They work on that exact same issue all the time. They’re always bridging between live players and electronic stuff.“

Working with the Dust Brothers, Flansburgh says, was fun, adventurous, rewarding - and as one might expect, a bit different than anything Flansburgh and Linnell had experienced with other producers.

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Flansburgh says the sessions featured plenty of experimentation. ”We haven’t really approached an album in the way we approached this one, maybe ever, in that we actually kind of overbuilt it,“ he says. ”We recorded a fair amount of material that we didn’t use, and we explored a lot of avenues, some of which were fruitful and some of which weren’t. One thing that was very different about working with the Dust Brothers is that they really explore the tracking in a wide open way. They’ll record things that they don’t even necessarily think they’re going to use, just to make sure it wouldn’t be better than the way they’re approaching it intuitively. And that’s a very different way of working.

“We do a lot of home recording that’s very, very speculative and kind of exploratory,” he says. “But once we get into the studio, I think we tend to feel like we can’t fool around anymore. And the Dust Brothers really gave us permission to fool around again in the actual studio setting. That was very liberating.”

With The Else in stores, the group is now beginning an extensive run of touring that Flansburgh hopes will draw further attention to the new CD and They Might Be Giants as a “regular” band rather than its side venture into children’s music.

“We’ve got a big stage show planned and all these new songs to play,” he says. “So we’re very excited.” The show, though, figures to touch on the group’s entire career and perhaps change a bit from night to night.

“We play a pretty long show,” Flansburgh says. “One of the nice things about being around for so long is you can change up the old songs that you do. Even though there’s kind of a healthy balance between new stuff and old, it’s still - the songs from the previous records, we can change that up too. So it’s still a challenge.”

Alan Sculley

WHO: They Might Be Giants, Oppenheimer
WHERE: Georgia Theatre
WHEN: Thursday, November 1
HOW MUCH: $17 (advance), $20 (day of)