Linnell interview, CD101 video

John Linnell was interviewed by The Burlington Free Press for their show at Higher Ground on Sunday. In the article Linnell gives some interesting political interpretations of songs from The Else including "The Mesopotamians." The author of the article posts a lot more in his blog, summarizing the other topics they talked about including what it's like touring in their 40s, why people like R.E.M., and why Linnell doesn't play accordion the entire show anymore.

Late last year They Might Be Giants appeared in the CD101 Big Room and performed a few songs. You can now watch these performances on YouTube and see pictures from the show and from previous appearances at the radio station on their website.

Clips from the show:

• "Damn Good Times"
  
• "Doctor Worm"
  
• "The Mesopotamians"
  
• "Take Out the Trash"

"Fake-Believe" Family Podcast and 33A

Friday is Family Podcast day and today's episode is hosted by special guests Barney and Elmo. Or it could just be John and John playing April Fools for a themed edition of the video podcast. The first video is "Fake-Believe" from Here Come the ABCs. Sticking with the April Fools theme, the next song is "Fake-Believe" as well. Or "Fake-Believe Type B" if you want to distinguish the two. "Type B" is a live performance of the song with different lyrics, also on Here Come the ABCs.

This is the first Friday Night Family Podcast to not include a video from Here Come the 123s but I think having two versions of the same song stuck with the theme well. The Johns sing us out of the episode, but not before we get the additional knowledge that the capital of Wyoming is egg salad sandwich.

Podcast 33A in the audio podcast has also been released today. Hosted by John Flansburgh, 33A plays some live tracks in "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" and "Particle Man," some demos in "Extra Savoir-Faire" and "Why Does the Sun Shine?," and a song by friend Laura Cantrell, "Lee Harvey was a Friend of Mine." Sticking to this format, and including new songs as well, gives the podcast a great amount of variety in what is played and I hope we hear more of each category in future podcasts.

Far off, upcoming shows

High Road Touring, TMBG's booking agency, and Rounder Records, their label, have some previously undiscovered shows on their tour pages. Starting with the soonest, there is a kids show on May 3 at the New York Public Library. Another kids show will be on May 24 in Kansas City for the JiggleJam Family Music Festival. With two new kids shows two new adult shows are in the listings as well. On June 21 there will be a show at Coney Island in New York and on August 10 there is a show at the Wolf Den in the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT. Note that these shows are fairly far off, so there is definitely room for errors or changes in the schedule.

"Nine Bowls of Soup" spills onto Family Podcast

They Might Be Giants' family video podcast is online with a new episode. John and John get energetic as they introduce the video for "Nine Bowls of Soup" from the Here Come the 123s CD/DVD set. The bouncy, brightly colored video follows an ichthyosaur as he balances the soup he won't share.

Following this video is a performance of "Older" by the puppet Johns, much like they did for "Fibber Island" a few weeks ago. They've said that writing for children is the same as writing for adults, except without all of the death. Apparently that doesn't apply to performing! The puppets give a great rendition anyway and then, in a fit of déjà vu, the closing goodbye song is from the "Seven" episode--including the Here Come the ABCs intro that had followed "Who Put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?"

Kids interview, review, and TV performance

John Linnell spoke with Parenting.com in an interview that has been making the rounds. John speaks of creating children's music, what his son listens to, and his advice for parents.

They Might Be Giants' artist profile over at Disney Music has been silently updating. In it is the actual quote from Entertainment Weekly giving Here Come the 123s an 'A.' The site also give notice that TMBG will be appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Thursday, April 10 to perform a song from Here Come the 123s.

"I Can Add," new shows, and interview

A new Friday Night Family Podcast has been released today. In it are two videos from Here Come the 123s, "I Can Add" and "Seven Days of the Week," which is seeing its second showing on the Family Podcast.

Three new shows have appeared on theymightbegiants.com's shows listing. Two are for a family show and an adult show on April 19, in Albany, NY. Another new show is for June 7, at the Appel Farm Arts & Music Festival in Elmer, NJ. A new TMBG newsletter has been sent out that also announces these shows as well as mentioning Podcast 32B.

An interview from yesterday has John, John, and Dan appearing on talk station Real Radio and playing a few songs live. In addition to four songs, TMBG talks a lot about getting jobs as theme writers and how that works. The Beat Swamp has the 40-minute (commercials included) segment recorded.

Podcast 32B interviews John and John

Podcast 32B has arrived and They Might Be Giants share their earliest musical memories with WBHM in Birmingham, AL. They also give some pretty good insight into the writing process for creating a song and talk about the difficulty in putting on an entertaining show. It really is a good interview and definitely deserves its place in the podcast.

A TMBG newsletter was sent out not long ago. In it are some updates on their MySpace profile totaling over a million views and 60 thousand friends. It also seems that the next Family Podcast will include videos for "Seven Days of the Week" and "I Can Add."

An interview, linked from TMBW, with John Linnell is up on the site for the University of Windsor's campus newspaper The Lance. The interview has Linnell tell the paper that "Seven" was originally slated for The Else and that, yes, Dial-A-Song is dead.

An interview with John Flansburgh by The Hook in Charlottesville, VA also mentions Dial-A-Song and its permanence in the culture. It also has some interesting remarks on venues from the Venue Songs project that have since closed.

Tour in full swing

They Might Be Giants' latest tour is in full swing with shows in Florida all this week. This is the last time they'll be in the state for the rest of the year, says a MySpace bulletin (archived by TMBW), so they ask you to tell your friends! The theymightbegiants.com blog also mentions their activity this week as well as a new show announced for May 23 at The Beaumont in Kansas City, MO.

The TMBG LiveJournal community is ending their opening act tournament. Down from the original 50 different acts, in the finals are The Moldy Peaches up against Mike Doughty/Soul Coughing. Make sure you get your vote in to help your favorite act triumph.

And hot off the presses is a short interview with John Linnell on the St. Petersburg Times' website (via TMBW). The interview takes its quotes from a recent podcast interview with Linnell by the same site not long ago.

"Seven" online for March 7

It's Friday, March 7 and today's featured video in the They Might Be Giants Family Podcast is appropriately "Seven." Produced with The Else producing team the Dust Brothers and with a speaking part by Henry Linnell, "Seven" is a collaboration with people close to the band. In another collaboration, the second video of the podcast is "Who Put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?" from Here Come the ABCs starring Robin Goldwasser and the Deeply Felt Puppet Theater.

Also online today is a They Might Be Giants birthday cake. The chocolate cake is adorned with the puppet Johns from Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s and, of course, looks delicious.

Questions for TMBG

This week the Johns were interviewed by papers in Houston and Mississippi about upcoming shows. The Houston Chronicle has a good interview with Linnell about misconceptions about the band, working with the Dust Brothers, and bands whose name is a sentence. Flansburgh, on the other hand, speaks with The Clarion-Ledger on what they are doing next:

"In the summer we're going to figure out how to actually do a proper kids' tour ... It's kind of gotten to a point where we can actually headline a show like that. We're also working on the next adult album in earnest right now. We've got a lot cooking."

If you have a question for They Might Be Giants that wasn't answered in one of these interviews, your question may be asked in Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child's upcoming Q&A with the band. Just post a comment on their site and it could be asked near the end of the month at TMBG's Portsmouth, NH shows. In addition to talking to the Johns, they'll be speaking with Hannah Levine as well, so write away.

Closing out, a new TMBG newsletter was sent out yesterday detailing a lot of the stuff that has appeared on Flans' theymightbegiants.com blog where, in addition to the info about shows and chart placement, he let's us know that Friday's video podcast will be featuring the Here Come the 123s video "Seven."

Electronic Musician interviews and others

The month of March is kicked off with the release of They Might Be Giants' interview with Electronic Musician. A bonus article was released previously, but now the interview appearing in the magazine can be read online. An impressively long feature, the interview covers topics such as the writing and recording process and the lo-fi, MP3 origins of "I'm Impressed." Also online is the full, uncut interview which includes the entire interview with John and John.

Stuck in the '80s, a blog of the St. Petersburg Times, interviews John Linnell on its weekly podcast. The 45 minute podcast covers the some of the standard questions in preparation for the upcoming show in St. Petersburg. Flansburgh, on the other hand, is interviewed by Austinist in anticipation for the show in the capital of Texas.