Flansburgh on kids projects and rock albums

Thanksgiving week gave us a healthy amount of news on They Might Be Giants' current endeavors. Starting on Tuesday, TMBG collaborator Tony Millionaire mentions how he got involved with the band. The interview primarily concerns his new cartoon, for which They Might Be Giants wrote and performed the theme song. Tony says the Johns sent him five or six songs to choose from.

A string of interviews brought up by TMBG's performance of Flood in D.C. began with Express Night Out on Tuesday, which has John Flansburgh comment on Animal Farm-like metaphoric interpretations of their songs, hearing his music on TV, and keeping concerts fresh.

The next day, The Free Lance-Star spoke to Flansburgh as well. In the pull quotable-article, Here Comes Science is talked about and John states that they hired a scientific consultant for the upcoming children's album. Along with "more controversial issues like evolution," the article says "waves, states of matter and the sun" are song subjects on the album and confirms both "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas" and the newly penned "The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma." The interview goes on to their next rock album, where John informs us:

"I think this next rock album my ambition for it is to blend more of the home-recording techniques that we presented in the '80s with modern sounds. I'd like to make a more insane-sounding record, to be perfectly honest."

Closing out the interview, you can read John tell that they were "basically cut out" of Coraline and what didn't work out in the experience.

Finally, on Friday, The Washington Post published an interview with Flansburgh. John begins with his early intentions for the band. Commenting on the New Wave and performance art movements' influence on the band, he says that it wasn't meant to become a job. The article focuses on the serious nature of They Might Be Giants' apparently lighthearted songs and hits on several elements that make them work. Perhaps most alarming, though, is news on TMBG's new adult album. While they have Flans quote that it's "a little bit more experimental," they also claim it "won't be finished for years." (The second is an article quote, not John.)

This might seem surprising, but I'd say it's not entirely unexpected. You may remember that an idea, as suggested by Flansburgh, was to release the kids' album followed by an EP before the next rock album. I'm sure they'd like as much space between the album releases as possible. Last year's The Else dropped in July with plans for Here Come the 123s set for three months later in October. The "album for children" was moved almost half a year to February, presumably because the initial date conflicted with touring and promoting the new "album for people." The band has undoubtedly learned from the experience, which may lead us to not receive the next rock album until possibly well into 2010.