TMBG Podcast 38A

They Might Be Giants Podcast 38A just went up yesterday and it's spreading the word on a fantastic video. Elliot Cowan's video for "Employee of the Month" has been cast through the internet and is placing itself in your iTunes or other feed reader. You can also listen to an interview with Elliot talking about his career and touching on his "Employee" video over on Spoiler Alert Radio.

Conan video, hand-painted ukulele

A few days after winning children album of the year at the Grammys last week, They Might Be Giants performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Playing "The Mesopotamians" from The Else, this was their 13th appearance on the show and their last before Conan takes over The Tonight Show.

The band has been keeping us informed of their endeavors with several updates via MySpace/Facebook, their newsletter, and the theymightbegiants.com blog. Be sure to check out their MySpace and Facebook pages for updated songs, videos, and pictures in their respective players and pages.

Lastly, John Flansburgh has hand-painted a ukulele with images of his cat for the Humane Society of Berks County to be auctioned off in an annual event. The auction takes place on Saturday, March 28th but advance bidding is offered. Head over to their website for all of the relevant information.

They Might Be Giants awarded Grammy

Congratulations to They Might Be Giants for their second Grammy win in as many nominations! Here Come the 123s won Best Musical Album For Children on Sunday night. While this award wasn't shown on TV, it was streamed live online before the show at the Grammy website. If you missed it then, you can still watch the entire pre-show for the next month. (TMBG are awarded about 41 minutes in.) Words from Linnell from the post-award interviews are already making their way online via Billboard.com and the NY Daily News.

Keeping up the pace, remember that this week on Thursday TMBG will be performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The show airs at 12:30 on NBC but the musical guest portion of the show will probably be around 1:15. I'd start viewing earlier to not miss it.

Finally, They Might Be Giants have put out a call for videos from their fans of everything from live footage to homemade videos. If you've got the goods, send them over their way and share it with your friends!

Coraline released, Grammys Sunday

February is a month with multiple They Might Be Giants related events. Today is the release of Coraline into theaters. Based on the book by Neil Gaiman, the film includes a short song by TMBG. The song is also in the soundtrack which has already been released on digital music services with the physical CD release coming on Tuesday the 10th.

Before Tuesday comes, Sunday must. And on Sunday night They Might Be Giants are up for a Grammy award for their second children's effort Here Come the 123s. Nominated in the Best Musical Album For Children category, this would be their second Grammy as the first was for "Boss of Me." Be sure to tune in at 8 o'clock on the 8th on your local CBS station to see it all go down.

Here Come the 123s has been out for a while though, so if you are looking for the latest from Here Comes Science, stop-motion artist Hine Mizushima has posted a new screenshot from her contribution to the upcoming children's album. Check it out on her site or featured on the They Might Be Giants Facebook page.

Coraline soundtrack info, guest DJ spot

Coraline happenings are noteworthy in the week before the film's release. Director Henry Selick spoke to Gothamist in an article published yesterday about the film and describes how They Might Be Giants became involved: The music video for The Spine's "Bastard Wants to Hit Me" was created by the fine folks at Laika, the same animation house that created Coraline, and a director on that award-winning video connected Selick, a fan of their music, to the band. Despite being "basically cut out" of the film (which really shouldn't become the go-to quote), Selick called their preliminary work "brilliant" and "beautiful" (he states he'd like to create a Yellow Submarine with the band) but the project ended up not going the musical (a la Nightmare Before Christmas) route and all songs but one were cut.

That one remaining song still ended up on the film's soundtrack which has been formally announced with a date of February 24th. You can already pre-order the CD on sites like Amazon or go for the the MP3 version which will apparently be made available on the 3rd, even before the film comes out. If you're that desperate to hear the song before release, the entire 28 seconds, yes, that's all of it, can be seen on the film's website.

It's a bit short-notice, but news by way of TMBW informs us that John and John will be guest DJing today for WBRU, 95.5FM in Rhode Island. If you don't happen to be in the area of a signal, you can listen online at the station's website. The guest slot is slated for noon today and will presumably run for at least an hour.

"Employee" video and "Electric Car" preview

Catching up on the past week or two of happenings online, we'll start with the most recent. Animator Elliot Cowan has created a video for They Might Be Giants' "Employee of the Month" using his Boxhead & Roundhead characters. The video grabbed the band's attention and is now being featured in their MySpace and newsletter updates. On Cowan's blog you can read his "interesting" perspective of his exchange with the band.

The Star-Ledger spoke with John Flansburgh for an interview. Topics of discussion included the transition to performing for children, Tommy Lee interviews, and how their unclassifiable music still brings in an audience.

Via TMBW, TMBG manager Jamie Kitman spoke with NPR in a seemingly unrelated interview about electric cars at the Detroit Auto Show. The audio interview ends with the debut of a new song by They Might Be Giants called, appropriately enough, "Electric Car." Only a portion of the track is played, but it's mentioned that the song comes out in the fall, likely with the release of Here Comes Science.

Interview, extended Coraline clip, TMBG on Conan

Starting off the new year right, Stay Thirsty Media has an interview with John Flansburgh on their site. The lengthy interview has John compare They Might Be Giants to Jethro Tull, describe how performing in the play People are Wrong! differs from playing live with TMBG, and list a few of his musical inspirations. The article also has short audio clips of the conversation. You may remember that early last year Stay Thirsty spoke with John Linnell.

A helpful editor over at This Might Be a Wiki pointed out that the Coraline website is showing clips from the upcoming film. The editor notes that a longer version of our previously known song has made it onto the site as well (click the record player). TMBG's role has been unfortunately diminished since the project began and we don't know how much of their input remains, but we will know when the movie comes out next month (February 6th, two days before the Grammys).

Finally, a new TMBG newsletter was sent out today. In addition to reminding everyone to catch the Grammys, the band gives up a heads up on a different TV appearance. They Might Be Giants will be performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Thursday, February 12th. This is the same week as the Grammys and a week before Conan's last show on Late Night. Apparently TMBG has appeared on the show more times than any other rock band so be sure to catch their final appearance before the host moves. You can subscribe to the TMBG newsletter over at tmbg.com.