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.

"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.

Science images and Philly interviews

While the Grammy nominated Here Come the 123s is still on peoples' minds, people are looking for news on the upcoming Here Comes Science. Frequent TMBG collaborator Hine Mizushima has posted some stills from her new video for the upcoming kids album. (Maybe your guess of which video it's for will be the same as mine if you look closely.) The images were also featured in a recent TMBG newsletter.

These newsletters and MySpace postings of the past weeks have been ramping up the promotion for two purposes. First, to let us know of their new holiday bundles (which you can still order by Sunday to guarantee merch by Christmas via FedEx). They've also put some holiday themed songs on their MySpace profile page.

The second topic is, as always, shows; such as the pair of New Year's Eve shows at the TLA in Philadelphia. To help get the word out on upcoming shows, they've announced an RSS feed on their website that will update you of all upcoming They Might Be Giants shows.

Another promo gig the band had recently is an interview with Phrequency on these Philadelphia shows (via TMBW). John, John, and Marty sit in to tell the folks how they start writing a song, give their Grammy reaction, and tell of some interesting fan interactions.

Also in Philly, the group held an interview with Preston & Steve of 93.3 WMMR. You can hear the audio of the interview (via TMBW again), view pictures from the meeting, and watch video of the two songs performed on the show: "Particle Man" and "Why Does the Sun Really Shine?"

Grammy nod and Gigantic Q&A

Congratulations to They Might Be Giants for their Grammy nomination for Here Come the 123s in the category of Best Musical Album For Children. The winner will be announced February 8, 2009. They Might Be Giants won their previous nomination with "Boss of Me" (from the TV show Malcolm in the Middle) in the Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media category in the 2002 awards. The band has already sent out the appropriate notices via newsletter and MySpace.

Picked up via dog_on_fire from LiveJournal, a John and John Q&A after a screening of Gigantic at the 92YTribeca on Sunday has been recorded and posted onto YouTube in three parts by user NerdsLoveMe. The questions vary, from several Dial-A-Song questions to information about their next two albums. They also state that the rock album is planned to be released next fall, contrary to the "years" suggested by The Washington Post. It's a nice, informal Q&A that lasts about a half an hour long.

New Coraline song preview

This Might Be a Wiki seems to have the news this week. Yesterday, WBWC 88.3FM in Cleveland, Ohio, and streamed via their website, held a They Might Be Giants marathon. It was 18 hours of TMBG filled with great songs and what seemed like dozens of user requests. Don't expect this one to be archived folks.

CMJ has announced several of the bands set to play in the CMJ Music Marathon and They Might Be Giants are included. Scheduled for late October, you can find the full list of announced bands on the marathon's website.

Lastly for the week, Neil Gaiman has been posting updates on his journal telling of IGN's Coraline previews. Yesterday's video has a snippet of a song, sung by Linnell, about halfway through. This is the first we've heard of the Coraline songs and if it's a glimpse of what's to come we're in for a treat in the soundtrack department.

Tour dates, gift ideas, and more jokes

After a few weeks of delaying, solid information about the Disney Music Block Party Tour is finally coming out. The tour runs from the end of July to the end of August, but each artist is only playing select dates. Head over to This Might Be a Wiki for more info on which dates TMBG will be playing and for ticket links.

John Flansburgh has made a list of gifts he recommends for Fathers' Day over at Etsy.com. The site specializes in handmade items and Flans' list includes objects from TMBG collaborators the Chopping Block and Hine.

Lastly, another "May Day" segment starring the puppet Johns has made its way online. The video contains the segment's song and jokes from Flans and Linnell. Remember, the They Might Be Giants Family Podcast updates on Fridays so subscribe to the iTunes or web feeds to get the newest episodes automatically.

"May Day" and "Davy Crockett" videos

In last week's Family Podcast, the Johns introduced a new segment in which they sang a short song and told some jokes. YouTube user SpookyBanter has gotten a hold of a new installment of this "May Day" bit and posted it online. In it, puppet Linnell and the broom from the segment tell some jokes to the tune of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends."

No actual video of this next one yet, but TMBG's MySpace blog points out that a fine video for "Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space)," their contribution to the Disney Music Block Party album, is in the works. There is still little information about the upcoming tour the album is part of. The website will allegedly launch tomorrow with more information, and while dates are starting to leak out, nothing has been confirmed.

New Dunkin' commercial, Facebook songs

A new Dunkin' Donuts commercial has started appearing on TV and the donut and coffee company has posted the TMBG scored spot onto YouTube. Called "Moving," the song is sung by John Linnell and is one of the more unique Dunkin' songs in the lot.

Also online recently are songs posted to They Might Be Giants' Facebook page. The current songs are "Birdhouse in Your Soul," "Particle Man," and the original version of "Older." They'll probably be changing them out every once in a while as they do with their MySpace songs, so check it out and then check back with it.

TMBG at TED

In March of last year, They Might Be Giants played at the TED Conference in Monterey, California for its attendees. The short, 8:30am show included the premiere of "Phone Calls from the Dead," a three-man performance of "Fingertips," and a pre-The Else showing of "Bee of the Bird of the Moth" among others. You can watch the entire set at the TED website and download it there as well.

New Dunkin' commercial, full interview

A new Dunkin' Donuts television commercial has taken to the airwaves, this one called "All Night Blowout." The 30-second spot is the latest in the "American Runs on Dunkin'" campaign and is viewable on YouTube.

The fine folks at WJFF have reposted Friday's interview with They Might Be Giants. Now the full half hour interview is available for streaming and download from their website. Additional topics covered in the second half of the interview include indie music on the Internet, humor in their songs, and collaborations with Home Movies and Homestar Runner. The Johns specifically note that more Homestar material is on the way and in the works.

TMBG perform "Seven" on Conan

Last Thursday, They Might Be Giants appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and performed "Seven" from Here Come the 123s. With a three piece saxophone section accompanied only by drums and bass they gave a rousing rendition of the song. The footage above continues into the credits as Conan talks with the band.

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"

Many interviews for many shows

I've got a slew of interviews for you today, but first I'll start by mentioning that a new TMBG newsletter was sent out recently. Starting with a very persuasive argument to get tickets to their upcoming shows, the e-mail reiterates many of the points relayed by their various blogs.

Starting with past shows, Linnell and Flansburgh were interviewed by MSG, NY prior to their show at the Beacon Theatre earlier this month. (Footage of the concert has appeared on YouTube.) It's a good video interview that gives some background on the band's origins and Flans says what he really thinks of the fans.

Playing in Bloomington, IN tonight, TMBG speaks to The Bloomington Scene in a timely interview wherein they tell the site why they like playing in college towns. The site also has a nice interview with They Might Be Giants opening act Oppenheimer.

Moving on to Saturday, They Might Be Giants will be playing in Omaha, NE at Slowdown in a sold out show. The Omaha World-Herald asks Flansburgh some questions and he notes that they'll be "working on the next album momentarily."

A They Might Be Giants concert is the end cap of the True/False film fest closing on Sunday and in the spirit of the fest, the Columbia Daily Tribune's Arts & Entertainment blog asks John and John some true/false questions. In addition, Vox gets Flans to tell them why it's good to have a large pool of songs to choose from and gets some good trivia out of him in six sidebar questions.

Furthermore, True/False sponsor BXR, a radio station local to the film fest, will apparently be joined by TMBG before the concert on Sunday between 3:30 and 4:30pm. If you don't get the station locally, you can listen live online.

2/23/08 Borders clips on YouTube

They Might Be Giants are starting up their spring tour today, but over the weekend they played a free children's show at Borders. The ten song set included several songs from the new album Here Come the 123s and multiple audience members have posted video of the show onto YouTube. There are two videos of John, John, and Marty setting up and practicing "Apartment Four" and "Flying V" during the soundcheck and user JasonDTube has the entire, 40 minute show recorded in five parts.

Soundcheck: (1 | 2)

Clips from the show:

• "Alphabet of Nations"
  
• "Apartment Four"
  
• "Pirate Girls Nine"
  
• "Alphabet Lost And Found" (1 | 2)
  
• "Flying V"
  
• "One Dozen Monkeys"
  
• "Bed Bed Bed"
  

Entire show: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

New newsletter, article, and videos

A new TMBG newsletter has been sent out to those subscribed to their Free MP3 Club. The e-mail informs us that the song for tomorrow's Family Podcast will be Here Come the 123s' "Number Two" followed by "E Eats Everything" from Here Come the ABCs.

An interview with They Might Be Giants will be appearing in next month's issue of Electronic Musician, but a bonus article has already appeared on their website. The article lists ten pieces of gear that TMBG use when they play. Among the items are a tape recorder--so Flans doesn't forget good ideas for songs--and a Stylophone, which they mention came with a record of Rolf "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" Harris praising the instrument. (You can listen to what is likely the same record in a two-part video on YouTube.)

Lastly, a couple of concert videos were uploaded to YouTube recently. Three 30-second clips of "James K. Polk" in Philadelphia, PA from 2005 (parts 1, 2, 3) and a performance of "Violin" at Leeds, UK from 2004. The uploader of that last video, astralbee, also has some amazing videos of TMBG from the early 90s including Flans on dual trumpets and the Johns on MTV Europe.

Miller demoing, fans voting

Just some fun links for today. A bunch of videos have shown up on YouTube of Dan Miller demoing a bunch of Electro-Harmonix guitar effects boxes. With nearly 20 videos, you could spend a bit of time watching these clips and check out Miller's guitar stylings. There are also several audio demos on the Electro-Harmonix site to be found if you look around some of the various product pages.

The TMBG LiveJournal community is at it again with another tournament. The last one, to find their favorite They Might Be Giants song, finished off with "Birdhouse in Your Soul" defeating "Don't Let's Start" in the finals. This time around, it's an album tournament. Voting has already begun, so make your voice heard.

2/2/08 Beacon clips on YouTube

They Might Be Giants played their first show of the new year over the weekend at the Beacon Theatre. Starting out 2008 with a bang, they played two sets, one of which included a horn section. This show featured the live premiere of "Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal," also performed with horns.

Clips from the show:

• "Ana Ng" (1 | 2)
  
• "Upside Down Frown"
  
• "Take Out the Trash"
  
• "Climbing the Walls"
  
• "Alphabet of Nations" (1 | 2 | 3)
  
• "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"
  
• "Mr. Me"
  
• "Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal" (1 | 2)
  
• "Birdhouse in Your Soul" (1 | 2 | 3)
  
• "Museum of Idiots"
  
• "Doctor Worm"
  
• "Cowtown"
  
• "New York City"

WNYC video and upcoming Sirius appearance

A video of TMBG's recent appearance on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC has been posted to YouTube. The short segment of the interview shows the Johns talking about their children fans. You can still listen to the entire interview online.

Via Orbitcast, having just appeared on XM Radio, They Might Be Giants are now making an appearance on Sirius Satellite Radio's Kids Stuff to promote Here Come the 123s. The show will take place on Monday, February 4, the day before 123s is released, at 8 o'clock am on channel 116. If you happen to miss this airing of the show, it will be rebroadcast once a day at varying times for the rest of the week.

The They Might Be Giants song tournament taking place over at the TMBG LJ group is coming to a close. The two remaining songs are "Birdhouse in Your Soul" versus "Don't Let's Start" in the finals. Who could have guessed this kind of outcome?

Giants on G Rock now online

Via Kayakcup on TMBW, video of a G Rock radio appearance that took place last year in May has been spotted online. With Marty in tow, the Johns played a few songs and talked on several topics including their obituaries, signing bananas, and why they're glad Pearl Harbor was no good.


You can watch all of the videos online:

• Interview
  
• "Stone Pony"
  
• "Contrecoup"
  
• "New York City"

"Zeroes" on MySpace plus concert footage

The latest song from They Might Be Giants' Here Come the 123s to be released for our listening pleasure is "Zeroes." Currently on their MySpace player, the song features frequent brass-playing collaborator Dan Levine's niece Hannah helping out John Flansburgh on vocals. While she is speaking (enthusiastically, I might add) on "Zeroes," Hannah can be heard singing in "One Dozen Monkeys;" also on Here Come the 123s. You can hear a preview of that song, along with all of the other songs on the album, over at Disney Music's page for it.

Moving from yet-to-be-released songs to music that was played live two years ago, YouTube user yoshigish has recently uploaded ten videos from a 2006 concert in St. Petersburg, Florida. The videos include some banter and several songs including a performance by opening act Michael Leviton.

Michael Leviton

• "I'm In Love with the Tip of Your Iceberg"
  

TMBG

• "Alphabet of Nations"
  
• "Dr. Worm"
  
• Tremendous Danger
  
• "Boss of Me"
  
• Nashville's Guest List
  
• "Dead"
  
• Venue Songs DVD
  
• "Fingertips"
  
• "Careful what you Pack"