"The Secret Life of Six" leaps onto Family Podcast

It's a leap day, but that doesn't mean They Might Be Giants are going to skip this week's Family Podcast. Proving that improvisation can beat written dialogue any day, the puppet Johns start the podcast scriptless and it shows to be hilarious anyway. "The Secret Life of Six" is this week's video from the Here Come the 123s set. Its stop-motion animation and cuddly characters were created by Hine Mizushima, who also created the video for The Else's "With the Dark."

Instead of a second video from Here Come the ABCs, the Johns themselves sing "Fibber Island" from their first kids' album, No! Then, closing the podcast, Flansburgh and Linnell sing goodbye to the tune of the venue song "Glasgow," aka "T-H-E-G-A-R-A-G-E." The podcasts aren't getting played out by any means yet, so let's hope the fun continues for a good while longer.

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

Magazine mentions and book reading

The TMBG MySpace blog has updated with a posting telling us They Might Be Giants are on the cover of the latest issue of Electronic Musician. Inside the mag is an interview with the group about the making of The Else and the requisite discussion of electronic music-making. (You may remember that a bonus article has already appeared online.) The post also notes that Here Come the 123s was given an 'A' by Entertainment Weekly.

The theymightbegiants.com blog also points this out in addition to showing that Here Come the 123s and Here Come the ABCs are both in Amazon's top five children's albums, with 123s at number one.

Lastly for today, see what book John Flansburgh has been reading in a recent article on the NY Daily News.

"Pirate Girls Nine" loots Family Podcast

The latest Friday Night Family Podcast has seen the light of day. This week, "Pirate Girls Nine" is the video of choice from Here Come the 123s. A fun song that showcases the many voices of John Flansburgh, "Pirate Girls Nine" is similar to "With the Dark" in that respect. The Johns even dress in pirate garb for the occasion with patches on their eyes and hooks on their hands. The second song is "Z Y X" from their first DVD set, Here Come the ABCs. At the end of the podcast, the Pirate Johns get rowdy, as pirates are wont to do, and end up barking the goodbye song like dogs as the segment devolves into madness.

They Might Be Giants fans get a nod in an article on Vindy.com today. Talking to John Linnell about the upcoming Cleveland, OH concert that kicks off the spring tour, Linnell remarks on the benefits of fans compiling setlists, saying:

"That’s one great thing about having insane, obsessive, compulsive fans, we always do different stuff whenever we come back to a place."

Via Newsarama, you may remember that TMBG collaborator Tony Millionaire created an animated pilot of his strip Maakies, trying to get it made into a television show. Well, as Fantagraphics Books (Millionaire's publisher) points out, it seems that this is going to happen. Remember that TMBG play the theme song for the show, so everyone will get to hear them on TV even more often.

Newsletter prepares for shows

A new TMBG newsletter has been sent out in preparation of their upcoming tour. If you live in the NYC area, make sure to head on over to Borders on Saturday for a free in-store show with the Johns and Marty playing songs from Here Come the 123s. After the set, they'll be signing anything you've got. If you know anyone with young kids, invite them too; it's free!

Then, on Wednesday, They Might Be Giants will start their "Standing in the Dark" spring rock tour, as the newsletter puts it. There are a couple of upcoming interviews taking place in various cities along the tour, so stay online to check them out. You should also stay subscribed to their Family Podcast as its pirate episode is coming tomorrow.

Spring tour starting next week

They Might Be Giants have put out a new MySpace message recently, noting that they begin their spring tour in earnest next week. While they'll likely be promoting The Else throughout the tour, they'll no doubt be playing some songs from Here Come the 123s as well. This will be the first time we hear any of these songs live, so if you get a chance to see them in concert, you may hear a debut.

The TMBG LiveJournal community has settled on their favorite They Might Be Giants album with a rough battle between Flood and Lincoln. Lincoln ended up victorious and took the prize. JJRRutgers keeps the debates going though, with a new tournament to find their favorite They Might Be Giants opening act. With 50 different acts to choose from, this selection covers a wide range of TMBG history. Go vote and help your favorite act win!