Sunday, July 25, 2004
Giants
Last night, a boyhood dream came true. I saw They Might Be Giants in concert. As the concert itself wouldn't make that great of a narrative ("They played Fingertips! They played a lot of songs from their children's album! They looked geeky, just like you'd expect! They're both named John!"), maybe a word about why this has been my favorite rock n' roll band since discovering them in junior high school.
1. Crazy, non-sequitur, big-vocabulary lyrics. I remember asking Mr. Gill, my 9th grade English teacher, if I could use the lyrics from "Dead" to satisfy an assignment to bring a copy of a favorite poem (he said yes). It has been said--and I agree--that just about any word you can think of can be found somewhere in the TMBG ouvre (OK, maybe not "ouvre," but most words). They are the perfect "Encore" group.
2. It's a breath of fresh air to have a group that sings something other than love songs. (I think that's why I liked "Weird Al" Yankovic back in those days, too. But for some reason, my love for TMBG has endured, and I really don't care about "Weird Al" anymore.) No one else sings about the fusion process on the sun or obscure Presidents or the ineffible passage of time.
3. Varied musical styles. They are equally at home with polka, hard rock, soft ballad, and even some forms of jazz. Occasionally, they will mix all these styles into the same song. That's crazy.
4. I kind of like the fact that they don't get played on the radio a lot. They've got more of a "cult" following. And I kind of like being part of a cult like that. They're fairly well-known, but you still encounter people who are unfamiliar with them.
That's about all I have to say about that.
1. Crazy, non-sequitur, big-vocabulary lyrics. I remember asking Mr. Gill, my 9th grade English teacher, if I could use the lyrics from "Dead" to satisfy an assignment to bring a copy of a favorite poem (he said yes). It has been said--and I agree--that just about any word you can think of can be found somewhere in the TMBG ouvre (OK, maybe not "ouvre," but most words). They are the perfect "Encore" group.
2. It's a breath of fresh air to have a group that sings something other than love songs. (I think that's why I liked "Weird Al" Yankovic back in those days, too. But for some reason, my love for TMBG has endured, and I really don't care about "Weird Al" anymore.) No one else sings about the fusion process on the sun or obscure Presidents or the ineffible passage of time.
3. Varied musical styles. They are equally at home with polka, hard rock, soft ballad, and even some forms of jazz. Occasionally, they will mix all these styles into the same song. That's crazy.
4. I kind of like the fact that they don't get played on the radio a lot. They've got more of a "cult" following. And I kind of like being part of a cult like that. They're fairly well-known, but you still encounter people who are unfamiliar with them.
That's about all I have to say about that.
Comments: Post a Comment
