Surely you don't mean the original original?

Really, not yet? (new window)

Primus kills it

Thank you subby. Props to any headline that makes me laugh enough to startle the cat.

+1

Wow. That's terrible.

These guys have been around all this time and yet they're still not sure whether or not they're giants.

I'd rather be whistling in the dark (new window).

Captain Steroid: I can't hear the original without thinking of Plucky Duck. :-(

Likewise, I can't hear The Name Game without thinking about Elmyra (new window)

Aw shoot, I may as well add more Tiny Toons greatness (new window) while I'm at it.

Wow, that was awful. I like the creativity these guys consistently bring to the table, but this particular song was nailed the first time they released it. This version strips out all the congruity between the music and the lyrics. It is like giving Morgan Freeman Kathy Ireland's voice. Amusing for a second or two, but ulitmately just plain wrong.

Meh.

/Meh.

I guess if you were pretty much required to play this at every concert for 21 years straight, you'd want to change it up too.

But yeah, meh.

Someone needs to tell Flansburgh to stop playing with Sharpies.

TMBG was awesome before they started making records.

/knows that is the douchy-ist thing a person can say but in this case its true.

I like both versions. Hell, I even like the old-skool 1990 remix version, and that was ultra-cheeze.

People who stopped listening to TMBG after Apollo 18 fall under the same category as people who stopped watching MST3K after Joel left. You're all missing out on some great stuff because you're too farking hipster to open your mind and allow artistic enterprises to evolve.

Persnickety: I guess if you were pretty much required to play this at every concert for 21 years straight, you'd want to change it up too.

But yeah, meh.

They do change it up a bit at concerts already. I've seen them live twice. The first time, the intro to Istanbul used a trumpet. The second time, they had a classical guitar solo lead into it. It actually dos add some variety just changing the accompanying instrument.

Haters going to hate. I really liked it.

mercator_psi: I like both versions. Hell, I even like the old-skool 1990 remix version, and that was ultra-cheeze.

People who stopped listening to TMBG after Apollo 18 fall under the same category as people who stopped watching MST3K after Joel left. You're all missing out on some great stuff because you're too farking hipster to open your mind and allow artistic enterprises to evolve.

Or we just got bored with the schtick, just like we did with Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.

I like TMBG, but I don't understand all the crazy love for them. They do cute, funny little songs, and they're good at it, but they never really changed it up or went out on a limb after they hit their peak with "Istanbul" and "Particle Man". They did some really cool things, like the dial-a-song, but after a while it all starts to sound the same to me.

But then, I'm still a huge Thompson Twins and Information Society fan, so I can't talk.

At least we can all agree that Nickelback sucks.

Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy: Or we just got bored with the schtick, just like we did with Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.

I like TMBG, but I don't understand all the crazy love for them. They do cute, funny little songs, and they're good at it, but they never really changed it up or went out on a limb after they hit their peak with "Istanbul" and "Particle Man". They did some really cool things, like the dial-a-song, but after a while it all starts to sound the same to me.

But then, I'm still a huge Thompson Twins and Information Society fan, so I can't talk.

At least we can all agree that Nickelback sucks.

That's the thing. TMBG expanded from doing "cute, funny little songs" when they went with a full band, sometimes including a horn section. Don't get me wrong, they continue to do some "cute, funny little songs," but they also write fully-crafted pop songs, all the while retaining their sense of quirkiness. Some of them are pretty damn dark in fact. Hell, even some of the "cute, funny little songs" of yore are pretty dark if you take some time to read them. For instance, "Particle Man" could be read as a polemic against organized religion's constant battles with science and human dignity. Not really all that cute or funny.

But yes, I'll agree with you that Nickelback sucks, so at least we got that going for us.

Which is nice.

It will grow on me, like a lot of their other stuff does.

Apollo 18 continues to be my "go to" CD whin I am in a shiatty mood.

Also, Nickelback does indeed suck

So we're all agreed. They Might Be Giants should never cover Nickelback songs.

Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy: So we're all agreed. They Might Be Giants should never cover Nickelback songs.

I'm now thinking of what that might sound like and I think they'd do a great job.
/fark you for making me envision this!

Hector Remarkable: These guys have been around all this time and yet they're still not sure whether or not they're giants.

I still haven't walked in the glow of their majestic presence.

And I don't have a rock to wind a piece of string around.

These things happen, to other people. They don't happen at all, in fact.

/nah, i've seen em in concert
//and met james ensor

remember when they were talented?

Me neither.

I can't stand that farking song at all. I don't care if they did it to be silly or whatever, it's obnoxious and insufferable. I wouldn't even biatch about it because normally it's so easy to avoid, but they play it at my place of employment almost everyday. I've heard it so many times that it makes me want to start punching babies in the face when it comes on.

Meh, I call it Constantinople just to piss of my Turkish friends.

Talondel: [i5.photobucket.com image 640x669]

/from an OLD photoshop contest

You forgot Byzantium.

mercator_psi: Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy: Or we just got bored with the schtick, just like we did with Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.

I like TMBG, but I don't understand all the crazy love for them. They do cute, funny little songs, and they're good at it, but they never really changed it up or went out on a limb after they hit their peak with "Istanbul" and "Particle Man". They did some really cool things, like the dial-a-song, but after a while it all starts to sound the same to me.

But then, I'm still a huge Thompson Twins and Information Society fan, so I can't talk.

At least we can all agree that Nickelback sucks.

That's the thing. TMBG expanded from doing "cute, funny little songs" when they went with a full band, sometimes including a horn section. Don't get me wrong, they continue to do some "cute, funny little songs," but they also write fully-crafted pop songs, all the while retaining their sense of quirkiness. Some of them are pretty damn dark in fact. Hell, even some of the "cute, funny little songs" of yore are pretty dark if you take some time to read them. For instance, "Particle Man" could be read as a polemic against organized religion's constant battles with science and human dignity. Not really all that cute or funny.

But yes, I'll agree with you that Nickelback sucks, so at least we got that going for us.

Which is nice.

You know, on the same album as particle man is "your racist friend" which I hear in my head after certain posts around here, and birdhouse in your soul, which has peculiar interpretations.

Apollo 18 has my evil twin and statue got me high. There are dark interpretations of many of their songs.

/must STOP
//SPIDER!

Pales in comparison to this

Link (new window)

No Craig Ferguson, really?

Fano:

That's the thing. TMBG expanded from doing "cute, funny little songs" when they went with a full band, sometimes including a horn section. Don't get me wrong, they continue to do some "cute, funny little songs," but they also write fully-crafted pop songs, all the while retaining their sense of quirkiness. Some of them are pretty damn dark in fact. Hell, even some of the "cute, funny little songs" of yore are pretty dark if you take some time to read them. For instance, "Particle Man" could be read as a polemic against organized religion's constant battles with science and human dignity. Not really all that cute or funny.

But yes, I'll agree with you that Nickelback sucks, so at least we got that going for us.

Which is nice.

You know, on the same album as particle man is "your racist friend" which I hear in my head after certain posts around here, and birdhouse in your soul, which has peculiar interpretations.

Apollo 18 has my evil twin and statue got me high. There are dark interpretations of many of their songs.

/must STOP
//SPIDER!

The darkness was there from the very beginning.

Whether in Istanbul or Constantinople, everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful.

mercator_psi: I like both versions. Hell, I even like the old-skool 1990 remix version, and that was ultra-cheeze.

People who stopped listening to TMBG after Apollo 18 fall under the same category as people who stopped watching MST3K after Joel left. You're all missing out on some great stuff because you're too farking hipster to open your mind and allow artistic enterprises to evolve.

I bought their kids music CDs for nephews/nieces, and even that was done exceptionally well. I still maintain that this version of Istanbul was a mistake. But that right there is one of the greatest things about TMBG...they never let the fear of doing something that turns out to be less than what they hoped stop them from doing it anyway. They are always very openly creative, and I think that is why their music by and large ends up to be so enjoyable, interesting and unique.

Goonie_Goo_Goo: Circuit bent toys FTW

John Paul Jones put a Kaoss Pad in a bass. What do you think about a Speak and Spell in a cigar box guitar?

Hmm - yeah can't get into it here either. But neither is it, "OMGZ hate gnash teeth froth WTF kill kill!" TMBG has been into messing with their own (and others') established songs for nearly as long as they've been on the roadmap. Some changes I like, some not so much. But at the end of the day they always provide a pretty choice musical experience - and that's what has mattered to me.

/Well worth seeing live if you get the shot at it

Some Junkie Cosmonaut: Hmm - yeah can't get into it here either. But neither is it, "OMGZ hate gnash teeth froth WTF kill kill!" TMBG has been into messing with their own (and others') established songs for nearly as long as they've been on the roadmap. Some changes I like, some not so much. But at the end of the day they always provide a pretty choice musical experience - and that's what has mattered to me.

/Well worth seeing live if you get the shot at it

Argh, I went to the Thanksgiving show in DC and they decided to play their entire Lincoln album. That's it. So the only hit they played was "Ana Ng" until the third encore, where they played Birdhouse in Your Soul. For forty bucks I would have liked to have heard something I knew.

// not going again if they're going to hipster their own fans ("we liked our music before we were cool")

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Really, not yet? (new window)

So he won't work for money but he will work in exchange for a female SLAVE? How does a duck have sex with a human woman anyway? It makes no sense.