They Might Be Giants : iSOUND.COM™

Stats

Members:
Graham Maby
John Linnell

Formed: 1983

iSound Site: www.isound.com/they_might_be_giants

Biography

Sounds Like

Artists:
Robyn Hitchcock
Frank Black
Barenaked Ladies
Brave Combo
Ween
Camper Van Beethoven
Butterfly Joe
Beck
Weezer
The Flaming Lips
The Sugarcubes
XTC
The La's
The Feelies
Post Office
Joy Poppers
Stump
Quasar Wut-Wut
The Cells
Crash Test Dummies
The Dead Milkmen
Jessica and the Jawbreakers
Fire Aim Ready
Genres:
Alt. Pop-Rock
Indie Rock
Post Punk

Featured Video

Featured Album

	Here Come The 123s (with Bonus Tracks and Video) - Amazon.com Exclusive [CD/DVD] Released: 2007

Biography

They Might Be Giants is one very unique and original band, although using the term band in the very beginning of their existence might be a little misleading. They Might Be Giants (TMBG) started out as just two guys: John Linnell playing accordion, keyboards, woodwinds, and doing vocals and John Flansburgh playing guitar and doing vocals.

The band started up in Brooklyn, New York, and had its first album released in 1986 with the two Johns doing all the instrumental work themselves in all of the studio production. That is quite a feat when you listen to their early work since the songs cover a such a wide range of music and instrumentation.

So how did they perform their songs live you ask? Well, when they would hit the road with their bag of unique songs they would extensively use both electronic synthesizers and background tapes to complete their sound. Their sound was so big that even though there was just the two of them they sounded like a huge band. That is most likely where the name for the two Johns came from - they sounded like giants!

It was during the tour supporting the 1992 "Apollo 18" album release that TMBG started to add some members. For live shows TMBG started using J. D. Feinberg on drums and Kurt Hoffman playing a variety of horns as well as keyboards. By the time of the 1994 Elektra/Asylum release of "John Henry" TMBG basically added a new rhythm section. The new TMBG members, in both the studio and on tour, included Brian Doherty playing drums and Tony Maimone doing bass duty.

By the time of the Elektra/Asylum 1996 "Factory Showroom" release, the band consisted of the original two Johns, Brian Doherty on drums. Graham Maby on bass, and Eric Schermerhorn playing lead guitar. In later concerts the band changed somewhat again with the addition of Dan Hickey replacing Brian Doherty on drums and Eric Schermerhorn leaving the band. Bottom line is that keeping track of the lineup changes of the band is about as complicated as understanding the lyrics to their songs!

Their latest release is an anthology of their songs, released in 2002 and entitled "Dial-a-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants". Their discography is rounded out by the 2001 "Mink Car" album, their latest release of new songs, and the 1998 album entitled "Severe Tire Damage".

It is extremely hard to describe TMBG's sound. Well, it is actually hard to LIMIT the description of TMBG's sound since it covers so much musical territory. It's been called kooky, strange, deranged, funny, complex, simplistic, colorful, funny, deep, weird, and just about any other descriptive notion of music that has ever been used. About the only thing it can not be called is dull!

And those adjectives only cover the instrumentation! The lyrics are a whole other bag of descriptors! This is truly one band that must be heard to fully understand just how indepth their lyrics and sound really are. It is this complexity of TMBG that makes them such a significant feature on the music scene and allows them to have such a diverse, dedicated fan base.

Bio written by: GrayBeard

Artist Forum


Discussion Topic	Creator
wow.. im the only one they might be giants is cool... kinda stupid but kool. lol i like the song "your racist friend"	rancidropkick12cents

Replys	Listener
yay im still the only one... i really like tmbg my best friend introduced me 2 them	rancidropkick12cents
yay yay yay yay yay still here im so bored and im gonna write a really long post cuz that gets me a lot of points and plus no one is ever gonna come on this stupid message board anyways...... stupid stupid message board. hurrah hurrah hurrah and i like stuff... this band is cool once again and im done w this pointless post	rancidropkick12cents
me dan and my dad are the only ones that even listen 2 this band anymore lol	rancidropkick12cents
still just me, eh? well ok	rancidropkick12cents
Hooray.... hooray i really love this band MEH sdf s sdgjl mak;l erkyay	rancidropkick12cents
huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah	rancidropkick12cents
I'm your only friend, but I'm not your only friend...	lobotomyactivist
eh well i dont get what ur saying i was just spamming the board earlier so yea.	rancidropkick12cents
c'mon, you're on TMBG's board and you don't know Birdhouse in Your Soul?	lobotomyactivist
of course i know that song... come on...	rancidropkick12cents
sorry. you said you did not get what I was saying, and I have this mindset that everyone is stupider than me, because, in most cases, everyone IS stupider than me. gotta break that mindset.	lobotomyactivist
eh well we all go through that.. i just kinda let people talk and uhh.. try and agree or just not say anything lol	rancidropkick12cents
sorry that sounded really really really stupid..lol	rancidropkick12cents
yes.	lobotomyactivist
mmhmm	rancidropkick12cents
ever seen Gigantic?	lobotomyactivist
nope im gonna get it and the other one by them... can u rent them anywhere or no?	rancidropkick12cents
hola buddy!! whats up? THE SUN IS A MASS OF INCANDESCENT GAS, A GIGANTIC NUCLEAR FURNACE!!! WHERE HYDROGEN IS BUILT INTO HELIUM AT A TEMPERATURE OF MILLIONS OF DEGREES!! wow, no more from abby... i didnt mean for it to be so stupid. computers screwing up. bye.	sublimeroxmysoxoff
abby- you dont sound that retarted.. ... im looking at "richard' right now... the pic is really big but he looks stoned- oh well rosarita is so ugly (loboto... or anyone else...) dont ask lol ---yes, the sun IS a mass of incodesnent gas...	rancidropkick12cents
i like how you spelled "incandescent"... it was fun! NY was so jolly.=, i loved it. YAY SUN FOR INCANDESCENT GAS... that didnt come out right............ meh, oh well.	sublimeroxmysoxoff
sounds good ... yay for NY being awesome... and i liked spelling incandesent wrong. :D	rancidropkick12cents
GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS that has nothing to do with TMBG but thats ok GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS GC SUCKS	rancidropkick12cents
i hafta do my hebrew school homework.	sublimeroxmysoxoff
YAYA IM IN MR. CORNELLS CLASS (1ST PER.) RIGHT NOW, HES PROBLY GONNA GET PISSED AT ME... oops i didnt realize i was on caps. THE SUN IS A MASS OF INCANDESCENT GAS THEY CALL ME DR WORM	sublimeroxmysoxoff
hahahahahahahaha.. im not sure why that's so funny.... hahahahaha... cornell wouldnt get pissed at you... unless....nvm ... lol but i'd be staring at him not on bandhunt..seriously abby! jk. but... ill try and get u a pic of sam.	rancidropkick12cents
yay fun.. wow i havent looked at this board in a while... its funny. unless what? (for cornell getting mad...) eh. THEY CALL ME DR WORM HUZZAH im listening to the bosstones... theyre really good.	sublimeroxmysoxoff
AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS that has nothing to do w/ tmbg either... but thats ok AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS AVRIL LAVIGNE SUCKS	sublimeroxmysoxoff
I think i said he was gonna be mad cause you would be on a chris cornell board or something i cant remember... would you like to come and sniff some glue?- dead milkmen; life is shit im listening to that... ok, yeah... TMBG RULES!	rancidropkick12cents