25 Days of Music: Day 7

Tick tock.

They Might Be Giants are (is?) one of the longest-running musical acts still touring, having been together since 1982. They’re certainly one of the oldest acts that’s still touring with its original members. Wikipedia says, rather drily, “The group has been noted for its unique style of alternative music, typically using surreal, humorous lyrics, experimental styles and unconventional instruments.”

They were pioneers in all kinds of kooky experimentation—no one can forget Dial-A-Song, a regular old tape-based answering machine on which they would play a new song every day (sometimes an old demo or outtake, but usually something new) from sometime in the ‘80s through 1998. The machine was in one of their apartments, and was on a local NYC phone number, back in the days when long distance calls cost money. They used to advertise Dial-A-Song with the slogan “Free when you call from work!”

Their songs range from fairly straightforward (“Your Racist Friend”) to obscure (“The Cap’m”) to nigh-opaque (“Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love”). I’ve seen them live twice, once in 1999 and once in 2023, and their live shows, even now that they’re both in their 60s, are first-rate, energetic and inventive and enchanting.

When I saw them last year, they were touring for the 33rd anniversary of their album Flood (they had planned a 30th anniversary tour in 2020, but…) and they played the entire album during the course of the show, though not in order, and with other songs interspersed. In fact they played one song in reverse, had the performance filmed, and when they came back from intermission they reversed the video and played it above the stage. Sure enough, it was recognizably that song.

They released several albums of children’s music in the early aughts, for which I’m beyond grateful. My son especially loves their album No!, so when he was young there was at least one bit of music that we both fully enjoyed.

Today’s song is a superficially simple one. Behold “Older”:

This song goes right to the heart of what art is and can do. It conveys a dark, unavoidable truth with humor and sensitivity, and puts us all in the same boat together. It’s also one of my son’s favorites and he sings it at unexpected times, which can be truly chilling.

Notes:

• When the AV Club had TMBG on as part of a series having artists come on to cover other artists’ songs, they chose “Tubthumping” bu Chumbawumba, and the joyous result has been described as “one of those ‘It Gets Better’ videos for nerds.”

• Back in the 90s I heard the band on some radio show, one of those Morning Zoo Crew style things. They came on and starting playing songs by request. The DJ would ask them to play “The Statue Got Me High” and they’d launch into it. He’d ask for “The World’s Address” and they’d launch into it. After they were done he was clearly impressed and said they were the first band they’d had on the show who knew their own songs well enough to take requests live on the air.

• When I was in a band in college, we all sat around one afternoon trying to come up with a name. Someone suggested Nirvana but I said, “I think somebody in my dorm was talking about a new band called Nirvana the other day.” We eventually settled on Apollo 18, only to find out a few weeks later that They Might Be Giants were about to release an album by that name.