Tag Archives: they might be giants

My iPod #90: They Might Be Giants – The Bells Are Ringing

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Hey everyone.

Again, I didn’t have time to make a post yesterday. Well I did, but I was too tired. I went paintballing you see. ‘Twas my first time too. I knew it would be painful, and it was my first experience of being shot at with something. It wasn’t too bad. It was much better than I thought it would be. The paint balls do sting upon contact, and I’ve got a few bruises here and there. I’m fine though. It was all good fun.

This is the first of the two I’ll do today. So here’s another by a favourite band of mine. Yeah, TMBG.

“The Bells Are Ringing” is the final track on the band’s last album from Elektra Records. “Factory Showroom” is the album’s name.

I first heard the song due to the LAUNCHcast radio/website that Yahoo! owned years ago, it came up randomly one of the genre-assorted radios that were available. I heard it that one time, and so forgot about it pretty quickly. YouTube didn’t exist that time, so to listen to a song in full for free on the Internet was a pretty hard thing to do.

I’m not a Malcolm in the Middle fan – I’ve never really watched the show before – but this song also featured in one episode called ‘Christmas’. For that, I just assumed that the song was a Christmas tune, but that’s only because of the mentioning of bells. Bells are something that are common at Christmas time, right? It’s doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas though. The subject of the song, in my opinion, is about this fad that’s caught on by everyone, with the fad being represented as the bells in the song. The bridge brings light upon ‘a girl with cotton in her ears’ who is oblivious to it, but people go on about it and then begins to appreciate it. It’s got a real ‘1984’ theme about it.

At the end of the song, everybody’s happy and those ‘bells’ (which are sung) keep on ringing amongst an increasing volume in marching drums.

I think it’s a happy song, but with They Might Be Giants I can never really be sure.

Coming back soon.

Jamie.

My iPod #81: They Might Be Giants – Bee of the Bird of the Moth

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Oh, hello again! Nice to see you.

“Bee of the Bird of the Moth” is a track from They Might Be Giants’ twelfth album “The Else” released in 2007. I didn’t listen to it until very recently, only because I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to listen to the album or not. It was released during the period when the band had developed their children’s music albums, with “Here Come the ABCs” preceding it, and the two other “Here Comes…” coming afterward, so I had my doubts on whether the sound of the ‘adult’ album would appeal to me.

I was wrong to doubt. “This Might Be a Wiki”, the information centre dedicated to the band allows its members to rate their songs out of 10, and out of 84 ratings it has an average of 8.83/10 which isn’t band considering it’s above songs like “You Probably Get That a Lot” and “Weep Day” which are just examples of two other songs that I like. I’m thinking that that’s the actual reason why I listened to the song in the first place. It has a high rating in the TMBW song list. That sounds quite bad 😦

I don’t regret it though. If I hadn’t done that, then there’s the possibility that I may not have given “The Else” a chance. “The Else” is a great album. I’m biased though ’cause They Might Be Giants are one of my favourite artists, but it’s proudly in my iTunes library where I can listen to the songs everyday.

In John Linnell’s words: “This is a song about a hummingbird moth, which imitates another creature, which imitates yet another creature. It’s completely fucked up and can only be explained in song!”

What more can you say?

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #71: They Might Be Giants – Bangs

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Hi everybody.

Got to type this one quickly ’cause I’m going to my friend’s house soon.

They Might Be Giants are my favourite band. I’ve downloaded most of their albums. The only albums of theirs I own is “The Spine” and “A User’s Guide…” which is a compilation, and so doesn’t really count. So I only own one album.

“Mink Car” is the eighth studio album by the band. It was released on the same day as 9/11, so it may not have received as much attention as it could have.

I downloaded the album in 2011 because I had never heard the songs of it, and they weren’t on YouTube so I uploaded them.

“Bangs” is the first song on the album. I’ve got to say when I first heard the song I mistook the title as a euphemism for another part of the female body. (Two other parts to be exact). But it’s not. It’s about a good haircut that a girl has which impresses the narrator. Shows you how I think.

“Bangs” is one of my favourites. Good melody and stuff. I hope you like it too.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #54: They Might Be Giants – Au Contraire

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Hi everyone.

I’m a bit tired, and a little depressed at the moment. I can try and lighten up my mood in the post, and I’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow. I don’t want to get into it.

At least the post today features a song by my favourite band. Yep.

Around the time that I discovered the music of They Might Be Giants, the album ‘The Spine’ was their most recent release. As time has gone on, that album is known as one of the band’s least popular albums amongst fans. I like it though, it has some great tracks on it. This one is good too.

‘Au Contraire’ is sung by John Linnell, and makes references to David Bowie, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jodie Foster and Mahatma Gandhi. I don’t know what the song is about but from what I hear, the famous people I mention ask a question or state something in the verses to which the narrator doesn’t agree to, and in reply says ‘Au contraire, mon frere.’

That is basically the whole song. There is a little dual guitar solo with a little flute part at the end of it. But, yeah, that is ‘Au Contraire’ from The Spine.

The ending is also quite random too. Random voices just start saying ‘Right on’, almost like some madness mantra. This then results in a crescendo of cheers and applause, everyone is shouting ‘Right on’. Then ‘Damn Good Times’ starts. You should listen to this song and the aforementioned one together, it’s pretty cool. I have a thing for songs which segue into one another, it seems really cool to me.

I’m feeling fine now. Thank you TMBG.

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #35: They Might Be Giants – Ana Ng

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:’) Another great song.

One of the best They Might Be Giants songs ever. It’s got everything you want. A great chorus, an edgy guitar riff in the verses, and their typical trait of being able to write a melody that gets stuck in your head and never leaves.

The video of this song was one of the first of theirs I saw. I’ve told you guys about the Launchcast site Yahoo had, and how it basically introduced to what is my favourite band. When I saw it, I didn’t know who was singing. Neither John was lip-syncing to the song. The video just gave me everything I needed to know about them. They were synchronising in everything, their pounding on the table, their ‘dancing’, their general (I don’t want to say it) quirkiness just attracted me to them.

I had a good friend in primary school, and I was ten when I watched the video. So seeing that just made me want to force him to watch it so we could mimic the things they did during lunchtime or whatever. Everything is fun when you’re in year five.

Then primary school finished, and it was the summer holidays before I would start year seven. From being the oldest in the school, back to the youngest. I couldn’t handle it. I went out with my sister to Woolworths to buy stationery (pens, pencils, all the stuff) to prepare, and I saw one of my good friends from primary school there. I saw her, but I don’t think she saw me. I realised that’s how it would be from then on. I would never have the same relationship I had with my friends once I moved to my new school. The fact that I was the only person from my school to get into the one I did only emphasised that. I barely saw any of them, when I did it was a small exchange of:

“Hi! How are you?”
“I’m good.”
“Haven’t seen you for aaaaaaages!”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, see ya then! :)”
“See ya. :)”

😦 It was never the same.

I remember getting on the bus with my sister after finishing at the shop, ‘Ana Ng’ came into my head and I just kept on humming it and singing it quietly to myself whilst looking out the window feeling the time go by.

‘Ana Ng’ is a really important song for me. It reminds of me of the good times.

Until next time.

Jamie.