They Might Be Giants are in the throes of a grind to support their new album, "Factory Showroom". On the eve of their departure for a month of gigs warming up for Hootie And The Blowfish, John Flansburgh sat down for a chat about the project he and high school friend John Linnell put together 13 years ago. Things have changed for They Might Be Giants since the early days, not the least of which is that they're now a full band with horn section. But despite these changes, TMBG proves with album number six that its primary purpose remains purveying intelligent, quirky and erudite pop music.
In contrast to the one-dimensional nature of a lot of pop music, TMBG's songs beg investigation beyond the usual questions like, "What's this song about?", as the duo's songs attempt to open lines of communication between the audience and the songwriters. The irony inherent in the artist/fan relationship is not lost on Flansburgh. "We live in the same world that our audience lives in. So in a lot of ways we can communicate a lot more directly with them." He pauses before continuing: "I feel really weird about the fact that when you look in a record store, I'm in direct competition with Prince. I feel that Prince is clearly a star. The guy is super-naturally cool. He can dress badly and still be cool... To a certain extent we remind people of their brothers, or their friends who sit in their rooms all day working on tapes." They may look normal, but these guys took their bathroom tapes to the public, and turned pro in the process.
Flansburgh and Linnell's songs are often criticized for depending on odd lyrical images and musical structures, their meaning open-ended and elliptical. "Sometimes it's hard to see the motivation behind a song. What level the intentions are at. This is probably the root of [our critics'] questions," explains Flansburgh. "For me, you can have really complicated motivations for what your driving at, but because it's compressed thought, like poetry, you really have to edit and focus to get your point across, and sometimes I think we failed. Sometimes we've confused and confounded people more than we communicated our ideas.."
TMBG's output might seem eccentric, if you don't contemplate the motivation behind a song, or ponder the success of its imagery. Initially the listener might enjoy a song solely for its references to past pop hits or its odd lyrics, but the Johns stretch the medium and force "our personal obsessions on the world," according to Flansburgh. And that's what songwriting is all about for these postmodern popsters. "How Can I Sing Like A Girl" doesn't actually explore Flansburgh's ability to hit the high notes; its "a plea for personal freedom, just as freedom of expression... The song is about wanting to be a weirdo. Yet on a more political level the song also acknowledges a political reality for women in a way that is very straightforward." It is this sort of multi-dimensional structure that makes TMBG's so appealing: they're immediately engaging, but the deeper you dig, the more you'll find.
But there is a sense of irony at work in the music. Flansburgh and Linnell lift musical hooks and melodies from all over the place and alter them to suit their own point of view. For example, the string arrangements from "Factory Showroom's" opener, "S-E-X-X-Y" sound like they come from some disco classic. On "James K. Polk", the Johns set a biographical account of the life of Polk, our 11th president, to the drum beat of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue." Within this seemingly straightforward narrative, however, lurks another meaning. "It becomes pretty apparent if you listen to the song a couple of times that the man was really a drag," explains Flansburgh. "I don't know, I know that there is more poetry in presenting songs in a way that allows space for the listener. All the rock music is didactic, its like preaching to the choir and that has no poetry for me."
The complexity of TMBG's songs begs the questions of how two self-proclaimed normal guys find ways to push the envelope of pop music and fashion their poetry into catchy songs. "John and I collaborate on some stuff. But mostly we write pretty separately, but then work on the arrangements. Thats where our collaboration comes into play." The most intriguing method Flansburgh and Linnell use is taken from literature. "I've tried some things with John in the past few years based on the idea of 'exquisite corpse'. You know the game where you basically do a portion of something [writing] and hand it off, and another person will add to it sometimes without looking to see what you've done beforehand." Yet, as Flansburgh points out, "It's such an inorganic process."
After spending a lot of time in the studio working on "Apollo 18" and "John Henry", the Johns decided to use the expanded TMBG lineup as a new way to write and arrange songs. For "Factory Showroom" the band set up residency at New York City's Mercury Lounge for a month of Wednesday night shows. Through band practice and the weekly shows, a new album came to life. "During those shows we sort of declared it a safe zone for fucking up. And it's not good to do that when you got a big ticket - the last thing people people want to see is [in an announcer's voice] 'The band who delivered disappointment all across the country.'" By the end of the month, Flansburgh and Linnell had 14 or 15 new songs and had hired a lead guitar player. These are surprising developments from this previously two-man operation, yet TMBG's fans know to expect the unexpected.
Whichever approach they choose, They Might Be Giants deliver the goods in odd-shaped wrappers. The fact they're 13 years into their music career and their songs are both weird and catchy bodes well for the future of pop music, but it doesn't come without a sacrifice. "I feel that my life is very boring compared to my music. I work really hard to make music interesting, which in turn makes my life extremely routine." I suggest that it's probably better to make interesting music and have a boring life than making boring music and lead an interesting life. "Ah, I never thought of it that way."