They Might Be Giants Keeps Pop Kid-Friendly with Smart Science

Wired, August 31, 2009
by Scott Thill

They Might Be Giants continues its cerebral dominance of the pop music world with Here Comes Science, a CD/DVD release created for kids but smart enough for the adults in the mosh pit.

Exclusively available digitally on iTunes and physically on Amazon.com starting Tuesday, the follow-up to John Flansburgh and John Linnell’s Grammy-winning 2008 effort Here Come the 123s builds on the brainy foundation laid down by the band more than 25 years ago. But since the subject this time around is science, They Might Be Giants‘ latest sonic workbook might not go over too well with the intelligent-design crowd.

“Although it wasn’t designed to create controversy, it’s still a big relief to me that the opening track, ‘Science Is Real,’ didn’t raise any red flags with the label,” the 49-year-old Flansburgh told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “The song freely acknowledges the Big Bang and evolution, and casually conflates angels with unicorns and elves, which might bug some anti-science, pro-angel folk.”

The rest of us need not worry. Here Comes Science is not just a great introduction to the discipline for youngsters; it’s a body-rocking listen for Generation iPod. It doesn’t take more than a cursory hearing of “I’m a Paleontologist” (embedded left) to realize that TMBG’s two Johns haven’t lost their taste for rollicking pop jams, no matter the syllabus. A full-length animated DVD adds light and color to those jams, making Here Comes Science a lesson plan on how to have your creative cake and eat it too.

As Flansburgh’s friend Black Francis once shrieked for the Pixies: “It’s educational!”

“We wanted to be sure to get our facts right, so we brought in a wonderful fellow named Eric Siegel, who is the director of the New York Hall of Science,” Flansburgh said. “Hopefully, that vetting process was rigorous enough to stave off a cultural boycott from the scientific community. We covered mostly the classic stuff: the elements, astronomy, the circulatory system, cells, photosynthesis and the light spectrum. But there isn’t a lot of material about applied science on the album, although there is a song about computer-assisted design that has a mind-bending video on the DVD.”

Not that kids, or their parents, should be using They Might Be Giants’ popular efforts like Here Comes Science, Here Come the 123s or 2005’s Here Come the ABCs as replacements for standard school supplies. Flansburgh is quick to note that They Might Be Giants’ children’s efforts are purely creative exercises like the band’s more adult-oriented releases like Lincoln, Flood and Apollo 18.

They’re also exquisite time-suckers.

“Meeting the demand for kids’ stuff has been kind of monopolizing our time in the past few years,” Flansburgh admitted. “It’s been a lot of work just to keep up. We are very aware that we’re not educators, and these albums are really entertainment. We can’t approach these projects as teaching tools, or pretend they are filling gaps for kids. We even have some issues with the general necessity for kids’ stuff to always be educationally enriched.”

They Might Be Giants On …

Nouns: “In 2003, we realized we were quickly running out of nouns,” Flansburgh said. “So we created a program to conserve them. But we’re ready to move aggressively into verbs when the time comes.”

Toons: “We seem to work well with animators. And in spite of the pressure, doing themes is a wonderful, faceless way to be part of mass culture. I wish Pixar would do more projects with original songs. We’re waiting right here by the phone for that life-changing call.”

Grammys: “It’s flattering, and certainly nothing we’re used to. Yes, it is very mainstream and it always feels a bit ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’ when I hear our name thrown in with the other nominees. I suspect we aren’t the best-selling act nominated in our category, so it does feel like there is actual merit involved in the voter’s process. But maybe you just believe in awards more when you win!”

Sponsoring Little League Baseball: “Neither John nor I really follow baseball, although I am jealous of people who watch it on TV. It seems very Zen, but it’s just too slow for me. However, many people we work with are all very passionate about all aspects of it. When the pictures (of the team) first arrived at the office, there was serious joy in TMBGville.

Flood-only concerts: “Performing an album in sequence is a recessive impulse. I should point out it’s actually only 40 minutes of an almost two-hour show, so it’s not as monolithic as it might sound. Flood has been our biggest album, so it might seem like a capitulation to a greatest-hits show. But it ends up being more of a celebration of the oddball cuts that we would rarely get to play.”

That said, Flansburgh is happy to use the opportunity as an avenue for creative exploration. It’s also great to hear a band making music for kids that isn’t as hard on the ears as the Auto-Tuned fluff found on Here Comes Science‘s label, Walt Disney Records.

“It’s not like these songs do anyone any harm or mislead kids,” Flansburgh said. “As songwriting assignments, the themes have actually proven to be great devices. The recent kids’ albums are wide-open topics, which gives us just enough focus to write and still feel very free.”

Artistic freedom has always been important to They Might Be Giants, one of the first bands to fully capitalize on the internet. In its early years, TMBG engaged UseNet groups to spread the word on its catalog, and in 1999 it became the first major-label artist to release an MP3-only album with Long Tall Weekend. In 2004, They Might Giants also launched one of the earliest artist-owned online MP3 stores.

That tech savvy was a logical extension of the two Johns’ clever creation of Dial-A-Song. This early stab at interactivity played hundreds of They Might Be Giants tunes on the band’s answering machine for interested callers. The band moved the service to the internet in 2000, eventually replacing it with podcasts.

But Flansburgh isn’t ready to pat himself on the back just yet.

“I wouldn’t say John or I are early adopters by temperament,” he said. “But starting with phone machines, we discovered the simple pleasures of goofing around with new stuff. The reader of this article probably has a much better idea of what is coming up in the tech world than we do, but we’re still curious about it.

“Seems like the subcutaneous, MP3-playing ear implant should be on some Silicon Valley product developer’s to-do list. And when it’s ready, we’ve got some very powerful music to apply to that device. I hope it comes with some They Live-style sunglasses.”

There’s still much work to be done in the online mediasphere, Flansburgh said: Maybe They Might Be Giants’ next release should contain cautionary tales for artists looking to technology to solve their analog problems.

“Years back, a record company talked us into taking a number of meetings with their ‘new media’ department, which was creating CD-ROMs to work like interactive albums,” Flansburgh recalled.

“Even as emerging technology, the CD-ROM platform quickly revealed itself as very limited. Nothing was easy to program, and nothing seemed like it would be fun to experience,” he said.

“Listening to someone tap out Morse code on a prison radiator pipe probably had about as much entertainment value. On top of our frustration, it emerged the company was looking to our future royalties to foot the bill on the new department’s R&D. The whole enterprise was an abject lesson in the totally jive.”

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