John Linnell and John Flansburgh formed They Might Be Giants in 1982, and their quirky instrumentation (guitar and accordion) and even quirkier lyrics and music garnered them more and more attention.
Now almost 30 years later, the band has released their latest album "Join Us." And they're only getting better, according to critics.
"Their wit keeps maturing, but TMBG's gentle weirdness is forever young," said Spin magazine.
Before the band's latest tour brought them to Omaha, Linnell called from Ithaca, N.Y., to answer our questions.
What will you be playing when you come to Omaha?
We've impressed ourselves by learning maybe seven or eight of the songs on the album and most of them reasonably well. By the time we get to you, we won't be looking at our hands. We've pulled out some surprises. We've relearned some old songs. We're going to continue to add material as we go, too.
For your new album you recorded a lot of songs, right?
We did. We recorded it over a very long period of time, though we were doing a lot of other stuff. We were touring in the midst of a two-year period where we were recording. We did do a lot of work and we recorded something like 30 songs. We had a lot to choose from when it was time to sequence the album.
What's different between writing music and writing specifically for children?
It's amazingly similar. We have to remember not to talk about death and depression and divorce -- the three Ds. Other than that, what's amazingly fun about doing kid's music is that we didn't really shift gears in the first place. We weren't thinking of what age group we were writing for. Kids can understand heavy metal. It's not going to kill them. They're not as in need of protection from music as some people think they are.
Though your music has some silly themes, you guys are very serious about what you do. What do you think?
I think that's accurate. I don't think we want people to know how seriously we take ourselves. We're OK with the perception that we're lighthearted guys. But John and I are uptight people. We've been joking about this, but John and I sometimes have the opposite tendency: We make it look hard. "Wow, those guys look like they're struggling."
A lot of times, your music is called nerdy. What do you think of that? And do you think people are more accepting of nerd culture?
The interesting thing is that the nerd epithet has really softened in the last 20 years. When we were in high school, those were fighting words. Weirdly now, it's almost turned into a mainstream thing. It's like being a redhead, you're just part of the culture. I talked to my son about it. He's not a shut-in. He has friends and likes to go outdoors and stuff, but being called a nerd has not bothered him at all. What they're saying is that he actually understands the math homework.