They Might Be Giants, the brainchild of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, came out of New York City in 1982 mixing quirk, fun, imagination and an independent spirit to craft an inventive brand of pop/rock, and/or art/pop, that defied trends but earned a large, loyal and varied following.
Linnell, 53, did not hesitate when asked about They Might Be Giants' longevity.
“We keep fit. We eat right,” he said. “We got over this period early on where a lot of bands are disappointed. After two to five years, people get a load of their prospects. Somebody says 'I can make it without these other guys.' Or they get tired of each other. Now we see exactly what the project is. We pretty much like each other and see eye-to-eye.”
They Might Be Giants is celebrating the release of Nanobots, the group's 16th studio album. TMBG, Flansburgh (guitar, vocals) and Linnell (accordion, clarinet, saxophone, keys, vocals) along with Dan Miller (guitar), Danny Weinkauf (bass) and Marty Beller (drums, percussion), will stop Sunday at John T. Floore Country Store in Helotes. Moon Hooch will open.
Nanobots features 25 tracks — three-minute songs such as “Black Ops,” “Circular Karate Chop,” “Call You Mom” and “Too Tall Girl” — and others, including “Didn't Kill Me,” “Tick,” “There” and “Hive Mind,” that last mere seconds.
“One thing that came up a few times is writing a bunch of short songs. Some are 20 seconds or even less. Even for us, that's short,” Linnell said. “So we came up with the idea of a suite of 20 songs that are meant to be listened to together. Other than that, there was not a plan or a charter. We started writing these songs two years ago, and this is it.”
Writing short is not easy.
“It's a blessing and a curse,” Linnell said. “You get to say what you've gotta say with no fussing around. It's a good idea to try to write simple and concise; to boil your ideas down.”
To come up with TMBG songs, Flansburgh and Linnell write songs, make demos in their respective home studios, email those songs to other members of the band, and then get together in a studio and come up with full arrangements for the songs.
“We've collaborated in a lot of different ways,” Linnell said. “We've tried one of us writing the lyrics and the other the music. We've tried one writing a verse, the other a chorus. We're aware the other guy is going to listen to what each of us does.
“We're always trying to come up with something fresh that's fun. We're always thinking, 'How can I blow the other guy's mind?'”
Flansburgh and Linnell have likely blown each others minds. Along the way, they've scored a platinum album (Flood), earned a couple of Grammys, recorded albums for kids, been the subject of a documentary (Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns) and made music for TV and films.
One thing that's helped They Might Be Giants' longevity is the influx of younger fans.
“We're constantly attracting younger people,” Linnell said. “People our age don't go out as much as they used to. We were younger than our audience when we started. Doing the kids' records has been our farm system.”
In its 30-year career, TMBG has seen albums go from being a collection of singles to cohesive, sometimes thematic works. In the age of downloads, single songs again rule.