They Might Be Giants is made up of John Linnell and John Flansburg. They also team up with various musicians, including the Band of Dans (all named Dan I presume). If you must classify them, they’ve been called alternative/pop artists. They’ve been around quite a long time, and they are always trying new things; for example, they recently started doing children’s albums, including “Here come the 123s”, which are really just as entertaining for adults.

Many people know songs by They Might Be Giants, and don’t realize it. For example, they did the theme to Malcolm in the Middle (“You’re not the boss of me now…”) and the Daily Show instrumental theme.

I became a fan of TMBG in the 1980s. I was just starting to like rock and pop music. Before that I was very eclectic as far as music and enjoyed really all types of music, particularly oldies (50s and 60s tunes, like “In the Still of the Night” and “Unchained Melody”.)

I also pretty much always liked parodies and funny music, particularly things that Dr. Demento would play on his syndicated radio show. It was on the Loop late at night on Saturday or Sunday (it varied). He would play things like “They’re Coming to Take me Away” and “The Cockroach that Ate Cincinnati” , and Tom Lehrer songs like “Be Prepared” and “New Math.”

The Giants are definitely an unusual and quirky group, and in the early 90s, they had a hit song in “Birdhouse in your Soul” (“Make a little birdhouse in your soul…”), one of my favorites. It is not their weirdest song, musically or lyrically. That honor would have to go to “Dead” (“I returned a bag of groceries accidently taken off the shelf before the date stamped on my side…”) or “Exquisite Dead Guy” (“Exquisite dead guy/ rotating in his display case/exquisite dead guy/swear he moved his face”) (Is there a theme here?)

The best thing about all three of those songs is that they have a pretty, mellow, pop sound to them. If you don’t listen to the lyrics, you might just think they’re catchy, upbeat songs that you can dance and sing along to easily. They play songs that stick in your head (“Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”), songs just for fun (“They Might be Giants”), educational songs (“Why Does the Sun Shine?”) and songs that may have deep meaning (“Ana Ng”), and they can rock out with high energy, danceable songs like “Cyclops Rock” and “Bangs”.

The concert I went to was their Flood concert, in which they play the entire album, “Flood” (their “breakthrough” album, the first one with a major label and a hit single with “Birdhouse in your Soul”). Before starting and in between songs from Flood, they also played songs from their other albums, including Here Comes Science (the latest one).

It was an excellent concert. I tend to reminisce and my mind makes connections and wanders, so I had to tell myself to stay in the moment and just enjoy the music and shenanigans.

Speaking of shenanigans, they paused during the concert to bring out some sock puppets who call themselves “Avatar”.  (This brought to mind an old TMBG song, “Put your Hand inside the Puppet Head”, which is one of the really weird ones, musically and lyrically). It was a funny little skit they did and the voices were obviously done by John and John.

In addition to the Flood songs, they did “Why Does the Sun Shine?” and the sequel from Here Comes Science, “Why does the Sun Really Shine?” (which basically contradicts the first song—apparently many people said there were inaccuracies in the first song, which tells all about the sun, i.e., “The Sun is a mass of incandescent gas…”, which apparently is not quite right. Want more info on the original song? Check out this link). Both of these songs are on their latest album, Here Comes Science, and they played several other songs from that album.

They also played “They Might be Giants”, which is another weird favorite of mine. “They might be fake/they might be big/they might be big big fake fake lies…”

They’re good enough, they’re funny enough, and goshdarnit, I like ‘em! (with apologies to Al Franken and SNL.) I hope John and John (and their bandmates) will be back in the neighborhood soon so I can go to another concert.

Sung to the tune of I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry:

I’m Octomom, and I like it…

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
I got so brave, fetus in hand
Lost my discretion
It’s not what I’m used to
Just wanna try you on
I’m curious for you
Need more attention

I’m octomom, and I like it
The giant hideous stomach
I had 8 kids, and I want more
I hope my guy friend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
That means I’m on ET tonight
I had 8 kids and I liked it
I liked it

No, I don’t even know their names
It doesn’t matter,
They’re my experimental game
Just human nature,
It’s not what
Good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to be sane

I’m octomom and I like it
Now I have 14 kids (I need more)
I had 8 more just to try it
I hope my guy friend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I have enough, but I might
I had 8 kids and I liked it
I liked it…

You kids you are so magical
Soft skin, tiny, so kissable
Hard to resist so lovable
Too good to deny it
Ain’t no big deal, I’m innocent

I’m octomom and I like it

I had 8 more just to try it
I hope my guy friend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m getting fixed tonight
I had 8 more and I liked it…
And I’m pregnant!

by Lazykerri

I suppose I should do what’s in my heart

Should I have a separate blog for everything I do?

Should I separate things like writing what’s true…

Versus writing poems, fiction and such?

Even though I don’t do that lately so much

Should I have a separate blog for my cat?

Would anyone really be interested in that?

I’d like to hear what you think, but when all is through,

It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to

Do what I want to, do what I want to

You’d do it too if it belonged to you!