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They Might Be Giants bring on the rock in a way they have NEVER brought in before with the release of their tenth full-length album, The Spine (Idlewild/Rounder/Universal). This is the Giants' first rock and roll record since the theatrical release of the documentary "Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns," and the enormous success of their recent children's album, NO!. The singular sound of Linnell & Flansburgh's work is back. The solid song-craft, lyrical curiosity, and hyper-inventive style expected from the Johns' are elevated to new heights with edgy, tripped out impulses. The Spine is testament to how much the band continues to evolve and flourish.
At their core, They Might Be Giants are two guys named John. Friends since high school, John Linnell and John Flansburgh began making music together when they found themselves living in the same Brooklyn apartment building, a few years after graduating. Making their debut as a duo in 1982, they quickly swiped their name from a '70s flick starring George C. Scott (the title refers to Cervantes' Don Quixote, in which he believed that windmills might be giants). On record and live, they performed as a duo for many years, using taped accompaniment to fill out their sound. While touring to support 1992's Apollo 18, the Johns decided to use a live band for the first time, and have continued to do so, both live and on their records, ever since. The only constants, though, have been the Johns, and it's hard to imagine one John would continue to use the name without the other.
Despite 15-plus years of hard work as one of the most distinctive, interesting, and prolific bands around, TMBG shows no signs of slowing down. Last year, TMBG were asked to write the theme song for the TV series Malcolm in the Middle. The producers of the show liked the song and asked them to score the entire series. Thus, TMBG's music now reaches an audience of millions weekly! The show's soundtrack album, featuring two tracks from TMBG, will be released early next year, and their immediately identifiable theme song, "Boss Of Me," has been chosen as the lead single, with a video featuring the Malcolm cast soon to follow.
In addition to working on Malcolm (which requires the Johns to come up with up to 25 pieces of new music a week!), the ever-prolific Giants are also working on their first children's album (the cleverly-titled No!, also planned for release early next year), and still find time for side projects (Flansburgh with his band, Mono Puff, Linnell with last year's solo effort, State Songs), MP3-only albums for eMusic (http://www.emusic.com), new material for their legendary Dial-A-Song service (call 718-387-6962 or visit http://www.dialasong.com -- it's always free!), and the next "grown-up" TMBG full-length, also due in 2001. It's amazing that they can find time to do anything but work!
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