John Linnell and John Flansburgh have been making albums together as They Might Be Giants for 40 years.<\/p>\n
And one thing has kept them together during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn and I get along fine,\u201d explains Linnell, 66, who met Flansburgh when they were teenagers growing up in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and started writing songs together in high school. They went to different colleges, but wound up moving to Brooklyn at the same time, where they formed TMBG in 1982 and released the group\u2019s self-titled first album in 1986.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have a good creative partnership, and we like playing together,\u201d Linnell adds. \u201cWe\u2019ve both done solo work, and we see this great benefit in working with each other because I think (TMBG) has been, and is, greater than the sum of its parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feeling, he adds, extends to the other musicians he and Flansburgh began adding after about a decade of working as a duo. \u201cThey will tell you that we all are still getting along famously. We haven\u2019t gotten sick of each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have anything to compare it to, really,\u201d Linnell notes. \u201cI haven\u2019t really been in a band where everybody is throwing things and falling out and quitting the band. That hasn\u2019t been my experience. I guess maybe we\u2019re lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
During their time as TMBG, Linnell and Flansburgh, 65, have released two dozen studio albums \u2014 including this month\u2019s \u201cThe World is to Dig\u201d \u2014 a series of EPs and five children\u2019s albums. They\u2019ve had occasional radio play and hits \u2014 including \u201cBirdhouse in Your Soul,\u201d \u201cAna Ng\u201d and \u201cSnail Shell\u201d \u2014 and won two Grammy Awards, one for \u201cBoss of Me,\u201d the theme song for TV\u2019s \u201cMalcolm in the Middle.\u201d They also contributed to the soundtrack for the Broadway musical adaptation of \u201cSpongeBob Square Pants,\u201d which won an Outer Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a Tony.<\/p>\n
Technological changes have, of course, changed the way the two work together. But what\u2019s remained consistent is a desire to surprise and keep each other engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt still happens, yeah,\u201d Lindell says. \u201cPart of the motivating thing for us when we\u2019re working is, \u2018What\u2019s the other guy gonna think?\u2019 We still have each other in mind as the primary editor of each other\u2019s work, so I think that we know we can\u2019t trot out the same old ideas over and over again. There\u2019s this impulse of, \u2018Will this be something he won\u2019t be expecting \u2026?’\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe World is to Dig,\u201d which was preceded by the EP \u201cEyeball\u201d in January, is TMG\u2019s first album in five years and was delayed by a variety of factors, including an automobile accident for Flansburgh and Linnell\u2019s continuing lung issues (he was diagnosed with COPD in 2025), which forced TMBG to postpone some shows last year. But the time benefited the album, Linnell says, including a late decision to include a cover of the Raspberries\u2019 1974 single \u201cOvernight Sensation (Hit Record),\u201d a song he liked as a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think John and I kinda felt it was funny,\u201d Linnell explains. \u201cWe\u2019re both in our mid-60s, so the notion of having an overnight sensation is deeply wrong, obviously.\u201d The album\u2019s other 17 tracks, meanwhile, are standard-issue TMBG \u2014 compact (only two songs are longer than three minutes) and quick-witted, whether it\u2019s a power pop tune called \u201cWu-Tang\u201d (and, yes, inspired by the clan) and a very personal track that\u2019s sung in French.<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly we don\u2019t have any overarching ideas as far as putting together an album, or a tour,\u201d Linnell explains. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much just a record of where we\u2019re at, creatively. We don\u2019t really do concept albums. \u2026 We did when we were making kids\u2019 records, but these adult They Might Be Giants albums are more or less a collection of what we\u2019ve been up to, creatively, at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
TMBG is continuing to perform multiple nights in each city, allowing it to focus on specific albums. This year, Linnell says, it\u2019s drawing from 1988\u2019s \u201cLincoln\u201d and 1994\u2019s \u201cJohn Henry,\u201d as well as the new material. The group\u2019s next album is not on the runway yet, but Linnell \u2014 an avid biker who\u2019s also \u201ccontinuing to try and pointlessly learn foreign languages in a chaotic and random way \u2014\u00a0has no doubt more is coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the sort of oddball projects come from somebody else,\u201d Linnell says. \u201cThey\u2019ll say, \u2018Would you guys like to do \u2026 ?\u2019 Often they\u2019ll be one-offs. That\u2019s something we\u2019ll probably continue to do as long as somebody\u2019s interested in asking us \u2026 and then I imagine we\u2019ll start working towards something (for TMBG) before too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
They Might Be Giants performs Tuesday and Wednesday, April 28-29, at the Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Doors at 8 p.m. 313-833-9700 or majesticdetroit.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Linnell and John Flansburgh have been making albums together as They Might Be Giants for 40 years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[967,143,145,144,420],"class_list":["post-287199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-entertainment","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}