Heaneyland!

Spine and dandy

Details are trickling out about the new They Might Be Giants album coming this summer, which will be called "The Spine". Some of the details are good (16 songs!), some could be better (only just over a half hour?), but one is freaking awesome: the song "Experimental Film" (a song which, I can attest, kicks ass, and then kicks that same ass some more) will have a video, directed by the Brothers Chaps, better known as "those guys who do Homestar Runner".

This isn't the first bit of They Might Be Giants/Homestar Runner synergy. TMBG also wrote the song that appears in this Strong Bad e-mail (and, I suspect, the one that opens the e-mail after that -- oh, did that link not quite work? Try this one).

To hold me over until the album comes out, I bought the new TMBG EP, "Indestructible Object", and it's been making our whole apartment happy all week. Here's a quick song-by-song review:

"Am I Awake" has an interesting dark techno feel that's very appealing (you can listen to it here). "Memo to Human Resources" shows off how well John Flansburgh's melodic sense has evolved over the years; the chord change at the end of the verse is pure bliss. "Au Contraire" is a fairly traditionally-TMBG-sounding song -- almost a throwback to "Lincoln" -- and as such is probably the least interesting song in context, although taken on its own, it's very catchy indeed. "Ant" is a remake of a Flood-era b-side, with a late night talk show sounding horn section that takes the song to the next level; truly fab. "Caroline, No" is, of course, a Beach Boys cover, and naturally no one really expects a TMBG version of a Beach Boys song to be in any way definitive, but John Flansburgh delivers a nicely heartfelt vocal, and, really, it's just nice to have this recent concert staple recorded for posterity. It's certainly the best CD I've bought in the past week (which is higher praise than it sounds, as you probably realize if you know how many CDs I buy).

Posted by Francis at 12:32 AM