Flood is TMBG’s third studio album, preceded by the self-titled album “They Might Be Giants” in 1986 and “Lincoln” in 1988. Although the mixing process was analog, Flood was the first TMBG album to be digitally recorded.įlood debuted on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart the week of February 10, 1990, spent 22 weeks on the chart, and peaked at #75. People called in to listen to their songs, and it eventually led to a record deal. They began recording their songs onto an answering machine, and advertised “Dial-a-Song” in the Village Voice newspaper. A friend’s ventriloquism act went by the name for a while, and Flansburgh and Linnell adopted it when they were looking for a band name.Īfter a bike accident that kept John F from performing, and John L’s apartment was burgled, they took a hiatus from performing. Quixote thinks that the windmills look like evil giants. They quickly ditched that band name, and switched to a name based on a passage of the book Don Quixote. The first time that they performed, they went by the name El Grupo De Rock and Roll, and most of the audience members spoke Spanish. They attended different colleges, then later moved into the same apartment building in Brooklyn after college. Flansburgh (guitar, black plastic glasses) and Linnell (accordion, keyboards) met as teenagers in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and began writing songs together in high school. John Flansburgh and John Linnell formed TMBG in 1982. It’s crazy to think that it was over twenty years ago from that experience, because TMBG had already been around for a decade. I asked Danny which other albums the band had released, and he said “You have to get Flood.” So I walked to Fred Meyer the next day and bought both albums. I wanted to listen to the whole album that night, and he let me borrow it. From the moment that “ the statue got me high,” I was immediately in love. One night we were coming home from rehearsal, and he turned on TMBG’s “ Apollo 18” album. My favorite part of these car rides was listening to these bands that I never heard of, or never played on the top 40 radio station. He was cute and mysterious and wore Converse All-Stars and t-shirts for bands I’d never heard of. But when it was just the teens rehearsing, I usually got a ride with my neighbor Danny. Most of the rehearsals, my mom and I rode together. I was in a church production of “Hello Dolly” with my mom. My first introduction to They Might Be Giants was in the fall of 1992. She reminded me so much of myself at her age when I started listening to TMBG. I looked across the car to my 13 year old daughter, who knew every word to the songs. So on this trip, I croaked a little and mostly danced on my seat. And “Whistling in the Dark.” And “Minimum Wage.” And “ Istanbul – Not Constantinople.”Įven though I got my tonsils removed two weeks prior, it is practically impossible for me to listen to TMBG without singing along. Songs were playing by artist in clusters, and “Particle Man” came on. Since I updated my iPhone to iOS7, the shuffle function is wonky when I connect it to my car’s stereo system. As is a necessity with any long car ride, you have to have a great roadtrip playlist. “CP” in label matrix denotes a Pitman pressing.Last week, Rosie and I roadtripped down to California. Sides A and D on one disc, B and C on the other. It’s Allright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) 5:12 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right 3:34Ĭ3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 4:05Ĭ1. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) 3:16ī4. Ever, maybe.Īsylum Records AB 201, AB-201 2xLP, Album, Pit US 1974Ī1. And this is a storm - the sound of a great rocker, surprising his band and audience by tearing through his greatest songs in a manner that might not be comforting, but it guarantees it to be one of the best live albums of its time. He could only have performed interpretations this radical with a group as sympathetic, knowing of his traits as the band, whose own recordings here are respites from the storm. Yet that’s what gives this music such kick - Dylan reworks, rearranges, and reinterprets these songs in ways that are still disarming, years after its initial release. Before the Flood, a double-album souvenir of the tour suggests that these were generally dynamic shows, not because they were reveling in the past, but because Dylan was fighting the nostalgia of his audience - nostalgia, it must be noted, that was promoted as the very reason behind these shows. The tour, with its attendant publicity, definitely returned both artists to center stage, and it definitely succeeded, breaking box office records and earning great reviews. Bob Dylan and the Band both needed the celebrated reunion tour of 1974 since Dylan’s fortunes had been floundering since Self Portrait and the Band stumbled with 1971’s Cahoots.
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