Giants Duo Attracts Younger Listeners
Published: Apr 28, 2006
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They Might Be Giants' fans are "the audience of Dorian Gray," says John Flansburgh.
"We get older and they stay the same age," says the bespectacled and more animated half of the alternative rock duo.
Flansburgh says he prefers playing for the "teens and college age" fans who make up the Giants' crowd. "We've played for older crowds and they're kind of snoozy," he says by telephone from his home in Brooklyn.
Flansburgh and fellow Giant John Linnell are developing an even younger fan base with kid-themed albums and DVDs.
The latest is last year's "Here Come the ABCs," on which the two Johns provide a one-of-a-kind introduction to the alphabet through songs such as "E Eats Everything," "Pictures of Pandas Painting" and "Who Put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?"
"It's a cool thing to actually have people in your audience who have no preconceived notions about what music should be or shouldn't be," Flansburgh says.
It has, though, caused occasional confusion on the part of some parents. Tuesday's show is for ages 16 and older to avoid attracting toddler fans of "Here Come the ABCs."
"Sometimes our shows start at 11 p.m.,"' Flansburgh says. "Why anyone would think that's a place to bring your kid....
"There's adult content, it's very loud, there are people smoking cigarettes, stage diving, moshing," Flansburgh says. "It's just us being boringly responsible. We just want people to be safe."
The kid stuff started when the Rounder label asked They Might Be Giants to do a children's record, which became "No!," released in 2002.
"I don't know what [Rounder was] thinking," Flansburgh says with a laugh.
He and Linnell took the challenge because they felt they'd been around long enough "that no one would think we were making a career change," Flansburgh says. "We could do more than one thing and still be self-defined."
The Giants have proven that since teaming up in 1983. Flansburgh and Linnell promoted themselves with Dial-a-Song, an answering machine which played a new TMBG tune each day on its outgoing message, as well as low-budget but inventive videos.
In recent years, they've written music for movies and television, including the theme to "Malcolm in the Middle," as well as for NPR's "This American Life" and the McSweeney imprint's Webzine.
The band's Web site is one of the most lively in rock, and they've also launched a popular podcast on iTunes.
"We're so used to giving away music that we're uniquely prepared for the challenges of creative podcasting," Flansburgh quips.
Its latest release is "Venue Songs," a DVD featuring videos of songs written on its 2004 tour. The duo wrote a new song for each venue in which it performed.
"It was really a way to give us something productive to do on a tour that seemed very similar to previous tours in terms of routing and playing lots of the same places we'd played before," Flansburgh says.
The Giants will be recording a new album for the of-age crowd soon, produced this time by The Dust Brothers (Beck, Beastie Boys, Hanson).
ON TOUR
They Might Be Giants
WHEN: Tuesday, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N., St. Petersburg
TICKETS: $20 advance, $25 day of show; (727) 896-1244; Ticketmaster, (813) 287-8844
