HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 12:16:47 -0500 
From: "Jason A. Specland" <jsda+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: A Lyrical Question

Within one week of subscribing to this message group, I have found more
"hidden" (i.e. not clear or in the lyrics sheet... on another note.. why
are TMBG lyrics sheet always so inaccurate?) lyrics than in the entire
rest of my extensive TMBG appreciation career.

One fuzzy area still remains:

In the chorus of "I Palindrome I," what is it that John F. says in
between John L's saying, "I Palindrome I?"  And before you say, "He's
saying 'I Palindrome I,' you silly,"  I mean at the end of the chorus. 
It sounds something like "little men."

Egad a base tone denotes a bad age!

______________________________________________________________
Jason A. Specland
jsda+@andrew.cmu.edu
loreli!artagel@solar.nova.edu
5115 Margaret Morrison Street #4625
Pittsburgh, PA  15213
And now for something completely different...
______________________________________________________________
From: kay@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (k)
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: TMBG - latin?
Date: 19 Nov 1992 23:52:23 GMT
Organization: Project Quantum Gweep
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <19NOV199214281124@sigma.tamu.edu> jgh2457@sigma.tamu.edu (HUBBLE, JEREMY GROBERG) writes:
>Hey, does anyone know of a They Might Be Giants song that has a 'latin' beat?
>One from an album would be preferable, but one from any other source (single, 
>dial-a-song, etc.) would be great.  (It's part of the 'quest to prove TMBG are
>truely eccletic musicians' adventure.)
>

Erm...how 'bout "The World's Address" from _Lincoln_?  It even goes 'cha cha
cha' at the end...

You want eclectic?  Try "The Famous Polka" from _Misc T_...it's not even
remotely Latin, but it's eclectic...

k
-- 
super-kittycat theory and how it applies to time travel and its effects.
just one of the many pressing metamechanical problems being addressed at
the institute for applied wedge physics and petrarcosmology worcester ma
kay@wpi.wpi.edu  chief observer and research head  project quantum gweep
From: mcirvin@husc8.harvard.edu (Mcirvin)
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: TMBG Quote Generator
Keywords: Everyone needs one
Date: 21 Nov 92 19:09:35 GMT

Cool... thanks.  Though I thought the lines were

"A furry hat, elastic mask, a pair of shiny marble dice"

and 

"Baby, wait, I didn't mean to say 'nightmare.'"

-- 
Matt McIrvin
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: kenm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (...Jose)
Subject: Re: A Lyrical Question
Organization: Department of Computer Science, McMaster University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:34:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.042448.22013@samba.oit.unc.edu> Ben.Magid@launchpad.unc.edu (Ben Magid) writes:
>In article <Bxz3Go.E4A@acsu.buffalo.edu> psr@acsu.buffalo.edu (Lord Strider) writes:
>>I thought he was saying "Man o nam."
>
>My friend have been fighting non-stop for the last three months on whether
>or not it was "man o nam" or "man a nam". I am on the "man o nam" side, but
>there is no convincing him.:)

	I've always thought that it was "middle name", but that really 
doesn't make *that* much more sense.

			.....Jose

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
".sig quotes are silly"|Kenneth C. Moyle          kenm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca 
 - Kenneth C. Moyle    |Department of Biochemistry     MOYLEK@MCMASTER.BITNET 
                       |McMaster University       ...!uunet!mnetor!maccs!kenm
From: sstover@sumax.seattleu.edu (   Kate   )
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Istanbul remixes
Date: 20 Nov 92 02:55:30 GMT
Organization: Seattle University

In article <1992Nov19.214725.2701@news.cs.brandeis.edu> st911227@pip.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
>
>Two questions:  I heard about an "Istanbul" disk composed entirely of
>remixes of "Istanbul, Not Constantinople". Does one exist?
>

I know it exists; I've held it in my hands, I once had a copy of one mix
off of it on a tape of dance mixes.  It's got (I think) 3 mixes, one of
them being a sort of hip-hop dance groove mix.  Pretty scary, and even
scarier, it grew on me.  I actually really liked it.  They sampled that
'This is a recording' line that's in so many rap an hip hop pieces out
there...Josh? Are you out there? care to contribute?



-- 
       Sheryl Stover  %  If you ask me what I have come to do in the world,
  & Hemingway & Clio  %  I who am an artist, I will reply: "I am here to
sstover@seattleu.edu  %  live aloud."                    -Emile Zola
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: medwards@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Matt Edwards)
Subject: tmbg concert
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 19:49:00 GMT

Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg,rec.music.dementia
Subject: Re: They Might Be Giants in concert
Summary: 
Expires: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Keywords: 


Well, I saw TMBG at Cal State Fullerton last night....

Quasi-review:

I'm glad there were no chairs!  I hate when lots of Yellow Shirts
are in attendance and insist that you stay in your chair.  They let
everyone dance to their hearts content (No dude-passing tho).

This god-awful band opened up, I don't remember the name.  It was
the same guy who was on tour with them when they played in Michigan
circa the Flood days.  Back then it was just this
guy by himself playing a guitar and a ukelele.  YUK
This time he had a band, and just about everyone hated them...

Quoth the singer:  'Well, since your attitute is so great, we'll
just have to play the song again, with the ukelele...'

(Which they did) 

Then they got ticked off and played 'Born to be wild' ;)

Eventually TMBG come on and opened to 'The Guitar'.
Most of the set was similar to others I've seen posted.  
The bass player loused up on 'Number 3' and kept playing
during one of the saxophone parts.  He and accordian John exchanged
smiles with that...

The 'Spin the dial' was 'Thunder and lighting' (??) or 'Knock on wood' (??) by 
Sam and Dave (I think).  It sounded like 'Soul man' but 
was some other song.  They all seemed to pull it off pretty
well!  The bass solo left a bit to be desired but as a bass
player I tend to be over-critical!

They also did hideaway folk family with everyone doing the
brooklyn car-alarm sounds, everyone over 200 lbs has to shout
Hey you!  Get away from my car!  
I personally wanted to 'scream as if I was in hell' but I guess
they weren't into that.  *smile*

For the most part the audience was cool, there were some people
just kinda standing around with a dazed expression as if they
weren't sure what to make of it all.  

This concert was louder than their previous, 'Constallation' was
so loud and distorted you couldn't make out any of the parts.
This didn't prevent me from doing the berserker-bonzo dance
and getting strange looks from everyone.  

The first encore was this horrid rendition of 'We are the world'
wich was sang devoid of verses (thankfully) and even the chorus
was chopped of a few worlds.  It was interesting.  
The second encore included the strange version of Istanbul which
has guitar john picking up one of the
green stage lights and shining it at his face for a 
eerie effect.  

Guitar John was also outside at the T-shirt booth signing shirts
after the show but I was really tired and didn't feel like 
fighting the lines to have my back scrawled on.  :)

One other note about this show - Accordian John seemed to
mumble words to songs even more than in past shows.
It bugs me when he drags out the words to a point of incoherency *grin*

All in all, it was a cool show!

Ribbit
From: sstover@sumax.seattleu.edu (   Kate   )
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: Dial-a-Song, Random Questions, and a Correction
Date: 16 Nov 92 07:17:37 GMT
Organization: Seattle University

>		NO!
>
>	I emphasize this so because it was Flans who was sick, not  
>Linnell, and They said so during the show.  I have never seen Linnell sign  
>autographs, but I have seen Flansburgh do it three times.  That night at  
>JHU, Flansburgh had a 102 degree fever and his voice hurt a bit.  That is  
>why Linnell jumped around and talked a lot more during the show than he  
>normally does- Flans is normally much more active during a performance.   
>Linnell is both very shy and very insecure and has a harder time dealing  
>with a lot of people.
>					Scott Stuart

	I have the autographs of both Johns, actually, though I didn't get
them at an official autograph-signing (my friend Al and I [hi Al!] talked
with them at their loading dock).  Linnell was indeed easily upset,
particularly by one really annoying kid who was also there and asking him
lots of teen-magazine-bio-type questions, like 'how do you guys write your
songs' and 'how long have you guys been together'...Linnell finally told
him to "cut the interview stuff right now."  He was pretty cool to us
since we left him alone for the most part, and Flansburg was all-around
cool.  
	ObGossip, and actually I only mean to ask if any of you know about
this, there was a woman who had a small child with the band.  I kind of
got the impression she was with Linnell, but I wouldn't want to claim that
unfounded.  Anybody know if he has a kid? (my god, can you imagine They as
your parents???)

ciao,
Sheryl
--
       Sheryl Stover  %  If you ask me what I have come to do in the world,
  & Hemingway & Clio  %  I who am an artist, I will reply: "I am here to
sstover@seattleu.edu  %  live aloud."                    -Emile Zola
From: stevie@soda.berkeley.edu (Steven Collins)
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: B-sides
Date: 16 Nov 1992 20:06:50 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

 <IO20650@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> writes:

>>Misc. T contains every pre-Flood B-side.
>>
>It doesn't contain all of the pre-Flood B-sides, as a matter of fact, it
>doesn't contain most of the pre-Flood B-sides.

As much as I would like to believe this, I'm afraid i'm going to have
to require more concrete evidence.

Steven.
From: lmj4805@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: "They"s Albums??
Date: 17 Nov 92 15:56:15 GMT
Reply-To: lmj4805@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology

In article <1992Nov13.000409.12122@alf.uib.no>, sinoa@alf.uib.no (Andreas Lothe Opdahl) writes:
>What is "Misc. T. Rex"?  Original material?  A collection?
>Could someone please post the song titles?
>
>An album title I haven't seen mentioned yet is "Don't Lets Start".
>Mostly stuff from TMBG and Lincoln.  Is it Europe only?
>
>If interest I'll post the song titles.  (Haven't got them at work...)
>
>Andreas
>
>Great new newsgroup BTW.  It might be a ... :-)
>-- 
>Andreas Lothe Opdahl			Phone:	+ 47 - 5 - 54 41 15
>Department of Information Science	Fax: 	+ 47 - 5 - 54 41 07
>University of Bergen, Norway		Email:	andreas@ifi.uib.no

	miscellaneous is sort of a compilation, and also has some originals on
it too. its a really fun disk to listen to, and one of the tracks is a
recording of some woman after she called the dial-a-song number and you hear
her saying, "i dunno. its an answering machine...how do they make any money
from that?" very good disk. get it. 
	as for the dont lets start album you have...must be a european thing.
we ought to get some sort of diskography thing going for these guys...i will
gladly accept e-mail and try to put something together to post. i will also
talk to the guy i know who owns a record store, he has friends all over who
might be able to inform us of neat things. bye. 
  	(i guess my point is, send me e-mail of the disks you have, and the
songs on them, and i will compile it.)
					lee
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: mjlipner@hardy.u.washington.edu (Mia Lipner)
Subject: Re: What was the requested song at other concerts?
Keywords: pictures, tmbg, paz, beethoven
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
 
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 03:27:08 GMT

When I saw TMBG in NYC in July (?) at the Beacon Theater, they ended up doing the French national anthem, to which (of course) they didn't know the words.

Had I been anywhere that they might have heard me, I would have requested "Material Girl" I think.

Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: mhessman@world.std.com (Mark D Hessman)
Subject: Re: Other groups with TMBG flavor
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 07:31:24 GMT

A couple more recommendations for TMBG fans seeking to expand their musical
horizons.

First: Robyn Hitchcock. EARLY Robyn Hitchcock; recent releases like *Perspex
Island* or *Queen Elvis* are decent but not as inspiringly eccentric as one
might like. Check out *I Often Dream of Trains* and the live acoustic album
*Eye*. RH's sound is a bit mellower, a lot more British, and can get very
bizarre very quickly. *Trains* might be hard to find, but is headed for a
rerelease, so don't you worry.

Second: Ed's Redeeming Qualities. My impression of this band is "TMBG meets
the Blake Babies." Also mellower; main instruments are acoustic guitar, bongos,
ukulele (I kid you not!), fiddle, etc. This band writes GREAT songs: they're
not only hilarious, but also subtle and even coherent. It's two in the morning
and I don't trust myself to come up with any unmangled quotes... but go get
their first album, *More Bad Times*. The one with the toaster on the cover. If
you like TMBG, you'll enjoy it. Trust me.

Oh, and Thomas -- how did you like that dB's tape?

                                                         -- Mark
From: stringer@acsu.buffalo.edu (Matthew S. Stringer)
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: What was the requested song at other concerts?
Date: 18 Nov 92 20:59:27 GMT
Organization: UB

mcintyre@sousa.tay.dec.com (Jon McIntyre) writes:

>In article <1992Nov12.170707.16133@ms.uky.edu> jayh@ms.uky.edu (Jay Hofacker) writes:
>>
>>In Cinicinatti it was "Electric Avenue."
>>
>>They also played a very strange version of "Instanbul."  About half way
>>through, they stopped using instruments, turned the reverb WAY up and
>>sang REAL SLOW.  Beforehand they warned that this was the 'artistic'
>>part of the show that we had to put up with before they got to the good
>>stuff.
>>--

>Hmm.  Did Flansburgh sing just the words "Istanbul, Constantinople,
>Istanbul, Constantinople, Istanbul, Constantinople, Istanbul..."
>over and over during this part?  I heard a tape that was made many years
>ago that had Flansburgh singing it like that, with no instruments, and
>experimenting with echo sound effects.  I'd be real curious to know
>if they repeated exactly that at the show you were at.

>Jon McIntyre
>mcintyre@cronic.enet.dec.com

In Buffalo it was "Sympathy for the Devil."  They needed distortion on the
vocals and apparently didn't have it hooked through the mike, so John Flans-
burgh turned up his guitar's distortion and volume and sang into the pickups.
They also did a similar version of Istanbul.


Matthew S. Stringer
stringer@acsu.buffalo.edu
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: umcarman@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Chris D. Carman)
Subject: CD Singles
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:22:36 GMT

I don't know if this has been mentioned before or not, but TMBG
has released other CD-singles than "I Palindrome I", "The Guitar",
"The Statue got me High" and "Istanbul not Constantinople".

Many of the songs from their other CD-singles ("Don't Lets Start",
"They'll Need a Crane" and one other whose name eludes me)... let
me rephrase that:  All of the songs on these 3" CD-singles were
re-released on the Misc. T. album that came out not too long ago.

I have the three 3" CD-singles, so the only reason I have to get
Misc. T. is for songs like "Hey Mr. DJ".

Since I don't have my CDs with me, I would be grateful if somebody
could let people know the names of the other 3" singles.

Cheers,

C

Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Mammal
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 15:09:17 GMT

Hugh Clapin (hclapin@sdcc3.ucsd.edu) wrote:
: In article <1=F=2TA@engin.umich.edu>, turtle@engin.umich.edu (Matthew M Edwards ) writes:
: > 
: > 
: > In the song Mammal....
: > 
: > the bat, the cat, dolphin and dog, koala bear and hog
: > 
: > I thought koala bears were Marsupials?  (Referenced later in song)
: Koalas *aren't* bears.
: 
: Grrrrrrr.

Neither are pandas.  So?  Calling something a "bear" doesn't mean it has to
fall into the family Ursidae, any more than shellfish have to be Ichthyiformes.
That's >why< they came up with taxonomic classifications--to avoid the
confusion of common names.  So why take it out on the common names?

Besides, They used "koala bear" in their original lyrics.  Are you suggesting
that They could have done wrong?  Heretic!  Where did I put that crucifix?
;-}

--
---Alfvaen(Looking for "October's Baby")
"Lucille was secretly thrilled when Norman sucked her toaster."
   ---B. Kliban
Current Album--ABBA:The Visitors
Current Read--M.J. Engh:Arslan
From: stevie@ocf.berkeley.edu (Steve Collins)
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
Subject: Re: B-sides
Date: 19 Nov 1992 10:34:27 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: hailstorm.berkeley.edu

 stevie@soda.berkeley.edu (Steven Collins) writes:
>Well, following short argument aside, it appears i may have been
>partly wrong about this; didn't someone talk about having a record
>with some song about a sun, like "Moving to the Sun" or something like
>that?  What's the deal with this?  Anyone else know anything?  Speak
>up?
>
>Steven.

Man, I gotta stop quoting myself.  OK, sorry, I was being stupid, of course
Moving to the Sun is on the Guitar CD5.  But still, if you know about special
songs, tell us...

...and I hope I don't sound belittling here, but I just gotta say all these
people commenting lately that they discovered tmbg with "The Guitar" makes me
feel OLD...We need a support group for those who remember when Lincoln came
out...

Steven
-- 
Earth.
Atomizer.
Let's go.
--------------
Chantal is having a relationship with a sentence.
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: kenm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (...Jose)
Subject: Re: Mammal
Organization: Department of Computer Science, McMaster University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 22:52:02 GMT

In article <1=F=2TA@engin.umich.edu> turtle@engin.umich.edu (Matthew M Edwards ) writes:
>I thought koala bears were Marsupials?  (Referenced later in song)
>
>Am I missing something?  Am I just being stupid?

	There are three classes (subclasses?) of mammals: placentals,
marsupials, and monotremes.  We, and most other mammals, are placentals,
as we develop in the womb, nourished via the placenta; marsupials, such
as koala bears and kangaroos,  develop in the external pouch, attatched
to a nipple; monotremes (such as platypusses and echindas) are hatched
from eggs.

	The placentals and marsupials are more closely related to eachother
than to the monotremes.  All are descended from a form of dinosaur know
as _Theraspids_: "Placental the sister of her brother Marsupial, their
cousin called Monotreme, dead uncle Allotheria."  This last verse is
rather accurate and subtle description of the relationships between the
various types of mammals (although I've never heard of "allotheria", I can
only assume that it's some form of early mammal or pre-mammalian theraspid).

	While I'm in pedantic mode, I might as well offer this bio- 
chemist's interprettation of the first line:  

	Glass of milk, standing in between
	Extinction in the cold and explosive, radiating growth.

	The physiological adaptation of the mammals (more-or-less characterized
by lactation*) stood between death from a global cooling (one theory
of dinosaur extinction) and their eventual flourishing across the
earth.

	The warm-and-fuzzy charm of this song, combined with its
subtle biological accuracy (ie. not just that the facts are correct, but
that They have chosen, for the most part, signigant facts) repeatedly
staggers me.   "Maaaaaamal, maaaaaaamal......" 


				....Jose, once and future Biochemist


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Kenneth C. Moyle                     *pref => MOYLEK@McMail.CIS.McMaster.CA|
|Computing Services Coordinator (Sciences)                   MOYLEK@MCMASTER|
|Computing and Information Services              ...!uunet!mnetor!maccs!kenm|
|McMaster University - Hamilton, Ontario (Canada)                           |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
".sig quotes are silly"|Kenneth C. Moyle          kenm@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca 
 - Kenneth C. Moyle    |Department of Biochemistry     MOYLEK@MCMASTER.BITNET 
                       |McMaster University       ...!uunet!mnetor!maccs!kenm 
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: twpierce@unix.amherst.edu (Tim Pierce)
Subject: Re: Apollo 18 tour set list?
Organization: Elitist Usenet Administrators, Stuff & Nonsense Division
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 04:31:13 GMT

In article <1992Nov15.230134.22267@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> christian@Turing.ORG (Christian Claiborn) writes:

>In article <jsm1.721768814@crux1.cit.cornell.edu> jsm1@crux2.cit.cornell.edu (Jason S. MacDonald) writes:
>
>>This is a word palindrome, rather than a letter palindrome.  Did the Johns
>>make this up?  I think it's just so excellent.
>
>Actually, it's just made up of pieces of other, more famous palindromes, 
>notably "Able I was, ere I saw Elba."  (Napoleon's lament.)

So?  There aren't really any "original" palindromes around anymore, in
that sense, since there are only so many palindromic words in the
language.  This seems to me just as original as any other.

-- 
____ Tim Pierce                / 
\  / twpierce@unix.amherst.edu / I use antlers in all of my decorating.
 \/ (BITnet: TWPIERCE@AMHERST) / 
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: st891425@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (Andrew Weiskopf)
Subject: Backwards Masking by TMBG
Reply-To: st891425@pip.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 05:48:54 GMT

There was a recent post asking about the backwards message at the end of
"Hide Away, Folk Family." Although that was just John & John singing "la,
la, la," there are many other passages which have true backwards messages.

I will try my best to remember them accurately:

"I'll Sink Manhattan"		Thanks a lot guys, from all of us at NYPD.
                              We love ya.

"Which Describes How You're Feeling" (EP Version, NOT Apollo 18 Version)
	We wanted to include a verse about the suffering of people around
      the world, but we couldn't figure out how to fit it into this song!

Are there others you've wondered about?

-Andrew WEiskopf
 ST891425@pip.cc.brandeis.edu	
 A last name so good, I felt like capitalizing the first TWO letters! (oops.)
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: Re: B-sides
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 15:31:16 GMT

Steve Collins (stevie@ocf.berkeley.edu) wrote:
: ...and I hope I don't sound belittling here, but I just gotta say all these
: people commenting lately that they discovered tmbg with "The Guitar" makes me
: feel OLD...We need a support group for those who remember when Lincoln came
: out...
 
Actually, I missed Lincoln entirely.  But I do remember when their first album
came out.  Does that count?

Even if I didn't get it until after Apollo 18?  (I didn't really get turned on
to them until Flood...)

--
---Alfvaen(Looking for "October's Baby")
"Lucille was secretly thrilled when Norman sucked her toaster."
   ---B. Kliban
Current Album--The Adventures
Current Read--Karen Wehrstein:Lion's Heart
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg