My iPod #209: They Might Be Giants - Contrecoup

Today's track is brought to you by They Might Be Giants, a band I have written about many times in the past. This time, it is "Contrecoup" from their 2007 album "The Else" that I will be typing about for today's entry.

They Might Be Giants seem to be able to come up with songs about just about anything. Shoehorns with teeth, spiraling shapes, stomp boxes, you name it. Even though those things all sound silly to the ear, those are tunes that you better believe have a lot of thought put into them. You wouldn't be able to create with a song that is from the perspective of a nightlight in a child's bedroom. That idea would never occur.

This song however was made really easily, and was created way before its proper release in 2007. Two years prior, John Linnell was on a radio show. The show said, make a song using the words 'contrecoup', 'craniosophic' and 'limerent'. The track was made then and there. It was changed up a bit for "The Else", but that is the story of how "Contrecoup" was born.

Musically, the song is quite calm. It chugs along at a sturdy pace driven by an acoustic riff with light guitar and keyboard vamps. The song does troll you nearing the end when it suddenly starts to build pace.... it fades out to silence, but I'm still left satisfied.

My iPod #166: They Might Be Giants - The Cap'm

"The Cap'm" is the second most popular They Might Be Giants song from "The Else" according to TMBW, coming in at #40 on the overall song rating chart. Why is this? Well, I can't speak for all of the fans who rated it. What I can tell you is why I like it though. That is probably what you expect, as that is what I have done for every song on my iPod since February.

What is probably the most interesting aspect of the song is the incongruous relationship between the lyrics and everything about the music. The music itself sounds very uplifting, from the chord progressions to the vocals. But the lyrics are from the point of view of a pretentious and egoistic narrator. Almost like "And Your Bird Can Sing" by The Beatles.... That's another song I like. Maybe, more bands should go with that formula, because the two songs I know of that use it have done no wrong.

Jamie.

My iPod #81: They Might Be Giants - Bee of the Bird of the Moth

Oh, hello again! Nice to see you.

"Bee of the Bird of the Moth" is a track from They Might Be Giants' twelfth album "The Else" released in 2007. I didn't listen to it until very recently, only because I wasn't sure whether I wanted to listen to the album or not. It was released during the period when the band had developed their children's music albums, with "Here Come the ABCs" preceding it, and the two other "Here Comes..." coming afterward, so I had my doubts on whether the sound of the 'adult' album would appeal to me.

I was wrong to doubt. "This Might Be a Wiki", the information centre dedicated to the band allows its members to rate their songs out of 10, and out of 84 ratings it has an average of 8.83/10 which isn't band considering it's above songs like "You Probably Get That a Lot" and "Weep Day" which are just examples of two other songs that I like. I'm thinking that that's the actual reason why I listened to the song in the first place. It has a high rating in the TMBW song list. That sounds quite bad :(

I don't regret it though. If I hadn't done that, then there's the possibility that I may not have given "The Else" a chance. "The Else" is a great album. I'm biased though 'cause They Might Be Giants are one of my favourite artists, but it's proudly in my iTunes library where I can listen to the songs everyday.

In John Linnell's words: "This is a song about a hummingbird moth, which imitates another creature, which imitates yet another creature. It's completely fucked up and can only be explained in song!"

What more can you say?

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.