They Might Be Awesome

This past weekend I had the change to see They Might Be Giants (for the 4th time!) with special guest Jonathan Coulton (first time!) at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. I saw them here last year for the first time and have been totally taken with their offbeat, quirky and hugely fun songs ever since. Their live shows, though, are FAR better than their recordings (except for the NYC kids show, sadly). They bring energy and humor to their live shows that is such fun it should be illegal, or at least immoral. The group is basically comprised of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and have been creating music since the late 80's. Among my favorites are Birdhouse in Your Soul (the tale of a light switch!) and The Mesopotamians, a song featuring four long-dead kings from the original cradle of civilization. Brilliantly funny and catchy.

Happily, with the rise of Twitter, I've been able to have a few "conversations" with Mr. Flansburgh and I actually was able to ask if they minded being recorded during shows by their fans. He wrote back that they were fine with it, so I present here a couple of my own recordings from last night's show of them (Istanbul not Constantinople, and, as sock puppets called "The Avatars of They", What is a Shooting Star). Be sure to change them to 720P and go full screen if your bandwidth supports it. My iPhone records in full HD and the quality is pretty impressive for a phone.

Enjoy!

Istanbul Not Constantinople:

What is a Shooting Star:

This entry is a bit backwards, since I want to finish by talking about Jonathan Coulton, who opened for TMBG. I have to be honest, however, although I loved TMBG, it was Mr. Coulton that blew me away. I had heard two of his songs: Code Monkey (cute song) and the brilliant song from Portal, Still Alive. The set he played was one of the funniest performances I've ever seen. I managed to record one song really well, a song called Skullcrusher Mountain, that is absolutely genius. He also did Still Alive (the entire audience sang along with that one), and, among others, Re: Your Brains, a song about polite zombies.

I'll embed my recording of Skullcrusher Mountain here, and post the lyrics because they're just that funny:

Lyrics:

Welcome to my secret lair on Skullcrusher Mountain
I hope that you've enjoyed your stay so far
I see you've met my assistant Scarface
His appearance is quite disturbing
But I assure you he's harmless enough
He's a sweetheart, calls me master
And he has a way of finding pretty things and bringing them to me

I'm so into you
But I'm way too smart for you
Even my henchmen think I'm crazy
I'm not surprised that you agree
If you could find some way to be
A little bit less afraid of me
You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head
Say I shouldn't kill you yet

I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don't like it
What's with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don't like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?

Picture the two of us alone inside my golden submarine
While up above the waves my doomsday squad ignites the atmosphere
And all the fools who live their foolish lives may find it quite explosive
But it won't mean half as much to me if I don't have you here

You know it isn't easy living here on Skullcrusher Mountain
Maybe you could cut me just a little slack
Would it kill you to be civil?
I've been patient, I've been gracious
And this mountain is covered with wolves
Hear them howling, my hungry children
Maybe you should stay and have another drink and think about me and you

And, if you're still with me, check out the brilliant Re: Your Brains:

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