 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website |
 |
| • website |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad • buy tickets |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website • view ad |
 |
| • website |
 |
| • website • view ad |
Share
They Might Be Giants' The Else
Brooklyn pop lifers stave off a slump, again
Peter Gerstenzang
Tuesday, July 10th 2007
I have this theory that all rock greats (the Stones, Van Morrison, etc.) have a golden period of about eight years wherein every album is a classic, before a Goat's Head Soup or a Period of Transition breaks the spell and things are never quite right again. They Might Be Giants, it must be said, are totally screwing with my theory—not only isn't there a duff disc in their canon, but their 12th, The Else, is as tuneful and rockin' as all the rest, from the withering "I'm Impressed" to the female-empowerment anthem "Take Out the Trash." Adding to the fun, the Johns Flansburgh and Linnell make righteous use of kicking drummer Marty Beller and add scratching from the (so-old-they're-new-again) Dust Brothers, who produced. The Lennon-like(!) ballad "Be Careful What You Pack" is a gem, too—gloriously melodic, dusted with toy piano, and a splendid complement to the power-pop funny-bone-tickler "Cap'm." ("Did you say/What I thought you said/My hat looks good on me?/I agree.") Shouldn't these guys have dropped a dog by now? Well, that golden-period thing was only a theory, anyway.
They Might Be Giants play Bowery Ballroom July 18 and 25, and August 1 and 8, boweryballroom.com
Recent Articles
More by Peter Gerstenzang
French Kicks' Swimming
Hypnotic melodrama, with a little help from their friends
That Thing He Does
Thankfully, pop alchemist Mike Viola keeps doing it
Freedy Johnston's My Favorite Waste of Time
A covers album with a little more warmth than, say, Cat Power's
Jennifer Warnes's Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition
An earnest homage to Brother Grim hasn't aged well at all
They Might Be Giants' The Else
Brooklyn pop lifers stave off a slump, again
Site Search «
Most Popular
-
The Strangest Landlord-Tenant Relationship In Town? Stacked up in cubicles for decades, immigrants living in a Bowery tenement may have a very unusual situation.
-
The Pet-Death Business All dogs go to heaven. Yours will probably get there in an urn.
- We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?
- On Michael Jackson's Mercifully Goofy, Cheerful This Is It
-
The Secret Life of Girls On the latest blog-rock sensation's improbable, somewhat verifiable backstory
| buy, sell, trade 10,107 | musician 3,538 |
| rentals 12,927 | jobs 2,193 |
| adult entertainment 34,727 | |
| classifieds | backpage.com | Post ads for free! | |
|---|---|