Electronic pop icons They Might Be Giants return for another ‘memorable evening’
Logan Broyles | Downtown News
Playing at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach has become something of a yearly tradition for They Might Be Giants (TMBG), the renowned alternative pop group that has been around for the better part of the last three decades.
“We’ve had some of the most memorable evenings of our lives at the Belly Up,” said guitarist and co-founder John Flansburgh. “We often end our national tours there so it’s always a big blowout. This time we’ll probably be buying a couple kegs of beer for the audience and it will just be a big party night.”
The band will be coming back to the Belly Up on Sunday, June 16.
Flansburgh and John Linnell formed the group in 1982. The two had played music together while attending the same high school in Lincoln, Massachusetts, but never played in a band together until they both moved to Brooklyn back in the early ‘80s after several years apart from each other.
“Basically we both moved to New York at the same time without really knowing it,” Flansburgh said. “The previous band that I had been in just played at college dances, but I was doing some home recording with a four-track tape recorder and teaching myself how to play guitar, and John had been in a working pop band in Rhode Island.
“So when we started the band we were both kind of getting away from more standard ideas of why to put a band together. We wanted to do something that was more original and more personal to us.”
Originally the pair was accompanied by a drum machine or used prerecorded backup audio during their shows, but in the early 1990s they expanded to include a backing band. The duo’s current backing band consists of Marty Beller, Dan Miller, and Danny Weinkauf.
TMBG have released 16 studio albums and have sold over four million records, including three children’s music albums, Here Come the ABCs, Here Come the 123s, and Here Comes Science. They put out their first release, the self-titled They Might Be Giants, back in 1986. Their current tour is to promote the band’s latest release, which came out in March.
“We’re already signed on for a couple album projects for 2014 so our dance card is full and right now we’re just promoting our newest album Nanobots.”
The band has won two Grammy Awards, one in 2002 for their song “Boss of Me,” which served as the theme to the television show Malcolm in the Middle. They won their second in 2009 for their album Here Come the 123s.
They Might Be Giants are best known for an unconventional and experimental style of alternative music. Their atypical instrumentation and the unique subject matter and lyrics of their songs attracted a strong local following when they first started playing small bars and clubs in Brooklyn.
“We’ve been doing this for thirty years so it would be strange not to evolve,” Flansburgh reflected. “We’re really interested in experimenting with the form of the song, which is different than being experimental musicians. The song is a really interesting format to write in because it’s so flexible and it’s kind of unlimited, but it’s also very concise and tidy, so it’s just a great vehicle for ideas.
“We’ve always had an electronic music basis to what we’re doing, we’ve always worked with drum machines, we’ve always worked with synthesizers and computers, so there’s something very satisfying with seeing today’s Hip Hop and electronic music pushing the limits of what’s possible,” he said.
They Might Be Giants will perform at the Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach, on Sunday, June 16. Show begins at 8:00 p.m. with Moon Hooch opening. Advance tickets start at $27 and are available at bellyup.com or by calling the box office at 858-481-8140.
Contributing writer Logan Broyles is the former managing editor of Pacific San Diego Magazine and editor-in-chief of Construction Digital magazine. He likes to write about music and news, and can be reached at [email protected].
