TMBG gets sorta political
October 13, 2018 10:01 AM Subscribe
Youtube video TMBG has a new video #aynrandsandwich .
Not the first thing like this from them I'm Impressed a song that resonated with me after the last election (more the video than the words).
They continue to impress.
Not the first thing like this from them I'm Impressed a song that resonated with me after the last election (more the video than the words).
They continue to impress.
Don’t read the comments on that one unless you need to exercise your eyes with some rolling.
posted by robotmachine at 10:13 AM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by robotmachine at 10:13 AM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
Can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.
posted by q*ben at 10:14 AM on October 13, 2018 [27 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 10:14 AM on October 13, 2018 [27 favorites]
Genius annotations of "The Communists Have the Music" (their new song) and "I'm Impressed" (their 2007-era song).
As to their politics, John Flansburgh talked about it, sort of --
posted by filthy light thief at 10:41 AM on October 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
As to their politics, John Flansburgh talked about it, sort of --
“We did the Slate Political Gabfest a few months back,” Flansburgh tells me in his soothing, Massachusetts tones. “Which is a very popular political programme here. It’s a podcast where a lot of well read people get their political opinions from [laughs]. I’m sure The Guardian has an equivalent podcast which gets repeated in the mouths of people who fancy themselves intelligent. But I’ve listened to these people talk for an hour every week for the last 10 years, so sharing a stage with them was like being inside the radio.”And Brooklyn Vegan has some more insights, this time from the other John:
“On the one hand, Fran Lebowitz memorably said of Communism vs. Fascism that one was too dull and the other too exciting,” says TMBG’s John Linnell. “However, our song takes its cue from somebody (I can’t remember who) in our high school, who once compared two bands (I wish I could remember which bands) by declaring that one had the power but the other had the tunes. This enduring metaphor seems to apply to any pair of things we can think of.” Or, as he sings here, “I hear a melody and just as suddenly I know who I’m supposed to be.”Their most recent album, I Like Fun, includes "Lake Monsters" (cute embroidered [!!] video) a song about lake monsters coming out to vote and being confused about the state of things (Genius.com), which wraps up with the line "No hypnosis like a mass hypnosis 'cause a mass hypnosis isn't happening."
posted by filthy light thief at 10:41 AM on October 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
You pretty much need to do a sword dance with the devil and fondle a glowing orb with him, then say you're only kidding. Or perhaps say how impressed you are with the devil being born rich and then murdering the rest of his family to get richer. The hand shake is certainly not enough, for legit bargaining with the devil street cred.
I mean come on, God Himself probably shook the devil's hand at some point.
I did enjoy the bit where the two opposing listening-station-minders hung up their headsets and started making out with each other.
posted by XMLicious at 10:46 AM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
I mean come on, God Himself probably shook the devil's hand at some point.
I did enjoy the bit where the two opposing listening-station-minders hung up their headsets and started making out with each other.
posted by XMLicious at 10:46 AM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
Kiss Me, Son of God is a song I find myself coming back to time and time again. I'm sure it's more about personal narcissism than fascism, but it feels more and more resonant every day.
posted by Rugglution at 10:56 AM on October 13, 2018 [18 favorites]
posted by Rugglution at 10:56 AM on October 13, 2018 [18 favorites]
A sandwich is just a sandwich, but an aynrandsandwich is a squeal.
posted by chavenet at 10:57 AM on October 13, 2018
posted by chavenet at 10:57 AM on October 13, 2018
I like that they kiiinda noted that the anarchists also have the music
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:58 AM on October 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:58 AM on October 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
I am confused by their allegation that the fascists have the outfits. I contend that as a broad generality the fascists have terrible outfits. If you like fancy, regular old monarchist outfits are better. If you like sleek and modernist, it's difficult to beat the Mao suit. If you like fashion, anarchists and soixante huitards have that down. if you like the flat-cap-and-round-specs kind of retro, you're still looking at IWWs and communists. If you like classy traditional stylings, you can't really beat mid-century left-liberals.
Fascists? You have a lot of jingly phony medals and heavy gold braid or else you're dressed up like a Pepe in a polo, holding a homemade flag with "kek" on it. Which are these outfits to which TMBG refer?
posted by Frowner at 11:43 AM on October 13, 2018 [9 favorites]
Fascists? You have a lot of jingly phony medals and heavy gold braid or else you're dressed up like a Pepe in a polo, holding a homemade flag with "kek" on it. Which are these outfits to which TMBG refer?
posted by Frowner at 11:43 AM on October 13, 2018 [9 favorites]
The communists have the music, do they?
posted by Catblack at 11:44 AM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Catblack at 11:44 AM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
The communists have the music, do they?
"Understanding Marx" was never part of my Schoolhouse Rock rotation. Maybe I woke up too late on Saturdays.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:00 PM on October 13, 2018
"Understanding Marx" was never part of my Schoolhouse Rock rotation. Maybe I woke up too late on Saturdays.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:00 PM on October 13, 2018
The communists have the music, do they?
Oh, I don't know, some communists do seem to do all right, musically speaking - let's take a walk around the old bazaar and all that - all things taken into consideration.
posted by Frowner at 12:20 PM on October 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
Oh, I don't know, some communists do seem to do all right, musically speaking - let's take a walk around the old bazaar and all that - all things taken into consideration.
posted by Frowner at 12:20 PM on October 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
I went to see them play live last week. I loved them in my teens, but I'd never seen them live before and I was kind of nervous that they wouldn't be as good 20 years on - that just because I love their recorded stuff doesn't mean they'd be any good live, and that these days I've partly become accustomed to artists I loved in the past turning out to be arseholes in real life, but it can still feel like a massive let-down.
But they were great! The set was both delightful* and absurd**, and there were a few between-song comments that made it abundantly clear where they were coming from (eg an oblique Brexit joke, and a dedication of a song "to everyone who isn't running for Supreme Court of the United States"). They sang "Racist friend" and it was extremely weird and sad for the song to feel more relevant and biting now than when I first heard it.
* Been a long time gone, Constantinople.
** They played "Fingertips". All of it. In sequence!
posted by doop at 12:25 PM on October 13, 2018 [20 favorites]
But they were great! The set was both delightful* and absurd**, and there were a few between-song comments that made it abundantly clear where they were coming from (eg an oblique Brexit joke, and a dedication of a song "to everyone who isn't running for Supreme Court of the United States"). They sang "Racist friend" and it was extremely weird and sad for the song to feel more relevant and biting now than when I first heard it.
* Been a long time gone, Constantinople.
** They played "Fingertips". All of it. In sequence!
posted by doop at 12:25 PM on October 13, 2018 [20 favorites]
I presume they refer to Billy Bragg’s International; and their album cover for this song on Spotify looks like England, Half English cover that’s been cut up and re-arranged.
Anyway, I love this song. It’s my favorite thing they have done in quite awhile.
Bonus comment: my favorite song about Ayn Rand.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:18 PM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
Anyway, I love this song. It’s my favorite thing they have done in quite awhile.
Bonus comment: my favorite song about Ayn Rand.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:18 PM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
Don’t read the comments on that one unless you need to exercise your eyes with some rolling.
That's okay. I don't need to listen to some bullet-head and the madness that he's saying.
posted by straight at 2:52 PM on October 13, 2018 [15 favorites]
That's okay. I don't need to listen to some bullet-head and the madness that he's saying.
posted by straight at 2:52 PM on October 13, 2018 [15 favorites]
They are putting out a crazy amount of stuff at the moment. They're aiming, I think, to recreate the 'dial-a-song' days from the 80s by putting something new on the youtube channel every couple of weeks. These songs may or may not end up on an album.
Tractor is a recent Dial-a-Song favourite of mine.
Their most recent album I Like Fun opens with two near-perfect TMBG tracks, "Let's Get This Over With" and "I Left My Body" - you should check it out if you haven't.
posted by memebake at 2:59 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
Tractor is a recent Dial-a-Song favourite of mine.
Their most recent album I Like Fun opens with two near-perfect TMBG tracks, "Let's Get This Over With" and "I Left My Body" - you should check it out if you haven't.
posted by memebake at 2:59 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
I would put several of their recent albums, I Like Fun, Join Us, and The Else pretty high up in a list ranking their albums. They're still writing a lot of great songs.
posted by straight at 3:09 PM on October 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by straight at 3:09 PM on October 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Which are these outfits to which TMBG refer?
First thing that comes to mind for fascists and outfits is Hugo Boss.
posted by JauntyFedora at 6:00 PM on October 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
First thing that comes to mind for fascists and outfits is Hugo Boss.
posted by JauntyFedora at 6:00 PM on October 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
I contend that as a broad generality the fascists have terrible outfits
Yeah Hugo Boss and every other participant in the make-Nazism-cool working group uh...differs.
Literally the Nazis whole thing was style and emotion — it was the flash and prestige and the way it made people feel that made it so seductive, and that allowed them to accept the rest, in bits and pieces.
For real the Nazis were the Apple of political parties. They had Hugo Boss outfits.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:39 PM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yeah Hugo Boss and every other participant in the make-Nazism-cool working group uh...differs.
Literally the Nazis whole thing was style and emotion — it was the flash and prestige and the way it made people feel that made it so seductive, and that allowed them to accept the rest, in bits and pieces.
For real the Nazis were the Apple of political parties. They had Hugo Boss outfits.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:39 PM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
"Minimum Wage" summarized capitalism with three words and a sound effect.
posted by subocoyne at 7:50 PM on October 13, 2018 [17 favorites]
posted by subocoyne at 7:50 PM on October 13, 2018 [17 favorites]
Yeah, TMBG has long been political. "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" appeared on MoveOn.org's "Future Soundtrack for America" back in 2004.
posted by jferg at 8:16 PM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jferg at 8:16 PM on October 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
From the beginning, really: their first show was at a Sandinista rally in NYC.
posted by donatella at 8:48 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by donatella at 8:48 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
People should get beat up for stating their beliefs.*
posted by not_on_display at 9:40 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by not_on_display at 9:40 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
All of us have touched the puppet head at one time or another, whether we will admit it or not.
posted by boilermonster at 11:26 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by boilermonster at 11:26 PM on October 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
I think TMBG's political thinking may have fallen under the influence of The Avatars Of They
posted by memebake at 6:04 AM on October 14, 2018
posted by memebake at 6:04 AM on October 14, 2018
This is utterly charming, both the song and the animation.
posted by bile and syntax at 8:39 AM on October 14, 2018
posted by bile and syntax at 8:39 AM on October 14, 2018
Just dropping in to say that the socialists also have the music.
posted by brecc at 12:17 PM on October 14, 2018
posted by brecc at 12:17 PM on October 14, 2018
There's an early essay by J.G. Ballard where he points out how in footage of the signing of the Munich Agreement Chamberlain and Co look like they just stepped out of the nineteenth century while the Nazis look totally up to date - I mean, yes, Hitler's shoulders could have done with boosting a little but generally speaking they got fashion, and design in general, right in a quite distressing way.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:38 PM on October 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:38 PM on October 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I mean, yes, Hitler's shoulders could have done with boosting a little but generally speaking they got fashion, and design in general, right in a quite distressing way.
This was by no means the universal perception, though. There's a passage in Orwell where he talks about how ridiculous the Nazis look and how he feels that the whole purpose of their uniforms is to say "I am ridiculous but I can kill you therefore you can't laugh; my ridiculousness is a sign of my power and violence". (This same logic applies to both Trump and Boris Johnson, actually - their willful ugliness is a strategy.)
In any case, if TMBG are alleging that the fascists "have the outfits", surely they mean to suggest that the fascists have outfits that one would want, and I contend that as a broad generality we are not, in modernity, especially impressed with Nazi outfits. Part of this is because the Nazis were Nazis, of course, but part of it is the time-bound "modernity" of their clothes, something that no longer looks modern because modern has come to mean "free of design cruft". When TMBG say that the communists "have the music", technically they could be saying "the stodgy choral versions of the Internationale that you find on old Soviet records are The! Music!" but I don't think that's where they're going .
posted by Frowner at 1:56 PM on October 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
This was by no means the universal perception, though. There's a passage in Orwell where he talks about how ridiculous the Nazis look and how he feels that the whole purpose of their uniforms is to say "I am ridiculous but I can kill you therefore you can't laugh; my ridiculousness is a sign of my power and violence". (This same logic applies to both Trump and Boris Johnson, actually - their willful ugliness is a strategy.)
In any case, if TMBG are alleging that the fascists "have the outfits", surely they mean to suggest that the fascists have outfits that one would want, and I contend that as a broad generality we are not, in modernity, especially impressed with Nazi outfits. Part of this is because the Nazis were Nazis, of course, but part of it is the time-bound "modernity" of their clothes, something that no longer looks modern because modern has come to mean "free of design cruft". When TMBG say that the communists "have the music", technically they could be saying "the stodgy choral versions of the Internationale that you find on old Soviet records are The! Music!" but I don't think that's where they're going .
posted by Frowner at 1:56 PM on October 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Oh g'wan, 'ave a wee bit o' the old Internationale, why don't ya?
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2018
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:04 PM on October 14, 2018
I've always thought there was a thread of politics running through TMBG's stuff, but their lyrics are so abstract that it may also be projection on my part. On the other hand, there's Here Comes Science and "Your Racist Friend", so probably not all in my head...
I Like Fun had a sort of "depressing subject matter, upbeat sound" theme and applies well to 2018, but I'd particularly call out "Lake Monsters", "By the Time You Get This" and "Mrs. Bluebeard". This album is sogoodyouguysomg.
Also, somehow made before this year: "Sold My Mind to the Kremlin", and "When Will You Die" is perennial.
posted by cage and aquarium at 8:33 AM on October 15, 2018
I Like Fun had a sort of "depressing subject matter, upbeat sound" theme and applies well to 2018, but I'd particularly call out "Lake Monsters", "By the Time You Get This" and "Mrs. Bluebeard". This album is sogoodyouguysomg.
Also, somehow made before this year: "Sold My Mind to the Kremlin", and "When Will You Die" is perennial.
posted by cage and aquarium at 8:33 AM on October 15, 2018
The Go Go's got the beat.
Original version, less polished than the hit version.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:50 AM on October 15, 2018
Original version, less polished than the hit version.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:50 AM on October 15, 2018
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posted by tclark at 10:03 AM on October 13, 2018 [13 favorites]