I Will Not Even Attempt to Make a "They Might Be Giants" MetaPun In This Title

November 19, 2009 3:03 PM

When Jonathan Coulton scheduled his October 10th show at Chicago's Park West, he didn't know that fellow nerd-rockers They Might Be Giants were playing on the same day, at the same time, in the nearby Vic Theater. Not only that, the Giants were performing their hit 1990 album Flood in its entirety. In a tongue-in-cheek effort to make sure somebody showed up for his performace, Coulton, along with Paul and Storm, decided to perform their own take on Flood. Hightlights included absolutely no accordion ("that's a selling point"). In nine parts on YouTube. Audio recorded directly from the venue's soundboard.
posted by indyz (80 comments total)

This is blasphemous.
posted by mecran01 at 3:05 PM on November 19, 2009

I'm too old for Johnathan Coulton. And the first couple songs are pretty lifeless covers. What I want to know is why TMBG haven't covered Apollo 18 live. That album puts Flood to shame. It is their crowning achievement.
posted by dortmunder at 3:09 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

No accordion is one thing, but I couldn't make it past Birdhouse in Your Soul without drums. I give it an B for concept, D+ for implementation.
posted by ecurtz at 3:09 PM on November 19, 2009

When Jonathan Coulton scheduled his October 10th show at Chicago's Park West, he didn't know that fellow nerd-rockers They Might Be Giants were playing on the same day, at the same time, in the nearby Vic Theater.

Um... why does this link from your FPP absolutely contradict this statement?
posted by hippybear at 3:12 PM on November 19, 2009

yeeeeah. it's kinda meh.

At this point I've heard plenty of guys with guitars play Flood covers.
posted by French Fry at 3:13 PM on November 19, 2009

How does that link contradict that statement?
posted by Think_Long at 3:15 PM on November 19, 2009

I feel bad I didn't know TMBG were doing Flood in it's entirety in my own town! I went right to "Your Racist Friend" and they did a nice job. The others I tracked were OK, but I like the concept and follow through.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 3:15 PM on November 19, 2009

I was at the JoCo show in Ann Arbor a few days before this one and they played a couple TMBG songs "as practice" to the delight of the audience. Both Coulton and P&S put on a great show; I'm glad they have such a great tongue-in-cheek attitude.
posted by custardfairy at 3:22 PM on November 19, 2009

I was at the TMBG Chicago show on that day. I was conflicted but seeing this I'm glad I went to the real deal for my Flood fix.

I love both artists-- but I would rather hear JoCo play his own material, or at least the covers he's expert at. If he played I'm Your Moon I would have melted and gone to that instead.
posted by Askiba at 3:31 PM on November 19, 2009

Geek fight!
posted by sourwookie at 3:34 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is okay, but not very rockin'. They're trying really hard to sing it just like the album without the drum machine. MORE DRUM MACHINE.
posted by jeffamaphone at 3:35 PM on November 19, 2009

This is good stuff. Clever arrangements and some top-notch harmonies. In the end a rather loving tribute to an album that inspired generations of nerds.
posted by bfootdav at 3:39 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Was Flood the album after TMBG's masterpiece Lincoln? I don't remember anything past Lincoln.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:45 PM on November 19, 2009 [2 favorites]

Thankfully in St. Louis, there were a couple of weeks between JoCo/Paul&Storm and TMBG's Flood show, so I saw both.

JoCo does not generally rock out, anyway. A different experience.
posted by Foosnark at 3:49 PM on November 19, 2009

Was Flood the album after TMBG's masterpiece Lincoln? I don't remember anything past Lincoln.

Lincoln is pretty goddamn great.

In my mind it goes like this


Apollo 18
Lincoln
Flood
Pink Album
Everything Else
posted by dortmunder at 3:49 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

I had a geek friend in college, and on theater road trips, we usually would put on Flood and the two of use would sing along in two part harmony to the entire album. The only problem is that we weren't ever the only two people in the car, so everyone else would get to sit back and listen to an hour of TMBG. After which, it being a theater trip, showtunes would dominate the tapeplayer for the remaing trip. One sweet hour of bliss, though.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:51 PM on November 19, 2009

Has anybody downloaded the audio from the forum yet? It looks like it's going to take half an hour to download from Sendspace at the non-premium rate, and I'd like to know in advance that it will be a nice vanilla mp3 that I can get into iTunes with a minimum of fuss.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:51 PM on November 19, 2009

I'm covering TMBG's Flood right now.

in my pants
posted by davejay at 4:02 PM on November 19, 2009 [2 favorites]

I saw TMBG when they came to Salt Lake. After seeing them live it's like every song they've recorded became five times better.
posted by mecran01 at 4:07 PM on November 19, 2009

Mostly average and above-average, but the standout is "Hearing Aid" (second half of video 5/9). Freakin' Awesome.
posted by blenderfish at 4:08 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Cute idea. Say what you will about the performance quality; one key fact remains: pretty much everyone from random twee Scotspopsters to Rammstein to the Avett Brothers to the Bellrays to Lisa Germano should be required by law to, at some point, incorporate a cover of "Minimum Wage" (heeeyah!) into their acts.

Also, Apollo 18 is almost entirely unlistenable garbage, as opposed to John Henry. The engagements are booked through the end of the world. . . . . Oh fuck, now I'm going to be up half the night listening to all those records.

One of my great surreal memories ever is seeing TMBG a few years ago performing in my very own nowhere burg for a convention of librarians at 9 o'clock in the morning. I am not making that up.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:14 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

I went to the TMBG live "Flood" concert a few weeks ago, and I'm here to report that it STUNK! Anything would have been an improvement. Here's what you got: Throbbing, ear-splitting, thundering, blanketing, gut-smacking bass; beneath that, a kind of trebly sound that might have been drums; way, way, distant voices; nothing else. Just like any crappy group you've ever heard in your life. Bass. Period. Onstage, there were men who looked like the boys, moving their lips and playing instruments. They could have been anybody! The only part that worked was a brief puppet show bit, that included no bass. What a spectacular rip off. If I'd wanted to hear Metallica, I could have gone down to Youngstown and caught their act at the Holiday Inn. Good thing a fight broke out, or there would have been no entertainment whatsoever.
posted by Faze at 4:15 PM on November 19, 2009

At a Holiday Inn.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:16 PM on November 19, 2009 [3 favorites]

The sound at the Salt Lake show was great. Bummer.
posted by mecran01 at 4:26 PM on November 19, 2009

Lincoln > the rest
posted by pompomtom at 4:30 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Also, Apollo 18 is almost entirely unlistenable garbage, as opposed to John Henry. The engagements are booked through the end of the world. . . . . Oh fuck, now I'm going to be up half the night listening to all those records.

Pistols at dawn sir.
posted by dortmunder at 4:32 PM on November 19, 2009 [5 favorites]

no accordion?

A melodica is pretty freakin' close to an accordion in a lot of ways.

Nthing Apollo 18 as best. I saw TMBG last weekend & they did Dig My Grave & Fingerips from it and Subliminal from John Henry which is the other best album (they're co-best, Lincoln is 2nd).
posted by morganw at 4:37 PM on November 19, 2009

I'd give these guys half credit. They're pretty decent, but it just doesn't sound right without drums. And it sounds like some of their harmonies are off (especially on "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair").

At the Flood 10th anniversary show (jesus! that was almost 10 years ago?), TMBG tried to skip "Your Racist Friend", but the audience wouldn't let them. Are they still doing that?
posted by equalpants at 4:44 PM on November 19, 2009

Listened to the whole thing via the youtube clips as background music; it was nice. Which isn't a huge compliment, but it was nice.

Flood was such a foundational album for me (growing up listening to it constantly and singing random bits of it with French Fry) that it's hard for me to feel anything other than a kind of affection for this—Coulton et al hardly knocked it out of the park, but, dammit, it's Flood, and they're doing it, and that's good enough sometimes.

What I'd really like to see is a round-robin cover project by all my favorite weird bands from when I was a kid though; just a circle of "cover to your left" with like TMGB and Weird Al and Crash Test Dummies, in some big nostalgiac cycle.
posted by cortex at 4:45 PM on November 19, 2009 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this. I'd heard about it, but I didn't know you could listen online.

I saw TMBG at the Fillmore on Friday. I'd counted that day and realized this would be the 9th time I'd seen them live. Of all the times I'd seen them, this felt like the most "for the fans" kind of show, with a lot of songs that they never do live: Subliminal, Hearing Aid, They Might Be Giants, etc.
posted by roll truck roll at 4:50 PM on November 19, 2009

If TMBG really wanted to impress me they'd do a Miscellaneous-T tour.
posted by dortmunder at 5:05 PM on November 19, 2009

You know what TMBG album is ridiculously underrated? Mink Car. It may be my second favorite after Lincoln. And it's really, really saying something that it pushed out the first album.
posted by macmac at 5:12 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

FelliniBlank: "At a Holiday Inn."

I favorited that so hard I think I broke my trackpad.
posted by mwhybark at 5:12 PM on November 19, 2009

To answer my own question, it downloaded fine, and sounds great. Yay JoCo/TMBG mashup!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:18 PM on November 19, 2009

Oh man, TMBG were in town last week? Crap.
posted by ooga_booga at 5:33 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

You can come to Texas any day now, TMBG. I keep looking at your calendar and the NY MA MA PA NY PA UT CA NY CT thing is getting old.
posted by crapmatic at 5:37 PM on November 19, 2009

I saw TMBG at Carnegie Mellon. Pretty sure the school almost imploded on itself.
posted by inigo2 at 5:38 PM on November 19, 2009

Argh this thread has made me sad now, since apparently I just missed a show here.

You can come to Texas any day now, TMBG.

My favorite TMBG show was at Stubb's in Austin (probably 1999 or so).
posted by wildcrdj at 5:40 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Stubbs (whoo!) Stubbs (whoo!) Welcome to Stubbs!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:45 PM on November 19, 2009 [2 favorites]

John Henry sounds like 1994. Which, in 1994, was very cool. Now, can't listen to it. Thanks a fucking lot, Paul Fox.
posted by scrowdid at 5:46 PM on November 19, 2009

I went to the TMBG live "Flood" concert a few weeks ago, and I'm here to report that it STUNK! ---snip--- If I'd wanted to hear Metallica, I could have gone down to Youngstown and caught their act at the Holiday Inn.

For the most part, THIS. The full-band shows tend to sound too much like every other full band, which reduces the quaintness of the music. "The Statue Got Me High" never NEVER sounds right on a four-string bass guitar. The punchy staccato of the synth bass is gone. Worse yet, they don't bother to detune it, so the awesome low D is actually an octave higher. Always bugged me in the live shows.
posted by scrowdid at 5:52 PM on November 19, 2009

Best TMBG show: William Jewell College, Liberty, MO - Severe Tire Damage tour. It was supposed to be outside, but there was a threat of rain. Show had to be stopped twice because of the (Southern Baptist) students trying to stage dive. Venue appx 100 yards from ms scruss's house. Good times.
posted by scruss at 6:04 PM on November 19, 2009

I am exceedingly old, but I am not too old for Jonathan Coulton.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:05 PM on November 19, 2009

MORE DRUM MACHINE.

Is this some kind of rhythm section want ad?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:10 PM on November 19, 2009 [10 favorites]

Also, Apollo 18 is almost entirely unlistenable garbage

I don't understand you. I just don't understand you.
posted by benzenedream at 6:15 PM on November 19, 2009 [9 favorites]

All right, all right, so as to avoid traumatizing you devotees any further, I'll give it another try, but it could take some time since I believe I sold off my copy in several years ago -- before I could get it autographed at the Holiday Inn.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:39 PM on November 19, 2009

Seconding that "Hearing Aid" is definitely worth a listen.
posted by Robin Kestrel at 6:40 PM on November 19, 2009

♥
posted by JHarris at 6:56 PM on November 19, 2009

The 9th video is like a nerd trifecta with the of Peter Sagal from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.
posted by librarianamy at 7:00 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Guys, I started with Lincoln and was obsessed with it and I used to be one of those people who was all "I feel the need to buck the conventional wisdom that Flood is the canonical TMBG-album-to-have-if-you-have-just-one and tell you how what's REALLY great is Lincoln, or Apollo 18, or let me make the seldom-stated case for Factory Showroom, especially "Pet Name"" but about a year ago I sat down and listened to Flood all the way through and they just never made a better record than that.
posted by escabeche at 7:05 PM on November 19, 2009 [4 favorites]

Okay, I got through 2/3rds of JoCo's Birdhouse before I couldn't stand it and went and dug Flood out of the nerd music pyramid of CDs. My collection is organized by genre and time of acquisition... Such that Flood is at the absolutely bottom of the nerd music pyramid. This started it all. 1991. Somewhere between 7th and 8th grade I bought this CD. If CDs could be dog-eared, this would be.

But my brain must be aging, or slowing down, or something unpleasant has been spilled on it because, after not listening to this for probably over 15 years, John and John sound chipmunky and hurried.

And i've worked myself into a purple toupee moment. hurrah!
posted by Cold Lurkey at 7:24 PM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Here's what you got: Throbbing, ear-splitting, thundering, blanketing, gut-smacking bass

What in the hell do you have against bass, Faze?

...the quoted line sounds like an ad for a dubstep party.

I like both tmbg and dubstep
posted by flaterik at 7:29 PM on November 19, 2009

Okay, so I actually went to this concert, so I thought maybe my thoughts would be of interest to people here.

The idea for playing Flood came to Coulton and Paul and Storm less than 2 weeks before the show. That's how long they had to prepare for this thing. Of course, they were still on tour at the time, so they didn't really get a whole lot of rehearsing time. As a result, I wasn't really expecting polished work, and so I enjoyed it immensely. It was pretty rough in a few spots. One of the guys flubbed so much on that little mouth-accordion thingy during "Istanbul" that it almost became a bit of a running gag. When he pulled it out again for another song, you could hear half the audience chuckling and the other half wincing in anticipation. There were a few parts that showed the spark of their muse, especially those parts where they increased the original two-part harmonies by one part.

Also, this is not the only thing they played that night. Paul and Storm played a somewhat shorter set than they normally would have played, but Coulton played a full set afterwards, so it's not like we didn't get to here Coulton be Coulton as well.

As an experience, it was fantastic. It's not the sort of thing I'd expect would be worth listening to online, however. A certain amount of practice is necessary for that sort of thing, both to get the performance down, but also to find out which adjustments from the original work and which don't. Ultimately, this was a nearly spontaneous tribute, and it's great that someone's recorded this stuff for posterity's sake, but this isn't the sort of thing that belongs on an album.
posted by ErWenn at 9:08 PM on November 19, 2009 [3 favorites]

I love Flood and Lincoln and Apollo 18 and I like Mink Car quite a bit too, but you know what's also great? Their recent album The Else. If you only listened to it once and said "meh" give it another try, because there's some great songs on that one.

(Not to be confused with The Spine which, if it contains greatness, I haven't been able to find any yet. Maybe in that Raincoat song...)

Also, the Shooting Star song from Here Comes Science is wonderful. And the video for Put it to the Test is fantastic fun.

And Coulton's I'm Your Moon is the sweetest song ever written about Pluto, Charon, and gay marriage.
posted by straight at 9:19 PM on November 19, 2009

Liking JoCo / Paul & Storm and liking TMBG is not a zero-sum game, folks.

(I'd love to see TMBG cover "Creepy Doll.")
posted by tzikeh at 9:22 PM on November 19, 2009

And Coulton's I'm Your Moon is the sweetest song ever written about Pluto, Charon, and gay marriage.
posted by straight

Eponylicious.

Also trufax re: "I'm Your Moon" (though the onstage, acoustic version is so much lovelier, and more appropriate to the tone of the song, than the over-produced album verison.) That song can be taken on so many levels.

::goes to watch a concert version on YouTube::
posted by tzikeh at 9:24 PM on November 19, 2009

TMBG played Hampshire College Halloween back in the 80s. It was the best TMBG show I've seen but also maybe the only one I've seen. I listened to Flood a lot when I was writing my thesis.
posted by jessamyn at 9:46 PM on November 19, 2009

tzikeh, Coulton's Best.Concert.Ever. album will set you up with a beautiful acoustic version of I'm Your Moon.

(My right hand was so relieved to hear him do the arpeggios as single notes so I could stop trying to double-pick them to match the delay effect on the album version of the song.)
posted by straight at 10:26 PM on November 19, 2009

Throbbing, ear-splitting, thundering, blanketing, gut-smacking bass; beneath that, a kind of trebly sound that might have been drums; way, way, distant voices; nothing else.

Thank you for saying this. Several years ago my wife and I went to see them in Los Angeles, in a sit-down venue, and the sound guy suuuuuuuuuuuuucked -- a line of people formed in front of the board, each person asking him to turn it down, and him laughing and refusing and saying it was fine. It wasn't. We walked, and so many others did as well that it felt like the show had ended. We pushed for and eventually got a refund, and the school hosting the show (at which we'd seen many other excellent shows) said the sound guy travels with the band, so it was out of their hands.

We have never even considered going to another show of theirs since that night, despite remaining huge fans.
posted by davejay at 10:36 PM on November 19, 2009

I saw TMBG do one of their children's concerts (mostly songs from NO! and the "Here Come ____" albums) a few weeks ago. It wasn't very loud, certainly not all dominated by bass, but I could only hear about 1/2 the instruments at any one time. John spent most of the show playing air-guitar as far as I could tell.
posted by straight at 11:07 PM on November 19, 2009

I saw tmbg live at the Bloomsbury theatre in London in February 1992 and it was totally awesome. Must get round to seeing them again sometime.

"I'm impressed" (first track from "The Else") is really good btw, if there's any old fans here who haven't heard it.
posted by memebake at 11:17 PM on November 19, 2009

Coulton's gormless rendition of Birdhouse in Your Soul has left me pale and queasy, as I'm sure it did you. There's only one potent antidote that could snap us out of this stupor:

The single best, brassiest Birdhouse ever recorded.

For extra fun, keep your eyes on the trombonist in the lower right during the opening seconds of the piece. So good. So good.
posted by bicyclefish at 12:41 AM on November 20, 2009 [3 favorites]

I define bliss as the middle of "Birdhouse" at a live show with decent sound surrounded by at least 1000 fans, all of you singing at the top of your lungs.

There's almost no greater feeling on earth.
posted by grubi at 5:37 AM on November 20, 2009

TMBG played Hampshire College Halloween back in the 80s. It was the best TMBG show I've seen but also maybe the only one I've seen.

They used to hit the Iron Horse in Northampton a lot back when it was just Two Guys, A Saxophone, A Drum Machine and An Accordion. It was always a lot of fun, and even better when they'd tune a radio to a random station and join in the song they found. Also, they wore their fezzes. I wish they'd wear their fezzes again.

I've seen them as Two Guys and I've seen them with the full band, and I've liked all the incarnations I've seen. Even the free Hatch Shell concerts on the Boston Esplanade have been fun, and I hate big outdoor shows. John Henry was a tough album to get to know since it was the "big change" and all, but it grew on me. I may not dig all their musical changes, but I like seeing where they've gone.
posted by Spatch at 5:50 AM on November 20, 2009

Not too far off topic i hope, but i really wish that the unused TMBG songs from the film Coraline were released, cos i just loved the bit that did get in:

Making up a song about Coraline...
She's a peach she's a doll she's a pal of mine...
She's as cute as a button in the eyes of everyone who ever laid their eyes on Coraline
When she comes around exploring
Mom and I will never ever make it boring
Our eyes will be on Coraline...

From wikipedia: The Other Father's singing voice is provided by John Linnell, one of the singers from the band. They wrote ten songs for the film; when a melancholy tone was decided, all but one were cut.

Blues.
posted by kev23f at 6:18 AM on November 20, 2009

My favorite TMBG show was at Stubb's in Austin (probably 1999 or so).

I, too, was at that show. I was way in the front and got hijacked by a conga line that took me all the way to the back. Hijacked!
posted by ColdChef at 6:55 AM on November 20, 2009

I solved this problem by seeing TMBG play Flood in Boston and going to the JoCo & Paul & Storm show in St. Louis. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!

Also,
My favorite TMBG show was at Stubb's in Austin (probably 1999 or so).

If it's the show I'm thinking of, it was July 16, 2004. I know this because the day after the truly awesome show I downloaded the complete live concert recording. It's pretty awesome to have a recording of a concert I actually attended.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 8:00 AM on November 20, 2009

By the way, I just took my son to the kids concert, and afterwards we came up to the front where Flansburgh was passing out stickers, and I said to him, "Hey, it's twenty years ago this month since the first time I saw you guys play," and he fixed me with a stern gaze and said "Then you are old."
posted by escabeche at 8:18 AM on November 20, 2009 [3 favorites]

I saw them first on their Flood tour when it was just the two of them. I'm sure they enjoy playing more with a live band (since that's the way they do it now), and some songs sound great that way, and they can play bigger venues effectively. But just the two of them on stage, man could they put on a show! Constantly switching instruments, doing crazy stuff like playing two saxophones at the same time ... even with the prerecorded rhythm section, it just seemed more impressive. Like, here are these two goofballs reinventing what a concert IS. They have tried to keep that loose and goofy feel, playing along with songs off the radio in the middle of a set, having everyone in their band named "Dan," but some of the fun is crowded off the stage when it isn't just the two Johns. I'm glad I got to see them way back when. If you didn't, at least check out the movie Gigantic!
posted by rikschell at 8:28 AM on November 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

At my first TMBG concert (1993, I think), I was enthusiastically moshing in the pit to "The Famous Polka," when my shoes came off. "I lost my shoes!" I yelled. Someone found them and shoved them into my hands, and someone else stood in front of me, arms out to protect me from the mob, until I got them back on. That was the nicest mosh crowd I ever did see.

And now allow me to quote from my favorite TMBG song of all time:

Paul: I didn't expect a salesman to be drinking coffee this late in the morning. How long you been here, Joe?

Joe: Oh, I don't know. I guess thirty, forty-five minutes maybe. Why do you ask?

Paul: You must be making a lot of sales. Piling up a good income.

Joe: Iiiiiiii'm doin' all right! I could do better, but... Oh ho ho, I get it, Paul. Back on that old 'time is money' kick, right?

Paul: Not back on it, Joe. Still on it.

TICK TICK TICK DEE DEE Avalanche or roadblock, I was a snowball in hell...
posted by cereselle at 8:31 AM on November 20, 2009 [2 favorites]

I said to him, "Hey, it's twenty years ago this month since the first time I saw you guys play," and he fixed me with a stern gaze and said "Then you are old."

And now you're even older.
posted by cereselle at 8:32 AM on November 20, 2009 [7 favorites]

Yep. Lincoln.

This just makes me want to download Flood to listen to it.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:27 AM on November 20, 2009

You can come to Texas any day now, TMBG.

I saw the two Johns on the Flood tour at Liberty Lunch. It was my first real 'show.' I must have been fifteen years old and me and my friend got my dad to drive us to the show. I recall that we made our own TMBG shirts to wear for the occasion. At the merch table, I excitedly bought one of the "Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love" tees. Memories!

Also.... Istanbul Not Constantinople, Particle Man!
posted by battleshipkropotkin at 9:57 AM on November 20, 2009

Jonathan Coulton's Skullcrusher Mountain is me and my woman's song.
posted by sciurus at 11:47 AM on November 20, 2009

Jonathan Coulton's Skullcrusher Mountain is me and my woman's song.

I hope you untie her and let her out for a walk once in a while.
posted by straight at 12:57 PM on November 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

How does that link contradict that statement?

That didn't win me any points with the judge... I must be on the wrong track.
posted by lholladay at 4:40 PM on November 20, 2009

I've been to a lot of TMBG concerts, but I think my favorite one was 10/31/2001 at the 9:30 Club in D.C., in which they covered Flood in its entirety. But, since it was Halloween, they insisted that they were not TMBG but, in fact, a cover band, "Sapphire Bullets."

Now if only Dave Matthews Band would cover Before These Crowded Streets in the same manner, I might go to one of their concerts again.
posted by waldo at 7:28 PM on November 20, 2009

I don't understand why people get hung up on ranking the albums.
There are songs I love and songs that are okay and they span all their albums.

There's just too much genius spread across too many songs to get snobby about it. Like, okay, you hate Apollo 18 the album. But how can you say anything bad about Fingertips?
posted by Deathalicious at 2:19 PM on November 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

My favorite band will always be pre-John Henry TMBG, but my second favorite band is post-John Henry TMBG. It is totally reasonable that one may like the first and not the second. The fact is, John Henry was a turning point in the music. It was different after that. But some of their best work: Spiraling Shape, The Mesopotamians, NYC, End of the Tour, Vancouver, and others, are in their later albums. Though I get less and less excited about each new release.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:53 AM on November 22, 2009

Lincoln is good as are a number of earlier and ater albums. However, I tend not to like TMBG albums until I've heard them 5 or more times. But Flood and Apollo 18 (in that order) I loved the very first time.

QED.
posted by DU at 5:41 PM on November 23, 2009 [1 favorite]