Guests Kelilah Miller and Rose Anderson team up to take on this lovely Phone Power track. The pair tell us about becoming transatlantic friends through TMBG fandom, and then we all dissect the song and hear them do their own cover version. ***Hear this episode ad-free here! ***
Creative writing teacher and contributor to The Onion, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere, Jean-Luc Bouchard returns to the show to talk about the Book deep cut "Wait Actually Yeah No". We attempt to make sense of the lyrics, hear some explanations straight from a Linnell podcast appearance on Full Album Fridays, and make a pitch for this and more Book songs to be played live. Visit Jean-Luc's website here. Follow him on X, which shall always be called Twitter!...
Ian Reynard returns to the show to talk about the Apollo 18 classic "Narrow Your Eyes." We dive into a bunch of live versions that span over 30 years, hear a bunch of custom covers, and try to decide just how "baroque" TMBG are.
Returning to talk about the TMBG cover of The Rose Garden's sole hit, Dawn Eden Goldstein shares her thoughts on it plus a few more fun and informative stories. Find Dawn's song "Alone With You" performed by Juniper here! Here a version of it performed by The Anderson Council here! Read her 2018 interview with TMBG for Angelus here!...
TMBG's cover of The Rose Garden's one hit song, "Next Plane to London," was one of the earliest tunes to hit the brand-new Dial-a-Song service in 1984. Dawn Eden Goldstein, a canon lawyer and theologist who was formerly a rock music historian, regales us with personal stories about her history as a TMBG fan. She got hip to the band prior to even their demo tape, and once had John Flansburgh visit her dorm room and play her guitar. Her newest book: Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Spon...
Erin Rose O'Brien returns to the show to talk about "They Got Lost," with its different versions from Severe Tire Damage and Long Tall Weekend. We debate which is the superior version, discuss melody vs. story in songs, and dig into the background of our covers artists.
Tara Trate returns to the show to talk about an early TMBG b-side, "The Biggest One." We discuss the song's importance in the band's early history, dirty diners, and songs with beats missing.
Alex Nemeroff makes his debut on the show to talk about the chill cut "Your Own Worst Enemy" off of Factory Showroom. We discuss 70s soft rock bands, Friedrich Nietzsche, and weird old midi hardware.
Ben Byrd returns to the show to debate the merits of the Mink Car song "Finished With Lies." We explore a few different interpretations of ours, follow the song's journey from demo to album track, and hear a new We Are Number Three cover, which includes Ben himself.
Podcaster and author Rob Harvilla of 60 Songs That Explain the 90s: The 2000s, is here to talk about the Apollo 18 classic "Spider". We attempt to deconstruct the song to guess the origins of its parts, comment on live versions from a 30 year span, and jam out to 4 amazing covers from our Covers Crüe. 60 Songs That Explain the 90s: https://open.spotify.com/show/0njxeKJKFtoJhCRF1ShmL4?si=445ec35ace54452d...
Jaya Crites returns to the show to talk about "No!" from...well, No! She gives us insight of what she thought of the song hearing it as a child, and how it has evolved to hearing it as an adult. Also learn how to sing the song in several languages thanks to a cover by Noah Daniel.
TMBG's saxophonist Stan Harrison returns to the show to talk about two songs he did horn arrangements for, "Cloisonné" from Join Us and "Let Me Tell You About My Operation" from Glean. We also talk about his new album, Some Poor Soul Has a Fire, which you can check out and buy on bandcamp! https://stanharrison.bandcamp.com/album/some-poor-soul-has-a-fire
Olivia Felo returns to the show to talk about TMBG's cover of The Pixies' song "Havalina." This episode was edited by Olivia herself! Thank you Olivia!
Amber Chaney returns to argue the merits of The Spine once again and more specifically, its song "Au Contraire." In an episode that was many reschedules in the making, we discuss French accuracy, famous figures and swingin' drum machines.
Dessa Asp makes their weekly show debut with an epic episode on the Pamphlet EP song, "Buckle Down, Winsocki." Many people might not realize this is a cover, and even fewer will know the history behind it. Dessa does the hard work in researching the song's journey through musicals and movies. In addition, despite this being such a deep cut we are graced with three amazing covers thanks to the Covers Crüe.
Part 2 of our two-song episode with TMBG artist and video director David Cowles. On this episode we focus on "Rock Club", another My Murder Remains track that David animated the video for.
Artist and director David Cowles is here to talk about two songs he directed videos for, and here's part 1 - "The Summer Breeze" off of My Murdered Remains.
The one, the only, MARTY BELLER of TMBG is here to talk about his song "Alphabet Lost and Found" from Here Come the ABCs. He explains the songwriting process for this song, how exciting it was to perform live as a frontman, and we learn all about his soundtrack career outside of the band.
Part 2 of the epic conversation between former TMBG bassist Hal Cragin and myself about their cover of Cub's "New York City."
Hal Cragin toured with TMBG on bass in 1997-1998 and played on some Factory Showroom tracks, and was the bassist for John Flansburgh's Mono Puff project. Listen as he tells us about his chance meetings with Flans and how he became the bassist in Mono Puff and TMBG. Then we delve into TMBG's cover of the Cub tune "New York City." Part 2 to come next week!
Having appeared on a BOOK-themed Patreon episode years back, Ian Hutchings is finally appearing on his first regular weekly episode. We talked about the Book single "Moonbeam Rays", discussing which version of the tune is better - the album or music video version. I play audio of the song from the Covington, KY show I went to, we play four covers - three from the Covers Crüe - and find out Ian is moving to my town!
Joel Shaughnessy is here to talk about the TMBG & McSweeny's collaboration compilation track "R U Together." Chances are a lot of you are unfamiliar with this track and perhaps the project as a whole, but Joel will get you caught up, telling us about the album and the book that accompanies it. Is this song any good? Listen to find out, and hear two awesome covers, one by Homework Party aka Joel himself!
My BFF Steve Clark returns to the show after long last, to talk about the divisive TMBG Factory Showroom single, "S-E-X-X-Y." Let's discuss why this song doesn't deserve the hate it gets as we hear many remixes, live versions of different arrangements, and fun covers.
Matt Meyer makes his debut on the show to talk about the Apollo 18 classic "Hall of Heads." We talk at length about the interesting introduction and the oddly placed key change, and ponder why they've barely played this great song live.
Our good friend Noah Daniel returns at long last to talk about the More Murdered Remains song "Tractor." We attempt to figure out the metaphors of this odd, catchy song, and hear great covers from a bunch of friends, and Noah himself.
Moth Moroz returns to show after a long absence to talk about the <i>Phone Power</i> favorite "I Love You for Psychological Reasons." We ponder about the narrator of the song, examine the amazing rhyme schemes, and hear the Johns critique their own live performances.
Kamuela Kaneshiro makes his debut on the podcast to talk about the Lincoln favorite "Mr. Me." We talk about ghosts and pirates, while checking out the kitchen-sink-percussion demo and brass-filled versions of this classic tune.
Alex Sanchez makes his debut on the show to talk about one of I Like Fun's most experimental tracks, "McCafferty's Bib." We talk about microtones, ring modulators, and hear one of the most insane remixes ever.
Tyler Colton of Goodbye Viking joins me to talk about a fan-favorite deep cut, "Tiny Doctors," which never even made it to the Dial-a-Song machine, finally being released on TMBG Unlimited. We ponder about how deep to read into the lyrics and whether this song should have been fleshed out and put on an album, and then we hear a crazy amount of covers for how obscure this song is.
Gabby Crouch is our guest this week to talk about the Robin Goldwasser-lead track "The Poisonousness," the closing song for The Escape Team. We talk about the lovely Hand Witch, ask "where are the guitars?" and discuss the importance of "woo woos."
