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vovatSo, I've now listened to the first podcast by They Might Be Giants. I'd been hearing a fair amount about podcasts in the recent past, and I had no idea what they actually were. Apparently it's just a downloadable sound file that's arranged somewhat like a radio broadcast. "Podcast" is a pretty inscrutable term for this. I guess we have Apple to blame.
The first song on the podcast is a parody of "It Was A Very Good Year," which kind of sounds like John Linnell made it up off the top of his head. There's stuff in it about Maggie Thatcher and sexual intercourse with dodecahedrons in a state of quantum uncertainty.
Up next is a cover of the Banana Splits' "I Enjoy Being A Boy." I've never heard the original, not being in the right generation to have watched the show. I find the song to be surprisingly TMBG-ish, though. Yes, I know it predates TMBG, but I still think it's reasonable to call it TMBG-ish.
The thing about North American turtle songs is pretty weird. Linnell seems to really have had his weird rambling vibe on while making these new recordings. I can't imagine listening to this regularly, but it's pretty cool just for its sheer ridiculousness factor. This is also a free download on TMBG's website, which I was eventually able to download, but I had trouble with it. On the site, it says to give them your e-mail address, and they'll filter out duplicates. But when I put in my address, it says they already have it on file. They really need to get that fixed.
The turtle speech segues surprisingly well into a version of "Particle Man" that's heavily reminiscent of "Strawberry Fields Forever." I'd heard this before, but I still feel it worth mentioning that it's really damned cool. It's quite possibly my favorite version of the song, which has been performed with so many different arrangements throughout the years. I guess since they feel they have to play it at every single concert, they have to keep switching it up to avoid getting bored. I kind of have to wonder why "Particle Man" is so popular, anyway. I know there's the whole Tiny Toons thing, but that was so many years ago that I tend to doubt the people who want to hear it at shows nowadays are the same ones who saw it on the show.
Speaking of Tiny Toons, I saw their Christmas special on Thursday night (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje had it on one of her many tapes of Christmas episodes), and apparently Hamton is Jewish. Who knew?
Anyway, getting back to the podcast, it also includes "Minneapolis," "Tippecanoe And Tyler Too," and "The Bloodmobile." I already knew all of those songs well, though, so I don't have any comments on them now.
Winter still sucks just as much as it did the last time I complained about it. Since I'd been able to park without much trouble last night, and it hadn't precipitated since then, I figured it would be easy to get back out of the space. Boy, was I wrong! It somehow got stuck (on what, I'm not sure, as there didn't seem to be much snow behind the wheels), and it took a few minutes and some burning rubber to get the vehicle moving. There's yet ANOTHER irritating thing about snow that I tend to forget about during the warmer times of the year.
I really need to start Christmas shopping. I don't have that many people to buy for, but it's better to do it sooner than later, isn't it?
By the way, thanks toshadarko for the Christmas card.
The first song on the podcast is a parody of "It Was A Very Good Year," which kind of sounds like John Linnell made it up off the top of his head. There's stuff in it about Maggie Thatcher and sexual intercourse with dodecahedrons in a state of quantum uncertainty.
Up next is a cover of the Banana Splits' "I Enjoy Being A Boy." I've never heard the original, not being in the right generation to have watched the show. I find the song to be surprisingly TMBG-ish, though. Yes, I know it predates TMBG, but I still think it's reasonable to call it TMBG-ish.
The thing about North American turtle songs is pretty weird. Linnell seems to really have had his weird rambling vibe on while making these new recordings. I can't imagine listening to this regularly, but it's pretty cool just for its sheer ridiculousness factor. This is also a free download on TMBG's website, which I was eventually able to download, but I had trouble with it. On the site, it says to give them your e-mail address, and they'll filter out duplicates. But when I put in my address, it says they already have it on file. They really need to get that fixed.
The turtle speech segues surprisingly well into a version of "Particle Man" that's heavily reminiscent of "Strawberry Fields Forever." I'd heard this before, but I still feel it worth mentioning that it's really damned cool. It's quite possibly my favorite version of the song, which has been performed with so many different arrangements throughout the years. I guess since they feel they have to play it at every single concert, they have to keep switching it up to avoid getting bored. I kind of have to wonder why "Particle Man" is so popular, anyway. I know there's the whole Tiny Toons thing, but that was so many years ago that I tend to doubt the people who want to hear it at shows nowadays are the same ones who saw it on the show.
Speaking of Tiny Toons, I saw their Christmas special on Thursday night (
bethje had it on one of her many tapes of Christmas episodes), and apparently Hamton is Jewish. Who knew?Anyway, getting back to the podcast, it also includes "Minneapolis," "Tippecanoe And Tyler Too," and "The Bloodmobile." I already knew all of those songs well, though, so I don't have any comments on them now.
Winter still sucks just as much as it did the last time I complained about it. Since I'd been able to park without much trouble last night, and it hadn't precipitated since then, I figured it would be easy to get back out of the space. Boy, was I wrong! It somehow got stuck (on what, I'm not sure, as there didn't seem to be much snow behind the wheels), and it took a few minutes and some burning rubber to get the vehicle moving. There's yet ANOTHER irritating thing about snow that I tend to forget about during the warmer times of the year.
I really need to start Christmas shopping. I don't have that many people to buy for, but it's better to do it sooner than later, isn't it?
By the way, thanks to
shadarko for the Christmas card.
