They say it's your birthday

[vovat]

Happy birthday to bethje, my one true love and best friend. I hope you have a great day. I'm sorry I have to spend most of it at work.

A few other things I have to say:

1. I worked until 11 last night, and then helped Beth with her homework, the result being that I didn't get to watch the new Simpsons episode. I'll probably have some comments on it after watching it tonight. Whether that means a long review or just a few observations depends on how thought-provoking the episode turns out to be.

2. I hate having to wear a coat. What also bugs me is that the weather is kind of cold, but not THAT cold, meaning that I have to constantly adjust the heat in my car to make it comfortable.

3. It seems so trendy these days to be an ex-They Might Be Giants fan. Does the fact that I still consider them to be my favorite band make me a big loser? (I mean, I know I'm a big loser anyway, but does this make me an even BIGGER loser?)

4. Speaking of birthdays, here are the results of a horoscope quiz:

You are 40% Scorpio

How much do you match your zodiac sign?

I thought that quiz could have used some varying degrees of "true" and "false." There were also too many compound statements, if that makes any sense. One of them was "You're self confident, and possessive of what's yours." Well, the latter is probably true to an extent, but the former not at all, so I had to say it was false.

And another quiz:


Which File Extension are You?

Comments

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

i fell asleep shortly after the simpsons started, and woke up shortly before it ended. shortest episode ever. do you watch arrested development? so great.

who's an ex-tmbg fan?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

i fell asleep shortly after the simpsons started, and woke up shortly before it ended.

Was it THAT boring, or were you just tired?

do you watch arrested development?

I've seen a few minutes of it here and there, but not enough to really follow what was going on or anything.

As for the TMBG thing, it isn't really anyone specific, but just that I seem to see a lot of comments along the lines of "Well, I used to love TMBG, but now I don't really care about them anymore" in various places. To be fair, I think a lot of the people making these comments were fans before I was (meaning they had more time to get burnt out on the band), and maybe "ex-fan" is too strong in a lot of cases. It still kind of annoys me, though.

[tisok.livejournal.com]

i wouldn't say i'm an ex-fan, i'm just not nearly as into them as i used to be, and i'm into a lot of other bands a lot more than i used to be.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

That's true to a certain extent for me as well, although TMBG is still my favorite. I mean, they were only the second musical act that I really got into (Weird Al being the first), and I've gotten into a lot of other bands since then. I no longer listen to TMBG anywhere near as much as I used to. That's largely just a matter of time, though. I guess what really bugs me is when people act like the fact that they're into some other band means they CAN'T like TMBG anymore, or when they think they've "grown out of" TMBG (which is really kind of insulting, when you think about it). I can't give you any specific examples, but I'm pretty sure I've seen cases of both of those things.

[revme.livejournal.com]

After Factory Showroom came out, by about six months, I sort of Ex-Fanned for about a year. I actually didn't listen to them for about that long. Part of it was that FS was just _so_ disappointing. (It didn't help, though, that I was a regular in a.m.tmbg, when folks sort of ended up changing out, and I really didn't like a lot of the new breed. So, between a sub-par album (that had _awesome_ sessions -- I mean, I've got that FS Sessions Bootleg, and it's like... that album could have been _Lincoln_, man.) and sort of what I was seeing as TMBG Fans were Irritating And Stupid (tm), I sorta had a backlash. The first album at the end of the backlash was Apollo 18, which I wanted to hear, so I listened, and went briefly from Non-Fan to Person-Who-Likees-Them-But-No-Longer-To-The-Same-Extent, and then back into full on Pretty-Much-Favorite-Band-Again, where I am now.

Unsubscribing from a.m.tmbg during my "TMBG Suck!!" phase probably really, really helped a lot. (Note: I am probably an asshole, in that this seems to matter to me.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I agree that FS isn't one of TMBG's better efforts (although it's my girlfriend's favorite), but I got the first six albums in pretty close succession, so it didn't really matter so much to me. I do think some of the FS Sessions stuff should have been on the album. I mean, "Reprehensible" is possibly my second favorite TMBG song of all time. I think Elektra was partially to blame for those tracks not being on the actual album, though.

TMBG certainly has some really annoying fans. On the other hand, I've made several friends through TMBG fandom, including my girlfriend. So it can go either way with TMBG fans, but I can definitely see being turned off by certain parts of the online fanbase. It can be irritating when people you don't like share the same interests as you. Personally, I don't really see this as a good reason to abandon the interest itself, but it's certainly a fair reason not to bother with online forums devoted to that interest.

I've been reading the newsgroup and the tmbg.org mailing list for about seven years, on and off. There really does seem to be a lot of turnover, and some people whose posts I actually liked to read back in the day are no longer around. There's a lot of ebb and flow in both the quality and quantity of posts. At present, the mailing list seems to be on its last legs, although I guess there's always the chance of a revival. I know a lot of long-time posters think the on-topic/off-topic flame wars from a few years back were the major contributing factor to the list's decline, and I think they have a point. The newsgroup is a little busier, but still kind of slow. Of course, I get the idea that Usenet isn't all that popular in general nowadays.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I'd been into them for a long time, and I'd been waiting to see how they'd follow up John Henry (which is one of the contenders for Best TMBG Album Ever, I think) and, well, FS is kind of a crappy followup. (Although I still say it could have been much, much better without Eric "Wah-Wah" Schermerhorn on it... errgh. He did some stuff with Iggy Pop, and, um, yeah. He didn't really bother to change styles so much, and... it only Sorta Worked n the Iggy Pop stuff, and it so doesn't on TMBG. He's Captain One-Trick-Pony, he is.) And, "Rephrensible" is grand, but my "Why the holy fuck wasn't this on the goddamn record?!?!?" track is "Certain People I Could Name", which is one of the best TMBG songs ever, as far as I can tell. But yeah, it might have been Elektra -- although, I tend to get the impression that at that point, Elektra just completely stopped caring about TMBG when A18 was sorta OK return wise, and JH was less so, so I think it might have also been John and John, too. Although, around that time, I was kind of getting the impression that they were stressed out and Not At All Happy -- I'd seen some video footage from some of the stuff they'd post around 1996-1998, and it actually seemed that John & John didn't really like each other anymore and I was thinking that I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd announced they were breaking up. (This is probably what helped with, say, Mono Puff/State Songs/Hall of Mayors -- both in time apart, and also, at least perhaps a water-testing of Solo Projects, but that's pure conjecture.)

But... yeah, I know what you mean. There's a lot of people I'd _really_ like to slap. But there's also a lot of cool ones, too. So it's not like a 100% all-or-nothing thing. (I'm on a bunch of mailing lists, and, hm, Negativland fans seem pretty cool, Residents fans seem to be pretty cool if weirdly uptight about Maintaining The Illusion (I'm pretty sure they care more about the Residents' anonymity than the Residents themselves do...), and Chris Morris fans seem to hate everything the man's ever done.) But yeah. I don't know -- it's a hard thing to examine. Of course, I've had my share of TMBG-related Douchebaggery, so...8) (IIRC, my Exit Message was after lurking for a while after someone goes "Hey, I haven't seen Mr. Me around, anyone know what happened to him?" and I (inexplicably in retrospect) went off on a huge tirade about The People I Didn't Like, and basically was all "Whoo, I am the biggest asshole on the planet! Whoo!!" which... I don't know what got into me, other than the fact that I was, like, 17. Although, now, I haven't even been on _any_ usenet group since about my sophomore year in college, so... yeah.

Every so often, I'll do google searches for "Myke Weiskopf", though. I _liked_ him. He was knowledgeable and cranky! (And apparently, Flansburgh hated him. I remember that in his sig, something like, Flansburgh's #1 Worst Enemy. I guess they used to be friends/acquaintances, but then they had a big falling out. I asked him once what the deal was, but I've forgotten now. I think it was about a project he was working on or something. I know he was, at one time, working on a book on TMBG. And I've got the (excellent!) zine he put out of all TMBG stuff. TONS of great, great, great info/trivia in that.) So, uh, yeah. But, other than that... yeah.

Every so often, I think I should check Usenet out again, but, I don't know. I was always too lazy to fire up SLRN, and now I don't even have a newsreader on my Mac, so... (well, aside from what probably comes with Mozilla. And if there's one that comes with OSX. Hm.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "Certain People" was also an excellent song that should have been on the album.

I was never on the group when Myke Weiskopf was actually an active poster, but I think he showed up a few times. He might very well have been the person who said he knew Bill Krauss, and that Flans's bad temper was the reason that Krauss, as well as various other people, stopped working with TMBG. I have no idea how true this is, and whether it might have been inspired partially by Myke's own falling out with Flans. (I know Andy Partridge is widely considered to be hard to work with, but he claims that it was just Todd Rundgren who had trouble getting along with him, and Todd spread the "Andy is hard to work with" rumor.) I think Myke also showed up sometime in 2001, to ask for copies of some of the TMBG Unlimited tracks.

I think I vaguely remember seeing some newsgroup and/or mailing list posts from you in the distant past, but that was before I really knew one person from another.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I was a lurker in Myke's heyday, although I started posting while he was still relatively frequent. I'm not sure if it was him who said that, but it's buyable; he did/does know Bill Krauss (interviewed him for said TMBG zine). I haven't really heard anything else about Flans' temper; I know from an old friend of mine who was actually friends with Joshua Fried that the reason why Fried and Flans sort of drifted apart was how Flans tended to think of Fried as "his secret weapon" (and would say this) and Fried got kind of hurt/alienated by this, since, y'know, he's his own guy (not to mention a respected artist in his own right), so... yeah. I'm not sure how much so, and whether or not they'll, like, never work together again (god, I hope not; Fried's remixes and the Hello the Band project were some of the best TMBG-collaboration things -- I hope that there's more of that... I mean, in a way Flans _was_ right, Joshua Fried takes things and makes them even more wicked awesome.) So, yeah... I don't know; I think part of it is that TMBG (especially, oddly Flans...) seem to be really insular and not really terribly collaborative. (It's weird, though. For the Shy one, Linnell sure does guest on a lot of stuff. And for the Outgoing one, Flansburgh sure _doesn't_.) So... yeah. I don't know. I've only met Flans a couple times, and both of those were standard Meet And Greet things, and, I don't know, he seems really friendly and nice, but, well, I'm just getting something signed, I'm not making a record with the guy.

My guess, though -- and I could be sort of far-off-base, is that John and John see TMBG as Their Thing (hence, say, in most of the album liner notes, it's "TMBG Are: John And John. The Band Is: Dans/JH lineup/Etc."), and so, they might tend to see it more as a thing where it's like "It's cool if you want to suggest things, but We're The Boss", and I know some people find that really frustrating to work under. From the Early Years liners, it does sound that they're relatively open to experimentation and suggestion (like the random drum samples on Piece of Dirt), but you don't really get the impression that it's so much a Collaboration (er, not between J&J but J&J and Others) as a Benevolent Dictatorship. And I kind of wonder if it's mainly Flans who's the face of Said Dictatorship, since he's the more Outgoing One and stuff, so I figure that he's more likely to be the one who's all "NO! We're not doing that!", even if it's a mutual thing/Linnell took him aside and was all "I'd prefer not to"/something. Because, yeah. It seems that Flans tends to be the more Divisive Giant. One of the things I remember seeing a lot were "Flans is an asshole!!" threads in a.m.tmbg, but I don't recall ever seeing a "Linnell is an asshole!!" one (or at least one that wasn't shouted down immediately with 50 people going "No! He's SHY!" (which, uh, I'd go along with, actually.) So... yeah. I tend to think it might be one of those things where Flans is sometimes seen as an asshole just because he's more of The Boss (or, rather, I think J&J are equally bosses, he's just the one who ends up doing the Bossing Duties, if that makes sense).

For the record -- uh, I actually tend to come down on Flans' side; I know with my art I tend to have that sort of Benevolent Dictatorship Tendency, and I've been known to get frustrated and whatnot over whether or not something's progressing How I Want or whatever. So... yeah. (Also; I think with that, it does tend to help - I think that is why TMBG have such a Singular Vision, in a good way; they know what they want, and while they're willing to listen, they aren't going to back down if it's not what They Want. And I really think that's how you've got to be in a band like that.)
[cont]

[revme.livejournal.com]

But yeah -- I know what it's like too between Todd and Andy. It's kind of funny, because with that one, I tend to come down on Andy's side, because a lot of the stuff that Andy said Todd was doing was pretty, um, over-the-top. Even though it did result in the best XTC record since English Settlement and Continuing Through Today, I Think Even. Of course, there's always the questino of how much Andy was using hyperbole (and how much of the true stuff was done by Todd to perhaps fix problems that had been going on with XTC? Just for an example (a not bloody likely one, having heard a bunch of XTC demos and live XTC and stuff), perhaps his "OK, you can only use this much tape!" edict was because XTC kept twiddling and jamming and wanking in the studio, and Todd saw that they weren't getting anything done, so he made that declaration, and Andy just left that part out.). But yeah -- I tend to think that Andy would actually be interesting to work with, but I'd probably run from Todd, even though he'd end up making something really beautiful.

Also -- probably newsgroup; I don't think I was ever on the TMBG mailing list. Although I think we were both on Chalkhills. I unsubscribed after the Dear God Sampling Thing; I got frustrated because I was in a debate, and on list, people were dogpiling on me for saying Sampling Was A-OK And An Art Form, while offlist, I'd get a bunch of people saying that I was right, and the other people were totally sucking, and I got frustrated that no one was bothering to actually _back me up on list_, so in a fit of pique, I quit the llist. Thought about going back, but I haven't -- not out of any sort of Bitterness or anything, just laziness.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Andy has said that he's generally not hard to work with, but he has an idea as to how his art should be. Which I can totally understand.

[revme.livejournal.com]

...of course, you have to figure he _would_ say that... 8)

(To be true, though, I'm tempted to believe him. That's the vibe I've always gotten from him, rather than Totalitarian Art Jerk.)

Read this, eat it, ta ta.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

That post about Krauss was so long ago that I have no idea whether I'm remembering it correctly. It's certainly possible that it wasn't by Myke, wasn't about Krauss, and didn't mention bad tempers. (I'm pretty sure Flans was involved in some way, though. {g}) I DID manage to turn up Myke's angry farewell post (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author:jerk%40earth.execpc.com&start=70&hl=en&lr=&selm=4trg75%24aeb%40daily-planet.execpc.com&rnum=76), though, which mentions that both Krauss and Bo Orloff had been "shit on by Flansburgh and whomever else." So it's quite possible their parting of ways wasn't that amicable. As for Fried, I think Robin Goldwasser still works with him, so I'm guessing he and Flans don't hate each other too terribly much. I guess there isn't necessarily any indication of that, though.

You're probably right that Flans tends to make most of the decisions, or at least justifies them. I read somewhere that Flans usually decides on the track order, and then he and Linnell justified that order to the record company. (I guess that, in the case of Mink Car, the European label flat-out rejected Flans's track order, and went behind the band's backs to change it.)

It's weird, though. For the Shy one, Linnell sure does guest on a lot of stuff. And for the Outgoing one, Flansburgh sure _doesn't_.

I know Flans has done some work directing videos and producing stuff, which I don't know that Linnell has ever done. Linnell is probably a MUSICAL guest more often simply because guitar players are a dime a dozen, and accordion players are harder to come by.

Oh, and for what it's worth, Myke briefly reappeared in October 2001, and I think he pretty much apologized for the way he had left back in 1996. He apparently didn't stick around for very long after that, although he might still be lurking. I'm not sure.

Re: Read this, eat it, ta ta.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I'd actually like to know what happened with Bill; I know the standard Official Line is that they'd just felt that they'd sort of moved on and should work on producing their own stuff or at least working with other people (since Flood's about half/half TMBG/Bezozi and Langer/Winstanley, IIRC, without actually looking at the liners.. I know that's one of the reasons production on that album is so uneven; it took TMBG a while to figure out _how_ to Produce... I don't think they ever really got the knack until Mink Car, actually...), but.. yeah. One gets the impression that Bill was actually one of Flans' best friends in the Early Days. But yeah -- I didn't really remember that with Bo, although that'd probably explain why www.dnai.com/~obo[1] isn't tmbg.com, heh. But yeah... it'd be interesting to know.

(Also, for the record, I know where Myke's coming from; it was one of the things that tended to drive me nuts about a.m.tmbg -- it seemed that to even _suggest_ that TMBG might not have put out the Best Thing Ever At Any Time was sacrilege. So, y'know, people'd flip out if you said that, say, Factory Showroom simply wasn't up to par. And, well, yeah. That _did_ get annoying; I'm not saying that everyone should have been "OMG THEY SUCK NOW!!!11111" or anything, but it would have been nice if there was more debate and stuff, like "Oh, I don't think that SEXXY should have been the lead single" "Well, TMBG typically alternate Johns for single, and SEXXY is an amusing track with a great groove; it might not have been the most radio friendly but, well, what have they done since Flood or A18 that's gotten airplay?", rather than "Oh, I don't think SEXXY should have been the lead single" "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU TROLLS MAKE ME SICK! JOHN AND JOHN ARE GOD!!!", which was happening. I mean, I disagreed with Myke that Flans was spreading himself too thin between Mono Puff and TMBG, but it was because I liked Unsupervised (though "It's Fun To Steal" is far superior, but that hadn't come out yet), and not because, you know, he was dissing a Giant. But, well, it's been not-quite-a-decade, so perhaps I should let it go.)

I'm not sure if Flans necessarily makes the decisions -- I tend to think it's a equal John and John thing -- but I'm pretty sure he's the Enforcer. Which is kind of funny to think of, Flans in sunglasses with an overcoat and a .33. But yeah. As for Mink Car -- actually, I kinda think the Euro Label was right to reject the track listing; I love Mink Car, and I love all the tracks on it, but as a cohesive album? It's not. It feels like a random grab bag. It's almost feels like J&J just loaded it into shuffle, and copied down the tracklist, maybe made a couple adjustments, since "Bangs" is a pretty good lead track, and went with that. I looked up the Euro tracklist, but that one honestly doesn't look that much better (though I haven't heard it in that order -- maybe I'll program it to see), and it's hell of lame that they cut tracks. (and they didn't cut the tracks I would have if I absolutely had to cut tracks, heh.)

You're probably right w/r/t the accordion; it seems that if you need an accordion, you either get John Linnell or Weird Al. (Although Linnell's done a bunch of, say, Sax work, too, on records. IIRC, need to check, both him and Kurt Hoffman guest on David Byrne's new one.) I don't think Flans has really produced much outside of Hello discs/bands, though, but his videos are awesome. He's on the list of directors I'd like to work with with my Hypothetical Band, Providing I Ever Decided Not To Direct The Videos Myself Or Something.

[1],,,why, WHY?! do I still remember that URL after ~10 years, about 8 of which being inactive?

Re: Read this, eat it, ta ta.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I think Bo might still work for TMBG. I seem to recall reading that he was the one who the maintainer of the old Twistid site to remove some of his TMBG songs. No idea about Bill, although I did notice that Severe Tire Damage was partially dedicated to him.

I've always been kind of in the middle of the "TMBG sucks now" vs. "Everything they've ever done is wonderful" debate. On the one hand, I do have a certain degree of blind TMBG fandom, but, as I've said before, I also support the right of people to criticize and complain. I think it's ridiculous when people act like any criticism of TMBG is bad (What, is every supposed to be "Gee, I love TMBG! They can do no wrong!"), but I've noticed that some members are so negative about everything that you kind of have to wonder why they're sticking around on a forum devoted to a band they apparently hate so much. Since I get the idea that Myke wasn't too fond of any of TMBG's post-duo work, it might have been best that he left when he did. It does seem like most of the people who either had connections to the band or just knew a lot about their early days has abandoned the Internet forums, though, which is kind of a shame.

As for the European Mink Car, I agree that it wasn't such a good idea to cut tracks. Honestly, I don't think I'd miss the last three songs or "Mr. Xcitement" much, and "Your Mom's Alright" is a good addition, but cutting "Wicked Little Critta" is just wrong. It probably would have been better if they'd discussed the changes with TMBG before making them, and they apparently didn't.

I tend to be drawn to bands that use a fair amount of accordion, and wouldn't need Linnell to guest on their albums. (Didn't Scott McCaughey play the accordion part on "Great News Around You," by the way?) If a band or artist DOESN'T have a regular accordion player, though, I could definitely see getting Linnell.

I know Flans produced at least one album by Muckafurgason, which wasn't a Hello band, but probably WOULD have been if they had existed back in the Hello days. I think I also remember hearing that he managed OKGo, or something like that, but I have no idea how true that is.

Re: Read this, eat it, ta ta.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about Bo being the one to contact twistid, but that's good that he's still around, I suppose. And I know that Bill was in Gigantic, so perhaps it's one of those deals where they had a falling out, and then realized X years later that it was sorta dumb to fight and apologized.

Hm, yeah -- I mean, I do tend to take it a little more personally than I should when people are all like "Oh, TMBG can't sing!" or whatever, but, yeah. I do like when people can talk about decisions they've made (i.e., I personally thought that the eMusic thing was kinda stupid, but that was mainly because I don't like the idea of paying for 128kpbs mp3s; if I'm going to buy mp3s, they'd best be 256kpbs, or at the _very least_ 196. And, I thought it was stupid that Long Tall Weekend was only released as MP3s , and the only CD that existed was a Radio Promo. (I did like the CD/MP3 combo of "Working Undercover for the Man", though -- _that's_ what LTW should have been.)), though. And, yeah -- I do remember how Myke seemed to despise John Henry (which I don't get, that's one of my favorites), but he was such a great resource, I didn't mind, and I never got any sort of "Oh, you're just here to bitch!" sort of vibe from him. But yeah -- like I mentioned, though, the other way can get weird, because I'm on the Chris Morris mailing list, and apparently, I'm a bad CM fan, since I actually _LIKE_ the things he's made. Apparently everything he's done since 1994 is supposed to be horrible shit, and the stuff before 1994 is Fair-To-Middling-I-Guess.

I've built the UK Mink Car in iTunes, but I haven't given it a listen yet. When I do, I'll mention how it flows. I do like that they added Boss of Me and YMA, but I don't quite get why they cut the four tracks. (Although, I suppose "Wicked Little Critta" probably doesn't translate overseas, heh...) But yeah -- I think they should have just done what the Australian and Japanese labels did and just staple on the bonus tracks to the end.

But yeah - I actually have a lot of accordion-band-CDs, too... I've always wanted to learn the accordion, actually, but never got one. And, yeah, Scott plays the Accordion on that song, I just checked the liners... he also plays about everything else in the world on it. Which is surprising, because he's not the only musician on it, and, so you've got other people playing stuff too. Which is probably why that track sounds so full. And cool.

Ah, forgot about that. I don't recall hearing the OKGo rumor, but I don't think it's true; when their album came in at the college radio station I was at, IIRC, they thanked Flans, but he didn't get any particular credit (I think I would have remembered if it said "Managed by John Flansburgh" or something n the liners). Also, I'd figure Flans'd probably be a bit busy to manage a band, although, well, John and John do seem to thrive on being insanely busy, so... I mean, you wouldn't expect him to have time to be the lead in an Off Broadway play, but there he is.

Re: Read this, eat it, ta ta.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if Bo still reads the newsgroup. For some reason, I get the impression that he heard about the site through Jim Stabile, who in turn heard about it through someone on the newsgroup. I don't know for sure, though.

I wouldn't be too surprised to find that Flans and Bill had patched up their wounds, especially if they're no longer working together.

I'm not much of a stickler for bitrates, and I have bought stuff (not just TMBG) through eMusic, but I agree that having stuff that's ONLY offered that way is a bad idea. It's possible there was something in their contract with eMusic about offering exclusive stuff, but a lot of the Long Tall Weekend tracks have since been released on commercial CDs ("The Edison Museum" on No!, that version of "She Thinks She's Edith Head" on the McSweeney's disc, and several other songs on They Got Lost), so I have to wonder why they don't just go ahead and just release LTW itself on CD already.

I know the early YFF tracks that use accordion ("That Letter" and "Back Room Of The Bar" come to mind) have guest musicians playing them, so either Scott's learning the instrument is a more recent development, or he didn't think he could do justice to the accordion parts in those particular songs. Actually, on a similar note, I think a collaboration between Scott and TMBG would be really cool. They must know each other, since Hello put out a Minus 5 CD, and the YFF namecheck in "Twisting" and cover of "Hillbilly Drummer Girl" imply that Flans, at least, is a Fellows fan. I guess it's possible that the feeling isn't mutual, though. I mean, Andy Partridge is in pretty much the same position with respect to TMBG (Hello CD, band namecheck in "XTC vs. Adam Ant," cover of "25 O'Clock"), and I understand that he doesn't really care for TMBG.

And I'm probably either misremembering the OKGo rumor, or the person who started it didn't know what they were talking about.