Venue Vidi Vici
Dec. 11th, 2004 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatSo, as I said in my last post, I’ve downloaded Almanac and Venue Songs, two new collections of live They Might Be Giants songs.
Almanac is basically just a set of some of the best recordings from the most recent tour. The band sold downloadable recordings of pretty much every show, but I didn’t purchase any of them. I didn’t buy any of the DiscLive things that the Pixies put out either, for that matter. I mean, I’m glad there’s a market for that kind of stuff, but I’d rather let someone else decide what songs are good before presenting them to me, as opposed to giving me the choice as to what show I should get. I guess if I had unlimited money, I could just buy all of them, but I probably wouldn’t listen to them that much. I never understood how people with huge collections of concert bootlegs ever decided which ones to listen to, either. I would think they’d all get lost in the shuffle, and they’d end up not listening to any of them. Oh, well. My point in all of this is that I like the fact TMBG released a “best of” collection made up of songs from all the different downloadable concerts.
As usual, the coolest songs are the ones where they do something different from what’s on the album. Even though I’m pretty sick of the song “Particle Man” itself, this version with John Linnell and Corn Mo both playing accordion is pretty cool. They play Corn Mo out with the Dallas theme song, which they used to introduce him in Philadelphia. The “glacially slow” version of “Drink!” is also nice, and I think I like this version of “Experimental Film” better than the studio one. It’s sloppier, but in a good way. There’s more enthusiasm and rocking-ness to it.
As someone on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tmbg pointed out, “John Lee Supertaster” is identified as being from Glasgow in the ID tags, but from San Francisco in the introduction. I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder. {g}
Why does “Stalk Of Wheat” get so much louder as soon as the music starts?
How many live versions of “Fingertips” are they going to release? Oh, well. This one has a few neat touches. I love how John Flansburgh yells out, “YES!” during the “Aren’t you the guy who hit me in the eye?” part. He also does his Optimus Prime bit during “I’m having a heart attack.” Why can’t he ever remember that “I heard a sound” comes BEFORE “I turned around,” though?
Anyway, Almanac is pretty good, but Venue Songs is EXCELLENT. Since all of these songs were written quickly, it’s amazing to me how good a lot of them are. They kind of remind me of both State Songs (because a lot of them use the names of the venues without actually being ABOUT the venues per se) and the Battle of the Bands tracks (because several of them imitate the sounds of other bands and/or musical genres). They’re probably a little goofier than your average TMBG song, which isn’t to say that TMBG isn’t often goofy in their “normal” songs, but they’re rarely as over-the-top as some of the Venue Songs can be.
I believe the Johns said in Philadelphia that the venue songs don’t really have names. A few of them start out with one of them saying that the song has the same name as the venue itself, but the website only identifies them by the city names. I guess it’s no big deal either way. I’m going to list the city first, and then the venue name in parentheses. Feel free to correct me if I’ve made any mistakes.
Brooklyn (Prospect Park/Celebrate Brooklyn)—I saw this show! Okay, I was AT this show. To say I SAW it would be a bit of an exaggeration, considering how lousy my spot was. Not the best of the venue songs, but a good way to start things out.
Charlottesville (Starr Hill Music Hall)—I like this one, but I don’t have anything specific to say about it. It mentions rucksacks and selling kids.
Omaha (Sokol Auditorium)—Those guys MUST be into the Eurythmics! There’s a cool eighties electronic dance-type sound to this one.
Houston (Meridian)—A high-energy rock number, with mentions of a few Houston landmarks (well, okay, Interstate 45 and the Astrodome, which isn’t that many landmarks, but, hey, I don’t know the numbers of any of the highways in that area). Oh, and geckos.
Glasgow (The Garage)—There are, uh, multiple plays on the name of the venue here. Yeah.
Vancouver (Richards on Richards)—The bass riff reminds of the Pixies’ “Gigantic” (which was also the name of the TMBG documentary, for what it’s worth), but the rest of the song doesn’t. It’s about a girl, which isn’t exactly the first thing I’d think of when playing at a venue with such a masculine-sounding name. Maybe that’s why I’m not in TMBG, though. Well, that, and the fact that I can’t play any instruments. But I digress.
Asbury Park (Stone Pony)—While most of these songs seem to have a fairly positive vibe, this one is about getting kicked in the head. You sometimes have to wonder how they decide when a song will have a negative slant. Positive or negative, though, this is a pretty good song.
Albany (The Egg)—A lot of accordion in this song, which is cool. This one seems to actually be about the venue itself, and its unusual architecture.
Leeds (Irish Centre)—Another electronic kind of song. It’s good, but doesn’t really stand out for me.
Anaheim (House of Blues)—Is this what you would call skiffle music? It’s very much in the novelty vein, and includes some rather lowbrow humor. I think this is the first song where TMBG mentions defecation. There are also references to pornography and a crackpipe. It’s funny and unique, and is probably one of my favorites.
New Orleans (a different House of Blues)—More of a hard-rock sound to this one, sort of like “Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes” (which reminds me of how much cooler these songs are than the Apes tracks from Severe Tire Damage, not that those weren’t amusing in their own way). The opening line plays on the beginning of “House Of The Rising Sun,” but the rest of the lyrics are more along the lines of “Oregon,” with clever “the venue is coming to get you” types of lyrics. Resistance is futile!
Columbia (Blue Note)—I think this was the first of the venue songs I heard, since it was given away for free a while back, and it’s still one of my favorites. Very happy, bouncy, and catchy, with lyrics about candy. The beginning reminds me quite a bit of XTC’s “Then She Appeared,” musically speaking.
Santa Cruz (The Catalyst)—In Flans’s words, it’s “kind of a collision of our art-fuck background and the skateboard part of this town combined.” Sort of in the noise-rock vein, with amusing lyrics. Linnell mentions Avril Lavigne in the introduction, and it’s always cool when awesome musicians name-check shitty ones. {g}
Minneapolis (First Avenue Stage)—A really short song, but no worse because of that. It starts out with a quiet part about the band getting into a fight, and then gets loud. (Sheesh, that’s a lame description, isn’t it? Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing these song-by-song reviews, when I can’t think of anything to say about certain songs beyond “this is short, loud, and pretty cool.” Oh, well.)
Pittsburgh (Mr. Small’s Theater)—Oddly enough, I really can’t think of anything to say about this one. It’s a pretty fun song, though.
Tucson (City Limits)—There’s kind of a Western sound to this one, with lyrics about ghosts and curses. Pretty appropriate for Arizona, I suppose.
San Francisco (Fillmore)—Slow electronic song, naming various places in the city.
Memphis (Gibson Lounge)—Another fairly slow one. Linnell wants to redecorate his living room to look like the venue.
Charleston (The Music Farm)—Another pun-on-the-venue-name song, which pulls out all the stops in this respect, right down to mentioning government subsidies for music farmers.
Dallas (Trees)—The shortest track in the set. Not necessarily the shortest SONG, since most of them have talking at the beginning, and this one doesn’t. I’m not about to go back and calculate how much of each track is made up of actual music, though. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. This is pretty good. It uses pauses in the music to good effect. “Tell the Moon you’ve seen the serpent, found the sword, and walked among the trees.”
Hollywood (House of Blues)—Okay, how many venues that they played that had that name? It’s a completely different song from those other two, though, and is the best of the three. (Yeah, I know I already said the Anaheim one was one of the best, and it was, but this one’s even better.) It’s about other bands following TMBG around and copying them.
Atlanta (Variety Playhouse)—The lyrics largely consist of an extended comparison of the venue to a hospital. The song kind of reminds me of “No Answer.” Well, the part with singing does, anyway. Towards the end, there’s an extended (well, relatively so; it can’t be THAT extended when the whole thing is barely over two minutes long) guitar solo that sounds nothing like that unfortunately-still-unreleased song.
Farmingdale (The Downtown)—A short song about living on bar food at the venue. There isn’t that much more to say about it, really.
New Haven (Toad’s Place)—Yes, it’s another pun-filled song, but really, with a venue name like that, what else would you expect?
London (Astoria)—Another favorite of mine, although I can’t tell you exactly why. It’s just really catchy, I guess.
Raleigh (Lincoln Theater)—If you like name-checking, this is the song for you! Did they write the song on the spur of the moment after seeing a list of bands that had either played or was going to play at the show? I’m especially amused by the mention of Afroman, who, believe it or not, actually opened for TMBG at a show![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje and I attended.
Towson (Recher Theater)—I’m amused by Linnell’s mention after the first verse that “it’ll make more sense as it goes on.” I’m not sure he’s right about that, but this is a pretty funny song, so all is forgiven. {g} It includes the line, “I’ll jealously read your blog after the show,” which I’m sure online fans will appreciate.
St. Louis (Mississippi Nights)—One of the slower songs, but that neither helps nor hurts it. Flans mentions some other venues at the beginning, and has some comments on the venue’s location.
Philadelphia (TLA)—This is a show that Beth and I (as well asonib and floatyfish) attended. I loved the song then, and, fortunately, it stands up to repeated listens. Like the Omaha song, there’s an obvious eighties influence to this one, although this is more over-the-top.
Austin (Stubb’s)—This is the longest track on the “album,” but that might be largely because Flans talks for half a minute before they start playing it (not that that’s a bad thing). It also includes introductions for the band. So I guess it’s a little more padded than some of the other tracks, but hey. I wouldn’t say this is one of my favorites, but it’s still good.
Asheville (Orange Peel)—You never would have guessed that this is another song that plays on the name of the venue, would you? {g} Linnell gets a surprising amount of mileage out of the idea of singing from an orange peel’s point of view, and I like the solo. Nice way to end the collection.
Almanac is basically just a set of some of the best recordings from the most recent tour. The band sold downloadable recordings of pretty much every show, but I didn’t purchase any of them. I didn’t buy any of the DiscLive things that the Pixies put out either, for that matter. I mean, I’m glad there’s a market for that kind of stuff, but I’d rather let someone else decide what songs are good before presenting them to me, as opposed to giving me the choice as to what show I should get. I guess if I had unlimited money, I could just buy all of them, but I probably wouldn’t listen to them that much. I never understood how people with huge collections of concert bootlegs ever decided which ones to listen to, either. I would think they’d all get lost in the shuffle, and they’d end up not listening to any of them. Oh, well. My point in all of this is that I like the fact TMBG released a “best of” collection made up of songs from all the different downloadable concerts.
As usual, the coolest songs are the ones where they do something different from what’s on the album. Even though I’m pretty sick of the song “Particle Man” itself, this version with John Linnell and Corn Mo both playing accordion is pretty cool. They play Corn Mo out with the Dallas theme song, which they used to introduce him in Philadelphia. The “glacially slow” version of “Drink!” is also nice, and I think I like this version of “Experimental Film” better than the studio one. It’s sloppier, but in a good way. There’s more enthusiasm and rocking-ness to it.
As someone on
tmbg pointed out, “John Lee Supertaster” is identified as being from Glasgow in the ID tags, but from San Francisco in the introduction. I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder. {g}Why does “Stalk Of Wheat” get so much louder as soon as the music starts?
How many live versions of “Fingertips” are they going to release? Oh, well. This one has a few neat touches. I love how John Flansburgh yells out, “YES!” during the “Aren’t you the guy who hit me in the eye?” part. He also does his Optimus Prime bit during “I’m having a heart attack.” Why can’t he ever remember that “I heard a sound” comes BEFORE “I turned around,” though?
Anyway, Almanac is pretty good, but Venue Songs is EXCELLENT. Since all of these songs were written quickly, it’s amazing to me how good a lot of them are. They kind of remind me of both State Songs (because a lot of them use the names of the venues without actually being ABOUT the venues per se) and the Battle of the Bands tracks (because several of them imitate the sounds of other bands and/or musical genres). They’re probably a little goofier than your average TMBG song, which isn’t to say that TMBG isn’t often goofy in their “normal” songs, but they’re rarely as over-the-top as some of the Venue Songs can be.
I believe the Johns said in Philadelphia that the venue songs don’t really have names. A few of them start out with one of them saying that the song has the same name as the venue itself, but the website only identifies them by the city names. I guess it’s no big deal either way. I’m going to list the city first, and then the venue name in parentheses. Feel free to correct me if I’ve made any mistakes.
Brooklyn (Prospect Park/Celebrate Brooklyn)—I saw this show! Okay, I was AT this show. To say I SAW it would be a bit of an exaggeration, considering how lousy my spot was. Not the best of the venue songs, but a good way to start things out.
Charlottesville (Starr Hill Music Hall)—I like this one, but I don’t have anything specific to say about it. It mentions rucksacks and selling kids.
Omaha (Sokol Auditorium)—Those guys MUST be into the Eurythmics! There’s a cool eighties electronic dance-type sound to this one.
Houston (Meridian)—A high-energy rock number, with mentions of a few Houston landmarks (well, okay, Interstate 45 and the Astrodome, which isn’t that many landmarks, but, hey, I don’t know the numbers of any of the highways in that area). Oh, and geckos.
Glasgow (The Garage)—There are, uh, multiple plays on the name of the venue here. Yeah.
Vancouver (Richards on Richards)—The bass riff reminds of the Pixies’ “Gigantic” (which was also the name of the TMBG documentary, for what it’s worth), but the rest of the song doesn’t. It’s about a girl, which isn’t exactly the first thing I’d think of when playing at a venue with such a masculine-sounding name. Maybe that’s why I’m not in TMBG, though. Well, that, and the fact that I can’t play any instruments. But I digress.
Asbury Park (Stone Pony)—While most of these songs seem to have a fairly positive vibe, this one is about getting kicked in the head. You sometimes have to wonder how they decide when a song will have a negative slant. Positive or negative, though, this is a pretty good song.
Albany (The Egg)—A lot of accordion in this song, which is cool. This one seems to actually be about the venue itself, and its unusual architecture.
Leeds (Irish Centre)—Another electronic kind of song. It’s good, but doesn’t really stand out for me.
Anaheim (House of Blues)—Is this what you would call skiffle music? It’s very much in the novelty vein, and includes some rather lowbrow humor. I think this is the first song where TMBG mentions defecation. There are also references to pornography and a crackpipe. It’s funny and unique, and is probably one of my favorites.
New Orleans (a different House of Blues)—More of a hard-rock sound to this one, sort of like “Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes” (which reminds me of how much cooler these songs are than the Apes tracks from Severe Tire Damage, not that those weren’t amusing in their own way). The opening line plays on the beginning of “House Of The Rising Sun,” but the rest of the lyrics are more along the lines of “Oregon,” with clever “the venue is coming to get you” types of lyrics. Resistance is futile!
Columbia (Blue Note)—I think this was the first of the venue songs I heard, since it was given away for free a while back, and it’s still one of my favorites. Very happy, bouncy, and catchy, with lyrics about candy. The beginning reminds me quite a bit of XTC’s “Then She Appeared,” musically speaking.
Santa Cruz (The Catalyst)—In Flans’s words, it’s “kind of a collision of our art-fuck background and the skateboard part of this town combined.” Sort of in the noise-rock vein, with amusing lyrics. Linnell mentions Avril Lavigne in the introduction, and it’s always cool when awesome musicians name-check shitty ones. {g}
Minneapolis (First Avenue Stage)—A really short song, but no worse because of that. It starts out with a quiet part about the band getting into a fight, and then gets loud. (Sheesh, that’s a lame description, isn’t it? Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing these song-by-song reviews, when I can’t think of anything to say about certain songs beyond “this is short, loud, and pretty cool.” Oh, well.)
Pittsburgh (Mr. Small’s Theater)—Oddly enough, I really can’t think of anything to say about this one. It’s a pretty fun song, though.
Tucson (City Limits)—There’s kind of a Western sound to this one, with lyrics about ghosts and curses. Pretty appropriate for Arizona, I suppose.
San Francisco (Fillmore)—Slow electronic song, naming various places in the city.
Memphis (Gibson Lounge)—Another fairly slow one. Linnell wants to redecorate his living room to look like the venue.
Charleston (The Music Farm)—Another pun-on-the-venue-name song, which pulls out all the stops in this respect, right down to mentioning government subsidies for music farmers.
Dallas (Trees)—The shortest track in the set. Not necessarily the shortest SONG, since most of them have talking at the beginning, and this one doesn’t. I’m not about to go back and calculate how much of each track is made up of actual music, though. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. This is pretty good. It uses pauses in the music to good effect. “Tell the Moon you’ve seen the serpent, found the sword, and walked among the trees.”
Hollywood (House of Blues)—Okay, how many venues that they played that had that name? It’s a completely different song from those other two, though, and is the best of the three. (Yeah, I know I already said the Anaheim one was one of the best, and it was, but this one’s even better.) It’s about other bands following TMBG around and copying them.
Atlanta (Variety Playhouse)—The lyrics largely consist of an extended comparison of the venue to a hospital. The song kind of reminds me of “No Answer.” Well, the part with singing does, anyway. Towards the end, there’s an extended (well, relatively so; it can’t be THAT extended when the whole thing is barely over two minutes long) guitar solo that sounds nothing like that unfortunately-still-unreleased song.
Farmingdale (The Downtown)—A short song about living on bar food at the venue. There isn’t that much more to say about it, really.
New Haven (Toad’s Place)—Yes, it’s another pun-filled song, but really, with a venue name like that, what else would you expect?
London (Astoria)—Another favorite of mine, although I can’t tell you exactly why. It’s just really catchy, I guess.
Raleigh (Lincoln Theater)—If you like name-checking, this is the song for you! Did they write the song on the spur of the moment after seeing a list of bands that had either played or was going to play at the show? I’m especially amused by the mention of Afroman, who, believe it or not, actually opened for TMBG at a show
bethje and I attended.Towson (Recher Theater)—I’m amused by Linnell’s mention after the first verse that “it’ll make more sense as it goes on.” I’m not sure he’s right about that, but this is a pretty funny song, so all is forgiven. {g} It includes the line, “I’ll jealously read your blog after the show,” which I’m sure online fans will appreciate.
St. Louis (Mississippi Nights)—One of the slower songs, but that neither helps nor hurts it. Flans mentions some other venues at the beginning, and has some comments on the venue’s location.
Philadelphia (TLA)—This is a show that Beth and I (as well as
onib and floatyfish) attended. I loved the song then, and, fortunately, it stands up to repeated listens. Like the Omaha song, there’s an obvious eighties influence to this one, although this is more over-the-top.Austin (Stubb’s)—This is the longest track on the “album,” but that might be largely because Flans talks for half a minute before they start playing it (not that that’s a bad thing). It also includes introductions for the band. So I guess it’s a little more padded than some of the other tracks, but hey. I wouldn’t say this is one of my favorites, but it’s still good.
Asheville (Orange Peel)—You never would have guessed that this is another song that plays on the name of the venue, would you? {g} Linnell gets a surprising amount of mileage out of the idea of singing from an orange peel’s point of view, and I like the solo. Nice way to end the collection.
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Date: 2004-12-12 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 06:42 pm (UTC)It looks like the Cambridge one is now closed, actually.
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Date: 2004-12-12 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-13 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-14 03:28 am (UTC)I didn't expect you to correct anything. :) I just read that you didn't know the venue name for the Dallas Show so I supplied it.
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Date: 2004-12-14 05:41 pm (UTC)