They Might Be Giants Podcast 27A: John Henry Demos!
They Might Be Giants used to be my favorite band. I say “used to be” because their last few albums have kind of sucked. I mean, there’s still some good songs coming out, but I think they’ve jumped the shark (seriously, a kid’s album!?). Anyway, I subscribed to the TMBG Podcast since it’s free, and they occasionally play some rare stuff from their old glory days.
I just listened to their podcast 27A today, which has a crapload of demo versions of songs from John Henry. The songs are: Dirt Bike, No One Knows My Plan, I Should Be Allowed To Think, No One Knows My Plan, Out of Jail, Lullaby of Nightmares (which I think appeared on Long Tall Weekend), and A Self Called Nowhere. Unfortunately, nowhere does End of the Tour or Destination Moon show up. I guess they can’t put the whole album up…
The first real TMBG album I ever heard was John Henry. Or maybe it was Flood, but I liked John Henry more. I’m probably the only person who actually likes John Henry (it’s criticized a lot!). So it’s very cool to hear demo version of the songs that I’m really familiar with. It seems like the horn players haven’t really gotten their inflections into the songs yet, and the Johns also sing a bit more reserved.
If you’re one of the few TMBG fans that actually likes John Henry, I suggest you go grab the podcast and give it a listen. Incidentally, I’ve heard that their new album is good, but that might be only compared to the last two albums (Mink Car and The Spine) which were passable at best. I really do hope it’s good, but I’m not really in any rush to be disappointed.
For now, I still pledge my Nerd Rock allegiance to Jonathan Coulton.