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May 6, 2006
or i'm still alive and there's nothing i want to do
it's not every day that you can step through the front door like a ghost into the fog that is your local music venue - brimming with confidence that you will definitely be the coolest person in the room. last night was one of those moments for me as i celebrated cinco de mayo at the exit/in with everyone's favourite novelty act they might be giants.
of course it doesn't matter how cool and/or confident i may have felt about myself as i walked through those doors because once inside i took my place amongst the throngs and sang my heart out to every single song. they opened with new york city from factory showroom followed immediately by birdhouse from their most popular album flood and then proceeded to rock the faces off of each and every person in the room.
and seriously, how is it that after all of these years this band is still dismissed as an oddity rather than an actual viable musical force? they really are musical geniuses when it comes to things like melody and song structure and every time i've seen them live i've been left with the impression that they have just put on the b.e.s.t. live show i've ever seen. and last night was no exception.
and certainly there were folks in the audience who were only interested in hearing songs from flood - one gentleman in particular became very intoxicated and angrily asked why they would not play minimum wage "it's only 8 seconds long" he said - "why don't they just play it"
of course they didn't play it but that guy didn't really care - he was too busy lighting up another smirnoff ice. and the four minute guitar intro to istanbul (not constantinople) alone was worth the price of admission.
so many bands have come along and tried to imitate the tmbg sound but few have succeeded. even my beloved unicorns (who really were more than horses) could not escape from the fringes into the mainstream. possibly because their songs are much too dark and lack the educational bent to ever be featured on a show such as tiny tunes
and i realize at this stage in their career it's probably too much to hope for that this band will ever become wildly popular - especially considering most have their recent albums have lacked some of the latent charm that was present during the early years. still - if you ever see that they might be giants are playing in your town - build a little birdhouse in your soul and go see them play. you will not be disappointed.
and so here in no particular order are my personal favourite they might be giants albums - john henry; flood; lincoln; they might be giants; appolo 18. if you don't own at least one of these albums i'm embarrassed for you. i love music.
| By young_christopher | 11:05 AM