THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

Formed: 1982, Brooklyn, New York

Members: John Flansburgh, vocals (born Lincoln, Massachusetts, 6 May 1960); John Linnell, vocals, accordion (born Lincoln, Massachusetts, 12 June 1959).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Flood (1990)

Hit songs since 1990: "Birdhouse in Your Soul," "Twisting," "The Statue Got Me High"

The funny, kooky duo They Might Be Giants are truly in a class all their own. Childhood friends, John Flansburgh and John Linnell—or "the Johns," as their fans and family refer to them—formed a band in their late teens, developing a style that stems from the greater recesses of their imaginations, and songs that often take funny, unexpected turns. Their live shows are legendary, and they have formed a career out of what could be described as "novelty music," with songs about such topics as a triangle man, a birdhouse in your soul, or a shoehorn. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the band had reached a new level of success: They had sold more than 3 million records, and won a Grammy Award for the theme song to the Fox network's zany family comedy, Malcolm in the Middle. Their success is surprising because they are an unorthodox band and unlikely rock stars.

The Formation of Giants

They Might Be Giants, whose name is derived from the 1971 movie starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward, was formed in Brooklyn, where the pair moved after college. The Johns grew up outside of Boston and attended elementary and high school together. Linnell, singer, accordionist, and keyboardist, did not start to seriously pursue music until a year or so after high school. Flansburgh, who attended a few different colleges and ultimately dropped out, taught himself guitar. In 1981 they moved to the same apartment building in Brooklyn and started writing songs using a drum machine and tape recorder. They managed to find some gigs in the East Village; their first show as They Might Be Giants took place in February 1983. They quickly developed a cultlike following through their shows, generated record label interest, and started something unique in the music business: Dial-a-Song. The duo recorded new songs on Flansburgh's answering machine as the outgoing message, so that fans could hear material and leave their own messages, too. By 1988 the band had written 300 songs and received on average 100 calls per day.

With goofy titles like "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" and "Youth Culture Killed My Dog" the material on their self-titled debut fared well. With twenty songs and two cheaply produced music videos, They Might Be Giants gained some steady play on MTV and college radio stations. Thanks to MTV, their debut began to sell about 1,000 copies per month. Luckily for them, They Might Be Giants formed at a time when quirky bands were all the rage. In 1988 they released their second album, Lincoln, which fared even better. The album contains oddball songs like the accordion-driven "Ana Ng," the silly ode to 1960s nostalgia "Purple Toupee," and "Shoehorn with Teeth," whose chorus proclaims "He wants a shoehorn / The kind with teeth / Cause he knows there's no such thing." Nonsensical lyrics aside, these songs are a great example of the catchy, cleverly arranged and humorously felt nature of the duo's music.

A Flood of Success

The pair's career took off with the release of Flood in 1990. Flood spawned several hits during the heyday of alternative rock, when radio stations would devote entire programming segments to the likes of such unusual, underground music. The song "Birdhouse in Your Soul" peaked at number three on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. It did not matter that the idea of a birdhouse in your soul was ridiculous; They Might Be Giants let the world know that they were serious about creating music replete with unexpected images. The album's second single, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," is a zany, danceable cover of the 1950s song of the same name. Other notable tracks include the reggae-tinged "Particle Man" and the semi-serious "Your Racist Friend." Though critics greeted Flood with mixed reviews, the album, which borrows from polka, rock, folk, reggae, and even television jingles, remains the group's best seller.

The Johns followed up the album with Apollo 18 (1992), which they recorded with a full band for the first time. Although it did not fare as well commercially as Flood, it sealed their appeal to fans and continued the onward march of insanely titled music, with the odes "I Pallindrome I" and "My Evil Twin." Their follow-ups, John Henry (1994) and Factory Showroom (1996), were more or less ignored by the press but their popularity has never waned, due in part to the fact that their live shows are so enjoyable, replete with sing alongs and other gags that often involve audience participation.

Giants in Their Field

Toward the late 1990s, They Might Be Giants began to branch out into other media, releasing songs on their website for fans to download on their home computers. They wrote the mock-spy thriller song "Doctor Evil," reminiscent of James Bond films from the 1960s, for the Mike Myers film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). They expanded into other territories, including children's music, for the joyful batch of songs on No! (2002).

They Might Be Giants began as a duo whose eclectic, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach was seemingly at odds with fame, fortune, and full-fledged rock stardom. By the time the band celebrated their twentieth anniversary together in the summer of 2002 with a live show in Central Park in New York City the zany, talented duo had truly become giants.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

They Might Be Giants (Bar/None, 1986); Lincoln (Restless/Bar/None, 1988); Flood (Elektra, 1990); Apollo 18 (Elektra, 1992); John Henry (Elektra, 1994); Factory Showroom (Elektra, 1996); Severe Tire Damage (Restless, 1998); Mink Car (Restless, 2001); No! (Idlewild/Rounder, 2001). Soundtrack: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Warner Bros., 1999).

carrie havranek