They Might Be Giants Talk Flood

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Flood, the breakthrough 1989 album from They Might Be Giants. The album contained such hits “Birdhouse In Your Soul”, “Istanbul,” and “Particle Man,” and was the band’s first album to go platinum. It remains one of Frank Black’s favorite records.

They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh and John Linnell sat down with Rolling Stone recently to give an overview of each track.

Of album track “Lucky Ball and Chain”, Flansburgh says: “We have a lot of unreliable narrators strolling around our songs. This one isn’t so unreliable. It’s a simple regret song — kind of a ‘Here’s to the one that got away’ song — but the idea really turned on the title, which is very much in that country-western tradition.”

Of the conceptual head-scratcher “Dead,” in which Linnell confesses that he turned his little brother into his personal slave at age eight, the other John says: “There’s no real little brother; we would never confess something like that in a song. I think I ripped the vocal interplay off from the Proclaimers. There, I said it. Let the lawyers emerge, feathered helmets and jousting spears at the ready … The dreamlike relationship between returning expired groceries and returning from the grave after you expire appealed to me.”

Read the full article here.

They Might Be Giants tour dates:

# Oct 13: Indianapolis IN – The Vogue
# Oct 15: Cleveland OH – Special Flood Show! – Beachland Ballroom & Tavern – SOLD OUT!
# Oct 16: Pittsburgh PA – Special Flood Show! – Mr. Smalls Theatre — SOLD OUT!! —
# Oct 17: Kutztown PA – Kids Show – Kutztown University -SOLD OUT!-
# Oct 17: Kutztown PA – Kutztown University
# Oct 18: New York NY – Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
# Oct 28: Brooklyn NY – Music Hall Of Williamsburg (18+)
# Oct 31: Dallas TX – House of Blues Dallas (All Ages)
# Nov 03: Minneapolis MN – First Avenue (18+)
# Nov 05: Englewood CO – Gothic Theatre (17+)
# Nov 06: Salt Lake City UT – The Depot
# Nov 07: Salt Lake City UT – Murray Theatre
# Nov 08: Boise ID – Egyptian Theater
# Nov 10: Seattle WA – Flood Show – Showbox SoDo (21+)
# Nov 11: Portland OR – Crystal Ballroom
# Nov 13: San Francisco CA – Fillmore
# Nov 14: Los Angeles CA – Royce Hall
# Nov 14: Los Angeles CA – Flood Show – Royce Hall
# Nov 14: Los Angeles CA – Family Show – Royce Hall
# Nov 15: Santa Barbara CA – Family Show – UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall Theater
# Nov 17: Solana Beach CA – The Belly Up Tavern
# Nov 21: Philadelphia PA – (Family Show) – Theater Of The Living Arts (All Ages)
# Nov 28: Washington DC – (Family Show) – 9:30 Club
# Nov 28: Washington DC – (Rock Show) – 9:30 Club
# Dec 02: Boston MA – Borders @ Braintree (All Ages)
# Dec 03: New York NY – In-store – Barnes & Noble – Union Square (All Ages)
# Dec 31: Northampton MA – Kids Show – Calvin Theatre (All Ages)
# Dec 31: Northampton MA – Calvin Theatre