Cub & NYC
THAT SOPKO GUY
Has anybody heard Cub's version of NYC? I think I heard Flans say
they recorded it first, but could be wrong.
Canadian
00tr...@bsuvc.bsu.edu (THAT SOPKO GUY) wrote:
> Has anybody heard Cub's version of NYC? I think I heard Flans say
>they recorded it first, but could be wrong.
Yeah, they recorded it about 2 years ago. It's the exact same length as
the TMBG version (I played em both at the same time. Weird. =) I like
both versions about equally, but the cub version is "cuter" while the
TMBG version is "Weirder" (hey, you got Johns saying that everything is
beautiful when you're young and pretty =).
--
Chris Foley (chr...@iceonline.com)
elgo...@aol.com
Yes indeed...it's on Cub's album "Come Out Come Out"...a bit slower than
TMBG's version and more indie-sounding. I like 'em both.
Lawrence P Solomon
Excerpts from netnews.alt.music.tmbg: 5-Dec-96 Cub & NYC by THAT SOPKO
G...@bsuvc.bsu
> they recorded it first, but could be wrong.
Yup. It's very... um... different. The words are mostly the same, but
the instrumental backing is much simpler. It's in the key of G (as
opposed to E, like it is on Factory Showroom - but in June, Mono Puff
played it in G), and doesn't have the instrumental intro or ending.
It's just guitar, bass, and drums, but it's really cool. It's on cub's
second album, "Come out, come out." Unfortunately, there are very few
stores in the US that carry it. (I managed to find it at Tower)
The story behind it goes...
(taken from interview with Robynn Iwata [cub's guitarist] done by
cyg...@io.org [Scott Simpson]. Full interview in Real Audio at
http://www.io.org/~cygnals/cub/cubhome.html - there's a link to it)
(sorry if you were planning on transcribing/posting this anyway. it
seemed appropriate here - I hope I didn't break any copyright laws by
posting it)
S: How did that all happen, with They Might Be Giants?
R: Well... They Might Be Giants... the thing was that a long time ago...
almost 8 or 9 months ago... we got a call from these people saying that
Mono Puff, one of the Johns' side projects, wanted to do New York City.
So we were like 'woohoo, that's great, oh my god, yay!' And so we went
through the whole process of... going through the paperwork... saying
yes, you can do it and all that stuff, and then the record came out and
it wasn't on there, and we were just like 'oh, no...' but then, we'd
like given up at that point, and then suddenly, the They Might Be Giants
thing has come out and we hear hey there's a song called New York City
on it, and oh... it's ours. I quite like it, actually, y'know, the
thing is I love all the They Might Be Giants stuff that I've heard so
far, which is a lot, and I've seen them a number of times, and love
them, so it's really good to hear something completely different from
your own, y'know. It's really flattering.
S: They said that they changed the words because some of them were
unintelligible. Couldn't you just have corrected them?
R: Is that why? We were wondering 'cause some of them are so far away
from... and y'know like... King Kong, Dylan? King Kong... Dylan.
Statue of Liberty... Empire...
S: [unintelligible] understand the words frankly in your version anyhow?
R: Well, there's like... there's like... 'Empire State where King Kong lived.'
S: Oh, is that what the words are?
R: Yes. And he said Dylan, and we're goin' like 'How'd he get Dylan...'
Dylan Thomas? Bob Dylan? I don't think they've lived anywhere near the
Empire State Building.
S: So they had... they had 'Co-op City, Katz's and Tiffany's.'
R: Yeah, I know, we were goin' like... we heard it and we're like...
'What?' So we were wondering if they had a secret meaning behind
changing all the stuff... oh well.
S: [Well? I'll?] ask them about that...
R: They could have asked... we're going to find out exactly why...
So we learned three main things from this:
1. TMBG's version is, technically speaking, a cover of a cover, because
apparently TMBG never called again to say they were covering it, but
Mono Puff had the rights, so TMBG used that - but if you notice the
credits on the album, it was recorded by Mono Puff, not TMBG (mostly,
anyway - it's like Mono Puff plus John Linnell)
2. cub, or at least one member of cub, likes TMBG.
3. They are just as confused about the lyrics as we are. :)
Frank J. Perricone
On 5 Dec 96 14:01:34 -0500, 00tr...@bsuvc.bsu.edu (THAT SOPKO GUY) wrote:
> Has anybody heard Cub's version of NYC? I think I heard Flans say
> they recorded it first, but could be wrong.
A preview is available on Cub's web site, whose address eludes me at the
moment (but I bet Yahoo or Alta Vista could find it for you), for download.
It's the whole song, but in a sound quality that makes Dial-A-Song sound
hi-fi.
--
* Frank J. Perricone * hawt...@sover.net * http://www.sover.net/~hawthorn
Just because we aren't all the same doesn't mean we have nothing in common