Ween Talking Shit About They Might Be Giants
Christopher M. Stangl
A fun quote from Gene Ween (of Ween, one of Chris' other favorite bands)
concerning pop combo They Might Be Giants (Gener's comments swiped from
"Rockpile" March '98, interview by Greg Roth):
"I think They Might Be Giants, they're good musicians, but they
seem to me like goofy college kids. I was never a goofy college kid...
They're just too tight-lipped and too smart. I don't like music that's
smart. I consider us smart, but when I try to write music, I don't try to
show off my intellect and come up with phrases that only my fellow smart
college friends enjoy, and that's what I think They Might Be Giants do. It
kind of pisses me off. I like music that the toothless fuckin' whore from
Detroit can listen to and relate to. They're just not my thing at all. I
would never sit down and be like 'Hey let's listen to They Might Be
Giants! Wow, listen to that! I get it!'"
-End remarks concerning TMBG.
-Rev. Chris Stangl, goofy college kid.
Annaofborg
http://members.aol.com/annaofborg
Annaofborg
Ween guy does has a point.
Istanbul is not the song to listen to when you've just been dumped, fired or
let down and are drowning your sorrows in Everclear and Diet Coke.
....but what's wrong with music that (at times) is a little goofy and upbeat?
Also, I doubt the Johns take out dictionaries when they're trying to write
songs.
Ween guy must have been feeling a bit jealous, defensive and angry at
prostitutes when he made his unfortunate remark and got quoted. Poor guy.
>>"I think They Might Be Giants, they're >>good musicians, but they
>>seem to me like goofy college kids.
>>I was never a goofy college kid...
Hmmmmmmm. Neither was I
>>They're just too tight-lipped and too smart.
Yet "Goofy" all the same.
>>I don't like music that's
>>smart. I consider us smart, but when I try to >>write music, I don't try to
>>show off my intellect and come up with >>phrases that only my fellow smart
>>college friends enjoy
...hmmmmmmm. I guess everyone considers themselves smart
, and that's what I think They Might Be Giants do. It
kind of pisses me off. I like music that the toothless fuckin' whore from
Detroit can listen to and relate to. They're just not my thing at all. I
would never sit down and be like 'Hey let's listen to They Might Be
Giants! Wow, listen to that! I get it!'"
-End remarks concerning TMBG.
-Rev. Chris Stangl, goofy college kid.
Rich Bunnell
>
> A fun quote from Gene Ween (of Ween, one of Chris' other favorite bands)
> concerning pop combo They Might Be Giants (Gener's comments swiped from
> "Rockpile" March '98, interview by Greg Roth):
> seem to me like goofy college kids. I was never a goofy college kid...
> smart. I consider us smart, but when I try to write music, I don't try to
> show off my intellect and come up with phrases that only my fellow smart
> kind of pisses me off. I like music that the toothless fuckin' whore from
> Detroit can listen to and relate to. They're just not my thing at all. I
> would never sit down and be like 'Hey let's listen to They Might Be
> Giants! Wow, listen to that! I get it!'"
> -End remarks concerning TMBG.
I've heard Ween described as "The stupid man's They Might Be Giants,"
and it may've gotten them annoyed if they'd ever heard that analogy
before--or maybe they've heard it and they're proud of it or something.
--
----------------------------------------------
Rich Bunnell or "Metal Man," whichever sounds more insane
-
"The white folks think they're at the top, ask any proud white male. A
million years of evolution, we get Danny Quayle." -Oingo Boingo,
"Insanity"
-
"You put your cleanest dirty shirt on, then you stagger down to meet the
dawn!" -XTC, "Wake Up"
-
http://members.xoom.com/taoster/
----------------------------------------------
The Great Quux
>
> A fun quote from Gene Ween (of Ween, one of Chris' other favorite bands)
I'm a very nice guy and I think we should all try to live in peace and
harmony and when I get up in the morning I say to myself that I'm going
to have a good day and do good things but Gene Ween should by castrated
and shot and hung and then hung and shot and castrated, in that order,
and then given to Michael Jackson free of charge and the before and
after photos should be published in every major tabloid in the country
with the title "A BIG FAT PHONY FUCKED UP THE ASS BY A SMALL SKINNY
PHONY" and it should be available at all the food shopping checkout
counters for the very low price of 99cents.
Thank you, and Goodnight!
Mr Me
The Great Quux
> to have a good day and do good things but Gene Ween should by castrated
> and shot and hung and then hung and shot and castrated, in that order,
Wow, that was pretty bad. I don't apologize though. :) I love usenet.
PS-I got my tickets for the 3/4 show, and THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS is
printed much bigger and over 'reel big fish' so i hope this means i get
more Giants for my money.
-- Mike Russo, www.walrus.com/~stardate, Brooklyn, NY --
Banach and Tarski had hoped that the physical absurdity of this
theorem would encourage mathematicians to discard AC. They were
dismayed when the response of the math community was `Isn't AC great?
How else could we get such counterintuitive results?'
Chadd VanZanten
So um, any Detroit whores on the group who can help us sort this out? Do you
like TMBG or not?
I tried to get into Ween once and found them pretty boring. Not terrible by
any means, but just nothing really to grab onto.
Okay then,
Chadd
SecretSPY
and they get the stupid ppl because supposedly people who go through college
make more money than people who don't , and therefore TMBG fans would be
more able to buy their material and see concerts more often then someone who
is just struggling to get by.. however not to say that u cant have a lot of
money and not have a college education. Just my own personal theory.
Rich Bunnell wrote in message <36C4C0...@ix.netcom.com>...
>Christopher M. Stangl wrote:
>>
>> A fun quote from Gene Ween (of Ween, one of Chris' other favorite bands)
the evils
|
| Istanbul is not the song to listen to when you've just been dumped, fired
or
|let down and are drowning your sorrows
I've got to agree here. I made the mistake of listening to TMBG in an
attempt to cheer me up when I was feeling pretty poor and instead became
convinced that they were a part of a massive conspiracy. That hidden in the
lyrics of all of their songs were clues to higher enlightenment which I just
wasn't grasping and secretly being mocked about behind my back. I tried as
hard as I could to 'listen now to the sounds of the things that are found
under the ground' but was unable to put anything together and fell into
quite a fit of paranoia and near mental collapse. which may have been the
necessary step to grasp what i wanted to know, i'm a big believer in the
power of insanity, but instead wound up appreciating the shells for their
own sake and shrugging off unnecessary depths.
Jim Spurrier
<mi...@stardatecomputer.com> wrote:
> "Christopher M. Stangl" wrote:
> >
> > A fun quote from Gene Ween (of Ween, one of Chris' other favorite bands)
> <quote snipped>
>
> <Mr. Me's frightening threat to Mr. Ween snipped>
Well, speaking personally, I like both TMBG *and* Ween. A whole helluva
lot. If Gene wants to hate TMBG, that's fine with me, because I still
like the Johns. A whole helluva lot. And if Flansburgh decided that he
hated Ween, I'd still like Ween, too. A whole helluva lot. Artists can
disagree with one another, and even openly dislike one another, but that
in no way means that there needs to be any sort of antipathy amongst their
fans. Just go have some fun!
--Jim Spurrier
Mr Show
>show off my intellect and come up with phrases that only my fellow smart
>college friends enjoy
oh boy, i can now be classified as a smart college kid!
PS
I do get it
[ [ [ [ be...@tmbg.org
http://members.xoom.com/yafka/
"i run a charity. we collect panties." - kids in the hall ] ] ]
Kevin Hayman
Kevin
> I'm a very nice guy and I think we should all try to live in peace and
> harmony and when I get up in the morning I say to myself that I'm going
> to have a good day and do good things but Gene Ween should by castrated
> and shot and hung and then hung and shot and castrated, in that order,
Kevin Hayman
Kevin
Christopher M. Stangl <cst...@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> wrote in article
<Pine.A41.3.95.990212...@red.weeg.uiowa.edu>...
>
I consider us smart,
Kevin Hayman
> about someone you like. We all say stupid things.
>
Maybe you're right. We are in a newsgroup, after all. I'll just have to
see for myself though. I've never really had an opportunity to just sit
and listen to Ween. I suppose I'll have to find the time.
Kevin
T3Dy
>Wait a second. That came out wrong. I'm in a bad mood.
>
>
> Istanbul is not the song to listen to when you've just been dumped, fired
>or
>
yuk, diet coke... never touch the stuff. regarding being dumped, I'd say
plenty of TMBG songs are perfect for that. Take she's an angel, or they'll
need a crane, or narrow your eyes...
>....but what's wrong with music that (at times) is a little goofy and upbeat?
>
>
>Also, I doubt the Johns take out dictionaries when they're trying to write
>songs.
>
>Ween guy must have been feeling a bit jealous, defensive and angry at
>prostitutes when he made his unfortunate remark and got quoted. Poor guy.
>
>
>
>
>
Sned The Bold Dragon *UDIC*
" 'Consciousness Expansion' went out with LBJ . . . And it is worth noting,
historically, that downers came in with Nixon."
-Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
GoodOmenz
oasis vs blur. kinda like the stupid brian jonestown/ dandy warholes thing.
and wont they be suprised when john flansburgh shows up at their door late one
night in a black suit and ray bans holding that scary square guitar with all
the mysterious dials and tells them to please step outside... just cuz the band
refuses to be a force to be reckoned with doesnt mean flans cant go out for
blood in his spare time
~liz
"heaven helps the dying soul to pass
and heaven helps the baby not grow up too fast
but since heaven hasnt helped me enough by half-
hell helps me laugh" -pinataland
http://members.aol.com/goodomenz/dates.html
MDJSK
>like
>oasis vs blur.
Except Oasis is high on cocaine half the time, and they're all a buncha jerks.
>kinda like the stupid brian jonestown/ dandy warholes thing.
...and you can see how well *their* fake fight did for publicity.
>just cuz the band
>refuses to be a force to be reckoned with doesnt mean flans cant go out for
>blood in his spare time
That's what Mono Puff is for, yeah.
-Jake
YourEv...@tmbg.org
http://www.angelfire.com/va/loserboi
"you think i got it all going my way,
then why am i such a fuckin' mess?"
-eels
Christopher M. Stangl
comment that "I consider us smart"):
> This from the guys who wrote "Push the little daisies" and "Homo Rainbow"?
1) Gene is talking about the difference between being an
intelligent person who doesn't feel the need to show it off every time
he writes lyrics (Ween) and being an intelligent person who writes
smart-ass puns for EVERY lyric (TMBG).
2) "Push th' Little Daisies" is a beautiful and complex song,
mostly being about a love so strong and fucked up it KILLS you. As
"Daisies" is a song where Ween (whose cheerful misogyny- and everything
else- is closer to the surface than TMBG) comes very near to stepping on
TMBG ground, I don't know why you're complaining!
3) "Homo Rainbow" is a complicated social satire, all the more
cherishable because our boys, even at their very most lovely and poetic
("Sarah," "Don't Laugh") clearly don't slave over their lyrics
particularly. TMBG are so "smart" they never would've even thought to
write lyrics like this.
4) TMBG DOES make music for smart ass college kids, and Ween does
make music that sounds exactly like a bad (or a good one) acid trip at the
trailer park... For what it's worth, I think Dean Ween's got guitar chops
that lay my man Flansburgh out on a cold slab. Ween knows what they're
doing, and, unlike TMBG, it may not always require ten English Lit majors
to decipher for you, but they're definitely hard working and smart.
5) Yo dude, Gene's the Stallion. Do you know who you are fucking
with!? You're fucking with the STALLION, mang! The STALLION!
-Rev. Chris Stangl
"Let me tell you about the fuckin' bitch, Deaner!"
-Brother Gener Weener "Common Bitch"
MariaSombrero
about the might be giants, i don't particularly care. (i saw them play once,
when i was like 16: one of 'em rode a mountain bike on stage. it was fuggin
stoopid).
SizzlerSis
>> Detroit can listen to and relate to.
I'm a toothless whore from Boston and I can relate to They Might Be Giants, so
eat me Dean and Gene.
Caitlin
"Isn't it a delight to rub people up the wrong way?"
(Andy Partridge)
Rich Bunnell
>
> as to what you said about ween, i agree wholeheartedly. as for what you said
> about the might be giants, i don't particularly care. (i saw them play once,
> when i was like 16: one of 'em rode a mountain bike on stage. it was fuggin
> stoopid).
>
Gee, that sure has a LOT to do with their music, now doesn't it?
Amanda
And I got friends even older who are even bigger TMBG fans than I am.
As much as I love TMBG's lyrics (which, by the way, are not so pun-laden
as you make them out to be), the unique sound of their music is what does
it for me. Show me one song on the radio in the past 12 months that
sounds anything like Birdhouse or Dr. Worm or Exquisite Dead Guy. And the
fact that so much of their stuff doesn't sound like so much of their
*other* stuff.
So it's geek rock. So what. So it helps to have a few brain cells to
appreciate their work. You got a problem with that? That's your personal
taste, and I don't fault you for it. I happen to prefer a song with
scientific facts about mammals to 98% of the redundant crud on the radio.
If all you hear is smart-ass puns, then it's not for you. Don't listen.
But don't attack TMBG and their fans just because you don't get them.
-Amanda
--
"Sexy in a Raphaelesqe under-grad Banana Republic sort of way."
-- Will Durst
The Great Quux
> sounds anything like Birdhouse or Dr. Worm or Exquisite Dead Guy. And the
> fact that so much of their stuff doesn't sound like so much of their
> *other* stuff.
Notice also how I can very quickly get tired of 99.999% of regular crap
they play on the radio (esp here in NY where radio is sucking big time
at the moment) but I NEVER get tired of hearing Their songs. :)
simon
writes
>If all you hear is smart-ass puns, then it's not for you. Don't listen.
>But don't attack TMBG and their fans just because you don't get them.
Chris make fun of TMBG? Have I slipped into an alternate universe
--
simon
LimeZinger
>appreciate their work.
i think the brain cells bit is not because of the lyrics, but that the people
who like tmbg generally ... uhm.. *do* because (for the most part) they're not
the stupid people who think music doesn't go beyond mainstream radio.
i could've worded this better, but i'm tired.
sarah
linne...@tmbg.org ~ icq:26873712
http://members.aol.com/limezinger/
"think i've lost my sense of humour, 'cause i can't seem to get a laugh;
i keep forgetting all the punchlines, and i can't make them up that fast" --
sloan
Christopher M. Stangl
> I haven't been a "smart-ass college kid" for nigh under ten years now
Your literal status as a registered, tuition-paying college
student is not the point, and you KNOW it. The POINT is, TMBG is smart,
and that manifests itself in very visible, obvious ways: they write
complicated, and they write with big words... and they dress, act, and
convey an entire demeanor of Goofy College Kids. Never mind that they're
twice as old as the average college student. If you don't see it in the
floppy haircuts and t-shirts and sneakers and hopping dances and coffee
consumption, then, to paraphrase William Gaines, explaining what Gener
meant by "TMBG seems like goofy college kids" to you is about like
explaining the joy of sex to a frigid old maid.
Ween is a different kind of smart which often disguises itself as
brain-dead ("I think you a fucker! An' he's a fucker too!"). Ween may take
little or no pleasure in Linnell's poetry, but that hardly means *I*
don't... or that I'm not willing to explain where Ween is coming from.
> As much as I love TMBG's lyrics
...which can't possibly be half as much as I do.
> not so pun-laden as you make them out to be
Show me a TMBG song with no puns, and I'll show you a song TMBG
didn't write. I tend to use "pun" to encompass all "word-play," because it
is "three letters long" instead of "eight letters long".
> Show me one song on the radio in the past 12 months that sounds anything
> like Birdhouse or Dr. Worm or Exquisite Dead Guy.
1) We might as well be talking about Ween, then, who followed up their
15-genre exploration "Chocolate & Cheese" with "12 Golden Country
Greats," a real-live Nashville record, and then "The Mollusk"
entirely fashioned out of "dark ocean-rock"... Show me two Ween
songs that sound the same.
2) Maybe you're not listening to the right radio stations. "Birdhouse" has
clear roots in plenty of '80s era power ballads, "Dr. Worm" in
big band and "Exquisite Dead Guy" in any number of a capella
traditions. The point isn't that TMBG invents genres, but that
they bend and fiddle with them in scary ways. They don't sound
like nobody else, they sound like ALL kinds of people singing, right?
3) Since when does Chris Stangl not love They Might Be Giants more than
his own mother?
4) Show me something on the radio in the past 12 months that sounds like
my cat vomiting... I can't do it, but that doesn't mean my cat
vomiting is particularly fun to listen to.
5) Nirvana sounds a good deal like the Pixies, and they were both great.
> So it's geek rock. So what
Listen, boys, this may come as a shock, but what I listen to,
it's all geek rock.
Understand the difference between Gene Ween's TMBG bashing and
words out of my own mouth, and understand that my willing and accurate
defenses of Ween do not in any way downplay the fact that I think John
Linnell is the savior of humankind.
> it helps to have a few brain cells to appreciate their work
Maybe. I also think that to entirely understand anything from Gary
Lewis and the Playboys, to Prince and the NPG, you need a healthy and
functioning wad of grey matter. This is serious business.
> You got a problem with that?
No. Ween does.
> That's your personal taste, and I don't fault you for it
It's okay to fault people for personal taste, so long as you're
willing and prepared to back yourself up properly. Your problem is simply
that you've failed to recognize that I would, without hesitation, name my
first born daughter Ana Linnell Stangl... if I weren't planning on
sacrificing said infant to the Gods of Flansburgh.
> 98% of the redundant crud on the radio.
So you like 2% of the redundant crud?
Ween hardly qualifies as redundant (they can hardly stick to one
genre all the way through a single song), and rarely write music that
could even be played on commercial radio if people WANTED to hear it.
> If all you hear is smart-ass puns, then it's not for you
What if I think those smart-ass puns are poetry to DIE for?
What if I think those smart-ass puns are to be taken more
seriously than any previous manifestation of the Word Of God?
What if the main reason I didn't post here last week was because I
was too busy composing a thirty-pager about TMBG's bird-and-skull logo
motifs?
> Don't listen
I would cut off three of my own limbs using a hacksaw fashioned
from my own femur and incisors before I would stop listening to They Might
Be Giants.
> But don't attack TMBG and their fans just because you don't get them
You don't know who I am, do you?
That's refreshing. My spare time is dedicated to doing little else
than "getting" They Might Be Giants, and light housework. Thank you for
your time.
-Rev. Chris Stangl
"Why did you play the Giants and say it was us...
what do you mean 'because there's two guys in the
Giants'? There's two guys in Simon and Garfunkle,
but you didn't play 'Bridge over Troubled Water'!"
-Dean Ween