CD Reviews

They Might Be Giants | Join Us

Idlewild/Rounder (2011)

By ZETH LUNDY | August 3, 2011

3.0 Stars

I don't formally speak for all TMBG fans, but I think I speak for most TMBG fans when I say that every post-John Henry studio release has been greeted with crossed fingers and a mantra: "Pre-John Henry caliber." Admittedly, TMGB's 1994 transitional album is old news, and they are definitively no longer a duo operating under the necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention methodology. So, cautiously, I submit that Join Us, their 15th album and first non-children's release in four years, has that old-school TMBG feel, as if the Unlikely Rock Band ditched the self-conscious weirdo-geek shtick for a more genuine weirdo-geek non-shtick shtick. You've heard this line before, no doubt. Still: Linnell's delightfully circuitous melodies, in particular, are labyrinthian goodness. Songs eligible for immediate canonization include the funky-strange horn jam "The Lady and the Tiger" and the venom-delivered-with-a-smile jingle "When Will You Die" ("This is Dan and that's Dan/And there's Marty on the drums to complete the band/And I'm John and he is also John and all of us are wondering/When you're gonna die"). Flansburgh answers with the Who-ish "Judy Is Your Viet Nam" and the exquisitely off-kilter "Three Might Be Duende," smuggled in between your everyday songs about cephalophores, evolution, and cartography.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS | Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston | October 1 + 2 @ 7 pm | $25 | 617.266.7455

Glen Hansard | Rhythm & Repose
The Frames' Glen Hansard releases Rhythm & Repose, his first solo album, having created an unusual juggernaut with Once .
Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008
Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.
Rickie Lee Jones | Balm in Gilead
It’s astonishing to think that Rickie Lee Jones would turn out an album this organic and free of cynicism 30 years after her debut with the star-making, retro-hipster hit “Chuck E.’s in Love.” Particularly since her songwriting has always been so acutely self-aware.
A band, a part
My lingering qualms with Devendra Banhart's new album have very little to do with its substance and more to do with its consistency, a quality that throughout What Will We Be? seems present only in its glaring absence.
Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968
More than three years in the making, the most recent installment of Rhino's legendary archival garage-rock series offers an amazingly comprehensive excavation of an absurdly fertile scene.
Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970
Girl-group records are great and everything, yet the countless compilations out there were becoming a little hit-or-miss until 2005, when the great Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set finally gave this diverse genre a proper taxonomy.
Best in their field
The jazz scene continues to struggle — along with everyone else — through hard times.
Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010
The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.
Bearstronaut | Broken Handclaps
There's a distinct absence of wildlife or astronauts on Lowell electronica quartet Bearstronaut's latest release.
Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo
Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.
Review: Needy Visions | Needy Visions
The Needy Visions are all about fun, and goddamn do I wish I had their latest homonymous release at the beginning of summer.
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Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Berklee Performance Center, They Might Be Giants, More

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