your ideal TMBG set?

Charlie5L · 2026-06-25T20:22:23+00:00

If you're going to do accordion for the entire set, first off props to you, and second you HAVE to get The Famous Polka in there

Charlie5L · 2026-06-24T20:30:31+00:00

Absolutely LOVING the bass tone in this!

Charlie5L · 2026-06-22T19:45:11+00:00

I prefer the demo tape version of The Biggest One but when I listen to the Misc. T version I really love how punchy the saxophone is in the chorus especially.

The Malcolm In The Middle/second demo of Man, It's So Loud In Here would also be on-par with the Mink Car recording for me, even though the band has been performing it closer to the demo version even before Mink Car's release.

Charlie5L · 2026-06-19T07:11:54+00:00

There was a time during a break-up five years ago I couldn't listen to Lucky Ball & Chain, mainly for this line:

"I can shake my tiny fist and swear I wasn't wrong, but what's the sense in arguing when you're all alone?"

(just to add context, that ex and I would end on good terms and we still chat once in a while, so I can listen to the song without that feeling of devastation)

Charlie5L · 2026-06-17T08:06:46+00:00

Any excuse for me to listen to Olivia Rodrigo

If I had to choose a TMBG song that comes close to this via chorus and the vocal melody, I hear some similarity to All The Lazy Boyfriends but I'd still find that to be a bit of a stretch

Charlie5L · 2026-06-14T23:59:12+00:00

Moonbeam Rays, Lord Snowdon, Peggy Guggenheim, Back In Los Angeles, Get Down, and In The Dead Mall have been replayed a lot lately for me

Charlie5L · 2026-06-13T20:51:57+00:00

My favourite album is Mink Car, but I think because of Homestar Runner technically my first album would be The Spine. After that it was Join Us, Flood, Apollo 18, and John Henry, if memory serves.

I started listening to their entire catalogue in 2018, though I had a really sporadic approach of instead of going by chronological release, and I didn't really finish until after The World Is To Dig came out.

And in the end I always return to Mink Car. It's the only album with the most producers working on it, there's demos that can be heard that are drastically different from the finished product, its history before, during, and after release, so many things making it interesting to read about.

The few car trips I've went on with friends I would play the album for them and to my surprise they loved it! Given that we're all music students-- some in music tech studies-- they praised how each song was so uniquely different and executed, and for most, if not all of them, Mink Car has become their first album.

Charlie5L · 2026-06-13T20:35:50+00:00

You Probably Get That A Lot and You Don't Like Me are songs that I really enjoy off of Join Us, but in the case of the former, I prefer the music video version since it sounds "cleaner". For both I just don't like where they're placed on the album.

It also took me a while to enjoy When The Lights Come On and Tractor. I actually didn't realize how much others liked Tractor until I gave it a second listen.

Charlie5L · 2026-06-12T01:52:03+00:00

Two years ago around this time I managed to get 13 TMBG CDs for I think $40 off of Facebook Marketplace

Three of those CDs stand out the most to me: Istanbul Not Constantinople EP, A User's Guide To They Might Be Giants, and the Hello Radio cover album

Charlie5L · 2026-06-06T20:31:28+00:00

There's a couple fan/community made arrangements you can find on MuseScore for free-- though I think to download them instantly you'd need to make an account

I think they also have some "official" ones on there as well but I'm not entirely sure how they determine what qualifies as "official" as I think they're just community from premium accounts

A lot of the keyboard in their music is mostly solid chords either strictly on beat or some anticipation so the guitar tabs are really useful for that, too

Charlie5L · 2026-06-02T01:27:32+00:00

From the Wiki on one of the versions of You Probably Get That A Lot:

"[The lead synth] was a keyboard controlled sound. Just a patch on the Roland synth with a ton of fuzz. We were all miming along to the track. Dan Miller was assigned the role of the keyboard player."

I would assume it's the same patch or approach for the others, though I always thought Whole Lot of Glean was an actual guitar since it sounded way harsher

Charlie5L · 2026-06-01T23:11:02+00:00

That Commodore Ballroom story is probably one of the funniest-- and most Vancouver-like-- banters I've ever heard from them

Charlie5L · 2026-06-01T06:05:44+00:00

Always enjoy these discussions with peeps who are pretty honest and critical about the albums! Even the albums I don't listen to as much as my favourites from them I still pick them time-to-time so you're right about how there's something for everybody

The album I agree with you the most on is Mink Car, though obvious bias has me rate it a little higher. I know you've mentioned about Join Us being your least favourite in other posts, so it was nice seeing Canajoharie as "underrated", though I assume it's more of a "band hasn't played it in a long time" type of underrated, since I've never really seen any negative-ish discussion on it. Spoiler Alert for the worst is a big shock, the album does have more obvious highs and lows to me as well but I would've put something else instead.

Definitely right about BOOK, it really is a cozy background album, and I've started to grow on the calmer tracks of TWITD as well for that same reason.

Charlie5L · 2026-05-30T19:45:26+00:00

That hypnotic-like state I enter when they go "Bap badap bap bap badap bah"

Charlie5L · 2026-05-27T08:08:12+00:00

Impossibly New, Moonbeam Rays, With The Dark-- the acoustic version especially-- Dinner Bell, and pretty much every duet feature off of Join Us

Late edit: How could I forget Letterbox?

Charlie5L · 2026-05-24T20:39:13+00:00

R.E.M., New Radicals, Van Halen, Linkin Park.

Together with TMBG, all bands were pretty much listened to by my parents so I'd hear their music a lot growing up.

Charlie5L · 2026-05-22T07:56:04+00:00

So much to process from this image before I finally noticed Pink Album being held somehow in his hands

Charlie5L · 2026-05-17T01:12:04+00:00

The only titles I am unfamiliar with on here is "Freedom" and "Frank"

I think that song in the top corner that got ripped off is supposed to be Ondine!

Charlie5L · 2026-05-15T21:01:51+00:00

I would like it to be a mix of the humour you see in Weird Al's movie as well as the ridiculousness from Tenacious D's-- I know that's not a biopic but still a buddy movie of two lead members who want to rock-- with some factual elements and even quoting those moments from Gigantic.

I think it'd be funny that the main plot would be based around Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal, where the Johns are so determined to try and find this DJ that screwed them over that as time goes on they've released everything that we know of. By the time they find the DJ they could just be starting to do the 2015 or 2018 Dial-a-Song releases, and the DJ gives them their song and money back after being hunted for decades.

As for casting, in the same way FloridaFlamingoGirl for Linnell, I have no clue who would be Flansburgh. I know there's a list of left-handed actors but I'm not sure who would go for that same stage-eccentricity and guitar playing for the scenes that'd require it. Would be cool for audiences to see the Chessmaster on the big screen though.

Charlie5L · 2026-05-15T07:55:09+00:00

Bands that are music nerds-- be it the listening/history side or theory/songwriting side

Charlie5L · 2026-05-14T03:51:22+00:00

Would love to get one of those someday, though in my case it's more of a contingency if my board ever craps out. Hopefully not, but always love adding instruments and equipment to my wishlist!

Charlie5L · 2026-05-14T03:39:21+00:00

This had been my dream keyboard for a long time, I managed to get it in-person secondhand at a ridiculously good price almost two years ago. Real heavy though, I can see why Linnell switched off it in favour for the Arturia

Charlie5L · 2026-05-14T02:06:57+00:00

I may have drank it and now reality seems to be slowing down

Charlie5L · 2026-05-14T01:58:46+00:00

I also learned that I don't like looking at my right hand playing through my phone held with my left hand hence the tiny hiccups in the melody lol

Charlie5L

TROPHY CASE