This Might Be A Podcast

Tom Miller makes his debut on the show to talk about the Join Us track "Never Knew Love." We attempt to figure out if this is a happy or sad song, find a live version with a twist and play a couple of unique covers. 

Fresh off her first TMBG live experience, Jaya Crites is here to talk about a song they did not play and have never played live, "The House at the Top of the Tree" off of No!  She tells us about her concert experience and her rad dad getting her into TMBG as a kid, and then we talk about this fun, winding tune which has inspired quite a few covers for being a relatively deep cut.  

Jacob Freer-Balko is here to talk about the Stone Pony, immortalized on the Venue Songs track "Asbury Park." He tells us all about the venue, and we give many props to Marty and Danny as we discuss this swingin' tune. 

Thomas Tutt makes his debut on the show to talk about TMBG's cover of the Meat Puppets "Whirlpool" from the Why Does the Sun Shine? EP. We talk bari sax models, the Mountain Goats, and about embracing your true nerd self. 

On episode 200 (!!!) Cristina Fernandez makes her first appearance on the show to talk about "Daylight" off of Phone Power. We discuss Don Quixote, hear a duo performance of the song, and get a percussion question answered by Flans.

Jonathan Strickland of the iHeartRadio podcast Tech Stuff joins me to talk about "Atlanta," a song he was lucky enough to see debuted. He tells us all about that experience and the amazing venue The Variety Playhouse and we also talk Yoko Ono, and one not-so-pleasant TMBG live experience of his. 

Mike Buffington returns to the show to talk about the Here Come Science track "Computer Assisted Design. We talk about what works and what doesn't work with this track, and Mike schools us on the Joseph Gerber and some of the history of computer assisted design. 

Seymour Schmitt returns to the show for the Bed Bed Bed book/CD song "Impossible." We try to get to the bottom of this kid's tune and it's weirdness, touching on Captain Beefheart, Zappa and Ween along the way. Hear a few classic live recordings and a cover from Argentina. 

It's a crossover! Optometrist and podcaster Andrew May is on the show to talk about "Dr. Sy Fly" from The Escape Team to coincide with my appearance on Andrew's Daily Five where we talk about my top ten bands of all time throughout this week. Here on TMBP we manage to get into lots of TMBG-related lists before we break down this little Linnell ditty, and hear a parody cover from Andrew himself.   ...

Scott Greenberg makes his debut on the show to talk about "Mainstream U.S.A.", a deep cut collected on the Then double CD. Scott wrote a chapter of his master's thesis on TMBG, which has an accompanying podcast series and album, and tells us all about it as we get into the ins-and-outs of this incredibly bizarre tune. 

On this monolithic episode of classic Lincoln track "Shoehorn with Teeth," Jared Pike and Alex Botkin team up and make their second appearances. We'll tell you the childhood story that inspired the song, and we talk shoehorns, glockenspiels, live versions crossing three decades and covers almost as vast, all in an attempt to do this epic song justice. 

Glory McElheny makes her TMBP debut to talk about the undisputed banger "Metal Detector" off of Factory Showroom. We talk about the book Buried Treasure of Casco Bay which inspired the song, actual metal detectors, and moog synthesizers. We also found a wide range of live versions of the song and we attempt to narrow down our choices of covers. 

Marvel comics editor and ukulele cover artist Jordan D. White makes his debut on the show to talk about a comic-related song, Chip The CHiP! It's the first Escape Team episode in over two years and we make up for lost time with tons of comic talk, CHiPs TV reminiscing of sorts, and trying figuring out what Linnell is doing with his voice. Plus, covers by our very own Noah Daniel and one by Jordan...

Greg Lindberg returns to the show after more than two years to talk about the sadly-still-relevant song Your Racist Friend, visiting IN PERSON at Velour Underground Studios. We do some catching up, talk about a bunch of goofy stuff kind of related to the song, and diss some racist bastards (take a drink if you can guess who). We play both demo versions, a ton of rad live versions, and an eclectic...

Jonathan Leonard is the first inductee into the FIVE-TIMERS CLUB, returning for an episode on fan-favorite deep cut "Certain People I Could Name" off of Long Tall Weekend. A nice mailbag starts the episode including some more well-wishes for Flans and a special treat made by a fan, then onto the episode with much samurai movie talk, Elvis Costello comparisons, and covers by friends and strangers a...

Old Punknews friend Tori Pederson visits to talk about the classic spooky Pink Album track 32 Footsteps. We catch up and talk punk journalism, Mr. Bungle, Ween and I Think You Should Leave, then we dive into the song to figure out what makes it's creepiness so effective and addictive to listen to. Custom cover supplied by Appalachian/old-timey folk & TMBG mashup team The Number Three, featuring pa...

Couple Jennifer Noelle and Dominic Linde are on the show together to talk about a shared favorite song, "Happy Doesn't Have to Have an Ending" from the Bed Bed Bed accompanying CD. The three of us discuss the John's entry into children's music with No! and this book, and break down what makes this song so successful, and how it introduces kids to unfamiliar terms and concepts in a fun way. Also, y...

Elizabeth Sandifer co-wrote the 33 1/3 book on Flood (with former guest Alex Reed) and is here to talk about a non-Flood song, "Become a Robot" from TMBG's 1985 demo tape and collected on Then: The Early Years. Hear us attempt to decipher one of the most bizarre songs in a career full of bizarre songs. We play the only live clip of this song in existence, and Greg, Cara and little Zinnia create th...

Good friend of the show Cari Hearn returns for her umpteenth time for another TMBP My Murdered Remains song episode. We get real classical on this thang, talkin' chord progressions, singing timbres and violin technique (is your violin sponge-worthy?), as well as plenty of sci-fi nerd talk. Also, hear TWO covers by Cari that are vastly different!

*Listen to the pre-episode introduction for a special "get well soon" message from the TMBP listeners.* OG fan Stanley Allen makes his first appearance on the show to remind Greg of the greatness of Rowboat Mayor, another My Murdered Remains track. They discuss music of all types that informed their fandoms of TMBG and ponder young Flansburgh's own fandoms of punk and post punk bands that could ha...

Brit Nick Jackson finally makes his first appearance to talk about a tune far, far down on John Henry's tracklisting, "Out of Jail." We talk at length about how this song deserves more love, why the demo rules, why it should be played more live, and demonstrate the massive amounts of fan love for this song by rounding up a bunch of sweet covers, including Nick's own cover, which Greg jumped in on...

Iowan Rachel Jones makes her first appearance on the show to talk about the weird little old TMBG rarity "Birds Fly". We dig around to try and figure out the true age of this song, unearth the one and only live performance of the song, and get two custom covers including Rachel's own cover from the Purple Toupee comp! This episode (and the next 5) is edited and mixed by the amazing Avren Keating o...

Joel Yalowitz, known around TMBG cover communities as Guest/Host, is here to talk about the More Murdered Remains tune Prepare. We talk about the tragedy that song got booted from Nanobots, dissect what makes it so cool, and listen to a few awesome covers, one by Joel himself.

Meredith Pryce makes her debut on the show to talk about this beloved early b-side. We talk about the 80's children's book and how John Linnell is lying that he never heard of it, we talk about what makes this song the best b-side in their entire career and we find a million great covers in a million styles.

Adam Goren aka Atom & His Package returns to the show to talk about the song we covered for the Purple Toupee compilation, "Alphabet of Nations" from Here Come the ABCs. We have a ball talking geography, teaching, this rad song obviously, and also learn about his awesome new band Dead Best.