Perhaps it’s poetic license that has seen They Might Be Giants—Johns Flansburgh and Linnell—through a voluminous series of ups, downs and holding patterns over its three decades in operation. TMBG’s second adult album in five years and its 16th overall, Nanobots (Idlewild/Megaforce) boasts 25 new songs. Much of Nanobots takes advantage of what is now a fully acclimated quintet that also includes guitarist Dan Miller, bassist Danny Weinkauf and drummer Marty Beller. “We’d been functioning as a two-piece for 10 years, and we really just sort of talked ourselves into it,” says Linnell of the bumpy transition, which began in 1992. “It’s still John and I making the decisions, but we lean heavily on the other guys for a lot of the musical resources. It’s a benevolent dictatorship.” Flansburgh will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new TMBG feature.
Flansburgh: My family has two long-haired cats. While they look “fancy,” in fact they are very lazy about their grooming; they shed a lot. This fact has frequently undermined my long-held desire to not look like a complete hobo/weirdo at various “grown up” functions. Until recently, nothing could really hold back the tide of their ever-present, clingy cat hairs. Brushing combs on them? Useless. Rollers and tape on me? After extreme effort—meh results. That all changed when we met our friends David and Catie. David and Catie owned a big hairy dog, two cats, as well a lot of sheep, so they were not strangers to the world of hairy, hairy animals. They were also elegant people, and routinely arrived at restaurants and cultural events looking remarkably grown up. Their secret? The FURminator. Yes. The name is embarrassing. What is the FURminator? It is a life-changer. It’s a metal long-toothed comb with what seems like a recessed blade. The device seems to be able to get to the animal’s undercoat and extract an impossible amount of hair. The FURminator is expensive—like $40—which I never would have spent if I hadn’t seen how well it works. We’re talking enough hair to think about spinning it into yarn. Here’s a lady using it on a big dog. Skip to the end; it’s insane how well this thing works. Everything is different now.
Video after the jump.
