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Movie Review: Gigantic
The documentary is a solid mix of band history and irrelevant pieces (would you expect anything different?). While I can not say that I got a good history on how the two Jon's actually started playing together from the documentary, I did learn a lot about their early successes and the director did a wonderful job of putting together scenes from different periods to give the audience an idea about how the band's early years were. The documentary does reveal how "Dial A Song" got started after a biking messenger accident left Linnell unable to play. We even get to see some photos, complete with price tag, of the actual machine. Flansburgh talks for a bit about how personal "Dial A Song" is and the entire experience of getting to be one with the machine.
The documentary was shot in video and in places comes out a little grainy. Some of the concert scenes definitely show off some of the short comings of the medium (this is not Lucus style digital filming). Despite this the film had a fully packed house during its opening in Seattle and the theater had to turn away 150 people at the door.
The director mentioned that their last showing of the film at SXSW had similar sized crowds. Hopefully this will mean that some distributor will pick up the film so the more people will get a chance to see it. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities that it will be playing in, and you love the band's music I can easily recommend going to see it.
...if all of the previous posts are trolling?
Anyway, does anyone know how this is being distributed? I'm a big TMBG fan, but I don't know how I'll ever actually get to see this movie...
...is this film eventually going to be made available on video or something for those of us living in the back of beyond?
Does anyone know?
I can't exactly take off work and drive to one of the remote places where it's showing, but I'd love to see it anyway.
"...even two hours worth of staring at a black screen, and as long as they played some music I would have loved it."
Doesn't this make your review pretty worthless?
all you people who post about linux instead of the topic are just silly billies. I love the johns. During the Sunshine Tour I got to see them in Michigan and happened to find out that afterwards they'd be doing an intimate show at the local Tower Records... price of admission: canned food for the needy. Off we went to the supermarket :)
I got to sit on the floor of tower records, front row... and watch the Johns & band play. It was awesome. My friend Ben adn I even reached out pre-show and touched the coveted accordion. Whooooa. Been lovin their stuff for years now.
John Henry made me scared that they may turn mainstream... but that fear passed as their lyrics stayed insane. Phew!
Here's to all the johns.
Checkout this website too... they did the soundtrack for it: www.ChoppingBlock.com
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
geeks are cats who dig a certain kind of cool
It bothers me when people refer to people as 'terrible musicians'. Music, like many art forms is subjective. I never got the appeal of Picasso, but I don't think he's a 'terrible painter'.
The thing about TMBG is you have to have very eclectic taste in music to appreciate them. Their style is all over the place, and you can't just hear one or two songs and know what they sound like. If you were to play 'Boss of Me', 'Particle Man', and 'A Self Called Nowhere' next to each other, a newcomer would be hard pressed to believe it's the same band.
The depth of their songs comes from figuring out what exactly they're about. Their songs are rarely simply nonsense, they just don't ever directly tell you what they're supposed to mean.
'Birdhouse In Your Soul' for example. Here's a song that seems to make very little sense at all. The trick is that if you pay attention, it's a song written from the perspective of a nightlight shaped like a canary.
Someone once told me song lyrics are like poetry with a learning disability. TMBG lyrics are like poetry with a severe case of insomnia that can't stop giggling...
Damn, I want that movie more than a rock to tie a piece of string around.
shit
Honest to god truth... when I got the tickets I had no idea what the movie would be about. I got my hopes up and was let down - BIG TIME.
Of course having one of the John's, Flansburgh that is, plus the director AJ Schnack show up to the screening only added to the value.Why?
WHERE is my PROVOLONE
... anyone know why?
HERE!.
I'm curiously aroused by the picture
*Everybody* wants a rock to tie a piece of string around.
They aren't about being funny. They are about making the music they want to make. They cover many styles of music across their 9 albums. Their songs sometimes describe very odd people or settingsm but they usually tell a story too. In fact, "I've Got a Match", for example, is a song about a guy fighting with his girlfriend and finally leaving her. He's calling insensitive and hurtful, and tell her "I've got a match - Your embrace and my collapse". They tend to use somewhat silly lyrics, but they get the point across.
(BTW, the original phrase is "I've got a match - your face and my as*")
And I actually USE Linux.
Umm.. wow.. all I see is trolls..
We can't watch this movie? It's only played twice? Then why the heck is it being reviewed??? So some elitist Ebert wannabe can brag about how cool he is, that he got in when others were turned away? What's the point of this review? Might as well review a 9.5mm silent movie from the 20s.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
TMBG used to have an inovative service called "dial-a-song". You call a phone number which is answered by a restored vintage answering machine and listen to an unreleased song. A computer hooked up to the answering machine changes the song to another unreleased song once an hour.
The album liner notes always said something like "Remember, the call is free if you call from work".
I just noticed that they now have a dial-a-song webpage, which is also free when you connect from work!
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
It does'nt say where the movie will play or when.
/.), why would somebody make a website for a movie that I have no chance of seeing?
It does'nt provide a link or instructions on how to write to encourage my local theatre to play it.
As a fan, if they showed it anywhere near here, I'd go see it.
Unless I missed something (which I'll admit is possible.. the site is slow due to
The Internet is generally stupid
Egg man, egg man, you still haven't brought me my eggs, egg man!
...that's actually one of the most on-topic posts so far...
(For those not familiar with TMBG, I'm not being sarcastic.)
Seeing as my original post got modded down as off-topic, despite having a legitimate question (my fault I know, I should have just asked the question and forgotten about the trolling joke), I'll ask it again:
Where can I see this film? Is it going to be sold on DVD? Is it going to be at every major film festival in the country? Has it been available on Gnutella since last January?
The point of a review is to let people know whether or not they would want to watch it. It would be handy to know exactly how we can watch it.
egg man, where are my fucking eggs already, damnit!!!
Forget about the movie...This reviewer's AMAZING!! I mean, he's 100000000^23 times better than Katz!! I hope we have a replacement on our hands.
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
I used to really like TMBG, and I still do but just not as much in a daily-quoting, obsessive kind of way.
John F. had a really great idea back in the 90's to send out ten CD EP's a year (by new artists and old) for $42, and he even threw in a cool extra now and then. BUT: like all mail-order, problems happen, only some of which I can blame on him and the lady who ran the operation with him. One year I didn't get the extra goodie, which was a CD by TMBG, and I let her know that it hadn't arrived. I don't know if she thought I was trying to scam an extra copy out of them or something but they wouldn't send a replacement. I signed up for the next year anyway, but at the end of that year when I tried to re-up no luck even though I left them messages several times. Hello CD-of-the-Month still existed for another few years but I guess they didn't want to sell any more to me -- and by association, I became somewhat disillusioned with TMBG's output.
Still wish I had the rest of the Hello CDs, though.
hey.
i've got a mirror going:
mirror
the movies are here:
movies
have fun.
-- john
I don't read this site to read quick advertisements for .
Huh. When Schnack was the president of the student body at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I thought for sure he'd end up being just another corporate music whore. Probably had something to do with the the painstakingly written lyrics to REM's "The End of the World As We Know It" on his office wall, which was, even then, an approved rebellion song. Guess I was wrong. Or is TMBG also one of those bands clearly approved for acceptance by those who think they're indie and non-mainstream but aren't? Posting anonymously to prevent AJ from spilling *my* student history.
http://www.seattlefilm.com/
What's next, a review of the Republican National Convention? Article just not relevant...Article JUST NOT RELEVANT!
TMBG does a fair number of covers (sometimes without people realizing they are covers)... in fact Flansberg once introduced 'Why does the sun shine' with, "Here is another song we didn't write; people seem to like that"... anyways, point being, the song 'New York City' which is featured in both the trailers was originally written and performed by a Vancouver all female trio called Cub, and, as much as I love TMBG to death, Cub's version is better. ;)
.... yeah.
P.S. Cub toured a bit with TMBG on the Factory Showroom tour... and Cub had (at the time) 2 members named Lisa... so I imagine the introductions went something like, "John this is Lisa. Lisa, John. John this is Lisa. Lisa, John. John this is Lisa. Lisa, John. John this is Lisa. Lisa, John."
It was actually pretty cool. Those guys are total geeks, in every sense of the word. The only catch with the movie is the ending scene, those of you who have seen it know what I'm talking about. The director should have cut it.
Some guy commented about Austin's SXSW being "elitist". I'm not sure what he's talking about, there were a few empty seats for the premiere! Anybody could have gone for 8 bucks.
If you're a big fan, go see the movie!
Tips and Tricks for Mozilla
"The Statue Got Me High", oh wait I did that to myself =\
Hmm... Here's a good game! Name (in your opinion) the three songs that contrast most strongly.
My vote goes to:
Stomp Box
Lie Still, Little Bottle
We Want a Rock
If Triangle Man and Your Racist Friend had a fight, would Triangle win?
:10 of Hearing Aid?
Or, can you build a little Birdhouse In Your Soul with Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love?
And shouldn't this film be about a Road Movie To Berlin?
I feel like I've learned a lot from TMBG: Pet Rocks are cool, accordian music can be really groovy, and you can be a total nerd and still be a rockin' musician.
On a serious note, does anyone know what the backmasking is in the first
a value added movie? cripes, where on this planet do I escape marketers?
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
They could always sleep their way to the top, but I'll bet their alarm clocks always wake them right up...
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.
You really should give credit to Diablo, as your .sig is a quote directly from him. Just a thought. :)