They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants (TMBG) are an American^{Music of the United States} alternative rock band who began as a duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and currently also includes Marty Beller, Dan Miller^{Dan Miller (guitarist)}, and Danny Weinkauf. Formed in 1982^{1982 in music}, they are best known for an unconventional and experimental style of alternative music^{Alternative rock}. The group has found success on the modern rock^{Modern Rock Tracks} and CMJ^{College Media Journal} charts, in the children's music genre, and in theme music for several television programs and films.

TMBG's best-known songs include "Birdhouse in Your Soul^{Birdhouse in Your Soul (song)}" and their cover version of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (both from the 1990 album, Flood^{Flood (They Might Be Giants album)}), "Don't Let's Start" (from 1986's They Might Be Giants^{They Might Be Giants (album)}), and "Ana Ng" (from 1988's Lincoln^{Lincoln (album)}). Their appearances on the television show Tiny Toon Adventures also brought attention to their songs "Particle Man" and "Istanbul". Their song "Doctor Worm" was a surprise hit in Australia, ranking 13th in the Triple J Hottest 100 for the year 1998. Two TMBG albums have been certified gold^{Music recording sales certification}: Flood^{Flood (They Might Be Giants album)} and the 2005 children's music album Here Come the ABCs. Flood has also been certified platinum.

Their song "Boss of Me" served as the theme to the Fox Television Network comedy series Malcolm in the Middle and earned them a Grammy Award^{Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media} in 2002. They have also contributed theme songs to Comedy Central's^{Comedy Central} The Daily Show, adult swim^{Adult Swim}'s The Oblongs, The Drinky Crow Show, Disney Channel's^{Disney Channel} Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Higglytown Heroes, along with a commercial for Cartoon Network's^{Cartoon Network} shows Dexter's Laboratory and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

TMBG were the subject of the 2003 documentary film Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns), directed by AJ Schnack. The band has sold over 4 million records in total.

Linnell and Flansburgh (often nicknamed "the two Johns" or "John and John") first met as teenagers growing up in Lincoln, Massachusetts. They began writing songs together while attending Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School but didn't officially form a band at that time. The two attended separate colleges after high school (Flansburgh attended Pratt Institute), and Linnell joined The Mundanes, a New Wave^{New Wave music} group from Rhode Island. The two reunited in 1981 after moving to Brooklyn (to the same apartment building on the same day) to continue their career.

In the rest of 2007, They Might Be Giants wrote a commissioned piece for Brooklyn-based robotic music outfit League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots and performed for three dates at the event, and covered the Pixies "Havalina" for American Laundromat Records Dig For Fire - a tribute to PIXIES compilation.

The band's thirteenth album, Here Come the 123s, a DVD/CD follow-up to 2005's critically-acclaimed Here Come the ABCs children's project, was released on February 5, 2008. On April 10, 2008, They Might Be Giants performed the song "Seven" from the album on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 2009, the album won the Grammy Award for "Best Musical Album For Children" during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards^{51st Grammy Awards}. This album introduced listeners to natural^{Branches_of_science#Natural_sciences}, formal^{Branches_of_science#Formal_sciences}, social^{Branches_of_science#Social_sciences} and applied^{Branches_of_science#Applied_sciences} sciences^Science. It was released on September 1, 2009.
On November 3, They Might Be Giants sent out a newsletter stating "The Avatars of They", a set of sock puppets the Johns manipulate for shows, will have an album in 2012, suggesting another kids album. However, a new adult album is also slated to be released in 2010.The band took their name from the 1971 film They Might Be Giants^{They Might Be Giants (film)} (starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward), which is in turn taken from a Don Quixote passage about how Quixote believes windmills to be evil giants^{Tilting at windmills}.

According to Dave Wilson, in his book Rock Formations, the name They Might Be Giants had been used and subsequently discarded by a friend of the band who had a ventriloquism act. The name was then adopted by the band, who had been searching for a suitable name.

A common misconception is that the name of the band is a reference to themselves and an allusion to future success. In an interview John Flansburgh said (paraphrasing) that the words "they might be giants" are just a very outward-looking forward thing which they liked. He clarified this in the documentary movie Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) by explaining that the name refers to the outside world of possibilities that they saw as a fledgling band. In an earlier radio interview, John Linnell described the phrase as "something very paranoid sounding".

On the compilation album Miscellaneous T, on track 13 ("Untitled"), a confused caller to TMBG's Dial-a-Song named Gloria talks to an unknown third party (presumably unaware that the entire conversation is being recorded) about the mystery of "There May Be Giants", as she mistakenly refers to the band.

In the commentary for the "Experimental Film" music video on Homestarrunner.com, Strong Bad incorrectly refers to "They Might Be Giants" as "those super giant guys".

In the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Soul Music, a group of musically gifted dwarfs call themselves 'We're Certainly Dwarfs' as an homage to TMBG. This is confirmed by the author in The Discworld Companion.

To promote Flood^{Flood (They Might Be Giants album)}, TMBG performed "Your Racist Friend" on The Today Show^{Today (NBC program)}, where Bryant Gumbel called them "They Must Be Giants". On the Severe Tire Damage album track "They Got Lost", John Flansburgh refers to this error when he jokingly introduces themselves as "They Must Be Giants", to audience laughter.Throughout their career, They Might Be Giants have released 14 studio albums, 8 compilation^Anthologys, 6 live albums, 21 EP^{Extended play}s, 5 videos and 11 singles^{Single (music)}. They have also collaborated on many other projects.

*They Might Be Giants^{They Might Be Giants (album)} (1986)
*Lincoln^{Lincoln (album)} (1988)
*Flood^{Flood (They Might Be Giants album)} (1990)
*Apollo 18^{Apollo 18 (album)} (1992)
*John Henry^{John Henry (album)} (1994)
*Factory Showroom (1996)
*Long Tall Weekend (1999, Internet-only)
*Mink Car (2001)
*No! (2002)
*The Spine (2004)
*Here Come the ABCs (2005)
*The Else (2007)
*Here Come the 123s (2008)
*Here Comes Science (2009)The band has released 13 main music videos:

* "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" (1986)
* "Don't Let's Start" (1986)
* "(She Was a) Hotel Detective" (1986)
* "Ana Ng" (1988)
* "Purple Toupee" (1988)
* "They'll Need a Crane" (1988)
* "Birdhouse in Your Soul" (1990)
* "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)^{Istanbul_(Not_Constantinople)#They_Might_Be_Giants_cover}" (animated) (1990)
* "The Statue Got Me High" (1992)
* "The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)" (1992)
* "Snail Shell" (1994)
* "Doctor Worm" (1998)
* "Boss of Me" (2001)