h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Possibly the most irritatingly catchy one-hit-wonder ever. They Might Be Giants still have a huge and loyal following (of which I am one), mainly among US college students, but will be remembered in this country for this single which sounded like a Norwegian Eurovision entry (null points!) on acid.
'Not to put too fine a point on it
Say I'm the only bee in your bonnet
Make a little Birdhouse in your soul.'
The quasi-facisistic video is hilarious, as well.

FM

Now I don't watch the programme, but don't TMBG provide the music for TV series 'Malcom in the Middle'..? Whether this means they're still around, or that the producers have just plundered the archives, I don't know...

They certainly do, they are still going, and you should watch the program: it's hilarious. Occasionally you hear a fully fledged song such as 'Till My Head Falls Off': my daughter's favourite (she runs around the room like someone's plugged her into the mains).

Terry Pratchett is a fan of theirs. "Soul Music" features joke band names including &U (U2?), Dwarfs with Altitude (Niggaz With Attitude), Insanity (Madness) and....

We're Certainly Dwarfs.

H.

Can't be a one hit wonder, they also had Istanbul (Not Constantinople) which did quite well I believe.

TMBG does indeed provide the theme for Malcom in the Middle.

Ah yes, TMBG, such a great bunch of one-hit wonders they've had three hits!

"Birdhouse In Your Soul" was the big top ten hit in 1990, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" wasn't so big but was a hit the same year, and the Malcolm In The Middle theme "Boss Of Me" was a top 30 hit last year.

Not that I'm an obsessive fan or anything.

Probably my favourite band name of all time!

One of my favorite bands too....whcih just goes to show you how much our of touch I have drifted....

MMmm - Flood - soundtrack to my student years: we're still arguing what it all means... but Birdhouse is a great song - nad can you think of any other that includes the word 'filibuster'? You don't find lyrics like tat being sung by Atomic Kitten, no sir

Anybody who can wrap a bluegrass-folky tune around lyrics about the role of prosthetic foreheads in civil liberties has my undying admiration . In the dark days of the early nineties, during which the arid desert of house music was encroaching remorselessly, 'Flood' with its collection of wonky but irresistably hummable tunes seemed like an oasis of melody surrounded by threnodic gloom.

I remember when they performed Birdhouse on ToTP the listless audience suddenly got up and started dancing and clapping. It was fun. It was music that actually stimulated centres of your brain instead of trying to shut down the remaining ones that the drugs hadn't yet reached. I still put it on to cheer myself up when I feel pissed off.

A kindred spiri!

It's currently in the CD changer in my car - who'd have thought it?

"Thunderbirds on Acid' was the description at the time of that TotP performance, but the importnat thingw as it was *different*. There's always room in the charts for something with a nip of otherness - it's a healthy sign...

'A brand new record, for 1990...' - It seems like yesterday -I'm getting old!

I AM old

Better to be old with excellent taste than be young and think that Gareth Gates is the voice of the century....

Cloviscat! How dare you use the G word in here?

Have you all seen A256763 by the way?

I have now. I have actually seen the film after which they get their name. It's an odd film (unsurprisingly): it has the great George C Scott pretending to be Sherlock Holmes.
I think that TMBG's music is probably defined as much by the people that don't like it, as the people that do. One guy I knew hated them, but all he ever listened to was Joy Division and the Doors. Nuff said.

aah - taking things too seriously - a sad affliction