Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 70

Austin American-Statesman E4 Friday, November 18, 1988 National Arts Wook events Just an average musical duo? Maybe, but then again, I'They Might Be Giants' bie Bowser, Blues Boy Hubbard and the Jets, Hosea Hargrove, Jean and the Rollettes, Little Willie Bell, Major Burkes, George Underwood, Joe Valentine, James Polk, Walter Shaw and Leo Brown. Tickets are $7 for the 9 p.m. show. The UT Drama Department presents La Ronde at 8 p.m. This is a lively drama set in Vienna of the 1890s.

Tickets are $6. Performances continue through Saturday at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. Call 471-1444 or 471-2787. National Arts Week activities today: The Austin Lyric Opera presents La Traviata tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m.

at the UT Performing Arts Center. The opera will be performed in Italian, and, for the first time in Austin, ALO will present supertitles for translation. Call 472-5927. Antone's presents the East Austin Blues Revue featuring the Grey Ghost (Roosevelt T. Williams), Miss Lavelle White, T.D.

Bell, Er- If WMI i wiU, IVi! ERBIE BOWSER StTbell THREE BALLS OF FIRE IW9.HOOTSAH?LlJ. They Might Be Giants In concert. In their video Don't Let's Start, John Flansburgh and band-mate John Linnell sport 3-foot-high fezzes and bounce around like jumping beans. Dinner 'til Midnight Crossroads: Happy Hour 5-7 Carved Beef A Boiled Shrimp Sandy Allen at 5:30 Devil Mr. Bonet (Tomu Ramirti Mike Mordecai) Never A Cover By Peter Blackstock Special to the American-Statesman John Flansburgh discusses what he sees as a positive songwriting trend in contemporary popular music.

"I feel something in common with people who are really interested in resurrecting the popular song," said Flansburgh, one half of the up-and-coming New York City duo They Might Be Giants. "You can hear it in people like Tracy Chapman there are a lot of people who are really into writing songs again, it seems to me, and not so much just having the loudest guitar or the weirdest attitude, but basically presenting their music in a pretty direct way." You wouldn't expect such words from a member of They Might Be Giants, whose brand of pop music is among the zaniest on the market these days. The band's songs bear names such as Stand on Your Own Head and Shoehorn With Teeth, and the lyrics often are more off-the-wall than the titles. In the duo's video for Don't Let's Start, a surprise MTV hit this year, he and bandmate John Linnell sport 3-foot-high fezzes and bounce around like Mexican jumping beans. So, c'mon, who is this guy trying to kid? "Well, our songs are really strange in a certain way," Flansburgh said.

"But I think, on another level, they have a lot more in common with pre-70s rock, and even a lot of pre-rock music, in that they have a verse and a chorus, and they're not totally wrapped up in long solos and texture and things like that. There's not a lot of filler in what we do; it's pretty much all real stuff that makes the song." Despite the outward abnormalities that dominate They Might Be Giants' image, a keen knack for songwriting is indeed an integral part of what makes this duo click. Songs such as Don't Let's Start or Ana Ng, the single from the band's latest album, Lincoln, feature quirky but catchy melodies, relatively simple song structures and uncluttered arrangements. Because most of their songs are also very short only four of the 18 songs on Lincoln are more than three minutes long they're often I I I I I I ItlEZftfB) French BaWy Mt American Cafe Btlconei FM 2222 4S0-0914 183fiwnetRcL45I-6iM IH in tb GalkrU 0J S35-7770 five years now. "The thing I like about it is that it's really democratic and it provides anybody with the opportunity to hear what we do," Flansburgh said.

"You don't have to go to a smoke-filled room at night and go see us. "We both had regular jobs until this thing sort of took over our lives, so I think we relate more to people who are just like regular working people than 'club So it was nice to have a medium by which to get to those people, since we couldn't make records back then." An interesting side effect of the service, Flansburgh says, was that recording songs designed to be heard through a telephone receiver helped "clean up" the duo's sound. "Working with Dial-A-Song, you have to be really, really clear in what you're presenting, or it's indecipherable," he explained. "So it's a really solid argument for clarity, and the point that a simple idea works best. I think that's had a real effect on the way we record in general." When Flansburgh and Linnell are at home, they also set the machine to allow callers to leave a response to the song, which Flansburgh says serves as an invaluable gauge for a song's commercial potential.

"It's really easy to tell if people don't like it," he says, "because they hang up right away." THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Opening act: The WayOuts When: 10 tonight Where: Liberty Lunch Admission: $8 at the door Information: 477-0461 reminiscent of early Beatles tunes. Which isn't to suggest that this Twisted Two is the next Fab Four. But Flansburgh, 28, and Linnell, 29, have attracted a very impressive following for a band still on an independent label (New Jersey's BarNone). Their debut record, They Might Be Giants, has sold more than 120,000 copies since its release in December 1986, and Lincoln already has sold about half that in its first three weeks. The band's ability to cause such a stir without a major label to shell out big bucks for promotion was partly due to a clever little idea called Dial-A-Song (718-387-6962), an answering machine that features a recording of a different They Might Be Giants song every couple of days.

"When we go out on the road, my landlady's daughter comes down and changes the tape every couple of days," Flansburgh said. The band has been running the service for SPECIAL APPEARANCE WITH BAND FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 Showtime 8:00 pm Introducing Chris Wall Band PARAMOUNT THEATRE 713 CONGRESS 472-5470 RESERVED IEATINSi Tiokela $13 and SIS Paramenal, Erwia Center, H.I.B. Inpenlera and all TJTTM Tlokel Cealen. Cbarte-a-Tiokel, 477-SOiO. 1112W.6th 473-2047 CatC Orleans WeVeJust Beefed Up Our Pizza; USDA Choice Beef Exclusively "SPECIAL FEATURE" Served Every Night COOKIN' WITH JAZZ Distinctive New Orleans Cuisine at rea- Showman Johnnie Bachemln his trio In sonable prices In a casual atmosphere.

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