The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 256

UA i'J Cj Log Updates They Might Be Giants Updates from TV Week's Sunday log: 9A.M. Hi Easy Way to lose Weight 10A.M. 0 13) NBA Playoffs: Detroit at Boston. 11:30 A.M. 3D Staying Young 12:30 P.M.

Q05i(3ffi PGA Golf 9 P.M. 33 It's Garry Shandling's Show: Garry ignores his show's contest winner after meeting Nancy's beautiful friend. (S) 11 P.M. TBS Green Acres 12:30 A.M. USA Discover 12:45 A.M.

lyndon laRouche Paid Political Broad- 2 P.M. Nine Nations of North America 8 P.M. 39 America's Most Wanted: Scheduled: Percy Stanley Hams, suspected of kidnaping and murdering his girlfriend; Norman Ray Freelove, wanted for attacking a mother and daughter. 8 IB) (g) Murder, She Wrote: A husband gives his new wife a priceless, cursed ruby, but he is later found strangled and the gem is missing. i -fc.

JL- John Flansburgh and John Linnell id eo BY GINA ARNOLD SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE HE CHANCES of your everyday rock band getting radio play are pretty slim, even less so when the group uses an accordion, a boom box and a big stick, and sing songs with such titles as The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas" and "Youth Culture Killed My Dog." On top of it all, this group goes by the name of They Mignt Be Giants and wears two-foot-high fezes onstage. But They Might Be Giants, a Brooklyn-based rock duo, used a bit of genius to get some exposure for its independently released, self-titled album. Instead of going through the orthodox channels, waiting for lis teners to to catch on to their act. the in trademark fezes SErQ named the best independent band at the New York Music Awards ceremony. The Giants credit much of their newfound recognition to Dial a Song.

"In general, audiences are much smarter than your average record company or radio station thinks they are," said guitaristsinger John Flansburgh. "That's why we've been so successful. We've found this whole audience that's more intelligent and more diverse than mainstream media gives it credit for, and they aren't counterculture, or even underground or anything. They just read the want ads a lot." I HE Dial a Song "service" actu ally is hooked up to a regular Brooklyn phone line in Flans- burgh's house, and lately, Flans- burgh says, the phone has rung non- The Giants also have a flourishing live act, which is part parody of big-time rock acts. Between performing such songs as "Rabid Child" and "Kiss Me, Son of God," both Giants (Flansburgh on electric guitar and John Linnell on accordion) don trademark fezes, dance the polka and pound out rhythm with a big stick.

The two performers lbDD Hoq Giants slapped a different song dai- st0P- "N's great. because it means ly on their own answering machine, tnat people can hear us without ev-and then advertised it as "Dial a er leaving their home," he said. Song" (718) 387-6962 in the Village Voice. The ad drew a great deal of attention, and the group has taken off since then. They Might Be Giants has placed a video in high rotation on MTV and last month was They Might Be Giants appears Wednesday at the Kennel Club.

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