Combustible Heads!

September 26, 2013 4:59 AM

"Oh damn - you must've got one of them combustible heads, I read an article all about them - You're On Fire" - Official video from They Might Be Giants.

From the album Nanobots. Featuring Lauren Lapkus from Orange Is The New Black, directed by Hoku Uchiyama and Adam Bolt, the duo who were also responsible for 2011's Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn video for Evelyn Evelyn (previously)

posted by memebake (33 comments total)

Featuring Lauren Lapkus from Orange Is The New Black

I am so glad you said that, because it was driving me crazy trying to place her.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:21 AM on September 26, 2013

Linnell writes a dance jam! :D I don't think that'll ever get old.
posted by clavicle at 5:48 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

Well, thanks memebake and They Might be Giants: I was doing fine in a world where Lauren Lapkus didn't exist, and now I'm in a world where she does, and I have no way of getting out of it.

That woman is punishingly adorable and we are never going to meet and this new world is dumb.
posted by Poppa Bear at 5:57 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

Ana Ng hasn't aged a day IMO.
posted by humanfont at 6:10 AM on September 26, 2013 [5 favorites]

For those that haven't heard a tmbg album for a while - Nanobots is pretty damn good, I might even say their best since Flood.
posted by memebake at 6:15 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Poppa Bear: That woman is punishingly adorable and we are never going to meet and this new world is dumb.

Do not watch Orange is the New Black if you are already at critical levels of Lapkus adorability.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:20 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

Thank you Rock Steady. Please believe that I will take that warning to heart.
posted by Poppa Bear at 6:23 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Lapkus has had some great turns on Comedy Bang Bang as well.
posted by Think_Long at 6:25 AM on September 26, 2013

Oooh those backup vocals. And the horns at the end. Yeah, shit, this sounds like a TMBG song...
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 6:26 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Gentleman Caller enjoys singing this to me when I'm waking up. Hearing the actual song is kind of strange.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:30 AM on September 26, 2013

NO DON'T CROWD THE PAN
posted by uncleozzy at 6:32 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

[SPOILER!] No one's head catches fire in this video.
posted by straight at 6:35 AM on September 26, 2013

I'm concerned about how late she put the celery in the pan. It should have gone in much earlier. However, carrots playing broccoli trumpets is pretty fun.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 6:37 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

[SPOILER!] No one's head catches fire in this video.

No, watch again. Around 0:40 one of the first characters shown in the video catches fire.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:38 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

"People think the [spoiler] in the video is animated, but with the exception of the [spoiler], everything you see is puppeted. We both love animation, but it was fun to work with puppetry this time around. It's a different pace and a different energy. " - Hoku Uchiyama
posted by memebake at 6:43 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

This is great. TMBG has been having a good run of videos lately. The "official" fan-made video for Can't Keep Johnny Down is a joyous thing, and the entry for Icky is as distinctive as the song itself.
posted by bicyclefish at 6:47 AM on September 26, 2013

<Old-school-MTV-style credits>
Experimental Film
They Might Be Giants
The Spine
Dir: Strong Sad
</Old-school-MTV-style credits>
posted by Rock Steady at 7:00 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

While we're listing videos, some of the kid's videos they did are great - I Am A Paleontologist, I Never Go To Work, Electric Car
posted by memebake at 7:16 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

TMBG are great in person too, and when they tour they frequently come near enough that I can easily see them. I made it to Mink Car, inexplicably sat out The Spine, and then made it to The Else and Nanobots. Last time around, they had Moon Hooch opening, which was way more entertaining than two guys on saxophones should have been.
posted by jepler at 7:34 AM on September 26, 2013 [3 favorites]

Last time around, they had Moon Hooch opening

We caught this show in Omaha. Moon Hooch was terrific, and They themselves were in terrific form. TMBG would have seemed like a very unlikely choice, 25 years ago, for the "what bands that I'm listening to today will still be worth going to see in 25 years?" list.

On the other hand, I'm not sure their creative process much resembles that of the typical band, so I'm not entirely surprised that their creative arc has had a different trajectory.
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:43 AM on September 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah tmbg can be great live, although their infamous concerts in Ithaca NY, Concord NH and San Fran did not go so well.
posted by memebake at 7:45 AM on September 26, 2013

Oh, yeah, we saw Moon Hooch open for TMBG in Brooklyn over the summer. It was awesome. I would like to see them again, except really, mind-bogglingly stoned this time. Me, not them. Maybe them too. Whichever.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:49 AM on September 26, 2013

Great video, but just so its covered like most askmes:
There's a certain point when your food is fresh enough that it seems to be dancing around and its okay to eat, and then a point much much later where it is actually dancing around. We're at the latter point. Do not eat it.
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:28 AM on September 26, 2013

Ipsifendus, I was in that crowd.
posted by jepler at 8:34 AM on September 26, 2013

memebake, not to mention the time the PA fell on the crowd.
posted by jepler at 8:35 AM on September 26, 2013

Jepler: watch the Ithaca NY vid ; )
posted by memebake at 8:37 AM on September 26, 2013

See also: when the stage collapsed. The 'not going well' videos are genius -- thank you for posting them! Each new thing I learn about TMBG increases my fundamental capacity to experience joy.

This opinion may be colored by the fact that I haven't really had cause to so much as set eyes on meat in a decade and change, but the singing ground beef in the FPP video looked eerily, distractingly realistic to me. Its weird little face looked exactly as though it had been carved into a real pile of meat -- I can't believe it's made of latex! And while I fundamentally object to celery bits going anywhere except directly into the compost bin, the little heads of broccoli playing carrot-guitars are spectacularly cute. Here is some more work by puppeteer Steven Ritz-Barr: Vimeo, Classics in Miniature, Metropolitan Puppet Authority.

I'm a bleak, sodden bastard at the best of times, but listening to TMBG is like the musical equivalent of being presented with a box of snuggly 10-week-old Labrador puppies, each of whom has already been adopted into his or her warm, loving forever home. I've been going to see them for over half of my life, all over the U.S., and it is a straight-up flailing-in-the-aisles party every damn time. There are so many smiling and bespectacled nerds, it always feels like home. I've linked arms and danced with so many strangers at their shows. "Dr. Worm" is the distilled essence of happiness. I'm not a real doctor, but I am a real worm. I am an actual worm. I live like a worm, and I like to play the drums.

At SXSW a long while back, through a magical confluence of events, I inexplicably found myself in the position of spending a post-show evening out on the town with Flans (and, even more oddly, Speed Levitch). After the bars closed, we raided the hotel mini-fridge, got completely tore up, and talked about records and depression until well after dawn. He is a brilliant, sincere, genuine mensch, one of the nicest and most thoughtful people on the planet, and I will remember that night for the rest of my life. Visceral warm fuzzies forever.

Thanks for the post, and as always, remember to put your hand inside the puppet head.
posted by divined by radio at 9:09 AM on September 26, 2013 [6 favorites]

That woman is punishingly adorable and we are never going to meet and this new world is dumb.

This is not the first time they have done that to me.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:11 AM on September 26, 2013

The 'not going well' videos are genius -- thank you for posting them!

They wrote a song about that too. I'm pretty sure they improvised it, but the crazy thing is it really comes together at the end and turns into a pretty good song...
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:16 AM on September 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

As someone who dances around the kitchen while cooking I support this.
posted by The Whelk at 9:32 AM on September 26, 2013

This was way better than I expected it to be. Thanks for posting.
posted by klangklangston at 11:12 AM on September 26, 2013

For a while I caught a family member's habit of yelling *you're older than you've ever been/and now you're getting older/ and now you're getting older/ and now you're getting older/ TIIIIIIME IS MARCHING ON/ AND TIIIIIMMME IS MARCHING ONNNN

Turns out, this can be irritating
posted by angrycat at 4:57 AM on September 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

See also: the resemblance between ground beef face and the Puppet Johns.
posted by clavicle at 7:07 AM on September 27, 2013 [1 favorite]