New They Might Be Giants Video - "Mesopotamians"
What happens when your band comes from a lost civilization? Navigating a charcoal cityscape on an empty tank with one piece of gum, Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal, and Gilgamesh, aka the Mesopotamians, go Gorillaz with their pet goat/yak. This They Might Be Giants video for The Else's "Mesopotamians" -- which comes after an Apocalypse Now-quoting preview and Monkees-riffing short -- finds John Linnell and John Flansburgh referencing the aforementioned as well as Josie And The Pussycats, the Beatles, etc., all the while reminding us of that long-gone Tigris and Euphrates cradle.
The boys try to adapt, trading their language-preserving stone tablets for mini-cams and other technological creature comforts, but it's a little too late ... Poor fuckers can't get catch a break. Miss you, Hammurabi.
The Else is out via Idlewild/Zoe Records.
Posted at 12:22 PM in Video
Tags: They Might Be Giants
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I rather liked this video. the fist of the videos that I have like that much. This one has something to do with the song, and has lip sync. Very good.
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Sorry boys, Gorillaz did it first... and did it better...
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This is so great.
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"Sorry boys, Gorillaz did it first... and did it better..."
No, I believe the Way-Outs did it first.
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I've always liked Cowles' work, but I like this one *super* *mega* much! Very clever stuff there... and, um, Adam, wouldn't ya guess that the allusion was intentional?
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I really got a kick out of this. I was thinking Gorillaz while watching but like all Giants stuff it was just a couple degrees off and made it fresh.
After seeing the recent "Shadow Government" video and loving it, I'm having to say that this is a great follow up. Two different styles but both animation. I love it.
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'"Sorry boys, Gorillaz did it first... and did it better..."
No, I believe the Way-Outs did it first.'
Wouldn't the first band to make a pseudo-band be The Beatles with The Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
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"Sorry boys, Gorillaz did it first... and did it better..."
They aren't trying to be a fake band, its just a song about a band called the mesopotamians and they happen to be mesopotamians. And then they made a music video for it. Its a song with a music video. A good song with a good music video actually.
and on a side note i hope they make a Cap'm music video, only i hope if they do its like their old stuff where they are actually in it and doing stuff. You know, like almost all of the music videos on Direct from Brooklyn. I really like those types because they are really creative and i never really cared much for the animated music videos. But really as long as they dont go to that "Film the band actually playing" type of music video, its all good. Because that kind is boring. Although i did like the They'll Need A Crane music video with the old people and stuff.
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Dave Cowles is a genius.
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That is one catchy tune. Screw the Gorillaz analogy. The first thing I thought of was a high school notebook which turned out more a doodle pad than a notebook.
Great song.
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Saw em in Santa Cruz last week (9/29/7), great song by two of the nicest John's you'll ever have the chance to listen too.
Whole album is worth a listen.
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Giants did it first. Nerd Rock Rules!
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Sorry JB. *Walt Disney* is actually the one who did it first, and better, with Fantasia. That's why I'll never respect or see the point in anyone else animating characters to music ever again. Because Fantasia was the first, and therefore final, word. Yup.
In fact, I think Jimi Hendrix probably invented the guitar for that matter. That's why I'm not interested in bands who play guitars anymore either, because he did it first.
Actually, I'm done with music in general, because Beethoven, who invented music, did it first, and better. I don't have time for anything after Beethoven. Because all musicians after Beethoven, the inventor and final perfector of music, are posers.
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