Current location:	Studio
Current mood:	good
Current music:	They Might Be Giants: "Birdhouse in Your Soul"

#344: They Might Be Giants: "Birdhouse in Your Soul"
Comp: origami 67
Genre: quirky pop

They Might Be Giants AKA TMBG are one of the stranger yet more accessible bands out there. Their songs are strange but singable. They feature lyrics like these:

"There's a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free
Though I respect that a lot
I'd be fired if that were my job After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts"

Now, I didn't really have much of an idea about this one, but I've just determined that, most likely, the song is sung from the point of view of a nightlight (shaped, evidently, like a blue canary). How cool is that? I like that style of lyric-writing; pick a random object and talk about life from its point of view. Here's some more:

"Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
Who watches over you
Make a little birdhouse in your soul
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"

This was evidently their biggest hit. I didn't realize this; I would have thought it was "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" - another excellent song - but this one is quite deserving also. The video is fun - lots of lights in it, supporting that lyrical hypothesis. This band is very geeky, so uncool that they are actually very cool. Perhaps taking over from Talking Heads in the quirky and geeky, but less edgy... I discovered them in college, amongst my other geeky friends (although I had heard them at least once before, probably high school, on a Weird Al show, I don't really count that). Excellent good! Love the instrumentation here also, organ stuff is always a winner.
-bill