The alt-pop band, They Might Be Giants, is a longtime favorite here in western Massachusetts. They have played in Northampton many times over their lengthy career and even headlined the Green River Festival in 2003. The duo of John Linnell and John Flansburgh, who are celebrating their 40th anniversary together, are currently in the midst of a year-long international tour. The tour will return them to Franklin County when it stops at Tree House Brewing Company in South Deerfield on Thursday, July 6, at 7 p.m.

Since the two Johns formed the duo in 1982, the Grammy Award-winning band has recorded 23 studio albums and sold over four million records of their quirky, catchy pop music that utilizes unusual instrumentation and offbeat lyrics. While other bands focus on love songs, They Might be Giants (TMBG) sing about “Particle Man,” Istanbul, and statues that get them high.

The band has released several children’s music albums throughout their career and provided music for television and movies. Many know them as the creators of “Boss of Me,” their Grammy-winning theme song for the television series “Malcolm in the Middle.”

Linnell and Flansburgh first met as high school students in Lincoln. They started writing songs together back then but didn’t form the band until they moved to Brooklyn, New York, and found themselves living in the same apartment building. The band’s name comes from a 1971 movie starring George C. Scott.

“Usually, New York is not a good place to start a band because it’s expensive to live there, and there is nowhere to rehearse,” said Flansburgh in a recent phone conversation. “But there was a nightclub scene happening there that was about originality, and that was challenging for us.”

Thinking back to those early days, could he ever have imagined that the band would last this long?

“I didn’t think about being in a band until I was in a band, and so everything has been a pretty healthy surprise,” said Flansburgh. “I actually learned to sing and play guitar in They Might Be Giants, so I didn’t have like a rich fantasy life about what the possibilities were.”

Part of the duo’s success stems from the fact that they were early innovators in using alternative methods to get their music to an audience. An example of this is Dial-A-Song. For those of you too young to remember, Dial-A-Song was an answering machine with a TMBG song as its message. You dialed the number (“free if you called from work” was their motto) and heard a new song. It sounds rather basic, but at the time, it was a groundbreaking way to bring music to an audience without the help of major label support or radio.

“I guess the Dial-A-Song thing was such a wide open idea and opened our eyes to the potential unexplored avenues of promotion we could reap,” said Flansburgh. “So that set us up well, and from that moment on we were much more open to finding ways for people to hear us. Save for CD-ROMs, I think we embraced all the emerging technology.”

The duo signed with Elektra Records and worked with them for ten years, but they always explored alternative ways to reach listeners, eventually branching out into soundtrack work and songs for children. But it was their use of technology that really set them apart. In 1999 they released the album “Long Tall Weekend” online.

“We released ‘Long Tall Weekend’ before iTunes and Napster. It was very primitive because it was the early days of MP3s,” recalled Flansburgh. “The MP3s were small and creepy sounding, but people dug it. A lot of people have sentimental feelings about this album, which is really funny. And now we are selling it on vinyl.”

Both Johns share in the songwriting and are incredibly prolific.

Their latest studio album, “Book,” was released in 2021 as a digital download, a CD, on vinyl, a cassette tape, an 8-track tape, and a hardcover book plus CD.

The current tour is going great and the band is selling out many of their stops, but the past couple of years of touring have not gone as smoothly. In 2020, TMBG was preparing a tour to celebrate the anniversary of their most popular album, “Flood,” with plans to play the album in its entirety. COVID caused that tour to be put on hold.

Just as they were getting back on the road last summer, Flansburgh was in a serious car accident while heading home after the tour’s first stop in New York.

“I was in an Uber that got T-boned by a drunk driver,” he said. “That laid me up in the hospital for a week, and then I was stuck in bed for like two months. I broke all the ribs on one side of my body.”

Flansburgh said that surviving an accident like that puts into perspective how joyful it is just being alive, and how grateful he is that his injuries weren’t worse.

TMBG is currently touring with a horn section. While they are not playing “Flood” in its entirety, they plan to play many selections off the album, as well as from their entire body of work.

“It’s a big old rock show,” Flansburgh said. “It’s a two-hour long show with two sets – we’ve got a horn section and the nice thing about where we are at as a band now is that we have done a ton of shows with this horn section and they are really integrated with the band. It’s a big sound and the players are all really dazzling. We’ll be doing a lot of fun and crazy songs.”

Tickets available at treehousebrew.com/live-music-and-events. Pease note this is a 16-and-over show.

Music and fireworks for the fourth

I’m sure many of you are still recovering from the musical bliss that was the Green River Festival. The real star of the weekend was Mother Nature, who came through despite predictions of steady rain that had been forecasted in the days before the festival. Yeah, there was some rain, but not enough to have much impact.

As with past years, there was so much great music – it is hard to sum it all up. Special shout out to Signature Sounds for pulling this all together year after year.

If you need more live music, the Fourth of July is right around the corner and there are a couple of events on the horizon that pair music with fireworks. GreenMind will return to the Franklin County Fairgrounds on Saturday, July 1, with an all-day Fourth of July celebration featuring music from bands like Outer Stylie, Rebel Alliance, 2CarGarage and others. In addition, there will be food trucks, games and fireworks. The event runs from noon to 10 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Visit Greenmindfairshare.com for more info.

Mind Left Body will be in the house at Tree House Brewing Co. in South Deerfield on Saturday, July 1, serving up their interpretation of Grateful Dead tunes and later in the evening there will be a fireworks celebration. Tickets are $5 and available at treehousebrew.com/live-music-and-events. Music begins at 6 p.m.

Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at Soundslocal@yahoo.com.

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