Back in the golden year of 1987, I discovered the aural and visual joys of They Might Be Giants almost simultaneously. John James, my boss/friend at Cincinnati’s Wizard Records, had recommended They Might Be Giants’ 1986 debut album, and within weeks of that initial headsmack, I experienced their nonsensically surreal homemade video for “(Put Your Hand Inside) The Puppet Head,” shown when the band was a guest on the nonsensically surreal late-night gabfest, The Joe Franklin Show. Franklin was a charming but gauzily clueless vaudevillian who hosted his cable program seemingly in his basement; throughout the segment he never got the band’s name right, vacillating between They May Be Giants to They Must Be Giants. John Flansburgh and John Linnell were beyond giddy for the entire segment.
Read more about the group in this week's Sound Advice .
They Might Be Giants plays Madison Theater Friday. More info/tickets: madisontheateronline.com .
