The great dilemma for rock bands as they age is to figure out how to stay relevant, and to get people to care about their new music -- as opposed to just playing the old stuff that everybody knows.
For They Might Be Giants, it just happened to be kids' music -- though they didn't really plan it that way.
The New York City-based duo developed a substantial cult following in the late '80s and '90s with a series of offbeat albums, characterized by a subversively whip-smart sense of humor and an arcane mastery of pop music history. As the past decade wore on, the duo -- John Flansburgh and John Linnell -- applied their songcraft expertise to commercials and TV shows (like the theme song for "Malcolm in the Middle").
Their label in the early 2000s, Rounder Records, asked them to try making an album for children. The band's penchant for brainy lyrics and geeky subject matter -- the presidents, pulp noir, quirks of geography -- wasn't an obvious fit. But, hey, kids tend to like catchy songs, and that's something they do well.
"We were working on a bunch of other projects at the time, so we just slotted it into some free time we had in the studio," Linnell says. " We really were just enjoying ourselves making it, thinking maybe no one would ever hear it. It was just meant to be fun. There wasn't a lot of gravitas when we were recording it -- we didn't know it would become a whole new wing of our career."
The result, "No!" (2002), outsold their most recent album for adults by a wide margin. Suddenly, the band had to come to grips with their strange new role as children's entertainers.
They Might Be Giants are coming to the New Hazlett Theater this Saturday for a pair of children's shows.
"Gradually, it dawned on us that making music for kids was kind of like introducing kids to musical ideas that adults might be more jaded about," Linnell says. "In a way, it's a privilege to play for a kid who isn't already mentally comparing it to the history of rock music."
That doesn't mean it's easy, however.
"In some ways, a kids' show is harder work," Linnell says. "Adults kind of come in with a set of expectations, and are already playing along, in a sense. They come expecting a certain show -- they face forward, and applaud at the end of songs. There's almost a formal, ritualistic quality that adults observe, which I wasn't really tuned into until we started kids' shows.
"Kids have no interest in observing all those rules. They'll wander around and talk to each other during the quiet sections of our songs. They'll face the other way. If you're feeling nervous -- flopsweat doesn't bother kids, apparently. In a way, they're not really as supportive as adults. That makes it more challenging."
For a band that's always had an experimental side, this was a chance to try lots of new things. They've released several themed collections of songs on DVD, paired with short videos by animators -- "Here Come the ABCs" and "Here Come the 123s." The latest is called "Here Comes Science."
It obviously skews a little older than the previous two, and tackles some pretty tricky subjects in pop song format -- like "Speed & Velocity" which explains some basic physics, and "Put it to the Test," about the scientific method.
"We cook up these songs and pass them off to these brilliant young animators," Linnell says. "Very often, they take the song in a whole new direction, do something amazing and creative with it. Not that we're slouching -- we try to write good songs that will stand on their own. But it's really wonderful to see what happens when an animator gets hold of it."
Make no mistake, though -- They Might Be Giants is still a rock band, and they're not about to forget their biggest fans.
"We're in the process of making a new CD for our adult fans," Linnell says. "I hate to say 'adult' because it sounds like pornography. That's not what it is. Our usual, regular old They Might Be Giants record. It should be done at the end of this year."
Additional Information:They Might Be Giants
When: 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday
Admission: $12-$25
Where: New Hazlett Theater, North Side
Details: 412-320-4610
