(commonly abbreviated to TMBG) is an American alternative rock duo consisting of John Linnell and John Flansburgh that formed in 1982. Best known for an experimental style of pop music sometimes described as "geek rock", the group has found success on the modern rock charts, in the children's music genre, and in theme music for several television programs and films.
Linnell and Flansburgh (often nicknamed "the two Johns" or "John and John") first met as teenagers growing up in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
They began writing songs together while attending Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School but never officially formed a band. The two attended separate colleges after high school (Flansburgh attended Pratt Institute), and Linnell joined The Mundanes, a New Wave group from Rhode Island. The two reunited in 1981 after moving to Brooklyn (to the same apartment building on the same day) to continue their career.
Taking their name from the 1971 movie They Might Be Giants, the duo began performing their own music in and around New York City — Flansburgh on guitar, Linnell on accordion and saxophone, and accompanied by a drum machine and/or a prerecorded backing track on audio cassette. Their atypical instrumentation, along with their songs which featured unusual subject matter and clever wordplay, soon attracted a strong local following. Their performances also featured absurdly comical stage props such as oversized fezzes and large cardboard cutout heads of newspaper editor William Allen White. Many of these props would later turn up in their first music videos.
At one point, Linnell broke his wrist in a biking accident and Flansburgh's apartment was burglarized, forcing them to take a break from performing. During this hiatus, they began recording their songs onto an answering machine, and then advertising the phone number in local newspapers such as The Village Voice, using the moniker "Dial-A-Song". They also released a demo cassette, which earned them a review in People magazine. The review caught the attention of Bar/None Records, who signed They Might Be Giants to a recording deal.
The duo released their self-titled debut album in 1986, which became a college radio hit. The video for "Don't Let's Start" became a hit on MTV, earning them a broader following. In 1988, they released their second album, Lincoln, named after the duo's hometown. It featured the song "Ana Ng" which reached #11 on the US Modern Rock chart.
TMBG's most well known songs include "Birdhouse in Your Soul" (from the 1990 album Flood), "Don't Let's Start" (from 1986's They Might Be Giants), and "Ana Ng" (from 1988's Lincoln). Their appearances on the show Tiny Toon Adventures also gained recognition for the song "Particle Man" and for their cover version of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)". Their song "Doctor Worm" was a surprise hit in Australia, ranking 13th in the Triple J Hottest 100 for the year 1998. Two TMBG albums have been certified gold: Flood and the 2005 children's music album Here Come the ABCs.
Their song "Boss of Me" served as the theme to the Fox Television Network comedy series Malcolm in the Middle and earned them a Grammy Award in 2002. They have also contributed theme songs to Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Higglytown Heroes. Also a commercial for Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
The band was the subject of the 2003 documentary film Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns), directed by AJ Schnack.
