Brooklyn’s Ambassadors of Love, They Might Be Giants, are back with a new anagram named video collection – Them Ain’t Big Eye Ants. The videos span from 2004 to 2012, collecting goodies from The Spine, Venue Songs, Here Comes the ABCs, Join Us, and Album Raises New and Troubling Questions. There are no entries fromHere Comes the 123s or Here Comes Science (the exclusion of “Meet the Elements,” which has almost 2.5 million views on YouTube, is quite the head scratcher).
Due to their creative spirit, which mixes ingenuity, curiosity, and humor, TMBG both seek out and are sought out by talented video directors and animation artists. One of the strengths of the collection is the diversity of visual styles, including work by graphic designer Paul Sahre, and animation specialists including Laika House, Hine Mizushima, Divya Srinivasan, and the brilliant Brothers Chap of Homestar Runner. While the song “With the Dark” from The Else suffers from the band’s insularity, the video treatment by Mizushima, featuring animated versions of John Linnell and John Flansburgh in a series of action movie poses is hysterical. The Homestar Runner directed “Experimental Film,” one of the best numbers in the huge TMBG catalogue, drolly animates a number of non sequitur art film vignettes.
“Spoiler Alert,” an attempt at being too clever as a song and not clever enough as a video, is the weakest selection, but minor pleasures abound. “Asbury Park” and “Anaheim” fromVenue Songs are short, clever pieces and “Damn Good Times,” with a lyric inspired by David Lee Roth, includes a well executed goth vampire theme, but maintains a light tone.
What is arguably the best moment of the collection doesn’t involve any animation at all. Recording a boisterous version of Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” for the Onion’s “A.V. Music Club,” the band gets an opportunity to display their significant skill (check out Danny Weinkauf’s striking bass playing), while approximately 25 members of the “A.V. Club Chorus” shout out the refrain with winning exuberance. Sometimes there’s no Might Be about it.
Grade – B+