Spoiler Alert! New They Might Be Giants Video.

Back in July indie definitely giants, They Might Be Giants, released their new (and 15th) full-length album Join Us. I've been a big fan for 20 years now and I bought it, enjoyed it, and do not have the adequate vocabulary to describe it. It's what you'd expect but incredibly unexpected. It's wildly experimental and wildly inconsistent. It's an eccentric genius.

Today those plucky bastards at boing boing got to debut the new video for the song Spoiler Alert. It's not my favourite song on the new album (that would have to go to the weirdly wonderful Cloisonne, followed by Protagonist, and then You Probably Get That A Lot). (The album also contains Celebration which in my mind might be the worst song they've ever written, at least conceptually) (Update! - listening again, I take that back. The verse is pretty sweet. I just feel weird about the chorus).

I've read mixed reviews for the new video. Most of which are about manicures. But fuck you haters, manicures aren't rock and roll! You need gnarly nails to play the guitar! Or um... piano accordian. (I don't play an instrument). I'll let you judge for yourself:

But the other video from Join Us, is for Can't Keep Johnny Down. It was made by a fan who won a competion. I like that video much more and you can watch it with me after the jump! (And let's watch some old favourites while we're at it!)


Here's the winning entry - again, not my favourite song - but this is such a great video, especially once you start to piece together what's going on:

And now let's get old school and dive backwards twenty years or so. I mean you're already here, right? Cherry pick from these favourites.

This is the second song of theirs I ever heard, and I've only just seen the clip for the first time:

Purple Toupee is crazy great:

Simple clip but I'll always love the eerie, impossible love story Ana Ng:

Crazy animation in this one:

And my absolute favourite song of all time, of course, is still Birdhouse in Your Soul:

And as a bonus, I love this clip from The Tonight Show of Birdhouse live. Especially all those amazing trumpets in the middle. Gives me chills:

You've got to admit, it's been a long, strange journey!