reports… The Wall Street Journal…
John Flansburgh and John Linnell “began recording songs for the band’s telephone answering machine” in 1983. They rotated a supply of 30-40 songs every day, kept in “a suitcase full of cassettes” in Flansburgh’s kitchen. This created the illusion they were writing new songs every day — a misperception they enjoyed and eventually parlayed into four million record sales. (…)
Back in the ’80s, the band promoted Dial-A-Song with ads in the Village Voice. This time around, they “set up a Dial-A-Song Network made up of 100 radio stations, which will broadcast the songs at a particular time each week. Mike Pesca’s podcast ‘The Gist‘ will also debut the songs Monday nights on Slate.com.” The band will additionally perform “the last Sunday of each month” at the Music Hall in Brooklyn. Having at one point diverted into making children’s records, the duo today enjoys a following of now-grown, next-generation fans.
One of my funeral songs:
I miss these guys, I won’t lie. But I don’t want to be bummed out by new stuff.
