[music] I know you're out there with your hands around my neck

John Linnell - "Louisiana" (mp3)

The only b-side (as far as I know) from the solo songs John Linnell worked on while They Might Be Giants were sort of in hibernation. In fact, I think it only ever came out on vinyl, which since we're talking about the autumn of 1999 here does not suggest a strong desire for anyone to actually hear it. Well worth it, though.

I think it was not much earlier than this that I became able to tell the two Johns apart reliably. Once I could, a lot of older songs I hadn't liked became much better. I had formed a sort of composite persona in my head out of the two of them, see. Occasionally you'd have a situation where, for example, Flansburgh wrote a song that was creepy by his standards but not by Linnell's, and it sounded flat to me because it was clearly trying to be creepy and yet didn't even rise to the level of the composite average creepiness I imputed to the group. If you see what I mean.