TMBG: John Henry Demos

For much of my youth, I was an unabashed They Might Be Giants fan. Thanks to Flood and Apollo 18, I was an obsessive listener. I dove as deep as I could as a teenager living in suburban Tennessee, cobbling together as many singles, b-sides and rarities as I could. I was even an early subscriber to the eMusic exclusives they released; cutting edge Internet at the time.

All that is to say, with the release of John Henry, my fandom kind of peaked. I still greatly enjoy the band but the need to compulsively hear it all dropped off.

However, seeing that the band was offering the John Henry demos for download was too much for my old habits to not perk up again. It's not streaming anywhere and I'm certainly not going to steal from a band that gave me so much enjoyment, so it was an instant purchase.

If you're a TMBG fan, it's an interesting listen - largely because the differences in the demos and the final album really aren't that glaring at all. It's subtle and likely not that engaging for the casual fan (as compared to, say, Beatles demos) but if you ever had a deep TMBG phase, this will satisfy.