They Might Be Giants Launch New Download Site

They Might Be Giants-- equally enamored of accordion-centric nerd-rock jams and egalitarian online music innovation-- have just unveiled TheyMightBeDownloads.com, or, as we like to call it, I Palindrome iTunes. Get the reference? Then you're a devoted enough fan to flip over this collection of studio records and freshly baked live shows. The duo's latest full-length, The Spine, joins the spinoff EP The Spine Surfs Alone, the 2002 kids' album No!, and the rarities collection They Got Lost for sale at the self-owned-and-operated site, with iTunes-like pricing-- $.99 a track or $9.99 an album (with the seven-track Surfs Alone going for $4.99). Better yet, TMBD.com also offers all-or-nothing $9.99 Fugazi-esque exhaustive concert bootlegs from the band's ongoing tour, chronicling every date, and often available before your ears stop ringin'. All endearingly awkward between-song banter is included.

The site largely follows the iTunes model, but stops short of limiting ripping/burning/copying capability via that nefarious beast known as Digital Rights Management (DRM). "From the fans' point of view, (DRM) is viewed as a pain in the ass, and it leads them back to bad behaviors such as illegal downloading," TMBGiant John Flansburgh told Yahoo news." So you get plain ol' malleable MP3s, but the band politely asks you not do anything untoward with 'em. "Do us a favor and do not distribute these to the Internet," reads the note beneath the live bootleg list. "We all need new boats."

To assist in the new boat-acquiring process, the band's tour continues unabated, so head out to the clubs, or just flop around your apartment and then download the show later, they won't know the difference:

09-30 Philadelphia, PA - TBA
10-01 New York, NY - Irving Plaza
10-02 New York, NY - Irving Plaza

In other TMBG news, the duo has put the finishing touches on the youth-oriented DVD Here Comes the ABCs, featuring animation, live performances, and, yes, puppetry. Though this is a Disney collaboration, the band hastens to add that no mouse-eared taskmasters were looking over the Johns' shoulders. "There were no conference calls with strangers, no consultants," notes Flansburgh on the band's website. "I have to give props to Disney Sound for letting us be our natural selves." Thus, look for at least five winking references to obscure ex-U.S. presidents.