Lincoln

[edit ] Loading... If loading fails, click here . See Discography Glossary for definition of various terms. This page is for They Might Be Giants' second album. For the band of the same name, see Lincoln (Band) "Lincoln (Band)") . A lot of the material on the first album was just written for the record and hadn't been audience tested. The big difference with Lincoln is that we've done hundreds of shows since that first record, so as instrumentalists and vocal performers and songwriters, we're just that much more developed. After the completion of the band's Bring Me The Head Of Kenny Rogers world tour, the band would begin recording new songs that had been performed live throughout the tour at Al Houghton 's Dubway Studio, which they had moved to from Studio PASS during the final sessions for They Might Be Giants [[6]]( . Recordings from 1987 to 1988 would also be produced by Bill Krauss , which would be the last he would produce for the band before departing after Lincoln' s release. In an interview with the Breaking Point in November 1987, before the release of the Don't Let's Start EP, John Flansburgh announced a January 1988 release date for the album would consist of "as many songs as [the band] can squeeze within a 40 minute frame." Flansburgh also described the album's current sound at the time of the interview[[8]]( : Similarly to They Might Be Giants "They Might Be Giants (Album)") , the band would once again use synthetic drum and bass tracks, but would utilize computer controlled sequencing and MIDI technology for the first time. A majority of the album was tracked syncing a MIDI box onto an Apple Macintosh 512k with the MIDI program Performer [[9]]( installed to a Yamaha RX-11/15 drum machine, with an Akai S1000 sampler as well as Casio CZ-101 or a Micromoog for bass parts[[10]]( . Keyboard parts were not sequenced, and were instead played by hand. The band would also make use of the Fairlight CMI for the screams heard in "Cowtown ". The band were inspired to use computer programming from Bill Krauss, as mentioned by John Linnell in a 2011 interview : Our producer, Bill Krauss, had the first generation of Macintosh, the 1984 Mac. He was very on top of all that stuff, and in a way, he kind of forced us. He was like, "You guys gotta learn this. This is going to be essential, especially for sequencing drums," which is what we had been doing using drum machines. He was like, "You should put all your drums on the computer and you’ll have a much easier time doing it." That was the sell that Bill was giving us. He had the very first edition of a program called Performer, which at that time was just a MIDI program. That was probably 1988, because we started typing the drum programs into Performer right before we made Lincoln . Drum sequencing on the Macintosh was going to be the big change between the first and the second albums. So we learned how to use the Mac by doing sequencing with our producer, Bill Krauss, who had taught us. Then we started sequencing keyboards as well. We were slowly getting our feet wet. After missing the January 1988 release date, the album was pushed back to March 1988 according to a February 10, 1988 interview with NYU's Washington Square News . In the same interview, "Lie Still, Little Bottle " and "Cowtown" were confirmed for release on the upcoming album. The band continued to work on the album throughout March 1988, pushing the date back once again to May 1988. In an interview with the Kansas City Star on April 11, 1988[[11]]( , the new release date, as well as the album's title of Lincoln were revealed by Flansburgh. The title had been based off of the album's working title Lincoln Calling , a pun of the Clash album London Calling . The Johns intended the pun ironically, as they were aware that Lincoln, MA, was not a particularly proud origin.[[12]]( The wide-ranging iconography associated with the shortened title appealed to the band; "We were trying to think of a name that sugges