Back In Los Angeles

From This Might Be A Wiki

song name Back in Los Angeles
artist They Might Be Giants
releases The World Is To Dig
year 2026
run time 2:41
sung by John Linnell


Trivia/Info

  • This song features violinists Maxim Moston and Katie Kresek. John Flansburgh on the addition of strings to the song: "It was really just the evolution of the production. It's not that active a chart, but the players did a beautiful job."[1]
  • John Linnell has cited Bernard Herrmann's score for the 1976 film Taxi Driver as an inspiration for the drums on this track. He explained in a 2026 interview with The Spill Magazine: "Bernard Herrmann does this very odd thing, as there is almost arrhythmic drumming. It is just like someone hitting a snare drum like they are a crazy person. It has this sort of great menace to it; these brass chords and then this snare drum going crazy. I said to Marty [Beller], 'Do that.'"
  • Flansburgh briefly spoke about the song in a 2026 interview with CRANNK: "The drums on it are almost in free time. Our drummer is kind of playing against the track. It's hard to even describe. It's an appropriate opening track, 'cause it's just so wide-open."
  • Nearly everything referenced in this song is fictional, save for Los Angeles.
  • "Arnold Shouldn'tberg's" is a likely nod to the early 20th century composer Arnold Schoenberg, who settled in Los Angeles after emigrating to the United States following fleeing Nazi Germany.
  • "When the snakes descend" may refer to the movie Snakes On A Plane, in which said plane is bound for Los Angeles.

Song Themes

Animals, Body Parts, Children, Cities, Clothes, Counting, Doors, Drinks, Eyes, Food, Friendship, Hotels, Memory, Movies, Not In Common Time, Numbers, People (Real), Religion, Supernatural, Sadness, Skeletons, Streets, Violence, Weapons

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Back In Los Angeles is currently ranked #501 out of 1109. (49 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.32)