When Linnell was a child, Walt Kelly's Songs of the Pogo album made a strong impression on his musical sensibilities.
13 Facts About John Linnell
2.
John Linnell studied English for a semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before dropping out to pursue a career in music.
3.
In high school, John Linnell played with a band called The Baggs.
4.
John Linnell's family did not support the transition from what they considered to be a more professional band to an experimental one.
5.
John Linnell generally writes songs, sings, plays accordion, keyboards, and various woodwind instruments for the band.
6.
John Linnell described his role in the group during an interview for Splatter Effect in 1994:.
7.
John Linnell thinks more in terms of the larger picture, the larger meaning of what we're doing.
8.
Early on, John Linnell frequently contributed humorous spoken-word pieces to the program.
9.
Since 1994, John Linnell has done some solo work: in that year he released the State Songs EP, which he expanded to a full-length album in 1999.
10.
John Linnell provided the singing voice for the Other Father character in the 2009 film Coraline, for which They Might Be Giants wrote the "Other Father Song", included on the film's soundtrack.
11.
On July 2,2021, John Linnell released a four song EP containing original songs sung entirely in Latin, titled "Roman Songs".
12.
John Linnell is married to Karen Brown and has one son, Henry, who appeared as a performer on They Might Be Giants' children's albums Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s, as well as his father's solo album Roman Songs.
13.
John Linnell responded to the curious poll results with an op-ed piece in The New York Times:.