They Might be Giants are hot on the trail of "That Pioneer Spirit Tour," still whistling their quirky musical messages in pop chambers country-wide. The band's musical style surfs on Dr. Demento's airwaves, but its sophisticated arrangements, which often include accordion and the world's first rock metronome, explore lands that other artists dare not venture in. Their deep well of creativity has carried them through more than 100 songs, 10 videos, and 6 full length lps, including their latest release, John Henry.

Over three years of the band's ten year history has been spent entirely on the road. This exhausting tour schedule finally caught up with singer/guitarist John Flansburgh, who at the time of our first scheduled interview had a 104 degree fever, complete with hallucinations, forcing him to reschedule. MELVIN reporter Anton Crane reached him from the MELVIN Telecommunications Lab.

Did you get any song ideas from the fever bout last week?

Oh, you're rescheduling from that?

Yeah.

Oh, no. I had a really insane time checking into the hospital though. It's really strange.

Oh really?

Hospitals in Athens are much nicer than they are in Brooklyn, N.Y.

I didn't get any larger insights other than I should probably get out of Brooklyn.

How so?

In Brooklyn, there's a big crack epidemic. So the hospitals are filled with people who are having bad experiences on crack and people who have been shot. They're a lot more hectic. The bathrooms in the hospitals have the doors taken off ths stalls...people do drugs in the hospitals. It was way more civilized (in Athens) and I was amazed how much nicer the hospitals were. But no, I didn't get any larger insights other than I should probably get out of Brooklyn.