New York Giants

Band: They Might Be Giants.

Personnel: John Linnel, vocals, accordion, saxophone; John Flansburgh, vocals, guitar.

History: This New York-based duo met in grammar school in Lincoln, Mass., and resumed their acquaintance in 1981 when they both moved into the same Brooklyn apartment building. Linnel, who had been in the Rhode Island band the Mundanes, and Flansburgh began recording in their living room and hit the New York club circuit as a duo supplemented by taped tracks. Lack of a record contract only inspired the pair to creative enterprise: They distributed a homemade flexi-disc at their shows, and when Linnel went on the temporary disabled list after a bicycle accident they established the They Might Be Giants Dial-A-Song Service ((718) 387-6962), inviting fans to reach out and hear their latest tunes--and leave their opinions after the beep. The duo signed with Hoboken, N.J.-based Bar/None Records and released its debut album, “They Might Be Giants,” in late ’86. A video of the song “Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head” made MTV’s rotation. They released an EP spotlighting the catchy track “Don’t Let’s Start” and three new songs, including “We’re the Replacements,” a tribute to their Minnesota colleagues (“Hey, where’s Tommy? Someone find Tommy. . . . Where’s the equipment?”) The video of “Don’t Let’s Start,” directed by Jonathan Demme assistant Adam Bernstein, finished No. 5 in the last Village Voice’s national critics’ poll, and the duo is recording its second LP, “Lincoln,” due in early summer. It will be preceded by an EP featuring a re-mix of “(She’s a) Hotel Detective” and three new tracks. The group is also set to join the likes of L.L. Cool J, Lisa Lisa and Debbie Gibson as a performer at the New York Music Awards next month, and is slated to sing the national anthem at a Kansas City Royals baseball game. Why not?

Sound: Talk about slippery. You’ve barely formed an impression of the group from one song when the next one comes along to shatter it. So it goes through the 19 cuts on “They Might Be Giants,” a dizzying array of dryly witty, often enigmatic slices of contemporary life. Titles like “Youth Culture Killed My Dog” and “Everything Right Is Wrong Again” tip you off that these are smart eccentrics going nose-to-nose with the twisting forces of modern culture. But the music’s deceptively easy sweep from one corner to another--folk and skiffle to art-pop collages to peppy Jackson 5 pop-soul riffing to Husker Du-like rock to off-kilter blues--along with the band’s bubbling high spirits and general air of goofiness lighten the load without dulling the point.

Shows: Friday and April 2 at Club Lingerie, April 1 at the Bacchanal in San Diego.