Artist	Song
They Might Be Giants	25 O'Clock (4:05)
They Might Be Giants	Window (1:00)
They Might Be Giants	I've Got A Match (2:34)
They Might Be Giants	Tiny Doctors (0:59)
They Might Be Giants	Robot Parade (Adult Version) (1:03)
They Might Be Giants	Someone Keeps Moving My Chair (2:22)
They Might Be Giants	Road Movie To Berlin (2:24)
They Might Be Giants	Till My Head Falls Off [Live] (2:53)
They Might Be Giants	The World Before Later On (1:54)
John Linnell	Iowa [Live] (2:52)
They Might Be Giants	Lie Still, Little Bottle (2:04)
They Might Be Giants	Reprehensible (3:13)
They Might Be Giants	Am I Awake? [Elegant Too Remix] (3:03)
John Linnell	West Virginia (3:31)
They Might Be Giants	Dig My Grave (1:08)
They Might Be Giants	Experimental Film (2:57)
They Might Be Giants	Theme to McSweeney's (2:29)
They Might Be Giants	It's Kickin' In (2:00)
John Linnell	North To Alaska [Live] (2:26)
They Might Be Giants	Hopeless Bleak Despair (3:07)
They Might Be Giants	She's Actual Size (2:06)
They Might Be Giants	Turn Around (2:52)
John Linnell	Montana [Live] (2:08)
They Might Be Giants	The World's Address (2:21)
They Might Be Giants	Stomp Box (1:53)
They Might Be Giants	Mosh Momken Abadon (2:53)
John Linnell	Nebraska [Live] (2:08)
They Might Be Giants	Mr. Me (1:49)
They Might Be Giants	Dollar For Dollar (0:23)
John Linnell	Maine (2:05)

Comment:

Track 31 -- Linnell, Arkansas [live] (3:53); Track 32 -- Linnell, Ohio [live] (1:39); Track 33 -- TMBG, About Me (0:45); Track 34 -- TMBG, Smells Like Teen Spirit [live] (2:17); Track 35 -- TMBG, The Famous Polka (1:33).... What can I say? Nearly all TMBG's songs, and plenty of John Linnell's State Songs side project's too, are worthy to put on a mix, even though the danger might be run of eventually re-sequencing their entire collection of released music in 80-minute chunks.This one's brand-new (my impetus for getting Rob's permission to post Actually, as well) and, due to including several tracks in the dreaded mp3 format off the Internet (1, 4, 5, 13, 34, plus all the live solo Linnell tracks; track 8 is from Severe Tire Damage), took some Audacity-smithing to get the right volumes, fadeins/outs, and pauses between tracks -- small enough to fit in all 35 pieces! "Nebraska" is Linnell's ridiculous take on the Bruce Springsteen song; "North To Alaska" is a hearty pioneer ballad by Johnny Horton, eerily reminiscent (well... to me at least) of the song "Days of '49" that highlights Dylan's Self-Portrait album; "Ohio" is nominally the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song, with all lyrics wiped out save "Four dead in Ohio"; "Mosh Momken Abadon" is an instrumental cover of an Egyptian pop song by the songwriting team of Riad al-Sunbat and Ma'mun al-Shinawi; "Smells Like Teen Spirit", sung entirely in vocables, is the result of a radio appearance in which TMBG was dared to cover Nirvana; all other pieces are originals. The live "Montana" is from a David Letterman broadcast, with an intro/outro from DL himself that was edited out for flow purposes.How are They Might Be Giants deserving of being my favorite band (as opposed to solo artist) currently working? Well, it seems to me that they take full advantage of their creative freedom; they never try to fit into any prescribed type of song structure. They give their punk songs a jazzy horn section ("Dig My Grave"); they record their demo versions accompanied by bells ("Tiny Doctors"); they make their depression polka-danceable ("Mr. Me"). They don't, therefore, have any target audience, not even one describable by things like "fools for love songs" -- but therefore they burst all their bounds. Lyrics, although they seem like they rightfully should be, are nowhere close to meaningless; each word choice is a complete symbol -- here's where they're the heirs of Captain Beefheart -- and they run far deeper than is necessary for simple nerd acceptance. A song like "Turn Around" is nothing short of an existential insight into the human condition; "I've Got A Match" does the same for romance. It's not a crusade against meaning; it enhances meaning, and the musical backing is never the same from verse to verse. The most sacred concepts in someone's life are toyed with ("Hopeless Bleak Despair", "Am I Awake?") It's irreverence that's often mistaken for parody; but while They Might Be Giants are funny, they're dead serious at the same time, and they sure are no parody band. Songs like "Stomp Box" and "Dig My Grave" really are punk songs, not parodies of punk, and "The World's Address" is a pure dance number; their variations on the forms just make them richer. I don't know of any other band save the Beatles that have done what They Might Be Giants have been doing for over 20 years, and I think TMBG does it more nobly, by deciding to step outside of pop culture entirely, and entirely align themselves with the weird and wonderful, the paths it might take astronautical gumption to tread.

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