They Might Be Giants
Mink Car
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They Might Be Giants
Mink Car
Restless, 2001
RiYL: They Might Be Giants |
The lovely Giants solidified a "college rock" following through their first two albums, They Might Be Giants and Lincoln in the late-'80s, broke through with the 1990 major-label debut Flood, and have been consistently releasing good music to a shrinking fanbase since. In the past four years, the band has stretched out its musical ambitions, composing the theme song and incidental music to the sitcom "Malcolm In The Middle," the "Dr. Evil" intro song featured in "Austin Powers II," and 37 short pieces of music to accompany the #6 issue of McSweeney's literary journal.
The group has also been expanding its distribution options since parting ways with Elektra after 1996's underrated Factory Showroom. Forging an early alliance with Internet label/site-of-all-trades EMusic, the group released a somewhat slapdash full-length MP3 album, Long Tall Weekend as well as several EPs and one-off MP3 releases. The band has also recorded an as-yet-unreleased children's album called No!, and of course all the while, new songs have been cropping up on the Giants' ever famous Dial-A-Song service.
So along comes Mink Car, and the first thing that stands out is the fact that a whole bunch of these songs have been released in some form or another (mostly as MP3s), so to the attentive fan, the record seems like a bit of a slapdash effort -- a clearing house of "what we've done since 1996" instead of a brand-new solidly constructed record.
But maybe that's the way things go in this internet age. Maybe a lot of albums over the next few years will end up sounding like this to fans who have already downloaded live versions of some tracks or studio outtakes and one-off projects through the web.
Either way, all it really takes for Mink Car to set in is some patience. The record is 17 tracks long, a return to the extensive palette style of the Giants of yore. And the majority of the new songs are keepers. There are tunes that recall classic They Might Be Giants, like the Langer/Winstanley production "Bangs" and the revived Flood outtake "Hovering Sombrero," but there is also plenty new to keep things exciting. First single "Man It's So Loud In Here" is a surprising drum-machine-and-synthesizer mid-'80s homage with a soaring chorus made out of self-consciously inane lyrics: "Baby, check this out / got something to say / when they stop the drum machine and I can hear again / I'll remember what it was."
Elsewhere, the band indulges in its fascination with old-school pop, as in a cover of Dave Lambert's "Yeah! Yeah!," popularized by Georgie Fame in 1965. "My Man" is a pleasant, triangle-and-bongo-accentuated tale of a paralyzed man talking to his inert body. "Wicked Little Critta" is the most out-of-place track on the album (on such a varied disc, a mean feat indeed), a rhythmically confused paean to the cheesy street slang of Boston-area children circa 1980.
Some people will always make claims that They Might Be Giants was a niche band to start out with that, through persistence, has shrunk its relevance to zero. But the truth is, these guys have always been creative musicians, and their songwriting skills have not diminished through the years, they have merely been applied in different ways. A fan of any of the Giants' past music should find something of interest in the buffet of Mink Car. To those who have never heard TMBG, however, who the hell knows what you'd think of it. Write me and I'll make you a mix.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.