Something Else

They Might Be Giants have pulled a fast one.


While The Else is still scheduled to hit store shelves in July (First printings including a bonus disc), the Else has taken an interesting u-Turn. Or in this case, an iTurn (Heh....see what I did there? I'm so cool....)

Yes, life had been going on as planned, everything normal, and then BOOM!!!! The Else showed up out of nowhere on iTunes! OK, it wasn't that dramatic, this move was announced a month or so ago, but still, it sounds cooler when you say it like that.

The big news about the Else, is of course, the collab (Hip slang alert!) with the legendary Dust Brothers. Which assures that the Else is going to be at the very least interesting....and that Rick Rubin was too busy trying to revive Gordon Lightfoot's career or something. The Brothers' Dust weasel their way onto about half the album, while old TMBG standby Pat Dillet handles the rest.



So now that the album is on a digital shelf near you, how the hell is it? Or more importantly, how the hell do I feel about it? Because this is my blog.

One caviat I have is this album is damn short. Granted, that's not really a problem because TMBG are probably recording 727 more songs for podcasts, website downloads, commercials and what not as I write this entry (Not to mention that aformentioned bonus disc as well as ANOTHER TMBG album hitting stores this year) and will probably have another 539 written when I post this but still, 13 songs with the longest song clocking in at 3:31 is a little disappointing, especially for a band that once was pretty much guaranteed to cram 20 plus songs on each album. Still, it made for a short (Well....shorter) download on a dial up connection, especially good for trying to download it in the middle of a storm (As opposed to In Front of Storm).


Whoa! Check these guys out!...they mean business.....or they're running for seats on the school board. A vote for weird bird guys is a vote for America!


The first track, I'm Impressed, sets the tone for the album quite nicely. It starts with pounding beats and then goes into a simple "descending" guitar riff It's a song that really fits on this album, yet could have been done at any poin if you took away one of the elements of the song.

I've already mentioned Take Out the Trash. It's just such a funky little number, it makes you wanna get down. And that's something you can't say about a lot of TMBG songs. Unless it's in an ironic way...like that YouTube video I saw of Weird Al playing Canadian Idiot at Bamboozle and the guy in front throwing up the METAL horns.

Upside Down Frown is one of those tracks that you can say is traditional TMBG, if such a thing exists. Even with some of the new gloss added to the songs, it's pretty much immediatly identifiable with the rest of their catalogue. It's one of those songs with a cheery little tune and funny offbeat lyrics masking the "upside down frown".

Climbing the Walls could find it's way onto the underappreciated John Henry album. It's more of a traditional rocker than the way the album starts and it kind of "segues" to the rest of the album.

Careful What You Pack is another song that could find it's way on another TMBG album. Probably The Spine. It would go well with Memo to Human Resources and I Can't Hide From My Mind.

The Cap'm. First of all, I really hate that word (Or abbreviation or contraction or whatever you want to call it). That's not TMBG's fault (I blame Brendan Small. I don't care if he came up with it, I just know Brendan said it in an ep of Home Movies once and that's good enough for me), but I want to get that out of the way. Now that I got that off my chest, this is a great song that also could find it's way on the Spine with some of the more rocking numbers like Damn Good Times. Nice to see they found a place to fit their stylophone (Damn, that sounds dirty)

With the Dark is an interesting song. It starts out as a soft acoustic number, and than, it just FREAKS out and goes all over the place. It almost feels like three different songs. One weird thing is that once the song calms down it goes into nautical themes for a bit.....this must be the "Talk Like a Pirate Day" friendly stretch of the album.

The Shadow Government's a good song, but it seems to have trouble deciding whether it wants to be a polka or country or a straight up rocker. Which come to think of it, is a good description for a lot of TMBG songs.

Bee of the Bird of the Moth (The aformentioned song that clocks in at the EPIC 3:31) is one of those songs that has kind of a spiraling set of lyrics. I don't quite know how to describe it, but it's like the same lyrical structure as House on the Top of a Tree or a song like that. The song also has more stylophone....I'm seriously starting to worry about them.

Withered Hope-Show me typical TMBG song title! This is definitly the most Dust Brotherish song on the album. Lots of beats and samples, but even with all that going on, TMBG still own the song. Once the song kicks into full gear, you have absolutly INSANE horms and guitar just taking over. I think it may be my personal favorite.

Contrecoup is already a well known song thanks to TMBG.com and the podcast. It's a more fleshed out version, which is good, because the song was never a favorite of mine. Actually, it doesn't do much for me here, rither.

Feign Amnesia has a very interesting contrast. The chorus sounds almost 60s-ish but the rest of the song sounds almost new wave-ish. Which is great for all those people who wondered what a Hollies/Cars mashup would sound like.

The album closes with the Mesopatamians, which comes off as a cute theme song to a crazy sitcom (It's EXTREMELY hard not to notice a Monkees influence....geez, this Monkees obsession is just as scary as the stylophone thing.)


It's a fun album, no question. If anyone was wondering how the Dust Brothers would CORRUPT Linnell and Flans' pretty minds (Damn dirty hippies those Dust boys), the answer is not at all. It's evident that they're there, but TMBG haven't gone all Paul's Boutique on your ass either (Which sounds interesting, come to think of it). I can't quite honestly say what I think of this album overall, but out of all the 2007 releases I've heard so far (All 4 of them) it's my favorite-est. It really is a great album though, so I'd recommend it. Of course, I'm kinda insane. So maybe I'm not the best judge.