More infectious. Trillion Grams loves TMBG and does IT for HR in DFW, TX, USA. A particularly white and nerdy crowd. They Might Be Giants 1986

Both versions of “On the Drag” start with a big claim before the music kicks in, either “I won’t die until I’m dead,” or “You’re only happy when you’re sad.” Either of those lines set up a certain kind of defiance. – Jeremy.

TMBG flips their oft-used Tin Pan Alley trick of disguising sad lyrics with happy music by ramping up the happy. – Demitri, John Henry, 1994

The “cyclops rock” of the song, however, is unambiguously a dance alongside the other 60s dance crazes dropped in the song (“Pony, twist, monkey and frug!”), wonderfully screamed in the bridge in her thick Welsh brogue by Catatonia’s Cerys Matthews (nerd rock shout out; see “Mulder And Scully”). A little rock, a little ska, a lot of 90s -- something for everybody. I may not be old enough, or legit punk enough, to say that I hung out at St. Mark’s Place in its heyday. I’d venture that a majority of fans in my age group must admit that their initial exposure to the band was those “Particle Man” and “Istanbul” clips. This is probably because there never seems like a perfect time to make a They Might Be Giants list, because they’re almost always making music. 4. When “The Guitar” comes up on a setlist, it’s always a moment. This hasn’t let up as even they’ve matured; I Like Fun’s ace opener “Let’s Get This Over With” seems to begin in media res, reeling through five hooks in the first forty seconds.

I Don’t Understand You (FT15)

One of TMBG's best-known songs, largely because it severed as the theme to FOX's Malcolm in the Middle. No. My hope is that it will persist after we’ve all been a long time gone and Istanbul becomes… something else. I chose a bunch, though. / Everyone gets on the bus out of town / And the lights start going out one by one.” It’s one of the band’s most evocative late-period lyrics, deftly making the transition from every day moving-out imagery to a sense of desolate abandonment, married to one of the band’s power-poppiest melodies. I considered the album versions, of course, but also performances, memories, demos, and more. Some fans have speculated it’s about getting older and feeling out of control; could be. It is, in some ways, even more painful than the prejudiced act itself. As a TMBG live-show connoisseur, there are just certain songs you come to, if not outright resent or dread, certainly regard with a little bit of trepidation. This one’s a little more personal for me. A standard (and lovely) love story, with the usual deprecating humor and wordplay we've come to expect. Somethin’ Grabbed (FT14) A song like "Prevenge" that circles around a singular turn of phrase and revels in word play, but that benefits from a tighter arrangement and ambient electric keyboard. Depression? Rob is relieved.

"Stalk of Wheat" is cute, self-referential, musically sharp, and well-edited. And, if you want to talk more about it, you can meet me at The Cube. Beginning with a quote from Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," "I Should Be Allowed to Think" is a like a mini-manifesto, advocating free speech and, more importantly, free thought. Probably because its brilliance is disguised in a perfectly crafted pop song. Wreck My Car (FT7) An unusually calm song by TMBG, not dissimilar to traditional sea shanties or English folk tunes, about creation and reproduction. 30-plus years into this gig, TMBG can still make new history for themselves, ever aware that it’s still subject to life’s unavoidable erase button. Maybe they thought it too straightforward to be a true TMBG classic, even though it is narrated from the womb. It’s not the same for everyone.

“Make a little birdhouse in your soul” the song exorts, so that your guardian angel always has a place to return. It is notably longer than the majority of TMBG's compositions, and though each section of the song is musically distinct, there are consistent motifs and melodies that connect each into one longer piece. 15.

The music is spot on, from composition to implementation, and each instrument and sound plays an important part in maintaining the song's unsettling yet optimistic tone. I Heard a Sound (FT16) Everything Is Catching On Fire (FT1) As a kid who spent 18 years in the suburbs, and as an adult who spent 4 years in a dead-end proofreading job, I am familiar with that absence.
“Everyone was acting normal so I tried to look nonchalant,” Linnell sings over a plodding synth bass that sounds more like today’s Brooklyn bands than 1986’s. Tragically, no one has ever heard of The Mesopotamians (the band predates reel-to-reel by a significant margin) or are aware that they rule the land. I first heard this song on New Year’s Eve 2012, a few months before TMBG released the album bearing its name, and I took an immediate liking to it, the way it triumphed over any feeling that maybe TMBG writing a song about nanobots could be a bit boilerplate, a bit expected, with sheer sonic inventiveness; the obligatory touch of robot-voice, of course, but also the overlapping vocals, the chiming verses, the little pauses where most everything drops out. This isn’t TMBG’s first paean to unrequited love. Keep up with the latest daily buzz with the BuzzFeed Daily newsletter!

Self care and ideas to help you live a healthier, happier life. And, again, that “tall, dark, and handsome” verse is a doozy. But this was not a band’s manifesto, and when they started flirting with the kind of longevity that’s the kinda-sorta subject of “Till My Head Falls Off” (“I won’t be done until my head falls off/Though it may not be a long way off”), obviously they were happy to try new things, like bitchin’ guitar solos and relatively straightforward rock-band arrangements that still maintain their signature mordant wit and boundless energy. “Listen to this,” she told me, and played “Man, It’s So Loud in Here” from the They Might Be Giants album Mink Car. A history of songs dealing with transgender issues, featuring Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Morrissey and Green Day. One of the best songs you can play when you just need to rock out, alone and angry, in your room.

Verse one’s shuttering of the burn-smell factory upends the mournful romanticism of Springsteen, while verse three’s jubilant job-quitting high jacks Jerry Reed’s “Guitar Man” to posit a future where we don’t have to do the dumb things we all gotta due, one where anybody can just walk away from go-nowhere work — not just putative music stars.The genius, though, lies in verse two, which expresses the warmest, most humane thought in any college-rock hate-my-job manifesto. Time (and maybe a little whiskey) has the power to heal all wounds, and love, to cop a quote from Dr. Ian Malcolm, finds a way.
“She’s an Angel” is the early-Giants slowdance treasure that proved the band’s not just for spazzes, even as the lyric captures a spaz’s terror in the face of a surprise romance. The only one of TMBG's children's songs to make the list, and a truly excellent piece of educational music.

Simple chord progressions pair beautifully with rhythmic guitar and keyboard. I Hear the Wind Blow (FT3)

But what I’ve grown to love about them is when they tap into real human emotion. A TMBG song written specifically to include a few obscure words, including the titular "contrecoup." – Randy, Nanobots, 2013 Mysterious Whisper (FT17) I was the idiot.

It was totally #41, guys, and I didn’t cook the books on that or anything). "Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal". It was always there for us, in the background.

10. Dennis Perkins is a freelance film and TV writer for the A.V. (“I’m poooooooointing my finger in my own faaaaaaaaaace.”) If you’re in a bad mood, though, you can play along with Johnny, which, even though he’s a jerk, is mostly empowering. The song, like the singer, seems like it’s about to step into the abyss. “Don’t Let’s Start” becomes the blueprint for TMBG’s next ten years, if not the next thirty.

Doubtless one John or another once said something disparaging or dismissive about guitar solos, and certainly their early music eschews typical rock-music bombast. So it should be no surprise that it’s actually a cover (though it may be a surprise to discover that the original went gold). The driving beat and verses densely packed with lyrics (showcasing Linnell’s impressive breath control) contrast with sleepy imagery of the mundane and everyday (door knobs and shoelaces). "When Will You Die?," in all its hyperbolic glory, captures any and all frustration you can have toward that certain someone ruining your life. My internal debate was not so much over what song to do, but over what They Might Be Giants song to do. That odd-ball little song had been tattooed on my brain since childhood, and I owe a huge debt to my sister for recognizing (and tolerating) my strange taste and reintroducing me to the band that would instantly and permanently become my favorite. From a band that is not really known as a better-live commodity the way that Phish is? 21.

So it’s a little bit strange to us that though we’ve tackled artists like David Bowie, Sleater-Kinney, Belle & Sebastian, Radiohead, and The Hold Steady, we have yet to make our definitive list of the best They Might Be Giants songs. Another song that touches upon a specific, solid topic: political corruption. “Sleeping in the Flowers” is a song about that joy. It sounds like the Jackson 5 in space, or a disco constructed completely out of diamonds. "Birdhouse in Your Soul" is a song that crosses a number of different musical boundaries, and deserves the reputation it holds amongst fans of the band. The brilliant lyrics range from fantastically weird to fantastically sad, such as "Everybody dies frustrated and sad/And that is beautiful.".

His songs include Amy Winehouse's "You Sent Me Flying" and James Blunt's "1973.". Who cares whether it’s about infatuation or self harm? Possibly the best known song by They Might Be Giants, and for good reason.

Culled from several years’ worth of shows, rather than a particularly wildly successful world tour? A very recent composition that highlights Flansburgh's warm vocals and Linnell's accordion, "Good To Be Alive" is a solid example of TMBG's skill crafting short, sweet tunes that linger well past the end of the song. Is it their most profound song? Here’s what I keep coming back to: The song is both vast and lonely, and there is room for all of us in it.