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they might be giants: mink car
They Might Be Giants (TMBG) are almost like Cabbage Patch Kids: cloyingly cute, but with a mysteriously long shelf life. Since 1986, they've cut an album every few years but never attained enough popularity to flame out. Though every critic in creation describes them as "college rock darlings," they've gotten almost no airplay since the early '90s. Yet they're still here, and Mink Car finds them sticking by their usual eclecticism, with dull results.
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At their best, TMBG is a great joke band. "Man It's Loud in Here" parodies the elevator electronica colonizing restaurants, bars, and eventually, if progress remains unchecked, Gourmet Heaven. "They revamped the airport completely/Now it looks just like a nightclub/Everybody's excited and confused" run the lyrics during a menacing pause. Anybody who's gotten a beer in New York City knows the feeling. "She Thinks She's Edith Head" makes fun of pretentious indie-rock fans: "Back in high school I knew a girl...She thinks she's Edith Head or Helen Gurley Brown/Or some other cultural figure we don't know a lot about." All this over surf-tinged guitars and drums. It's songs like these and spoofs like "I've Got a Fang" that keep Mink Car from stalling. However, most of the album is just geek rock, without humor, satire, or "infectious pop hooks," to quote another cliché of TMBG reviews. Getting through the middle of the album means enduring tracks that sound like Phish guesting on Sesame Street, all goofy lyrics and musical syrup.
In the end, TMBG sounds blithe and hermetic, as they have for years. Their alienated irreverence manages to provide a few solid pop songs, but that's it. Like other bands in creative stasis, they're living off a cult they built up years ago, and they'll be around until they get sick of recording. The die-hards will buy, but nobody else need bother. (Restless) —Nathan Littlefield
All materials © 2001 The Yale Herald, Inc., and its staff.
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