Deep Cuts From Bloggy's Vault: Nerdcore

Once a "Greatest Hits" album is released it's the final nail in an artist's creative coffin. TMBG released an anthology album, Then: The Earlier Years, in 1997 (three years after The Violent Femmes anthology was released) and then again in 2002 with Dial-A-Song that signaled the end of a nerdcore era that developed in the mid-eighties in Wisconsin and outside Chicago.

Two "greatest hits" albums later, the 2007 release The Else is amazing. The duo comes across as re-invigorated with a great versatility of sound. The double-album's 36 tracks deal oddly, sweetly, and melodically with subjects from singing in the drunk tank alone, stalking beloved authors, dreaming of becoming deranged millionaires, caressing home computers, and working dead end jobs at a "crumb factory". The album's eccentric style, especially on Disc Two, is a return to the offbeat roots that they've departed from while making albums for kids and scoring popular tv programs such as The Daily Show and Malcolm in the Middle. It's worth noting that TMBG recently won a Grammy for Best Musical Album For Children in 2009.

They Might Be Giants will be appearing October 13, 2009 at the The Vogue in Indianapolis, IN.

They Might Be Giants - Why Did You Grow A Beard?.mp3