The four albums quirk-pop duo They Might Be Giants released on Elektra in the ’90s — starting with the group’s platinum-selling Flood, with its hit single “Birdhouse in Your Soul” — are being reissued in the U.K. next month by Edsel Records in a pair of “two-for-one” sets that pad out each disc with a handful of B-sides and remixes.
As our friends at SuperDeluxeEdition report, the two 2CD sets — pairing 1990’s Flood with 1992’s Apollo 18,
The two sets are each packaged in slipcases, and each individual album features a different number of bonus tracks, ranging from the three appended to the end of Flood to the eight featured on the expanded edition of John Henry. Check out the full details below.
Tracklist: They Might Be Giants, Flood + Apollo 18
CD 1: Flood
1. “Theme from Flood”
2. “Birdhouse in Your Soul”
3. “Lucky Ball & Chain”
4. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”
5. “Dead”
6. “Your Racist Friend”
7. “Particle Man”
8. “Twisting”
9. “We Want a Rock”
10. “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair”
11. “Hearing Aid”
12. “Minimum Wage”
13. “Letterbox”
14. “Whistling in the Dark”
15. “Hot Cha”
16. “Women & Men”
17. “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love”
18. “They Might Be Giants”
19. “Road Movie to Berlin”
Bonus tracks
20. “Ant”
21. “James K. Polk”
22. “Stormy Pinkness”
CD 2: Apollo 18
1. “Dig My Grave”
2. “I Palindrome I”
3. “She’s Actual Size”
4. “My Evil Twin”
5. “Mammal”
6. “The Statue Got Me High”
7. “Spider”
8. “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)”
9. “Dinner Bell”
10. “Narrow Your Eyes”
11. “Hall of Heads”
12. “Which Describes How You’re Feeling”
13. “See the Constellation”
14. “If I Wasn’t Shy”
15. “Turn Around”
16. “Hypnotist of Ladies”
17. “Fingertips”
18. “Space Suit”
Bonus tracks
19. “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)” (Williamsburgh Remix)
20. “The Guitar” (Outer Planet Mix)
21. “Welcome to the Jungle”
22. “I Blame You”
23. “Moving to the Sun”
24. “The Guitar” (Even Further Outer Planet Mix)
Trackist: They Might Be Giants, John Henry + Factory Showroom</strong>
CD1: John Henry
1. “Subliminal”
2. “Snail Shell”
3. “Sleeping in the Flowers”
4. “Unrelated Thing”
5. “AKA Driver”
6. “I Should Be Allowed to Think”
7. “Extra Savoir–faire”
8. “Why Must I Be Sad?”
9. “Spy”
10. “O, Do Not Forsake Me”
11. “No One Knows My Plan”
12. “Dirt Bike”
13. “Destination Moon”
14. “A Self Called Nowhere”
15. “Meet James Ensor”
16. “Thermostat”
17. “Window”
18. “Out of Jail”
19. “Stomp Box”
20. “The End of the Tour”
Bonus tracks
21. “Ondine”
22. “She Was a Hotel Detective”
23. “Mrs. Train”
24. “Snail Dust” (Dust Brothers Remix)
25. “Why Does the Sun Shine?” (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)
26. “Jessica”
27. “Whirlpool”
28. “Spy” (Live)
CD2: Factory Showroom
1. “Token Back to Brooklyn”
2. “S–E”
3. “Till My Head Falls Off”
4. “How Can I Sing Like a Girl?”
5. “Exquisite Dead Guy”
6. “Metal Detector”
7. “New York City”
8. “Your Own Worst Enemy”
9. “XTC Vs. Adam Ant”
10. “Spiralling Shape”
11. “James K. Polk”
12. “Pet Name”
13. “I Can Hear You”
14. “The Bells Are Ringing”
Bonus tracks
15. “S–E”
16. “Sensurround”
17. “Unforgotten”
18. “We’ve Got a World That Swings”
19. “S-E”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Free MP3: They Might Be Giants, ‘Call You Mom’ — first track off upcoming ‘Nanobots’
- They Might Be Giants to play ‘Lincoln,’ ‘Flood’ and more at 3-night New Year’s run in NYC
- Video: Watch They Might Be Giants’ 22-minute in-store set at Amoeba Music
- Video: They Might Be Giants perform ‘When Will You Die,’ ‘Ana Ng’ on ‘Conan’
UGH! How lame is it that all the remasters come with remixes EXCEPT “Flood” which had the greatest remixes (“Your Racist Friend”, multiple “Istanbul”s)
Nice! No mention of being re-mastered, but the bonus material is enough for me to consider the purchase (all of which is new to me). I wonder if “slipcases” is the same as the LP-replica style packaging that seems to be popular with CD reissues these days?
Nice to see these albums being reissued. It is always interesting to see the bonus material selected by Demon/Edsel. Sometimes they do a pretty thorough job (Thompson Twins), sometimes there are too many non-LP tracks to fit (the Jimmy Sommerville releases where they had a fan select the tracks) and sometimes they cock it up in my opinion (Fine Young Cannibals releases). I enjoy getting tracks that weren’t originally available on CD but with these that is not the case.
My comments:
Flood:
They are missing the ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Brownsville Mix’ from the CD5. I assumed it might have been due to the length of the album plus b-sides but I checked the times and they only add up to about 50 minutes combined.
Also would have been great to get the US Promo 12″-only mixes:
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Bedford/Stuyvesant Mix) 2:30
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Park Slope Mix) 2:45
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Williamsburg Mix) 2:34
Apollo 18:
Only includes tracks from ‘The Guitar’ CD single. Missing ‘The Guitar (Williamsburgh Extended Mix)’ from the 12″. Missing ‘I’m Def’ from ‘The Statue Got Me High’ and ‘Cabbagetown’, ‘Siftin” and ‘Larger Than Life Joshua Fried’s Remake of “She’s Actual Size”‘ from the ‘I Palindrome I’ single.
Would have been a great opportunity to release the ‘O Tannenbaum’ 7″ tracks on cd (‘O Tannenbaum’/’Christmas Cards’)
John Henry release includes all non-LP tracks from Back To Skull and Why Does the Sun Shine EPs.
Factory Showroom appears to include the standard US CD5 tracks from the S-E-X-X-Y single. Would be nice to see the Tee’s Radio mix (US Promo), the Tee’s Freeze Mix from the Aussie CD5 and the vinyl-only tracks from the 12”:
A2 S-E-X-X-Y (Tee’s In House Dub) 5:58
A3 S-E-X-X-Y (Tee’s Capella) 4:55
B2 S-E-X-X-Y (The Warren Rigg Instrumental) 7:52
A good but not great job overall… Most of the omissions were released on vinyl only originally.
As per first comment, these reissues are typically not remastered. Slip case is thin cardboard case to slip jewel case in (not an LP-replica package).
good info. thanks.
I forgot about the ‘Your Racist Friend’ remix that is on an Elektra promo comp CD. Good mix.
Your observations are commendably well informed, Glenn! Good stuff.
I’ve often wondered how much it “costs” for a label to dig obscure tracks and mixes out of the vault and put them on iTunes. I can see not including some material on physical media like a CD reissue, simply for want of space. But as long as they’re already rooting around through the old tapes, why not go all the way and put out the extra-extras in an all-digital format? There’s no physical production costs, and I should think the effort would pay for itself over time.
I’m not saying this just about TMBG and Elektra, who look like they’re taking a lot of care with this. There’s just a lot of good material from this period that has never been released digitally, on CD or otherwise, or that has gone out of print.