All You Can Think About: They Might Be Giants Rarities Set Comes to CD

TMBG Spine Surfs Alone CD — BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

A collection of harder-to-find material from stalwart alt-rock duo They Might Be Giants – released on vinyl last year – gets a wider availability on CD this month.

The Spine Surfs Alone: Rarities 1998-2005 is available at general retail on May 30, having been available from the band’s official store since earlier this spring. (A vinyl version was surprise released last November, during which the album was made available digitally through Bandcamp as well.) The set includes the balance of two EPs: 2000’s Working Undercover for the Man, released only through the early digital service eMusic, and 2004’s The Spine Surfs Alone, an early release on the band’s own Idlewild Recordings label. The album is balanced out by a few single cuts, compilation appearances (including covers of Paul McCartney and a song from the score of Hedwig and the Angry Inch), material from the mostly live album Severe Tire Damage (1998) and an unreleased instrumental version of “T-Shirt,” a song recorded during the sessions for TMBG’s 2005 children’s album Here Come the ABCs.

This period marked the Brooklyn-born group – consisting primarily of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, though they’d add a fuller backing band in the mid-’90s – breaking away from the Elektra label after an unlikely rise to success. Signing to Reckless Records (ironically, like Elektra, then distributed by Warner Music Group), TMBG issued Severe Tire Damage, a strikingly-rearranged live album featuring a few new bits including studio single “Doctor Worm.” While they’d release a few studio albums with the label, including 2001’s Mink Car and 2004’s The Spine (outtakes of which became an EP that shares a title with this collection), their best-known work may have been another track featured on this set: “Boss of Me,” the Grammy-winning theme song to the FOX sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. (During this period, they also began their first forays into children’s music, adapting their quirky sound and oddball lyrical bent into fun for the whole family on 2002’s No!) Their bona fides well-established afterward, the Johns would shortly found Idlewild Recordings, where they’ve released most of their albums ever since.

You can obtain your copy of The Spine Surfs Alone CD at the link below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Spine Surfs Alone: Rarities 1998-2005 (Idlewild Recordings IDLE190CD, 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The Spine Surfs Alone
Now is Strange
I’m All You Can Think About
Fun Assassin
Skullivan
The Other Side of the World
Canada Haunts Me
Doctor Worm
Severe Tire Damage Theme
They Got Lost (Live)
Why Does the Sun Shine? (Live)
Boss of Me (Single Version)
Man, It’s So Loud In Here (Elegant Too Remix)
Ram On
The Long Grift
Rest Awhile
On the Drag
Robot Parade (Adult Version)
I Am a Human Head
Empty Bottle Collector
T-Shirt (Instrumental)

Tracks 1-7 released as The Spine Surfs Alone – Idlewild Recordings IDLE 103, 2004
Tracks 8-11 released on Severe Tire Damage – Restless 72965, 1998
Track 12 released on Restless/Fox Music promo CD single RPRO-242, 2001
Track 13 released on Restless promo CD single RPRO-264, 2001
Track 14 released on Listen to What the Man Said (Popular Artists Pay Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney) – Oglio OGL89125, 2001
Track 15 released on Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired by Hedwig and The Angry Inch – Off Records 994, 2003
Tracks 16-20 released on Working Undercover for the Man – eMusic (no cat. #), 2000
Track 21 exclusive to this compilation

Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.