Mink Car

From This Might Be A Wiki
This page is for the album. For the song of the same name, see Mink Car (Song).


Mink Car album cover
Mink Car
Studio album by They Might Be Giants
First released September 11, 2001
Release details / collectors: Show | Hide
Tracks 17 Last album Long Tall Weekend
Label Restless Records <73744-2> Length 46:24 Next album No!

Mink Car is They Might Be Giants' eighth studio album, released in 2001 on the Restless label.

Purchase[edit]

Seller Format Price Link
Download Purchase

Vinyl Purchase

AAC $9.99 Purchase

Description[edit]

Mink Car was recorded between 1999 and May 2001 in numerous studios and featured many guest artists and producers. In the year leading up to the album, many of its tracks were previewed by the band via TMBG Unlimited in either their demo or final forms. "Older" and "She Thinks She's Edith Head" had both been released with earlier studio recordings on Long Tall Weekend. The album itself was premiered through TMBG Unlimited on August 1, 2001 as a free MP3 download to subscribers, one month before its commercial release.

The album's cover and media art were designed by The Chopping Block, which also did artwork for the band's follow-up, No!. More information on the design process for the album's artwork can be found in a behind-the-scenes on on tmbg.com.

Mink Car is TMBG's only album to have ever fallen temporarily out of print, due to what Flansburgh referred to as "the almost instant collapse of Restless Records after the events of 9/11."[1] In 2021, Flansburgh reflected on the album, in response to a question about performing some of those songs in shows: "Doing Mink Car [songs live] is kind of for us. It was a record we spent a lot of time on and collaborated with the dearly departed Adam Schlesinger [who passed away in 2020]. I think it didn’t really get a public hearing because of events beyond anyone's control. It's something we're proud of."[2]

Release[edit]

Depending on the country of release, Mink Car's tracklisting varied widely. In Japan, several additional songs, "Boss Of Me", "Your Mom's Alright", "MacGyver", and "Robot Parade (Adult Version)" were tacked on as bonus tracks. The European CD was missing five songs—"Mr. Xcitement", "Wicked Little Critta", "Finished With Lies", "She Thinks She's Edith Head" and "Working Undercover For The Man" (and erroneously, one missing rauschpfeife note on "Older")—but had the addition of "Boss Of Me" and "Your Mom's Alright" worked into the tracklisting.

Man, It's So Loud In Here was the only domestic single from the album, but was not widely circulated. Promotional releases of "Another First Kiss" and "Bangs" were also issued, and "Working Undercover For The Man" had been released on its own extended play the previous year.

The album was released on vinyl for the first time in February 2022 and limited to 3000 copies, with artwork "upgraded for the times by the uber-talented Elizabeth Connor and TS Rogers."[3] The vinyl release was accompanied by a digital rerelease that featured the four extra tracks originally found on the album's Japanese CD release. As a result, the songs "Boss Of Me," "Your Mom's Alright" and "McGyver" were made available for the first time on streaming and digital stores.

Track listing[edit]

Back cover

US Release[edit]

# Title Length  Lyrics Guitar Tab
1 Bangs 3:09 
2 Cyclops Rock 2:38 
3 Man, It's So Loud In Here 3:59 
4 Mr. Xcitement 3:36 
5 Another First Kiss 3:06 
6 I've Got A Fang 2:32 
7 Hovering Sombrero 2:13 
8 Yeh Yeh 2:40 
9 Hopeless Bleak Despair 3:08 
10 Drink! 1:49 
11 My Man 2:57 
12 Older 1:58 
13 Mink Car 2:09 
14 Wicked Little Critta 2:11 
15 Finished With Lies 3:18 
16 She Thinks She's Edith Head 2:37 
17 Working Undercover For The Man 2:19 

Japanese release

Japanese Bonus Tracks / 2022 Digital Bonus Tracks[edit]

# Title Length  Lyrics Guitar Tab
18 Boss Of Me 2:57 
19 Your Mom's Alright 2:59

 

20 McGyver 0:46

 

21 Robot Parade (Adult Version) 1:05

 


Australian Bonus Track[edit]

# Title Length  Lyrics Guitar Tab
18 Boss Of Me 2:57 

European Version[edit]

# Title Length  Lyrics Guitar Tab
1 Man, It's So Loud In Here 3:59 
2 Boss Of Me 2:57 
3 Cyclops Rock 2:38 
4 Another First Kiss 3:06 
5 Bangs 3:09 
6 My Man 2:57 
7 Drink! 1:49 
8 Your Mom's Alright 2:59 
9 Hovering Sombrero 2:13 
10 Yeh Yeh 2:40 
11 I've Got A Fang 2:32 
12 Mink Car 2:09 
13 Hopeless Bleak Despair 3:08 
14 Older 1:58 

Trivia[edit]

  • Working titles for the album included Unreliable Narrator and Secret Mountain Laboratory.
  • The lyrics for "Yeh Yeh", a cover of song performed by Georgie Fame, were not included in the liner notes. The track itself was omitted from some versions of the publisher's promo CD because Warner/Chappell does not have the rights to the song. Other Warner/Chappell pressings do include the song, but it is unclear as to why this is.
  • Some promotional literature indicated catalog numbers for a cassette release of the album, but this did not occur, likely due to the wide obsolescence of the format by the time of the album's release.
  • The Dial-A-Song phone number can be found in sections scattered around "THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS" on the album cover.
  • In 2011, a number of musicians organized a cover album for the tenth anniversary of both the album's release and the 9/11 attacks.

Gallery[edit]

Foreign releases[edit]

Promotional material[edit]

See also[edit]