Miscellaneous T

	Miscellaneous T Collection by They Might Be Giants
	First released	October 8, 1991 Release details / collectors: Show | Hide	Tracks	18
	Label	Bar/None / Restless <72646>	Length	37:47

Loading... If loading fails, click here.

See Discography Abbreviations for definition of various terms.

Back cover of the CD

The unflipped cover photo taken in the hallway of John Flansburgh's old apartment. On Tumblr, Flansburgh would note the "Deck paint on the unfinished floors" and the "extreme water damage on the wall" that can be seen within the image^[1]

A poster featuring handmade lettering by American artist Ben Shahn, who Flansburgh would cite as an influence for the creation of the Miscellaneous T typeface

Miscellaneous T is a compilation album first released in the United States in 1991, collecting every They Might Be Giants b-side from 1986 to 1989. It had first been released outside the US in 1989 under the title Don't Let's Start, but with a different track order and not including "Hello Radio".

Packaging

For the compilation, two different cover photos were taken. The cover photo on CD releases of the compilation feature the words "They Might Be Giants" arranged in a hallway, while the cover photo used for the cassette and CD longbox releases had the words placed on a staircase. The typeface for the letters was created by John Flansburgh and was titled "Conant"^[2] after Flansburgh's alias Rolf Conant, who was credited on the compilation for photography and artwork alongside Brian Dewan. The "Conant" typeface may have been created as early as January 1988, as it was used for promotional ads for the band's live shows around this time^[3]. Flansburgh would go into detail on the creative process behind the CD cover photo on Tumblr in 2025^[4]:

First I designed the typeface on graph paper (which was actually a bigger project than the cover). The idea of my design was drawn from the hand lettering of artist Ben Shahn (although I did not have a lot of direct source material!) The big features of this kind of design is the squared-off letter shapes and the modulating upper and lower case forms. I was also thinking about the woodcut letter shapes on the cover of Edward Albee's famous paperback books.

The letters on the cover were made with an X-Acto knife, ¼" foam-core, tape, Elmer's glue, paper and acrylic paint. They are not solid at all. I made them very quickly, and in a fashion that I had done many other projects. I "blew up" the typeface just by eyeballing the points on the graph paper to the much larger grid I drew on the foam core. I cut out the letters, then cut the pieces that created the depth, and taped them into place on the inside of the letter form.

(This next part I have no memory of but I am pretty sure this is how I did it) Once the letters were complete I took very light paper (like a rice paper or old fashioned Xerox paper) dipped in slightly diluted Elmer's glue and draped it over the edges of all the letters to hide the seams. I suspect I then lightly painted them with white paint just to even it all out. Then I placed them in the hallway of my apartment. To trick the eye for a moment, I actually shot it from above so you see the letter shapes before you place the forms in my dilapidated hallway.

The "Conant" typeface was also used for the back artwork and surrounding design of the CD, cassette and CD longbox releases, the latter of which features a close-up photo of John Linnell's accordion buttons. The CD cover photo was also used for the European CD and the UK 7" single releases of "Ana Ng".

Purchase

Seller	Format	Price	Link
TMBG Shop	Download
iTunes	AAC	$9.99

Track listing

#	Title	Length	Lyrics	Guitar Tab
1	Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal	3:48
2	Lady Is A Tramp	1:20
3	Birds Fly	1:25
4	The World's Address (Joshua Fried Remix)	5:42		N/A
5	Nightgown Of The Sullen Moon	1:59
6	I'll Sink Manhattan	2:32
7	It's Not My Birthday	1:52
8	Hello Radio	0:55
9	Mr. Klaw	1:19
10	Kiss Me, Son Of God (Alternate Version)	1:49
11	The Biggest One	1:22
12	For Science	1:19
13	Untitled unlisted	2:33		N/A
14	(She Was A) Hotel Detective (Single Mix)	2:20
15	The Famous Polka	1:33
16	When It Rains It Snows	1:33
17	We're The Replacements	1:50
18	Don't Let's Start (Single Mix)	2:35

Trivia/Info

• The album's title is a reference to the section of record store bins where TMBG's albums were still being filed at the time, as well as the scattered nature of the tracks found on it.
• "Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal" was released as a promotional single for this compilation.
• A working title for this album was Millenium One.
• In 2010, the A.V. Club placed Miscellaneous T at number 22 in their list of "35 B-side/rarity/outtakes collections as essential as the official albums":^[5]

Before they became the geek-rock superstars they are today, John Flansburgh and John Linnell were one of the better singles bands of the alternative era. Drawing from four of their early singles, the B-sides collection Miscellaneous T actually outshines its origins more than once: the nasty payola anthem "Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal," the bitter-romance ode "I'll Sink Manhattan," and the goofy, likeable "The Famous Polka" are all A-list material. There album also contains some terrific new takes on previously issued material; the Josh Fried remix of "The World’s Address" is a winner, sounding for all the world like a future echo of Beck, and the alternate version of "Kiss Me, Son Of God"—a crazed bit of class warfare filtered through Frank Sinatra and chanson—is far superior to the original.

Gallery

• 

  CD (note "Compact Disc Fancy Audio")

• 

  Cassette front

• 

  Cassette back

• 

  CD longbox front

• 

  CD longbox back

• 

  Japanese CD with obi