''Factory Showroom'' is the sixth studio album by the American rock band

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...

. It was released in 1996 by

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the 1 ...

. The album reclaims the more diverse and electronic sound of their early work, but differed from previous They Might Be Giants recordings in some ways. ''Factory Showroom'' was their first album to feature a second guitarist, Eric Schermerhorn. ''Factory Showroom'' was tied with ''

The Else ''The Else'' is the twelfth studio album by rock group They Might Be Giants, released by Idlewild Records in 2007. The album was produced in part by The Dust Brothers, along with Pat Dillett and the band. ''The Else'' was first available for d ...

'' for the fewest tracks on any They Might Be Giants studio album, until ''

The Escape Team ''The Escape Team'' is the 22nd album by New York City-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, released on December 10, 2018 for digital download and pre-order. The digital download and pre-order was released simultaneously with '' My Mur ...

'' was released, having only 11 tracks. It was also the first album to be produced by

Pat Dillett Patrick “Pat” Dillett is a 4 x Grammy winning New York based record producer, mixer & sound engineer. He is known for his working relationships with David Byrne, Nile Rodgers, and Thomas Bartlett a/k/a Doveman. He has worked with notabl ...

, who would go on to work with the band on all subsequent albums. Two years after ''Factory Showrooms release,

John Flansburgh John Conant Flansburgh (born May 6, 1960) is an American musician. He is half of the long-standing Brooklyn, New York-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants with John Linnell, for which he writes, sings, and plays rhythm guitar. Common ...

cited the album as his favorite by the duo. Feeling that

did not do enough to promote the album, among other disputes, They Might Be Giants left the label after its release. ''Factory Showroom'' was released on vinyl for the first time in March 2012 by

Asbestos Records Asbestos Records is an American independent record label in Stratford, Connecticut, United States, founded in 1996. It was established as a business to release albums and compilations for local bands, and to book shows at the Newtown Teen Cente ...

Song notes

* "I Can Hear You" was recorded at the Edison Laboratory on a

wax cylinder Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low ...

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

without the use of electricity. * "New York City" is a cover of a song by the band Cub. * "

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

" is a song about

James Knox Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (18 ...

, the 11th President of the United States. A sparser, drum machine driven version had previously appeared on the ''

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is a 1953 novelty song, with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy and music by Nat Simon. It was written on the 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. The lyrics humorously refer to the official renam ...

'' EP (1990). It features

singing saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque ...

Julian Koster Julian Koster (born July 26, 1972) is an American multidisciplinary artist. As a musician he is a member of the Elephant 6 Collective, the leader of The Music Tapes, and a member of Neutral Milk Hotel. He is known for writing, directing, and act ...

. * The

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

(track 0) on the CD entitled "Token Back to Brooklyn" is accessible by rewinding from the beginning of Track 1 ("S-E-X-X-Y"), and is not playable on all CD players. It can, however, also be heard on the rarities compilation ''

They Got Lost ''They Got Lost'' is a rarities compilation album by the group They Might Be Giants. It was issued in 2002 (see 2002 in music) in the United States and 2005 in the United Kingdom. It was available through online order several years before it went ...

'' along with the Internet-only album ''

Long Tall Weekend ''Long Tall Weekend'' is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants, released in 1999. It was released exclusively online through the digital music service eMusic. The album was the band's first since their depar ...

''. * A cassette version of the album that claimed to be a "promotional item" from Elektra was leaked by an unknown source. Along with every song from the standard release (including "Token Back to Brooklyn"), this version also included versions of "On the Drag" and "Older" that have not reappeared on an official release, as well as "SenSurround" (the single version), "Counterfeit Faker", "Certain People I Could Name", "Unforgotten", "Reprehensible", "They Got Lost", and "Rat Patrol". All of these tracks were rejects from the Factory Showroom sessions, and were either released on the ''

S-E-X-X-Y "S-E-X-X-Y" is a single released in 1996 by musical group They Might Be Giants, alongside their sixth album, ''Factory Showroom''. It was the lead single from ''Factory Showroom''. Lyrically, the title track revolves around an attractive woman. T ...

'' EP, the following album, "

", or the 2002 compilation ''

''.

Track listing

;Notes *"Token Back to Brooklyn" is a hidden track placed within the

pregap The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents (TOC). The pregap ("index 00") is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence. Po ...

of track 1.

Personnel

;They Might Be Giants: *

– vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar *

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician, known primarily as one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to singing and songwri ...

– vocals, backing vocals,

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, organs,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, piano,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

* Brian Doherty – drums, percussion *

Graham Maby Graham Maby (born 1 September 1952), is an English bass guitar player. He has recorded and toured with Joe Jackson since his first album, appearing on most of Jackson's albums and tours. He has continued to record and tour with Jackson even w ...

– electric and acoustic bass *

Eric Schermerhorn Eric Schermerhorn is an American guitarist and composer. He played with Iggy Pop on the ''American Caesar'' and ''Naughty Little Doggie'' albums, and David Bowie on the Tin Machine ''It's My Life Tour'' (as background vocalist and guitarist), an ...

– lead electric guitar ;Additional musicians *

Amy Allison Amy Allison is an American country music artist and the daughter of jazz-blues musician Mose Allison. She became interested in country music as a kid growing up on Long Island, and first began making music as the lead singer of ''Amy Allison and t ...

– vocal sample on track 8 *

Steve Calhoon Enon was an indie rock band founded by John Schmersal, Rick Lee, and Steve Calhoon that was active from 1999 to 2011; for most of its history, however, Enon was a three-piece outfit composed of Schmersal, Toko Yasuda, and Matt Schulz. Though situ ...

– drums on track 6 *Ron Caswell –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

on track 12 *Hal Cragin – electric bass on tracks 1, 6, 8 *

Ralph Farris Ralph Farris (born Ralph Howard Farris, Jr., 1970) is an American violist, violinist, composer, arranger, producer and conductor, best known as a founding member and artistic director of the ensemble ETHEL. Farris is an electric string player wit ...

–

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

on track 8 *

Yuval Gabay Soul Coughing was an American alternative rock band composed of vocalist/guitarist Mike Doughty (also known as M. Doughty), keyboardist/sampler Mark Degli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummer Yuval Gabay. Soul Coughing developed a ...

– drums on track −1 *Sue Hadjopoulos –

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest) ...

and percussion on tracks 1, 11 *Amanda Homi – vocals on track 13 *Gregor Kitzis –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

on track 1 *

–

on track 10 *Ron Lawrence – viola on track 1 *

Steve Light Steve Light (born March 19, 1970) is an American author, storyteller, and illustrator of children's books, and he was born in Staten Island NY. He graduated from the Pratt Institute and then studied with David J. Passalcqua. Light started story ...

–

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

on track 9 *Mo' Funky Element – drum break sample on track 1 *Tim Newman –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

on track 1 *Jim O'Connor –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

on track 1 *Jay Sherman-Godfrey – acoustic and electric

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

on track 3 *Krystof Witek – violin on tracks 1, 8 *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous '' Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compos ...

– lead electric guitar on track 6 * Garo Yellin –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

on tracks 1, 4, 7, 8 *Kurt Hoffman – string and horn arrangements on track 1

References

External links

*''

Factory Showroom ''Factory Showroom'' is the sixth studio album by the American rock band They Might Be Giants. It was released in 1996 by Elektra Records. The album reclaims the more diverse and electronic sound of their early work, but differed from previous ...

'' at This Might Be A Wiki {{Authority control 1996 albums Elektra Records albums They Might Be Giants albums Albums produced by Pat Dillett