Fridge / They Might Be Giants

Fridge Brilliance

• "Violin" has the section where George Washington's head is divided into quarters ("One quarter of George Washington's head / Half of George Washington's head" etc). It fits in with the general Word Salad Lyrics and just seems like another example of the band's seeming Author Appeal relationship with historical figures and disembodied heads. But more than that, it's sort of a skewed reference to U.S. currency - George Washington's head is on quarters, and of course four quarters make a dollar, which George Washington is also on.
• A minor one: "They Got Lost" is literally about They Might Be Giants ("They" for short) getting lost.
• Like the famous story it's based on, "The Lady And The Tiger" has No Ending: Not only does it not give a conclusion to the plot, but the music ends in a somewhat jarringly abrupt manner the moment the last lines are sung.
• The song "ECNALUBMA" relates to accidents. The song title is a reference to the way "AMBULANCE" is spelled backwards on the front of ambulances in the United States, so that it can be clearly read in the rear-view mirror of cars that need to get out of the way. Since the accident prone protagonist would usually be seeing the ambulance heading towards him, and not in a mirror, it would read "ECNALUMBA" from his perspective.
• "Man It's So Loud In Here" first surfaced in a live MP3, where it was performed in a guitar-based, Alternative Rock-ish style. When it appeared on Mink Car, it became a disco/Synth-Pop pastiche. Word of God is the Record Producer suggested that they Rearrange the Song to fit with the lyrical references to loud dance music... But more than that, the verses were about a corner store and an airport getting gratuitous disco makeovers, and then the song itself got a gratuitous disco makeover.
• "The Statue Got Me High":
  • It may sound like TMBG at their worst, with lyrics that sounded vaguely meaningful without it actually meaning much, but after listening to it a bit more (due to having lived this trope before), a realization hits where it was very deliberately meaningless - unlike most of their songs, it's just a song about a guy whose head blows up because of a statue.
  • "Statue" could also be seen as a warning against following the latest trends and/or letting other people make decisions for you. The statue stands in for whatever the latest thing is and/or authority. Similar in theme to "Spiraling Shape."
  • It gets better with "Apollo 18" where its songs are all references to bad SF/Fantasy movie tropes. The Statue Got Me High is all about the black monolith at the start of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and referenced in other Arthur C. Clarke's works.
• In "Ana Ng", there is the line "I saw this painted on a BRIDGE, "I don't want the world I just want your half." Guess what section of the song it happens in? Here's a hint, it's not in the verse, chorus, intro, or outro... also the answer is in caps.
• In "Weep Day", there are the lines "I didn't write the words you hear me singing \ I didn't sing the line before this one", which fits in perfectly with the Mind Screw self-contradiction of the rest of the lyrics. But John Flansburgh repeats those lyrics in his backing vocals right after John Linnell sings them, and when he sings them, they're both true: Flansburgh didn't write the lyrics and didn't sing the previous line.

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