They Might Be Giants have always been the smartest alternative to the gathering cliches of alternative rock. They are the tiny duo willing to go places where rock has never ventured. TMBG began their journey in the early 1980s by composing tight little songs to fit the format of a telephone answering machine. Since then they have written numbers about their own made-up superheroes, obscure American presidents and the conundrum of trying to grasp the moment when the moment keeps slipping away.
With the acclaim of their 2002 children’s album No! in their pocket, TMBG got involved in making educational music videos for the Disney Channel. Those videos and songs are collected on Here Come the 123s, a DVD-CD set. Cleverly designed to teach kids to recognize numbers and how to count, TMBG deploys its usual earnest wackiness with a variety of musical influences, from twisted American folk to ’60s rock riffs and ’70s soul, as the duo works its way up from zero to infinity.
