Music / Factory Showroom

How can I sing like a girl
And not be stigmatized by the rest of the world?

There she is
Standing on the bed
Cookie in one hand, wig on her head
S-E-X-X-Y

—S-E-X-X-Y

Factory Showroom is the sixth studio album by They Might Be Giants, and the last one to be released on major label Elektra Records, released in 1996. The album was written during a series of shows at the Mercury Lounge in New York City and some short tours of the US east coast and midwest. It was their second album to feature a full band, with Brian Doherty on drums, Graham Maby on bass, and Eric Schermerhorn on lead guitar.

During this time, the band made a series of wax cylinder recordings at the Edison Laboratories in West Orange, NJ, one of which made it onto the album as "I Can Hear You".

Tracklist

1. S-E-X-X-Y (3:51)
2. Till My Head Falls Off (2:53)
3. How Can I Sing Like a Girl? (4:32)
4. Exquisite Dead Guy (2:02)
5. Metal Detector (3:50)
6. New York City (3:02)
7. Your Own Worst Enemy (1:45)
8. XTC vs. Adam Ant (3:37)
9. Spiraling Shape (4:24)
10. James K. Polk (3:04)
11. Pet Name (4:04)
12. I Can Hear You (1:57)
13. The Bells are Ringing (3:32)

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I'm not done, and I won't be 'til my tropes fall off:

• Ambiguous Gender: The subject of the song "S-E-X-X-Y"
  You gotta understand
  She wants to be your man
  She's got another plan
• Anachronism Stew: While it was recorded on a wax cylinder and has a decidedly retro musical style as well, the lyrics of "I Can Hear You" reference modern devices like car alarms, drive-in restaurant intercoms, airplanes (and in-flight phone calls) and apartment buzzers.
• Artistic License – History: "James K. Polk" is fairly accurate, but has a couple of minor errors. Martin Van Buren wasn't really an abolitionist, since he favored limiting expansion of slavery rather than abolishing it, and the English didn't really "sell" the Oregon Territory; they gave the southern half of it to the US as part of the terms of a treaty.
• Assimilation Plot: "The Bells Are Ringing" is about a town that falls under the sway of mind-controlling bells.
  The bells are pealing, and they're revealing
  The simple key to happiness
  It isn't evil, it isn't good
  It's only what the people missed
  The bells explain what they've been lacking all along
  They were disorganized, and that was what was wrong
• Beachcombing: "Metal Detector" is an ode to a man and his metal detector who seems to take his hobby a little too seriously.
  Look past the volleyball
  Look past the squawking gull
  Ignore the mountain
  Of discarded folderol
• Big Applesauce: "New York City", a wide-eyed celebration of the city from the POV of someone who's planning to move there.
  Everyone's your friend in New York City
• Celebrity Song:
  • "James K. Polk" is a song about the election of the eleventh president of the United States, "James K. Polk, the Napoleon of the Stump".
  • "XTC Vs. Adam Ant" is about an imaginary rivalry between two very different pop groups from The '80s.
• Cover Version: "New York City", originally written and recorded in 1995 by Vancouver all-female Indie Pop band Cub.
• Dead Guy on Display: "Exquisite Dead Guy" is a song about a man's obsession with a preserved corpse.
• Drowning My Sorrows: "Your Own Worst Enemy" has a verse about the narrator turning to alcohol.
  Full bottle in front of me
  Time to roll up my sleeves and get to work
  And after many glasses of work
  I get paid in the brain
• Evolving Music: "Spiraling Shape" is based on the chorus of an earlier song called "Rocket Ship" that never got past the demo stage.
• Flash-in-the-Pan Fad: "Spiraling Shape" is said by the band to largely be about people becoming obsessed with "the next big thing", then abandoning it when it doesn't live up to the hype.
  The spiraling shape will make you go insane
  But everyone wants to see that groovy thing
  And nobody knows what it's really like
  But everyone says it's great
  And they heard it from the spirals in their eyes
• Hidden Track: The original CD has one at the beginning of the album, "Token Back to Brooklyn". It is accessible by hitting the rewind button at the beginning of the first track, "S-E-X-X-Y", and as such, wasn't playable on all CD players. They later released "Token Back to Brooklyn" on the online-only album Long Tall Weekend and physically on the rarities album They Got Lost.
• Hope Spot: One of the townsfolk in "The Bells Are Ringing" manages to avoid falling under the control of the bells, only for the others to overpower her.
  A girl with cotton in her ears
  Is shielded from the bells' effect
  As if by hidden signal
  The people turn to face her
  One thousand eyes are staring
  They pull away her earplugs
• Incredibly Long Note: "Till My Head Falls Off" ends with the last "off" being held for ten seconds.
• Last Note Nightmare: "S-E-X-X-Y" ends with a series of vaguely-ominous strings.
• Long-Distance Relationship: "New York City", a cover of a song by the Vancouver band Cub, is about a couple who met at a rock show in New York reuniting after nearly a year apart from each other.
• Magic Music: "The Bells Are Ringing" is about a town put into a blissful trance by the ringing of bells.
• Not Bad: From "Pet Name"
  You say I'm "okay, for a guy"
  But I can tell that you are lying
  And we've almost figured out how we'll get along
• Questioning Title?: "How Can I Sing Like a Girl?"
• Rearrange the Song: "James K. Polk" was originally released as one of the B-Sides of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" in 1990. They re-recorded it for this album, fleshing out the arrangement with the full band and adding a musical saw.
• Retraux: "I Can Hear You" was recorded on a mechanical wax cylinder with acoustic instruments, which is about as lo-fi as you can get.
• Sanity Slippage Song: "Till My Head Falls Off" is about a man struggling with senility.
• Silly Love Songs: Played with in "Pet Name", where a couple's relationship seems to be struggling, but it just means they've gotten past the lovey-dovey superficial part of their relationship.
  You just forgot your one pet name for me
  And all those promises you said you'd keep
  And it's a lucky thing, because that sentimental stuff
  Doesn't suit you at all
  • "New York City" is a more straightforward example.
• Shout-Out:
  • "The guy with the messed up face" from "Your Own Worst Enemy" is likely a reference to Sonny Geraci. He was lead singer of the band Climax, which did a song titled "Precious and Few".
  • Besides the title figures in "XTC vs. Adam Ant", the song also mentions "the singer from Bow Wow Wow."
• Special Guest: Neutral Milk Hotel's Julian Koster plays the musical saw on "James K. Polk".
• Technician Versus Performer: The theme of "XTC vs. Adam Ant", with XTC representing "content" and Adam Ant representing "form".
• Trick Dialogue: "Till My Head Falls Off" features a verse where it looks like the narrator is preparing to make a speech, but then reveals he's just rehearsing.
  Clearing my throat and gripping the lectern, I smile and face my audience
  Clearing his throat and smiling with his hands on the bathroom sink
• Versus Title: "XTC Vs. Adam Ant"