They Might Be Giants have never been a band to sit still. Across four decades, John Linnell and John Flansburgh have built a catalogue that treats pop music like a giant toy box — something to rummage through, dismantle, reassemble, and occasionally set on fire just to see what happens. Their new album, The World Is to Dig, arriving April 14, feels like another chapter in that wonderfully unpredictable story.
The 18‑track collection marks their first full‑length since 2021’s Grammy‑nominated BOOK, and it finds the Brooklyn duo in a typically mischievous mood: sharp songwriting, oddball ideas, and a sense of creative freedom that most bands lose long before their fourth decade. It’s TMBG doing what they do best — building worlds that are both familiar and delightfully skewed.
The first taste of the album, “Wu‑Tang,” is classic TMBG in its logic: write a song celebrating the power of the Wu‑Tang Clan, but deliver it through breezy ’60s‑pop melodicism instead of hip‑hop homage. The result is a sweetly off‑kilter tribute that works precisely because it refuses to mimic its subject.
Linnell explains that the idea came from an old conversation about praising one genre through the lens of another — a Tin Pan Alley ode to heavy metal, for example. “Wu‑Tang” follows that lineage: affectionate, playful, and entirely its own thing.
Fresh off two years of sold‑out touring, They Might Be Giants are heading back out this spring with The Bigger Show Tour — a run built around multi‑night residencies in cities across the East Coast and Midwest. Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Woodstock all get multi‑show stands, with several dates already sold out.
Each night promises a different experience. The band — now an eight‑piece with a three‑horn frontline — will spotlight a specific album in the first set before diving into fan favourites and deep cuts in the second. No openers, no filler, just a sprawling, generous evening of music from one of alternative rock’s most enduring partnerships.
For longtime fans, it’s a rare chance to hear albums revisited in full. For newcomers, it’s a crash course in why TMBG’s live shows have become the stuff of legend: unpredictable, joyous, and delivered with a kind of musical precision that still feels loose and human.
Tour Dates
April 17–18 – Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theatre (both sold out)
April 24–26 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
April 28–29 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
May 1–3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre (May 2 sold out)
May 15–17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer (May 16 sold out)
May 28–30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
June 5–6 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
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