Among the many things that made They Might Be Giants stand out from all the other “alternative rock” bands in the 1980s and 1990s was its Dial-A-Song service, a phone number fans could call to hear exclusive, low-fi TMBG recordings. These songs—a mixture of demos, covers, and otherwise unreleased experiments—were recorded onto an answering machine in John Flansburgh’s New York apartment, usually changing on a daily basis. The band kept Dial-A-Song alive more or less continuously from 1983 to 2006, when it was finally disconnected. The service was so much a part of TMBG lore that the group’s 2002 compilation album was titled Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants.