The introduction explains this issue was originally designed to be an all art issue and was meant to be published as issue 5. As a 100% art book proved problematic, Dave Eggers met with the creative minds of They Might Be Giants and came up with a new plan to have each piece in the issue be paired with music provided by TMBG. This took more time and ended up as issue 6, a coverless hardback the size of a photo album with a music CD in the back.

There's still a great deal of artwork in this issue along with pieces analyzing art or artists. Like many of the early McSweeney's, the quality of the work is wildly uneven. The fiction pieces are all very short and the range of topics is huge and unfocused. For the most part, TMBG's music is well-suited to this funhouse ride.

This is a very ambitious issue and I can't say they completely pulled it off. My favorite contributions were
"The Girl with Bangs" by Zadie Smith with a terrific full-length song "Bangs" by TMBG
"Excerpt from 99 Blue Rocks" by Candy Jernigan, which includes about 10 lovely drawings of rocks done by the late Jernigan and is scored by her partner Philip Glass's composition, "Modern Love Waltz"
"Eulogy for Saul Steinberg" by his friend Ian Frazier, a sweet reminiscence of the artist with several of his drawings and a nice song, "West Virginia", by John Linnell of TMBG. ( )

Didn't get much out of this one. Lots of mediocre art, some short stories that didn't resonate, and music by "They Might be Giants." A short piece about the collecting habits of Walker Evans was probably the most interesting bit to me. ( )

The idea for this issue is really interesting: A collection of short stories and works of art, each with a companion piece of music on the accompanying CD by They Might Be Giants, with contributions by others including Philip Glass and Mike Doughty. Unfortunately, most of the art included is not very good, but some of it is at least amusing---and the short stories are pretty good for the most part. Likewise for the music, the tracks that accompany the art selections are mostly just okay, but the ones that go along with the stories are generally more substantial, longer and better. ( )

Can't go wrong with a TMBG inspired McSweeney's! CD provided in back too! ( )