So I ultimately found the answers I was looking for, as both my newsgroup post and the mailing list archives yielded the information I wanted.
First, the name that included "bugs" that I thought was a rumored Factory Showroom name was "Insect Hospital," and it was actually the rumored title of the album after Factory Showroom.
Another rumored title of the album after Factory Showroom was "Thing," and other rumored titles included "Alien Autopsy" and "Jesus, Hitler, and Me." [1] Several of these were apparently titles that Flans just threw out at concerts.
As for Mink Car's "other" names, there was of course Unreliable Narrator. Other options in the emusic poll that I mentioned apparently included "Enter," "Our Name Is Called John," "Damage In Translation," "Gigantor," and "Human Sacrifice." Someone claimed that "Producer Adam Shlesinger (spelling?) also suggested that last years album should be called Yes! to make a kind of double-album thing with No!." Another TMBG name was apparently "Secret Mountain Laboratory." And finally, the TMBG mailing list's inside joke was to refer to the album as "Matt's Life Savings," though that apparently wasn't a John thing.
- [1] Which was obviously a joke, but a very funny joke if you know the context. [2]
[2] Context being, back in '99, Time was running a "People of the Century" poll and soliciting online votes and submissions. Jesus and Hitler were battling for 1 and 2, but at some point John Flansburgh's name [3] was submitted, so TMBG fans were rallying to get him up to number 3. Flansburgh's name was eventually removed from the poll. Jesus, however, remained, despite his much more tenuous claim to "person of the century..."
[3] Flansburgh was chosen for this, because Linnell had just been named 1998's 9th most beautiful person in a People Online poll. [4]
[4] No joke. Make sure you check out John Linnell's commentary on this situation here. It's a great read.