Ponytail Picks #26 - Backwards
sdrawkcab
That’s all for this edition of Ponytail Picks. Join us in two weeks, when we’ll get in touch with all the beautiful and awkward things our world has to say about
bodies.
READ
Get unstuck in time with Slaughterhouse-Five
Listen:
Kurt Vonnegut doesn’t start Slaughterhouse-Five the way you expect. From the get-go, you know this is his “book about Dresden” because he tells you so. He also tells you how it begins and how it ends. But don’t let that get you thinking that you know where this story is headed.
Despite covering a particularly gruesome WWII bombing campaign, Slaughterhouse isn’t exactly a war novel. Thanks to its central character, Billy Pilgrim, it also contains aliens, time travel, family drama, and a few comments on politics and religion that will stick in your head till the day you die (so it goes1). Oh, yes, and Vonnegut himself shows up every now and then to keep you on your toes.
I could go on.
I confess: this is one of my all-time favs. If you haven’t had the chance, I suggest you make this the next thing you read. Drop everything else. Put it on the top of the pile. You can’t have much more fun reading a novel than you will reading this.
Interested in more time-focused themes?
Check out these past posts.
WATCH
I think you should watch I Think You Should Leave
I think you should leave. A backwardly invitational title for a skit show that feels backwards in the way all good comedy should, in how it plays up and puts in the spotlight its idiosyncratic characters and subverts your natural expectations for how narratives should move forward. Take “Brian’s Hat,” for example. What starts as a straight-forward scene of legal drama gets injected with a hint of ridiculousness (made all the more funny because of the serious setting and blue-tinted flashbacks) that eventually takes over the narrative completely:
Season 2 in particular takes all the back-wackiness and adds yet another unexpected element: existentialism. Usually it’s a little more natural and commonplace to insert comedic elements into drama instead of the other way around, but Tim Robinson & Co. somehow manage to pull it off. “Prank Show,” for example, is a funny spoof of YouTube-dom that takes a rather abrupt and extreme turn towards the darkness, ratcheting up the comedic backwardness while also provoking serious questions about what existential crises lie behind our need for cheap laughs:
Even after his producer realizes the seriousness of Carmine’s mental state and agrees to scrap the bit, Carmine can’t help but bring the focus back to the almighty ‘Tube: “Then what’s the show?”
“Diner Wink” is my favourite sketch; Bob Odenkirk’s acting chops are on full display in this captivating quirky-turned-emotional character study:
“Baby Cries,” though, might be the best example of the show’s brilliant backwardness; typically, you wouldn’t think a skit that talks at length about something called “sloppy steaks” (it’s a “steak with water dumped on it, it’s really really good”) would get you all teary-eyed and reflective about the redemptive potential of our fucked-up world, but here ya go (with some travelling back in time for good measure):
Amidst all the crude hilarity, moments of beauty and hope:
“It smiled at me. I’m not a piece of shit. I used to be. People can change. People can change.”
-JB
LISTEN
Music in Reverse
Psychedelic music has introduced more than a few recording techniques to popular music. But the genre’s most controversial contribution might be the reverse-tape effect (RTE).
Here are a few examples (enjoy them separately below or together in a playlist here).
The Beatles, “Tomorrow Never Knows”
The Beatles were already dabbling in psychedelica when Revolver arrived in ‘66, but still (as shown in Episode 8, Season 5 of Mad Men), not everyone was ready for this song. Even now, it sounds pretty “out there”—the place (if you haven’t noticed yet) that I prefer music to take me.
Jim Hendrix, “Are You Experienced?”
The example that plays tape backward the most liberally, you can hear the effect on the drums, the guitar, basically everything in the song besides Hendrix’s voice. If you’re looking for music that makes you feel like you’re on drugs, look no further.
Yes, “Roundabout”
You can’t get much more psychedelic or progressive in rock music than the band Yes. As if to hint at where they’re headed with “Roundabout,” they start things off with a backward recording of a piano chord.
I haven’t spent much time in the Yes songbook, but my old friend Scott messaged me out of the blue the other day and told me to listen to their song “Starship Trooper,” so when this song popped up in my RTE research, I had to include it. I think it bridges the gap between Hendrix and Simon particularly well.
Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al”
When you think of psychedelic recording techniques, Paul Simon is not one of the first names that comes to mind (though maybe it should). That killer bass solo near the end of “You Can Call Me Al” is a perfect of the RTE being used in an almost invisible way. You don’t immediately recognize what’s happened. It just sounds a little weird, like the recording got pulled through a sling-shot.
The Pharcyde, “Drop”
Putting it in reverse didn’t stay in rock and pop. Thanks to ample sample use, the practice shows up semi-regularly in hip hop—and not just to hide curse words. This track from The Pharcyde showcases the effect more times than I’m willing to count.
Silver Jews, “Federal Dust”
One of the laziest sounding songs on a slacker rock classic, “Federal Dust” doesn’t take any effort to hide the effect. In fact, in this song, the reversing tape sounds more like a studio mishap they didn’t bother to cut from the final master. I appreciate the lackadaisical approach.
Tame Impala, “Nangs”
In complete contrast to Silver Jews’ use of the technique, there’s some speculation online about whether Kevin Parker of Tame Impala uses reversed tape in the instrumental segue “Nangs” at all. But after close inspection, it’s undeniable. You can hear it right there at about 1:03 into the song. You gotta believe me!
Teen Daze, “Cycle”
Bringing it back into the foreground, Teen Daze’s Jamison Isaac begins Themes for a Dying Earth with a reversed bit of audio to introduce “Cycle.” The sample, from the very song you’re listening to, nods to the song’s name. It’s a cheeky studio trick that embodies an adjective rarely used to describe RTE—“pretty.”
Did I miss any must-listen examples? Let me know in the comments below.
Hi!
We wish we had eyes in the back of our heads today because, as we mark a full year of Ponytail Picks(!), everything feels a little turned around. Are you familiar enough with our format to walk through this thing backwards with us?
Read the book and you’ll get the joke—yet another reason to pick it up!
Happy anniversary! Also huge +1 for the Pharcyde!