To help out McSweeney’s, the humor juggernaut that has brought our world so much unique joy.
(Two m4a files contained in a single ZIP file. It about 140 MB. Right-click or CTRL-click to download.)
While listening to the fantastic “Happy Alone” by Twisted Charm, I realized that the song’s awkward, stuttering melody would still be reasonably musical when played in reverse. So began a month-long journey, and after flipping and listening to around 400 songs, I present you with the frontwards/Side A and backwards/Side B editions of the Pushmepullyou Mix.
Noteable notes of note:
Mark Mothersbaugh’s “Let Me Tell You About My Boat” was originally begun by flipping the chord sequence for “Scrapping And Yellig.”
Radiohead’s “Like Spinning Plates” is actually part of the original studio track for “I Wish,” reversed. Thom Yorke recorded his own voice, reversed it, mimicked it, and then flipped the mimic to achieve the weird, loping vocals (a trick first widely used for Black Lodge sequences in the television series Twin Peaks).
Metronomy’s “It Could Be Beautiful (It Is)” has two main melodies; but until I reversed the track, I’d never realized that the two were the same, but with one flipped. Listen for it.
John’s murmurs between the Beatles “I’m So Tired” and “Blackbird” on the White Album led many people to believe he was hinting at the death of Paul.
Full Tracklist (Side A):
Ratatat - Seventeen Years *
Le Tigre - Deceptacon (Backwards) *
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Guns & Bombs Remix)
Klaxons - Gravity’s Rainbow (Van She Remix) (Backwards)
Animal Collective - Leaf House
Chemical Brothers - Believe (Backwards) *
Data - Master Level *
Sufjan Stevens - Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
Dan Deacon - Snake Mistakes
Jon Brion - Moana Chimes (Backwards)
Twisted Charm - Happy Alone (Backwards)
Mark Mothersbaugh - Scrappin’ and Yellin’ (Backwards)
Mark Mothersbaugh - Let Me Show You My Boat
Unicorns - Jellybones
Bjork - Pluto (Backwards)
Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone
Timo Maas - Help Me (ft. Kelis)
Junior Boys - In The Morning (Backwards)
Finn - I Am Finn (Van She Tech Remix)
Soulwax - Miserable Girl (Backwards)
Does It Offend You Yeah - We Are Rockstars *
Teddybears - Yours To Keep (ft. Annie)
Julee Cruise - Falling (Backwards)
Broken Social Scene - Stars And Sons *
Piero Umiliani - Crepuscolo Sul Mare
Metronomy - This Could Be Beautiful (It Is) *
The Knife - Heartbeats (OneMusic Session) (Backwards)
Gil Manteras Party Dream - Bunz Therapy
Built To Spill - Center Of The Universe (Backwards)
Basement Jaxx - Hot And Cold
Bloc Party - Helicopter
Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps *
Radiohead - Like Spinning Plates (Backwards) *
Grandaddy - AM180 *
* Especially interesting when backwards
Full Tracklist (Side B):
(just read the Side A tracklisting backwards)
If I haven’t written in a while, it’s because I’ve been:
a) Working more (I’ve done something like 6 site designs in six weeks, one of them just this past Saturday morning)
b) Moving
c) Enjoying my new camera
d) Launching a freelance site and working on poster for Hunger Day
e) Watch the Life In The Undergrowth DVDs
f) Making it to Outlands in WoW
g) Putting together a huge DJ mix that will easily top the one I posted some 15 months ago.
In the meantime, I link you to UIE Brain Sparks’ brief discussion of “fairy doors” (a term I will now begin using constantly).
This quickly reminded me of something a co-worker showed me: the Wufoo online form builder. Wufoo’s entire interface is a delight, from the extremely subtle stylesheet touches (like the login field “select” state) to the form-building tool itself, which turns a complicated task into something entirely enjoyable. Note to all interface designers: This is how you do it. But Wufoo adds a sense of extra care and whimsy with its little snippets of instructions.
The default form description is: “This is my form. Please fill it out. It’s awesome.”
Your Account page: “To thine own self be true.”
The logout warning: “Parting is such sweet sorrow!”
The reports page: “Oh no, buddy! There’s no reports! Let’s go make one!”
Okay, so they’re beyond nerdy, but I love them. Incidentally, they’re the exact opposite of the kind of frustrating, evil whimsy I usually enjoy (like naming all your Photoshop layers after Carebears before sending them to be produced).
I’ll blog soon about stuff, I swear.
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