Subliminal: The Message Was There the Whole Time

.gnimoc was reven uoy seiroemem dekaos-feirg dna sthgif SHV ,slacov desrever ,segassem neddiH .”lanimilbuS“ s’GBMT ta kool A

The girl, the hammer, the album that knocked me sideways.

A New Kind of Giants Album

John Henry is the sixth studio album from They Might Be Giants but the first to be recorded with a full band, live in the studio. The sound was different. The vibe was different. On first listen, I finally understood what it meant for an album to be a “departure.” But I didn’t dislike it. The creative heart and unique voice of John Flansburgh and John Linnell were still soaked throughout this album.

Popping the cassette into my stereo for the first time, hearing the opening sounds of the accordion while being joined by this rock drum beat, followed by the guitar and bass, and finally Linnell begins the first verse - I remember feeling very excited. Subliminal is a perfect way to start this album. The familiar Linnell vocal layering, lots of accordion, driving guitar and what I’m pretty sure is a hand clap sample. The end of the song sings the chorus in rounds with Flansy joining in. It’s a very Birdhouse In Your Soul vibe.

Backward Beats and Echoes

The song is about to resolve when the drum beat slowly starts playing in reverse and the layers of chorus begin singing in reverse. Within that eerie and familiar TMBG backward sound, we hear a faint word come through - Subliminal.

Six months after this album was released and reaching my ear, my reality was splintered. I experienced this album differently, every day since. I don’t want to spend too much time on this because I want to talk about some memories I love about Subliminal.

I bought this album on cassette as a birthday present for my best friend. Before gifting it to him, I made a copy for myself. A practice we had done many times but admittedly, never before giving one of their albums as a present. I realized pretty quickly after that I did a rude thing. This comes to mind when I see the John Henry album cover.

Grief in the Background

On April 28, 1995, my favorite uncle ended his own life. I’d had been listening this album on repeat for nearly 6 months but after that day, I was wrought with grief and all the complicated emotions that come with losing someone to a violent suicide. Listening to music can bring feelings from your past to the surface. Like smelling something that suddenly reminds you of a moment from your childhood. So much of John Henry reminds me of those difficult times I had.

Camcorder Combat

Now, onto the fun memories.

Starting from the very beginning of our friendship, a quarter of the way into 6th grade, my best friend and I began recording comedy sketches. My parents owned a VHS camcorder that I used more than anyone else by far, and this device would become a mainstay for the two of us when we had nothing else left to do.

By high school, I’d like to think that we perfected our craft at these. For a few consecutive weekends, we’d set up the camera and tripod on a banister upstairs that overlooked the front door of the foyer of his house. One of us would place a boombox next the camera while the other remained below. Ready for action. When ready, the record button would be pressed followed immediately by pressing play on the boombox.

What followed was several minutes of the two of enacting a dangerous standoff of fighting technique and abilities against a mob of invisible assailants. Thugs were lifted over our heads and twirled around before tossing them off screen. Beating hearts ripped out of chests, bitten, thrown on the ground, and stomped on.

If you’ve ever seen Arrested Development and the episode where see teenage George Michael performing Star Wars light saber moves alone in his garage; this was that. Except that this video had the very rocking soundtrack of Subliminal and many other songs from this album. Also, it was definitely a very cool and in no way nerdy or embarrassing thing.

I never thought of it like this at the time, but this song (the whole album really) was sneaking messages into my mind in between all the fake death scenes and the very real one I was struggling with.

Smashed Windshields and Deeper Meanings

The song starts off with a lyric that I found to be hilarious.

As I got hit by a car there was a message for me

As I went through the windshield, I noticed something

Subliminal

I always loved the irony of this first verse. The idea that this person has been in an automobile accident, smashed through the windshield, and thought, “This must be some sort of subliminal message.” Reflecting back on this now though, I sort of think of it more like the guy in the song is experiencing something sudden and traumatic - violent even - and is searching for the deeper or hidden meaning that must be nestled inside. Looking back, it feels eerily parallel to what I was going through at the time.

Trying to find meaning in the loss of my uncle; certain that there was a greater universal significance if I reflected deeply enough. Ultimately, there was no secret truth hidden in my uncle’s actions but unbeknownst to me, that event did influence, inform, and shape my view and experience of the world around me permanently.

Holding On to the Absurd

Whether by advertising, trauma, or the chorus of our own intrusive looping thoughts, this is a song that reminds me of all the ways our minds get rewritten without our permission or awareness. In writing this piece, I have realized that the song was disguised as something cool and fun, but in hindsight, it was a subliminal message all its own.

I love that I used this song as a battle anthem for fighting invisible goons in my best friend’s foyer, despite everything that was going on around me. Subliminal reminds me of those dark days where I found odd and unusual ways to keep my head above water and that I would get very good at handling life this way in the years to come.

˙pǝʌᴉǝɔǝɹ ǝʌ’ǝʍ ǝzᴉlɐǝɹ uǝʌǝ ʇuop ʇ,uǝʍ ǝʍ sǝƃɐssǝɯ ƃuᴉʇsɐl ʇsɯo ǝɥʇ 'ʇno ɯnɹʇ ʇᴉ

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