diSKOAver weekly: week of May 3, 2023

Heya cute lil disco babies ✨🪩

Given that we are in the middle of one hell of a Mercury Retrograde (😮‍💨) and also about to have a major lunar eclipse in Scorpio on Friday that’s all about releasing what doesn’t serve you, I thought it would be helpful to offer the collective some amulets of protection and strength to navigate any particularly prickly moments of reflection that you may experience over the next few days. 

I won’t front, it’s been pretty prickly the last few months. As I mentioned previously, I’ve felt stuck in this transitional phase that I’ve been in for awhile and decided to do some digging to see if there was anything that I was missing that was preventing my progress. What I finally allowed myself to see had been in front of me the whole time. If I may be so vulnerable to the void, I will bravely admit that I was toting around some really heartbreaking self limiting beliefs. I was allowing myself believe that: 

• I am a disposable person 😔

• Connection with me is something people can easily let go of 😞

• My full authenticity is *too much* and pointless to offer anyone because people will abruptly leave you no matter what anyway 🫥

• A relationship with me isn’t worth fighting for 🫠

I’ve been essentially wearing these self limiting beliefs as a pair of prescription lenses that are VERY MUCH NOT YOUR PRESCRIPTION ANYMORE. 👓 For people who have privileged eyesight and have never experienced what happens when the prescription is off on your corrective lenses, it fuckin SUCKS. 😩 You get headaches from the eye strain and all sorts of other micro annoyances until you can rectify the issue and go back to full clarity. 

Happy to report that those metaphorical contact lenses have been chucked into the fuckin bin, y’all. 🚮

As a result, I’ve been carefully setting some new boundaries to reflect my restored vision. This morning after meditation I drew the Nine of Wands, of which Jessica Dore’s reflections on that particular card in her book, Tarot For Change: Using The Cards For Self-Care, Acceptance, and Growth just so happen to be about boundaries. 😎

She writes that, 

“Ideally what we want is a boundary that’s firm, visible from a mile away but not unwelcoming. There’s a doorway through the wall, but the gatekeeper is discerning and has a zero-tolerance policy for nonsense.” 

I liken this line of thinking to that of all things, a bubble. 🫧

Think about it. Visible from a good distance and completely transparent but something that you know if you were to penetrate it you would literally wreck the whole vibe. Furthermore, bubbles are adaptive in more ways than just floating around making Ozzy Osbourne feel less like the Prince of Fucking Darkness. Bubbles can freeze and be rigid and seemingly impenetrable, which while looking kinda cool aren’t as fun as regular bubbles because they’re too heavy to be all floaty and cute. They can also bump into other bubbles and subsequently stick together and float around together in fun new shapes as a result. 🫧

To me, this last lil bitty bit here is ✨the goal✨. Right? I’ve had to learn the hard way that having good boundaries with yourself means only sticking to people who wouldn’t want to burst your bubble, and a good indictor of that is whether or not you actually see a bubble when you encounter anyone outside of your own. 🧐

On communicating boundaries, Dore offers the following (my flair added),

“I often think of communicating a boundary as a bit like getting informed consent from someone. 🫧It’s right to let others know the terms of engagement before they get involved. This keeps you safe, and it also keeps the other person safe from the possibility of your exploding in a fit of rage because you said yes too many times when you should’ve said no. 🫧 It’s scary to be close with people who give indiscriminately without a sense of their own limits.” 

Apparently I’ve been in the energy of this bubble metaphor for boundaries for awhile now, because I just remembered this little nugget of wisdom from my chat with Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac that I’ll leave you with (and obvi my flair again): 

"It is what you make it," he said, "It's your bubble man. You're in a bubble when you're out here [on tour] but it's your bubble. Like we say 'life's good in the bubble, man'. You know, for a lot you get to choose what's there and what's not, you know? So we just kind of keep it sane back there, […].”

So much love to all of you. Now go blow some beautiful bubbles already!

🫧💖✨

1. Fischerspooner - “Amuse Bouche” 

2. KAMAUU - “the vibe — A COLORS SHOW” 

3. Chris-n-Teeb - “First”

4. Lily Allen “Trigger Bang (feat. Giggs)”

5. Yves Tumor - “Purified By Fire” 

6. Joshwa - “Magalenha”

7. Pat Lok - “Set Me Free (feat. Kiinjo)” 

8. Mont Duamel - “Young” 

9. Moullinex - “Break Me In Pieces (feat. GPU Panic)” 

10. Qveen Herby - “NAH” 

11. Courtney Govan - “stay still” 

12. Posie Pocket - “Peace>Pleasure”

13. Aaron Taylor - “Patience (feat. Madison Ryann Ward)” 

14. NAMIRÉ - “Let Go” 

15. Bayonne - “Solo” 

16. Sego - “SURRENDER” 

Nothin But Fuckin Love Songs vol. 4

OH HULLO! ✨👋🏻

How’s my Valentine!?!?! 💘

Yo remember when I had a lot of intense but well meaning things to say about love on Valentines Day when I dropped vol. 2 back in 2021? I just had such a moment looking back at that post now, it’s so beautiful to be able to witness myself at the beginning of this healing journey I’ve been on. I’ve really been committed to making space for everyone to feel loved since I got in the thick of this. (She’s always been such a sweet sweetie! 🥹)

So wild to think of how little space I was actually making for myself in that moment. 

It can be really hard to see the love around you, let alone be open to receive all of it. I didn’t realize just how bad I had gotten at receiving love until I was fortunate enough to enroll in yoga teacher training in the fall of last year. During the week when we were covering the heart chakra, we were told we would be doing an exercise where we were going to sit in a circle with our knees touching, hands on our knees, and then have someone sit in the center of the circle. That person was then supposed to make eye contact with you, say something they loved about you, and you were just supposed to take a breath and receive whatever they said while maintaining eye contact. 

You had to rotate and have this experience with every single person in the circle. 

Yeah. 

I remember thinking to myself, “OMG That sounds so uncomfortable. Watch, they’re going to make me go first or some shit.” 

THEY TOTALLY FUCKING DID. 😂 

Let’s just say thankfully(?) it was just about as overwhelming for everyone else as it was for me. 😮‍💨 I probably had the most snot on my hoodie tho 😪. It was so fucking sweet. We all got so much closer after that.

I’ll never forget that experience. It’s made me think a lot about how it seems like it’s become just as hard to receive love as it is to feel comfortable asking for it, and not just from other people, but also from ourselves. 

I’ve recently started to use love songs as a litmus test to see where I’m at with my relationship with myself on any given day. 🧪 If I catch myself hung up on a song and I’m feeling anxious as a result, I pay attention to how the lover is addressed in the song and show up for myself in that way. When the song goes back to feel good vibes that’s how I know I’ve done my job effectively. It’s a pretty cool concept to experiment with. I invite you to give it a try with your favorite love songs. Alternatively, as per usual, I’ve assembled another stack of songs from my stockpile for my annual offering, so if you’re open to receiving some love from me while you venture inward, amazing. You can also just listen to these and pretend like they’re all for you, too. You know how to love yourself best (or you should anyway), so take all the love you need from these pixels you’re interacting with right now. 

Sending you Lots of love, Valentine! 💖

[PLAY THE PLAYLIST] BEST FUCKING MORNING ☕️

Recently I’ve trying to be more thoughtful with how I start my day. With all of this time in quarantine I’ve taken the opportunity to observe how impactful tiny thoughtful adaptations can be. Not just on a daily basis either, as I’ve found that sometimes the change can be so swift it’s often within an hour or even a matter of minutes, depending on the situation.

We all know music is a major mood shifter. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels like because we’ve gotten so accustomed to the habit of recklessly consuming things to make us feel better that we do this with music a lot more than any of us would like to admit. I know I’ve certainly been guilty of that myself. Additionally, when you’re already not giving too much thought of what you’re consuming, it’s hard for me to believe that it means that all that unused thoughtful energy is shifting to what you’re putting out into the world and any subsequent side effects, either positive or negative.

I intend to take more ownership of how this space factors into this consumption habit equation for everyone, so of course I felt the need to make a fucking playlist about it. 🤪

I took some time thinking about not just what makes me feel good, but exactly what makes me feel my ⚡️fucking best⚡️. IMO, there’s truly nothing better in this life than the opportunity to identify how your talents/strengths can help people, throwing all of your energy into that thing, and then witnessing the magic that comes from those efforts. To be clear, I’m not just talking about ways that earn you money from doing this either. It can also be little things like knowing you’re a good personal cheerleader and being able to notice when someone could need some pom-poms waved in their direction and seeing their reaction. It’s ✨ literally the fucking best✨ ESPECIALLY when all parties involved decide that shit is going both wayyysss.

Community.

Connection.

Intention.

These are the things that BEST FUCKING MORNING☕️ is made of to the best of my ability. Sometimes you’ll get ✨a feeling✨ from the music, but as often as I could, I wanted the words ringing through your ears to make you feel fucking great, too. Additionally, I wholeheartedly believe that it’s equally important that the people making the good vibes you ingest should absolutely coming from good fucking people and I can say with a great level of confidence that these are all really good fucking people. I took a lot of care to make sure that even if one were to treat this playlist like a LoFi Chill Beats To Study To kinda deal where it’s mostly going to be background noise, that the few times that your brain decides to focus in on what’s actually happening that hopefully in that moment you feel empowered to remember that you always have the opportunity to choose happiness in spite of whatever bullshit gets thrown at you.

Let me be very clear that this is not me tryna shove some toxic positivity on your ass. That shit is annoying as fuck and not welcomed in this house. You always are entitled to however you feel, absolutely.

BUT

When you wake up feeling meh and decide you deserve to feel at minimum a little bit better.

Or you wake up feeling fucking great and want to hold onto that feeling as much as you can, possibly even going next level with that shit.

I promise you this shit will take you there, wherever that may be.

Although this collection of vibes was arranged in a way to be uplifting incrementally, feel free to let The Algorithm™ move you and shuffle this shit if you are so inclined. That said, I def invite you to see if you can notice a different if you listen both ways. Additionally, I intend to honor the inspiration behind this playlist and occasionally implement tweaks every now and then, hopefully to further enhance this vibe. Mostly likely additions only, no removals or substitutions.

As long as this playlist is in your life may you never forget that you deserve the fucking best. 💖

[RANT] Finding My Algorhythm

Today I’m happy to report that, somehow in the midst of a global fucking pandemic that I’ve managed to find myself in probably the best mental health state of my life. As much as quarantine has been a nuisance because of being so isolated, it has really allowed me to thoughtfully reflect on things I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to address. Throughout this period of healing, I’ve really come to treasure how my whacky, overworked brain, and big ass heart both truly eat, sleep, and breathe music every second of my day.

I'm not sure how many people who write about music can also say they have not only worked in music but that they’ve worn as many hats as I have while working in music. Since moving to NYC I’ve worked in music publishing and at labels (in both marketing and radio). I’ve been an artist manager. I’ve even been a tour manager. In addition to working in music, I’ve also had the opportunity to work in advertising with Fortune 500 brands doing social media. I am realizing more and more that my unique perspective gained from all of these experiences is probably a lot more useful than I had initially thought.

As I float around the internet I observe a lot. For example, I make it a point to take note in which bands cluster together. I also do really nerdy, data driven things like cross-reference number of streams, monthly listeners, and social media following in order to gauge where in their career an artist is likely at, based on my personal experiences with monitoring those numbers for the artists I worked with. While it’s not entirely how I decide who gets covered in this space, it certainly helps me navigate the complexities of attempting to lend the level of support any particular artist may need.

In the past few months, a data point that I have found myself increasingly more fixated on is the impact of the playlists that listeners are discovering these artists through. Furthermore, who is behind these playlists that are helping to drive the larger numbers. 

Are you surprised to hear that normally if 5 out of 5 of the displayed playlists are all owned by Spotify, that their monthly listeners, followers, and streams  are often exponentially larger?

Didn't think so lol. 

As someone who quite often romanticizes The Algorithm™ but keeps a watchful eye on Spotify, in the past few years I’ve become more aware of their editorial playlisting and its increasingly alarming impact on music, specifically from a community standpoint. I genuinely don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but Especially In the midst of a pandemic, observing bands of all shapes and sizes tripping over themselves to laud streaming platforms (but let’s be honest it’s mostly Spotify) for chucking one of their songs on a playlist so as to stay in their good graces is just…. well, it’s just as weird as it is just really fucking depressing. 

This is all while knowing full well that touring off the table for the foreseeable future. Thus it  makes sense that everyone is collectively scrambling to stay afloat. That said, something about witnessing this just makes the future look so…. bleak. I know these kinds of shoutouts are fairly standard for the industry for other formats. For example, it definitely makes more sense to shout out a radio DJ. The space on the airwaves is limited and there’s a lot of vetting that is involved to take a chance playing an artist on the radio. Something like this I think a DJ is more than entitled to being acknowledged for their efforts. 

But with playlists, especially with how limitless they seem to be, are they really generating enough value? It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that I’ve made a fuckload of playlists in my time on this planet so far. I can tell you that once you get the hang of how you want them to flow that they can be assembled fairly quickly and easily. For these platforms to do this it is not a lot of *work* to throw a metaphorical bone to a band by chucking a track into one of the probably thousands of editorial playlists that exist. To be sure, I am not discounting the overall taste or attentiveness to details of making a good mix, I just know that in-tools like Truffle Pig exist (which I imagine by now they have integrated into the tool they use for playlisting submissions). I am saying that there is no scarcity to the number of playlists in the way that there is obvious scarcity in the example of an artist attempting to get radio play. 

The thing that is concerning me the most these days is - what happens after that song hits a playlist? With the sheer volume of genres and mood-related playlists that Spotify’s editorial team can crank out all while knowing that there are algorithms at play tweaking a good number of these to keep you on the platform consuming and accumulate more data for either them to monetize like they apparently do with data on our moods (ps labels have been using Spotify to gather data on us, too). If I give Apple Music shit for being more concerned with being in the device business and Google the data business instead of solely the music business, then I really  simply can’t ignore the very blatant move on Spotify’s part to be more in the audio streaming business than the music business. I know there are a lot of factors at play here and I’m not tryna have a heated debate right now about streaming royalties because FUCK ME that all is so messy, political and honestly out of my jurisdiction (not to mention Mark Mulligan already has some meaningful thoughts on all that anyway).

For this moment I’d mostly just like to pose the following questions:

Is essentially ⚡️being paid in exposure⚡️ from Spotify’s editorial team actually impactful enough for musicians?

Especially right now, is scrapping for a shot at their reach actually worth it in terms of fan conversion? How does quality vs. quantity come into play here? Additionally, in the wake of how clear it’s become that the music community as a whole has some major cleaning up to do to be a truly inclusive and safe space - are we sure this approach to artist discovery is being mindful enough of that?

Look, I know it’s not the job of the massive industry gatekeepers to both exhaustively investigate and nudge every artist they’ve ever given the time of day to a certain level of success every single step of the way. I also know obviously that individual fans should be doing their own level of due diligence as both consumers and community members upon discovering a new favorite artist. But here’s another question to ask - are the majority of Spotify’s users aware of things like the massive housecleaning of sexual predators underway in the industry right now? If so - where are they learning about this and is it always after the fact and not an opportunity to dodge a predatory bullet? 

Meanwhile, it’s no secret that the state of music journalism is just as disheartening to be a part of. Even before the pandemic hit we all helplessly witnessed massive layoffs at a plethora of publications, including but not limited to music. In addition to the majority of the sites that were crucial for discovery during the Music Blogging Boom drying up, we’re now watching some of the most brilliant critical minds in our community pivoting to personal newsletters while they’re unemployed as a means to contribute to the community while also maintaining credibility. As much as I find this to be deeply admirable, I’m just as concerned with how this will play out in the long term as I am with the gap that I feel is widening between an artist’s initial exposure and career longevity.

So….

….. why the fuck am I saying all of this? 🤔

Well for one, I feel like if I didn’t air the above concerns that I wouldn’t be true to myself or to the community I have loved and lived to serve for the majority of my life. More importantly, and it makes me really uncomfortable to be this vulnerable, I’d like to use this opportunity while I have your attention to acknowledge that for the past few years I’ve struggled a lot with knowing how best to contribute to an industry that honestly has made me feel like I was no longer needed while simultaneously having a slew of strangers begging me to devour an onslaught of music both inside and out of my blogger inbox, form quality rapid-fire reviews,  promote, and maintain relationships with either publicists or artists directly.

Y’all, it’s really fucking hard being essentially an editorial staff of one, especially when your standards for artist coverage goes beyond mostly regurgitating the contents of a press release.  Furthermore, it has become increasingly difficult to not let my frustrations of not being respected as such get in the way of wanting to do right by the artists that come into my life in the variety of serendipitous ways they do. I mean fuck, within the confines of my inbox specifically, I am expected to respond to pitches from folks who either have clearly never even looked on my website based on what they send alongside the (let’s be honest) an unnecessary number of frantic follow up emails I get from familiar faces in hopes of coverage. A reminder that, although I am often presumptively pressured to deliver the same output that this specific editorial staff of one is not doing this full time nor am I being compensated for this work. It has taken me literally everything in my being not to rage quit altogether. To be clear, THIS IS ME ✨NOT✨ RAGE QUITTING. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

I guess this is all to say, if not for the sheer fact that I derive so much joy in sharing music, that I would have stopped throwing money at GoDaddy and Squarespace a long time ago. In my lifetime I’ve found sharing music to be the thing that has allowed me to best articulate my inner world to other people as a means to connect. Even before SKOA, the deep connections I made through music were personally transformative. Still, being afforded this platform has brought people into my life that mean so much to me that I’m in tears at the thought of a life without them. This is my way of making sure it’s known that I intend to continue to honor what music has done for me by doing the work and figuring out in real-time alongside all of you how to best foster a rich community of people who intend to help elevate and champion stories of musicians from various walks of life. I hope to fill in the gaps between that first dopamine hit from a song that grabs you to the second we get back to shows, whenever that may be. With (ugh) no end in sight to quarantine I really have nothing to lose here other than maybe money that could have been spent on records instead of overheard site costs. That said,  If you’re up to indulge me in this endeavor and show support, I’ve created a Patreon which I am open to tweaking to make sure the energy exchange is sufficient. In the meantime, as I find my algorhythm here, please know that I am open to feedback to what you think would be helpful or cool to be a part of.

In the meantime, because it wouldn’t be an update from me without music, please enjoy a collection of a fraction of the songs that helped me get to where we are now.

[LISTEN] Various Artists - 'Music For Containment' (Full Album Stream)

I don’t know about y’all but I’ve noticed that the longer I’ve been in quarantine the better my deep listening skills have gotten. Recently when I’ve been playing records I assumed I had memorized forwards and backwards I’ve been picking up little details that I’ve never noticed before. To a certain extent, even in spite of everything anxiety inducing that is happening around me in the epicenter of the pandemic, the act of shifting my brain’s focus on soaking in every last detail of a song has really brought me some peace.

If I’m being honest I think miraculously stumbling into Music For Containment a few weeks back when I was really anxious was partially responsible for this. This is an effort organized by French artist, Molécule, with all proceeds going to the Fondation de France, who are using donations towards caregivers whether or not they’re in hospitals, as well as to finance research projects and anything else they can contribute towards those most vulnerable. The compilation contains 33 different French artists and it’s almost three and a half hours long, so there’s more than enough here to soothe your senses. The artists range in varying levels of popularity, too. A lot of them I had never heard of until then, but I was definitely delighted to see Étienne de Crécy and Rone amongst those who contributed (who are coincidentally also on this week’s diSKOAver weekly update).

If you’ve been having trouble staying calm during the day, or falling asleep at night, this is at least worth putting on once. If it works out for you, think how interesting you’ll sound at future gatherings telling folks you got through a pandemic by listening to French ambient music. 💖

5 Videos To Help You Coast Your Way Through Your Friday Afternoon

Friday afternoon got me like.

Let’s be real, you have no interest in doing any real work on Friday afternoon. If you’re like me it’s a fun challenge to see just how little work you can do but still look like you’re being productive.

If you’re at a loss of worthwhile distractions, fear not. I’ve got just the distract-a-thon for you!

‘Black Mirror pop’ artist Big Data released this 10-ish minute trailer for his latest single, “Monster” and it’s as delightfully dystopian as one could expect from our AI obsessed friend.

My latest obsession in life is the YouTube series Two Minutes To Late Night, which is a metal late night talk show featuring backing band Mutoid Man and is hosted by fictional character Gwarsenio Hall (played by Jordan Olds). I happened to sporadically attend one of their tapings at legendary metal club Saint Vitus and have been hooked on the show ever since. Anyway, like all late night talk shows the episodes feature pre-recorded sketches and the second installment of their Poseur Cops sketch will have you laughing until you’re crying. The nice thing about 2M2LN is you don’t really have to be a huge metal fan to feel like you’re in on the jokes, so music fans of all genres can appreciate their brand of humor.

If you enjoyed the techo-making robots created by artist Moritz Simon Geist and want to see an in-depth look at his cute little music making machines, this behind the scenes video is super informative.

Casual fans of Gorillaz will appreciate this super detailed recap of the Gorillaz universe from their early beginnings to present day. This dude is so thorough with the band’s timeline that while I feel a little guilty that I haven’t spent more time immersing myself in the band’s carefully crafted world, I do have a much stronger appreciation with how just much effort goes into the project.

Y’all know I try to encourage people to love Beck as much as I do as often as possible so I’m rounding out my reccos for today with a close examination of one of Beck’s wackier videos (and we know he’s good for the weird stuff) for his single, “Sexx Laws”, off his 1999 album, Midnite Vultures. I always knew that Beck went super deep with his weirdness, but the painfully obscure inspiration he references in “Sexx Laws” based on what this guy pulled up just further prove that he is my weird cool dad and I hope that maybe one day I might be even half as awesome as him.

#SKOASelfCare: Wilderado Shares Their Mental Health Maintenance Tips From The Road

Wilderado outside of Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, CA. Photo gently lifted from their Instagram.

Touring is often looked at by musicians as a necessary evil due to how taxing it can be on their mental health. No matter your tour budget, finding moments of self care on the road can be tricky to come up with when you’ve only got so much time before load-in, so I’ve decided to start asking around for ideas from bands while they’re mid-tour.

Since I’m seeing them tomorrow night (10/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg, I decided to hit up Tulsa rockers, Wilderado (who you hopefully checked out in this week’s diSKOAver weekly playlist) to see what’s been working for them on their tour with other SKOA favorites Sure Sure. Gotta say, I am loving the tips that singer Max Rainer sent through! From my brief stint in tour managing I can tell you that some of these are a hard agree from me.

This is “Thieves”...it smells pretty awesome and supposedly makes you less susceptible to germs. Our drummer’s wife sells this stuff and i dump it on everything (my bag, backpack, arms, neck).

Buy: Young Living Thieves Essential Oil 15ml

Reading books helps me not think so much.

Buy: Fight Club: A Novel

I’m not so sure if this stuff actually benefits me in any way other than tasting great and feeling good. I just like having it around, the name says it all.

Buy: Cold & Flu-Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat

I currently have bronchitis, so maybe i shouldn’t be the one doing this, BUT, these multivitamins are amazing. This is the first time I’ve been sick on the road, and these things are keeping me alive.

Buy: Source Naturals Wellness Formula Wholefood Multivitamin With Vitamins & Antioxidants

Listen to something other than your own music that you’re playing over and over and over. Sometimes I’ll even just hang out listening to the calm app... it sounds so real.

Grab the Calm app on iOS & Android

NY fam come hang with me tomorrow night (10/27) at Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch these guys live. Should you need a refresher of their sound you can find their latest single, “Sorrow” in this week’s diSKOAver weekly playlist below!.