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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! 💖

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#skoaradio 10/03/2015 liner notes

If you don't like music you can't sit with us.

It's chill af in NYC today. Literally. Like I'm having a hard time getting out of bed because I like my feet not being popsicles. I am writing this whilst I am still in bed. That said, the chill means that all the glorious fall albums are under way and CMJ is quickly approaching. I've also been on a steady streak of shows lately, which I will get up ASAP for you to see and be jealous of me. I'm also working to backdate all the show notes I kept saying I was upping and then rage quit because as you can see below these posts are intense as hell, you guys. OH WELL IT'S WORTH IT BECAUSE I LOVE DOING THIS!

Enjoy this weeks jams and be sure to grab the Spotify playlist below if you want to keep this mix around. As always, I'd love to hear from you so feel free to drop me a tweet and let me know what you thought of this week's show.

<3

kibbe!

Topics discussed!

Vinyl Is Making More Money Than Ad-Supported Streaming

While US Apple Music Trials Are Ending, China Is Ushering In New Users

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upcoming releases, Reviews Adrian upcoming releases, Reviews Adrian

[Album Stream] Darwin Deez - 'Songs For Imaginative People'

Darwin Deez, applying the most subtle of tactics, has snuck up nearly out of nowhere (save for an album announcement last November) with his sophomore album Songs For Imaginative People. With the LP set to release next Tuesday, the Darwin-led outfit is giving us the chance to stream the whole thing prior to its release. Listen to all ten tracks from the "rockier and wordier" album below, and hit the jump to read a track-by-track guide written by Darwin Deez himself.

Songs For Imaginative People is out on February 12th.

(via NME)

Darwin Deez, applying the most subtle of tactics, has snuck up nearly out of nowhere (save for an album announcement last November) with his sophomore album Songs For Imaginative People. With the LP set to release next Tuesday, the Darwin-led outfit is giving us the chance to stream the whole thing prior to its release. Listen to all ten tracks from the "rockier and wordier" album below, and hit the jump to read a track-by-track guide written by Darwin Deez himself.

Songs For Imaginative People is out on February 12th.

(via NME)

"(800) HUMAN":

Anthem for existentialists. Samples Autechre. '(800) HUMAN' is kind of a big 'what if' - what if before we got here we were all just bored disembodied spirits - angels - wasting away, watching the heavenly equivalent of lame infomercials, one of which was for the corporeal experience of humanity, and so we took the bait, and then once we got to earth we forgot how we got here (an inevitable part of the 'fine print' of birth), why we came here, and couldn't remember anything but the melody used on that commercial? That's the song. Sometimes life depresses you and makes you want to waste away and watch TV. Even for angels. But the song is a prayer for deliverance from the existential inauthenticity of that kind of laziness and submission. Plus, the ooh-melody at the end of the song is depicted on the cover. And it is the same basic melody of the chorus. So if the chorus is the jingle to the infomercial for humanity, then the ooh-melody is "how the jingle goes". See what I did there?

"You Can’t Be My Girl":

A true story about a wild child I once met and fell for. Guitar solo inspired by Q and not U's song 'Fever Sleeves'. I've been holding onto that bit of inspiration for 10 years.

"Moonlit":

A new original 80s banger about romance gone stale. Features an awesome shred solo. It's time to bring those back to indie rock if you ask me. When I started on this album I thought I would need to hire someone else to do these guitar solos for me. I ended up spending so much time practicing them that I was able to do them myself. Classic Aries, classic me... I love to do everything myself. That's why I am a solo artist.

"No Love":

An icy cruiser about being dissed by my ex at a party. I shared this song with a friend on the way home from a wedding after he got dissed by a girl there. Coincidentally she was wearing a blue dress.

"Good To Lose":

This song extols the virtues of slackerdom. In the year I took to compose this album I also did some spectacular slacking off. I wrote this song for myself and also my neighbor Breigh who was only working part-time at the time and feeling creatively stifled. Now she's full-time and fully stressed. Breigh and her husband did the layout for the album.

"Alice":

This is a song for my Australian lover, Alice, and also for my friends Rani (Australian) and Meg (American) who keep in close touch via Skype and Facebook. I wrote this early on in the album process. I found it nice to revisit the classic inspiration of "writing a song for someone" which had been absent from my approach for just long enough.

"Redshift":

This one's about the desperation I went through at the end of a dying romance. The title refers to the doppler effect as experienced in light waves, specifically light from distant stars. As a light source moves away from you, the frequency of the light is decreased. Just like the pitch of a siren or car horn as it passed you. This observable astronomical phenomenon is the basis of the big bang theory. Wasn't trying to be esoteric here, I thought we all learned this stuff in high school science class.

"Free (The Editorial Me)":

Another song of solidarity with existentialists. 'God is dead' is not about atheism vs theists. Actually if you go back to the quote in context, the next page in gay science is about radical new horizon of freedom that results. Sadness and mourning part of it too though, hence the b-section vibe.

"All In The Wrist":

A song about hope and despair in the modern world. An homage to my 6 years at angelica kitchen where I worked as an expeditor and a server. I seriously considered volunteering at a local jail but wrote this song instead. I am a dreamer and I live through fantasy. Sometimes I feel like I'm not getting anywhere in life and on top of that my heart is broken or breaking but I never stop believing that happiness is possible and that happiness is easy if you can figure it out. Kind of spiritual.

"Chelsea’s Hotel":

An old friend who suddenly seemed like more inspired this song. Subconsciously I felt like a carpetbagger moving to Asheville to take advantage of its awesomeness, not needing a job outside of music, hanging with young adults and relaxing in the mountainous beauty. Again with the fantasies.

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[Listen] Darwin Deez - "Free (The Editorial Me)" (Official Video)

That feel good music of Darwin Deez is back today with a fuzzy bang. Following the announcement of his new single last week tonight, Zane Lowe on Radio One, had the pleasure of debuting "Free (Editorial Me)" and shortly after Deez himself took to the web to unleash the video. It shows him having a little (a lot) of déjà vu in his job at a store of sorts. We've all surely had this feeling in our daily jobs so it's an entertaining watch I only wish some days I could break free like this. The heavy bass-line also kind of reminds me of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a little too...

Songs For Imaginative People set for release next year on the 11th of February.

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[News] Darwin Deez Announces New Album: 'Songs For Imaginative People'

Remember Darwin Deez? Of course you do. Well he's just announced a follow up to his self titled with Songs For Imaginative People set for release next February on the 11th. Prior to that he'll release a track titled "Free (The Editorial Me)" next week before his shows at London XOYO on Nov. 28th.

Peep the artwork above and the track listing below. Apparently the album is "a bit of a departure. It’s definitely rockier and wordier. It’s really cool - some of the same things which made the first album great are in this record." I for one am pretty excited to hear it.

Songs For Imaginative People

1. (800) HUMAN

2. You Can't Be My Girl

3. Moonlit

4. No Love

5. Good to Lose

6. Alice

7. Redshift

8. Free (The Editorial Me)

9. All In the Wrist

10. Chelsea's Hotel

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[News] Darwin Deez Announces Brief U.S./EU Tour

It has been quite a long time since we've heard from SKoA favorite Darwin Deez, whose self-titled debut album made it into our top 10 favorite albums of 2010, but the New York indie outfit is back! The band has been hard at work on their sophomore LP in Asheville, NC for the better part of this year, and they are asking fans to join them as they rediscover themselves as a band with a slew of tour dates. Starting on November 8th, the brief U.S. tour will see them visiting eight cities over the course of nine days, followed by solo dates in London, Paris, and Berlin. Check out the full tour schedule after the jump, and stay tuned for more from Darwin Deez in the coming weeks!

It has been quite a long time since we've heard from SKoA favorite Darwin Deez, whose self-titled debut album made it into our top 10 favorite albums of 2010, but the New York indie outfit is back! The band has been hard at work on their sophomore LP in Asheville, NC for the better part of this year, and they are asking fans to join them as they rediscover themselves as a band with a slew of tour dates. Starting on November 8th, the brief U.S. tour will see them visiting eight cities over the course of nine days, followed by solo dates in London, Paris, and Berlin. Check out the full tour schedule after the jump, and stay tuned for more from Darwin Deez in the coming weeks!

Darwin Deez 2012 Tour Dates:

Nov. 8th, LOCAL 506, Chapel Hill, NC, USA ($10 All Ages) (tickets)
Nov. 9th, THE EARL, Atlanta, GA, USA ($10 +21yr's) (tickets)
Nov. 10th, UNDERBELLY, Jacksonville, FL, USA ($8 +18yr’s) (tickets)
Nov. 11th, THE SOCIAL, Orlando, FL, USA ($12 +18yr's) (tickets)
Nov. 12th, CROWBAR, Tampa, FL, USA ($10 +18yr’s) (tickets)
Nov. 14th, GREY EAGLE TAVERN, Asheville, NC, USA ($8 All Ages) (tickets)
Nov. 16th, THE SOUTHERN, Charlottesville, VA, USA ($10 All Ages) (tickets)
Nov. 17th, BLACK CAT, Washington, DC, USA ($15 All Ages) (tickets)
Nov. 28th, XOYO, London, UK (£14 +16yr’s) (tickets)
Nov. 29th, BOULE NOIRE, Paris, FR (€17 All Ages)(tickets)
Nov. 30th, MAGNET CLUB, Berlin, GER (€15 +16yr’s)(tickets)

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Reviews Reviews

[Listen] Alex Winston - "Velvet Elvis" (Darwin Deez Kill The Bitch Edit)

When Darwin Deez launched his Wonky Beats mixtape I was impressed to hear the hapy go lucky pop making dude had gone all crude and was rapping about all kinds of crazy topics. Disco Naivete has now pointed me towards a new jam he's reworked Alex Winston’s track "Velvet Elvis" and rapped his guts out all over the place. A great listen for the old Humpday. The weekend is on the horizon. Stay strong!

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[Download] Darwin Deez - "Radar Detector" (The Loving Hand Remix)

A nice feel good track for your Friday Morning/Afternoon depending on your location in the world. He has funky hair and certainly knows how to throw some shapes in synchronisation with his band mates, it's Darwin Deez. Today courtesy of RCRD LBL you can check out a remix from The Loving Hand of his possibly most notable track, "Radar Detector". A good one for those nights sat around with friends with a brew or two and some over cooked meat on the BBQ. Delicious.

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