diSKOAver weekly: Week of August 19, 2020

Blawging with more intention is tricky when life starts to speed back up to almost pre-covid time, babykids! It’s as if NYC has finally gotten its rhythm back, but like with the covid remix if that makes sense? Oh speaking of rhythm, thanks for bearing with me whilst I find my algorhythm over here. Feeling good about where my head is at, especially with the timing of these coming into my life.

At any rate, here are the 16 ways I love you most this week:

1. Victoria Monet - ”Experience (feat. Khalid & SG Lewis)”

   I forget who made a big stink on Twitter about how this track didn’t have enough lovin’ on it, which even now whoever it was they’re still fucking right. Y’all really gonna sleep on a track that feels like a sunrise sparkling over the fucking ocean? SMH. Anyway it kept Victoria Monét’s latest drop, JAGUAR, on my radar long enough to love on that the second it hit. It’s a really cool record. Sexy as helllllll, too.

2. DJ ST THOMAS- “Fodder”

   Pretty sure The Algorithm™ delievered DJ ST THOMAS to me because dude nailed the shit out of a vibey ass Blood Cultures remix for “Best For You”. Been bumpin’ his debut LP MATRIMONY ever since. Def would debate some nuptials with this record for sure.

3. Brijean - “Moody”

   ICYMI - Brijean is a lil collab featuring folks from Poolside and Toro Y Moi, which is how you know it’s equally chill as fuck but also gorgeous. Last year they dropped their debut LP and have been stringing along some tracks ever since.

4. Le-Nasty - “Sunshine”

   This one is funny because even if you put a gun to my head I still couldn’t fucking tell you how I ended up saving an Instagram post to check Manchester’s Le-Nasty out, but the lyrics are kinda where I’m at with all this personal growth I’ve been hard at work in quarantine (ex: “and now I can finally breathe / finally found some kind of peace / sure hope it’s stayin’”). If/when you get there, this one’s for you for sure.

5. Christinna O - “Hot Head”

   This Philly phenom got away from me for a bit after falling hard for her track from last year, “Lay It Down” that I played the shit out of. Fortunately I happened to catch wind of her latest track and then got to spend some quality time with her debut LP, Girl In Passing. Apparently this track is about her struggles with living with bipolar disorder. Always gonna appreciate being granted the opportunity to learn more from experiences I will never have. 🙏🏻💖

6. Race Banyon - “We Need It”

   According to the data y’all don’t love Race Banyon enough and I am NOT PLEASED about this. This is the first of a string of tracks that he’s dropped so far this year, following up an EP he dropped last year. The New Zealand producer has toured with the likes of Jamie XX, Kaytranada, Modeselektor, and RL Grime if you need a reference point before diving in.

7. Cassian - “The Rise”

   Okay okay okay but I am OBSESSED with Cassian now!!!!!! Like this might turn into a Cassian fan blog that’s how fuckin’ real I am about this dude. There isn’t a bad time to put on his debut album, Laps. There just fucking isn’t. You wanna dance late at night? You wanna journal first thing in the morning? Anything in between that you wanna dream up? Knock yourself out sweet thang. This record always keeps me connected in whatever moment I'm in, so if you need that…bump ittttt.

8. LA Priest - “What Moves (Soulwax Remix)”

   I always thought Soulwax had a signature sound, but I didn't realize how right I was until this hit my ears courtesy of The Algorithm™. It was a fun few seconds of my brain putting together without looking at what it was that this was a Soulwax remix of my favorite LA Priest song from his latest.

9. BLACKPINK - “How You Like That”

   Spent some time the other night getting really immersed in Chromatica because I've been reaching for it a lot more lately and realized I wasn't well acquainted with BLACKPINK, who guest on “Sour Candy”. Love what I've heard so far. Can't wait till all their stuff is committed to memory.

10. O Mer - “Birds”

    Can’t stop calling for O Mer. Love that I can pick his voice out from anywhere now. He's got 3 new tracks (including this one) for you to savor. Note to self: need spend more time with Everything Is Everyone’s Fault.

11. Kacy Hill- “Unkind”

    I think it was Jim-E Stack that called out Kacy Hill to me. To say that I was not prepared for her new record, Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again…..Holy. Fucking. Lorde. I'm not saying this to pin women up against each other, but y'all can have Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift all you fucking want. I will take Kacy Hill over either any day of the fucking week. She speaks to/for me, you feel me? I would've pulled “Everybody's Mother” for this because goddamn that one really knocked the wind outta me but her sweet angel baby voice really shines in the chorus on this one

12. kwassa - “sucker”

    Well now we’ve got two sucker songs for 2020. Don’t mind me I’m just sitting over here amused that with Akurei’s “SUCKER” his track is a softer, more chill vibe, while kwassa’s “sucker” is the bolder more vibey laid back pop vocal + vibe. These baby bands keepin’ us on our toes over here! Lesson learned: never assume you know what you’re getting into when looking at a track’s info at face value. But yeah, this is one of those soaring pop numbers for sure. It’ll def have your feet off the ground like the single artwork. Kinda obsessed with everything about that shot tbh. Also - do I know of any other songs written in response to someone’s car getting broken into? Hm. Imma have to think about that 🤔

13. Memphis LK - “Green Light”

    Actual true story: I stumbled into this song while looking for stickers that said “This Synth Kills Fascists”. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Yeah I know. Ended up in a completely different part of the internet than where I started and was completely taken by this song. Love/hate how much this makes me miss being out. Memphis sounds like someone I'd get along with a little too well all the way down to her reformed running around dizzy on vodka days. Really living for the lyric, “If you miss me you know I'm doing well.” I def identify with that.

14. Ginger Snaps - “Attention Seeker”

    Should you need the reminder that, “not everything that glitters is better”, the homey (government name: Jay Brooks) has got you covered. As the story goes for this track, Jay stuck a post-it to his mirror that said, “maximum honesty”, and that became the theme of the single. Appreciate how he’s reminding us here to not assume shit is better just because ✨IT’S NEW✨ or because they’re good at The ‘Gram. With MFs like Daniel Ek saying artists need to be constantly cranking out tunes in order to stay relevant, it’s important to remember that quality > quantity, and this definitely ranks on the quality side of the spectrum. Jay has wrapped on his debut album and will be releasing more soon enough.

15. Telquist - “Trash Talk”

    Love how many chances Kitsuné Musique is willing to take with baby bands. You always know you’re gonna catch a nice vibe from the bands they pick. Their move to release, “Taste” got me in the door and I found my way into this jam while sniffing around. And now I can say I like German indie pop! 🥰

16. Meet Me @ The Altar - “May The Odds Be In Your Favor”

    Haven’t had a hankering for pop punk in a minute, but when BATHS was loving on this track I went alllllll the way the fuck in. This three-piece is so modern day pop-punk that none of them even live in the same fuckin state. They’re spread out across Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey and collab over the internet when they’re not on tour. Into ittttt.

[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.

#diSKOAverweekly: Week of September 25, 2019

1. Beck - “E-Pro (CapeLion V2 Remix)

   I’m not sure why this remix was being hoarded for so long only to be leveraged in this Destiny 2 trailer, but goddamn if this isn’t the 2 minute burst of energy I needed in my LIFE!!! Also, checked out some of Cape Lion’s stuff. SUPER DOPE.

2. Ssion - “Heaven Is My Thing Again”

   Ugh it’s so hard to keep tabs on all of the NY bbs but imma try harder to make sure that

3. O Mer - “Repack The Junk”

   Brooklyn (by way of Tel Aviv) bb is getting ready to drop an EP titled the same as this track. Should be dropping fairly soon, given I’m just catching up on the handful of tracks he’s dropped this year.

4. Wrabel - “magic”

   My beloved lil bae-bel dropped an EP one of those happy people and I can’t get over how wild of a ride it’s been with this sweetheart since his Sideways days.

5. All Tvvins - “Divine”

   Fresh off tour these dudes hit the studio and started crankin out some hits and this is the first of many to come (per the band)

6. Wet - “Old Bone (Jim-E Stack Remix)”

   Okay so like this is one of those instances where I am just like really taken by how transformative this remix is. Jim-E Stack brought a completely different energy with his take on Wet’s latest single, “Old Bone”. You ABSOLUTELY MUST LISTEN TO BOTH. I’M NOT FUCKING AROUND HERE ABOUT THIS.

7. Jamo - “Connection (feat. YOUNGSOUL)”

   I know you are surprised that I stumbled into a new Australian artist that I am relatively smitten by. It’s cool, you’ll get used to it eventually. Actually I suppose this one’s a 2 for 1 special because although Jamo lures you in with the vibe, singer YOUNGSOUL gets all up in your ear and coats your eardrums with his silky smooth voice and THAT’S WHEN THE REAL SWOONING STARTS.

8. Dansu - “State of Mind”

   I keep waiting for Dansu to take off big time. They’re so fucking perfectly electro-poptastic.

9. Squid - “The Cleaner”

   Feeling v hashtag blessed to have finally checked out Squid this week. Their new EP Town Centre is quite delightful, but “The Cleaner” is by far my fave. It’s super fun, dare I say sassy post-punk. Will probably be grabbing this on vinyl when it’s available on November 15th.

10. PLANET - “Never New”

    Sydney four-piece PLANET make shimmery indie-pop and I would very much like to get on a plane to Australia and just swoon and twirl at all of their shows…maybe forever?

11. Georgia - “Never Let You Go”

    London electro-pop powerhouse Georgia shared the first taste of her forthcoming album Seeking Thrills, which is slated to drop in January 2020. I hope I don’t have to wait that long to hear more of this because this is ✨very much my shit✨.

12. Keelan Mak - “Sleep Talker”

    I think Brisbane’s self proclaimed “22 year old bedroom producer dude” Keelan Mak is tryna seduce us into said bedroom with his latest single. It….might be working. His voice is very swoon-worthy.

13. Justin Jay - “i know ur out there”

    LA house hunny Justin Jay dropped his latest record everything will come together, pt. 1 a few months back. This is the opening track of what ended up being quite a fun run for my earholes, so def don’t sleep on checking out the rest of the record when you find yourself loving this!

14. Sofi Tukker - “Swing (Crush Club Remix)”

    So v v v v v v v v proud to be the president of the Crush Club 💖⚡️Crush Club. This remix is 🔥🔥🔥🔥.

15. Man Without Country - “Forever Endeavour”

    The homey recently launched a Patreon and this was the first single since that all started up. Lucky fans got to hear it before it hit DSPs elsewhere. Very happy he’s sticking it out. I luhhh him.

16. b.i.g.s.h.r.i.m.p. - “Wyoming (feat. Bunny)”

    Another tasty treat from Post Animal guitarist Jake Hirshland’s side project. I wonder how many of these he’s sitting on? I should probs DM him.

Okay fine I’ll post the embed for the archive here too so it’s all in once nice and neat place for you in case you missed last week’s tracks.