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Play The Playlist, For The Love Of Music kibbe Play The Playlist, For The Love Of Music kibbe

[PLAY THE PLAYLIST] Nothin But Fuckin Love Songs Vol. 2

People get so fuckin weird about Valentine’s Day.

It is such a wild thing to observe.

Personally….I love Valentine’s Day. I’ve always liked that there’s a day where we go out of our way to share our love with each other and allegedly it’s not weird to be as extra as you wanna be.

I say allegedly because like… well what the fuck is this Galentines/Palentines day bullshit? Are we serious? You’re really that worried someone is gonna misinterpret your intentions? Or is this a solidarity thing for people who aren’t yet legally bound to someone? What is that?

Either way, you’re fuckin with the vibe when you throw around this unnecessary bullshit. Grow the fuck up. It’s Valentine’s Day and there is more than enough love to go around today, okay?

Also, I’ve been partner-less for most of them, too, so don’t start coming at me with some bullshit like, “Well over here it’s been Single’s Awareness Day basically forever, Kibbe”.

And trust me fam, I get it. It’s so easy to forget that we were taught out of loving each other freely and fearlessly. Remember when your age was still in single digits? That night before your school observed Valentines Day you got that box of corny ass mass produced ✨meaningful messages✨ and you went one by one through all of them assigning little love notes to everyone in class. Friends got the fun ones, crushes got the ones that seemed a bit more direct, and anyone else got whatever was left. Next day in class everyone distributed their Valentines and there would be this fun chatter about the messages or which cartoon franchise you went with for your Valentines. We never thought fuckin twice about giving everyone a Valentine back then. At least that’s how I remember that shit, along with handing out Care Bear ones at some point.

ANYWAY

We know I’m a song hoarder and that I like being able to identify a song for every occasion if possible, especially because a lot of times songs articulate a feeling or thought I’ve been sitting with better than I had been able to land on. With love songs though, it’s so interesting. Like I said, not a ton of relationships over my way, yet when prompted I can always send at least 20 in your direction at all times. I wouldn’t necessarily say love songs feel as carelessly mass produced as my Care Bear Valentines from 1st grade, but there are definitely more love songs than there are people at this point.

Either way I can tell that I’ve grown a lot as person since the last time that I compiled love songs for Valentine’s Day because as I was putting together this round of songs that I thought about how silly it is that I am able do this so easily. I started asking myself questions like: Am I really just cataloging vibes so I can provide more thoughtful recommendations than The Algorithm™ ever could? Am I trying to study love so I ✨do it right✨ if it ever shows up? Even scarier, am I studying these to see if I’ve been doing something wrong? Do I want someone to send these songs to me? Do I think all of these songs encompass just one person?

I think that last question is really fascinating given how weird people are about Valentine’s Day. We often think that one single person is going to arrive in our lives and that will mean that everything is better or easier because we have found someone we enjoy being with so much that we’d draw up some paperwork so we can collectively own assets or make important medical decisions for each other. But in the real world that’s not how it works. Most people don’t get married and evaporate from their former lives, never speaking to their friends or family ever again. If anything the result is two communities, not just two people, become one. And when shit hits the fan, I mean yeah you have someone RIGHT THERE at your side immediately to look out for you, but the way that person shows up for you is the result of the way their community shaped them, for better or for worse (see what I did there?).

To be clear, finding ✨your person✨ is WONDERFUL. I’m not tryna discount that at all. But it’s not some cure all that a lot of people seem to think it is. I don’t think you’re “fixed” or something because you find your person, mostly because I don’t think anyone is “broken” to begin with. If anything this person is just someone you agree to get really fucking vulnerable with, which ideally you’re already practicing varying levels of vulnerability with select members of your community prior to identifying this person. A person who is so special that you throw a very fancy party to celebrate. Even that, weddings would be fuckin trash without your friends and family there, so why do we choose to spend this particular day treating love like it’s something incredibly exclusive? I will spare you a wall of text about the capitalism bit here and just say IT’S SO LAME THAT THIS EXISTS AND I HATE IT VERY MUCH.

This all to say…. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Not Single’s Awareness Day. Not Palentine’s Day. Not Galentine’s Day.

Fuckin Valentine’s Day.

I love you. 💖

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covers, mashups, Reviews covers, mashups, Reviews

[Listen] Alt-J - "Slow Dre" (Kylie Minogue x Dr. Dre Mashup)


Last weekend I witnessed my favourite gig of the year. A gig upon leaving I actually sent a text to my girlfriend and said it was in my all time top 5. A few days later, I still stand by that statement. It was flawless and it came from Alt-J who played a matinee show at Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music. The room was completely seated and from start to finish they just performed in perfect sync. Midway through the set I was impressed by a mashup they did of Dr. Dre's "Still Dre" and Kylie Minogue's "Slow". It doesn't sound like it should work but it does so damn well it's crazy. Today I was happy to see they recorded a version of it for Triple J's Like a Version segment in Australia. The results can be streamed below and you can hear a version of "Breezeblocks" over here too. Hat-tip to Hypetrak for the heads up on this recording of it!

If you haven't heard their album, An Awesome Wave, yet I advise you to do so.

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[Watch & Listen] Matt Mahaffey (of sElf) - Lightning 100 615 Day session

Nashville's independent radio station Lightning 100 recently did a session with sElf lead singer Matt Mahaffey for their 615 Day Session series. In addition to doing some old fan favorites, Mahaffey surprised everyone by showcasing his ability to sing backwards as he did for the "Could You Love Me Now?" video he released back in September of 2010 (wow, it's really been THAT long since that single came out?). For only knowing his recorded music, this session is a pleasant little glimpse of the playfully quirkiness of one of my all time favorite songwriters/producers.

You can also check out him singing the song regularly during that session in the below video.

According to a string of posts on his Facebook page, Matt Mahaffey has been slowly chugging away towards making another sElf album in between doing a handful of solo shows, writing hundreds of songs for the new Disney show "Hugglemonsters", recording Kylie Minogue, and plenty of other projects in his Nashville-based studio Fresh Imperial.

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