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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! 💖
diSKOAverweekly: Week of July 15, 2020
Tell you what, that week of media deprivation I did 2 weeks ago has resulted in a crazy amount of music going through my ears ever since. I feel like I’ve reverted to MySpace era-me where I just floated around the internet looking for cool songs to snack on. The only difference between now and then is you don’t have to torrent to take a chance on someone you’re just remotely curious in. If anything, it just helps you float down the rabbit hole all the more. I hope y’all are taking advantage of all this downtime in quarantine to find new folks to get invested in. It’s hard to know which baby bands will be able to stick it out until it’s safe to go to shows again, so now more than ever, we need to be taking chances and throwing our $upport accordingly, you feel me?
Okay! Okay! Okay! Yes yes I know!
Less Talk. More Rock.
Here are the 16 ways I love you most this week:
Mayer Hawthorne - ”Rare Changes”
Last week Mayer Hawthorne dropped this smooth little vibe that he co-wrote with SebastiAn long before the pandemic began. As he shared on Twitter: “I can’t believe how inadvertently poignant it is. We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m deeply inspired by all of the positive changes happening out there.”
Elle Músa - “Mango Pops”
Elle is adored by Geowulf which is how I came to know her and this lovely little summertime tune. It sounds just as refreshing as your first bite into a popsicle on a really hot day.
Tohu Bohu - “IT.”
Tohu Bohu keeps making these slick ass indie pop songs so I’m going to keep making sure you hear them. That’s just how this works.
Stray Fossa - “For What Was”
I’ve been meaning to share these guys for awhile. This feels like the right time because with every new track they release they further shape their sound. It’s obvious from the last few tracks they’ve dropped that they’ve really hit their stride.
The Nicholas - “Rockshow (feat. Odessa)”
The Nicholas did some work on the most recent Golden Vessel single and also has just dropped a song with Akurei. Do not let all the Aussie angels confuse you though. He’s currently based in LA, which how I assume he came to collaborate with Odessa on this track. At this rate I’m just torturing myself with songs about shows because I can’t go.
NIMMO - “Dancing Makes Us Brave”
Got better acquainted with NIMMO this week. I’m now well read up on their exit from their deal with Sony and all the work that went into their debut LP, The Power, that came out last year. I keep coming back to “Dancing Makes Us Brave”. Every time it comes on it has my full an undivided attention.
Birdee - “Rumors (feat. Andre Espeut)”
Decided to catch up on what Birdee has been up to since he’ll be dropping a remix for Pink Flamingo Rhythm Revue's latest track this week. I found last year’s LP Then Came the Sun to be quite nice. This track was my favorite.
Phony Ppl - “Why iii Love The Moon”
I finally held still long enough to listen to more than just like 2 Phony Ppl songs. It’s cool watching "Fkn Around” take off right now. It feels like everyone is talking about that song. I hope folks are taking the time to dig around in their catalog and really get invested.
Ruel - “Painkiller”
I’m genuinely confused how someone like Ruel can be huge seemingly everywhere else but the US. This man would easily dominate the radio over here. Instead, I had to find him while checking out who Taka Perry remixed and get knocked on my ass at the original (in addition to the other songs of his I checked out). Also - this is why I get so weird about hearing remixes before the original. You might not connect to the rework as much as the original. Do the extra legwork and peep both. It’s even more fun when you love both.
CUT_- “Cry”
I have been following along with CUT_ since I came to love “Undertown” back in 2017 (as seen in the DW archive). After releasing last year’s A Small Group of Individuals, the duo has returned with this new number. Fun fact: their artwork for this single comes from one of my favorite artists on Instagram: Slime Sunday. As someone who has had some really fun times grabbing random albums because its artwork looks cool, nice to feel a little validated that cool shit really does attract each other.
Oklou - “SGSY”
Came to know Oklou courtesy of the Flavien Berger track she contributed vocals for at the beginning of the year and decided to see what her solo releases were like. Her production chops are just as gorgeous as her voice is.
Dombrance - “Poutou”
It’s so wild tumbling into someone like Dombrance, who just seems to be low-key hiding in plain sight. I’m still working to fill in the gaps of his whereabouts in his release timeline, but regardless there’s a massive spike in activity from Parisian producer and I am paying the fuck attention to his every move.
Lxury - “Guess”
Lxury’s No Real Rush EP dropped back in May on Fools Gold. It was one of those things I tumbled into hopping around on Instagram. Pretty sure A-Trak was singing their praises. ANYWAY. The EP is very good, but “Guess” is the kind of song that’s so enchanting in its own dancetastic way that while I’m getting lost in the moment it feels like it ends way too quickly, which is impressive given that it’s almost 6 minutes long.
REBEL YELL x R-T-FAX - “Anti Club Music”
Boyboy was plugged the feature his friend Marcus Whale did on a track with REBEL YELL’s latest album, Fall From Grace and lemme tell y’all….she makes me nervous like in the best possible way. She makes that bomb ass dark techno, you know?
DDm - “Pull Up”
My beloved Miss Eaves was singing DDm’s praises on Instagram in an attempt to get him to 10k followers over there and I took to him very quickly. His lyrics are witty AF, so it should be no surprise to you that he used to be a battle rapper. Also his beats are fuckin siiiiiick. I’m genuinely surprised that I haven’t seen his name in passing before now.
J GRGRY - “Don’t Ever Give Up”
I’ve been meaning to call out this track for awhile. The Seattle singer has a new single coming out next month so you have plenty of time to get yourself acquainted in time for “China Creek”, which is coming out on August 14th.
![[SONG OF THE DAY] Mayer Hawthorne - "The Game"](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61cb91c18cbd5c31ee4ab0fd/1671490589718-5JR7W6TG0ORLC4R7WDG9/image-asset.jpeg)
[SONG OF THE DAY] Mayer Hawthorne - "The Game"
photo credit: Yana Yatsuk
Cali-based crooner cutie Mayer Hawthorne is really on a creative spree at the moment and I am ALL FOR IT.
He’s been making the rounds in recent months with new bops from Tuxedo, his project with producer extraordinaire Jake One, but Hawthorne has decided to release some solo music as well. I can’t believe it’s been a little over 3 years since he dropped Man About Town. Time certainly flies! At any rate, his first offering in too many moons, “The Game”, is a slow jam that feels a lot like a more mature version of his Strange Arrangement days. As he’s spent time exploring the depths of his solo sound, it’s simply showcased his vocal prowess all the more. He’s really one of those dudes who can literally sing the phonebook. I’d be like, “ok and how much did you say it was gonna be to have him sing 3 pages of people with K last names? $500? cool I’ll Venmo you now”.
The song is the first of what is supposedly more to come. It’s wild that we’ll likely be getting Tuxedo and solo Hawthorne stuff simultaneously. What a time to be alive! The next Tuxedo album, titled Tuxedo III, will be dropping on July 19th just in time for their upcoming 21-day North American tour. Dude certainly likes to keep himself busy!
![[SONG OF THE DAY] Tuxedo - "The Tuxedo Way"](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61cb91c18cbd5c31ee4ab0fd/1671492631488-8L0HY1B9I68F7TASZ3JP/image-asset.jpeg)
[SONG OF THE DAY] Tuxedo - "The Tuxedo Way"
TUXEDO ARE BACK!
I’ll toast to that.
The dopest dapper dudes are back to make sure you know that the funk is here to stay with their brand new track, “The Tuxedo Way”. It’s the perfect return for the duo, full of retro funk and boogie vibes. I’m a little obsessed with the glass clinking at the opening of the song as their little heads up that we’ll soon be toasting to the Tuxedo way of life.
“Tuxedo is music for celebrating,” the duo shared about the new song. “Yet, as we were working on new music, we realized, much to our surprise, that we didn’t actually have a quintessential celebration song in our catalog. ‘The Tuxedo Way’ is the answer to that problem.”
I love that Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One have this project to escape to when they need a breather from their respective solo efforts. Speaking of solo efforts, Hawthorne hinted in an update to fans that we can expect some new solo music from him as well.
I’ll toast to that.
If you’re looking to “dust your shoulders off and let your hair down” anytime soon, the Tuxedo fellas will be hitting the road for a North American tour starting in late July. Pre-sale tickets go on sale for the tour today (5/15) for those who subscribe to the Mayer Hawthorne or Tuxedo mailing lists, while tickets go on sale to the casuals/ general public on Friday the 17th. You can grab tickets over on their website.
7/20 Santa Ana, CA The Observatory
7/26 Las Vegas, NV NoMad Pool (DJ SET)
7/28 Denver, CO The UMS
7/30 Austin, TX Empire
7/31 Dallas, TX Trees
8/2 Atlanta, GA Masquerade
8/4 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
8/5 Philadelphia, PA The Foundry
8/6 New York, NY Webster Hall
8/7 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall
8/9 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall
8/11 Detroit, MI El Club
8/13 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall
8/14 Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center
8/17 Seattle, WA The Showbox
8/18 Vancouver, BC Fortune Sound Club
8/19 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
8/21 San Francisco, CA Regency Ballroom
8/22 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
8/23 Los Angeles, CA The Globe Theater
8/24 San Diego, CA The Observatory
![[SONG OF THE DAY] Big Data - "Put Me To Work"](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61cb91c18cbd5c31ee4ab0fd/1671493948201-ZUVSRO7MQ8UWSH9T252M/image-asset.jpeg)
[SONG OF THE DAY] Big Data - "Put Me To Work"
Black Mirror popstar Big Data resurfaced with a brand new track from his forthcoming sophomore LP, 3.0. This new song, “Put Me To Work” while in the same vein of his well-known digital dystopian subject matter, is this time from the perspective of the robot rather than his semi-regular human-centric point of view. This is actually a really clever move on project mastermind Alan Wilkis’ part because the observations that we can take away from this perspective are really quite interesting. The robot mostly gushes about how eager it is to be put to work and all the ways it will be beneficial to the human it’s presumably addressing. Then almost in the same breath the robot is singing a different tune, alluding to replacing humanity without any regard of our collective well being. Maybe Mayer Hawthorne should be co-writing with Alan more often if songs like this are the fruits of their collective labor.
Tell you what, I’d love to put Alan Wilkis and Roman Rappak of Miro Shot in a room together and facilitate a lengthy chat about technology. Given how drastically their respective projects envision technology’s impact on society, it certainly wouldn’t be a boring discussion by any means.
PS - still no word on an actual release date or any other details about the elusive 3.0, but you know who will be more than happy to keep you posted once that info is readily available.
[2016 Recap] A Few Of My Favorite Things
bless Topsters for assembling this graphic infinitely easier than prior years
Surpriiiiseee!! I'm going to do my year end wrap up differently than most of the ones I've seen. Mostly because I have so many to share, but mostly because I like to let the music do the talking and help you get better connected to the artists themselves. Instead of recaps of each record, I'm going to point you to my favorite tracks so if any of these are new to your ears you'll have the best starting point I can give you.
Personal Observations for 2016
This was a weird year for me in terms of listening/discovery habits. Instead of fighting against music consumption trends, I decided to play along. I dove head first into my Discover Weekly playlist. I even followed some of my friends' in order to see what I would find and set up an IFTTT recipe to archive everything recommended to me so I could go back and reference it later if I wanted. I barely touched my SKOA inbox, which probably upset a lot of publicists. Anyway, according to Last.FM's data (since Spotify never ended up sending me mine), I listened to 1,919 new artists this year, which is ABSOLUTELY INSANE. But really when you think about how much music Discover Weekly puts in front of you, it's really less than what everyone had the potential to check out (which is 1,560 if you figure we get 30 new tracks a week for a year). I am in the 98th percentile in music listening per Last.FM (meaning I listen to more music than 98% of people who still scrobble to Last.FM) and I found myself panicky and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music that Spotify thinks I can get through on TOP of the music I already love and want to enjoy, or the random rabbit holes I end up falling into that typically bring me great new baby bands. I guess most people approach Discover Weekly differently than I do, letting artists come and go as they please, but knowing the transformative power that music possesses, I'm always wary of passing on an opportunity to be affected and share those experiences with others.
It's crazy to think that 20% of what stuck with me this year was randomly generated by The Algorithm and not delivered to me by humans. I almost said that the human delivery was through cosmic forces, but really, if music finds its way to your ears/hearts by friend or by Algorithm, both are cosmic in a way, no?
This is my struggle at present. I value the connection that happens when a humans experience music together, whether it be by recommendation or attending shows together. I worry this experience will continue to be diminished the more we silo ourselves into our algorithm-based echo chambers. I really hope I'm just out of touch and someone will point me to where this is the opposite, but I can't ignore how self-serving shows feel now every time I treat myself to a Night Out. This has been on my heart/mind too much lately to ignore it, so expect some changes to how things go down on the site (starting with making more time for this now that my new job isn't crazy busy for awhile).
What music moved you this year? Did you like some of these records but different tracks? I'd honestly love to know so please drop me a comment. Also if you want more than favorite tracks out of me for these records, feel free to bug me on Twitter I am happy to share!
My Favorite Things Of 2016
![[Night Out] Monarchy, Her @ Highline Ballroom (11/06/2016)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/61cb91c18cbd5c31ee4ab0fd/1671499179398-Z1QE8TE7K6Z0BX3502EI/image-asset.jpeg)
[Night Out] Monarchy, Her @ Highline Ballroom (11/06/2016)
Monarchy @ Highline Ballroom 11/06/2016
🎶 Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face. 🎶
I
SAW
LIVEEEE!
Yes I know they played at Highline Ballroom in 2012 let's not get into the reason why I was not in attendance for that or this update will get weird really quickly.
ANYWAY. This has been a long time coming for me. I remember back in July 2010 getting my watermarked copy of Around The Sun. I've been enamored ever since, anxiously awaiting the day that I would finally get to experience such amazingness live.
You'd think with that kind of buildup that I was setting myself up for failure, but y'all know I don't invest an insane amount of energy into bands that don't deserve it. Every second was electrifying. I couldn't keep my eyes off of them because I was so excited this was finally happening. I probably shouldn't have spent so much time snapping photos, but this is an unfortunate side effe of trying to pass along to the internet why a band is worthy of more than just a few stray micropennies.
I hope Monarchy can come back to the states more often. It sounds like their little tour over ehre went well. After that experience I'm now going to daydream of what their performance would be like in Beacon Theatre, which has officially become my benchmark of when I'll stop incessantly trying to "make Monarchy happen" in the US. You have been warned. #sorrynotsorry
Oh oh! A pleasant surprise was French duo Her opening for Monarchy that night. Their single, "5 Minutes" was delivered to me by The Algorithm™️ (Discover Weekly) a few months ago and I quite enjoyed their set. Part of me would love to see them collaborate with Mayer Hawthorne or someone of that funkability. I think they definitely have something to offer audiences in the US.
Gotta say, I'm kind of glad I'm just getting to writing about this show because the past month has been kind of rough from a personal standpoint and reliving this night is taking me from ❤️ back to 💖, which is how I'd best describe how my heart feels after seeing a band I love live.
What was the last show you saw that really moved you?
#NewMusicFriday Guide - 04/08/2016
So. Many. Albums. Are. Coming. Out. This. Month. Seriously. I knew that April was going to be awesome, but not this awesome.
If I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up, I imagine you are, too. Since I already do this on a weekly basis for myself and sharing is caring, here is an overview of what I'm excited about that came out this week:
Mayer Hawthorne - Man About Town
After venturing out on various side projects, Mayer Hawthorne has returned to his retrofitted swoonerific sound. I'm still confused why there are so many women moaning on this record, but I guess he does have that kind of effect on the ladies, so I'll allow it. Either way, I look forward to spending some quality time with this record.
M83 - Junk
Everyone on the internet has very strong emotions and opinions about how the followup to M83's 2011 blockbuster of a record, Hurry Up We're Dreaming is supposed to sound. The headlines that I've seen for the reviews of this record indicate that Anthony Gonzalez has made a lot of critics very upset because they didn't get what they wanted. Guys, the record is literally called JUNK. Pretty sure he knew critics were going to thumb their noses at this record. Whatever, I think it's fun...and that's not just because "Time Wind" features Beck.
Wildlife Control - Particles
This is a fun kind of album release because there's an ultra neat way to experience it. The brainiac brothers that are Wildlife Control leveraged Instagram's API and coded up their own tool to search and carefully piece together a hundred or so hyperlapse videos from Instagram as a way to take in their record. I actually got to chat with these guys last night at an intimate party to celebrate their record coming out and boy did we get nerdy. That interview will be coming soon.
Deftones - Gore
Deftones are back! And there was much singing and much rejoicing! There are so many people in my timeline that are SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS RECORD. This includes me. I actually have not kept up with any of the new singles or anything related to this album, so I consider myself kind of hashtag blessed that my first listen of this record is going to be spoiler-free.
Honne (feat. Izzy Bizu) - "Someone That Loves You"
Honne fam dropped a new track! If you are part of my Snap fam you got to hear a loud garbled snippet of this track at their Bowery Ballroom show last month. As much as I like the illusion of premium #content, I'll admit that this professional recording is better than my snippet. Also, Izzy Bizu! I need to spend more time with her music. Her vocals on this track are so sensual. Everything Honne puts out makes you want to practice baby making. These are just the facts, fam.
Digitialism - "Go Time"
This is the fourth track from Digitialism's upcoming album Mirage, which comes out on May 19th. Last week it was on Soundcloud. This week it can be streamed for many micropennies. It is good. #bye
Moving Units - Damage With Care
I am embarrassed because I forgot Moving Units still made music. I took to them very quickly with their debut, Dangerous Dreams, but then they fell off my radar. This is an example of why I'm making this list now. It's just as much for you as it is for me. I have no idea if this is any good, but I really hope it is. They have more albums, too. This might take awhile. Fingers crossed!
Culture Abuse - Peach
You may have diSKOAvered these guys a few weeks back. If you didn't, bummer for you. Either way their album is out and it's fuzzy lo-fi fun times and I like it a lot. For some reason when I listen to Culture Abuse I'm always fighting the urge to not walk around with that signature Mick Jagger pouty/kissy/duck face everywhere I go. You know, this face. It's okay, I don't know either. Anyway, it's nice feeling like a bratty #teen listening to this.
What came out today that's got you rushing to your record store or swift to stream immediately? Let me know in the comments below or @ me!