[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. 💖

[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. 💖

#diSKOAverweekly: Week of November 13, 2019

Yeah yeah yeah I know what you’re thinking and you’re right: it HAS been awhile since I gave this an update.

Honestly? Got real sad. 😑

My bad.

Anyway yer girl is getting back into the swing of things and I have some extra tasty treats as a means to make up for all the time you went without me being around.

Here are this week’s picks!

1. Classixx - “Love Me No More”

   I cannot tell you how relieved I am that LA duo Classixx finally popped their heads up in 2019. I want more french touch vibes from these guys and I want it now! Such a beautiful tribute to Philippe Zdar.

2. Mason - “Take It Down (feat. SLANG) - Radio Edit”

   Trying to think of a subpar Mason song and I don’t believe it exists. Dude is so 🔥

3. Tom Aspaul - “Traces”

   I need all of the Black Country Disco and I need it NOW, TOM! (PS this song is very fun to sing along to while you’re walking home drunk from a night out, which feels very appropriate if you follow Tom on Instagram.)

4. Timi Temple - “Quick Words, Long Trouble”

   The wonder from down under keeps cranking out some rocktastic jamz.

5. Trunky Juno - “It’s A Trip”

   Dream pop perfection + cute pups = why I love Trunky Juno so hard. PS the dog in the artwork this time around is named BRUCE. 😭

6. Bombay Bicycle Club - “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You) - Single Version”

   First taste of album #5 has me hungry for more that’s for sure!

7. BAMBARA - “Serafina”

   Fun true story I fell for this band courtesy of a shaky cam video of a show my friend was at. If you know me you know how much I fucking hate people who a) incessantly take videos at shows, b) do a terrible job of recording said show aka not holding still to get watchable footage, and c) post them on the internet as if anyone cares. Speaks to how good these guys are tbh.

8. Terrell Hines - “Feel Good”

   You might have caught a clip of another track from Terrell during the Apple keynote when they unveiled the iPhone 11. In addition to an impending feature on the new Beck album that’s dropping next week he’s got three tracks of his own in the wild including this one which is by far my favorite. It was kind of my medicine for a minute. Excited to hear his collab with my favorite person on the planet.

9. Denitia - “Place To Be”

   Brooklyn bedroom pop bb Denitia just dropped her debut album Touch of the Sky last week, giving you plenty of time to add her to your year end list.

10. Alae - “Hit Me Where It Hurts”

    Not only is this the perfect bop for sad people dancing, but the video for it is hysterical.

11. Blackbird Blackbird - “Myself”

    My taco bae’s sound is aging like a fine wine. 💖

12. NASAYA - “PLASTIC STRAW (feat. Tim Atlas)”

    This song is very good and is safe for marine animals. Also Tim Atlas seems to be everywhere and I am HERE FOR IT.

13. Pretty Sister - “Happy (feat. MarLo & Perri)”

    LA’s Pretty Sister has consistently dropped pure feel good vibes and I am grateful for the bottled sunshine here in frigid ass Brooklyn.

14. LP GIOBBI - “Jungle Queen (feat. TT The Artist)”

    I don’t have a playlist solely for hype songs but I might have to start one so I never forget what a bad bitch I am (because let’s face it I could never forget how badass LP Giobbi is).

15. MISSIO - “Audi A4”

    I got distracted from MISSIO in the middle of the year and finally carved out time to listen to their record, The Darker The Weather // The Better The Man and good LORDE is it full of bangers.

16. Fly By Midnight - “Love Me Like A Friend”

    This pair of friends I met at a mixer a year or so ago have been climbing the ranks with every track they release. They’ve really perfected that perfect blend of radio friendly pop-rock