[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. 💖

diSKOAverweekly: Week of February 10, 2021

Hello again. 🥰
Been a little while since I felt like updating this. Did y’all miss me? Fuck I’ve missed y’all. And doing this. I won’t go into detail about everything that’s happened since last we met. Also I can’t really say for sure that we’re back online full throttle go go go with updates on this site in addition to this playlist. That said, when the feeling comes to connect with some fellow digital crate diggers I’m not gonna talk myself out of it anymore, even if sometimes I make myself crazy with how much detail I want to cram into these updates, lol. Anyway the sun is shining, I’m still covid-free, and I love you all so much that I just had to share these.

Until next time! Whenever that is…

💖✨

1. Arlo Parks- ”Porta 400”

   If you have not pressed play on Collapsed In Sunbeams yet I hate to spoil the ending for you right off the bat like this, but also like, shame on you for not rushing immediately to support this little slice of heaven on earth. I have made jokes in the past about how I love it when bands just “dump glitter on their problems”. The Arlo Parks take on this vibe is the opening lyric (and honestly kind of its own self-review of the album), when she opens the track with, “making rainbows out of something painful”. I love her so very much. The record is absolutely breathtaking. We are so blessed to have been afforded this moment to learn from her. And possibly heal with her, too?

2. Anees - “Maybe”

   So I am part of the statistic of millennials who mostly lurk on TikTok, fascinated to see what The Algorithm™ has chosen to reflect back as its interpretation of my True Self. No one is surprised that eventually it started trickling in really talented baby bands and they are all SUCH LOVELY PEOPLE oh my god. DC rapper Anees is a shining example of that. My goodness I just want to put this kid in my hoodie pocket and keep him safe forever. He’s only 3 tracks into his formal foray into music, but has been experimenting with rapping on Instagram since 2019. I came in on “Maybe”, which follows “Brown Kid”, a track where he shares his perspective of being a Palestinian/Lebanese kid in a very white America, and debut track, “Neverland Fly”, which details how the rapper chooses to rise above any of his negative thoughts and stay up in the clouds. “Maybe” is such a lovely little ditty to carry with you wherever you go to remind you to keep dreaming and to do your best to not let the bullshit weigh you down. PS if you want proof of his vocal abilities in real time, kid is live on TikTok fairly frequently just rapping in his car, experimenting with new lyrics.

3. Sycco - “Dribble”

   God damn Slum fam are always such a good barometer of quality in terms of cool new things to check out. Enter: Sycco (pronounced “psycho”) and her breakout jam, “Dribble”. The track was produced by Edward Quinn (the quiet producer half of slum fam), as well as her latest, “Germs”, which has also started to gain some traction. I’m not sure who was working with her on her earlier tracks, but I really like the way her sound has evolved with these two tracks. She definitely sounds more “at home” than she does with her earlier tunes. I hope she has plans for 2021 because I could see this casual crush I have on her voice intensifying with just the slightest of nudges.

4. Wake The Wild - “Rewind”

   Fun true story, this track initially dropped in Summer 2020 but then vanished. For 6 months in the playlist where I had excitedly tossed it to play it back on the regular it was faded pixels of its former self. I checked back on it more often than I’d like to admit. Then like its very own Christmas miracle it came back in early December. I think it’s the best track they’ve released to date. You should also check out the EP they dropped last year, too. It’s great, just not as trance-inducing as I’ve come to find “Rewind” to be.

5. Hablot Brown - “GO (Dam Swindle Remix)”

   This remix is EXCELLENT. Dam Swindle really took one look at Hablot Brown’s “GO” and said, “You know…you can dance with your darkness if you want.” The rework is really balanced in the way it elevates the song’s essence without distracting you too much with its bouncy popped out production. I wasn’t familiar with either artist until The Algorithm™ plunked this in my lap, but I’m really excited to spend more time digging through their respective catalogs because everything else I’ve sampled so far has been great.

6. JESSIA - “I’m Not Pretty”

   So remember that time deadmau5 was livestreaming himself working on an idea for a track and this dude Chris James randomly DMs him a vocal that he thought could be cool with what Joel was working on and that turned into “The Veldt”? So this is the like TikTok indie pop version of that story essentially. On January 1st, JESSIA posted a TikTok of herself singing the catchy ass chorus in her car. The sound got picked up really quickly. Like really quickly. So much so that The Algorithm™ did its magic and it landed on producer Elijah Woods’ For You Page feed and it was subsequently transformed into the rough sketch of the bop you hear today by the 3rd. The song was formally released *checks notes* 5 days later and is already sitting at 17 million plays on Spotify. It’s now starting to get a little radio play, too! What I really love about this track is that it speaks to the authenticity and vulnerability that people love about music. There’s no flexing or pretending like everything is fine. Also there’s just something really magical about how this is essentially a community-created track. Like *The People* basically decided that this idea was worthy of quality collaboration and said “do your thang, algorithm! make it happen!” AND IT DID. So there is your How To Sound Interesting At Parties (When Covid Is Over) With Kibbe for the week.

7. Jordana - “Fuck You”

   As a connoisseur of “Fuck You” songs I gotta say that this one can easily throw down among the likes of Lily Allen and Cee-Lo Green’s legendary hits imo. While those songs have these grandiose productions to really launch their lyrics into the stratosphere, Jordana’s more understated approach is way more effective in dismissing whatever dumb fuck is deserving of this energy. The “Fuck You”s of the past sometimes come off as trying to cover up a lot of hurt by making a big scene of how much one can go fuck themselves. With this newcomer, it’s as easygoing and upbeat like a Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun” but then proceeds to casually acknowledge and shrug off someone’s bullshit. It’s really such a cool choice of execution given how different the rest of Something To Say To You sounds. I like that every time this comes on I just kinda smirk and I’m like, “yeah, fuck that dude”.

8. Joey Purp - “Elastic”

   Another fun track that them teens on TikTok decided wasn’t done with it yet even though QUARTERTHING is almost 3 years old now. I think one of the things I like about the ecosystem of TikTok so much is how songs like this are passed around and you find a really interesting subculture of sorts that materializes around a particular sound. Yes of course I know that this is how music typically works, but when I skim the TikToks around any particular sound it almost seems to me that where we used to dress a specific way to essentially reflect our music tastes, people on TikTok basically “wear songs” to find each other. IDK - bare with me, as you can see TikTok has really sparked something in my creativity. JUST LET ME HAVE THIS OKAY!?

9. Running Touch - “Equaliser (feat. I.H)”

   There is something about this song that I have such a hard time sitting still when it comes on. I’m really curious if this is ✨just a me thing✨or if other people can’t stop from shimmying either. I should also say that if this is your first taste of Running Touch that it’s somewhat of a deceptive entry point because while dude is certainly good at mood manipulation, he’s not exactly a household name for boisterous bouncy bangers like this one. Anyway I just glanced at man’s monthly listeners and y’all need to do better by him okay.

10. Genesis Owusu - “The Other Black Dog”

    I caught wind of Genesis Owusu via Touch Sensitive because they worked together on music for a good bit of last year (which I imagine that only stopped because sweet little Mariella arrived to the party). While I came in on, “Don’t Need You” and was hooked immediately to everything about Genesis, I really like the chaotic energy of “The Other Black Dog”. It’s almost overwhelming, which I think was its aim from the get-go. Anyway, his debut LP, Smiling With No Teeth, is coming out on March 5th and I might choose to be impatient and see if I can get my ears on this one sooner than release date.

11. Two People- “Dream Steppin’”

    I just realized this is also a recommendation brought to you by Slum fam, lol. I don’t think either of the guys have any involvement in the making of anything Two People related, but I do appreciate that them fellas know that Sharing Is Caring. ANYWAY y’all are welcome that I’m pulling reccos from all corners of the internet/world. I very much enjoyed spending time with their latest LP Second Body and I plan on doing more of that this year, too.

12. j. pastel- “strawberry lemonade - 3am version”

    So at present j. pastel fits that lo-fi ✨aesthetic✨ kinda vibe. You know, the one where it won’t surprise you to know that Majestic Casual is following these guys on Instagram and for some reason you’re a little surprised that they haven’t been tossed into a ‘lofi hip hop music - beats to study/relax to’ kind of playlist just yet. I hope that means they’re on a different trajectory than the playlists that people mostly put on to ignore. This “3am version” of the previously released “strawberry lemonade” to me indicates that they don’t just want to be atmospheric. I get the same feeling in their latest, “Holy War”. It’s almost as if they’re coming back to Earth in a way. As if floating in that bit where the atmosphere and outer space was fun but it’s easier to articulate yourself when there’s more oxygen available. Yes, being out in the middle of nowhere is making me sound like an even bigger weirdo. Hopefully this is as entertaining for you as it is for me.

13. SG Lewis - “One More (feat. Nile Rodgers)”

    I know SG Lewis needs to release things to maintain visibility so he can have a career post-pandem but why he gotta drop something that just makes me feel like we are gonna be in the middle of the dance floor any second now 😩. Also so fucking cool that he got Nile Rodgers to work with him on this track. Since I can’t say enough wonderful things about TikTok, you should follow that dude over there. The other day he shared the origin story of Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” and I legit “STFU REALLY 🤯”’d right into my phone (and in the comments lol).

14. Kristy Harper - “My Body. My Future (feat. Samirah Raheem)”

    Another TikTok find! If you found LP Giobbi’s “Amber Rose” to be empowering or thought provoking, you will absolutely fucking love the way that Kristy Harper has memorialized Samirah Raheem’s “Slutwalk interview” in “My Body. My Future.” Everything about Kristy Harper is pretty FEMME HOUSE af come to think of it. Hold up, I just realized that these bad bitches don’t know each other. Think I need to fix that when I finish this post…. will report back if anything cool happens from that. Also when you’re done obsessing over “My Body. My Future”, you HAVE to listen to “The System Is Fucked”, especially if you’ve been up to your eyeballs in stonks lately.

15. Otzeki - “Max Wells-Demon”

    I’ve come to learn that the reason why I love Otzeki so much is because they make getting to know your shadows seem way less daunting of a task than we often think it is. I’m really glad that they’ve started trickling out new tracks over the past 6 months. I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed their presence until they were back. Not only are they back, but they’ve got a new record coming out on March 19th called Now Is A Long Time. And I know by other people’s standards I should be talking about “Unthunk” because that came out yesterday, but I am genuinely just obsessed with how quickly “Max Wells-Demon” was able to permeate every cell in my body. And ofc I’m being dramatic about this, but you know when you can’t shake the way a song immediately feels like an extension of yourself? Yeah. Also the music video for this is really cool.

16. Pat Lok - “Pardon My French”

    The Magician recently dropped a compilation called Magic Tape 001, which features tracks from a lot of really great people I already admire and some that I can’t wait to get to know better after being exposed to them through this release. I really like this contribution from Twitter fam Pat Lok, who I feel the need to go on record to say that this pandemic would not have been the same if I hadn’t been able to spend as much time as I wanted getting lost in his 2017 LP, Hold On Let Go. If you haven’t tuned in to at least one of his Fone A Friend chats on Twitch mannnnn you’re missing out. Essentially lurking on two musicians talking about music and going through demo tracks that people have submitted and giving them feedback…it’s just such a wonderful thing to see.