[SONG OF THE DAY] Arabnormal - "Digital Veil"

Not gonna lie, I have taken to Arabnormal pretty quickly in a very short amount of time. Featuring Younes Faltakh, former singer of legendary Antwerp noise outfit The Hickey Underworld and ex Das Pop member Niek Meul, the duo have been doling out some pretty dope post-punk/psych-centric tunes from their forthcoming debut self-titled full-length, which is out this Friday (2/14). Last week the band shared their latest track, “Digital Veil”, complete with a wonderfully bizarre accompanying video.

Speaking on the track, singer Younes Faltakh recounted, “I remember we had Polanski's Frantic on a loop in the studio while we were recording this. Grace Jones' 'I've seen that face before' directly inspired that bridge section in the song.”

I have been fortunate enough to feast my ears on their debut and I can’t get enough of it. If this is your first taste of the band, I HIGHLY recommend going back and bumping “Scorpio” and “Toy” aka the track that made me yell, “HOLY SHIT ARE WE FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW” in my apartment. Fortunately you all only have to wait four more days to hear the record for yourselves.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Litche - "But Isn't Love Important?"

photo credit: Taliah Darcy-Shaw

Atmospheric Aussie producer Litche shared a new track this week, “But Isn’t Love Important?” Just in time for the over commercialized holiday that makes us all insecure about love and romance, Litche (born Sam Litchfield) leverages, of all things, a sample from a 1980s horror movie to have us contemplating where we prioritize love in our lives. I’ll admit that even before I knew the source of the sample, I found the question to somewhat haunt me long after the song was over.

For newcomers to the Newcastle native, if you vibe with Tourist, Gold Panda, Rx Gibbs, etc, Litche will be an effortless addition to your rotation. His incorporation of unique samples to his ambient leaning production style make you feel very much at home with yourself. “I like adding something human to my music even if it’s just a field recording of real world noises or someone speaking,” Litche explains, “It helps me connect to the tone and journey of the track on a whole different level. The contrast between bright and dark distorted sounds on this song to me gives the impression of inner conflicting feelings, maybe my inner psyche and its dealings with the ongoing positive and negative thoughts that appear in my mind throughout each day.”

[SONG OF THE DAY] Max Rad - "Old Toy"

London crooner Max Rad has been gaining momentum since his track “Flesh & Blood” inspired me to spend an hour of super sleuthing. After dropping a string of tracks to close out 2019, he’s back with a new number, “Old Toy”, along with confirmation that we’ll be getting an EP from him later this year. Speaking on the track, Max shares, “‘Old Toy’ is about missing someone, the passing of time making it worse. It is about nostalgia. Being stuck in a sadness from missing the person and the issues it causes.”

One thing that always stays with me about Max’s music is he makes gloomy so gorgeous, and “Old Toy” is no exception to this. In just a short amount of time he’s managed to strike the perfect balance with his production and vocals where it evokes empathy but doesn’t drag down the whole mood. It’s one thing to lay lyrics over peppy tunes and dance when you’re sad, but the ability to be able to convey melancholy without totally hijacking your feelings.

No concrete details on aforementioned EP as of yet, but you know I’m good for passing along good news as it becomes available.

[SONG OF THE DAY] The Goods - "Voodoo"

FIRST VIBE O CLOCK ON FRIDAY IN 2020!!!!!!!!!!!

Following the anthemic “Let’s Roll” and the subtly sexy sweet “Peach” (as heard on BET’s show ‘Sistas’), Sydney’s The Goods are back to deliver a track that maintain their rights to their name. Their latest, “Voodoo” is another sultry future funk chune from the Aussie trio, which comes from their forthcoming sophomore full-length, II, which is slated for release on April 27th.

Can we all please just take a moment of appreciation for singer Black Tree’s voice? My dude could sing, “baby I will kill you” (instead of “tell me how do you do”) and I would be like, “😍😍😍 whatever you want”. I guess I should be thankful that he uses his powers for good 😂.

#diSKOAverweekly: Week of February 5, 2020

yes bish 2020 we fancy up in hur!

YES I AM ALIVE!

Yes, it’s been awhile. I’m getting better at figuring out how to keep all these plates spinning, swear to fucking god.

Been sitting on these jams way too long to not share! Next update will actually happen on a Wednesday so please be kind and grab what you like before they vanish!

1. The Brilliance - “How Do We Know”

   Local lads The Brilliance just dropped their latest album ‘Suite No. 2: World Keeps Spinning’, companion album to 2018’s ‘Suite No. 1 Oh Dreamer’. Both are worth a spin!

2. Rafael Casal - “Oxygen”

   Missed this track when it dropped. This guy can really do anything. Jelly.

3. Connor Duermit - “Everything”

   This boy’s voice is smooooooooooooove. God damn. What are they putting in the water in LA right now?!

4. Hydromag - “P.J.R.”

   When that cozy bedroom pop just hits right… *chefs kiss*.

5. Imbibe - “Reflections”

   Fun fact: these guys are brothers! Australian ones no less (lol of course they are). If you’re in Europe and have seen Parcels somewhat recently chances are you caught these guys opening for them.

6. Amtrac - “Radical (feat. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs)”

   Amtrac is gaining momentum, best hop on! Also very happy to see TEED popping his head up again for some air. When’s that homey gonna give us more than a few random tunes and remixes?!

7. Yuksek - “G.F.Y. (feat. Queen Rose)”

   ICYMI Yuksek is always perfect and here is more proof. Can’t wait to see him with JD Samson at The Dance on April 2nd! Gonna be 🔥🔥🔥!!!!

8. Crush Club - “My Man (feat. Nicki B The Vagabond)”

   As president of the Crush Club - Crush Club, I feel it is my responsibility to make sure that everyone knows about their latest. If My Man had a fragrance, what would it smell like? 🤔🤔

9. LA Priest - “What Moves”

   LA Priest is back and dropping an album GENE on April 24th!! I’m so fucking hype! I have missed him so so sooooo.

10. Tamara Kumbula - “1 to 8”

    It’s wild the things I find while roaming around on Stationhead. Have you downloaded that app yet? I’m going to start doing more shit on there. Anyway, I’m really digging on Tamara’s whole vibe.

11. Cannibal Kids - “I Keep My Eyes Closed”

    Nice to see some fresh meat coming out of my home state (Florida). Gonna keep an eye on these guys.

12. of Montreal - “You’ve Had Me Everywhere”

    If you haven’t heard ‘Ur Fun’ yet you absolutely must. It’s quickly climbing the ranks into my top 5 of Montreal records.

13. The 1975 - “Me & You Together Song”

    Y’all know I’m a sucker for a good love song and this one is def hitting me in all of those warm and fuzzy feels. Also the new music video that dropped today is a nice little Throwback Thursday moment.

14. Gourmet - “Stone Cold Steve Austin”

15. WAAX - “Labrador”

    Sometimes I get bored and look up the bands on a festival lineup that I’ve never heard of. I did this for a fest that I Know Leopard was playing and somehow landed on this delightful bunch of noisy friends. Stay curious! There’s great songs everywhere! You just gotta look!

16. Grieves - “Let The Devil In”

    Been a minute since I caught up with Grieves. Really enjoying his latest, ‘The Collections of Mr. Nice Guy’. This song was how I found my way back to him.

Reminder! You can get email updates about this playlist!

[SONG OF THE DAY] Miro Shot - "Half of Us"

I can’t think of a more perfect excuse to make my triumphant return from my longer-than-anticipated hiatus than to happily update you that my favorite global digital utopian artist collective Miro Shot has unveiled the opening track, “Half Of Us”, from their forthcoming debut full-length album, CONTENT.

As the homey Roman Rappak, de facto frontman of the band told Fame Magazine,”Half of Us” is about a girl gamer the band is friends with who has a huge following on Twitch but had to give up streaming her games because of the rampant amount of sexist and abusive comments she received.

“The song is about the layers of reality technology creates- often leading to people acting in a really unpleasant way- but its also about the way it can bring people together,” he explains, “So much is said about how we are ‘all on our screens’ and how instagram/Twitch influencers are shallow – but there is a really beautiful side to these new ways of communicating that often gets overlooked. The back and forth between the ultra happy female vocal in the song, and the intensity of Tomo’s beats and Jamies distorted bass feels like the audio equivalent of this.”

When last we met our heroes, the Servers EP had just begun to scratch the surface of the immersive world that is Miro Shot. As their widely lauded live show has continued to evolve, so has the band’s sound and subject matter, which mostly means they’ve honed in on their primary mission, which Rappak very succinctly describes CONTENT as an “album is about the end of the world, and the best way to avoid it.”

I hope y’all are ready for what’s next because SHIT IS ABOUT TO GET VERY REAL and in the BEST. POSSIBLE. WAY.

The future we’ve all been dreaming about our entire lives is happening right now as we speak, you guys, and the accompanying soundtrack for living our best possible future drops on May 1st.

2019 Wrap Up Coming ASAP - For Now, Here's Some Love

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A post shared by Nathan W Pyle (@nathanwpyle) on Aug 15, 2017 at 5:57am PDT

I remember not too long ago someone criticizing people who make comments like, “This song literally saved my life” hinting as if it alluded to a larger more serious mental issue. I see this as a great deal of shortsightedness in terms of how powerful, quickly, and deeply transformative the effect the ongoing practice that is the act of loving unconditionally can have on a person. Although we’re approaching 10 years of operating as a site, as I’ve played in my digital sandbox that is Some Kind of Awesome over the course of the past 2 years, I have increasingly found myself reclaiming bits and pieces of my heart that I thought had been destroyed but actually had just been caked under layers of shame that I took on from people I came in contact with throughout my life. For a little while there I’ll admit I sort of lost my way. Trauma has a weird way of intensifying your deepest and darkest of insecurities to a point where operating in the world like a normal human person is really fucking disorienting.

I am so very grateful that my music fandom acted like a failsafe beacon and helped me find my way back home to myself. I literally do not know what I would have done if I hadn’t been able to scour random corners of the internet in search of ways to continue to attempt to properly demonstrate everything going on simultaneously inside of me and share those moments with other people along the way. Every micro connection over a song or album with someone gradually ate away at the fear and shame that weighed so heavily on me some days it felt like it was going to crush me. The love filled me up so much that it spilled over everywhere. The artists whose songs were delighting me, my loved ones who I was afraid of then balking at the intensity that I wanted to love them, and most importantly myself.

The most powerful thing I’ve learned in this whole experience has been that if someone doesn’t respond positively to you as long as you’re coming from a place of thoughtful sincerity that it most likely has less to do with anything you’ve done and more with something going on with them, a lesson I know very intimately because until this experience I have found myself on the rejecting side of the equation more than I’d like to admit. When that lesson alone finally clicked I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt so free in my life. Sure, occasionally some of the fear and shame attempts to creep back in. I don’t know if anyone is truly every free of that. Love after all, as they say, is a practice. The thing that people don't often explain is that we all get to practice differently to get towards the same result. There's not a single formula for reclaiming love. You just have to commit to practicing as much and as often as possible.

As I look forward to 2020, I hope to make it clear that SKOA is a practice space for love and the multitude of degrees of intensity that we all feel for the music that lights us up and allows us to best express ourselves.

To the future friends on the internet that unknowingly kept me going, the bands who pushed themselves creatively, and the loved ones who were my mirror, patiently waiting for me to see what they saw….thank you.

More importantly, I love you.

So much that of course I cried a few times getting this all out because I am so grateful that the awful things I projected on everyone when I hid under my blanket of shame never actually came true.

On that note, since I am living that ✨LOVE-FILLED + SHAME-FREE LYFEEEE✨ my impending year end wrap up will probably be up by the beginning of next week and I will be spending the rest of 2019 figuring out how to get back to playing in my favorite sandbox on the daily. 💖

#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