Spooky Season

Every so often, I get to publish a playlist that was a part of the conception of this blog, which basically means talking with Matthew resulted in a “oh, you want something specifically for the mood you’re in? Lemme throw together a quick playlist” kind of thing. This one was the result of a conversation in which I was bemoaning the lack of appropriate ~Halloween vibes~ after moving to a city where the weather is the exact same all year. Matthew provided a lot of the initial suggestions, and then we spun this out into what it is now, which is a weird playlist hopefully suitable for your Halloween evening.

It also contains the song from the Salad Fingers flash cartoons. So there’s that.

apple picking ~vibes~

A more subjective, sensory one. The sound of the reprieve from the heat, the melancholy of the impending cold, and the post-irony of renting a car and driving upstate to pick apples and hope that you see the changing colors of the trees but will probably not manage to time correctly.

A blend of garage, blues, and indie rock, folk, with a lil bit of pop and hip-hop that I maintain sound inseparable from trying to remember where you stored your sweaters that were unthinkable just a few days ago.

Did you know that Apple Music has a playlist called “Vibes”. Just “Vibes”. What kind of vibes? What are neutral, pure vibes? This is to say that it is perhaps debatable what music is appropriate for apple picking, but this has not stopped Apple from determining what music is appropriate for VIBES.

update: This playlist is supposed to start with Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie (’68 Version)”, which over the years has endlessly gone on and off of Spotify. Sammie and I have real mixed feelings on using Spotify for Trash Garbage! How feasible is a project like Trash Garbage in 2021’s internet not using the most centralized platform available? What compromises must we make to play in this space?

inventing an extradimensional portal

There’s something really striking in a sci fi moment in which a scientist works very hard to create something that’s just slightly unnatural. Something that toys with the very laws of reality as we know it. Setting aside the moral consequences of these scenes (which is par for the course tbh), it is the music in these moments that seems to inspire creativity and fascination in me. This playlist aims to invoke similar feelings of that precipice where the natural laws of the world as we know it are about to change. Jeff Goldblum gif goes here. You know the one.

i can’t really get into twitch streams

sounds like: chill work vibes, a lightly chatty friend you can just put in the corner of your screen and not really pay attention to, a parasocial relationship

my romantic notion of a twitch stream may be more simply just a virtual approximation of a coffee shop (remember those? oh, covid), of working or reading while surrounded by the light conversation and arbitrary behavior of strangers. it doesn’t appear that this is what twitch actually is (since in practice lots of streamers do talk “with” you, reading and reacting to the chat), but this playlist is a musical adaptation of the atmosphere i was hoping for. one of the more literal playlists, the thesis here is slower/chiller work music characterized by the presence of human voices throughout. not vocals (with one or two exceptions), but exploring other ways that voices are used as instruments and woven into music.

pairs well with work that’s going to take a minute, watching someone not totally know where they’re going in dark souls, tuesdays

Area X

A playlist that’s been in the works for quite some time. One of the original “moods” that sort of inspired me to start working on the seeds of what would eventually become this site, Area X is a playlist for moments in which you feel slightly out of time and space. Area X is a playlist for exploring those weird woods on the edge of town that seem to go on forever. Area X is a playlist for when you a trapped in a liminal space in a unnamed Midwestern America town. It’s a playlist for when you’re exploring an environment that’s just slightly strange compared to our own.

I Hate Summer

finally, a trash garbage playlist with Tegan and Sara, Fucked Up, and ska in it and we insist it actually works.

now, sure, it’s a little different here in the year of our lord 2020, but summer is the worst season. this is a playlist of songs for joyously fuming about how it’s too fucking hot right now. this is a bunch of mostly party-pleasing mostly pop and rock that wouldn’t be out of place at a rooftop or backyard gathering that it’s too hot for and no one is paying particularly close attention to how you kind of fucked up the music. it’s kind of mellow, but it’s pretty fun about it. (aliens-mostly.gif) it’s about two hours, which is probably how long it’ll take for someone else to insist they take over the music.

Theoretical DJ Set

Matthew and I probably first seriously discussed music in the context of a series of extremely small house parties I DJed in high school. At the time I was full of adolescent rage and so mostly I played Drum and Bass, but it was an extremely cool experience that I think about recreating a lot.

I put together a fun theoretical little DJ set of the house type music from 100% Silk and Not Not Fun I’ve been listening to lately, as well as artists from the last couple of years like Anthony Naples and Octo Octa. Pretend you’re in a suburban basement rave attended in the single digits and enjoy.

supporting BLM

hey, we didn’t feel right posting a playlist this week. we stand with the BLM movement, and in the spirit of giving you something to stream for whatever mood you’re in, this week we’re joining the others who have shared this video project. 100% of the advertisement revenue this video makes through AdSense will be donated to the associations that offer protester bail funds, help pay for family funerals, and advocacy.

For your most effective activism:

  • disable your ad blockers
  • don’t skip the ads (obviously)
  • keep the volume on (if you need quiet, just find a way that doesn’t mute youtube itself)
  • k-pop fans who are familiar with the art of not having repeat views get counted as spam have further advised watching 3–5 random videos in between streams of the video you want to boost (randomize the number and which videos are in your buffer too)

That said, if you don’t trust google to not fuck up this one video somehow, there are others making videos similarly purposed for BLM monetization

And of course, if you have the financial stability to do so, you can donate to bail funds (double check if the fund has recently posted that they’re fully funded and requesting that donations be directed elsewhere!), memorial funds (same thing to double check!), mental health resources for black people, or organizations such as Reclaim The Block that organize community and city council members to move money from police departments into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety.