I Think I Know This One
I asked my friend Jessica Ruby to collab this month. Jessica's rad as hell and one of my many friends that I met specifically through a shared love of music. She hit me with a fun and challenging idea (in so many ways... which version? which era?), and I'm really thrilled with the result. She'll chat more about it below.
In other news, all of my playlists now live on YouTube, if that's how you prefer to listen to tunes these days. I'll work on getting my EARLY mixtapes on all these different platforms, for all the mixtape crate diggers out there. I have 44 of them online at this point, which is... a lot.
Like the mixtapes? Help me spread the love by throwing a few bucks my way via BuyMeACoffee. Thanks to everyone who has already supported me there. I've covered my Apple Music subscription costs and now I'm working towards upgrading my cassette recording tech so they don't sound like garbage.
And hey, if you like it, why not share the mix or this newsletter with a friend?
We Got The Feeling Now
Created in collaboration with Jessica Ruby for fresh starts.
A few words from Jessica:
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You shouldn't begin a thank you note with an apology, and you shouldn't begin an intro to your friend's mixtape newsletter with a caveat, but what can I say? You're thinking it, I'm thinking it, we're all thinking it. Let's get it out in the open.
Covers are corny as hell.
Okay, phew, it's out there in the world. Now, we can move on.
In the mid-90s, when I was in elementary school, my school hired a cover band to close out an assembly. It was the first time I heard "I Love Rock 'N Roll" and I loved it! Great song. Then, later that night, I was in my room, listening to the radio, and they played "I Love Rock 'N Roll" and I freaked out because I was like, "Wow, the band that played my assembly today is famous enough to be on Richmond, Virginia's premiere radio station" (Q94, according to all Richmond 7 year olds in the mid-90s). I probably made a big deal out of it, and my parents probably set me straight. (By the way, Joan Jett's famous version? A cover song! Just learned that today.)
I'm the sort of person who loves even a bad bagel, basically as much as a good bagel. I guess I can discern the difference, but it doesn't really matter to me. At its best, a cover offers something new or even improves on the original song. New genre, different gender singer, new lyrics. At its worst, it's still a piece of bread, ya know?
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Love you all. Hope you enjoy!
Join Me: Virtual Birthday Office Hours @ JQBX.FM, Thursday, Sep 1, 8:00-11:00 PM
I'm not drinking this month because sometimes it's nice to have a break from the booze and especially a break from waking up tired and dehydrated, but I'm still trying to hang and talk about good music. We can do that with JQBX! Everyone hangs in a chat room and you queue up to djay one song at a time with your connected Spotify account (sorry folks who don't have Spotify premium).
I used to use this site with some buds in the early days of the pandemic, and I loved it so much. I miss it. I discovered a lot of great tunes (including the linked song below) and just got to chop it up about anything during the process.
So I figured I'd just hop on tonight for a few hours and listen to music. If it's just me, that'll be rad. I love listening to music. If it's just us, very cool. It'll be great to hang and you can force me to listen to music YOU like for a change. If it's a hundred people, it'll be controlled chaos and some weird shit will no doubt play.
Sounds fun any which way. Peep my twitter for a link drop around 8 PM eastern.
RIYL: me.
Check out The Cleaners From Venus's "Bish Bash Bosh".
Some Other Things That Jessica Loves
(that you might love too!)
Pachinko, the book - Min Jin Lee's second novel is my favorite book I’ve read in the past decade, maybe ever! When I was reading it in 2018, all these superfans came out of the woodwork in my life. And they continue to. This book stays in your bones. And there's something important to me about recommending it to other people and hearing how much it means to them. At the very least, I think you should read its opening line: “History has failed us, but no matter.”
See also: Pachinko, the TV show (I haven't seen the adaptation yet, but I've heard lovely things from some notable superfans. I don't always feel strongly about this, but if you're intrigued, read the book first!)
Dijon, the musical artist - Dijon’s 2021 album, Absolutely, has been one of my most frequent full album listens this year. He’s hard to pin down genre-wise, but "a more fun version of Frank Ocean or James Blake" is the best I can do. Yes, start with “Many Times” but don't let “Scratching” or "Talk Down" pass you by. You're gonna have fun listening to this one.
See also: Dijon, the condiment (I like Maille!)
Espinaler Green Olives Stuffed with Anchovies, the snack - Wow! These are the best olives I’ve ever had. Really fun in martinis, or go ahead, eat a whole can by yourself in one sitting. Despite the olive and anchovy of it all, they're not super salty, they are very smooth, and I’d be really curious how a self-avowed olive or anchovy hater would feel about the combo.
See also: Nothing, I fucked it up with this one. They're really good, though.
Being in love, the feeling - Falling in love this summer for the first time in a long time has made me fall in love with everything else in my life, new and old. What a gift! There's no twist or joke here; I'm allergic to being insincere, and love has worsened the condition.
See also: "Being In Love", the Wet Leg song