A League On One's Phone

Sorry, sorry...anyway, we're talking about mixes again, hi!

Greetings, Dames Nation! We come to you with a word about tunes. Ah, how we love them! How we love sharing them — crafting a great mixtape (or as we call them today, playlists) is an art, and a gift, both to the intended recipient, and to our future selves. Going back to listen to a vintage mix is such a powerful trip down memory lane. They’re historical documents with a beat you can dance to! 

There are so many tools and ways to discover new music that it can be really daunting; where do we even start? A playlist by a trusted friend is a wonderful treat and a useful tool too, and as we’ve learned over the last few weeks, a group-generated playlist on one theme or another is a gas gas gas! Let’s talk about our new favorite app & game, Music League.

Music League lets you organize a group of people to create thematic playlists that everyone in the group then votes on. The league owner sets the themes and number of points everyone has to bestow, so there’s a competitive flavor to it, but the main point is discovery. Which is so handy, because I’m not nearly the fingers-on-the-pulse music discoverer I used to be. I rely heavily on personal recommendations at this point. Mutual pal and member of Dames Nation Lucas introduced us to Music League and now all three Dames (Sophie! Margaret! Karen!) are in a league together with him and a bunch of Australians and some Brits?! It’s really fun. 

Dame Sophie: I love our little international group of music nerds. Because we’re all connected to Lucas and/or Margaret but not necessarily each other, Lucas created a group chat for everyone. It’s very low-pressure — I am extremely behind on messages right now, but I know I’ll be able to dive back in with the next round — and it’s so fun to see people wake up & greet the day in waves by time zone. 

Dame Karen: It is! I’m pretty much a chat creeper and don’t contribute much, but I love to read. It’s like the chat version of me at parties in real life, if we ever have those again. Allow me to listen and observe and maybe dance a little. So, you have consistently been the “winner” re: points in the league. Do you have any sort of strategy when you pick songs?

DS: How well you know my Gotta Have A Plan ways! I’m weirdly competitive and always want to pick a song that fits the brief and that I like, and also I want it to be one that most League members will be enthusiastic about. Give me those sweet sweet points! I love external validation! Hopefully a within-normal-range amount! (It is not within normal range, that’s aspiration talking. I am working on it while also trying to accept that it’s just one of my fairly salient quirks.)

The accuracy of this burn!

DK: Hee hee hee, insert Lisa Simpson GIF demanding to be graded. I, as always, have no strategy at all and just pick the first song I think of and hope for the best but also don’t really care about points. That’s not true, I love getting lots of points from a small number of people. Like, if two people give me three points I am ECSTATIC! (Not working on this at all, have accepted my love of niche appreciation!) What has been your favorite prompt so far?

DS: Two standouts have been I SAY THEE NAY (pump-up songs so good they make you want to fight God) and Don’t Call It A Comeback (songs at least 25 years old that you’ve fallen in love with recently)

DK: I think that second one is from another League — I like it! I also loved I SAY THEE NAY and my other fav was Cheer Up! (songs that lift your mood). You submitted “Jump In The Line” for that one and I have listened to it once a day since — the power of Belafonte! 

DS: I’m so glad it’s gotten into your personal radio heavy rotation! It’s a favorite of all time for me, and I knew it would resonate w/people. Love to unite multiple goals, for fun!

DK: That round also made me realize how much I love “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit — a true banger. 

DS: SAME! Oh man, that’s a karaoke classic for “singers” like me — it’s in my vocal range so I have some shot at sounding Not Awful, and everyone knows and loves to sing along about how sometimes we kick the living shit out of me. I’m going to listen to it now, in fact. (*enthusiastic couch dancing ensues*)

DK: Absolutely. I chose “Sweet Soul Music” by Arthur Conley for that one after hearing it on the radio the day before and have since learned that Mr. Conley left the U.S. to go overseas, settle in Amsterdam, and live a life of gay fun?! Surprise queer icon Arthur Conley! Go, Arthur! What was your I SAY THEE NAY song?

DS: Thereby hangs a tale about the “no repeats” rule Music League enforces. My first and second choices had already been claimed by fellow League members! The first was “What’s Up, Danger?” By Blackway and Black Caviar from the Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse soundtrack, and the second was “Immigrant Song”, by Led Zeppelin. My favorite tidbit to share about the latter is that if you’re listening on headphones (or just w/the speaker close to your ear), the song opens with two seconds of increasingly loud & frantic room tone, as if the song itself can’t wait to burst forth into your ears.

DK: Oh hell yeah. “Immigrant Song” was a Heardle selection a month or so ago and I was ELATED to get it just from the room tone, which I always think of as a speaker being wild? A classic. I didn’t know “What’s Up Danger” — it is excellent!

DS: It’s amazing, and the scene it plays under is equally glorious.I just realized I didn’t answer which song I wound up choosing – I went with “Clearest Blue” by CHVRCHES.

DK: Oh INTERESTING!!! I have to admit I didn’t give it points because it did NOT have that effect on me and, surprise surprise, I didn’t know that song before this round! I think that’s the first time I haven’t given you points, honestly. I did “Welcome To The Black Parade” which is one of those songs I WISH existed when I was a teen because it would have just captured me in a way that I’m a little removed from now. So really it was chosen as a tribute to my younger self wanting to dethrone God, I’m just now realizing? Although! A fellow Leaguer pointed out that the song was about grief to them and therefore, to them, not about dethroning God. I have been mourning the loss of my best friend for nearly a year now and that comment made me realize that grief is a real “dethrone God” situation for me. Music, man. 

DS: Music is such a powerful time machine! I didn’t give you points this round, either — such is how personal our receptions and interpretations of songs are.

DK: I love it! I’m incredibly nosy and the way people choose songs and relate to them is revealing without being TOO revealing, especially since I don’t really know most people in the League. It’s fascinating even when I don’t like a song to learn that it’s someone’s fav “song with a name in the title” or whatever. Although I guess probably some people are picking songs they think other people will like rather than songs they like?! There has to be SOME liking there, though, I think! Have you recently made any playlists outside of the League that you’re particularly into right now? 

DS: I have – as you know, one of my favorite sonic appeal factors is a male vocalist who sounds on the verge of tears, usually due to the agonies he is suffering in love. I present to you: Lovesick Dudes!

DK: How dare you start this with Billy Bragg, one of my go-to lovesick dudes?!?!?! 

DS: Uncle Billy forever!! I’m not nearly as steeped in his full catalog as I should be, but the songs I do know, I love, and they always make me think “hey, you should do a deep dive into his full catalog!” I picked “A New England” because of how much I love to be emotionally knocked flat on my tush by “Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you cared.”

DK: It’s so good. I was inspired by the Bimbo/Himbo/Thembo talk in the League chat and made a playlist of songs that made me feel brainless and hot in the best possible way — please enjoy Dimbo! [Not saying Bimbo/Himbo/Thembo actually equals brainless, obviously! It’s a free-wheelin’, ass-shakin’, high-kickin’ viiiiiiiiibe here.]

DS: Oh, heck, yes!! Kicking things off with “All I Do Is Win” is a rump-shaking statement of purpose. Everybody’s hands go UP, and they do indeed stay there!

On that note, we’re going to wrap up here and send you all forth to listen to these playlists, create your own (and share with us, if you wanna!) and/or invite friends to your own Music League!