#22: Mia — Electronic Music, Books, Seeking

May you remain aware of your awareness...and your favorite tunes.

Dec 30, 2023

Occasionally when I do interviews for Mia’s Queue, my interviewee tries to turn the tables on me. I’m usually able to point to the clock and run off before the spotlight can be reversed. But, this being the end of the year and all, I thought it was a decent time to share a few of the things I’ve breathlessly sent to friends, put on repeat, and/or bought for others. Of course, your mileage may vary — I acknowledge that I am a bit of an electronic music freak — but I sincerely hope you find something here that lights you up like a million lasers.

📕 “Big Swiss”: I love books with smart but self-destructive female protagonists and I love reading about psychology. “Big Swiss” has both, thanks to a clever plot about a woman who works as a transcriptionist for a therapist and falls in love with one of his clients as a result of her access to the confidential sessions. This book reminded me a lot of “Milk Fed” as well as the delightfully nihilistic “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.” After finishing “Big Swiss,” I immediately went to Reddit to find other novels like it. More sexy trainwrecks, please!

🐕 Overmono: After incessant teasing by my Spotify algorithm, I finally got to see Overmono at the Portola Festival in September. It was edgy and glorious, but the set featured, gasp, sunlight in the warehouse, making me feel like a vampire who’d melt at any second. Overmono’s Boiler Room in Manchester puts them back in their native habitat, with sonic sock punches that had me saying “Oh shitttt” in the quiet of my bedroom.

🧑🏻‍🎤 Romy: I’ve always loved The XX, but when it came to their solo careers, I thought of myself as a Jamie XX girl. Not anymore. Romy’s voice is a thing of beauty — but we already knew that. What was a revelation to me was how she could bring a club to its knees. I missed her SF show, so I’m going to remedy that by traveling to see her in LA in March. Will you be there too?!

🎸 Nation of Language: When a music lover with a more voracious appetite than mine told me I just missed something special, I immediately regretted being late to Outside Lands. The emphaticness of his words stayed with me for months. Happily, I fixed my FOMO by nabbing tickets to see this group in October. It turned out to be, as the hubs said, among the best shows we’ve seen in years. The Brooklyn trio was simultaneously so fresh and so nostalgic; riffs reminded me of The Cure, New Order, The National... I will see this band whenever and wherever I can, and I suggest you do too.

🏎 Kavinsky + city driving: I discovered Kavinsky in an in-between space, sandwiched between waiting for two favorite acts at the Portola Festival. I had no idea what to expect, but when the crowd never thinned around me, I knew it was going to be good. Kavinsky was 80s neon and synths turned up to 11, evoking Daft Punk, Justice, and Miami Vice. Later, when we drove a friend home, Kavinsky was the ideal soundtrack for our late-night freeway cruising through the city. Try it, just don’t be fooled by the sirens. 😜

🎧 “Clam Bake” playlist: Every year, I dump all the tracks that hit me for any reason into a playlist with a silly, inside-joke name. (FWIW I think silly may be my purest form.) I hereby close out 2023’s collection with over 20 hours of my favorite tunes.

I’m also introducing 2024’s list, “Shingles Doesn’t Care.” Please follow it if you like my taste in music. ❤️ I add songs continually throughout the year. I got it started with Sofia Kourtesis because she’s one of the first people I’m going to see in 2024.

🛫 Music as a journey: A lot of the music I love goes in the category of immediate gratification. Big rollercoaster drops! Beats that mindlessly move me! Party, party, party! Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure! However, in trying to shift the Titanic that is my mind, I’ve started to become more aware of my default modes of being. I’m the kind of person who’s sad about something ending before it’s even begun. I let the pressure of an outcome stop me from starting. I fret about the future without appreciating the present.

It recently dawned on me: My taste in music is just like this! In other words, I make a beeline to ecstasy without slowing down to savor the art of it all. So many songs, albums, and playlists are journeys. That is the point. The pleasure is in the traveling, the unfolding...

The playlists in

Sam Valenti IV

’s Herb Sundays series helped me see this. For someone content to visit her favorite places again and again 🙋🏼‍♀️, the Herb playlists are like going to a different country each time. Esteemed artists, writers and other creatives curate esoteric tracks that make me want to stop what I’m doing and just listen and learn and absorb. Here’s an example, a playlist by Olof Dreijer of The Knife:

In 2024, I plan to listen to more albums from start to finish, pay closer attention to lyrics and poetry, be more purposeful in my music discovery rituals, and branch out at least into experimental and ambient genres. This is one album I enjoyed just the other day during an epic walk in San Francisco. It was the perfect, weird companion.

💡 Yung Pueblo + Sharon Saltzberg: I’m probably one of the last people curious about meditation to learn about

Yung Pueblo

. It wasn’t until my friend

Cecily Mak

interviewed him in front of a sold-out crowd in SF that I started to explore his work. Everything he says, and how he says it — simple, straightforward — makes a ton of sense to me. Diego’s conversation with Sharon Salzberg reminded me how much I love her too.

I’m reading Sharon’s “Real Life” right now and it’s speaking to me. This gets to the gist of why:

“What we are working to evolve is an inner environment where we can surround that state of constriction, of holding back from the flow of life, with spaciousness, ease of heart, and kindness. Cultivating that radically changed relationship is the essence of the journey to being free.”

🪵 Nick Offerman: First he wowed me in “The Last of Us” (WHAT A GREAT SHOW!) earlier this year; then he was the spiritual guru I didn’t know I needed. It’s Nick Offerman on woodworking and the meaning of life.

Honorable mention goes to Rick Rubin’s episode on noticing and creativity.

🍄 Dr Roland Griffiths: I’d like to close with this New York Times Magazine interview with a psychedelics pioneer who’s battling Stage 4 cancer. I’m excited about the potential and power of psychedelic therapy and by Roland’s words during what could be the scariest time of his life:

So you have this sense, near the end of your life, of waking up to life’s real meaning. What’s the most important thing for everyone else who’s still asleep to know? I want everyone to appreciate the joy and wonder of every single moment of their lives. We should be astonished that we are here when we look around at the exquisite wonder and beauty of everything. I think everyone has a sense of that already. It’s leaning into that more fully. There is a reason every day to celebrate that we’re alive, that we have another day to explore whatever this gift is of being conscious, of being aware, of being aware that we are aware. That’s the deep mystery that I keep talking about. That’s to be celebrated!

So, here’s to more exquisite wonder in 2024. I know I experience a taste of it when I encounter interesting (and interested) people who find and share gems that move them and bring us together. Thank you for being here.

xoxo,
Mia

Mia’s Queue is a free newsletter featuring a secret agent of taste with deep interests and quality recommendations. It’s published about every other week. I’d love to hear from you!

Mia’s Queue

#22: Mia — Electronic Music, Books, Seeking

May you remain aware of your awareness...and your favorite tunes.

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