End/start the week with tunes: IT IS STILL TODAY a playlist by JUSTIN WILL
You can donate to help South/Boyle Heights LA kids w disabilities HERE and I’ll be sending playlists made with cool people all dang year.
That, right there (above), is a way you can do a lil’ good after you check out the first of many collaborative mixes of ‘22. We’re making playlists and outsourcing music discovery to some of my favorite friends, creatives, and humans ALL dang year. You can read more about that and grab the first mix from New Year’s Day HERE.
Trust me..you’re gonna love this crap. We should normalize saying “that is THE CRAP” when something is really good. It sucks that the more elite/PG-13 cuss “shit” can be used in that way, and yet crap cannot? Well that’s gotta change, buddy.
This first contributor is one of the greatest illustrators, designers, and creative brains I have ever known. TRULY a big part of the 527 Club -Justin Will.
We grew up on the same street in our lil’ town but didn’t hang out until I was in middle school. We started skateboarding (poorly) and eventually watched SCREAM on VHS in his bedroom. Justin was the first of our skatebuds to get his license and drove us all around in an old-ass 12 passenger van with the seats ripped out of the back (so we could install a couch, of course). When I started high school we’d mosh/crowd surf to Less Than Jake and Descendents songs in the van.
Eventually Justin stopped giving us a ride in the giant van and opted to give COOL GIRLS a ride instead. What the HELL? In retaliation, I think we did something messed up to the van. This started a fast and furious feud between he and I that closely resembled the REVENGE MONTAGE from Rushmore. At least that’s how I recall it.
Eventually we became 110% buds, ate a ton of SHEETZ, and I spent so much of my 20s at Justin and his partner Nancy’s (another tier 1 influential, funny, creative person to me) Cleveland Heights apartment. The most elbow-patchy SNL “Luvah’s” sketch part of CLE. I met so many great, inspiring people, discovered so much music and other art, and frickin’ laughed non-stop. Everything about the experience was in Futura font but wasn’t afraid to get a lil’ Comic Sans. My fav was when they’d have parties and Justin would sneak off and bake the world’s greatest pizzas at like 1 AM as an absolutely kick-ass surprise.
Above are some Cobrasnake style point-and-click party pics from Justin and Nancy’s apartment. They weren’t on Tumblr but this is the Tumblr era, obviously.
Us Yorkin’ around when Justin and Nancy visited LA Summer ‘15 and last October at our home when he wouldn’t eat guavas from our tree because they didn’t come from Sheetz…
And now it is TIME FOR THE PLAYLIST.
Get IT IS STILL TODAY by JUSTIN WILL on the following platforms (the good one I’ve always loved and also the ehh one that everyone is mad at this week)
Click here for IT IS STILL TODAY on APPLE MUSIC
Click here for IT IS STILL TODAY on Spotify
From Justin (who you should follow on Instagram and BUY SOME FREAKIN’ ART FROM.
“Obvi it's theme is based on where my brain is these days, trying to stay youthful and imaginative without allowing my 41 year old body and life experience to remind me too frequently of the hard times. And the cover is just silly, but something I say all the time to myself to remind me that shit is still pretty cool and okay and there is a ton of time to get into more adventures and witness more love.”
Sage as hell..just as I’d expect from one of my best friends and favorite Justinfluencers.
So thanks for reading…end your weekend/start your week with these tunes from Justin, consider a donation to IHADLA, and we will see ya back SUPER BOWL SUNDAY with another classic CD (playlist) for you all the vibe with.