PREMIERE // So Nice Yesterday – Stevonnie (Posi Vibes)

Post by Misha

“Drink some water, love your fuckin’ self”

The line is passed off glibly enough to be construed as tongue in cheek, but I don’t think it is. It’s a radical idea that love, pride, and care of self might be both as close and as far away as adequate hydration. As simple as turning on the faucet and as confounding as making the correct choice between water and wine.

I want to print it out and tape it to my mirror. I want to chant it like a prayer and scream it from open windows at every intersection. There’s a reason we need to be reminded to keep ourselves alive.

‘Stevonnie (Posi Vibes)’ is being released in honor of Pride month. Pieces of art like this are tiny respites in a media landscape where, while our benevolent corporate overlords ensure that there’s no shortage of Pride “content,” they also make sure that little substance remains behind the rainbowed curtain after stripping away the more troublesome parts of the queer experience for the sake of broader market appeal. I don’t think the corporate leeching was any better or worse than usual this year, but it did feel especially callous after the year we’ve had.

Despite a blindingly sunny title, this song embraces the magnitude of the challenge that we continue to face, one way or another, year after year – the challenge of holding great hope with tremendous exhaustion, and of finding the energy to celebrate one’s self amidst the barrage of reasons to not celebrate anything at all. The lyrics are breezy and full of middle-fingers-up swagger, but their delivery and the production that laces them together tell the rest of the story.

The rest of the story isn’t all grim and grinding, but it’s not all glitter and sequins either. It’s both radio-ready and world weary. I appreciate that. It’s nice to remember that there’s lots of ways to celebrate pride (both capital-P and regular-p) and that some of them – though they have none of the glitz of the parade – walk around with some dirt under their nails.

It is not glamorous; it’s not a luxury item – it’s survival. Like water.

So Nice Yesterday is Berko (of the Grimalkin Records collective) and Thom Castles. Buy ‘Stevonnie (Posi Vibes)‘ here. Proceeds from the digital sales will go to the Free Keith Davis Jr. fund to help with the legal and living expenses for Keith Davis Jr. and his family as they fight corrupt charges and brutality by the Baltimore PD. (You can read more about the case here).