DECEMBER 2022 / FINAL FEEL
3 years ago, I started gathering an ensemble of people whose music opinions I respected and who were capable of communicating them via writing. It was less building the Avengers and more a desire to immortalize the music talks we would have at our apartment parties in the LA area. The roster was a diverse cast of people I had met in college and beyond. Honestly I’m lucky enough that when I have an idea with the smallest semblance of legs to run on, I have people who share my excitement and give me enough criticism and support to get to the next step. It’s been like that for 3 years now. And while our output hasn’t been the most consistent I’m eternally grateful for a squad that is always ready to dive back in after our breaks.
I don’t think anything lasts forever. Strangely enough, the idea of a blog in itself almost feels outdated. I go to parties now and people ask if I run a blog as if I am ten years behind. This isn’t to undercut anything we did here. It’s almost retro in a postmodern hipster kind of way. More than that earnestness has always been our thing. Even when we’re saying how much we hate J. Cole. Love for music is what started this and it will remain; I don’t doubt it’ll shift into something new and spectacular in the future.
If you’re an artist who sat down and shared your time and words with us, thank you. If you’ve shared our reviews or tuned in to read, thank you. And if you are Frank Ocean, please stop making ugly jewelry and drop the album.
Love for Vanessa for always supporting myself and the team.
Love for Jess who was never afraid to edit us with a knife and a few hours of sleep.
Love for Erick who taught me to be a loving hater..
- Andrew Sanchez, founder of Sample the Feel
“Peppa And Friends” by Peppa Pig
After a few drinks on a warm September night in 2019, I wrote my favorite Sample the Feel contribution to date: the infamous review of Peppa Pig’s My First Album. This piece is the funnest thing I’ve ever written and every time I read it I still get a good laugh out of it. Naturally, I chose this specific song because it's Peppa and her friends hanging out and Sample the Feel was a lot like that. Many of us did not know each other prior but after a few zoom hangs, it felt so easy to talk to this hilarious group of people. I loved the support we all gave each other and looked forward to everyone’s pieces. I’m so sad to live through this finale but I can already imagine all the cool shit the team is about to get into! - Vanessa Sandoval
“Amor De Mis Sueños” by Jasper
Back when Jasper had Bones, he was the first major artist we had gotten an interview for. Staff writer (and not quite my girlfriend at the time) Vanessa Sandoval sent a shot in the dark email to his management team and scored us a talk with him. I remember feeling electric with the possibility we were cultivating validity within the first month of our inception. Vanessa found a tea shop to meet him in Echo Park; I called over my friend Mohamed Samra to take photos for the piece. I had no idea what we were doing and it was exhilarating to be running around from location to location figuring it all out with my team.
We ended the interview and photoshoot by going back to Jasper’s jeep where he played us this song. The first thing that struck me was how strong the bass was in the car. I remember everyone’s eyes going wide the second the beat dropped. The second thing was how fucking cool I felt blasting unreleased music with a budding Chicano star in a Walgreens parking lot. The online reception we got for the article was a little overwhelming and left us all high. Though nothing mattered more to me than telling my younger sister we booked an artist she knew (and had a crush on). Her validation fueled me for months. - Sanchez
“また明日 (alternate version)” by OGRE YOU ASSHOLE
I've edited most of the pieces on this blog since the start, but I've barely written anything for it. This is because I don't really follow new releases, and also because I'm a sleepy lil bitch. Writing about また明日 (alternate version) by OGRE YOU ASSHOLE reminded me that writing about music actually rules — I loved the song, but trying to explain it made me actually ask about the tip-of-my-tongue familiar instrumental bridge and look up what the Japanese lyrics mean (they are about being a sleepy bitch, natch). Anyway helping these smart people hone their takes on this blog was a fucking delight. Cheers, StF. - Jess Kung
“Find Your Way Back” by Beyoncé
When Beyoncé’s BLACK IS KING released in the summer of 2020, it was the first time since the onset of the pandemic that music had given me a sense of hope. It was hard to pinpoint those feelings at the time, but there was something so healing about seeing my favorite artist craft a musical film about Black resilience, art, and legacy during a summer when my faith in those values was being tested heavy by the unreal weight of the world in that moment. Bey gave me the reassurance I needed that somehow, someway, we would persist; our ability to create art, words, music that impacted and uplifted people wasn’t totally washed away forever by one scary summer. Reviewing the film was the first thing I wrote for StF, and I’m so thankful Sanchez gave me the space to put those feelings of catharsis into words and action. This song reminds me that wherever life takes us, however lost in the sauce we get, there’s always a way to find ourselves again on the journey. “Big big world but you got it baby.” - Laurence Turner, guest writer
“Cheers” by Faye Webster
Time for a behind-the-scenes secret, let’s see if Sanchez lets me say this. During our year-end favorites discussions in 2021, Sample The Feel was about to switch gears a bit and do a staff-wide ranked list instead of individual favorites. We all got our top 5 together and met to hash out the rankings, and for a multitude of reasons it didn’t really fly and we decided that it would be better to stick with an unranked system. But the one thing we did find out in that meeting was that the one album that seemed to rock everyone’s socks was Faye Webster’s I Know I’m Funny haha! If I’m not mistaken, the album actually hit every top 5 and as total surprise to us all, this incredible underdog record out of Atlanta was going to be our #1. Vanessa had the honor of writing about it as her personal favorite in our year-end piece, but I say we need a little Webster to close us out. It’s hard to pick a favorite track, but the unbridled joy and celebration of this song seems perfect. How can you not throw caution to the wind and smile and groove to the tune? “Let’s cheers to you. And let’s cheers to me.” - Mark Metzger, staff writer
“Prom Dress” by mxmtoon
To the review that never was: mxmtoon’s debut album “the masquerade” came out at a difficult time in my life – trying to re-discover myself after a difficult breakup, feeling pressure from friends and family to finish college already, and stuck in a job I did not enjoy but needed. I had been following mxmtoon after stumbling onto her Soundcloud a couple of years earlier as cute ukulele tunes to put on in the background. When her debut album came out, I fell in love with it instantly – a shocker to no one. It felt good to feel good again. I was inclined towards writing my first review for Sample the Feel on this album – this was one of my favorite albums of the year thus far and shone a bright spot in my life in an emotionally exhausting year.
After talking to Andrew and setting some time aside in the week to write, I sent over what would be the only draft of my review. I should have known that life would end up getting in the way, school would become stressful for a bit, and work would drain whatever energy I had left. By the time I came to revisit the notes for my draft and revisit the album, that feel-good high had slipped away and so did the motivation to make my voice heard. While the review was never published, I am thankful for Sample the Feel and mxmtoon’s “the masquerade” in resparking my love for music, feel-good vibes, and empowering me to advocate for what I am passionate about. I’ll pour one out for Sample the Feel with “prom dress” – the lead single off of “the masquerade.” - David Vasquez, guest writer
“Headphones” by Elton Aura, Bedows, Burns Twins, and Nemo
Headphones is about being young and surviving and jamming out and one time I played it in the car for Erick after seeing Noname and I think they told me it was pretty good, which I hope I’m remembering right because it was pretty validating. - Jess
“12.38 featuring 21 Savage, Ink & Kadhja Bonet)” by Childish Gambino
For the sake of growth I had to throw one Gambino song in the mix. I was the biggest Gambino stan for much of my early adult life to the most embarrassing degree. In some ways my obsession with Donald Glover and the blog era marked my rapid obsession with music and connection itself. As I have gotten older I find myself more cautious about finding myself in others. You either go down with the ship or realize your faves were kind of corny to begin with, and so were you. And that’s okay! It’s beautiful even. I chose this song because this album was one of the few reviews I did for this blog. A lot of my material was stained with self induced misery; songs with footnotes reflecting my own unhappiness like an endless mirror. Writing about it didn’t make me feel better but it helped me work through it. 3.15.20 was the album where I realized salvation from self didn’t come from a new age digital messiah.
This all sounds depressing but I promise you “12.38” is a fun song. It’s a mushroom trip that balances a sense of humor with a familiar surrealism that is ever present in Glover’s work. 21 Savage comes and talks about soft butts and rhymes Popeyes with Popeyes. I love the sly wink at the song’s outro after Gambino is asked to sing to a cat. One last memento to keep doing goofy shit with your friends. - Sanchez
“Immaterial” by SOPHIE
I will forever be sad about SOPHIE’s passing. However, the grief will be accompanied and overshadowed by the pure joy I feel when listening to her and remembering the beautiful blaze of light that she shined upon the music world. Just because she is no longer with us does not mean that her influence has come to an end. As the music that she pioneered continues to evolve, it will hold part of her, and in this way the SOPHIE’s spirit will live on. - Vicente Rios, staff writer
“F33l Lik3 Dyin” by Playboi Carti
I was the resident Carti stan here. My Whole Lotta Red Review is one I didn’t feel very confident about. I wished I had written something really insightful then. And now I find myself hoping I did some good work here on the whole. But even if I cringe at this writing years from now, I can tell it’ll still have a schmaltzy charm just like this track. It’s the closest thing Playboi Carti has to a sad song. (Still goes crazy.) - Erick Zepeda, staff writer
“Cassandra x The Static” by Real Clothes
I moved to New York in the summer of 2021. I was lucky enough to know members of the art rock band Go Home (for the love of god see them live) and worked the door for their Crystal Lake Ballroom show. The opening act Real Clothes completely blew me away with this song. Their presentation was bold and intense with a table for their beat pad set up like an altar, complete with violet lighting. I mustered up the courage to talk to them and plan an interview. It’s not something I had anticipated doing. Initially, moving made me afraid I would not be able to keep up with Sample the Feel the way I had been able to in California. And while sure, we are closing down shop a year after my move it’s not for the reasons I thought it would be for.
The local NY scene is eccentric and vibrant. Talking with Nico was a reminder that people do shit just to do shit. Yeah, everyone wants to make it but it’s almost utopian to do it just because you love it. I lost that somewhere in LA. And now it’s reemerging out of me like the alien in Alien (1979). - Sanchez
"Fog" by Radiohead
In our first ever staff introduction piece, I talked about how big an impact Radiohead had on me in the most self aware "I-know-this-is-cliche" way possible. Everybody has that one sad white guy band that tugs at their heart strings. But even if I feel a little silly saying it, I always return to Radiohead at bittersweet moments like this. Today, it's to reflect on that blurb and how much I've grown as a writer since Sanchez invited me to join the site. I’m really glad he put this site together and that I took him up on the offer to channel my urge to be annoying about the music I like. - Erick
“10,000 Miles” by Bonny Light Horseman & “Lowswimmer” by Hailaker
In the fall of 2020 after Sanchez invited me to hop on the team, I was doing some reflecting on my year and in a full-blown state of optimism I developed the audacious idea to start a series of pieces where I would pick lesser known year-end favorite albums and interview the artists about how and why they made the records. I started going down my album list and reaching out to the artists one by one, riding on the lesson that my mother ingrained in me when I was young: “Always ask because the worst they can say is no.” To my amazement, many artists quickly agreed and so began the Under The Radar Series, one of my favorite times at Sample The Feel. Each of these songs are the final tracks on albums that I wrote about, and each song in their own way is about saying goodbye and starting anew. What a wonderful moment this was, and here’s to the next. - Mark
"We're An American Band" by Yo La Tengo
A classic shoegaze number. Beautiful buildup to a long, hectic, but captivating guitar solo. I hope you remember my vibe as somewhere within this crop of songs. This is the shit that makes me feel like I'm living the last scene of a cathartic indie movie. Play me out! - Erick
“My Best Friend’s Weddings” by the Chicks
Back in the endless pandemic summer of 2020, my first review for Sample the Feel was Gaslighter by the Chicks, which was the country trio’s triumphant first release in over a decade. Obviously, a lot had changed in the music world in the time they were gone, and there was plenty of ground to cover before I was even able to discuss the album in my review. It’s not unusual for me to have to leave stuff on the cutting room floor, but out of all the songs that I touched on, “My Best Friend’s Weddings” is the one that I’ve found myself wanting to return to the most. It’s a concept that seems overwrought at first, almost begging you to take a deep Wikipedia dive to make sense of it all, but lead singer Natalie Maines manages to craft an enormously compelling narrative about how she met her now ex-husband at the wedding of bandmate Emily Strayer (only to be rid of him by the time Strayer remarried twenty years later).
Thankfully, the Chicks don’t spend too much time dwelling on the specifics of their duel divorces, choosing instead to reflect on the hard-won independence that came from these painful splits. “In twenty years, in twenty years, twenty years, yeah/I’ll still be younger than you,” Maines gloats as the music builds, intensifying the drama and justifying Jack Antonoff’s biggest and most Bleachers-y production choices. I remember seeing the Chicks perform this one live at the Greek Theatre last summer, about a week before I left LA for grad school in England, and it moved me more than any of their other performances; for better or for worse, I think I knew that the Chicks’ description of “a wildfire comin’/Burnin’ the world that I’ve known” applied to me too. StF was part of that world, and I’ll miss it, but so much of my favorite music has taught me not to fear the next chapter. As we turn the page on this site, I hope that some of the music we’ve shared will stick with you. - Audrey Davis, staff writer
“hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it” by Lana Del Rey
Back in 2019, when Sanchez asked me to write for his new music website, I wasn’t sure that I was up for it. I hadn’t really written anything in so long at that point that I was starting to doubt whether or not I could. But he was patient and encouraging, and with the help of StFs fantastic editor, I wrote my first music review. To be really honest, it was a long-winded and overeager piece of writing. But it was fun to write. Since then, I’ve written so many pieces and have returned to the habit of writing, and I have Sanchez and SampleTheFeel to thank for that.
This song, from that album that I reviewed, is dramatic, poetic, and beautiful. Even without knowing what was to come, this song about being hopeful despite the circumstances has and will continue to remind me to look on the bright side. - Vicente
“ANTES QUE SE ACABE” by Bad Bunny
Surprise, surprise. I chose a Bad Bunny song. The difference? This one is my favorite. “ANTES QUE SE ACABE'' is an ode to life, happiness and hopefulness. It’s about finding the better parts of the shittiest situations and remembering to find joy in the small things. It sounds corny when I describe it but that's half of my reviews on here anyway! The chorus translates to “before this is all over, I’m gonna live my life and if I die, at least it's happily” and it perfectly encapsulates my time on StF. I wrote about what I loved, often worried it was more personal than other reviews and not as well spoken (shoutout to our amazing writers), but I always had a fun time doing it. Sample The Feel gave me an outlet to dive deep into my thoughts and allowed me to grow as a writer in an exciting stress free way, which is rare! So my final blurb on this site is for this song, it feels like a perfect send off because like Sample the Feel, “ANTES QUE SE ACABE” always feels like a warm hug, there to reassure me that it’s always a good idea to do something you love. - Vanessa
“C’est La Vie” by Robbie Nevil
This isn't just a farewell song, it’s a motto. It is tinged with a melancholic resignation, but it’s infectious and upbeat. It's sad to close this chapter, but this 1986 hit is a reminder that it doesn’t have to be a pity party, but a celebration for whatever comes next.
I'll always remember the night Andrew proposed the idea of starting a music blog. It was at Erick's house, we were standing in the backyard with a bunch of other mutuals. I'd barely gotten to know Andrew, but his determination and passion for the project was what drew me to joining him, despite knowing how difficult it'd be to stand out in this industry. Alas I'm glad I never looked back. I couldn't have asked for a better team with eclectic music taste. At least we tried to turn our love for music into something more, but you know, life happens. And that's okay. I know we’re all off doing something great elsewhere. - Samantha Neou, staff writer