iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Favorite tracks: I Confess Rotating Head Save It For Later Sugar and Stress Ackee 1-2-3

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The perfect kind of ska album. It’s not over the top (respectfully) and I like how it blends in the reggae and new wave elements. None of the instrumentation is aggressive, even when there’s a horn solo or something that stands out the whole thing still blends in perfect harmony.

100

The music doesn’t feel like it’s serious but the songwriting is deep and introspective. Lots of emotional exploration wrapped in a happy facade. It’s almost like a therapeutic Trojan horse, you’re too damn mesmerized by the rhythms to realize the emotional processing you’re going through.

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Album of the Day #245 The English Beat - Special Beat Service (1982) Great music to pull you out of a bad day. Relentlessly upbeat and no matter what the song is about the tunes themselves feel and sound good. You can’t help but nod your head and smile.

jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I saw the Tony movie and wrote this piece about the it, cooking, writing and what Anthony Bourdain meant to me. I’d love it if you read it. jmsdirt.substack.com/p/im-not-a-c...

jmsdirt.substack.com

I’m Not a Cook, I’m a Writer

I watched the Tony movie.

000

I really loved the vocals. Sometimes there are a lot of different voicings all mixed together and it sounds great.

000

I really loved the vocals. Sometimes there are a lot of different voicings all mixed together and it sounds great. The songwriting is probably what stuck out to me the most. Every song evokes an emotional response.

100

It’s not quite country/americana/indie rock but it’s also all of those things, with a twist? A lot of things to love, the guitar, there is violins and piano and sometimes the songs are so soft you gotta crank the volume and sometimes they rock.

100

Album of the Day #238 Pancho Morris - Great Again (2018) Spooky modern western storytelling. Not spooky in a ghouls and goblins way but like it’s haunted. By ghosts from the past, the world that we currently live in or the uncertainty of the future. Haunted by all of it.

100

Favorite tracks: Life Is Glorious Black Pearls Love, and the Path of Least Resistance Into the Universe

000

That said I think they do a really great job taking those influences and making something new with it. It doesn’t sound like a new band just trying to play old music. It feels like they are trying to expand on that or at least leave a mark with their own melancholic kind of whimsy.

100

It’s like a power poppy indie rock mash up. Sometimes you’re listening to a ska bands attempt at making a non-ska album and sometimes you’re listening to a bizarro Beatles tribute band (both compliments). You can definitely hear that influence, at times it borders on psychedelic.

100

Album of the Day # 237 Glass Elevator - Universvm Gloria (2012) I would describe these as happy go lucky sad songs. Are we struggling in a world that is cold and uncaring? Yes. Are we dead? Not yet. Do we wish we were? Sometimes. Are we gonna make it happen? Not today.

100

No matter what she was doing the vocals were flawless, the production was perfect and I was 100% locked in the whole time waiting to see what happened next. Favorite tracks: A Spell, A Prayer Red Horse New York Transit Queen Put It Down Before The Throne Of The Invisible God

000

like she knows exactly how much they can handle and pushes them to meet her where she’s at. It was a weird mix of genres! There were harsh punk rock songs, disco songs, tracks that felt like I was in a jazz club and then songs that were none of that. Ambient and ethereal long meandering songs.

100

I think that about sums it up. It was bizarre at times to the point where it was unnerving but it was in a way that I liked. It felt like she was pushing your expectations and challenging your taste. I feel like you have to be confident in yourself and your fanbase,

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Liz Harvey @lizharvey.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Album of the Day # 236 Corrine Bailey Rae - Black Rainbows (2023) Not to give y’all too much of a look at how the sausage is made for these posts but this is the list of things I wrote down while listening to this album: “bizarre frantic rocking disco to harsh static lounge club hypnotism”.

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Reposted by jim

Oh ive had blind spots, i thought the mountain goats guy was just a poster on twitter i didnt realize he made lesbian music but for guys who wore a blazer to a punk basement show.

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jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The vocals hit so hard. She has a crazy range and it feels like she could master any style. I would listen to her sing classical I would listen to her sing punk tbh I’m just happy to listen to her sing. Favorite tracks: Pleasure And Pain Good Die Young Sleeping Beauty Heart Telegraph

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jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It’s got a frantic kind of energetic feeling. Like the album feels like you’re running through a massive crowd trying desperately to reach whatever it is you’re reaching for.

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jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Album of the Day # 235 Divinyls - What A Life! (1985) This feels like the quintessential 80’s album. It hits all the notes, it’s synthsy, dancey and there are times that it’s really heavy rock. The drums sound huge and the production feels massive. Super catchy and just a lot of fun to listen to.

100

I don’t know what the vocals, when present, are saying and I don’t really care. This is an aura album. This guy went out on a vibes based mission to make bangers and he succeeded. Favorite tracks: <H> Friend We Never Fly Away Again No Regrets

000

It was also intensely fun and weird. Lots of odd sound elements accentuated the thumping disco beats. It’s funky and kinda spooky and a little off putting but it is also one of those infectious listens and you can’t help but love it.

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Album of the Day # 234 Black Devil - Disco Club (1978) This albums was hypnotic and distorting to listen to. It felt unreal, so over the top and borderline cartoonish it feels like it’s out of a movie.

100

It was still loud and kinda snotty and brash and definitely crass. It’s spooky and gothic and you probably could dance to it if you were at a graveyard dance party. Favorite tracks: Sounds of Laughter Love Story Silent Scream Die For Me Dance With Me

010

What stuck out most to me was the storytelling. Even when it was a little weird a lot of the songs were actually stories. I feel like you don’t get that as much with punk music, so that stuck out to me in an interesting way.

Album of the Day # 233 TSOL - Dance With Me (1981) This album was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It was raw and fast and furious like you’d expect but it also had a weird kind of whimsy to it. They were really having fun with this.

Overall it’s a good album to nod your head to. The music has way too much going on for you to ever get bored with and the vocals are just enough to make you reminisce about that thing that never was. Favorite tracks: West Decatur Lessons From Pella East Coker

000

The guitar never ends. It is intricate and it keeps coming at you and does not let up. The songs are sad. The vocals are buried behind the music and are emotional in a way that project a yearning kind of desperation. It’s like you’re begging someone not to leave but they’re gone already.

100

Album of the Day #232 Ethel Meserve - The Milton Abandonment (1997) It’s weird, I want to say that this album feels like an onslaught but I think that word is too aggressive, or maybe the music is not violent enough for that terminology.

100

This is basically a Nick Hornby novel

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jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I finished Fights! By Scott McClanahan this morning and there are parts of this book I’m going to think about forever.

000

It’s very good. Smart and beautiful in a way that makes you feel like you could be smart and beautiful too. The kind of thing you listen to and it immediately makes you better by osmosis. Favorite tracks: Let’s Get Out Juno The Leanover 14 Days

000

jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Art punk math rock. Math punk art rock. Spoken word rock music by people that know how to play but don’t know how to make music and a singer that can sing technically but doesn’t actually know anything about how singing works.

100

jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Album of the Day #231 Life Without Buildings - Any Other City (2001) Feels like summers over but fall isn’t here yet. Like you’re almost to where you’re going but you’re not there yet, the road is still open, the path can still change. The album feels like an exploration of, well, everything.

Favorite tracks: What Am I To You? Be Here To Love Me Creepin’ In Humble Me The Long Way Home

000

So the writing is great. The music is wonderful, it’s a blend of pop with a little r&b and a surprising, overwhelming amount of country influences (there’s even a Dolly Parton feature). The piano playing is immaculate and the vocal performance is perfect. Only good things happening on this one.

100

If you were create a montage of some of the worst moments of your life, the scenes where it all fell apart, where seemingly everything went wrong, the fights, breakups, the times when you didn’t know how you’d get by, this is also the music you’d put in the background of that.

100

jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Album of the Day # 230 Norah Jones - Feels Like Home (2004) If you were to create a montage of the best moments of your life, the happiest moments, the summer days and slow motion scenes of children laughing in a field, this would be the music that you’d put in the background.

100

Kinda creates a weird back and forth where you’re ready to scream along one minute and the next you kinda just don’t know what to do? Definitely makes it interesting to listen to but I wish that it leaned more on the screaming. Favorite tracks: Element Through My Eyes Divide Suffer Zone Zero

000

jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It’s definitely a hardcore album but the singing part of the vocals sometimes feel like they’re leaning heavily on grunge. You end up with a weird mix of NYHC and grunge that’s also socially conscious but doesn’t come across corny at all.

100

jim @jmsdirt.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Album of the Day #229 Vision of Disorder - self titled (1996) Really heavy album. Heavy riffs, catchy hooks. The guitar on this really sounds good, it’s melodic and when it goes hard it really fucking goes hard. Feels like getting punched in the face.

100

Favorite tracks: Nasty What Have You Done For Me Lately The Pleasure Principle Let’s Wait Awhile

000

Similar to the production the vocals all over the place, in a good way. Theres these big massive reverb swells and then soft whispers that are equally, if not more, impactful. The entire performance gives off a confidence that us mortals could only aspire to.

100

I feel like the music itself had everything you could ever want within it. It was funky, R&B, early hip hop elements, all kinds of synths and big disco sounding dance parts. It must have been insane to hear when it came out, I don’t think there was anything else that did this so perfectly.

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