Album of the Day #140 Métal Urbain - Les Hommes Morts Sont Dangereux (1981) This album was so damn cool. Basically it’s all the best parts of early/proto punk rock but also they use a drum machine (a very much “of it’s era” drum machine) instead of a drummer and very weird but fitting synth parts.

this is unironically the political ideology of many Democrats

Album of the Day #119 Tom Waits - Mule Variations (1999) This album is like you’re sitting alone at a bar and a stranger walks in and sits next to you. You two proceed to have the most profound, life changing conversation you’ve ever had. You go to the bathroom and come back, he’s gone.

has the new york times ever thought about doing a focus group with someone who has read a book

Wrote this piece about @gladiephilly.bsky.social and their new album. It’s mostly about how they became my favorite band, why nostalgia is a scam and why you should listen to ‘No Need To Be Lonely’ ASAP. substack.com/@jmsdirt/not...

Album of the Day #113 Bloodywood - Nu Delhi (2025) This was a lot of fun to listen to. The blending of traditional Indian instruments with chug chug chug metal riffs worked really well. It seems like a clash of sounds but the intricate melodies of both styles play off each other beautifully.

Album of the Day #112 MisterWives - Our Own House (2015) This album was kinda a mystery to me. It’s definitely a pop album but it’s wrapped in all these different sounds. It’s got rock elements, funk, disco and some 80s vibes but it feels new.

Album of the Day #111 Kraftwerk - The Man Machine (1978) WE ARE THE FUCKING ROBOTS. What really struck me listening to this album was its sense of optimism for the future. Obviously it’s rooted in a Cold War era aesthetic but underneath the dark industrial feel

Album of the Day #110 Hella - Hold Your Horse Is (2002) This sounds like I just took a bunch of research chemicals and I don’t know where I am. Like I’m stuck in a land of rock n roll that is also trying to teach me the secret laws of the universe.

I wrote this piece about the rapper Proof who died 20 years ago this month. It’s about mourning musicians who die young and I talk about Kurt Cobain and Proof’s song ‘Kurt Kobain’ and predicting your own death. I really like how it came out and you might too! open.substack.com/pub/jmsdirt/...

album of the year™️

Album of the Day # 109 Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet (2024) DO YOU WANT TO FEEL GOOD? Listen to this album. It was so much fun, so bright and funky. Masterful pop music. It’s weird it took me most of this album to really get a read on it.

Album of the Day #108 BONES, grayera - WITHERED (2022) If you like magi and knights, beats that knock, sad boy music and a variety of rap styles then this is the album for you. It’s a combination that you don’t know you need until you hear it. Incredibly fun to listen to it.

Album of the day #107 Title Fight - Shed (2011) This is everything a perfect punk album should be. It is energetic and emotional and sincere and it makes you feel nostalgic even if it’s your first time listening to it. My only real beef with the album is that it is so short.

Album of the Day #106 Televangel - Anthropocene Blues (2018) This music makes you feel like you’re going to have a good day. It is cinematic. It can be the soundtrack to a movie where you are maybe not the star but at least a semi-main character (being the star doesn’t seem like much fun to me).

Album of the Day #105 Glass Animals - Zaba (2014) Listening to this feels like you are on acid in the jungle. Not in a scary way but in a way that it feels slightly overwhelming but also like you’re on a fun ride but also you don’t know when or how it’s going to end. There’s colors everywhere.

me and the boys on the USS Abraham Lincoln eating boiled boot leather and sharing stories about the most Realistic Pussy we've ever seen

Album of the day #104 MX LONELY - CADONIA (2022) This album feels like something you found, like a lost artifact that you can’t tell if it is representative of the past or the future. It sounds old and new, building droning and heavy atmospheric layers into grunge punk breakdowns.

I wrote about listening to a new album every day and how you gotta kinda work to not be stuck in the same life forever. open.substack.com/pub/jmsdirt/...

Album of the Day #103 How To Destroy Angels - s/t (2010) Really enjoyed listening to this. I love the contrast between the music which is big and dark and heavy as hell and the vocals which feel very light in comparison.

JUST LEAVE ME BEHIND ❤️

Album of the Day #102 Thee Sacred Souls - s/t (2022) This album encapsulates what it’s like to feel good. Just some of the sweetest soul music. It feels like an updated take on something you’re familiar with. It’s the soul music and doo wop you’d heard when you’re a kid with new little twists.

Album of the Day #101 The Dickies - Stukas Over Disneyland (1983) PUNK ROCK BEACH BOYS. This was an insane amount of fun to listen to. Just bops after bops. Poppy, fast and really just lighthearted punk rock. The whole album plays like a surf western punk hybrid dance party.

I can't stop laughing at this post. It's perfect.

Album of the Day #100 Dave Edmunds - Rockpile (1971) How much guitar do you think you can possibly handle? Is it a lot? What if I told you that this album has so much guitar that the first track fades out on a guitar solo!?

Album of the Day #99 Title Fight - The Last Thing You Forget (2009) Dudes rock. Dudes being bros together rocks. Dudes making music with their bros - a top tier human experience. THE FELLAS ARE RIPPING OFF BANGERS. That’s what I thought listening to this album.

when mom tells me that we don't wear beanies at the dinner table

There is no McTry.

Album of the Day #98 crushed - no scope (2025) There is a person inside of me that really loves to be sad. Loves to sit and wallow in the emptiness of it all. This album taps in to that and makes me feel happy, not only because of its sadness but also how upbeat it is. It feels like emo dance pop.

Album of the Day #97 Hum - You’d Prefer An Astronaut (1995) This must be what going to space feels like. The whole album is heavy as hell. Thick fuzzed out guitars creating a sound so massive you almost get lost listening to it.

Album of the Day #96 Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream (2025) This was an intense, beautiful album to listen to. Incredibly dark to the point where sometimes it felt like it was too much emotion.

New post up about the ten year anniversary of Stage Four by Touché Amoré and what it was like to outlive my dad. open.substack.com/pub/jmsdirt/...

having a kratom dependency is so embarrassing man. hey i got this horrible addiction it’s to fuckin. gas station boner pills. mainlining horny goat weed over here

Album of the Day #95 The Damned - Damned Damned Damned (1977) The energy on this album is so fucking good. I mean that in both that it was energetic and exciting but also the energy it was giving off, the vibes, were impeccable. It was upbeat, fun and flowed effortlessly.

Album of the Day #94 Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1972) This album sounds so perfect that it makes you stop and listen. Every song surprises you with its depth and its simplicity. I had to stop it multiple times just to think about what I’d just heard.

RSVP: sankofa.bandcamp.com/album/burnt-...

Album of the Day # 93 Divide and Dissolve - Insatiable (2025) This album feels like it’s speaking to you from beyond the veil. Like it is of another world, similar to this one, that exists in the shadows.

I guess this is what is known as a soft launch, shoutout to @ampwall.com for being a non-corporate, artist driven platform FOR ARTISTS ampwall.com/a/sankofa/me...

"Easter Bunny on the Train" By German artist Michael Sowa (1996)

Album of the Day #92 Wake of Humanity - FIGHT/RESIST (2018) This album felt like music for a spiritual war (compliment). It was fierce, aggressive and relentless in its demands and its message.

Album of the Day # 91 Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance (2001) Everything about this album is so catchy. It’s smart, funny, witty and really everything you want out a rock album. It feels like something you’ve heard before, something you’re familiar with.

Album of the Day #90 Maggie Rogers - Heard it in a Past Life (2019) So, like most people probably, I really only knew Maggie Rogers from the viral video with Pharrell (really happy that song made it to this album it is still very good).

Album of the Day # 89 Puma Blue - Swum Baby (2017) Listening to this feels like what goes on in your head when it’s really late at night and your maybe on a couch at a party surrounded by people but you feel so alone, the most alone anyone has ever felt.

Album of the Day #88 Good Old War - Broken into Better Shape (2015) This is like if a mad scientist created an album in a lab that was designed to get stuck in your head and never leave (compliment). It’s not quite indie pop, roots rock or alt country but a healthy blend of all that.

Album of the Day #87 Antarctigo Vespucci - Love in the Time of E-Mail (2018) Have you ever been in love before? Have you ever been haunted by regrets? Your insecurities? Do you get in your head and relive everything that’s happened in your past?

Album of the Day #86 Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR (2021) As much as we glamorize youth, being 17 sucks shit and you could not pay me to go back to being that age. The insecurity, the pressures that we put on ourselves, other people or even situations themselves.

Album of the Day #85 Burial - Untrue (2007) The imagination required to make an album like this is really hard for me to wrap my mind around. It is dark and deep and intense and light and refreshing on the ears and at times it just kind of breathes with you. Perfect music to just vibe out to.