Music Discovery Diary #5: Mike Dimes, Shady Nasty, Jean-Luc Ponty

I'M RUNNING OUT OF STEAM

Hello and welcome back to My Music Diary, where I listen to an artist I’ve never heard before every day and write about it.

I’m feeling fatigued, ya’ll. So fatigued that I’m writing words that I’d never use in actual speech, like “ya’ll,” ya’ll. I started 2025 with the goal of checking out a new artist every single day. It wasn’t a New Year’s Resolution but it might as well have been. February is when resolutions either solidify into habit or dissipate into forgotten memory. We are at that make or break point. And even if we make it there’s still 593 days to go.

I’ve been streaking for over a month. But I have to admit… the streak almost came to an abrupt end this past week.

On Sunday I came down with one of those gnarly stomach viruses that seems to be taking a lot of people out. I focused mostly on sleeping or puking, not finding the next beabadoobee. I even failed at my other New Year’s Resolution of not drinking soda by popping a coke can that was so delicious and sent me on a relapse ginger ale spiral the next few days. And then I failed to send an email to this list on Monday, but I figured I don’t wanna overwhelm YALL anyways.

With minutes left to go in my music discovery mission one day, my brother dropped me a dime in the form of a text telling me to check out Mike Dimes. In a Mike flu game type dehydrated daze I secured my brother the assist and sank the buzzer beater. I feel like Wordle. I feel like Duolingo. The marathon continues.

1.31.25

Southern Charm - Record on the Floor

I interviewed Ken Negus for my book. He lived in the American Football House, in the room behind the window on the album cover. During our conversation he told me about one of his current musical projects, Southern Charm.

I listened to the album Bad Lights on a long nostalgic drive through Los Angeles after a much-needed visit to my old dentist. I passed through multiple neighborhoods in which I used to live. For my book research I’ve been talking to people about memories, and nostalgia, and how places where they used to live a long time ago impacted their lives then and led to how they are now. This album was a great soundtrack to reflect on all of that in the context of LA, in a personal way.

Southern Charm has an interesting process. Ken records all the music, then hires female musicians from around the world via Fiverr to sing. It’s incredible how much great music like this is online just waiting for people to discover.

2.1.25

Jean-Luc Ponty - Computer Incantations for World Peace

Someone posted “Dolle Jolle - Baeleric Incantation (Todd Terje’s Extra Doll Mix)” in the group chat and I didn’t want to listen to that because although I’ve never listened to Dolle Jolle, I have listened to Todd Terje, so it wouldn’t count for my streak. Plus I tend to avoid anything that has “Mix” in the title, because it implies it will be some electronic music that at one point I’d say I detest, and now I’ll just say is not for me.

Another friend and music connoisseur, Lee, said that the linked Terje mix reminded him of Jean-Luc Ponty. I sat through this whole song while folding clothes. It has some nice calming repetitive tones and pleasant violin parts.

2.2.25

Mike Dimes - Home

This is the day I came down with the stomach bug, early in the morning. Here’s what I was able to write about it at the time: “Rec from my brother. Good name. Sick.”

Reflecting back, I definitely want to listen to more Mike Dimes. This video has 3.1M views, so people certainly know about him. But it feels like he’s good enough that I should be hearing about him more.

2.3.25

Pure Bathing Culture - All Night

Can’t remember where I heard about this band but I added it to my queue at some point. Not for me. I can appreciate what they’re going for, though, and understand that it’s for other people.

2.4.25

Hurricane Wisdom - Giannis

Okay. Florida has been putting out interesting rap music in recent years. That state is underrated. It’s so easy to hate on, but it’s also fascinating. I’ve spent a lot of time there and grown to love it despite all the things I also hate about it. Hurricane Wisdom doesn’t seem to slot neatly into any sort of overarching ‘Florida sound,’ because it’s not possible to generalize about any music like that, the same way it’s not really possible to generalize about an entire state. BUT I WANT TO GENERALIZE.

2.5.25

Truck Bed - Puzzles

Listened on the couch before 8am. Love it. No idea where they came from. Richmond, VA, I guess. Friend who posted the Todd Terje mix also linked this, but never provided any contextual information. The band has 226 followers on Instagram and refers to themselves as “Noisy Emo Dreamgaze.” Sounds algorithmically targeted toward the type of music I’ve strangely been getting more and more into these days.

2.6.25

Shady Nasty - Hard Style

Once again I love to finish my assignment before 8am. Listened on the toilet tbh. Really cool. Badbadnotgood / King Krule vibes with an Australian twist. Heard it on Jeremy Bolm (of Touché Amoré)’s First Ever podcast, which has been an unexpected new addition to my listening rotation. Maybe I should do a daily podcast discovery diary too. But nah.

Bonus, I also checked out the band Antenna from the First Ever episode with Ian Shelton from Militarie Gun. I believe Ian described Antenna’s singer as “some sort of DIY Aretha Franklin” and that seems accurate.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and thank you for reading. Below is the full playlist with all the songs I’ve checked out so far this year. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what I should listen to next, or any feedback on whether or not you enjoy this segment whatsoever.