Music Discovery Diary #2: New Jeans, Ida, Kumo 99 & more
Listening to a new artist every day.
Hello and welcome to the second installment of My Music Diary: where I listen to a new artist I’ve never heard of each week and write about it.
Last week I said I’d only send this email to people who subscribe to this section specifically, but I think I automatically subscribed everyone on my email list. So if you want to unsubscribe, do so now.
This week I listened to a Korean girl group, a country singer who was 13 in 1972 when they put out their hit song, a ‘90s indie band who’s reuniting this year, and much more. Please comment with recommendations for artists for me to listen to, if you have any.
It’s been a fun exercise trying to keep track of where I get music discovery recommendations. Sometimes people text me songs. Sometimes I hear them mentioned in the wild. Sometimes I get PR emails. Sometimes I see an artist mentioned on social media. Any time I see an artist name that I’ve never listened to, I add it to my Todoist app. Then I get a dopamine rush after I listen to it and check it off.
It’s also personally entertaining to track what I’m doing and how I’m feeling when I listen to these songs. I love being pleasantly surprised when I like an artist and keep listening to their entire album or discography, as I did with a couple this week. Trying to listen to a new artist every day and keeping a diary about it is kind of fun if you want to try it out yourself.
Here’s the Spotify playlist with all the songs I’ve listened to so far this year:
Here’s the peek inside My Music Diary:
1.10.25
New Jeans - ETA
A friend who lives in Japan now but used to live in Korea sent this to a group chat, saying, simply, “juice.” Juice is slang among that group of semi-IRL friends for a song that gives you what you need to get through a workout at the gym, I think. New Jeans is, according to Wikipedia, a “girl group from South Korea.” I would never choose to listen to this on my own, but it’s hella catchy. I’ve found myself asking others “What’s your ETA?” multiple times, and now when I do that I’ll be singing it in this melody and rhythm in my head. Or maybe I’ll ask myself that question at the gym, when I’m on the treadmill, wondering what my ETA will be to make it the one mile I run every day before exhaustedly stopping and saying, “Well, one mile’s better than nothing right?” Actually maybe this song would get me to run faster just so the singers stop asking me what my ETA is. Juice, confirmed.
1.11.25
Izaya Tiji - Chills
I was scrolling late night and saw a tweet asking people to name songs that have them wondering how anyone could have possibly made that beat. The top reply listed a couple beats by Izaya Tiji, who I’d never heard of before. Everyone else in my family was already asleep and I didn’t want to grab my headphones so I listened to this in a dark bathroom with the phone up to my ear while peeing. The beat is good but it’s not mind-boggling. I can pretty much hear how whoever made it made it.
From quickly looking up Izaya Tiji it seems like he puts out a shit ton of music and randomly deletes it. I like that. Even this song was listed on Spotify under the artist name “Izaya Tiji Archive.”
The top song on his regular profile is called “I Eat Humans,” which I also like in principle but not in practice. Listening to this guy’s music I thought back to when XXXTentacion and other “SoundCloud” rappers were super popular with a younger generation while I was still listening to increasingly outdated stuff. Now the SoundCloud rap generation is old, and the younger kids who were raised on it are making even weirder and more experimental music. I get why a kid might think this beat is amazing. I appreciate the direction this kind of music is headed even if I’m not gonna add this track to my nonexistent iPod.
1.12.25
Tanya Tucker - Delta Dawn
My wife’s Spotify DJ played this on a drive. It was the perfect accompaniment to a windy and smoky Los Angeles freeway cruise. Tanya Tucker was apparently 13 when she recorded the song, which is apparently a classic. My wife knew it from Friends. If it was on Friends, then I’ve heard it before. The rules of Music Discovery Diary state that I have to listen to an artist I’ve never heard before. But I’m amending that to be songs that I’ve never consensually or consciously listened to before. So this still counts. Could I BE anymore hypocritical?
This song slaps.
1.13.25
Kumo 99 - Moths and Peonies
This was a recommendation from a friend and loyal subscriber to this blog, Michael. Kumo 99 is such a cool band. I don’t even know what to write about them. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard. I listened to their full latest album and then kept listening. Really wild stuff. They’re from LA, they play punky electronic beats and sing over them in Japanese. I’m sorry I don’t have anything more interesting to say, Michael and other readers, but if there’s any artist to check out from the list this week it’s probably this one. I recommend using high-quality headphones like I did.
1.14.25
Ida - Little Things
One of the people I interviewed for my book, Midwest Emo, told me people from her scene were excited about Tsunami and Ida reuniting this year. I wasn’t familiar with either band but I listened to Tsunami for the first time last week and liked them. I also did some research and learned they were part of the Arlington, VA DIY scene even though they sounded a lot different than the Dischord records bands I’m familiar with from that place and time. Ida is apparently from New York City and formed in 1992. They sound a lot like some of the bands people might consider ‘Midwest Emo,’ especially Rainer Maria. But they also sound different than that band and any other band. That’s one of the things I’m learning from writing this book. A lot of the bands that we lump in to specific genres sound so different and the genre ends up limiting them in a lot of ways.
I ended up listening to a bunch of songs from this band’s discography and enjoyed it a lot. Their album Tales of Brave Ida from 1994 was a great backdrop as I played the online card game Hanabi.
The song above is the opening track from their 1996 album I Know About You.
1.15.25
Javier Solis - En Tu Pelo
On a recent trip to Loreto, Mexico a cab driver bonded with my dad over their mutual love of Carlos Santana. The sultry voice of Rob Thomas filled the van as we swerved potholes into oncoming traffic on the hilliest most beautiful drive through remote Baja California. The cab driver then asked my dad if he’d heard of Javier Solis. Said, he’s really popular here.
“En Tu Pelo” was his most popular song on Spotify but I let it ride for a bit after that. From a quick Wikipedia glance, Solis plays bolero and ranchero music, and died at age 34 due to complications from gallbladder surgery. That’s sad, but at least there’s a lot of music he left behind.
I’m glad that the modern era of Mexican music is making some waves globally, and their musical history is something I’m uneducated about but greatly interested in hearing.
1.16.25
Vayda - Chaka
I’d heard of Vayda in passing in recent months, especially from younger people I know who are more tapped in to the up-and-coming music scene. I really enjoyed reading Miguelito’s article on Vayda and The Matrix for POW even though I read it before . Once again, I listened to this whole album while playing Hanabi. I liked the Zeelooperz feature. Vayda is a really interesting artist.
FUCK I WISH I HAD SOMETHING INSIGHTFUL TO SAY ABOUT ANY OF THESE ARTISTS I’M SORRY I’LL TRY HARDER NEXT TIME I SWEAR. JUST UNSUBSCRIBE NOW AND GET OUT OF HERE WHILE YOU CAN.