When today’s Random Weekend selection popped up, I had absolutely no idea what it was or where it came from.
I was surprised to see I’ve actually posted a song by Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment before, nearly five years ago, when this album showed up on the 2014 Village Voice Pazz & Jop year-end poll.
As I wrote back then, quoting Pitchfork, the band is a project by “Chance [the Rapper], Donnie Trumpet (the alias of Nico Segal), Peter Cottontale, and Nate Fox.”
Today’s track is the fourth Random Weekend selection from Bob Dylan’s Whitmark demos, a collection of songs recorded in the early 60s to shop around to other performers.
This one is well-timed, coming on the heels of the news that Dylan has sold the songwriting rights of his entire catalog to the Universal Music Publishing Group for a sum reportedly north of $300 million. It is likely the largest deal of its kind ever made.
Of the three New York Times music critics, Lindsay Zoladz’s list definitely appeals to me the most. In addition to the inclusion of Haim, Fiona Apple, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers, she gave her #3 slot to an artist I’m thrilled to have discovered, Waxahatchee.
Waxahatchee is the brainchild of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, a native of Alabama who named her one-woman band after Waxahatchee Creek in her hometown. She released her fifth album, Saint Cloud, in March.
None of the New York Times critics picked my beloved Dua Lipa for their year-end top ten lists, but Lindsay Zoladz did mention Lipa’s Future Nostalgia as one of a few disco-themed albums that made an impact this year.
She gave her seventh slot to another one of those records, the fourth album by English singer-songwriter Jessie Ware. She calls Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? a “lusty feat of dance-floor escapism.”
New York Times music critic Lindsay Zoladz placed Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters in her #1 spot, but her second best album of 2020 belongs to another fiercely independent female indie artist: Phoebe Bridgers.
Bridgers broke out this year with her sophomore album, Punisher, earning Grammy nods for Best Alternative Album, Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Rong (the latter two for ‘Kyoto,’ today’s SOTD). The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter previously earned a cult following for her evocative, and deeply melancholy, folk rock.
Meet Me In Montauk 