A Dozen Musical Discoveries for 2020

With “Best Of” lists proliferating like evil toadstools, here is my own contribution: 12 recordings that stuck in my filter this Pandemic Year.

Four of my 2020 faves were released during the calendar year, another debuted in 2019 but did not immediately find its way to my earholes, and the rest are of more obscure vintage. But I first heard each of them in 2020, primarily on CD and vinyl.

Despite several attempts this year to just relax and enjoy the bounty of Spotify and Apple Music, my preference for physical media remains strong as ever. In fact, I tend to listen less frequently and less intensively when music is not available for sale. (Personal to Kalie Shorr: please open a damn store on your website, I’d gladly pay a premium to own Open Book on vinyl or aluminized plastic.) [UPDATE: Kalie’s Twitter, if her artist site remains offline.]

But in a possible sign of movement, Bandcamp Fridays significantly relaxed my attitude toward digital-only purchases. Perhaps another year of pandemic conditions and limited record store visits will make me a streaming fiend.

Without further ado, my favorite new finds of 2020, sequenced as I encountered them this year. I hope you discover something worth a listen.

What were your favorite musical discoveries of 2020? Share your finds with the vast audience of Weird Wax Web by leaving a comment (link to the left).

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Nilüfer Yanya, Miss Universe (2019)
Discovered via The Guardian’s Best Albums of 2019, and glad I did. WWAY Health™ indeed.
Bandcamp

Jane Weaver, Modern Kosmology (2017)
Lush, earnest, and trippy: welcome deep listening for a pandemic.
Bandcamp

A Girl Called Eddy, Been Around (2020)
Seventeen years later, expat Jersey Girl Erin Moran makes good. I loved loved loved “The Long Goodbye” from her eponymous^* 2003 debut LP, but nothing else on that record approached its majesty. Most every track reaches those lofty heights on this unexpected sophomore release.
^*hey I used a term of art, am I a Rock Critic now?
Bandcamp

Joe Eich Singers, Sears 4th Quarter 1973 Profit Improvement Program (1973)
Fresh industrial musical fare, coming soon to a blog near you!

Noname, Telefone (2016) & Room 25 (2018)
Rich, heartfelt hip hop from Fatimah Nyeema Warner.
Bandcamp

Wussy, “Breakfast In Bed” (2012)
First released on a split tribute 7″, which meant I had two reasons to ignore it back in 2012. But my oh my, you will never hear this Dusty Springfield song the same again. By turns languid, lusty, tender, and triumphant, vocalist Lisa Walker makes the song all her own. A gift from the COVID gods, collected this year on the Ghosts digital mixtape.
Bandcamp

Ohmme, Fantasize Your Ghost (2020)
Previewed on this here blog in June. Tied with Been Around as my most-played record of 2020.
Bandcamp

Billy Nomates (2020)
Hook-laden class consciousness is just what we need right now.
Bandcamp

Dead Milkmen, “Now I Wanna Hold Your Dog” (2020)
It is quite a distance from 1985’s “Bitchin Camaro” to this German techno cover / homage / parody / ripoff of the Stooges, come along for the ride.
Bandcamp

Monsanto Chemical, “Music To Clean Up By” (1960s)
Another industrial musical discovery, coming soon.

Don Sneed & Co., “Santa’s a Hippie” (1960s)