Baker's Dozen: Rebecca Black, Mitski, GENA

This is a free post from Larry Fitzmaurice's Last Donut of the Night newsletter. Paid subscribers get one or two email-only Baker's Dozens every week featuring music I've been listening to and some critical observations around it, along with a Screen Memories column every one or two weeks where I write about stuff I watched lately.

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Now, for the uninitiated, a brief explanation of what the "Baker's Dozen" actually is: Once or twice a week, I send out a playlist of stuff I've recently spent some time with that came out over the last five or six years, along with critical observations made about said stuff. If you want a slightly more involved explanation of the methodology that goes into putting the Baker's Dozens together, you can head right here. In the meantime—if you like what you see here, make sure to grab that subscription sale so you can keep seeing it when it goes back to being for paid subscribers only. OK, on with the show:

San Holo, "i get lonely around people, too"

I've posted about this guy before, specifically his 2023 collab with Bipolar Sunshine...San Holo's 2021 record bb u ok? is extremely EDM-o (EDM+emo), which is a combination you think you'd come across more but doesn't pop up that often, there's even a goddamn American Football feature on this one. The genre-mash doesn't work more often than it does (that AmFooty track is especially mid), but in terms of my own big-box weak spots a huge melody like this wins me over in the end, even though I should know better enough than to let it.

Helms Alee, "Three Cheeks to the Wind"

I've checked in with these Seattle metal lifers time and again over the years, I quite enjoyed their very sludgy latest record, Keep This Be the Way from 2022...this track in particular reminds me a lot of the similarly sludgy and previously-defunct-but-recently-reunited-ish Kylesa, which is never a bad thing at all.

Rebecca Black, "Girlfriend"

I was at my friend Dave's 40th birthday party recently and he told me he's going to see Rebecca Black at Webster Hall in October, perhaps I'll join him...I was no fan of her 2023 record Let Her Burn but I still need to check out last year's SALVATION, I do like this Katy Perry-lite cut from 2021 ("I Actually Kissed a Gurl"?), overall her hyperpop-via-perpetual-Pride-weekend-lineup-guaranteed-appearance pivot seems to have served her quite well in the long run.

Tomberlin, "Happy Accident"

Here's someone we haven't heard from in a while...I quite enjoyed Tomberlin's 2022 Saddle Creek release I Don't Know Who Needs to Hear This..., it is admittedly a crowded market for indie that "sounds like this" but I think what she does is a cut above, this very hooky highlight reminds me of something you'd hear from Squirrel Flower (who, btw, will be making another appearance on the newsletter soon). Fun fact: None other than the legendary Cass McCombs (who appeared on the newsletter a few years back) plays some gee-tar on this cut.

JAWNY, "Best Thing"

Doja Cat's pre-fame boyfriend is also someone who hasn't been around since dropping his major-label full-length bow in 2023, I'll check it out at some point for curiosity's sake but I enjoyed this Remi Wolf-esque(?) cut from his 2021 EP The Story of Hugo, the early 2020s was lousy with this post-Clairo "bedroom pop" stuff (remember BENEE?), the highlights of which would probably make a good Light in the Attic compilation, like, 40 years from now.

Mitski, "Charon's Obol"

I really admire Mitski for more or less disappearing from any sort of press obligations over the last three years and largely sticking to it, I'm sure there have been many people in and outside of her team suggesting otherwise but, in the end, it's most likely a mix of her clearly understanding that she doesn't need to be doing GRWM TikToks and knowing that a sizable amount of her fanbase are so mentally ill that even performing live is pushing it in terms of public-facing commitments...I thought this year's Nothing's About to Happen to Me was solid and a very nice extension of the sound she established on the slide guitar-heavy The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, for a long time I was truthfully very concerned that she would turn into St. Vincent (corny, overly focused on persona, et al) but as it turns out she's way too smart to fall into that rockist trap, praise the lord.

VINCINT, "Hard 2 Forget"

What am I saying about how I'm constantly posting singing-competition people on here? Today's variant is VINCINT, aka Vincint Cannady, who was a finalist on the first season of the extremely cursed, Fergie-hosted, two-season late 2010s show The Four, which featured an alleged sex-criminal doubleheader with Charlie Walk and Diddy as judges...did I mention it was a remake of an Israeli TV show? Dip the entire thing in oil and set it ablaze...VINCINT's 2021 debut There Will Be Tears probably should've been called There Won't Be a Follow-Up because there hasn't been, the music itself is so RuPaul's Drag Race that a UK contestant, Charity Kase (good name), appears in the video for this lip-sync-for-your-life highlight, of course they covered "Supermodel (You Better Work)" with Trixie Mattel last year as well.

Bill Callahan, "Highway Born"

My friend Corban recently sent me a picture of the venue that noted Noah Cyrus collaborator Bill Callahan was playing in New Orleans, it looked intimate as hell (like, basically a dive bar) and I was very jealous...I didn't love Bill's latest, this year's My Days of 58, but as with someone of his stature there were still a few bangers on the record, I love the following lyric on this track in particular: "I need to check on Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee/ I need to take the temperature of the whole country."

Gorgon City, "When You're Gone"

(Rob Thomas voice) Maybe it's time to come home...just a little joke. Gorgon City rode the wave of EDM counter-programming in the mid-2010s that took place post-Settle, and now their brand of hotel-lobby house music has become a dominant sound in EDM again (although I hear hardstyle is back again, so who knows), so it goes. As with many things in mainstream dance music, stick around long enough and you'll inexplicably become somewhat fashionable again...2021's Olympia finds the duo in their usual frictionless mode, I liked this cut from it but as with a lot of their stuff, if you didn't tell me it was them I would assume it was pretty much anybody.

GENA, "Unspokerrn"

The Pleasure Is Yours seems guaranteed to appear in more than a few year-end lists when we near Q4, it seemed slightly underrated upon release but I think that as 2026 has dragged on many have recognized that this collaboration between Liv.e and Karriem Riggins definitely has the juice...as the title says, a very pleasurable album to take in overall and one that I've enjoyed listening to quite a bit, Liv.e in particular has been in experimentalism mode over the last couple of years (and the results have been positive, mind you) but this record in general is a reminder that she's also very good in her off-kilter R&B mode as well.

Midland, "And Then Some"

I always get these guys confused with the techno producer Midland, and I'm definitely not alone—when they put out a new record recently, BrooklynVegan had to designate them as "Midland (the country group)" in their new releases list...I've posted a lot of empty-brained country lately but I think this song from 2021's The Last Resort is gorgeous and full of exactly the type of yearning that makes mainstream slow-dance country so intermittently appealing.

BLACKPINK, "Me and my"

A lot of K-pop seems like it's mired in a flop era recently, and that certainly includes BLACKPINK...this year's DEADLINE was lifeless and this supposed highlight is proof of that, where's the machine that made "Ice Cream" and can we get it fixed ASAP please? I actually can't believe that some of the most interesting K-pop of this year so far came from BTS (why are you all booing me, I'm right!) but we'll talk about that in a later installment.

Kasper Bjørke, "Kites"

Pure head-in-the-clouds bliss from Danish space-disco acolyte Kasper Bjørke's excellent 2021 record Sprinkles, just impossibly dreamy stuff and the kind of melodic loop that I could probably listen to for hours on end...I may share another track from this one in the future so keep an eye out.