One of the best mixtapes I ever received was from an old music-critic mentor (Hey there, Nick Marino of Paste Magazine), who in a gesture of massive inappropriateness, genius or some combination of the two, put the Moldy Peaches’ “Who’s Got the Crack” (essentially, the K Records version of any song by Young Jeezy) in a compilation doubling as his Christmas card. A half-decade and an onscreen Ellen Page/Michael Cera cover later, that band’s Kimya Dawson finds her work nestled between Garth Brooks and Colbie Caillat at No. 8 on the Billboard charts for her eight contributions to the “Juno” soundtrack as a solo artist, Moldy Peach and as a member of Antsy Pants. The soundtrack sold 38,000 copies last week, nearly all digital, as the physical release only hit shelves Tuesday. Like the film’s title character, Dawson is the recent mom to a fabulously named daughter (Panda Delilah!) which, given Pitchfork’s inexplicable adoration of “Person Pitch,” seems to make pandas the new wolves and babies the new Italo-disco in indie circles.

– August Brown

[Photo: Kimya Dawson. Credit: Natalie Gruppuso.]