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I really like this set a lot.

Live Human, “Quick Eleven”

We just had DJ Logic a few days ago, and Live Human is a similar premise: a trio of a bassist, drummer, and DJ. There’s the same kind of loose, jazzy, improvisational feel to the proceedings. DJ Logic tends to be more towards the jazz end than the hip-hop end compared to Live Human, but they’re really very similar bands.

Shudder To Think, “Rag”

Goddamn, listen to that song. Shudder to Think, where have you gone? (looks) Apparently Craig Wedren did some soundtracks, cool.

December! Fear not, there will be no Christmas themed Five Songs to contend with here, unless shuffle pulls something up randomly (and there’s very little Christmas music in my collection). Maybe I’ll do some obnoxious metal-themed special on the 25th though. Here’s today’s tunes.

Mantar, “Cult Witness”

One of the things I like doing is going through “Best of the Year” roundups from various music blogs that do good work and just trying a bunch of stuff I’ve never heard of. Mostly, I do pretty well through this process, and even if they’re not all favorites, it gives me a chance to break out of my established loops and try and find some new bands. It can be easy, especially as I get older, to just rely on the same stuff I’ve always listened to, and this sort of explicit process helps shield against that.

Rap heavy today.

Common, “The 6th Sense”

First appearance for Common here, this coming from his masterpiece, Like Water For Chocolate. With production from a bunch of underground greats, Common put everything together and made a landmark of underground rap that brought back the feel of the Native Tongues bands. While it might run on a bit too long, it’s still a huge pleasure to listen to, so smooth and assured.

Pretty experimental today.

Death Grips, “Black Quarterback”

From the double album The Powers That B, as with most things Death Grips, this is pretty singular. It’s really unclear what you’d call this, other than experimental. Maybe Dadaist?

Tilt, “Small Bills”

This comes from Play Cell, a pop-punk album on Lookout distinguishable primarily for the rarity of a female singer in a scene where you didn’t find very many of them. It’s a decent album, but not great, and somehow I ended up with four albums from them.

I kind of feel like I should give a Jim Anchower-style apology here for disappearing for a while, but the truth is, I was traveling and didn’t queue up any entries for while I was gone. Sorry about that! Back into the music mines with me, though!

The Microphones, “I Am Bored”

That was not the triumphant, rockin’ return I was hoping for. Oh well. Live by the shuffle, die by the shuffle. Anyway, I like the breakdown at the end of this song.

Just a quick one today, Five Songs is on the road!

Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, “You Spin Me Round ‘86”

Surf-ish instrumental band Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet are probably best known as the band who did the theme song for Kids In The Hall. That’s a bit of a shame, as they put together three very strong albums. Strong enough that at one time, underground luminary Steve Albini called them the best band recording. Anyway, thoroughly charming and full of personality, their albums are all worth giving a try, with Dim The Lights, Chill The Ham being my favorite.

Just a quick entry today, but some fun songs.

Big Black, “Seth”

An early song from Big Black, this was on the EP Bulldozer, the first one that featured Santiago Durango and so is really the first real recording from them. This song was later found on The Hammer Party, which collected the first couple (or three, on CD) EPs. It’s an interesting document of a band that is kind of finding their sound, and there are some strong songs on the collection.

Today’s set is, frankly, a mess. The hazards of the random number generator.

Andrew Bird, “The Water Jet Cilice”

210 songs in my collection from Andrew Bird, and this stupid thing picked a repeat song. Sure, we get Six Songs today, but come on. I do feel like the number of repeats I’ve seen is higher than I would expect. I also know that humans are TERRIBLE at estimating the randomness of a system and related probabilities. I should work it out for real.

Today’s music. Sometimes, while I’m assembling the play list, the next song that pops up is something I desperately want to add. And yet I resist. Why do I do that? The rules on this thing are dumb.

Cretin, “Mister Frye, The Janitor Guy”

I don’t feel like I acknowledge great band names enough when they come up here, so for the record: Cretin is a great band name. Playing something between death metal and grindcore, Cretin are either going to get you banging your head and wrecking stuff at your desk, or are going to seriously try your patience for the next couple minutes.

One of these songs is not like the others.

Negativland, “Ain’t No Baby”

Another piece from Deathsentences of the Polished And Structurally Weak. This album was really more about creating a mood and atmosphere than it was about anything as conventional as songs. It’s a pure exploration of sound for its own sake, and as such, forms quite an interesting experiment.

Jan Jelinek, “They, Them”

From one experimental electronic artist to another. Jelinek works with small bits and pieces of sounds, up to and especially including glitchy noises and artifacts, and reassembles them into warm, understated songs. This track, from the magnificent Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, is a great example of the kind of music he creates. Subtlety is an underappreciated skill for musicians.