Random iPoddage:

1. Slayer - "Altar of Sacrifice". I've been on a bit of a metal binge lately. This is from Reign in Blood, which is, in my limited understanding, one of the first metal albums that verged on free jazz.
2. The Beach Boys - "Here Today". This is the diametric opposite of Slayer. From Pet Sounds, one of the greatest albums, period.
3. Kleenex/LiLiPut - "Nice". Catchy pop-punk from the women who made Sleater-Kinney possible.
4. Boris - "Akuma No Uta". See what I mean about a metal binge? This is from the album of the same name with the odd allusion to Nick Drake's Bryter Layter cover. It's a great song, with a good combination of sludge to speed.
5. Os Mutantes - "Panis Et Circenses". From Swiss punk to Japanese metal to Brazilian psychedelia. We're going all around the world! On a yellow balloon! While the timber wolves gnaw on the freaky lava lamp of your mind!
6. The Mekons - "32 Weeks". An early single from the Mekons' primitive-art-collective days on the Fast Product compilation. One chord, a lower-class Brit guy hollering a Marxist critique of the British class system, and a backbeat.
7. Chris Brokaw - "Tournament". A mellow instrumental from Red Cities, this is Brokaw (of Come, Consonant, and another band starting with "C") at his noodliest.
8. Richard Thompson Band - "Sibella". This is a live version of the song from the mostly unnecessary Semi-Detached Mock Tudor official bootleg. I say "unnecessary" because most of these songs are uncomfortably close to the studio versions, but I say "mostly" because it's Richard Fucking Thompson and the guy's an interesting performer even when half-assing it.
9. Calexico - "Vinegaroon". Hey, it's another noodly mellow instrumental that sounds like it came from a great movie.
10. Cardinal - "Dream Figure". Remember when I wrote about Eric Matthews in the last post? No? Well, I did. And this is his original composition for Cardinal. All the other songs were by Richard Davies and arranged by Matthews. On this one, Davies provides some rockin' guitar and odd whispery back-and-forth backing vocals. The song sounds like rockin' Eric Matthews songs sound, with a sing-songy verse followed by long, stretched out notes on the chorus. If you love 'em (like I do), that's alright.