5 Songs That Just Came Up on iPod Shuffle

(not to get all "My cat is being mean today," but I needed
something to get back into the posting habit.)

1. "Lily and Parrots," Sun Kil Moon - If I got nothing else out of watching "Shopgirl," it served as a great introduction to Mark Kozolek/Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon. This is apparently one of the rarer "Get Your Distortion On" tracks, but, damn, it's good. His voice is someting else; plaintive, sometimes weak but very real-sounding.


2. "Inner Space," Chick Corea - A really good album, from (I think) the period just before (or after?) Davis used Chick on "Bitches Brew." It's a lot more traditional, but out there at the same time. I love the recording sound from this era -- clean, but not too polished.


3. "So Hard Done By," Tragically Hip - Another distortion-heavy chug-along, but I love using idle time to try and figure out what Gord's trying to say with his endlessly-quotable lyrics. "It was true cinema a clef / You should see it before there's nothing left / In an epic too small to be tragic / You'll have to wait a minute, 'cause it's an Insta-Matic."


4. "Daysleeper," R.E.M. - This is one of my favorites from them. I like to think of it as a cynical version of "Nightswimming," but with a ridiculously great vocal hook.


5. "Little Brother," Black Star - From an unofficial J Dilla tribute compilation that I found on Soulse ... err, borrowed from a friend. He was patently obsessed with great drum patterns, was behind the scenes on some huge hits (the entire Q-Tip album, Common, The Roots) and knew enough about what sounds good to mix the "Now listen" spoken word clip into this extremely smooth track.