Black Flag, "Loose Nut"
When I finally got around to listening to Black Flag, I didn't really know much about the band other than they were a legendary hardcore band, and that was kind of it. I wandered into a record store and just bought one of the records, this one, kind of at random. Little did I know that outside of the classic Damaged, their discography is kind of a mess. Loose Nut doesn't seem to be anybody's favorite Black Flag record, coming as it did during an extremely productive time for the band, with all the records in this period suffer a bit from kind of stretching things out. At this remove, I'm still of that opinion. Damaged and My War are the ones breaking new ground, and the rest of them are pretty hit-or-miss.
Lamb, "Little Things"
I've mentioned it before, but the presence of vocals in drum'n'bass is really very unusual. I'm not sure it always works on these tracks, but there's a certain novelty in it that is undeniable.
The Avalanches, "The Divine Chord [feat. MGMT & Johnny Marr]"
You know, Avalanches, I would actually just like a song featuring you!
Behold the Arctopus, "Monolithic Destractions"
Behold the Arctopus is about as avant-garde as metal gets. Featuring metal savant Colin Marston (Krallice, tons of production work) playing a mutant 12-stringed thing that combines a bass and guitar, but not in a double-necked kind of way, this trio are just stretching compositions far beyond anything reasonable. It's fascinating in a dog-riding-a-bike kind of way, but it's purely an intellectual exercise, it's not going to stir the heart.
The Theories, "Burnt Concrete"
Seattle grindcore band The Theories really kick up a racket on this thing. I'm not a huge grindcore guy, but I'll give basically any local band a whirl. Not my favorite, though.