The Budos Band, "Ghost Walk"
The Budos Band are brilliant, always worth listening to, but they don't always do cool. This song, though, is so smooth and cool, a standout from their brilliant first album.
Squarepusher, "Nux Vomica"
Burningn'n Tree is a collection of Squarepusher's earliest EPs (one not even credited as Squarepusher), along with a few new tracks for the album. As a result of being a collection, as well as being from when Tom Jenkinson was still kind of sorting out what he wanted to sound like, it's uneven. So it's interesting stuff if you're a Squarepusher sicko, but you have a lot of records to get through before you should get to this.
Mark Eitzel, "Live or Die"
American Music Club's Mark Eitzel struck out on his own, and this comes from his second solo album, West. It was done with Peter Buck of R.E.M., so it's not a great surprise that it sounds pretty great. But Eitzel has generally always made big, glossy tunes that are big ol' bummers. Full of bum, they are. Bummed to the brim.
They Might Be Giants, "Erase"
Another Dial-a-Song tune from TMBG, further proof that TMBG can just crank out charming little pop tunes effortlessly.
Medusa, "Black Wizard"
Been a while since we've had a track from it, so a quick explanation: this comes from Warfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles, an album of obscure fantasy-based garage rock that Numero Group put together to accompany their board game. Yes, board game. It's a fun record, not because it contains lost classics or anything, but because it's raw and messy but enthusiastic. Really places you into a basement with a kid named Kevin who can't keep his stupid D20 on the table.