The Dead Science's atom bomb love song is one of the best songs i have heard this year, dramatic and tight, with an orchestra of demented violins unleashed to provide for the track's disturbing climax.

the_dead_science_-_hiroshima_love_song.mp3

"Not Alone" is a 5-disc box-set featuring songs your favorite folk artists gave to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontières. It features music by people you have never heard of as well as pieces by Antony, Shirley Collins, Isobel Campbell, Current 93 and Bonnie Prince Billy, who penned out a gorgeous new song for the occasion.

bonnie_prince_billy_-_song_for_doctors_without_borders.mp3

An impressive remix from Low's "Tonight the Monkeys Die" ep which features five sub-par remixes. Fog turned the song inside out, added tiny guitar arppegios and changed the song completely without touching the song's core: Sparhawk and Parker's soft crooning.

low_-_monkey_(fog_remix).mp3

An exerpt from Calexico's "The Book and The Canal", a tour-only lp that is probably the best thing they have ever done, infinitely better than the mediocre "Garden Ruin" coming out soon on touch and go. Filled with soft-spoken songs and impressive instrumentals, The Book and the Canal is an amazing soundtrack to the desert.

calexico_-_electric_relay.mp3

A remake of one of Yip Jump's best tracks, to be released on the forthcoming Lost and Found. The song is still outstanding (and pretty funny) and the production is quite impressive.

daniel_johnston_-_the_beatles.mp3

An exerpt from Wilderness's amazing sophomore album Vessel States, combining the strengths of all coolest acts of the 1980s, from PiL to New Order.

wilderness_-_gravity_bent_light.mp3

The Strokes released an album three days ago and everybody has already forgotten ever listening to it. here are tracks that should be remembered:

jens_lekman_-_rocky_dennis'_farewell_song.mp3 : from "Oh You're So Silent Jens" (secretly canadian)

arctic_monkeys_-_the_view_from_the_afternoon.mp3 : from "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (domino)

jana_hunter_-_have_you_got_my_money.mp3 : from "Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom" (gnomonsongs)

liars_-_the_other_side_of_mt_heart_attack.mp3 : from "Drum's Not Dead" (mute)

Every new Christmas feels less and less like Christmas.

It Could Happen to You is an exerpt from Chet Baker's gorgeous "Chet Baker Sings It Could Happen to You" lp. Martha is from Tom Waits' astounding debut lp "Closing Time" and that Edith Piaf song is just magic.

chet_baker_-_it_could_happen_to_you.mp3

tom_waits_-_martha.mp3

edith_piaf_-_lovers_for_a_day.mp3

you'll need to understand French for this one.

zapp_branigan_-_joyeux_noel.mp3

I love Rufus Wainwright's debut album. I just do. Foolish Love is a gorgeous song that makes me think of Christmas and foolish love.

rufus_wainwright_-_foolish_love.mp3

Here's another recording (studio quality this time) of a song that could have been on "From a Basement on the Hill". More here and here.

elliott_smith_-_stickman.mp3

Easily the best track on "The Greatest", Love & Communication blends Cat Power's usual guitar driven approach with the album's sleek r&b production. Impressive.

cat_power_-_love_and_communication.mp3

Phosphorescent is one guy playing songs with friends, and most of them (especially those filling his debut album "A Hundred Time or More") are brilliant. This two parter is the album's beautiful closer.

phosphorescent_-_pretty_pt1.mp3
phosphorescent_-_pretty_pt2.mp3

The Unicorns released a great album, disbanded and formed a new band named Islands. "Return to the Sea" will be released sometime next year, and "Volcanoes" (along with that track with Subtle and Busdriver) is the album's best piece. It's about volcanoes popping out of nowhere (or, more accurately, from below) and burying the world under lava. yeah.

islands_-_volcanoes.mp3

It's not the real title, but it's the final track of "Pink", Boris' latest record, released in Japan in November, to be released worldwide in March via Southern Lord. It's 10 minutes long and the most impressive rock piece I've heard in a LOOOOOONG time.

boris_-_bomb_hiroshima_once_more.mp3

In this piece, Mark Lanegan as the Tom Waits-mouthed wolf stares conspicuously at Isobel Campbell as the red riding hood. It's a Hank Williams tune, and also one of the highlights of the impromptu duo's record, Ballad of the Broken Seas.

isobel_campbell_and_mark_lanegan_-_ramblin_man.mp3 (final version)

Here are two unreleased songs by Elliott Smith, part of the 22 tracks that surfaced last week (and which can be found easily if you look hard enough), to remember him by.

elliott_smith_-_abused.mp3

elliott_smith_-_high_times.mp3

The Clientele play songs to hug yourself to, the kind of songs I used to phantasize of dancing to with Kelly O'Reilly at the school dance (we don't have Kelly O'Reillys or school dances here). Their music sounds frozen in time like a teenage crush, gloriously fresh and stomach-wrenching decades after.

the_clientele_-_my_own_face_inside_the_tree.mp3

The Walkmen are awesome. For those who need further proof, here's a 50s-heavy cover of the Drifters' "There Goes My Baby" that's part of a videogames' soundtrack -i was told it's an old-fashioned zombie thing, and i was also assured that videogames do get soundtracks nowadays.

the_walkmen_-_there_goes_my_baby.mp3

Mark Kozelek goes berserk and releases a record filled with Modest Mouse covers, and unsurprisingly enough, it's awesome. "Exit Does Not Exist" is the best short song I've heard in a long time, and a great opener to Sun Kil Moon's Tiny Cities.

sun_kil_moon_-_exit_does_not_exist.mp3