Sitting around waiting to hear whatever bleating bit of electro melancholy Thom Yorke cooks up for the soundtrack of that there Twilight sequel? In the meantime, enjoy today’s vampire-themed cryptid playlist – five randomly ordered tuneful ditties about blood-slurping, dirt-napping albino nightwalkers.

• Outkast – Dracula’s Wedding

It’s unclear exactly what Andre 3000 was shooting for with this harpsichord-drenched ode to unholy nuptials, Van Helsing and PB&J… but if it was sheer, unadulterated awesomeness, he succeeded admirably.

• Blue Oyster Cult – Nosferatu

While their ode to Japan’s reptilian nemesis Godzilla has captured the hearts of cinephiles and guitar heroes alike, Blue Oyster Cult also wrote an equally rocking tribute to bloodthirsty 1920s film vampire Nosferatu. Less a paean to the undead than an IMDB synopsis set to music, the song is equal parts plot outline and elegy, but in the best possible way.

• The Misfits – Vampira

From The Misfit’s 1982 debut full-length, Walk Among Us, this lo-fi bit of crypt-storming horror punk is a minute and twenty seconds worth of fevered graveyard make-out time with sultry, nocturnal 1950s horror movie host Maila Nurmi, AKA Vampira.

• The Magnetic Fields – I Have The Moon

Magnetic Fields’ front man Stephin Merritt writes and performs in four separate bands, each of which has at least one song that breathes a whiff of vampirism (his synth-pop band Future Bible Heroes has an entire album on the topic). This song, from The Magnetic Fields’ country album The Charm of the Highway Strip, is told from the perspective of a vampire airplane pilot pursuing a human pilot around the globe. As the human flies time zone to time zone, ensuring herself eternal daylight, the vampire is forever trapped just behind her, condemned to endless darkness and the silent taunts of a stoic moon.

• The Birthday Party – Release the Bats

Before Nick Cave hollered, stomped, crooned and purred with the Bad Seeds, he hollered and stomped with The Birthday Party, a glorious post-punk/hardcore/art rock outfit that defies simple categorization. “Release the Bats” finds Cave in rare form, yelping about undead eroticism before gasping out “Sex bat horror vampire sex / Cool machine” – perfect for all your creepy S&M redneck True Blood cosplay.

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