To celebrate the recent DVD release of the documentary “Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown” – an indispensable film if, like me, you enjoy watching folks like John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro and Neil Gaiman just totally geek out about the father of modern horror – I’ve assembled a playlist of some songs inspired by Lovecraft and, of course, the inimitable, all-powerful old ones.

The Mountain Goats – “Lovecraft in Brooklyn”

From the 2008 album “Heretic Pride” (which also features a tribute to prolific pulp novelist Sax Rohmer), this unapologetically rocking song paints a vivid picture of urban alienation. As the lyrics suggest, the song was directly inspired by stories of Lovecraft’s brief, ill-fated residence in Brooklyn, NY, where the writer’s underlying xenophobia and racial anxieties found him on the brink of a nervous breakdown. The brain jar part is a reference to Lovecraft’s 1931 story “The Whisperer in Darkness.” Presumably, the “wolves” referenced are a metaphor for minorities. (Kidding. Jeez!)

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society – “It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Fishmen”

If you ever needed to find an absurd number of Lovecraft-themed holiday song parodies (like, I dunno, maybe as part of some “Die Hard: with a Vengeance”-style riddle-driven scavenger hunt of death), Google no further than the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. This song, a jaunty musical summation of Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” is among their best work (their shoggoth-themed Dreidel Song parody is equally undeniable).

Bal-Sagoth – “Shackled to the Trilithon of Kutulu”

It’s impossible to compile a representative Lovecraft playlist without including some raucous metal… but how to choose? A profusion of bands in a variety of metal sub-genres have all pledged thrashing allegiance to the mighty old ones. In terms of sheer, geeky fandom, England’s Bal-Sagoth reign supreme – they’ve spent their entire career building their own elaborate, fantastical mythology inspired by the stories of Lovecraft, Tolkien, Jack Kirby and others. This tale of cosmic horror comes from their 2006 LP, “The Chthonic Chronicles.”

Eben Brooks – “Hey There, Cthulhu”

This Internet-sensation-that-wasn’t combines the music of the Plain White T’s and the squammous, eldritch visage of the dread Cthulhu – a catchy way to teach your younger sister all about how ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

Darkest of the Hillside Thickets – “Nyarlathotep”

Full of appropriately Egyptian flourishes and bravely attempted Lovecraft speak, this tribute to the Pharoah-lookin’ shape-shiftin’ servant of the elder gods appears on the album “The Shadow Out of Tim.” Get it? It’s a sort of Lovecraft joke based on the story “The Shadow Out of Time”… but “Tim.” Or something. Hey! Knock knock. (Who’s there?) Interrupting Cthulhu! (Interrupting Cth–) FHTAGN!

With flu season mounting, handshakes get risky, hugs spell out trouble and kisses become spit-smeared invitations to 103-degree, snot-slathered winter formals hosted by your lungs. Every person you love is looking more and more like a walking biological weapon. Weird Things invites you to take a few minutes to turn up your speakers, sneeze directly into a loved one’s mouth and get down with the sickness…

The Dead Kennedys – “Government Flu”

Known as much for their rabid, conspiracy theory-tinged liberalism as for their surf-infused hardcore punk sound, San Francisco’s Dead Kennedys always managed to stay true to early punk’s affinity for political hyperbole while still remaining witty and fun. Featured on their 1982 album “Plastic Surgery Disasters,” this song is the perfect gift for the H1N1 conspiracy nut in your life.

Radiohead – “Myxomatosis”

Whether you think Radiohead is overhyped or just-the-right-amount hyped, it’s hard to deny the substantial impact that these dour, tree-hugging Brits have had on the contemporary music scene. “Myxomatosis,” from 2003’s barely “OOOH SNAP!”-worthy-titled “Hail to the Thief,” infuses a deep synth groove with lyrics about the titular rabbit-killing infection. Ten bucks says the rabbit represents Mother Earth.

Ween –“Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)”

This bizarre and chilling track from 1994’s “Chocolate and Cheese” proves that the worst lullabies for children are also the best masturbatory aids for serial killers. And before you say it, I know I could’ve chosen the resplendent and beloved “The HIV Song.” Or the trippy instrumental “Pink Eye on my Knee.” Thank god this playlist’s theme wasn’t Recreational Pharmacology, or I’d be paring down Ween options for weeks.

Frank Zappa – “Why Does it Hurt When I Pee?”

From experimental jazz to doo-wop to… this, Frank Zappa’s varied and prolific musical career left an indelible mark on American musical history. This mournful lament from his 1979 rock opera “Joe’s Garage: Acts I, II & III” teaches a hard lesson about the meat-grabbing properties of toilet seat-lurking venereal diseases. The more you know…

Jimmie Rodgers – “T.B. Blues”

Consumption never sounded so soulful. Recorded in 1931 by ragtime guitarist and proto-country great Jimmie Rodgers, the “T.B. Blues” provides a melodic outlet for all the country singers who lost their woman, their dog and their truck, and then contracted tuberculosis.

Because the Halloween sound effects compilation you just bought doesn’t even have “Evil Laugh #2” on it. I mean, seriously.

The Ramones – “Pet Sematary”

Complete with multi-note solos, comprehensible lyrics and an obvious studio sheen, the theme song to Mary Lambert’s fantastic Stephen King adaptation “Pet Sematary” was an interesting, and ultimately successful, experiment in converting The Ramones glorious ramshackle energy into a marketable pop confection. Interestingly, the chorus’ lyrics were lifted directly from Dee Dee Ramone’s living will.

Alice Cooper – “Shockdance” (From “Shocker”)

Before Mitch Pileggi was all up in Mulder’s grill on “The X-Files,” he played Horace Pinker in Wes Craven’s 1989 film “Shocker,” a movie about an executed serial killer who becomes an electricity demon. “Shockdance,” one of several songs recorded for the film, finds Alice Cooper dueting with Pinker to a guitar-throttling backing track. “He’s malicious and vicious / He’s a killing machine and he never does the dishes.” Damn. Watch out for this guy.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – “Nightmare on my Street”

This is the only song on the list that wasn’t specifically recorded for the film that it honors. Though Will Smith was clearly prepped to deliver a virulently phat take on Wes Craven’s knife-fingered charbroiled pederast, the actual contract went to The Fat Boys, who delivered the laughably disappointing “Get Ready for Freddy.” It’s also the only song on this list in which Will Smith compares Freddy Kruger to a hot dog.

John McDermott – “The Ballad of Harry Warden” (From “My Bloody Valentine”)

This acoustic number from 1981’s Hallmark-holiday coal-mining slasher flick embraces the film’s blue-collar milieu while (sort of) telling the story of serial killer Harry Warden and the town’s Valentine’s Day curse. As fictionalized ballads go, it doesn’t quite stand up to Firefly’s “Hero of Canton” or Lisa Simpson’s power plant song, but at least it wasn’t called “Be Wary of Harry” and recorded by The Fat Boys.

The Five Blobs – “The Blob”

Co-written by a young Burt Bacharach, the jaunty theme to Steve McQueen’s first starring vehicle describes the blob’s hideous alien tendencies with all the fear and respect of a singing telegram. I put this song last because it will be stuck in your head either forever or until you listen to Shockdance again. Choose wisely.

Someday, all the deceased extras that played ooky revenants in “Night of the Living Dead” will ungrave for real and you’ll be subjected to blog post after blog post comparing pictures of the actors’ actual shambling undead remains to screenshots of them in zombie make-up. Until then, here’s something to fill the space. (Your hellish zombie apocalypse will be Weird Things’ tacky media renaissance.)

Be Your Own Pet – “Zombie Graveyard Party!”

Known for referencing elementary school apocrypha like Creepy Crawlers and Super Soakers, defunct indie punk outfit Be Your Own Pet could always be counted on for catchy, energetic pop songs that successfully walked the line between twee irony and hyperactive sass. This song from 2008’s “Get Awkward” bemoans the lameness of love while endorsing two kid-tested, Fulci-approved alternatives – brain eating and graveyard partying.

Harry Belafonte – “Zombie Jamboree (Back to Back)”

Written by the otherwise-unknown Conrad Eugene Mauge Jr., this modern calypso standard is the rum-drenched, Caribbean foil to “Zombie Graveyard Party!”’s undead suburban kegger. This version is notable for being the only recording of the song approved by the AMA for testing cadaver booty response.

Jonathan Coulton – “Re: Your Brains”

With songs featured everywhere from Popular Science to John Hodgman audiobooks, Coulton is an unstoppable force of sheer melodic nerdiness. Presented as a memo and steeped in the buzz word-laden idiom of corporate bureaucracy, his tribute to the undead equates a mindless legion of walking corpses to impotent capitalist drones and their empty, abbreviated business vernacular. But, like, in a funny way.

Sufjan Stevens – “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!”

The music on Stevens’ undeniably wonderful, but relentlessly hyped, album “Illinois” ranges from cartoonish to macabre. This spookier, word-count-devastating track is less concerned with actual zombies than with the stumbling, ghoulish remains of a once-vital American landscape and its assimilation into modern homogeneity. It’s also still fairly concerned with actual zombies.

Fela Kuti & Africa ‘70 – “Zombie”

Political activist and pioneer of the afrobeat movement, Fela Kuti often used the latter descriptor to fill the responsibilities of the former. His two-song album “Zombie” employed the image of easily manipulated voodoo zombies to deliver a scathing, uncompromisingly funky critique of the Nigerian army. Interestingly, the album’s unofficial sequel, “Mothman,” offered a rump-jiggling screed against voodoo.

Giant bugs – providing an inordinately huge livelihood to gigantic entomologists and radioactively embiggened songwriters alike. Today’s playlist celebrates these disgusting animals and their gross eyes, weird legs and hard-to-pronounce carapaces. May these perversions of nature be forever not enslaving us.

• Blondie – “Attack of the Giant Ants”

On the final track of their self-titled 1976 debut, Debbie Harry and the boys smile and whoop about giant ants from space that breathe fire, eat faces and somehow cause the moon to drop out of orbit. The military ant attack breakdown in the middle of the song is a clear artistic pre-cursor to the hyper-real apocalyptic aestheticism of modern auteur Emmerich and Bay.

• The Cure – “Lullaby”

The dreadful, man-eating “spiderman” breathily described by a terrified Robert Smith on this song from The Cure’s watershed album “Disintegration” could be interpreted as either an actual human/spider hybrid, hungry for Smith’s 150 pounds of eyeliner and tears, or a super tortured metaphor for depression. The truth: Smith has a reoccurring nightmare in which he’s fiercely molested by an eight-fisted Peter Parker. It’s okay, Rob. Let it out.

• Yuji Koseki – “Mosura No Uta (Mothra’s Song)”

Every serious Godzilla fan knows that Mothra is spiritually linked to two miniature, telepathic priestesses who translate her chirps and sing her praises via this harmonized tune. For helpful information regarding Mothra’s “Character and Personality,” see the depressingly thorough Wikipedia entry.

• Rose and the Arrangement – “The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati”

The single hit from novelty tunesmiths “Rose and the Arrangement” was a ‘70’s staple of the Dr. Demento radio show. Featuring zany sound effects and punny references to a bevy of popular horror films, it’s rumored to have been used as the original temp score for Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”

• Alice Cooper – “Black Widow”

“Black Widow”’s vocal portion begins with Vincent Price melodramatically reading a description of the black widow’s powerful toxin and creepy mating habits, but quickly turns into a bizarre, raving treatise on the spider’s inevitable dominion over humanity. While the lyrics never explicitly state that these arachnid overlords will be giant sized, they very explicitly state that they will rape children. So, they’ll be at least medium sized. Enjoy this live video of the song, featuring spider costumes and a not-at-all-gratuitous six-minute guitar solo.

Today’s playlist pays musical tribute to Weird Things’ third-favorite human/animal comprise (ranking just behind the Mothman and college-age female centaurs), the werewolf. Combining the vicious cunning of the wolf with the clumsy impulsiveness of the human, these insane, reckless monsters remind a preoccupied modern world what true human weakness looks like – your neighbor screaming in terror as he gets eaten by a werewolf.

Warren Zevon – “Werewolves of London”

It would be a crime against werewolf-themed pop hits to omit the late Warren Zevon’s anthem to the Chow Mein-fueled rampage of coifed Limey werewolves. Supposedly written in a fevered quarter-hour, but recorded over 70 exhausting takes, the song bears all the hallmarks of Zevon’s off-kilter and brilliantly deranged songwriting – a painfully catchy melody, manic energy and winking, gleeful references to acts of brutality.

Sonata Arctica – “Fullmoon”

You know when you go to the zoo and there’s a light-up digital board with a perpetually changing 9-digit number that represents real-time rainforest destruction in acres? Change the title plaque to read “Werewolf-related songs written by heavy metal and hardcore bands” and you’ve got an accurate sense of the genre’s predilections. Also, a suspicious statistical link. This song by European prog-metal band Sonata Arctica represents my personal favorite of the bunch. Seriously. This song is undeniable.

The Cramps – “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”

Gothed-out rockabilly band The Cramps boast an impressive oeuvre of sleazy horror-themed barn-burners that consistently treat murder and sex as delightfully interchangeable pleasures to be approached with roughly the same techniques, accessories and enthusiasm. This particular tale of a pubescent monster run amok swaggers and howls with all the awkward, horny angst of a sober Gary Busey.

Tracey Jordon – “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah”

This Monster Mash-spoofing tribute to “La Chaim” shouting lycanthropes was presented on NBC’s “30 Rock” as character Tracey Jordon’s gold record-scoring novelty hit. The song speaks for itself.

Five Man Electrical Band – “Werewolf”

An almost-was contender for late ‘60s pop stardom, these L.A.-based Canadian immigrants flirted briefly with popularity before getting lost amid the sea of posturing hacks and talented wannabes that composed a veritable invasion of the Beatle snatchers. Full of goofy energy and joyous, sing-along werewolf extermination, this song was the band’s last charting single, definitively placing them on the Neil Young-recommended “burn out” side of career endings.

Today’s playlist pays tribute to all the elusive, lumbering missing links that have blurred and plaster casted their way into our hearts. Without these mysterious gentle giants, who knows what sort of dead bodies we’d be pretending to find.

• Dan Freyer – “I Still Believe in Bigfoot”

Written in 2002, Freyer’s patriotic paean to both the existence (and proud American citizenship) of Bigfoot has been embraced by fringe media outlets such as Coast to Coast AM and Cryptomundo.com, and remains a well-worn jukebox favorite among Bigfoot acolytes. A note to amateur cryptozoologists: While the song rallies against lumping Bigfoot in with the likes of Sasquatch and the abominable snowman, it also compares him to Dolly Parton and Osama Bin Laden, so, taxonomically speaking, it’s not exactly a peer-reviewed primary source document.

• Tenacious D – “Sasquatch”
In this song from Tenacious D’s beloved HBO series, Sasquatch inspires more than just a hilarious anthem – he inspires a dream. After being jeeringly informed that their belief in The D’s rock star potential is tantamount to belief in the existence of Sasquatch, Kyle Gass and Jack Black find their frowns inverted when the legendary creature shows up to audition for the band.

• Radiorama – “Yeti”

Though not quite a household name, if you like a musical genre called “Italo-Disco,” Radiorama is apparently the cat’s PJs. In this 1987 European club hit from their album “The 2nd Album” (which also features a song called “Aliens”), Radiorama sing a winsome serenade to the majestic monster, pining, “I want your soul and I really like listening to your heart.” Catchy and factual.

• Barry Gray – “The Abominable Snowman”

A British composer best known for writing aurally compelling theme music for all of Britain’s visually unsettling “Supermarionation” shows, including “Thunderbirds,” “Stingray” and “Supercar,” Gray penned this fittingly strange tune for a yeti-centric 33 rpm “Thunderbirds” mini album.

• The Weakerthans – “Bigfoot”

This standout track from The Weakerthan’s uniformly wonderful album “Reunion Tour” is sung from the perspective of a downhearted Canadian Bigfoot enthusiast who, being met with the mocking “doubtful smiles” of skeptic peers, has resigned himself to lonely, silent, but no less fervent, belief. A perfect addition to any Bigfoot hunter’s “rainy day” playlist.

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.