Starting a new feature to highlight some recent tracks available to download on the Amoeba site. Take a listen and if you like them, add them to your Amoeba shopping cart (you won’t be charged until you check out). All downloads are in the $.98 MP3 format; visit the album page to pick up higher-res M4A or WAV files.

Mikal Cronin – “Weight”

Starting with a stately piano and acoustic jangle, “Weight” opens Mikal Cronin’s excellent MCII on a classy note. Those Rubber Soul-style harmonies and crunching guitars at the chorus don’t hurt, either. This one’s a free download. (From the album MCII)

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Ancient Animals – “Teen Wolf”

There’s a fuck-all attitude to Hanni El Khatib’s music that makes his relatively straightforward garage rock so enjoyable. Maybe it’s that his songs are really catchy, pairing rock ‘n’ roll swagger with actual hooks. Or that he actually seems like a really cool guy, which I learned he is after interviewing him. Check out his second album, Head in the Dirt, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, which is out now on Innovative Leisure. He’s at S.F.’s Fillmore May 17 and L.A.’s Mayan Theater May 21, both with The Black Angels and Wall of Death.

PST: There’s a hint of desperation to the lyrics to some of these songs. I’m thinking of how “Family” starts with the lyric “I wanna be somebody else today” or the lyrics of songs like “Nobody Move” and “Pay No Mind.” Where do you get your lyrical inspiration?

El Khatib: Most of my lyrics are written in a very spontaneous way. Total stream of consciousness that I try to loosely connect to an underlying mood or theme. They usually reflect the mood I’m in at the moment, and since the record was written and recorded in such a short time-frame, I guess that’s just the place I was at.

The Haxan Cloak – Excavation

CD $12.98

LP $19.98

Download $9.98

The Haxan Cloak’s Excavation is an aptly named trip into the other side of the human ego. It takes listeners on a ride through dark ride, requiring several listens for its movements to sink in and rewarding the patient with a unique listening experience. Starting with deep bass drum hits on “Consumed,” it moves into the two-part “Excavation,” which at first feels like travelling at the deepest part of the ocean, drumless and with little light let in, but deep sonar blasts of bass, heartbeats and backward sound guide us as if we’re seeing the unseen. Part two opens the chasm a bit, with squelching beats you could almost dance to, were they not so brutal and irregular. “Mara” sounds like the exact moment the protagonist finds the body in film noir or horror film, build on unseemly strings and a door-slamming beat. The two-part “The Mirror Reflecting” gets even deeper, with a beautifully decayed last quarter, and the nearly 13-minute “The Drop” actually finds The Haxan Cloak’s Bobby Krlic at his most open and easy to follow, with melodic synths that sound like a synth-pop song slowed to quarter-speed. Though it provides few easy entry points and demands much of its listener, The Haxan Cloak’s Excavation is a worthwhile journey, even just to say you made it to the other side.

Amoeba.com has many of the bands playing at Coachella this weekend and next available digitally. Pick up some of the albums below before your drive out to the desert!

Dinosaur Jr. - Chocomel Daze (Live 1987)

Recently released live set from 1987 from the legendary college-rock band, in all their You're Living All Over Me glory.

Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits

A surprisingly strong side project featuring Spoon's Britt Daniels and former Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs barker Dan Boeckner.

Classixx Announce Remix EP; Preorder Hanni El Khatib's 'Head in the Dirt'

Leading up to the May 14 release of their long-awaited debut LP, Hanging Gardens, L.A. duo Classixx have announced an EP with remixes of their recent single, the infectious disco jammer “Holding On,” will be released April 2. It features this slightly slowed down yet no less shimmering remix by Jerome LOL, among others. You can download the original “Holding On” here.

Speaking of remixes, Classixx also recently remixed fellow Angeleno and garage rocker Hanni El Khatib’s track “Penny”; check out the remix, the original and preorder Hanni El Khatib’s Head in the Dirt (CD or LP), due April 30, also on Innovative Leisure.

Bleached Premiere “Dead in Your Head,” Album Out Next Week