Whenever the moon is just right, the Vague Panther picks his favorite MP3s from the web to bring you the “In the Know” series. If you’ve got a tip that might pique his interest email him at vaguepanther(at)strangerdance.com.

Dead Man’s Bones is Ryan Gosling (yup, the actor), Zach Shields and, apparently, a big choir of kids from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. Their upcoming album is due out October 6th and will no doubt have tons of bloggers opining as to whether or not Gosling should have just stuck with the big screen. For what it’s worth, “My Body’s a Zombie For You” is a pretty good little mock-Dracula tune (sounds like the Dracula opera from Forgetting Sarah Marshall), but you’ve got to wonder how annoying those kids are gonna get song after song… just sayin’.

Washed Out is a one-man show from South Carolina, aka Ernest Greene. As the name may suggest, a lot of his tunes are the kind of thing you can zone out to on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Although I decided to feature “Luck,” he’s got tons of tracks making the rounds right now – “Hold Out,” “Feel It All Around,” and “You’ll See It” to name a few. Both the High Times Cassette and the Life of Leisure EP are available for limited-edition order now (click the links to purchase).

The title track off of A.A. Bondy’s second album, When the Devil’s Loose, is a gorgeous lament on self examination. In fact, the lyric “how easily we brood” should be the theme of the album, each tune exposing how dangerous it is to let the devil around us fuel the apathy inside. Drugs, depression, self-loathing – it’s all there. But don’t let that get you down, Bondy’s narrative prowess turns even the most distressing subjects into a thing of beauty.