Here's Neil when you need him

I'll warn you: It's going to be a very nerdy afternoon. Fasten your headgear.

There's a Neil Gaiman tribute album coming out. Gaiman, for the uninitiated, is beloved author of... many things. Comics (Sandman), novels (American Gods), children's books (Coraline), the script for Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, etc.

I won't belabor this with nerd-love. But I will point you towards this little elf carnival, a wonderfully weird track from Future Bible Heroes, one of the manifold Stephin Merritt bands. It's from one of Gaiman's somewhat lesser-known works, the Dave McKean-illustrated graphic novel Mr. Punch.

Will this song prove a shadow-truth that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot? Only a bigger nerd than I can answer such an awkwardly paraphrased question. Go to it.