Lee Hazlewood: "Hey Cowboy"

Since getting Cowboy in Sweden in 1999, which was reissued by Smells Like Records (a whole mess of Hazlewood albums came out around the same time), I went through a period of frequent listening...then it gathered dust for years and years.

Today I pulled out Cowboy in Sweden and gave it a listen. So glad I did. Everybody's going through a Johnny Cash phase lately -- myself included, a bit -- so some symphonic cowboy music is a good complement to Cash's renegade country.

This is "Hey Cowboy," a duet with Nina Lizell.

Mew: "Why Are You Looking Grave"

Melodo-indie-prog-rock-xylophones-distortion-pianos-shoegazer- vocals-sometimes-metal-usually-in-less-than-four-minute-songs...or whatever it's called this month.

Mew. Wow. Mew's Mew And The Glass Handed Kites is one of the freshest, most unexpected blasts of rock I've heard this year.

Gotta listen from start to finish. Don't dare put it on shuffle or throw a song in a playlist. First to last, that's the only way to enjoy this. (Sorry, I won't post the entire album, and yes, I understand that by posting this song I'm breaking my own rule.)

The Whigs: "Technology"
The Whigs: "Violet Furs"

Since I saw The Whigs a few weeks ago I've been loving their 2005 album Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip. A lot of bands in their peer group have lost the bass player (a la White Stripes, Black Keys) but The Whigs benefit from having a full bass-drums rhythm section. Not only does it allow the band to romp and gallop through their roots-based songs, but it allows guitarist and singer Parker Gispet the room to noodle and bash out chords without fearing the song will unravel.

Josh Rouse & Kurt Wagner: "65"

Nothing against Josh Rouse, but I'm not a huge fan. But put Kurt Wagner (of Lambchop) in the mix and it gets a a lot better. "65" is from the pair's 1999 EP Chester.

The Godfathers: "How Low Is Low"

I could have been obvious and posted "Birth, School, Work, Death," but how about something else from this sadly forgotten band?

Hawkwind: "Lord of Light"

The world needs more Hawkwind, plain and simple. In most circles, those outside of the older record collector, Mojo-reading crowd, the band has got a bad reputation...or not much of a reputation at all. To many, Hawkwind is some corny new age band that old people listen to.

Rather than name drop Hawkwind, a music critic will go to the typical stable of artists when reviewing an album with tones of early '70s rock. If it's a spacey, pscyche album Pink Floyd/Syd Barret will get mentioned. If it's more teutonic, krautrock legends Can will be mentioned. Never fails. It's hard to get a reference to early Tangerine Dream although half the experimental rock bands I've run across in the last decade bear a resemblance.

But I hear Hawkwind all over the place, in stoner rock bands and in more indie post-rock bands. The droning. The extended freak outs. The prog-metal riffs that repeat and build to an explosive climax.

"Lord of Light" is from the album Doremi Fasol Latido, which is a fine album but hardly their best. I like Space Ritual Live the best.

The Kooks: "Be Mine"

With all the American blogger hype over one undeserved band after another, it's easy for a person to almost completely miss out on the buzz going on in the UK about whatever new band is hot at the moment. Actually, it's probably for the best. Having no hype to live up to means my first listen is with a pretty clean slate. I have no expectations. I don't know if the members are saints or assholes. I don't know if somebody in the band is dating a model or jamming a needle in his arm too often. I can just listen to the music.

That was the set up for The Kooks, a band from England that I knew only slightly be reputation and chart ranking. When I first listened to the "Naive" single I thought it was a pretty solid song, as was the b-side, "Be Mine." Kinda reminded me of how Supergrass amassed a record collection worth of impeccable rock 'n' roll influences and created something that sounded fresh. Not brand new, but fresh, and with vitality. And unlike a lot of buzz bands, I can tell these cats can play their instruments.

It's so damn hard for a band to build a new mousetrap these days. I'll take good 'n' rockin' any day of the week.

"Naive" is found on their album Inside In/Inside Out, but "Be Mine" isn't. Inside In/Inside Out will be out in the States later this year.