Born Ruffians, 'Red, Yellow and Blue' (Warp)

Doing the iPod shuffle through 40 years of rock's next big things.

Since the early '90s, indie rock has been rapidly assimilating and responding to its own

Ryan Bingham, 'Mescalito' (Lost Highway)

Bull rider turned troubadour tries to avoid bullcrap.

Here's how it'll go: First, you'll see this young Texas singer/songwriter on the cover of his debut album -- sitting in the middle of a desolate highway, jeans torn, cowboy hat. Then you'll flip on the first track and hear pleasantly road-worn fingerpicking, plaintive harmonica, and a cigarette scorched moan.

Blanche, 'Little Amber Bottles' (Original Signal)

Friend of Jack and disciple of Johnny walks a fine line.

Blanche is a genetically purebred Detroit band: vinyl-happy Dumpster divers with a penchant for theatricality, an innate sense of decay, and a keen feel for country music's gothic underbelly.

Patrick Wolf, 'The Magic Position' (Low Altitude)

Jaded sonic youth becomes childlike pop libertine.

For Patrick Wolf, time's arrow has always flown backward. As a precocious 11-year-old, he tinkered with instruments and recorded music that demonstrated an uncanny attention to soundcraft but found him weary and numb, already disaffected with virtually everything except the intricacies of noise.

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