The Playlist
By Chris Nashawaty

(FORTUNE Magazine) – Bad Wizard Sophisticated Mouth Tee Pee Records

If you took one shot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, one shot of Black Sabbath, and mixed them with a pint of Jack Daniel's, you'd get a taste of the sort of nasty guitar boogie Bad Wizard cranks out. In short, this is the soundtrack to the greatest, sleaziest bender you'll ever go on. Hangover sold separately.

Beck Sea Change Geffen

Beck wipes the ironic smirk of his peach-fuzzed puss, drops the whole hipster-homeboy pose, and channels the ghost of Gram Parsons. Relaxed, mellow, and with just the right amount of country twang, Beck has created a lonesome-highway masterpiece that rolls along as effortlessly as a tumbleweed.

Music Inspired by Baadasssss Cinema: The Sounds of Blaxploitation TVT Records

Most of the flicks that made up the '70s Blaxploitation boom (Shaft, Coffy, Dolemite) haven't aged well. But their soundtracks have. Slinky, sexy, and always superfly, these inner-city anthems by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Roy Ayers, and Gil Scott-Heron pack more punch than that private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks.

Sleater-Kinney One Beat Kill Rock Stars

Like a flamethrower scorching pop-tarts Britney, Christina, and Shakira to charred bits, Portland's she-rock trio are back in fighting form after 2000's lackluster All Hands on the Bad One. Howling and thrashing like a coven of banshees armed with Marshall amps, S-K turn punk fury into something beautiful.

The Apples in Stereo Velocity of Sound SpinArt

A band that writes power-pop homages to the Powerpuff Girls might seem annoyingly childish. But if the Apples are kids at heart, then they're kids who are all hopped up on cotton candy and Pez, promising their folks that they'll take their Ritalin if they can just go back on Space Mountain one more time. This is a dizzy, psychedelic sugar rush of an album.