(FORTUNE Magazine) – Canyon Empty Rooms Gern Blandsten Records Planning to drive through the Mojave Desert at 3 A.M.? Here's your soundtrack. Fusing the desperado harmonies of the Jayhawks with the broken-robot abrasion of Radiohead, Canyon makes music that lives up to song titles like "Magnetic Moon," "Sleepwalker," and "Lights of Town." It's nocturnal and panoramic.

Lou Reed Transformer BMG Heritage People remember Lou's 1972 album as a street-gritty, gender-blending spitball that managed to wing its way into the straight world, thanks to "Walk on the Wild Side." Reissued now, it hardly sounds subversive at all. In fact, the tracks that really resonate are the pop ballads: "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love."

Susan Tedeschi Wait for Me Tone Cool/Artemis Bucking her generation's fondness for irony and indirection, Tedeschi is a 32-year-old Bostonian who plays the kind of choogling, earnest blues-rock you tend to associate with sports bars and Kevin Costner movies. What wins you over is her voice, a lusty roar that practically dares you to call her uncool.

The Ukrainians Respublika Omnium What the Pogues did with (or to) Irish jigs, the Ukrainians do with the folk music of their former Soviet republic: plug it in, speed it up, toss it screaming into a mosh pit. Where else will you find a cover of the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" side by side with "The Broad River Dnieper Roars and Moans"?

Volovan Volovan Lakeshore Records "Flor Primaveral" and "Me Vas Dejando" would sound perfect sandwiched between Weezer and the Strokes on the radio, but that's not going to happen until Yankee programmers finally swallow the concept of rock & roll sung in Spanish. In the meantime, this Mexican quartet's cajeta-sweet hooks are alt-pop's best-kept secret.