The third album by this Northern California band is a raucous tangleof vintage bloodlines: the long-ride improvising and earthy-blues stomp of the Bay Area’s Fillmore-dance party age. The Russian Wilds is also singer-guitarist/leader Ethan Miller’s determined surge forward through that past. The evocations in "Self Made Man" and "Strange Thunder" of early Santana, Humble Pie’s heavy soul and the cosmic-campfire harmonizing of Crosby, Stills and Nash are propelled with bracing studio clarity and hot-live gig immediacy. The inspirations and pot-dream idealism may be retro; the zeal and momentum are not.

Listen to Howlin Rains "Phantom in the Valley":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.