NEW MUSIC WEEK: Los Lobos

Los Lobos won't release their new album, The Town and the City, until Sept. 12. But lemme tell you: This sucker is GOOD.

And although music critics often get overwhelmed by late-career iconic emissions -- c'mon, was the last Rolling Stones album really their "most honest recording ever"? -- I can honestly say that new track The Road to Gila Bend is easily one of Los Lobos' most uplifting. It's a midtempo road-trip rocker with a instant-mood-improving chorus and a fuzzed-out guitar line that gives the song a hazy, slightly buzzed feel.

Times travel/food/books/music/whatelseyagot? writer Colette Bancroft will be weighing in on The Town and the City in a couple weeks. But rest assured that the East L.A. band, now in its 33rd year, is still toying with form (MexiCali, blues, rock, jazz, psychedelia, etc.) and doing whatever they damn well please. The wolves are surviving quite well, thank you.