I forgot how much I like Wolfmother until an email popped into my "Inbox" yesterday announcing that they were back. I guess I wasn't paying attention -- as the months and maybe years flew by in a swirl of indie rock -- but I didn't realize they'd ever gone away. The MP3's from their self-titled first record got wiped from my machine last year when I got a virus illegally downloading music and I haven't listened to them again until now.

I just read their Wiki entry and now it all makes sense: Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band that formed in Erskineville, Sydney in 2000. Originally comprising vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett. In August 2008, Ross and Heskett left the band due to "irreconcilable personal and musical differences", though Stockdale stated that he would continue using the Wolfmother moniker with new members in the future. After a brief hiatus, as well as two low-key gigs under the alias White Feather, new members were revealed in February 2009 – guitarist Aidan Nemeth, bassist and keyboardist Ian Peres and drummer Dave Atkins. A second album is currently estimated for a summer 2009 release.

Says Wolfmother via MySpace: The triumphant return of Wolfmother has arrived - in the shape of a rollicking behemoth of timeless rock n roll, Back Round. Back Round is the first tangible snapshot into the cosmos of Wolfmother's second album and is available for all and sundry for download now here. *It's the homepage of their site. You have to signup using your email and cell phone number to get the MP3. If you want to test drive it first, check it out on MySpace. It's reaaaaaaaaaly hot.

I'm not an expert or anything, but if nobody'd told me two guys had left, I'd never have known it listening to Back Round, which on the band's MySpace blog Stockdale says he wrote and for all intents and purposes recorded himself. Looks like Andrew Stockdale was/is Wolfmother so the new lineup shouldn't have much an an effect on their signature sound. Can't wait for the new record to drop. These guys still rock!

Seriously: make sure to go to their MySpace and listen to the songs from Wolfmother. I forgot how incredibly good those songs are.