RUSSKAJA, courtesy.

This week’s Tuesday Tracks are heavy on throwbacks and genre-crossing. The throwbacks include Oddisee bringing back old-school hip-hop, supergroup The Winery Dogs rocking out and Straightline giving us a punk aesthetic. The genre-crossers are The Manatees merging all their influences and RUSSKAJA’s metal, punk, ska and polka. And what roundup would be complete without some metal? KATATONIA delivers.

Straightline, “Earth Defenders” — The band from Munich, Germany sounds pop-punk, but the theme and structure of the song is straight-up punk rock. It’s important and necessary; demonizing the people standing up for what’s right and cleaning up the messes left by others isn’t cool. Getting mad at someone fixing your mistake doesn’t convince people you never made the mistake in the first place!

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KATATONIA, “Birds” — As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a Tuesday Tracks list without some metal. The 30-year veteran band from Sweden’s brand of gloomy and wistful metal is a perfect soundtrack for the Bay Area’s recent run of cloudy, rainy days. Then again, Swedish winters are pretty gloomy, so they’ve got experience with it.

Oddisee, “Try Again” — Like any genre, hip-hop changes and evolves. And like any genre, hip-hop has its questionable phases during that evolution. For people like myself who don’t like the status quo, a throwback like Oddisee is refreshing. The song sounds like a modern De La Soul joint with a flow that reminds me a little of Rakim. And yes, I understand what a big statement that is and I stand by it.

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RUSSKAJA, “Shapka” — I love unclassifiable music, so obviously I love this song. The single’s press release says RUSSKAJA is a polka punk/ska band doing nu metal and sure, OK. Let’s go with that. It’s a polka punk band doing a metal song. And it’s absolutely fantastic, no notes. They are indeed both the chaos and the genius. And if you were wondering, a “shapka” is a hat. It’s a Russian word. It’s an Austrian-based band and the members are Ukrainian and Russian.

The Winery Dogs, “Mad World” — The Winery Dogs are made up of Richie Kotzen, who played guitar for Poison between CC DeVille and Blues Saraceno; Mike Portnoy, former drummer for Dream Theater; and Billy Sheehan, who’s played bass for the likes of Steve Vai and David Lee Roth. Elements of all those influences shine through, but it’s over a core of blues rock and it works fabulously.

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The Manatees, “The Sound” — Not quite to the genre-crossing level of RUSSKAJA, but British band The Manatees still keep it fresh by mixing pop-rock with punk and hard rock influences, with a layer of hip-hop aesthetic woven throughout. This is the first single from their first EP, and if this is where they’re starting, you should pay attention to where they go from here. It’s your chance at a hipster heard-of-them-first moment.

Danny’s Pick: Anyone who’s known me for any length of time or read more than a couple of my columns could guess that a metal song by a polka punk band is going to be my favorite 10 times out of 10. RUSSKAJA’s “Shapka” is incredibly fun madness from a band whose members, being from Russia and Ukraine, have an urgent message of peace but don’t let it get in the way of their unique mix of… well, pretty much everything.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.