Rockin' old friends (and some new ones)

What does it say about a year in music in which two of my top 10 CDs are retrospectives and one is a reworking of old songs? What can you do? I calls 'em as I sees 'em. Here are my favorite albums of 2008.

Top 10 albums of the year

We Have You Surrounded by The Dirtbombs. Apocalyptic paranoia reigns here. On nearly every song, singer/guitarist Mick Collins seems to be looking over his shoulder and not liking what he sees. Civilization is decaying, burning. The future's so dim Collins can barely wear his shades. The end is near, and everyone's out to wreck his flow.

The Dirtbombs is one of the many Detroit bands of the 1990s that didn't become famous when The White Stripes rose to prominence. (But don't call his group a "garage band," or Collins will twist your head off and eat your children.) With a lineup that includes two
bassists and two drummers, Collins pays vocal tribute to the soul greats of his hometown's past.

The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines. This is a full-fledged psychedelic soul band, complete with a horn section led by a Canadian guitar picker of East Indian heritage who lives in Germany. You'll hear punk and garage-rock influences in Khan's grooves, even a flicker of speed metal. But make no mistake, this album — the band's first proper U.S. release, consisting of material released on previous European albums — has soul!

I Have Fun Everywhere I Go by Mike Edison & Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra. Edison is a journalist after my own heart; he's been a writer, editor, and/or publisher for a rich array of publications — Screw magazine, High Times, and Wrestling's Main Event. This album is a hilarious companion piece to Edison's autobiography, also published last year. It's a spoken-word record, with Edison reading from the book over hard-driving psychedelic/techno/blues backdrops produced by Jon Spencer.

Recovery by Loudon Wainwright III. Wainwright looks back at his oldest material with the help of producer Joe Henrythese tunes are like old friends to me — including the song "Old Friend." Nearly all have held up extremely well over the past four decades. Wainwright infuses them not only with a tangible wistfulness but also with an earned wisdom.

Venus on Earth by Dengue Fever. Dengue Fever isn't just a fun band with a unique sound — retro and innovative at the same time. Nope. The Southern California psychedelic/garage/lounge/world-beat group, fronted by Cambodia-born singer Chhom Nimol, represents a sweet, symbolic triumph of freedom over totalitarianism; of rock 'n' roll over the killing fields; of sex, joy, fast cars, and loud guitars over the forces of gloom and repression. Dengue revives the upbeat, urgent, sometimes shamelessly cheesy brand of rock that flourished in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge wiped it out in the late '70s.

The Golden Hour by Firewater. Recorded in India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel, this CD, the latest project of former Cop Shoot Cop frontman Tod A, has an international rockluenced by the music of those nations as well as by Balkan music and even some Latin and Caribbean styles. The album has the feel of a political exile's diary — angry and melancholic — and above all, it's rockin'.

Bar Band Americanus: The Best of Charlie Pickett And. Why would anyone be interested in an obscure Florida bar band, a group that rose in the early '80s and then sputtered to a stop well before the end of the decade, leaving behind no real hits? Why would anyone care about a beer-drenched band led by a singer who called it quits, left showbiz for law school, and never looked back? Because it sounds so dang good. Pickett played a high-charged brand of roots rock that's basically timeless and fresh.

Between the Whiskey and the Wine by Miss Leslie. Hands down, the best country album of the year — unadulterated hard-core, heartache honky-tonk music. Don't look for irony. Don't look for hipster detachment. Leslie Anne Sloan's clear, intense voice just stops you in your tracks. There's nory, flirty, or kittenish about her voice as she sings songs apparently inspired by her recent divorce.

Can You Deal With It? by Andre Williams & The New Orleans Hellhounds. This R & B codger is apparently indestructible. He's in his early 70s and has survived drug problems, homelessness, poverty, and obscurity. But he keeps cranking out hot and nasty albums. With the funky, punky Hellhounds, Williams gives dirty old men a good name.

Women as Lovers by Xiu Xiu. This San Francisco band, which played at the College of Santa Fe in early 2008, creates some of the craziest but most enticing music I've heard in a long time. Jamie Stewart has one of those morose, sobbing, 4 a.m.-suicide voices that sometimes get on my nerves. But Xiu Xiu's New Year's Eve-in-the-nuthouse sound, with the vibes clinking, drums crashing, horns blaring, and synths screeching sometimes sounds as if you're on an amusement-park boat ride drifting into a forbidden area of It's a Small World.

Honorable mentions

Take a Good Look by The Fleshtones

The Lucky Ones by Mudhoney

Triskaidekaphilia by Jim Stringer and the AM Band

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Recapturing the Banjo by Otis Taylor (and friends)

Damn Right Rebel Proud by Hank Williams III

That Lucky Old Sun by Brian Wilson

Introducing Los Peyotes

Poison by Hundred Year Flood

Waco Express: Live and Kickin' at Schuba's Tavern, Chicago by The Waco Brothers

Agree? Disagree? Post your comments on my music blog: steveterrell.blogspot.com.

Hear songs from these albums Sunday night on Terrell's Sound World. Beginning about 10 p.m, I'll intersperse the honorable mentions with some other bitchen songs. After the 11th hour, I'll do a cheesy Casey Kasem-style countdown. That's on KSFR-FM 101.1, webcasting at ksfr.org.