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The best of the best in Austin for 2008.

It wasn't easy. At one point it appeared you would be reading a top 25 list. But, determined and up to the task, austin.com is happy to present our list of the Top 10 CDs out of Austin in 2008. We figure not many cities can do their own best-of list and be blessed with such an emabarrasment of riches. If we receive enough of an uproar about a band that unjustly didn't crack the top ten, we could expand this to a baker's dozen in a snap. Send said uproar to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

(Note: We heard you. Thanks everyone for sending your thoughts on some deserving CDs. Check The Skinny, austin.com's music news section, to see who we've added to the list, now stretched out to the top 15.)

#10 MARCIA BALL – PEACE, LOVE & BBQ
Alligator Records – Released 4/8/08
The only record on the list to include a duet with Dr. John (“I’ll Never Be Free”), a song that almost by itself guarantees at least this #10 spot. Even more telling is that Dr. John isn’t “guesting” on Ball’s recording as musicians often do; no, the good voodoo Dr. is hanging with one of his few peers on a song he approached Ball with. But alas, there is more. A lot of Ball’s trademark piano boogie, Louisiana bayou jazz, and Texas blues. Enough to put Ball in a good spot to earn what would, surprisingly, be her first Grammy (she is nominated for “Best Contemporary Blues Album”). Peace, Love & BBQ  includes “Party Town,” a nod to the permanently fun-loving spirit of New Orleans, as well as the tugging, Katrina-themed “Ride It Out” and “Where Do You Go?” That’s the blues; that’s life. Highs, lows, and getting back on board.

#9 BAND OF HEATHENS – BAND OF HEATHENS
BOH Records – Released 5/20/2008
It’s hard to think of another band that released two live CDs before heading to the studio to record their debut studio album. It’s also hard to imagine another band that so aptly deserves all the Little Feat and The Band comparisons so frequently heaped on the Band of Heathens. When news of the debut came it meant, if nothing else, the band (which includes three frontmen who came together loosely as a songwriting swap at Momo’s) had finally started to see itself as more than a side project—something everyone else saw long before they did. Upon its release it was clear the anticipation was well worth it. And folks around the country noticed, as the self-released, Ray Wylie Hubbard-produced debut wound up at #8 on the Americana Music Association’s list of most-played albums of 2008 as reported by radio stations nationwide.

#8 THE BLACK ANGELS – DIRECTIONS TO SEE A GHOST
Light in the Attic Records – Released 5/13/08
Cementing the notion that drone rock is a genre, The Black Angels carry The Velvet Underground on an acid trip into the new millennium. Directions to See a Ghost  was the follow-up to the breakthrough Passover  (2006) that blazed the trail for the recent resurgence of psychedelic rock dominating many Austin music venues. Despite trimming from a six-piece to five members, the sophomore full-length came out fuller, a sonic echo of droning rock culled from the influences of the 13th Floor Elevators and Jesus & Mary Chain while riding the spirit of Native American dancers and voodoo snake charmers.

#7 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO – REAL ANIMAL
Manhattan/Back Porch Records – Released 6/24/08
In what many (austin.com agrees) have called Escovedo’s greatest in his career, Real Animal  finds Escovedo able to perfectly weave his ‘70s punk band days with his later, and more well-known, adult contemporary career. Often framed as a career retrospective, it seems fairer to say this album is the best slice of right now that just about anyone in the Americana scene has come up with in recent memory: straddling raw, indie angst with seasoned, tempered roots-rock. Real Animal   also produced perhaps some of Escovedo’s best “hits,” including “Always a Friend,”  which Bruce Springsteen covered in concerts (with Escovedo joining)  and “People,” which Escovedo performed live at the Democratic National Convention.

 
#6 JAMES MCMURTRY – JUST US KIDS
Lightning Rod Records – Released 4/15/08
Running with a narrative thread in honor of his father, Larry McMurtry, Just Us Kids  is another chapter in the hard-to-put-down book that is James McMurty’s musical canon. At its core is the Crazy Horse styled roots rock, with just enough grunge to give this Americana its bite. This turns into a full-on gnashing with a number of songs whose lyrics take aim at evil-doing politicians (“God Bless America” and “Cheney’s Toy” most notably). Protest songs counted though, McMurtry’s true lyrical calling card is bringing names and faces to folks mired in day-to-day life in the outskirts of flyover America. Though sitting at #6 on our year-end review, Just Us Kids  found itself at #2 both on a USA Today  Top 5 list and the Americana Music Association's most-played list.

#5 GRUPO FANTASMA – SONIDOS GOLD
Aire Sol Records – Released 6/17/08
The second album on our list to earn a Grammy nomination, Sonidos Gold  is a bit of an underdog to win in the “Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album” category. Of course, if there was a “Best Bad Ass Latin Funk Orchestra” category, Grupo Fantasma would win hands down. The 10-piece band borrows a groove from Fania, the ‘60s Spanish Harlem record label that pretty much invented salsa, as well as a grind from the Godfather of Soul, and a subtle knack of sampling borrowed equally from hip-hop and psychedelic ambiance. Of course, these are music critic sound bytes. What most folks notice is the driving rhythm and horn-heavy bombast of Latin dance music. It caught Prince’s attention, who might have helped Grupo’s chances by taking them to some mighty big stages in 2007.

#4 ELECTRIC TOUCH – ELECTRIC TOUCH
Justice Records – Released 8/26/08
This power-pop quartet took the summer festival circuit by storm in 2008 with prime slots at Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits—and they earned all these slots before recording their first CD. That’s what one blow-everyone-out-the-water gig in Austin can do. Elements of Queen and Bee Gees, and heavier doses of The Clash and The Beatles are evident, but Electric Touch ratchets up the intensity so high that these influences are left behind as they blaze forward to the frontier of indie rock. Nottingham native Shane Lawlor (who crossed the pond to Austin with IV Thieves) adds electro-pop keys to the mix of leather-clad garage rock with guitar-windmill swagger. Ringing in at 33 minutes, seven of the ten cuts on Electric Touch  would be the big hit standout on most any other album, aided by rousing, sing-along choruses and perfect harmony production.

#3 SHEARWATER – ROOK
Matador Records – Release Date 6/3/08
The only downfall of this recording is it packs so much haunting beauty and delicate grace, that it might almost be best lost for lengths of time, so each time you do revisit, it stuns you yet again. Opener “On the Death of the Waters” sets the tone, beginning with Jonathan Meiburg’s falsetto cantor, enchanting a listener into a numbing bliss—much like the mythic Siren singers—leaving us unaware of the impending tempest, an instant crash of feedback, French horn, and cymbals that takes us crashing against a crag of sea rocks. Meiburg, who left Okkervil River early in 2008 to focus entirely on the onetime side project of Shearwater, helms what is easily the most undefinable album on this list. Each song is its own mini epic, composed with such arcane instruments as pump organ, hammer dulcimer, bassoon, harp, glockenspiel as well as tuba, trumpet, clarinet, and more. As a whole, Rook  is the closest to opera that indie rock has gotten thus far.

#2 WALTER HYATT – SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS, VOLUME ONE
King Tears Music – Released 1/18/08
We decided to keep this album out of #1 on a technicality only, because the recording started in 1996, the same year Hyatt passed in a tragic plane crash. But it’s fair game for the 2008 list because this is all new, unreleased material. Hyatt cut the vocals and rhythm tracks before his death. His wife Heidi finally had the strength to finish them more than ten years later, enlisting the help of Jerry Douglas, Allison Moorer, Warren Hood, The Jordanaires, Carrie Rodriguez, and others to complete the arrangements and fills. Hyatt’s velvet voice is the bedrock, surrounded by elements of Motown, Americana, doo-wop, and shuffle. Some Unfinished Business   gives no evidence of its piecemealed nature, sounding like one seamless—and ultimately timeless—outpouring of musical genius. The Volume One in the title hints at more to come, which would be a wonderful gift to music lovers. This installment closes with “I’ll Come Knocking,” a stunningly beautiful song. On its own, its power causes a speechless embrace for its entirety. Listening with knowledge of the back story is life-changing: Nobody’s tomorrow is guaranteed; give, and take, as much love as you can fit into every single day.

#1 DREW SMITH – DREW SMITH’S LONELY CHOIR
Viro / Fat Caddy Records – Released 9/5/08
From the opening notes of staccato piano, ears perk up to this record with an inquisitive canine-quality. But we’re not listening to determine squirrel, cat, or intruder. Our senses are wrapping around pop melodies emerging from thin air, wondering how the trumpets, trombone, and banjo got in the yard. You can’t escape this album without thinking of The Beatles, Van Morrison, and The Kinks (especially the horn charts of Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)). Though Smith would beg you to expand your musical mind to include Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman, who he immortalizes—along with the very act of geeking out to great records—in “Nilsson Sings the Songs of Newman.” While Smith wrote all the songs, and delivers with a commanding presence, a nod certainly needs to be steered toward Matt Russell, who arranged all the compositions masterfully along with playing all keys (piano, organ, Rhodes, Wurlitzer). If you ever get stuck on that proverbial island, any of the ten on this list would be good to have with you, but Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir  will leave you felling good as much as you are satisfied. Read some more about Drew Smith here.