MyRareGuitars.com

What do you get when you take one of best bands to ever come out of Canada and make a record with an all-star cast of singers? Perhaps the best album of the year, that’s what.

WIRE has done it once again with RED BARKED TREE. From the opening notes of PLEASE TAKE, the album feels like a book-end to that 1988 classic LP.

No rare guitars or wacky amps in this month’s column, as I haven’t bought anything in a while. I’m still waiting for my own bailout for the bailout we’ve paid for a few times over before I can resume buying strange amps and guitars again. So, without further delay, the obligatory TOP 10 list for the end of the year. You’ll note that most of these things were not released in 2008, nor are there only 10 of them. There are 4 extra and the price is right. Peace, all.

Released in 1982 the LA band The Dream Syndicate’s first full-length LP (remember those?), The Days of Wine and Roses, has stood the test of time and deserves to be hailed for what it is: a classic album of that most democratic of music forces, Garage Rock. Ever wonder what Bob Dylan might sound like had he fronted a band composed of half of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and half of The Velvet Underground? Well, strap in, because you’re in for a ride.

On Antidepressant, English cult singer/songwriter Lloyd Cole’s fourth album for indie label One Little Indian, the suave, smooth tunesmith shucks off his velvet smoking jacket, pops a pill or two, and lets down his pompadour. Though there’s nothing here that strikes a listener quite as immediately and succinctly as Cole’s 1995 bubble-under pop hit Like Lovers Do, a few spins reveal another gem in the crown of this smart, funny, self-deprecating troubadour.