Valencia

Best Album(s) of 2008

5. Deerhunter - Microcastle - I only heard about Deerhunter this year when I heard they were opening for Nine Inch Nails this summer.  I checked them out because I was a fan of "The Slip," but this album sounds nothing like what I would expect from an opener of NIN.  Regardless of that, this album is a great mixture of noise and pop and is easy to listen to all the way through.

4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - This is one of those records where in order to fully appreciate it, you have to learn the story of what went into it's writing and recording.  Brendan explains it a little further in his list but this is basically the result of being locked away in a cabin in the woods after having your heart broken.  It's an album about self examination and personal discovery and that's what makes it so important to this year in music.

3. TV on the Radio - Dear Science - I heard this album literally three days before making this list and I think I would have been pretty upset with myself if I didn't put it on here.  I was a huge fan of "Return to Cookie Mountain" and the band took everything I liked about that record and improved on it with this one.

2. Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - This band has been a big deal to me ever since I heard the song "Stararflur" in that scene at the end of the life aquatic.  I always found it so interesting how in their more recent releases they created their own language of jibberish to fit melody on top of.  Either way, this isn't a huge departure from their previous releases but sonically, it's much different than what I ever remember them doing before and it made it interesting to listen to.

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes - I heard first heard this band on my local college radio station and decided to check out the album.  I didn't know who the song I heard was by until a little later but when I found out, I picked up the album.  It's good to hear a full album of songs that remind me why I like this type of music in the first place.

Favorite Song(s) of 2008

MGMT - Time to Pretend - It's pretty tough to try and pick one song that was the best song you heard all year, but I literally haven't been able to get this song out of my head since the first time I heard it and I think considering that alone is one reason it was a best this year.  On top of all of that, it was refreshing to hear a song that was a play on the "live fast, die young" mentality.

Your Personal Favorite On-stage Moment/Show of 2008

I'll never forget playing the Bamboozle festival in New Jersey.  It was the beginning of touring for our second record and it was inspiring to see how many people had come out to show they had our backs.

Classic Album or Artist You Discovered This Year

I wouldn't say I necessarily heard Bob Dylan for the first time ever this year, but when we were recording our album back in January, we had all started listening to a few of his early albums as a means for inspiration and for me, that was the first time I really paid attention to him, and a lot of his records were kind of the soundtrack for the year.

Best Film You Saw This Year

Cloverfield was a movie that got a lot of mixed reviews, but the idea behind it was so good.  You take monster movies with a grain of salt a lot of times because they're always so fantastical but this movie put you in the shoes of people experiencing what was going on.  It was actually terrifying knowing just as little as the characters in the movie did about what was going on.  It brought a whole new light to the genre.

Favorite new gadget, technology, site or application you can't live without

Digg.com is probably the best website I've ever seen.  It's all the information you could possibly want to find, organized by who is searching for what most.  It's the world's largest digital filing cabinet.

Artist You Are Most Excited About In 2009 (any medium)

I'd have to say tie between a couple of classics with new albums that are coming out that I'm looking forward to hearing - Bruce Springsteen's got a new album coming in January, and I heard Green Day will have a new album next year as well.  I'm always excited to hear new music from artists' I've been listening to almost my whole life.

Your Latest Guilty Pleasure

I'm not sure what really makes something a guilty pleasure... something people might be surprised to know I really like?  I've been really into Santogold's album lately.  I don't think anyone saw that coming.

What should President Obama change first in 2009?

I've read in a few different articles that if we're set on the right course, it's not completely unreasonable to go all-renewable when it comes to our energy within the next 20 years.  A lot of people think that if we're set on course, it'll be the best way on the path to conservation.  I mean, working on the environmental issue should be second to getting the economy back on track, but it's definitely something that needs to be considered now.

A Memorable/Humorous/Classic Moment on the tour bus/road in 2008

One night after a show, we were checking into our hotel rooms at like 4 in the morning after a pretty long night, and when we got to the rooms, both doors were locked.  They were connected to each other, and long story short, some guy had broken in there and, from what it looked like after he left, he had been staying there for a couple of days.  He snuck out while the hotel manager had gone to get us new keys, and when we looked out the window into the parking lot, he was sprinting towards the highway to make a getaway.  It could have gone a completely different route and been pretty bad, but since it wasn't, it's definitely been a classic story for us to tell from the road this year.