Top 10 Abums:
1. Fleet Foxes
2. Little Joy
3. Verse
4. Digitalism
5. ETAN – Tron-Step
6. Have Heart
7. Brazilian Girls
8. The Stills
9. RATATAT
10. Passion Pit
Verse rocked 2008 because:
It is hard to choose but I think if I had to pick one album and explain why it rocked it would be Verse Aggression Whether you are fan of hardcore or not, the lyrics sung on this album a lone stand strong as a piece of art. They capture the time in which we live, tackling issues from poverty, superficiality, corruption in government and war. Sean Murphy screams about universal issues that are articulated in an intelligent, artistic, and mature manner.
Favorite thing of the year? PROLETARIAT line of T-shirts. The Proletariat line of t-shirts is my favorite thing of 2008. The brand is built on its uniqueness, quality, and the message it sends to the consumer. This is a company that is not afraid to push the envelope and will continue to do so. Check them out for a better understanding.
What did you wish you did more of in 2008? I think I did everything I wanted to do. I graduated college, landed a great job and have met a lot of amazing people this year including my new found NYC friends.
What are you looking forward to in 2009? An exciting year and hopefully the change that we have been promised.
This album is way cooler than the Iowa Caucus and, in my opinion, Gogol Bordello is the best live band touring right now. However it took me some time to get into this one and wasn’t until I picked the CD back up in August or September that I really fell in love with it. 
It seemed I could not escape Jose this year. No matter what I did or where I went, he was there. Even though he’s just a guy with a guitar, he’s captivating to watch live. His music is delicate and solid at the same time. I’m not sure if it’s strumming technique, his punk rock roots, or his willingness to cover electronic bands like The Knife and Massive Attack. It seems there’s not much that Jose Gonzalez can’t do. And there’s even less that he can’t do amazingly.
The Red Album was definitely my favorite album of the year. It combined the aggressiveness of Mastodon and the ambient groove of Isis with a Southern rock twang. Amazing live show at the Bowery Ballroom as well.
It’s been about 8 years since Pharoahe Monch’s debut album and there are not a lot of rappers who could step it up after that long of a wait. Pharoahe Monch however, should teach a class on how to do so. His second album, Desire, is produced amazingly with influences of a lot of soul and jazz sounds creating a much smoother and mellow vibe to the whole album. I’ve always considered him one of the top MC’s in hip hop and was pleasantly surprised to hear that he has definitely not dropped off. I don’t think I’ve stopped listening to this album a few times a week since it came out and don’t think I will for a while! I’d have to say the song that impressed me the most was the re-make of Public Enemy’s “Welcome To The Terrordome” – the mellower sound of the horns and his Monch flow make for an amazing track. I’d say he’s still in the top in my book
Psyence Fiction was an album that has consistently proven itself as an influence in my taste of all music. When I first heard that album so many years ago, it simply blew my mind, opening me up to a whole new realm of music the likes of which this small town boy from Indiana had never heard. The guests on the album made me realize that HipHop wasn’t all the gangster noise I had heard for so many years, but that there was AMAZING music being made that I hadn’t had access to. DJ Shadow’s work on it made me a Shadow fan for life. Drums of Death is still one of the sickest tracks ever.
Memorial makes the top of my list this year and last due to the absolute beautiful music singer Pete Appleby makes, and based on how often I listen to the record. Renee Heartfelt, his last band, was on the top of my list the year before as well! It reminds me of Quicksand and Texas Is The Reason, but an updated version, which I listen to probably 10 times more than I do Quicksand and Texas Is the Reason. Some songs are a little softer and more emotional, and some verge on being aggressive, but I don’t think there is ever a time when listening to it doesn’t make me feel better. And they did the whole Radiohead thing of “send us money and we’ll email you the songs” months before Radiohead did. You can still get the songs in the same way by going to their