Sure these list are all over but I thought we would do one in our style. Here some music and just random Top 10 lists of things from 2008 from TRM friends and Family.

A few album lists:

Both Mike and I (Nathan) had a great year releasing our 3 of our favorite records from 2008. We felt like all of our bands worked extremely hard and made fantastic records. So for both of us our list have the same number one.

1. State Bird – Mostly Ghostly & 4 New Songs/ Max Justus – Five Leaping Leopards/ Interstates – Run Run

Mike’s Top 10 Albums for 2008:
2. Mt. Eerie: Lost Wisdom
3. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
4. No Age: Nouns
5. Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles
6. Kanye West: 808 and Heartbreaks
7. Grouper: Dragging a Deed Dear Uphill
8. White Fang: Pure Evil
9. Wolves in The Throne Room: Two Hungers
10. High Places: High Places

Nathan’s Top 10 for 2008
2. Hospital Ships – Oh Romona
3. Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
4. Lykki Li- Youth Novels
5. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
6. Jamie Lidell- Jim
7. Sportsday Megaphone – So Many Colours/ So Little Time
8. Deastro – Keepers
9. My Morning Jacket? – Evil Urges
10. Passion Pit – Chunk of Change EP
10. Weird Tapes – Get Religion EP (And Everything Else from their Blog)

More lists after the break

From Derek Barber(Perhapsy, The Winston Jazz Routine and Every Gentle Air)

Top Ten Underrated/Overlooked Albums of 2008 (in no particular order):
1.) Extra Life – Secular Works
2.) Cryptacize – Dig That Treasure
3.) Xiu Xiu – Women As Lovers
4.) Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
5.) Fell Trees – Territory
6.) Parenthetical Girls – Entanglements
7.) Evangelicals – The Evening Descends
8.) Breathe Owl Breathe – Ghost Glacier
9.) Peter and the Wolf – Mellow Owl
10.) Lake – Oh, The Places We’ll Go

Top Five Movie Disappointments of 2008:
1.) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — This one
broke my heart. Plain and simple. If spawning a new catch-phrase for
senseless movie excess (“nuking the fridge”) wasn’t enough, the donkey
kong-vine swinging action did the job… A real shame for certain.
2.) Be Kind Rewind — A surprisingly dull film for a genius like
Michel Gondry. Who would’ve thought Jack Black and Mos Def would have
so little fire? Not me. Of course, the incredibly boring scenes with
Danny Glover don’t help the situation much.
3.) The Dark Knight — This only makes the list because a coworker of
mine described it as: “The Best Action Movie Ever Made.” Far from it,
I’m afraid. Although, just like everyone else, I was incredibly
impressed by Ledger’s revamping and performance of a timeless villain,
but I didn’t think much of the movie’s over-arching theme:
essentially, Batman as a sacrificial figure… Plus, what was going on
with Morgan Freeman and the cell phone monitor? That was just
silliness. So, I’m not sure what the the “best action movie” may be,
but, for me, the best Batman movie is Mask of the Phantasm. Hands
down.
4.) Tropic Thunder — When previews showed for this a while back, the
audience (including me) were rolling in our seats without knowing if
this was “acceptable” behavior or not… While there are a few
brilliant comedic moments (who else could’ve wrestled with a character
such as Downey Jr.’s besides himself?) there was little focus: was it
an action-comedy or a comedy-action flick? I couldn’t tell. And
someone should’ve told Ben Stiller to hire an older VK sergeant… Kid
was like twelve.
5.) Quantum of Solace — It’s INCREDIBLY unfair for me to list a movie
I never saw as a disappointment, so this one I give to all of those
movie-goers who actually enjoyed Casino Royale: I told you so. ;)

Top 5 Favorite Records I Listened to in 2008 (no particular order):
1.) Beach House – Devotion
2.) Pixies – Doolittle
3.) Daniel Johnston – Yip Jump Music 1983
4.) Bill Frisell – East/West
5.) Evangelicals – The Evening Descends

From Alex O’nan (Interstates)
Top Five Beers I Had In 2008
5.Triple Karmeliet
4.Schlafly Baraktoberfest
3.Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock
2.St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
1.St. Bernardus Abt 12

From Caleb Winn (From Caleb Winn, State Bird, The Winston Jazz Routine)
in no particular order,
1.Bon Iver
2.Tim and Eric
3.Jameson Whiskey
4.Dexter
5.Bob Evans mac n cheese
6.Fleet Foxes
7.Akron
8.All of april in the van
9. Jared and Coby
10. Seattle

From Sam Billen (The Billions and Sam Billen)
I haven’t really kept up on music/movies, etc.. so, since I love food, I’m going to go with restaurants:
1) Indian Palace (Lawrence) – three words: Chicken Tikka Masala. This place has been around for a while, and is not the cheapest food in the neighborhood, but it is consistently amazing. The Chicken Tikka Masala is, for lack of better words, ‘to die for’.
2) Tortas Jalisco (Lawrence) – Supposedly this is authentic food from the Jalisco region of Mexico. In my books, it’s authentic food from PARADISE. Awesome Mexican food. Definitely try the tortas (Mexican style sandwiches) or the soft tacos. Better than all the other wannabe Mexican joints that try to call their Tex-mex food ‘authentic’.
3) Wa (Lawrence) – Although this Japanese restaurant is owned and run by a Korean couple, it’s about as authentic as you can get in the midwest. The atmosphere is classy and for some odd reason they always have awesome music playing (Spoon, Todd Rundgren, Sam Billen’s Christmas album :) – they also have a great selection of not-so-authentic-but-still-delicious sushi rolls.
4) Cho Ga (Overland Park) – Korean food at it’s best. My Korean friends have told me that the food here is kind of ‘home style’ (aka not too fancy or special), but to any non-Korean like me, it is unbeatable! They have 6 side dishes of kimchi, fried tofu, etc that come standard with any meal. Recommendation: Jae Yuk Bokkum (huge pile of spicy pork).
5) Cutters BBQ (Eudora) – you may now be thinking, ‘Eudora?’ But seriously – if you have never had ribs from Cutters, you have not lived. The atmosphere is a little smoky and, I hesitate to say it, but kind of white trashy (?), but well worth the drive to Eudora. Warning: do not order a ‘full order’ of ribs – even a small army could not finish that.
6) Yard House (Legends Shopping District) – Claiming to have the ‘world’s largest selection of draft beer’, the Yard House pulls through with more than just that. Don’t get me wrong, the beer is awesome (and they have almost anything you could want on tap, from the Japanese favorite Kirin to the fruity, lambic Framboise), but the food definitely holds it’s own.
7) Trezo Mare (Parkville) – This is an upscale, modern restaurant in the new shopping center in Parkville. Great date location.. very romantic. Give it a shot, if you’re willing to spend a good $40/person (once a year that’s ok, right?).
8) Chez Yasu (Topeka) – A quiant French restaurant owned and run by a Japanese staff. Great French food – a little pricey, but they have a great, affordable lunch menu.
9) Odowd’s Dublin (Country Club Plaza) – Traditional Irish food (Boxties, Bangers and Mash, etc) in a nice, dim Irish-pub style atmosphere. (side note: they have Guiness on tap)
10) Sung Son (Westport) – Try this place for lunch during the weekend. They have a great lunch buffet that has a wide variety of Thai and Vietnamese food, including some awesome Vietnamese soup.

From Meridith Kotas (Pirate PR www.piratepirate.com)
Top 10 Albums of 2008
1.Royal Bangs – We Breed Champions
2.Caitlin Rose – Dead Flowers
3.The Pack A.D. – Funeral Mixtape
4.The Heavenly States – Delayer
5.Frank Hoier – Lovers & Dollars
6.The Champion and His Burning Flame – The French EP
7.State Bird – Mostly Ghostly
8.Those Darlins – Wild One EP
9.Beau Jennings – Holy Tulsa Thunder
10.The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Around The Bend

From Danny Gibson (DJG Design www.djgdesign.com)
DJG’s 2008 Things Realized
- “Definitely”, not “Definately”.
- I love Raspberries. I like The Raspberries.
- Shopping for new jeans frustrates the heck out of me as 95% of fashion fads come complete with rips, snags, tears and terrible fades. If my pants are ripped, snagged, torn and faded it’s because they’re actually worn.
- I can floss!
- I kinda like the funky smell my gums let loose while flossing.
- One should never expect somebody to hold open the door for an elderly person, even when they are standing right next to the door and fully capable of opening a door…and only a decade shy of being elderly.
- Dried fruit as a snack tastes way better than artificially-flavored fruit snacks.
- “High School Musical” (Movie & Live Production) is awesome.
- Musicals that are all singing and no talking to carry the plot bore and bother me.
- I really dislike the term “Giclee” art print and any other arty-farty way to fake frame a way of making things.

DJG’s Recommends These Kansas City Related Internet Places of Interest in 2008
Micah Buzan: http://www.youtube.com/user/seapockets
Man is a Map: http://manisamap.blogspot.com/
Never Sleeping: http://www.neversleeping.com/
Little Red Wagons: http://littleredwagons.blogspot.com/
World of Forms: http://worldofforms.net/
Top Fiver: http://www.topfiver.com/
The Tambourine Club: http://www.tambourineclub.com/
The ACBs: http://www.theacbs.com/
David Seume: http://www.davidseume.com/
Falmouth House (see it in person please as it’s very inspiring and a KC treasure!): http://www.thelope.com/2006/12/animated-christmas.html

DJG’s Most Annoying Movies Seen for the First Time in 2008 (Five Star Scale)
Grey Gardens * *
Southland Tales * ½
The Mist * ½
The Go-Getter * *
The Fall * * ½
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer * * ½
May * * ½
Alice’s Restaurant * * ½
The Wild Blue Yawner * *
The Ex * *

DJG’s Movies Watched for the First Time in 2008 That Have Carried the Most Impact (Five Star Scale)
The Wrestler * * * * *
There Will Be Blood * * * * *
The Tin Drum * * * * *
Lars & The Real Girl * * * * ½
Hoop Dreams * * * * *
Be Kind Rewind * * * * ½
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly * * * * *
Young at Heart * * * * *
It’s A Wonderful Life * * * * *
Sorry, Haters * * * * ½

Alternates: Harvey Krumpet * * * * *, Brother’s Keeper * * * * *, The Cars That Ate Paris * * * * ½, Alice * * * * *, The Amazing Screw-On Head * * * * *, King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters * * * * *, Ratatouile * * * * *, (The First Half of) Wall-e * * * * *

DJG’s Most Played Bruce Springsteen Songs in 2008
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Lost In The Flood (Live NYC 2000)
Living Proof
Backstreets
You’ll Be Coming Down
Independence Day
No Surrender
Downbound Train
Dream Baby Dream (Suicide Cover)
Racing In The Street
Roulette
BONUS: Still playing over and over in my head The Boss’s amazing SPRING CENTER concert from August!

From Ryan Straits (State Bird)
2008’s Top 10 Albums of the Musical Persuasion
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
Brendan Canning – Something For All Of Us
Denison Witmer – Carry The Weight
This Will Destroy You – Self-Titled
Dr. Dog – Fate
She & Him – Volume One
Sufjan Stevens – California (oh wait…)

Honored Mentionables
Brightblack Morning Light – Motion To Rejoin
Cotton Jones Basket Ride – The River Strumming
Plants and Animals – Parc Avenue
Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us
Copeland – You Are My Sunshine

Highly Anticipated but Mostly Disappointing
Nada Surf – Lucky
Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Annuals – Such Fun
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

Top 5 Shows
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO
Radiohead & Grizzly Bear – Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
The Swell Season – Allen Theatre, Cleveland, OH
Wilco – Lakewood Civic Auditorium, Lakewood, OH
Iron & Wine – Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.