How in the world am I supposed to do this? It's seriously too much pressure. I'm not kidding here, I started this site with the intent of sharing my thoughts and some shiny photos of good shows going on here in the Portland area, and eventually started taking on CD reviews as well.

I wish that we had had more time to go to more shows and share more of our experiences with all of you, and in fact that is a New Years resolution here at Live Music PDX. We will be getting our butts into more shows, and getting even more CD reviews out there for all of you.

In this article, I am going to be putting out a list of our favorites. Ranging from best show to best album, best photos and then finally best review.

This should have been a democratic event, but with the cluster f@ck in the weather before Christmas and a general rush to get back to work and keep our day jobs before New Years, I have had no real chance to sit the staff down and pick their brains...so this will be chosen by myself, and if you want to get the real scoop you can ask any of the other writers or shooters for what really peaked everyone's attention the most.

First and foremost are the best shows that Live Music PDX covered in 2008.

This took some serious thought. There was some really stiff competition for the number one spot, but this is the show that Don and myself have referred to as a favorite more than any other show...well other than #2, which is a really close call. If you haven't seen Jared Mees and the Grown Children, then go see them. If you have, then go see them again. It was a huge party the whole night with the energy running high and absolutely amazing from beginning to end.

This show came really close to being the number one, but it had one hit against it. It wasn't in Portland. This is a crappy reason to get bumped to the runner up spot, but it had to be done. This band is just quite simply amazing. You owe it to yourself to see them perform live, even if you have to drive your ass all the way to Seattle to do it.

Second on our list of bests of 2008 comes the best article.

This show really should be declared the #3 for best shows. We got to see Portlanders do something at a concert that you just don't see very often. Dance. Don rocked the poor little pages of our site with his always magic words and also put to print the very first literary reference to our site's very own great white whale. She will for ever be known as Jazz Hands by us all, and we will be watching for her at the rest of the shows we see in our life time.

Next, we have the Editor's (that's me...the one with hideous grammar) nominations for best photos.

This photo was taken by Shawn Reinert at the Auto Pilot for Lovers show. Shawn, I'm not sure how you talked this girl into letting you do this, but it's still my favorite photo from the year. This was the second concert review we ever ran on the site, and when I read the words and then saw the photos I knew that we were going to be just fine. It's not every day you can cull out a staff like ours, offer them no pay what so ever and get results like this.

I know I am going to catch a ration of crap for nominating one of my own photos, and honestly I would love to get some feed back from people if they can think of a better nomination, but this is my favorite shot from a great show at the Doug Fir where Hill Stomp put on a show that I hope a lot of you got the chance to see.

Last up. Best albums of the year.

Seriously. This album was quite simply the one that stood out from the pack. Blind Pilot has brought a quality of music to the Portland Area that will help keep our fair city vibrant with the sound of nice guy singing, happily strummed guitars, swishing and tapping drums and a violin section that just can't help but make you smile and dance along. Keep your eyes on these guys. I have a feeling they won't be able to do anything but go on to great places. Thanks for sharing the amazing album gentlemen and we're looking forward to the next.

Still my favorite album to put in when I am heading out on the road for a ride on my motorcycle. Dicky has become a good friend of the site, and the deep personal music on this album will always be one of my favorite CD's to introduce to friends. You all should know that they also brought out a new album, Everything is Not Loveable. This new album is a great sophomore release. With a full band backing Nick as compared to I Never Wanted to Believe in Ghosts, the new CD goes to show that this new band has plenty of great music up their sleeve and should have a place on everyone's iPod.

Well that's it ladies and gentlemen. Those are the best we had to offer you from last year. We hope you all had a great New Years, and keep the e-mails coming. We'll have new content from the Bladen County Showcase coming up soon, and a handful of new CD reviews and announcements. Can't wait to see you at a show and we hope you find some killer new tunes in 2009.

Jake Carlsen

Editor for LiveMusicPDX.com

Jake.Carlsen@LiveMusicPDX.com