My name’s Will and I occasionally write some silly stuff for this fine website. Here are my choices:

Recorded music highlights of 2008:
The two records that stayed with me the most were ‘Afton’ by Anni Rossi, and Remember Remember’s self-titled album. ‘Afton’ is all whoops and viola, ‘Remember Remember’ intricate and serene, and both are things of real beauty. Other good albums: Leila, Cassetteboy, El Perro Del Mar, Mae Shi, Dimension X. Singles by Camille and Theo. Many Trojan box sets, many old ska and reggae songs, in particular ‘Bongo Man’ by Bongo Man Byfield and ‘El Pussycat’ by Roland Alphonso, which sounds like the theme from ‘Bottom’ but with people going ‘meow’ over it.

Live music highlights of 2008:
Way too many. My one day at Venn was probably my favourite of this year – from Hauschka to Snorkel to Corey Orbison, it was smiles all the way. Other stuff: Betty & The Werewolves were ridiculously fun twice, Golden Disko Ship the same amount and Errors about a million times. Noisy and great stuff from Jay Reatard in Bristol, and Times New Viking, Fringes, John And Jehn, Magik Markers, Vivian Girls, Lovvers, and A Place To Bury Strangers in Cardiff. Quiet, lovely stuff from the Rosie Taylor Project and Efterklang. More ridiculously fun stuff from Partyline, Kania Tieffer, Mae Shi and Glam Chops. Wildbirds And Peacedrums at Greenman. Camera Obscura in that London. Impressive cover versions from the local bands too: Meanz Heinz slipping into ‘Da Funk’, Spencer McGarry Season and Gindrinker mauling ‘Once In A Lifetime’ and Space In The 50s, Lt Meat and DC Gates destroying ‘Material Girl’. This is the edited version by the way. The quality of local promoters continues to bowl me over.

What else did you enjoy this year?
Seeing Mark E Smith getting thrown out of a film at the Hay Festival. The guitarist from Hreda coming over and shouting “Brothers in hair!” at me. The film My Winnipeg. Being allowed to DJ at some places. All of Sŵn, pretty much. The news that David Quantick is going out with someone from the Loves. Scrabble Sunday. The gay, existential zombie film Otto. Casey Raymond’s weird films. Seeing the famous bear of Madrid. The Junket Club. Getting into Vonnegut. The totally great food places Hungry Planet and Pablo’s Kitchen in Splott. Occasionally finding a pair of trousers I like.

2008 was…
Constantly accelerating.

2009 will be…
Spent trying to reconcile Googling ‘post oil’ with buying lots of CDs probably