HAPPY 2009! (yeah, I know, it's been a while)

2008 was a big year for me: I graduated from college, moved out to California, got 2 internships in the music industry, got a job in the music industry. I went to see the last Yellowcard tour and All Time Low’s first headlining tour; I went to huge festivals and small art halls. This past year will go down as a major year in my own personal history.

So what do I really have to look forward to in the upcoming year? Well, it started big enough: All Time Low – a band I have been following for over 3 years now (and working for for a while, first with a promotions company, then with an internship at Hopeless Records) – was named Alternative Press’ “Band of the Year” for 2008, and they just announced they are going on tour with Fall Out Boy in the Spring. Green Day is going to be releasing a new album – the follow up to 2004’s “American Idiot” (FINALLY!!!). Jimmy Eat World is doing a tour for the 10 year anniversary of the release of “Clarity.” And I just found out that the Get Up Kids are playing Bamboozle Left (and as long as they play “Mass Pike,” I can die happy). I’m studying for my LSATs and looking at law schools in LA. I’m getting health insurance and car insurance, and registering my car as a Californian. And I just watched the first African-American president sworn in, a man that I had a picture of hanging up in my freshman dorm (the cover of Newsweek I believe, from December 2004/January 2005) which my Republican ex-boyfriend *loved*, a man that I think is smart, honorable, and hopeful, all at the same time.

So here’s my list, my expectations for 2009:

Bands to Watch:
Anarbor
The Scenic
A Rocket to the Moon
Hey Monday

Bands to Keep Watching:
All Time Low
Mayday Parade
Cute is What We Aim For
Cobra Starship
Paramore

Bands to Remember:
Get Up Kids
Green Day
Jimmy Eat World

Bands I Wish Would Just Go Away:
Fall Out Boy
Panic(!) at the Disco

Hey, Remember When These Bands Were EVERYWHERE:
Boys Like Girls
Plain White T’s
The Beatles (yeah, I wasn’t alive for it either….but man how I wish I was there for Beatlemania!)