Being Editor at Large means, well, one is at large a great deal. When one holds such a post for a top notch music magazine, it generally means a lot of time is spent on the road, catching artists in their natural habitat.  Over the course of 2008 Sweet Talk did just that. I manged to see shows in fourteen states and four countries, as a journalist, fan, rookie roadie, and even a producer of several festivals. While I did not manage to see as many club gigs as I once did ( a second child will do that to you), I obviously ingested my fair share of the world's best drug, live music. Therefore, I present my highly opinionated top ten songs experienced in the flesh in 2008.

Click above to watch a live performance of "Pitter-Pat" from Erin McCarley's new album Love, Save the Empty, out now on Universal Republic Records.

related links:
ErinMcCarley.com
Erin McCarley on Myspace
Ten out of Tenn

Early last year, I had the enjoyable task of spending several hours in the company of Scarlett Johansson. I held it together. I didn't request a photo together, or an autograph...or even a funny soundbite to use as my voicemail greeting. That being said, if I ever found myself in a room with Bill Watterson, I would probably start shrieking or sob uncontrollably or wrap the man—scared and bewildered—up in a hug so tight that security would forcibly remove me from the premises. I have every last Calvin & Hobbes book. Some date back nearly two decades and were purchased from elementary-school book fairs. I don't read them very often, but I will never dump them in the thrift-store pile. They're precious to me. When someone brings this much laughter into your life, this much delight, you show deference. So I will always keep my books close. Here are five of the things I love about Mr. Watterson's famous strip.

Photos taken by Sean Edgar at Webster Hall

Click above to listen to the new album from blues legend Susan Tedeschi. 

My big combined December birthday/Christmas present from my wife and kids this year was an XBox 360, complete with Live account and games. For two weeks, while the rest of the house slept, I played Fallout 3, saving the residents of a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. from super mutants, feral ghouls, human slavers and fascist genetic purists posing as American patriots. But since then, Gears of War II has hardly been touched and Bioshock remains unopened in its case. Sadly this isn't due to any new-found willpower or productivity (the Christmas tree is coming down soon, I promise!). Instead, I've discovered that I've been carrying around a fantastic gaming console all along—my iPhone. Sure, some of the free games are mildly entertaining (especially Topple). But the first app that I plopped $5 for, Reign of Kings, has me completely addicted. Here are five great war game iPhone apps for less than a Lincoln:

The Paste staff is slowly trickling back into the office after our holiday trips, and I think I can safely speak for everyone when I say that, if we're not completely happy to be home, then at least we're thrilled to be off the roads for a bit. Not that Atlanta traffic is much better, but hey, better the snarled, congested, crazy-making concrete devil you know, right? In tribute to coming home from the holidays, and in celebration of all the travels 2009 will bring, here are nine great songs about roads. Listen to them all on the last page, and leave your own favorites in the comments.

The musical capital of the world?  It's not even close in my mind.

Glasvegas, who are Glasgow natives (see Camera Obscura, The Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, Lloyd Cole, Teenage Fanclub, Belle and Sebastian, Paolo Nutini, Amy MacDonald, Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand and a host of others who have considerably brightened the musical landscape over the past ten years), have released a very, very fine self-titled debut album.

NME has dubbed them "the best new band in Britain," which is usually a sure sign of the Hype Machine in Overdrive. But this time they could be right. This is a surprisingly bracing combination of Jesus and Mary Chain guitar buzz, Proclaimers vocal bluster (complete with sometimes almost impenetrable Scots brogue), and, incredibly, impossibly, romantic '50s doo-wop. I like it a lot. The subject matter -- aimless violence, ennui, football yobs, endless pints, chasing skirts -- might be the best rock 'n roll portrait of disaffected youth since those early Clash albums. Best of all is the unnerving "Stabbed," in which lead singer James Alan matter-of-factly proclaims, "I'm gonna get stabbed/The Baltic fleeto are up my arse/No cavalry could ever save me" to the accompaniment of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Stunning.