Two time zones, two different coasts, 1,000 screaming kids, two live shows, one plane ride, four weddings and one Miley Cyrus — that pretty much sums up my New Year’s ‘09 celebrations and the next 24 hours of my life!

I arrived at LAX yesterday for one of our biggest shows of the year: “FNMTV Presents: A Miley-Sized Surprise … New Year’s Eve 2009″ (long title, huh?). As always, MTV’s annual New Year’s show will be broadcast live from New York’s Times Square — but this year we’re spicing things up in a very big way. And that’s what brings me to the Los Angeles area.
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We here at MTV News are a pretty diverse bunch, so the views expressed by some in our more official-type year-end lists (like James Montgomery’s Top 25 Albums and Best Songs, and the Mixtape Monday Awards) are not necessarily shared by the rest of the newsroom. So, this week we gave everyone else a chance to chime in with their own lists and explain (or defend) their choices. You’ll find the staff faves of 2008 all together here.

By Christopher “CJ” Smith

2008 Year in Music: Were you listening to the punk-rock underground?

2008 was a year where lo-fi, sh–gaze and weirdo-punk reigned supreme in this formerly straight and narrow-minded indie fan’s life. Fleet Foxes? F— that pretty-boy sh–. TV on the Radio? Been there, done that. Vampire Weekend? LOL.

Every record in 2008 seemingly was an exercise in how not to make interesting and/or exciting music. It was in the bedrooms, basements and garages, however, that musicians WERE taking chances and creating fun new pop landscapes smothered in noise, tapping into their punk lineages, crafting terrific garage rock and, above all, writing hooks that wouldn’t leave your head for days.

These 20 records are a good starting point for a year that was rife with melodies, glorious fuzzy noise and static. They’ve all got MySpace pages, so take a listen to what they’re doing and hear what you may have missed.

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Buzzworthy blog’s own Tamar Anitai called up today and asked me for “a very special favor.” Minutes later I was sitting at her desk smelling a Post-it note.

With a tester bottle cleverly hidden in her desk drawer, she asked James Montgomery and I to give our first impressions of the fragrance she had sprayed on the paper. It was very strong, sweet, and made me think of women I would have a crush on, but be too intimidated to talk to. Overpowering, but sexy.

James was slightly more highbrow about it. “It recalls fresh linens and Sunday mornings,” he proclaimed.

Then when we learned it was a man’s fragrance: Diddy’s new I Am King.

Read the rest of our I Am King smell test at Buzzworthy.MTV.com…

For about eight hours on Monday, AFI bassist Hunter Burgan was engaged to actress Zooey Deschanel.

At least, that’s the way In Touch Weekly reported things yesterday morning, erroneously writing that the couple had gotten engaged during the holidays and that they were “so excited” to spend the rest of their lives together. It all sounded very lovely — if not a little bit odd — but it wasn’t true.

As we know by now, Deschanel did get engaged over the holidays, but it wasn’t to Burgan — rather, Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard (a source close to the couple confirmed the news to MTV Monday afternoon. Needless to say, it was fairly awkward, and not just because Burgan had reportedly dated Deschanel in the past. In Touch would soon correct the mistake, but that did little to stem the tide of reports that Burgan was betrothed. Read more…

We here at MTV News are a pretty diverse bunch, so the views expressed by some in our more official-type year-end lists (like James Montgomery’s Top 25 Albums and Best Songs, and the Mixtape Monday Awards) are not necessarily shared by the rest of the newsroom. So we’re giving everyone else a chance to chime in with their own lists and explain (or defend) their choices. You’ll find the staff faves of 2008 all together here.

By Rya Backer, Production Assistant

I’m actually on vacation right now, and am typing this on a computer that might as well be operated by foot pedal, so no fun webcam plea from me. I don’t think I could pick a definitive favorite song from 2008 anyway, not because I didn’t especially like anything, but because I liked too many songs! Anyway, here are my favorite albums of 2008:

10. Passion Pit, Chunk of Change EP — These guys have, like, seven songs to their name thus far. Very excited to hear what’s next.

9. Neil Young, Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968 — I don’t think this counts as a “new” album, per se, but half the bands I’ve listed would be nothing if it weren’t for him. “Birds” and his between-song banter are heartbreaking and heartwarming, respectively.

8. The Streets, Everything Is Borrowed — Hooray! It’s more A Grand Don’t Come for Free than The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living!

7. Dodos, Visiter — At first, I listened to “Jodi” on repeat, then I realized there were a lot more songs on the album that were just as good.

6. Marnie Stern, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That — Between Marnie Stern’s fingerpicking and Zach Hill of my beloved Hella on drums, this album makes me feel untalented and boring; luckily, I need that kind of motivation. Read more…

By now, you’re probably aware that Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth to a son over the weekend, a seven-pound, four-ounce bundle of joy rather majestically named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

By naming her son Tripp, Bristol kept in line with the men of the Palin clan (her father is named Todd, and she’s got brothers named Track and Trig), and while lil’ Tripp’s namesake can’t match the sheer WTF-ness of, say, Bronx Mowgli Wentz, we’re still big fans of the handle. After all, it not only recalls the windswept vistas of Alaska’s north — and “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis — but it also makes him sound like a character in “Dazed and Confused” (”Tripp Johnston … Alright, alright, alright!”). Read more…

By Rachel Josue

It was a very exciting 2008 here in the MTV Newsroom. It was a year of triumph and tragedy, a year of secret weddings and pregnancies, a year of overcoming adversity and a year of inspiration and change.

2008 brought us everything from the shocking death of Heath Ledger and the tragedy that befell Jennifer Hudson and her family, to the reinvention of Britney Spears and the successes of “The Dark Knight” and Tha Carter III. Your favorite artists and celebrities eloped (is it legal yet, Speidi?), married overseas (nice tats, Mariah and Nick) and got hitched in secret (thanks for finally admitting to that, Jay and B). They had babies and — in true Hollywood style — named them strange things (I am available to babysit when Bronx befriends Brooklyn and they have a play-date in Manhattan. Just saying.). And, Chinese Democracy actually materialized, to the delight of Dr. Pepper fans.

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It’s not every day that you get an e-mail from Pete Wentz. Actually, now that I think of it, it kind of is. Perhaps it’d be more correct to say that “it’s not every day you get an e-mail from Pete Wentz … and he’s asking you for something.”

So imagine my surprise last week when, in the midst of the Christmas madness, I checked my MTV inbox and discovered a note from Mr. Wentz himself, asking if I’d be interested in submitting a list of my favorite “people, albums, movies, books, arts or events” of 2008 that he could include on his blog. It seems he was growing bored with the endless stream of year-end “Best Of” lists (like, ahem, this one or this one), and wanted to create something a little bit different. It seemed like a pretty cool idea, and even though I had no idea who else he had sent the e-mail to, I decided to send a list anyway. (Also, there was a brief time over the summer when Pete and I were co-workers on “FNMTV,” so I figured I owed it to him). Read more…

Joe Jonas isn’t afraid of a sleeveless shirt, but it looks like the kid is afraid of a bra. A video posted on YouTube, from a concert back in August, shows a rabid JoBro fan partaking in the time-honored concert tradition of tossing underwear at a pop star.

Joe, not realizing at first what’s being tossed at him, goes to grab the item of clothing. Upon seeing that it’s a bra, he decides not to follow through on the catch, while brothers Nick and Kevin, along with Demi Lovato, sing “This Is Me.”

Judging by the reaction on his face, you can almost hear him saying, “Eww!” But no worries: Joe has a sense of humor about the whole thing, laughing about it to some minion hanging around backstage.
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Million dollar paydays are for suckers! As Pete Wentz promised, he and bride Ashlee Simpson are not going to pimp out photos of little Bronx Mowgli to the drooling tabloid press. No, they decided to spread a little free Christmas cheer instead, and posted the first official offspring snap of the one-month old on Pete’s Friendsorenemies.com site over the holiday weekend — and they’ve even included links to three charities they’re asking fans to help support. Read more…