ROTR has been rubbish at this whole blogging thing. We admit it. Major fail.

To summarise, 2008 was, in no particular order: ATP Vs Pitchfork, Glastonbury, Flaming Lips at Lovebox (and Wayne Coyne introducing a screening of Christmas on Mars), loads of chaotic Jay Reatard and Black Lips shows, a lot of Marah, three trips to Sweden, hanging out with Speedo and the Night Marchers, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a healthy dose of Billy Childish, a motivational lecture from Andrew W.K., the Hellacopters splitting up, Gallows at the 100 Club, The Hold Steady, the return of Bosshog, King Khan and and and – relax.

Luckily for all concerned our New Year’s resolution is to get back on it. As well as a brand new issue of the zine firmly lodged in the pipeline, we’ve just booked SXSW 2009,  so we’ll be back on the springtime streets of Austin in no time. It’ll be like 2008 never happened.

 Change is afoot at Riot on the Rocks, with a newly formed and highly collaborative editorial team now on board, you won’t have to rely on me for cool shit on the blog and in the zine – this blog is going to be opened up for all our writers to contribute to and creative control of the zine is also going to committee. We’re hoping this will make for a more exciting, bigger and better mag to take us in to 2009. We also want to hear from anyone else who thinks they have what it takes to get involved – writers, artisits, photographers please email us - info [at] riotontherocks.com. We want rants, interviews, gig photos, previews and reviews of anything rock and roll. Anything.

This year aside from SXSW, we’re looking forward to spending some time in LA, San Francisco and New York again so any tips on bands to check out please let us know. Plus we’ve got Glastonbury, ATP, and a shedload of other shows and festivals on the cards. Stick with us!