Commercials are Annoying but at least the Music is Good

If you guys are like us and find yourselves wondering what song was just used in a commercial, then you might appreciate these two recent discoveries:

M&M Commercial: [Mp3] The The - This is the Day


iPod Commercial: [Mp3] The Fratellis - Flathead

Reminder: Last Chance for Free Tickets

If you are a fan of Vega 4 or Augustana, and live in the Cleveland area, read our earlier post, and email us with what a Vega 4 is so you can win free tickets to their show this evening at The House of Blues!

Tonight: Asobi Seksu!

Tonight @ The Grog Shop, Asobi Seksu makes their first ever appearance in Cleveland. We have been fans of this band for over 3 years now and have been waiting earnestly for them to come to c-town (even going so far as to beg them on myspace). If you are familiar with our blog, you may even recall last spring we drove to Detroit to go see them, but to no avail because their van broke down and were unable to make the show. What also makes this show special is that our good friends BEARS are opening, so this is going to be twice as nice (with local band, JJ Magazine also on the bill). The show starts at 9:30pm. Be there.

(mp3) Asobi Seksu - Goodbye from Citrus, one of our favorite records of '06

(mp3) Asobi Seksu - I'm happy but you don't like me from their awesome s/t debut back in '04

Top 5 Songs of The Week!!

For the second time this week, we find ourselves watching 13 Going On 30 -- is that weird? Maybe we shouldn't be admitting doing so, but the movie has something undeniably comforting about it. Not to mention, we are both big fans of Mark Ruffalo. . .

Yeah, so anyway, we hope you enjoy these Top Five Songs of the Week!

5. SoftLightes - The Robots In My Room Were Playing Arena Rock It's like Daft Punk going Indie Rock. . .and succeeding

4. The Good, The Bad, And The Queen - 80's Life This Brit supergroup is proving themselves worthy of all the hype, especially with this song

3. The Airborne Toxic Event - Does This Mean You're Moving On? Rolling Stone named this unsigned LA band one of the Top 25 Bands on Myspace, and for good reason

2. Uffie - Hot Chick This sassy brunette girl with a filthy mouth is catchy as hell, we guarantee you won't be able to stop this song from repeating in your head or on your ipod

1. Rosie Thomas (ft. Sufjan Stevens) - The One I Love A highlight from Rosie's criminally overlooked latest release, These Friends of Mine, that's breathtakingly beautiful

Yay for Colorful Earbud Pads (and WinterKids)

The other day, Jose got me some new earbud pads that are all fun and colorful and stuff. . .

So, buy them for yourself here or at your local Apple Store ;) And, download:

[Mp3] WinterKids - Tape It Highly Recommended!

Cooking for Engineers. . .

While drinking a glass of Coppola's smooth Chardonnay and watching some good old Jeopardy, we are attempting to cook ourselves a dinner (admittedly, Heinen's prepared Rosemary Chicken Breasts stuffed with Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomato). Also worth noting, we tested out for the very first time our new Waring Pro Wine Chiller -- compliments of Erin and Todd. And, we must say that it is absolutely fabulous!

Along the lines of cooking and drinking is an excellent website we stumbled upon via Wine & Politics, called Cooking for Engineers. To Kelly, it's pretty cool -- not only b/c she's an engineer, but b/c this website features recipes that are both common sense and challenging. Updated daily, Cooking for Engineers also provides relevant updates -- such as the owner of French Laundry opening his new restaurant "Ad Hoc" in the San Fran area. Definitely check it out sometime, especially if you have (as the site states) an analytical mind. . .

Oh yes, and since we haven't updated in a bit, here are some tunes that came up on shuffle while preparing our meal :)

[Mp3] Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
[Mp3] Stereolab - "...Sudden Stars"
[Mp3] Grandaddy - Now It's On
[Mp3] Margot & The Nuclear So & So's - Quiet as a Mouse

xo

Top 5 Songs of The Week!!

This picture above gives you a good idea how much fun Bears were last night. Also as a result of having so much fun, we are taking it very easy on this Sunday and on the road to recovery from our revelry.

5. [Mp3] Loveninjas - I want to be like Johnny C My Bloody Valentine-influenced dance pop from Sweden

4. [Mp3] Band of Horses - The End's Not Near (New Year cover) Anything "new" from BoH is always welcomed, on the latest Soundtrack of the recently deceased The O.C.

3. [Mp3] The One AM Radio - In The Time We Got We were thrilled when we heard about this band (aka Hrishikesh Hirway) coming out with a new album so we can hear more of his always beautiful hushing melodies

2. [Mp3] The Airfields - No Where Left To Go Makes us think of Interpol meets Radio Dept. meets Broadcast. . .we are in love!

1. [Mp3] Rose Melberg - Irene A beautifully calming song, reminding us of a less somber Azure Ray (Kelly's dream come true)

Saturday Happenings

This afternoon we checked out the new bowling alley downtown with some friends, aka The Corner Alley, on East 4th Avenue and highly suggest you do the same (if you live in the Cleveland area, of course).

For now, we are enjoying some lovely Pinot Grigio via Mandolina of Santa Barbara County, CA while watching the ever so amusing film, Go.

In the meantime we are getting ready to head over and see Bears perform at The Grog Shop (with The Twilight and Afternoon Naps) for their free show. See you there!

One bank ..... One love?

You may recall in November when a particular Bank of America employee paid homage to his employer via the powerful reworking of U2's One. Fast forward to this evening, while cruising youtube we discovered a recording of David Cross and Johnny Marr performing a fantastic cover of that very song. You just have to see this for yourself, it is just plain awesome.

Click here if are curious to see the actual lyrics.

*More* Best Of 2006 Lists

Throughout this past holiday season, we were extremely busy -- so, as a simple yet effective way to catch up we thought we'd devise a few more lists of our favorite things about 2006.

Top Five Shows:

1. Sigur Ros @ The Palace Theatre (Cle, OH)
   
2. Voxtrot @ Andyman's Treehouse (C-bus, OH)
   
3. Cat Power & The Memphis Rhythm Band @ Hartwood Acres (Pitt, PA)
   
4. Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins @ House of Blues (Cle, OH)
   
5. Tilly and the Wall @ The Grog Shop (Cle, OH)
   

Honorable Mention: The very first Bears show @ The Beachland Tavern (Cle, OH) and Band of Horses @ The Grog Shop, which we coincidentally saw the exact same night!

Top Five Movies:

1. Half Nelson
   
2. Science of Sleep
   
3. Brick
4. Borat
   
5. The Squid & The Whale

Honorable Mention: Match Point. . .oh yes and of course The Break-up (um no)

Top Five Cleveland Restaurants:

1. Momocho
   
2. Taza (brought to us by those great guys from Aladdin's)
   
3. Ponte Vecchio (The above picture was taken there)
   
4. Fire (see our wine dinner post here)
   
5. That Place on Bellflower

Out of Town Food Faves: Rhodes D7 (Dublin, IR), Ear Wax (Wicker Park, Chicago), Cafe Zinho (Shadyside, Pittsburgh)

Top Five Wines:

1. Hanzell Vineyards - Pinot Noir & Chardonnay are both amazing (Sonoma Valley)
   
2. Roederer Estate - Brut Rose Champagne (California)
   
3. Tres Bagos Douro - Red Wine (Vila Real, Portugal)
   
4. Vixen Sparkling Wine - Shiraz, Sauvignon, Cab Franc blend (Australia)
   
5. Angeline - Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast)
   

Honorable Mention: The Taittinger Champagne we shared in celebration of our engagement

Top Five Trips:

1. Dublin, Ireland - Visit Becky & Paul / Engagement [some pics on flickr]
   
2. Naples, FL - Extended holiday getaway
   
3. Chicago, IL - New Year's Eve '06 / '07
   
4. Pittsburgh, PA - Shopping & Dining in Shadyside / Cat Power show
   
5. South Bend, IN - Erin & Todd Festivities
   

Honorable Mention: Detroit, MI - Visit Jeni / "Asobi Seksu show"

**2006 was such a wonderful and memorable year for us, making it quite the challenge for 2007 to meet it's standard -- only time will tell :)

Bonus: Check our Best of 2005 lists here

Show Archive

Since we started dating, we have shared some truly memorable experiences at a variety of shows -- here is a list we are starting to help remind us and keep track of them all. . .

The Walkmen / French Kicks - 02.2004
The Stills / Metric - 05.2004
The Shins / Rogue Wave - 07.2004
Rilo Kiley / Tilly & The Wall - 09.2004
Sondre Lerche - 10.2004
Interpol / The Secret Machines - 10.2004
Jem - 11.2004
The Killers - 12.2004
Keane / Zutons - 01.2005
Ben Lee / Maria Taylor - 04.2005
Ash / The Bravery - 04.2005
Keane / Brenden Benson - 04.2005
Spoon / The Clientelle - 06.2005
Aqualung / Cary Bros. - 06.2005
Stars / Most Serene Republic - 07.2005
Lollapalooza - 07.2005
Imogen Heap - 09.2005
Sufjan Stevens / Laura Veirs - 10.2005
Rosie Thomas / Michael Penn - 10.2005
Interpol /Boom Bip - 10.2005
Ben Lee / New Buffalo - 11.2005
American Analog Set / Amandine - 11.2005
Fiona Apple - 12.2005
Spinto Band - 01.12.06
Anton Newcombe (of Brian Jonestown Massacre) DJ Set - 01.14.06
We Are Scientists - 01.17.06
Sigur Ros / Amina - 02.12.06
Voxtrot - 02.20.06
Ladytron DJ Set - 03.19.06
Editors / Stellastarr* / Mobius Band - 03.25.06
Pas/Cal - 04.08.06
Mates of State / Maria Taylor - 04.09.06
Editors / Stellastarr* / Mobius Band - 04.12.06
The Sounds / Morningwood - 04.19.06
Nouvelle Vague - 04.21.06
Amandine - 05.03.06
Film School / Blazer - 05.17.06
Sunset Rubdown - 05.20.06
The Blood Arm - 05.21.06
The Walkmen - 05.30.06
Tilly and the Wall - 06.09.06
Bears - 06.11.06
Band of Horses - 06.11.06
SLGTM - 06.14.06
The Stills / Rogue Wave - 06.16.06
Spinto Band / The Lovely Feathers - 06.17.06
We Are Scientists / Au Revoir Simone - 06.20.06
Intonation - 06.24.06
Final Fantasy - 06.27.06
Bears - 07.02.06
Cat Power & The Memphis Rhythm Band - 07.09.06
Phoenix / French Kicks - 08.01.06
Kuyahoga Fest - 08.03.06
Oppenheimer - 08.14.06
Bishop Allen - 08.20.06
Bears - 09.02.06
Ladytron / CSS - 10.04.06
Jenny Lewis w/ The Watson Twins- 10.05.06
My Morning Jacket - 12.04.06
Bears - 01.06.07
Asobi Seksu - 01.29.07
Girl Talk - 02.02.07
Asobi Seksu - 03.07.07
Neko Case - 04.01.07
Billy Joel - 04.13.07
Matt and Kim - 05.08.07
Morrissey - 05.17.07
Ladytron DJ Set - 05.20.07
Great Lake Swimmers - 06.09.07
The National - 06.18.07
Black Keys - 06.25.07
Built to Spill - 07.02.07
The Police - 07.16.07
The One AM Radio - 08.28.07
Osheaga Festival!! - 09.8-9.07
Feist - 09.13.07
Minus the Bear - 09.28.07
Tori Amos - 11.02.07
The Pipettes - 11.20.07
Sondre Lerche - 11.21.07
Jose Gonzalez - 12.04.07
Bon Iver - 03.06.08
Explosions In The Sky - 04.03.08
New Pornographers - 04.12.08
Feist - 04.23.08
Swell Season - 05.11.08
Rilo Kiley - 05.26.08
Matt Costa - 08.07.08
Neko Case - 09.23.08
Santogold - 09.25.08
Frightened Rabbit - 10.15.08
Lykke Li - 10.23.08
Annuals/Jessica Lea Mayfield - 01.23.09
Anya Marina/Greg Laswell - 03.09.09
Cotton Jones - 03.11.09
Andrew Bird - 04.02.09
The Pains of Being Pure of Heart - 04.30.09
Eulogies/Great Northern/Dears - 05.09.09
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - 05.10.09
I Was a King - 05.27.09
Au Revoir Simone/Findlay Brown - 06.26.09
Tori Amos - 07.10.09
Amanda Blank/The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- 07.28.09
Sufjan Stevens - 09.24.09