Blog: Sensory Overload

While listening to Spectrum last week (I was taking a break from SiriusXMU , okay?) I was caught off guard by an exceptionally solid song. Unfamiliar with the artist's name, I wasn't quite sure whether the music was current or from another era, as it possessed a nostalgic quality and sounded undeniably similar to Van Morrison. After the song ended, I committed the name "Brett Dennen" to memory and later looked him up - he is in fact a modern musician and may or may not be a big deal, but it just [...]

Last week when the tale of a former Harrod's employee getting revenge on his previously employer with a colorful display of language was making the rounds did anyone else starting singing "Father Christmas' by The Kinks when they saw that he was employed as Santa? Anyone else disappointed this was only a joke? (mp3) Father Christmas By The Kinks

In just a few mere hours we are getting out of work and heading to The Happy Dog to experience the cultural phenomenon that is a DJ Kishka Happy Hour. This evening with a nice holiday twist he will be performing live " How The Kishka Saved Christmas " . We've been looking forward to this for weeks. You can get some great info on him here . For the last week or so we were trying to compile some of the best Holiday mp3's [...]

A friend of ours said this on facebook today "Please don't complain that you hate the snow if you choose to live in Cleveland. It's like a sailor complaining he hates the water". Could not have said it any better ourselves, on to a song that has been brightening our day since we first heard if a few days ago it's called "If I was" by Young Rebel Set who hail from the U.K., just like Mumford Sons, they a grittier more raw version of those chaps. Enjoy! (mp3) Young [...]

Rabbit, Rabbit everyone :) We love this time of year for music, as you hear all of the golden oldies like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Burl Ives etc. and then you hear Christmas-inspired tunes from all your current and past indie artists. One such track that has already caught our attention this season, is Crystal Antlers "10,000 Watts" which you have most likely enjoyed in one of the latest commercials from Target. You can get it for free from HERE , along with other holiday inspired tracks from Bishop Allen, Best [...]

A few years ago Kelly and I through the blog were contacted by Will VanderWyden about posting some music for his band Lost on Purpose . Lost on Purpose appeals to us because their sound is not only reminiscent of the best of Bright Eyes and Elliot Smith but also because Will is a native to North East Ohio, Amherst to be specific (He lives out in L.A. now). We always like to promote his band because he is long suffering Cleveland sports fan like us. This morning while killing some time on facebook before heading off to work [...]

Today marks that 7 years ago we had our 1st date. It is a date that is very meaningful for us considering it changed it our lives going fwd and led to us getting married almost 2 years ago. You may wonder what we did on our 1st date, well I didn't have a car so Kelly came and picked me up and we went to Chagrin Cinemas to go see Kill Bill Vol. 1 ( I picked the movie, good idea right?). After the movie we went to La Cave Du Vin , Kelly had [...]

Hooray the sun came back!!! We thought it might be gone for a few more weeks but thankfully it has not go south for the winter like the birds do yet... With everyone and their mother sick right now (Jose was down but is now on the mend) it is going to do us all in Cleveland some good to get some good old fashioned vitamin D (since we are all deficient). With the mood being uplifted it only made sense to share with you a track that on the surface promotes the optimism we both have that we can [...]

You may be wondering what we are talking about with the title of this post, to some this is nothing new but to those who don't know let's drop some knowledge for you. Back in 2006 Uffie was on fire in the indie dance scene she was part of Ed Banger records, a crew that was just an unstoppable force of Parisian DJ's and producers the likes of include Justice, SebastiAn, Mr. Ozio etc. This ex-pat living abroad, only 19 years old had dropped out of college to pursue her music career. She just oozed cool, with an anti flow [...]

It's a Tuesday night that feels like it could be any night of this past glorious summer. This song we are going to share with you is not specific to any season but the fashion trends depicted definitely are more in the line with the cold weather that we hopefully do not experience for a few more weeks. Long live Indian Summer.

Lately we have been enjoying some great beers from Portsmouth, New Hampshire's Smuttynose Breweing Co. , as they are now distributing in Cleveland. We have been hooked after sampling the goods at this year's Blues & Brews (see our recap from a couple years ago) at Stan Hywet Gardens and continue to see what Smuttynose has to offer by purchasing a variety of their creations at Heinen's . (picture courtesy of [...]

It's always difficult when you have your favorite seller of beers and you see a different one that sounds great and tempts you, but if you never heard of the brewery you might be skeptic like us, but so is true with indie rock often the best bands (er, beers) are yet to be discovered. Case and point: O'Fallon 5 Day IPA . Smooth IPA might seem like an oxymoron, but that's what this is - nice amber color, very drinkable, nice with cheese (we're enjoying with a Savoie from Heinen's ), [...]

This was the first image I saw this morning as I stepped outside to head to the gym. Thought it was worth taking a picture of even it was just with my blackberry. Instantly upon viewing the clouds in this formation The Orb classic 'Little Fluffy Clouds" popped in my head as I completed my walk. You all probably remember it from when it was used in v-dub ad back about 10 years ago. When I used to be in my "raver phase" I used to love to listen to stuff like this, Moby, Fluke, Keoki, Chemical [...]

Who adores Grace Potter & The Nocturnals ? Well, not only are you in luck because they are coming through Cleveland this coming Saturday, June 19th to The Beachland Ballroom - but also because we happen to be giving away two tickets to the show :) All you have to do to enter to win is post a comment and give your own interpretation of their sound - the one that is closest to our personal opinion (or perhaps {ahem} even better) will be awarded the tickets* Check out [...]

Recently, we've been kind of in love with listening to Sirius' online media player as opposed to doing our usual streaming of mp3's via Hype Machine. This evening, Kelly decided to change it up from our usual Sirius XMU station to 1st Wave - where we've been enjoying some nice new wave jams, such as Echo and the Bunnymen, The Thompson Twins, The Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, etc. . . So, when the jam "West End Girls" by The Pet Shop Boys started playing, it dawned on us that the synth driven stacatto like, [...]

Who: You! What: Good Latin Food, Wine, Music, and Art hosted by The Young Latino Network Where: Wall Eye Gallery on 5304 Detroit Avenue (Cleveland) When: TONIGHT! [6pm - 10pm] Why: Despite the fact that Jose is the President of The Young Latino Network, we need to do our part as Clevelanders to support the many Young Professional groups doing great things to brighten our community's future* Hope [...]

This past Saturday we (Kelly and I along with a few of our friends and some newly met acquaintances) went to the first ever Fathead's Brewery "Heavyweight Brewers Battle". Most of the tasty libations on draft on this great Saturday were more than 8% alcohol. It was a tough task for a Saturday afternoon but we were more than ready to do battle with these high alcohol beers. Here was a list of the pretty delicious list of drafts available to us. We went to the 1pm-4pm session don't think all of these [...]

This evening presented a rare break in our schedules, allowing us the opportunity to do something we hadn't done together in weeks. . . Cook a fun little meal :) The inspiration for the recipes we chose to prepare was drawn from none other than two lovely local foodies whom we respect and enjoy their company: Heidi Robb and Michelle Venorsky (aka Cleveland Foodie) After a conversation with Heidi regarding a recent purchase of a Donna Hay cookbook that was unknowingly written in Spanish (she was [...]

On Tuesday night in honor of my Birthday (Jose) Kelly made reservations for us at The Bell's Brewery Dinner at The North End . She also invited a few of our friends out to come celebrate, drink some good beer and cheer on the cavs to a victory over the bulls. The meal was a delicious 6 course meal prepared by the very talented Chef Jeff Jarrett . The beers were paired expertly and served as a [...]

Last weekend, as you may have noticed from an earlier post that, we had a lot in store for our Saturday. To recap the morning - basically, we woke up way earlier than on usual Saturdays (much to Kelly's dismay) and headed over to the Superior Viaduct to wait in the cold with several others ( Room Service , I heart Cleveland , Kitten Kaboom , [...]