Top Tracks of the '00s: Four Shot

We've gotten a little behind in our list of our Top 40 Tracks from 2000-2010. To catch up, here's four of our favorites from the past decade -- from Kanye, the Shins, the Raveonettes, and Morrissey.



Song: That Great Love Sound
Artist: The Raveonettes
Album: Chain Gang of Love
Year: 2003

Our first track is from The Raveonettes, a Danish duo that first popped on our radar with their 2008 single Dead Sound. We got a live dose of their white-noise-meets-Everly-Brothers sound last year at Make Music Pasadena -- in the middle of a heat wave! -- and followed the trail back to this amazing single from their 2003 album Chain Gang of Love.

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Song: Heard' Em Say
Artist: Kanye West
Album: Late Registration
Year: 2005

The talented and often arrogant Kanye West has already cemented hip-hop folk hero status with his post-Katrina tirade. This song has an unexpected poignancy given contributions from the late Bernie Mac. Jon Brion's production helps Kanye move toward his goal of art-hop; Brion is the composer of such indie movie soundtracks as I Heart Huckabee's, Punch Drunk Love, and Eternal Sunshine. His perennial Friday night set at the Largo was also one of our first dates.

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Song: New Slang
Artist: The Shins
Album: Oh, Inverted World
Year: 2001


Is Garden State our generation's answer to The Graduate? We're not sure, but we do know that the soundtrack for Zach Braff's 2001 directorial debut set the pace for soundtracks aimed at disconnected 20- and 30-somethings. Without Garden State, we probably wouldn't have the soundtracks for Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl, or even House. If The Shins' contribution to Garden State didn't change your life, as Natalie Portman's character guaranteed it would, it at least brought the group's Brian Wilson/Simon & Garfunkel sound to college file-share services everywhere.

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Song: First of the Gang to Die
Artist: Morrissey
Album: You Are the Quarry
Year: 2004

We were just as surprised as anyone to find out that Morrissey was not only still around, but writing music. Not only that, he's become our neighbor of sorts, with his big move to L.A. commemorated in Art Brut's catchy hit "Considering a Move to L.A." "First of the Gang to Die" has the classic Morrissey happy-go-lucky morbidity, but it also has that Echo Park/Silver Lake summerstruck pavement to it.

My Dad was weirded out, I think, when I was in middle school and my friends and I started to listening to Led Zeppelin and other '70s bands. I started to understand how he felt when I went to some high schools in L.A. and discovered that the Latino alterna-kids were wearing all-black and eyeliner, piercing their noses, spiking their hair, and listening to The Cure and Morrissey. It was like they were early '90s Goth kids who'd stepped out of the hallways of Jefferson High School, but a Jefferson in an alternate universe, situated right in the heart of Mexico City. That's the passage of time for you!

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The Scarlet Tea Room

Sometimes we need a little push to take the next step forward with Aki. The first time we took Aki out to a restaurant, for example, was when Chris's parents came to visit back in November.

Well, this past January, we finally took the step of leaving Aki with a babysitter while we went out to celebrate. The occasion? Chris's birthday. Thanks to Auntie Lisa, who was more than happy to play with Aki for a few hours at her new house in San Marino, Yuri was able to surprise Chris on his birthday with high tea at The Scarlet Tea Room in Old Town Pasadena.



Here's the best cup of Darjeeling Chris has had since London; absolutely fragrant and sublime!



And you can't have tea and be civilized unless you nibble on some scones, which topped off our epic tea-time tower. Scarlet's scones come with delectably fresh lemon curd, and scarlet cream, a whipped cream I can still taste three months later.



Moving downward, we come to Scarlet's scrumptious tea sandwiches. We each got to pick four, so of course we joined forces and had a foodie feast of bite-sized delights.

Our choices? Mushroom duxelle with citrus aioli; olive tapenade and roasted red pepper; a sushi-worthy salmon and chive spread; turkey & cranberries; mascarpone with citrus marmalade; french ham and marmalade; brie, walnut & watercress; and roast beef & white cheddar.

These were little mouth-watering masterpieces and make us think of Webern or Jan Brueghel the Elder's miniature paintings: it takes just a second to eat it, but the flavors are so well-balanced it's like a whole meal in a flash. Every little sandwich has just an extra touch of flavor -- a little chive, a little marmalade -- which, besides being totally fresh and delicious, perfectly complements the main ingredient. As Rachael Ray would say, yum-mo!



You have to round out the meal, of course, with some marzipan sweets like these pretty little things.

There's also Strawberries Romanoff -- they really work the "scarlet" theme -- sweetened with some orange liqueur and brown sugar cream. And if that's not enough, Scarlet also lets you cleanse your palette at the end with some refreshing homemade "signature sorbet."

Basically, on Chris's birthday, Yuri once again spoiled her hubby with culinary delights. And after fattening him up with food, she took him downtown to Disney Concert Hall to see the Oberlin Orchestra plaster the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 to the wall, along with Mahler's 1st Symphony and a world premiere by Chris's classmate, Huang Ruo, called "Hanging Cliffs," all of which were so good it literally left us with watery eyes.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention one of the present pictured in our collage, the matching Adobo shirts Yuri got Chris and Aki from blacklava.net. How lucky a husband am I? Thanks again, hon!

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