Because they’re hot on my mind, I’m going to highlight the two bands I’ve seen most recently. They go together nicely, too – indie-pop husband/wife duos.

The Rosebuds

The Rosebuds, aka Kelly and Ivan, hail from North Carolina, and take on a number of stylistic hats in their various albums, from the sunny yet dark-undertoned folksy pop of 2008′s Life Like to 2007′s synth-inflected Night of the Furies. I haven’t heard Birds Make Good Neighbors, but I’ve seen it labeled “alt country,” which usually means something like Rilo Kiley’s More Adventurous. I prefer Life Like, but it’s great to see bands try different things and do well at them all. They were especially good at encouraging audience participation, leading call-and-response singing on “Nice Fox” and teaching us to dance with them on “Bow to the Middle.” The dancing didn’t work out as well since there wasn’t a lot of room to move around, but hey. It was fun anyway.

The Rosebuds – Nice Fox
The Rosebuds – Get Up, Get Out

Life Like (2008) Amazon MP3 Amazon CD	Night of the Furies (2007) Amazon MP3 Amazon CD	Birds Make Good Neighbors (2005) Amazon MP3 Amazon CD

The Submarines

I mentioned on FriendFeed last week that LA-based band The Submarines (Blake and John) hit all of my current hot buttons for liking bands, but I didn’t elaborate. Those buttons are: both male and female vocals, mostly guitar but with some other instruments thrown in (they had xylophone, tambourine, and a keyboard-pipe thingie that I should know what is called but don’t), and catchy poppy tunes with lyrics that have a darker undertone (“every day I wake up, I choose love, I choose light, I try, but it’s too easy just to fall apart” from “You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie,” which is also possibly the peppiest attack on bourgeois complacency in recent memory – making it an interesting choice for the iPhone G3 commercial). Plus, they’re totally adorable. I just wanted to put them in my pocket and take them home. They’re almost sickeningly adorable, and I suspect that some will find them too precious. But I’m in a precious phase.

The Submarines – Swimming Pool
The Submarines – Clouds

Honeysuckle Weeks (2008) Amazon MP3 Amazon CD	Declare a New State! Amazon MP3 Amazon CD

Also fitting this category are married duo Mates of State (Kori and Jason), but I’ve already featured them a time or two, so I won’t do it again. They’re fantastic with just keyboards and drums. Heh, I just realized that the girls in all three of these bands are blondes. Maybe that’s a pre-req for being in a husband-and-wife indie-pop duo?

Perhaps I am easily pleased, but I count today as one of the most convergently awesome days I’ve had lately. “Convergently” you say? Yes, for today marks a convergence of entertainment availability that makes me very happy.

1. The new season of The Guild starts today! You can see it on MSN Video, get it from the Zune Marketplace, or download it from the Xbox Live Marketplace (will download to your Xbox360). I watched it on my 360 this morning, and it looks sweet in HD. And of course, hilarious.

2. This week’s DLC for Rock Band includes three Killers tracks – “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It” and another one I keep forgetting. (Guitar Hero: World Tour is getting three as well, but different ones, except for “Mr. Brightside.”)

3. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the new album from Los Campesinos!, comes out today. It’s a limited run, so if you want to pick up a physical copy, I suggest you do it soon. And the physical copy comes with a DVD as well, so there’s that. (Amazon)

4. The Rosebuds are doing a show at the Echoplex tonight, and I won free tickets! I get to be on the guest list and everything. So that’s the most awesome of the awesome.

5. In less entertainmenty, but still awesome, news – I get PhotoShop CS3 at work. I only have PhotoShop 7 at home, so this is going to be great. Plus we decided to do a website project at work using WordPress, which I have a whole lot more experience with than just doing plain html/css. Not that I couldn’t have done it without WordPress, you understand. But this will be more fun.

The Rosebuds~Get Up Get Out from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

MP3blog My Old Kentucky Home has recently launched another site, Laundro Matinee, focused on live recording sessions, interviews, etc. with indie rock/pop bands. So far they’ve got videos up of The Rosebuds (see above), Dr. Dog, The Spinto Band, Bon Iver, Earl Greyhound, and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Pretty cool stuff. Sort of like The Blogotheque, except in English.