TUNESday: "Closer" by Tegan and Sara

This week's TUNESday serves two purposes. Not only am I going to introduce you to a song that's a great addition to a workout playlist, but also an app that's a must have on your smart phone or tablet.

My weekend run has been taking the form of a social outing as of late. One of my friends has decided that she wants to beef up her running schedule, and possibly take on a half marathon this fall. On Saturday and Sunday non-race mornings, we've been heading to Audubon Park together to get a run in. We run separately so neither of us feels obligated to conform to the other's pace, but we meet back up at the car to continue our day. The next order of business is almost always to head to Starbucks for an iced coffee.

We both downloaded the Starbucks iPhone app so that we don't have to worry about a form of payment when we go in to the store. Its possible to register and load a gift card on the app, and it doubles as the Starbucks loyalty reward program. You earn stars for the drinks you purchase, and as you accumulate them you get a higher status level with more rewards. Its turned in to a game for us to earn stars and see them appear in our app. A very expensive, highly caffeinated game.

No, this isn't a commercial for Starbucks. The coolest part of the app has nothing to do with coffee. I interact with it mostly to get updates on new music for FREE. The weekly Starbucks iTunes free download that I used to have to get from a card in-store is now messaged directly to my app. It's then less than a two step process to get the song quickly downloaded to my phone. That's how I became familiar with this week's TUNESday selection from Tegan and Sara. The song has worked its way in to regular rotation on my iPod all thanks to the app, and now you can check it out with the music video below.