{Nana Grizol photo by Jon Manning}
There are some bands that we could go on for hours about how much we love. Athens, GA's Nana Grizol are no exception. I've personally taken to describing them as a combination of the Thermals and the Weakerthans with a horn section, but that barely even scratches the surface of their sometimes 8-infinity piece band awesomeness (complete with floppy hair-ed jumping up and down). Their songs are so heartwrenchingly beautiful and meaningful, complete with lyrics that make you rethink your entire attitude towards life (ex: "Cynicism isn't wisdom/it's just a lazy way to say that you've been burned" from their new album Ruth).
There are few things in this world that make me laugh as hard or as regularly as the HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm", so it should surprise exactly no one that I'm really looking forward to seeing one of the stars, Jeff Garlin, next weekend (Janary 16) at the Paramount as part of former KMTT morning show host Marty Riemer's "Funny Fest" (which also features the very funny comedians Kyle Cease, Brian Burr and Nick Thune).
For our first ticket giveaway of 2010, we are thrilled to give away a pair of tickets to the show to one of our lucky TIG readers and their guest. It's simple, just send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com sometime between now and 9am next Monday morning (January 11) with "FunnyFest" in the subject line and we'll draw a winner's name at random and notify you shortly thereafter.
For some reason as stressful as it is sometimes to do, I found myself compiling a bunch of year end and decade end lists over the holiday weekend. So many so, I decided to spread out all my lists throughout the week. Today we'll start with the meat of the list -- my favorite releases of 2009.
As long as I've been making lists, it's always been apparent that I'm partial to Pacific Northwest bands... and this year it's especially so. I'm sure I've forgotten something that I love beyond belief.. but here is the list as of *right now*. What are your favorite local and non-local releases of 2009?
Latest comment by: I Promise: "Yeah iji!"
Legendary musician, Rowland S. Howard, passed away on December 30th in Melbourne, Australia at the age of 50. The cause of death was liver cancer and he had been on a list awaiting a transplant for at least a few months.
Howard joined The Boys Next Door and penned their best known song, "Shivers," in 1979. Shortly afterwars, the band (which included Nick Cave on vocals) changed their name to The Birthday Party and released three full length LPs and two EPs before disbanding in 1983. His incendiary guitar work and original songwriting helped to define the sound of one of the very best bands of the era.
After the dissolution of group, Rowland S. Howard, played guitar in Crime and the City Solution along with fellow Birthday Party cohort, Mick Harvey, for an album and a few EPs before forming These Immortal Souls in 1987. After two stunning records under that moniker, Howard began recording under his own name. In October 2009, he released his second album, Pop Crimes and performed in concert for the last time in Melbourne. His brilliant body of work is criminally unknown, but has garnered a cult following of devoted fans.
What's the first song you want to hear in the new year to set the tone *just right* for a stellar 2010?
I remember the year I rang in the New Year at a They Might Be Giants show in Philadelphia and they played a hilarious and wonderful version of "We Are The World." That seemed a pretty great way to start the year off in song.
I'm still contemplating what I want to hear first thing come 2010 PST... but I do know it's going to be something on vinyl... cause that's the kind of year I want.
Suggestions?
(Snazzy photo by Kyle Johnson)
Latest comment by: imaginary liz: "I decided to make it my favorite song of 2009: Still Flyin - "The Hott Chord Is Struck" off the album Never Gonna Touch The Ground. But the first album I listened to was the vinyl re-issue of Paul's Boutique that I got for the holiday / my bday. I still don't ...
I've made lists before, sure, but deciding to make a Top 10 list for a year FULL of great films and then trying to put together a Best of the Decade nearly killed me. The top 10 was a teensy bit easier - but I hadn't limited my decade list to 25, it would have been 183 in total. But, I digress.
Here's what I liked:
Top 10 movies of 2009
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The Hurt Locker
3. District 9
4. UP
5. Cold Souls
6. Away We Go
7. A Serious Man
8. Public Enemies
9. Up in the Air
10. Coraline
(Runner-ups: Precious, Where the Wild Things Are, (500) Days of Summer)
Latest comment by: imaginary liz: "I totally agree with you on: - UP (love love love!) - Up in the Air (love, love) - The Hurt Locker (ok, haven't seen it *yet* but will def see it before it wins all kindsa accolades come award season) And my favorite Amie recommendations of 2010? ...
I guessing that you, like those of us at imaginary headquarters, have spent the last few weeks calculating your favorites of the year... and possibly the decade. It's fun, it's grueling, and it all ends with a really good mix tape.
This morning I am honored to to join Seattle's very own Larry Mizell Jr. of The Stranger, Josh Powell, Vera Project Programming Co-Director, and KUOW's Steve Scher in an end of the year look at our favorite releases to come out of Seattle at the lovely KUOW, 94.9 FM studios from 9a-10a.
Call in and let us know your thoughts on what were the best albums to come out of Seattle in 2009! The phone number is 206.543.KUOW (800.289.KUOW). For those outside of Seattle, you can listen online.
Latest comment by: Peter Wale: "Hi Liz, I know you're interested in what's being hatched in Seattle with respect to new music. I don't know, but maybe you'd like to check out a few songs you've not heard before, songs written by this writer. If so, they are under Room 7 on the website ...
She just spent Christmas in Vientiane, Laos, teaching English and helping a village raise many children. She sings a lot with fellow blazing-heart redhead Neko Case, including on noteworthy national television like on David Letterman's show. She spent the past several years nursing her New Jersey dad, taking him into her Seattle home and caring for him, till he recently passed away. There's probably a lot else that was done by and happened to Rachel Flotard, Visqueen's vocalist-singer-songwriter in the past twelve months, but ten years from now most of us will remember this as the year of the band's album Message To Garcia.
The formed-in-2001 group's name is well known now as the material created to protect levees from erosion and our country from biochemical terrorist attack, and Message To Garcia is also the title of Elbert Hubbard's motivational tome used to inspire the military and other people fighting their way out of foxholes. It's been that kind of time for Flotard, with so much hard work and loss since Visqueen's two earlier, very fondly remembered albums, King Me (2003) and Sunset On Dateland (2004). (If Three Imaginary Girls had a Record Guide, it's certainly possible these would be perfectly-scored aesthetic-defining works.)
{The Lonely Forest play at the Showbox at the Market on Thursday, December 31 with Minus the Bear and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground.}
For those from of you who may have missed it, The Lonely Forest are a guitar-based indie rock quartet who’re the best damn thing to come out of Sound Off! in… ever. Centered around lead-man John Van Deusen’s blissfully energetic guitar and earnest vocals, the band has been creating a steady following since their formation in 2005 and are poised to take over the world. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried to write about this album either. The first time I tried to write about The Lonely Forest’s We Sing The Body Electric! I was confounded. It was an odd situation, I’m not normally faced with an album that I can’t seem to find anything to say about and I’m an opinionated putz, so what was the big deal? The big deal is that there isn’t much to say about The Lonely Forest’s We Sing the Body Electric! because it’s really, really good. That’s the big secret and the reason this review is giving me something of a headache.
Latest comment by: basher: "andrew is my sugarpie"
As I was picking out my favorite shots from this past year, it quickly became apparent that I couldn't just leave it at ten. I've posted my top picks below (in no particular order), but you can check out the rest here.
Huge thanks to the TIG crew, especially Chris and Keenan, for giving me the opportunity to share these amazing moments with all you lovely people! And thanks to all my fellow photographers, both in Seattle and elsewhere, for giving me inspiration every day. Hope you all have a safe, prosperous, and Happy New Year! Here's to an even bigger and better 2010!
2009-09-05: Hotels @ Bumbershoot - EMP | SFM's Sky Church
One of my very favorite rock fanzines Roctober is quoted in Allison Weiss' hand-made, zine-like press kit as saying she should change her first name to "Adorable." I can't really say it any better than Jake Austin, who can spot sweet talent when he sees it.
Yes, I've been sucked in, too. The scrappy, bespectacled little gal in a cheap vintage dress moved to Athens in 2005 and ended up playing festivals like Athfest and Atlanta's 500 Song for Kids benefit, while relying on Internet friend-fan support to put out this, the most recent of her six records (!). (Love how she gets her name into the title of Was Right All Along, too; something Woody Allen should have done long ago with one of his films.)
Latest comment by: Brian: "I agree. I discovered Allison Weiss early this past summer, bought all of her CDs, unless they were free (great idea, Allison), and she quickly moved to the top of my list of 'favorite singers' right next to Lady GaGa and the recent HAIR soundtrack. Perhaps it is ...
Paranormal Activity: FINALLY! I’ve been apprehensive about this because the hype has reached such huge proportions that I tend to think it will be a huge letdown for me. But, I gotta see it, so into the player it goes – and soon. If you haven’t heard about this for some reason: a couple thinks their house may be haunted, and so they set up a video camera to document activity while they sleep, with apparently terrifying results. The ad campaign for this spread faster than anything I’ve ever seen. Viral much?
9: I’ve heard that this isn’t that great from several people, but I have to give it a go because of Tim Burton’s involvement, and well, it does look kinda cool. Rag-doll robots skittering around, hiding from exterminators, voiced by John C Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover and Christopher Plummer? I could do without the thrash music in the trailer, but it looks like it's definitely worth checking out.
I have come to really dislike putting together "Best Of" lists or year-ending spreadsheets of music that everyone has already heard. This time I'm gonna do it differently...Shrie -style! These are just a few albums/songs/artists that tickled my fancy and got some good stereo-play at our house. Some are indie critic darlings (and disliked by many), some are sure-fire ins and some won't be at the top ofanyone's lists this year. It's a mish-mash of sonic goodness, extrapolated on by your friendly local music writer (and sometimes critic).
In alphabetical, not ranking, order. The "Top Ten" theme is too restrictive for my wily mind to grasp.
With End of Year listmaking being the favorite holiday pasttime for a lot of us around here, we asked some of our local music friends to submit their own top 10 lists this year. The first to return theirs was Scott Giampino, the talent buyer at the Triple Door. His list (in no particular order, he says) is after the jump.
I have just about recovered from the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular. What an amazingly fun night!
If you had your photo taken on Santa's lap, the photos are up and ready for you to download on our Three Imaginary Girls Flickr photo page. We'd love to see your photos from the night - go add them to the TIG Sparkly Indie-Pop Photo Pool.
If you weren't able to make it - peruse our Flickr page and our Flickr photo Pool page to peek in on all the fun.
Copious amounts of thanks go to everyone involved:
Latest comment by: Imaginary Shrie: "It was a grand time. Thanks everyone!"
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imaginary liz's favorite albums of 2009
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Your first song of 2010?
imaginary liz's favorite albums of 2009
Your first song of 2010?
Your first song of 2010?
We Sing The Body Electric!
We Sing The Body Electric!
Your first song of 2010?
Your first song of 2010?