at The Triple Door

 

{Apologies for the crappy cell phone pic, you guys!}

Was this my most anticipated show of the year? So far—YES. I think it was. And so I was a little worried when my friend told me that Matthew had stumbled a bit during his Portland show, but I needn’t have been: The Girlfriend Tour was exactly what I wanted it to be.

Opening band Summer Twins (from Riverside, CA) took the stage, and I was pretty much immediately taken with the two sisters at the heart of the band: Chelsea and Justine. First off, Justine plays DRUMS, and I’m a sucker for a female drummer. Second, Chelsea has one of these awesome sultry-cute voices, and plays the guitar in an adorable sway-dancing way that is almost too twee to handle.

Rounded out by Marcia Rivera on guitar (who stood completely and totally still the whole set) and Levi Audette on bass (who bounced around the other side of the stage in stark contrast), Summer Twins played a bunch of really solid, utterly danceable super-fun indie rock tunes that mixed a hint of of surfy-garage rock with retro pop.

Bounciness was in abundance, my friends. I bought their self-titled debut CD at the break, resisting the vinyl…but only temporarily. Because I bet they sound AMAZEBALLS on vinyl.

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If you listened to radio at all in the 90s, you couldn't escape hearing Matthew Sweet's swirling guitar-filled, gets-stuck-in-your-head, bouncy hit "Girlfriend". And if you were a genuine power pop lover, you toted around the Girlfriend album like it was pure gold, shuffling the tape or CD from your car to your boom box, sticking a song from it on every mix you made, and stashing your vinyl safely in a plastic sleeve, to make sure it stayed pristine and unscratched for listening parties.

Lucky for those of us that are Girlfriend aficionados, Matthew Sweet is touring for the 20^th Anniversary (WHAT), and is making a stop at The Triple Door for two nights of playing Girlfriend in its entirety. Oh, the nostalgic 90s bliss that will ensue during those two nights! Can you imagine the amount of drool on the floor that will be left from power pop enthusiasts? I can. And I bet the Triple Door can too, which is why there were super smart to book him for two shows.

Due to some divine intervention (ha!), I'll be at the Wednesday night show, imagining the way I used to gaze lovingly at young Matthew’s photo on the inside of the CD cover and hope he was talking to me when he sang, “I hear you’re looking for someone to love”, and preparing my ears for his sweet, sweet (double ha!) vocals. And! We have a pair of tix to giveaway to it too! Wanna go see Matthew on 4/25? Send an email to tig {at} threeimaginarygirls {dot} com sometime between now and the end of the day Friday {4/20}, with the subject line "Evangeline". We'll pick a winner and notify you over that weekend that you're on the list +1.

My Girlfriend CD and remixed single (pictured above, right) are a little worse for wear, but this girl can still swoon over Matthew Sweet -- even 20+ years later. 

{Matthew Sweet Girlfriend Tour | The Triple Door | 4/25 & 4/26 | Doors at 6pm, show at 7:30pm | All Ages | $28 adv, $32 day of, $38 VIP}

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at Fremont Abbey Arts Center

I'm almost not quite sure how to begin recounting last night's show at the Fremont Abbey {Round #83, with Damien Jurado, The Head and the Heart's Jonathan Russell, and members of Pretty Broken things, two painters, and a poet} in a way that conveys it with proper justice. So far as layperson's terms go, it was just a show: two forty-five minute sets on a stage, three lead singers trading off turns, with active art creation on the side and yes, even the poetry was good. But when you take two powerful frontmen and put them in such an intimate setting -- you're bound to win big. And I think I can speak for the entire sold-out room when I say that everybody won last night.

Between getting to see Damien Jurado's work showcased at such a tangible, stripped-away scale {both through selections from Maraqopa and long-standing favorites like "Sheets"} and Jonathan Russell's raw-yet-polished abandon {several new-to-me songs, a Bill Withers cover, and an incredible closing number about getting postcards you don't want that's been rattling in my brain since The Head and the Heart's Easy Street set last year}, we were taken on a collective journey through the soundscape that engaged both the audience and the other members on stage in a way you just don't see at a one-band-at-a-time rehearsed show. Such is the beauty of seeing performers in the round.

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Well, we were going to tune in this morning amidst the Radiohead photos and oohs-and-ahs from Andrew Bird's performance last night that are clogging our social media streams to tell you that Eef Barzelay needs your help to make a new Clem Snide record. But as it turns out, with twenty-three days left in the fundraising project over on his Kickstarter page, he's already made the $10,000.00 goal needed to get cracking on the recording.

Barzelay is no stranger to the Kickstarter world, funding a few of his recent efforts the same way -- most notably, Clem Snide's Journey, an EP chock-full of the greatest Journey songs you'd ever want to keep on repeat -- but this one has a bit of a twist: he'll be recording an album of the songs he's been commissioned by his fans to make over the years, and has a great take on the gap-bridging that takes place in the process that he explains in the video for the project above.

We might be wrong here (Eef, let us know!) but even though he's made his goal already, folks who continue to pledge amounts between $1.00 and $2000.00+ will still receive the benefits listed. With everything from an advance copy of the album to "Fan for Life" status (where you are guest-listed for every show, forever) to a private show and a weekend with Eef in Nashville on the table, it's practically impossible not to donate to the cause.

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You guys! Best Coast is coming to Seattle on May 22 and playing at The Neptune! The Drums and Best Coast in the same month? I am in imaginary music heaven. Crazy for You is one of my most-played albums, and I've been excitedly anticipating the release of their second CD, The Only Place, since they announced it. You can grab a free download of the first single on their site! Awesome. 

In addition to loving their lush, retro-esque pop, I am also tottally enamored of their killer West Side Story-inspired video out for "Our Deal", Directed by the amazing Drew Barrymore, and starring the equally amazing Chloe Grace Moretz, Alia Shawkat, and...Donald Glover! It's so pretty. I could watch it over and over (which is what I've been doing for the past hour or so). 

I suggest you grab tix quick, because I suspect this show will sell out. 

{Best Coast with Jeff the Brotherhood | Tuesday, May 22 | Doors @7pm, Show @8pm | Neptune Theatre | All Ages, Bar w/ID | $18 ADV, $20 Day of}

It seems like only yesterday that I was standing at Zilker Park in Austin, finally feeling about four percent relief from the heat post-sunset, losing my shit to the sweet, gritty madness that is a We Are Augustines set. Even though they were performing on one of the smaller stages at 2011's Austin City Limits festival, they were one of the most impressive acts of the weekend: whipping the crowd into a frenzy, half-full of die-hard WAA and Pela (R.I.P.) fans, half full of people streaming toward the stage like a moth to a light, murmuring "Who is this?" and digging through their schedules to figure out the name of their new favorite band. We Are Augustine's ability to convey a dirty, shredding, true indie-rock vibe that's interspersed with a melodic, full-volume earnestness gives them a sound that no other band can really replicate, and that vibe-sound is the reason I drop everything I'm doing and catch their sets every chance I get.

If you've never seen them before or are chomping at the bit to see them again, you're in luck: while it is opposite both Radiohead's and Andrew Bird's shows the same evening (hey, that just means there's going to be more room up front for you and your friends!), We Are Augustines will be taking the second slot opening up for Band Of Skulls this coming Monday, April 9th at the Neptune -- and we've got a pair of tickets to give away to the show. Just drop us an email at tig {at} three imaginary girls {dot} com with the subject line "LostToTheLonesome" so that we know it's you. We'll pick a winner at 5pm sharp on Thursday (yep, that's April 5th) and email you to let you know that you and your +1 are on the list for the show, and you'll be set for a killer time on Monday night.

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As we mentioned back in January, here in the imaginary office we are perpetually super-stoked on all things from the Andrew Bird camp, and the newest effort {Break It Yourself} is no exception. BIY was officially released earlier this month, with a single that was compelling enough to make the album well worth the asking price -- in case you missed it, here's what we had to say:

"If this track [ed. note: we're referring to "Eyeoneye"] is any indication of what Break It Yourself is going to bring to us on the whole, we're ready to put this as a frontrunner for one of 2012's top five albums without a single look back. There's a wide spectrum of recognizeable influence here while remaining decidedly Andrew Bird, which is to be expected -- he's one of those artists that continues to evolve with the world around him and change dramatically without departing too far from his baseline. And that said, there's a whole new freshly familiar vibe to the music: still laden with whistle-overs, graced with more than a hint of Phil Spector wall-of-sound-ery, and sliced through to the skeleton with a half-dozen emergent indie sounds of, well, right-fucking-now-ness."

And per the title of this post, you guessed it: Andrew Bird is coming to town on Monday, April 9th, and we're giving away a pair of tickets to this show. But you might actually be better off buying them, even if you win with us. Seriously. Check it out: your advance ticket price {$27.50 - $37.50, depending on where you sit} not only includes access to the show at the Paramount, it also gets you digital delivery of Break It Yourself, along with five-song live EP recorded on Andrew Bird's 2011 tour called Fake Conversations, AND a five-song live EP from the current tour (which you'll receive later on this year). You can't lose on that one! But if you want to gamble on a free pair of seats, we'd love to have you: just email tig {at} three imaginary girls {dot} com with the subject line "BreakItYourself" so we know it's you, and tell us why we should pick you to go to the show.

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You guys! I honestly cannot think of a better pairing than The Drums and Craft Spells -- and they are playing together! In Seattle! At Neumos! On May 9th! It's like chocolate and peanut butter for your ears! (Or something) 

Anyway! Y'all already know how much I love The Drums, so I decided to try to convince you to come with a Craft Spells video this time around. But just in case, you can watch some Drums videos here. Supporting band Part Time also sounds pretty neat. This is going to be an awesome show, so get your tix now! 

{The Drums, Craft Spells, and Part Time | Neumos | Wednesday, 5/9 | 7pm Doors | $13 ADV at Moe Bar & eTix.com} 

at The Neptune

As expected, it was an incredible week and weekend full of shows, up to the brim with the sounds of the Magnetic Fields, Sharon Van Etten and The War On Drugs, and most notably, Nada Surf's show at the Neptune Theater. We went into Saturday's set with last month's performance {with Say Hi at the Tractor} fresh on our lips and minds, knowing it was going to be a tough night to beat -- but even with triple the crowd and a significantly more cavernous room, the band still managed to bring a good dose of incredible to the table. Matthew Caws & Co. pulled two hours of hits and B-sides from a wide cross-section of their catalog, gracing our ears with everything from tracks like "Blonde on Blonde" and "The Way You Wear Your Head" to "When I Was Young" and "No Snow" from their latest and greatest the stars are indifferent to astronomy, and proving for the umpteenth time that these indie rockers are a full-frontal force to be reckoned with.

Australia's An Horse opened up the night.

An Horse:

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My love affair with Plants and Animals is glittery and vast, and spans back to a fateful day at South by Southwest back in 2010. If you were in Austin that year, you remember it well: a seeming thirty (I exaggerate, but still) degrees below the rest of the week's "normal" temperatures, windy as all get-out, and absolutely not the day for the only clean-ish thing for me to wear being a blue and white polka-dotted summer dress -- but that was indeed the case. After battling Chicago-worthy windtunnels between buildings on otherwise innocent-seeming side streets, I found myself outside of a packed venue trying to talk my way in to a capacity show: Okkervil River was playing with Roky Erickson out on the back patio, and Patrick Pestorius just happened to be standing inside the door rocking out to the band playing in the front room. Hoping against hope that he'd remember me from the one very brief moment we'd met at the Showbox two years prior, I got his attention and somehow managed to charm my way in to the venue, planting myself sidestage along next to him.

Wide-eyed and instantly blown away by the gritty, big-guitar laden, all-out indie rock that these guys were pumping out on to the crowd, I thought to myself, what the fuck! who are these guys? but apparently, back in real life, I'd actually said it out loud. "PLANTS AND ANIMALS," Patrick shouted back over the din. "I KNOW, RIGHT?" We both nodded in approval and stood there, mesmerized as the band slayed on. It's all a blur after that, as are most South-by trips -- but Patrick left at some point to go prep for the set with Roky out back, the wind died down, and all was right in the world that day in Austin.

Cue arrival back in Seattle and obsessive Googling for dates for / albums by the bands I'd learned about that year from the trip and some friends there (P & A among them, along with the now-notable First Aid Kit, Good Old War, the then-newish Local Natives, already-favorites the Middle East, and so on) and I stumble across this, on the KEXP website. Of course. Undoubtedly one of the best single tracks from a band in recent memory, "Tom Cruz" completely and immediately packed in everything that Plants and Animals were capable of: shredding full-frontal guitar riffs, that mesmerizing otherworldly melodic place that they were capable of venturing off to, and everything in-between that makes their brand of rock rock. Later that year, I was thrilled to see them middle slot for the Frightened Rabbits show at the Showbox, and minus the din and the blustery weather, they were every bit as good (if not better) than the showcase in Texas.

Which all leads up to the point (yep, I have one! Swear!): Plants and Animals are playing, here in town, tomorrow night {that's Thursday, March 23rd} at the Crocodile, and you'd be a fool to not check them out on such a stellar stage.

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