We were elbow-to-elbow with all our best pals in the front row at Neumos Saturday night, in the name of love, fundraising, and the one and only Jenny George. Yep, this past weekend was the 8th annual Dancing on the Valentine fundraiser, and it was jam-packed with great local bands belting out our favorite Cure tracks. The money's still being tallied, but judging by the crowd, we're sure that the night went a long way toward the annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society donation -- take a peek at the photos below and relive all the fun! We were particularly enamored with Lesli Wood (as usual), Adra Boo, NighTrain, Panama Gold, and those fellows in Fox and the Law:

Lesli Wood with Jupe Jupe

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Seattle's got talent, friends, and next Thursday {that's the 31st} you can see the art that people make out of the art that people are making -- yep, we're talking about Bands on the Big Screen. The event is a ninety-minute screening of music videos by local filmmakers at SIFF Cinema Uptown, followed by a Q&A with the directors. As if a chance to see some of your favorite artists on a screen larger than life isn't enough to send you running for your wallet, the whole thing is a benefit put on by our pals Team Up for Nonprofits for Northwest Folklife.

That fifteen bucks you spend on a ticket will go a long way towards a great cause, but if you want to roll the dice on a pair of free passes, we've got your number! Just send an email to tig {at} threeimaginarygirls {dot} com with the subject line "BandsOnTheBigScreen" between now and 5pm on Tuesday, January 29th. We'll pick a lucky winner and notify you by email that you're heading to the show on us.

For everyone else, that ticket purchase link is below. We'll see you there!

{Jon Jon Augustavo, Brad Curran, Hayley Young, Stephan Gray and Tyler Kalberg present videos made with and for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Pickwick, Kaylee Cole, and more. Tickets are $15.00 adv and available here.}

Remember last winter, when John Roderick played at a house show in Ballard, and how it was pretty much the best thing ever?

Yep.

In case you missed all those great videos the first time, here's a recap:

and the rest are on the Dorsia Films site here.

Happy Friday!

Music has probably saved all of us at least a few times during our lives, but what if diving into the process of creating an album really had a huge impact on your mental health?

I’ve been virtual friends with the fantastic Amber Valentine for a while, and heartily applauded her courage for coming forward and writing honestly about her recent struggles with anorexia and anxiety, and really just admiring this lovely, beautiful girl for fighting and finding ways to make her life better.

Out of her struggles, Amber Valentine’s Shriveled Heart & The Skeletons Left Behind came about with an EP full of songs inspired by The Wizard of Oz. She calls it “morbid fairy tale pop” – and I couldn’t agree more: each piece is a haunting melody featuring Amber’s child-like sing-songy voice. And the video she made (that I've posted above) explaining the process is a great, inspiring, honest watch. 

I had a chance to interview Amber about why she decided to create an EP in 13 hours by herself, what it means to her, and what’s next.

TIG: Can you talk a little bit more about what pushed you to create an EP of songs?

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It's a Christmas miracle! A mere few days after all the fun was had at our Imaginary Holiday Spectacular, photos of you and Santa are ready for your viewing pleasure.

Just click on over here to check them out! Huge piles of gratitude to John E. Hollingsworth for capturing all the fun.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Happy Friday! You know what that means, right? Well, besides the end of the work week, of course, it means that a mere seven days from now, we'll be gearing up for the Imaginary Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey, full of friends and good cheer. On Monday we told you a little bit more about show openers Brite Lines and our pal Chris Otepka, and today we'd like to get into our middle-set stars, Cristina Bautista and Leif Anders.

We've loved Cristina B. oh-so-muchly for as long as we can remember, from her time in Connecticut Four to her days as a member of Visqueen {photo above from Visqueen's Last Show at the Neptune, RIP} to her much-loved recent excursions as a solo artist. If you only know Cristina in one of her previous incarnations, take a trip on over to her website to get a sample of her sound. It's sweetly upbeat without sounding saccharine, clean and gritty alt.pop without the pomp and circumstance, all while remaining decidedly Pacific Northwest: Gold Parts, specifically, is a soundtrack for the days when you need to kick ass (or be kicked in the ass) -- and fills those train-out-the-window movie-scene grey-day quotas we need filled around here in the wintertime too. [Editor's note: Am I the only one who thinks "Long Divisions" should be synced up with some kind of tormented day-starting modern-day Angela Chase scene in whatever the 2012 My So-Called Life equivalent is? I can't be!] 

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It's all happening! Behold, the super-radtastical poster for this year's Imaginary Holiday Spectacular. Big thanks to our very own Imaginary Liz and Sean for putting it together! 

If you didn't see the news flash earlier this week, pop on over here for our show announcement post. We'll be telling you more about the featured bands over the month of December as we count down to the show -- and we hope to see you all on the 21st!

Yep, you guessed it -- with the passing of Thanksgiving, the holiday season is now officially in full swing, and with that, we're super excited this morning to announce the 2012 lineup for the Imaginary Holiday Spectacular!

Get your calendars out and mark the date: this year's show will be taking place on Friday, December 21st, and we'll be returning back to the Hill {Chop Suey, to be specific} for a 21-and-up night of music, good vibes, and Santa-lap hilarity. This year's theme is Open Mic Night, and will be featuring some stripped-down sets from Pablo Trucker, Lesli Wood (of The Redwood Plan), Cristina Bautista, Leif Anders (of The Orca Team), Chris Otepka (of The Heligoats), and Brite Lines. Of course, we've got the inimitable John Roderick playing Indie Rock Santa for the evening, with John E. Hollingsworth bringing his photo-tastic skills to capture your special holiday moment. Hooray!

Tickets are on sale now, and if we do say so ourselves, ten dollars (!) is a mighty fair price to pay for an evening of all this fun! But if you still need convincing, stay tuned: we'll be posting features in the upcoming weeks about all the artists taking part in this year's show. And PS, be sure to head on over to the Facebook page for the event to stay in the loop.

Happy almost-holidays!

{Photo of John Roderick and Eric Elbogen from 2011's Imaginary Holiday Spectacular by John Hollingsworth.}

You're going to get coffee anyway, right? So you might as well caffienate with a purpose: Coffee for the Kids is taking place this week, from Monday, November 5th through Friday, November 9th. And the concept is simple -- just like A Drink for the Kids, you consume, and a portion of the proceeds go straight to our friends at the Vera Project. Easy!

By pairing up with Caffe Vita's Capitol Hill location, the Vera will get to make good use of your habit. And it's not just coffee drinks, either -- ten percent of all sales, all week, count. Were you thinking about picking up some mugs for your buddy that moved away for a Christmas present? Need to stock up on beans for the folks you're hosting over Thanksgiving? Now is the time! The money you spend can do good work, without so much as a penny's hit to your wallet.

On top of the sales donations, Vita will be hosting an arts show of Vera show posters, and on top of that, the Vera Project will be hosting benefit shows, doing bake sales, blogging interviews with Vera alumni, and tons more. The goal over this campaign is to raise $40,000.00 over the month of November, and you can help the cause and keep an eye out on all things VP-related by stopping by their website here.

Here's to caffiene-buzzing with a purpose!

Today, tickets go on sale at 10am for the latest Gigs4Good benefit, "Wintersong," which will be taking place on Wednesday, November 28th at the Crocodile. This go-'round, the money by G4G raised will be going to Team Up for Nonprofits, a radical nonprofit that brings awareness, resources, and funding together to -- you guessed it -- help out other nonprofits in the community. Awesome!

There's a great selection of local artists on the roster for this event, including Ivan and Alyosha, Shelby Earl, Tea Cozies, Tom Eddy, Kevin Long, Ben Fisher, Naoimi Wachira, and more TBA -- and they'll all be performing winter-themed songs. Over the next few weeks, we'll be showcasing more information about these folks, so stay tuned for a few in-depth features about why we think this would be a great way to invest a few (specifically: fifteen) of your budgeted holiday dollars this season.

You can get more information Gigs4Good here, Team Up for Nonprofits here, and learn more about the show via the Facebook page here.

Happy almost-holidays!