Three Imaginary Girls, The Stranger, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Neumo's are proud to present Hootenanny! -- our very own SXSW sendoff party for 2010 -- with Visqueen, Hey Marseilles, Mash Hall (formerly known as They Live!), and Fences on Friday, March 5th at Neumo's.

It's that time of year again, kids -- where we all steel ourselves for some couchsurfing, and start making our wishlists for the bands we can't miss -- yes, it's time to head down to Austin for SXSW 2010! And to celebrate, we'd love for you to join our sendoff party at Neumo's on Friday, March 5th. Come join us as we wish our favorite ladies and gents well before they hit the road... tickets for this 21+ show are only $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

Expect a downright rager of a night, with local big-guitar all-stars Visqueen headlining the bill, and Hey Marseilles bringing their lush, alt.indie.orchestral songwriting skills to the stage. On top of that magic, Mash Hall and everyone's favorite Fences will be rounding out the opening support -- doors are at 8pm and you won't want to miss a minute of this lineup. So make sure you're on the hill nice and early!

more...

{Nana Grizol photo by Jon Manning}

Update! Looks like we found another pair of tickets! Folks who've already entered are still eligible! Details after the jump!

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).

more...

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:

more...

Tonight is the night!

We would be so honored to have you join us at the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular tonight {December 23} at Chop Suey!

There's a lot of exciting stuff going on, including but not limited to:

more...

 

Only two days until the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular{December 23 at Chop Suey}!!!

We have a lot of exciting stuff planned for the night. Performances by five of our favorite bands, amazingly robust raffle prize offerings, The Stranger's David Schmader as emcee... and one tradition that's carried us through the last five years of Imaginary Spectaculars: Indie Rock Santa John Roderick.

Long Winters' sweetness J. Rod will be in the house from 8p-11p with the amazingly talented Laura Musselman, who will be on hand to take your photo as you whisper your wishlist in his ear. The photos are free and we'll have them on the imaginary flickr page available for you to download print-ready photos for next year's holiday card.

 

more...

Like you, we can hardly believe that it's already the end of the year and time for end of the year parties and countdowns, let alone (for most folks) the end of a decade (which is a whole other podcast).

Imaginary liz and imaginary keenan joined forces to review some of our imaginary staff Pacific Northwest favorites for 2009 and a peek at the bands playing our Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular {December 23, 2009 at Chop Suey} in podcast form {official top 10 lists to come soon}! We couldn't fit everything in here... what did we miss?

 

{Photo by Alex Crick}

Day five of our countdown to the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular {December 23 at Chop Suey} and we're happy to spend today focusing on our headliner: The Redwood Plan.

We have yet to find anyone (critic or otherwise) that isn't dazzled by both of the The Redwood Plan's 2009 eps.  Their guitar punk is spiffied up with mesmerizing synth and handclaps in the most infectious of ways.  Lesli Wood  took a moment to answer some questions about The Redwood Plan and confirm the fact that Tegan and Sarah, just like the rest of us, have really big crushes on The Redwood Plan.

 

more...

The Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular {December 23, 2009 at Chop Suey} is less than a week a way! As we countdown to the big holiday party, let's replay our recent chat with one of the bands on the bill: the Nightgowns. We never know what's going to happen when the Nightgowns fellas are in the house, but it always ends fabulously. And for the record, we don't know what's going to happen when they play this year's Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular {December 23, 2009 at Chop Suey}, but we suspect it might involved swirly guitars, keyboard twirls and some mistletoe.

We chatted up Cody Nightgown recently and found out what happened the night they opened for Grand Duchy, their "lucky" charm, a loveletter from them to Wallpaper {also playing the IWH Spectacular} and what they want to find under the tree.

more...

 

It's hard to believe, but the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey on December 23rd is only one week away!

Today we are giddy to unveil the posters for the show! The Spectacular is *so* spectacular it has two color combos. The poster was designed by our friends at Admiration Society and lovingly screen-printed by Seattle Show Posters - who will make limited edition huge prints of the gray version of the poster (above) available for purchase at the show.

But, if you're more in the winning mood than the buying mood, everyone who comes through the door will be given a raffle ticket (extra tickets will be available for purchase with proceeds going to charity) with a chance to win a slew of amazing prizes donated by our generous sponsors:

 

more...

{photo: John E. Hollingsworth}

Day 2 of the countdown to the big huge wonderful Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey on December 23rd {an evening full of big huge wonderful fun including, but not limited to Christmas Belles, free mega-raffle ticket goodness, MC David Schmader!}.

The band that is going to kick off the evening is the Special Places, a Seattle duo who recently started to take Seattle by storm with opening slots at BOAT's album release show and Aussie Darren Hanlon's recent visit. You might know them as 2/5 of imaginary favs Tullycraft, so you can imagine we jumped at the opportunity to sit down with them for their first ever interview as the Special Places. Jenny and Corianton spilled some deets on how they started out and whether or not they are secret (or not so secret) lovers. Now we're doubly looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us at the Spectacular.

 

more...