Katharine Hepbrun's Voice: D.W. Burnam & Shannon Perry
Came across this today and wanted to share – the 7th Annual Capitol Hill Independence Day Community Picnic is Saturday, July 4th from 12-5 at Cal Anderson Park (1635 11th Ave) and they’ve packed a lot of activity in this year. A performance from local Lo-fi Pop Duo Katharine Hepburn's Voice seems promising, as well as tons of free eats.
From the park’s site:
Performances will take the Sunbowl Stage all afternoon, including the phenomenal kids' jammers Recess Monkey, urban Latin flavor from Picoso, lo-fi pop from Katharine Hepburn's Voice, and the old-school funksmanship of Lady A and the Baby Blues Funk Band, as well as buskers galore.
Molly Moon's Ice Cream will be on the scene making root beer floats at the 11th Avenue Inn ROOT Beer Garden, savory treats will be available from Via Tribunali and Wandering Weiners -- coffee by Caffe Vita. And free cotton candy for everyone!
PLUS: All-Park Parade led by the Yellow Hat Band, and free activities galore, including a Spin Art Bike, Patriotic Tie-dye, a Pie Eating Contest, Face Painting, Urban Family Portraits (ANY family - friends, dog and person, all types of families), Pet/Human Look Alike Contest...and traditional picnic features like the pie-eating contest.
I’m tempted to head over even though it seems like it will be a madhouse. It’s Free people! FREE!!!
I don't know how it happened, but half the year officially is over! Which means that we're half way to end-of-the-year-list time! I know that for a bunch of us, there are few things we love more than lists and mix tapes (I usually make a mix for friends of my year-end list favorites) -- so it makes sense we should do a mid-year check in and see what's topping our Best of 2009 list.
Here's my off-the-cuff list of what albums would vying for Top 10 of 2009 in my book:
The Thermals - Now We Can See
Matt & Kim - Grand
iji - In Celebration
Lacrosse - Bandages For The Heart
Stuart Murdoch - God Help The Girl
No-Fi Soul Rebellion - Oh Please Please Please
Cage the Elephant - Cage the Elephant
Tiny Masters Of Today - Skeletons
Telekinesis - Telekinesis!
One for the Team - Build A Garden EP
Throw Me The Statue - Creaturesque
Locally speaking (and to prep for our Readers Best Northwest Releases of 2009 poll) - these folks have also put out stellar releases I've listened to on repeat:
Coulter - Sent to Coventry
U.S.E - LOVEWORLD
The Nightgowns - Sing Something
Skeletons With Flesh on Them - All The Other Animals
The Femurs - Ride Together EP
The Lonely Forest - We Sing The Body Electric!
And rumor has it that these folks will be releasing stuff later this year -- and I bet the albums will be so good they might just knock some of the above off the top 10:
The Long Winters
Los Campesinos!
Northern Portrait
Pharmacy
Nana Grizol
Brown Recluse Sings
Oh yes, it's going to be a very good year - and a brilliant end of year mix tape! And for the record, Stay Flyin's song "The Hottchord is Struck" is my song of the year (download the MP3 here. Listen. Get hooked).
No Depression has long been the place to get the inside scoop on the best Americana, roots and alt-country folks to watch - and we're pleased as punch that they've put all that know how into a full on festival of fabulous artists. The first ever No Depression Festival is set for Saturday, July 11th at Marymoor Park in Redmond.
They've scored a stellar line up and you certainly don't want to miss: Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, Patterson Hood & the Screwtopians, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Justin Townes Earle, Jessica Lea Mayfield, a Seattle roots-music all-star revue, and Zee Avi.
And we have a pair of tickets to giveaway to a lucky imaginary reader! Enter to win a pair of tickets by emailing us at tig @ threeimaginarygirls.com with "NoDep" in the subject line sometime prior to Friday, July 3 at 9am. Please include your mailing address so that we can put the tickets in the mail asap!
And the person I'm most excited for... Justin Townes Earle! I saw him at SXSW a couple years ago and he conquered my heart with his straightforward old time country:
He somehow bridged the gap to sweet talk country, rockabilly, and alternative folks with uninhibited vintage twangs and a Johnny Cash swagger. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be so taken with this gem (in a dark suit no less) of American Roots music who can sing coy-'cause-it's-country lines like “Your biscuit is big enough for me.”
Yikes. So, the list of DVD releases today is…well, even thinner than last week (Uwe Boll? Another Street Fighter movie?? And the Jonas Bros???). But I dug in and found three which will make it into my player at some point:
RiP! A Remix Manifesto: This is the one I’m most excited about – a documentary by Brett Gaylor that looks at intellectual property laws – mostly by profiling controversial artist Gregg Michael Gillis, AKA: Girl Talk. It reportedly explores both sides of the issue, and looks pretty interesting:
The Man with the Golden Arm: I’ve never seen this – but I do like Preminger (even if he is a little over-dramatic). This 1955 classic showcases Frank Sinatra as a card dealer and heroin addict trying to beat his habit so he can drum in a jazz band. And hey, the guy was nominated for Best Actor, so he must have done something right. Kim Novak also stars as a former flame and ally – and I’ll pretty much see anything with her in it.
Two Lovers: Honestly this sounds like total BORES-ville, but I’m willing to give it a chance, since it may be Joaquin Phoenix's last role EVER (*coughcough*). Leonard Kraditor (Phoenix) gets stuck in a love triangle with Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Sandra (Vinessa Shaw). Paltrow plays the girl he wants, Shaw plays the girl his parents want him to want. I’d be lying if I said that a nomination for the Palm d’Or at Cannes didn’t have anything to do with this being on the list.
Seattle's Zera Marvel recently opened up for Tom Brosseau at the Tractor and I have to admit, if she wasn't so incredibly kind, I'd be quite jealous of her. Besides being quite stunning on stage, she belts out sultry sweetness taylored for sharing a stage with TomB.
Usually when I post a ticket giveaway on here, I try to add a few sentences as to why I'd want to win tickets to the show we have tickets for. In this instance, I feel like I'm just wasting everyone's time explaining why the influential duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe matter.
Yes, we have a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky fan for Pet Shop Boys' Pandemonium tour, which hits the Moore on Sunday, September 20. If you want to go (and trust me, you do) and would like the chance to go for free, send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com sometime between now and 9am on Monday, August 17 with PSB in the subject line.
Here's a medley they made of some of their biggest hits (which is even enhanced by appearances from Brandon Flowers and Lady Gaga) at the BRIT Awards earlier this year.
Jessica Hopper, one of my favorite rock critics to read - and not "even when I disagree with her" but especially when I disagree with her - has written a how-to guide for young girls to get into rocking, called, appropriately enough The Girls Guide to Rocking. The press release I had gotten says that "The book is for girls 10-16 on how to start a band, play music, record--all the various and sundry fun stuff (how sound works, what's the best Funkadelic album to start with)".
She's also taking the book on the road, including a stop at The Vera Project in about two weeks, on Tuesday, July 14.
If you're a young girl, or a parent or legal guardian of one, this might be the book/event for you. The description of the book reads:
From greats like Patti Smith and Joan Jett to legends-in-the-making like Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato, girls want to rock. They want to start bands, write songs, get up on stage, and kick out the jams. Here's the book to teach them how. Written by an obsessive music lover who's spent her life playing, performing, publicizing, and writing about rock 'n' roll, The Girls' Guide To Rocking is a hip, inspirational guide for rad girls who want to make their rock dreams come true.
It's everything a rocking girl needs to know: how to choose the right instrument for you, where to shop for instruments and where to avoid. How to get your band together and keep it together—tips on playing in a band with your friends and staying friends. How to turn your bedroom into a soundproof practice space. Giving your band the right name, plus a cautionary glossary of overused words (Wolf, Star, Crystal, Earth, etc.). How to set-up and promote your own shows. The freedom of going solo, and how to handle performing alone in the spotlight. Songwriting tips, with eight prompts to get the lyrics flowing. The ins and outs of recording, whether at home or in a studio. Taking care of business: publicizing your band, making T-shirts, legalese and the creative personality, and the four signs that say "time to hire a manager"—in other words, you've arrived.
Includes a girls-in-rock timeline, essential listening lists, and quotes from the greats: Nina Simone, Hayley Williams, Gwen Stefani, Carrie Brownstein, Amy Lee, Kim Gordon, and more. Now get out there and rule the world.
So, the details are: Jessica Hopper's The Girls Guide to Rocking at The Vera Project, Tuesday, July 14, free; You can order the book here; I don't definitively but you can't go wrong with One Nation Under a Groove (it sold the most copies, at least).
Some wildly clever people found a way to make a video to Lily Allen's super-catchy song "Fuck You" that can air on television. It's really a cute and fun video, so I had to post it.
Over the last couple years, Tokyo's Tenniscoats and Glasgow's Pastels met up in the studio whenever Tenniscoats were in the Pastels' hometown for shows or holidays to (as the press release explains) "just to see what happens, and maybe to try to find out what it is that they have in common."
Thankfully they've come up with an album's worth of songs which feature members of both groups, Saya and Ueno from Tenniscoats, and Stephen and Katrina from The Pastels, with Gerard Love always there too, and often Tom Crossley, Alison Mitchell, and sometimes Norman Blake and Bill Wells. The album, Two Sunsets, will be released September 22nd and will be preceded by a single for "Vivid Youth" with the b-sides "About You" (a JAMC cover) and "About You (Instrumental)".
Regardless of when, where or why, I'm over the moon that there's new Pastels stuff hitting the streets courtesy of Domino Records (which means it's gonna be swanky).
I haven't found an MP3 sampler anywhere of what the end result is... but I'll keep you posted if anything crosses my radar (you do the same)!
The full story goes like this: The first recording was promising and slightly rushed, but suggested enough to carry on. Tenniscoats had often been playing shows in Scotland, over a two or three year period at various recording sessions, it suddenly seemed like they'd accumulated about an album of songs which originated from members of both groups, Saya and Ueno from Tenniscoats, and Stephen and Katrina from The Pastels, with Gerard Love always there too, and often Tom Crossley, Alison Mitchell, and sometimes Norman Blake and Bill Wells.
"Vivid Youth" looks like this summer but makes you think of last summer too; hopeful and kind of strident sounding, the spectacular moment when a bonfire really catches fire. And in the shadow there's something else too, something secretive, beautiful and exciting. This Pastels / Tenniscoats sound is very summer-ish, everyone's playing feels very of the moment; maybe it's the evening to Billy Stewart's "Sitting In The Park" or Hugh Masekela's "Grazing In The Grass." Night time is inevitably Question Mark & The Mysterians. That's what I think anyway. A bright coloured, brilliant moment, a Gerard Love and Katrina Mitchell composition. An 'almost' pop single? An unhesitant yes.
"About You" feels like another type of summer feeling. It's raining heavily outside and maybe for a moment you feel a bit stuck. You feel a weight, a certain melancholy, but only for a moment because actually the summer rain's great to walk around in and you feel alive and warm. It's finding the good in everything, and summer rain is the best kind and that's what this feels like. The sound is like this... it's sort of organic but not right on, it's running loops too, soft, almost mechanical rain. It's a song from The Jesus And Mary Chain's Darklands album which The Pastels recorded with Tenniscoats as part of a commission for a theatre production but which felt like it belonged in the album session. Initial recordings with Norman Blake in Queens Park, Glasgow, expanding out into other places.
Two Sunsets tracklisting:
1. So Many Stars 2. Two Sunsets 3. Song For A Friend 4. Vivid Youth 5. Yomigaeru 6. Modesty Piece 7. About You 8. Boats 9. Hikoki 10. From On A Mountain_Sodane 11. Mou Mou Rainbow 12. Start Slowly
Last Thursday, Head Like A Kite had an open house of sorts at London Bridge Studio and invited some friends and imaginaries to come be part of the recording process. Of course we couldn't resist the invite and Jeanine Anderson was on hand to take some shots of the fun.
Well, okay – new as in this thing is finally in limited release (it was made last year). Being a fan of Lynch's last film Boxing Helena (1993, making Surveillance her first film in 15 years), I’ve been waiting for this thing to come out for so long that I forgot she directed it until I pressed play and saw the opening credits, then realized I’m an idiot.
The June 26th limited release date for Surveillance did not include any theaters in Seattle, but if you have Comcast, you can queue it up On Demand now for $6.99 in HD - which is exactly what I did on Saturday night.
Keep an open mind as you watch the credits roll: I was sold on Bill Pullman & even Julia Ormond (and I may have cheered when I saw Michael Ironside’s name), but I did raise my eyebrow at the thought of French Stewart & Cheri Oteri cast in a horror/thriller. Really? Fortunately, everything worked out. I might even go so far as to say that the casting made the movie.
Jennifer borrows some themes (i.e. small towns are scary, and everybody has a secret) and imagery from her dad – but not so much that I’d call it a rip-off. She has her own style and it works well for this story. FBI Agents Anderson (Ormond) and Hallaway (Pullman) arrive at a small town Sherriff’s station to investigate a series of murders. After a hotel massacre, a pair of masked killers takes out 6 more people on the road (including a cop), leaving 3 witnesses for the Agents to question.
Enter Anderson and his camera/monitor set-up, with which to observe (thus the title) the questioning of a young junkie, a grieving, hot-head cop and a scarred but stoic little girl. As each story gets told, it becomes clear that everyone’s hiding something – but Hallaway is determined to find out the truth.
I know, I know – it sounds like pretty standard stuff. But there’s a lot about this that’s entertaining and great to watch. The murders are filmed in a pretty brutal way, and I enjoyed watching Pullman & Ormond play off each other – who’d have thought those two would pair up well?
I recommend if you’re curious, but I have to warn you: if you go looking around the Internet for facts on this one, you might find something that will spoil the whole movie. Search cautiously!
Now I'm going to spend my time waiting for her 3rd film, Hisss, to come out. :)
The folks at the Fretboard Journalare my heros. Issue after issue they pack each quarterly publication with beautiful pieces geared towards the smarty pants guitar geeks amongst us. Since I have yet to master anything with strings, reading the articles makes me feel like a fly on the wall of a backstage room eavesdropping as folks I admire discuss the minute details of their music passions.
For those of us that need to fill in the blanks left between quarterly FJ issues, they've expanded to a blog and a killer weekly podcast available every Friday at 1pm PST. Each week, the FJ editors gather round the table and interview a notable notable.
A couple weeks ago they had a lively discussion with John Roderick (Long Winters) that is fabulously funny and insightful. I spoke with Jason Verlinde, a FB editor, and put in my request for more John Roderick conversations... a request which he promised was duly noted.
For the time being, you should go listen to the podcastand find out what kindsa guitars John looks for while on the road and how work on the next LW record is coming along. And just hear the FJ editors and John pontificate the finer points of being a guitar aficionado.
Touring for their debut album, Rotting Slowly, released on K records this May; The Curious Mystery blends a multitude of textures. Some of their songs reveal a velvet lining, but most of the time they offer up a coarse belly for you to scratch. And much like a poorly groomed pup, their sound is at once alluring and yet full of fleas. Go ahead, get bit and get the itch.
Rotting Slowly begins and your follow that mangy, stray dog down a dark alley thinking that it leads somewhere familiar, until you realize, “Preparations,” the opening track, hasn’t prepared you for all that the band has to offer.
Shana Cleveland’s voice strays into Chan Marshall strains but trails into an off kilter moan as if she forgets what she wants to say. She’s nicely complemented by the bass tones of Nicolas Gonazalez’s vocal tracks that weave in and around the floating Eastern drones of the guitars with the drums and cymbals tripping over each other’s feet.
On the instrumental, “Dragon’s Crotch” you find yourself torn between country blues drumming and the garage band distortion of the guitar during the verses. During the chorus they become a strange amalgamation of the two. My personal favorite, “It’s Tough,” swells and crashes in a subtle way, sort of like the cuts and bruises you discover after on your body after a bender. It’s melody is catchy in contrast to the sixties psychedelia tangents that are so much of this album. In fact the later half of this album is where there are real hooks to grab. Or maybe you just need to get lost and bruised following the band around blind before they reveal themselves as trustworthy.
They are playing a live set at 6PM PST on "Audioasis" on KEXP radio. Tune in. You can then catch The Curious Mystery at Jules Maes Saloon tonight.
They're, if you couldn't tell by the name, a glam rock band - and they just filmed a movie and are starting to screen it (it doesn't have an IMDB entry yet). The description of the film, from the trailer's page on YouTube says:
If you thought Glam Rock died in the 1970s then let me introduce you to Glam Chops. Lead Singer Eddie sees the band as light relief but Bassist Paul takes wearing a catsuit seriously. Follow Glam Chops as they prepare for the gig that could make them or break them...
You can watch the trailer here. I think it looks hilarious.
If I believed in "guilty pleasures", I would have no problem saying The Veronicas were a guilty pleasure.
But I don't; at least not during the eleven months of the year that Girl Scout Cookies aren't sold.
Rather, we'll just have to say The Veronicas are a fine band who I really enjoy. They're the type of band that when you read that they are touring with Kelly Clarkson (as they are this fall), you think "this makes sense and it's perfect".
They are identical twins, Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, from Australia who make catchy-as-hell bubblegum pop. They are superstars in their home country but haven't quite broken here. Their sound is a little poppier and more electronic update of The Donnas. They probably fit well on iPods that make a lot of room for Clarkson, Pink and Avril Lavigne, but that shouldn't be taken as an insult (and I certainly don't mean it as one).
The Veronicas are touring in support of their latest album, Hook Me Up, mostly on the strength of their brilliant single "Take Me on the Floor". Of course, they're songs are aggressive sexually and they have the photogenic looks of models but the songs are so irresistably catchy that it's irrelevant. Structually, "Take Me on the Floor" resembles Clarkson's massive (and perfect) hit "Since U Been Gone". It starts out with with slow, drawn-out harmony before a huge chorus builds. It's a pop gem whose hook takes effect almost immediately.
Take the preceding paragraphs for what they're worth. If you're a poptimist who values hooks above almost everything else (as I do), this is the show of the weekend. Or so I hope.
Join us for the week-long benefit for the Vera Project’s with festivities for the 21+ crowd which includes six bar nights featuring beer and liquor specials benefitting the Vera Project and a grand finale benefit show.
Jessica Hopper, one of my favorite rock critics to read - and not "even when I disagree with her" but especially when I disagree with her - has written a how-to guide for young girls to get into rocking, called, appropriately enough The Girls Guide to Rocking. The press release I had gotten says that "The book is for girls 10-16 on how to start a band, play music, record--all the various and sundry fun stuff (how sound works, what's the best Funkadelic album to start with)".
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