Three Imaginary Girls - Seattle's sparkly indie-pop press

Sabrina Chap takes over Seattle this weekend/week! (and releases an album with your help)

Imaginary Amie — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:38:52 +0000

Doesn't this photo say, "Fuckyeah, I'm awesome!"? Photo by: Dave Sanders

So last year around this same time, I discovered an album called Oopma by lovely, honey-voiced Sabrina Chap - and I'm pleased to announce that she's coming back to Seattle with a week full of shows! Burlesque, caberet, piano-playing, crooning - you name it, Sabrina is doing it. Man oh man, I love this woman! She's currently cooking up her new album, We Are the Parade, and could use a some dollas to help finish it up and get it out the door. I'm a sucker for kickstarter campaigns, so I donated. You too?

Ms. Chap generously offered up a preview of some of her new stuff for our imaginary readers! Take a listen to this track from her 3-song piano and vocal CD (which will be available at her gigs!):

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://threeimaginarygirls.bandcamp.com/track/stupid-broken-love-song&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; _cke_saved_href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://threeimaginarygirls.bandcamp.com/track/stupid-broken-love-song&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Stupid Broken Love Song by Sabrina Chap&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

So to recap: track down a copy of Oompa and mix up some Manhattans, take a listen to one of her new piano tracks, throw a few bucks her way if you dig it, and take your pick from any of the shows below to bask in the Sabrina goodness.

Feb. 10th, 11th &12th
That's F*cked Up 3!
Burlesque as you've never seen it...
ReBar
Doors @7pm | Show @8pm

{complete show listings after the jump}

THEE Satisfaction play for the kiddies at Town Hall {2/18}

Imaginary Gemma — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:21:25 +0000

If you are a fan of the funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics of local duo THEESatisfaction, you probably can’t wait until the awE naturalE release show at Neumo’s on March 29. And now you don’t have to! THEESatisfaction are playing two daytime sets {11 am and 1 pm} for Town Hall's Saturday Family Concerts.

On Saturday, February 18, Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White are bringing their positive, feminist energy with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul to the next generation. They only have a few DJ sets scheduled locally between now and their release show, and they’ll be touring Europe in April -- so this could be your last chance to see them play live for a while. Best part? You’ll have plenty of time for dinner before heading down the hill to see The Presidents of the United States at the Showbox.

So, pack up the kiddies and head to Town Hall for an intergenerational hour of live music. And if you don’t have kids, borrow some: tickets are only $5 for adults with children, but unaccompanied adults pay $25.

Tickets to THEESatisfaction and other Family Concerts are available online.

For the (whole) love of Wilco

imaginary victoria — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:27:11 +0000

7 Feb 2012

Last night's performance by Wilco at the Paramount was just a few strokes short of phenomenal. And those few strokes, mind you, were negligible at best. The set had that bright, perfect, let-your-love-light-shine kind of feeling, coupled with a stunning amount of... well, shredding, really, is the only way to put it. Hella shredding, even! Lovelight and shredding, with lots of emphasis on the new album, select tracks from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and a perfect integration of the rest of the band's catalog. Lines like what was I thinking / when I said hello {I Am Trying To Break Your Heart}, with no larger problems / that need to be erased {Impossible Germany} and you love her / but you don't know why {Born Alone} were delivered with the intimacy and care as if they were being played for a few hundred close friends at a venue the size of Neumos. Connecting with a room the size of the Paramount is no small task, and Wilco seemed to pull this off effortlessly, much to the crowd's delight.

On top of all the sonic bliss, fans seated up in the balcony were able to take in the show the full view of the stage and the incredulous setup of hundreds of rag-covered lights that hung from the rafters, which reflected an aptly-displayed series of lights and images that changed with the songs during the set -- birds, mountaintops, digital dreamscapes, and open skies. It was reminscent of the thousand-lantern stage setup that Grizzly Bear had at the Moore a few years back, only better. Shreddier, even. And so beautifully Wilco-esque.

Set list:

* One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)
* Poor Places
* Art Of Almost
* I Might
* Bull Black Nova
* Company In My Back
* I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
* Kamera
* Impossible Germany
* Born Alone
* Laminated Cat
* Shouldn't Be Ashamed
* Whole Love
* Heavy Metal Drummer
* I'm The Man Who Loves You
* Standing O
* Misunderstood
* Dawned On Me
* A Shot In The Arm

===

* Candyfloss
* War On War
* Walken
* Red-eyed and Blue
* I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
* Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

{Photo of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot towers (Chicago) by Victoria VanBruinisse.}

{Set list after the jump!}

Imaginary exclusive! More Than Shapes, starring John Roderick of the Long Winters

imaginary victoria — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:21:07 +0000

Adam Pranica, filmmaker and principal over at Dorsia Films and true indie rock enthusiast, with the perfect opening line:

"In the winter of 2011, Victoria VanBruinisse came up with a crazy idea to invite John Roderick of The Long Winters over for a potluck dinner. He played a few songs, told some stories, and ate all of the food."

And that's pretty much the long and short of it. When I found out that I was going to be in New York at CMJ for this past year's City Arts Festival, and would subsequently be missing the only performance by the Long Winters for the 2011 calendar year, I almost cried. Not literally, but still. It was a huge disappointment, a sigh to end all sighs, the conundrum that comes from being vested in so many interests and not being able to be everywhere at once. And so I did what any fan would do: I suggested to John that perhaps he might want to play a show in my living room. I base much of my interactions on the simple methodology of the old adage that it never hurts to ask, because as the lottery tells us, you can't win if you don't play.

Well, we played alright, and we won. All of us, and that's you {yes, you!} included, because we won something big: a beautiful, candle-and-twinkle-light-lit evening with two dozen of our closest friends, where we enjoyed food, comraderie, and a series of brilliantly performed songs by the one and only John Roderick. And because of the genius embedded in Adam Pranica, Tyler Kalberg, and Zach Varnell -- the latter two being names you should recognize from the Notes from Home series -- we get to share the collective product from that near-perfect night with the world.

Imaginary Mixtape: Shuffle Surprise!

Imaginary Amie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:57:26 +0000

You know that point when your iTunes gets so filled up with awesome stuff that you can't possibly listen to everything that's in there with any kind of regularity? Where, like, you put it on shuffle and then you hear a song and you're all, "OHHHH right, I love this song! But I forgot about it!" Right.

Well, that's been happening to me lately and there's so much good stuff I want to share, I thought I'd just go ahead and create a mixtape for y'all. Enjoy!

"Nothing Really Happened" - Math and Physics Club
"So Caroline" - The Posies
"Lonelily" - Damien Rice
"The Kids We Used to Be" - Phineas and The Lonely Leaves
"Do It Better" - Imperial Teen
"If It Was (A Matter of Mind)" - The Rave-Ups
"Hold On" - Yellow Ostrich
"The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine" - Spoon
"Run" - Ben Kweller
"Closet Cutter" - Mike Viola
"Sigh" - Verlee for Ransom
"Connection" - The Brunettes

Play this mixtape on Spotify.
{I once again tried to include an iTunes link, but sadly only 9 of the 13 songs are available on there. auuuuggghhh}

So... what songs have popped up on your shuffle lately that you're suddenly loving again?