If you, like me, have always thought letterpress things are magic bits and imagined how cool it would be to make your own letterpress valentine, join us this Sunday to transform fancy blocks and ink and paper into a special sexy something for your super special someone (or something).

On Sunday, January 23 from 1pm-3pm at Neptune Coffee, we're going to get our craft on (get all the details) while listening to the newest Radio Dept. release, Passive Aggressive: The Singles 2002-2010 (Labrador Records). The double album collection is filled with the Swedish band's hard to find singles and rarities.

In addition to crafting a plenty and listening to this amazing collection of songs, we'll also have a Radio Dept. prize to raffle off. One lucky Crafternoon attendee will win a special CD edition of the Never Follow Suit EP (promo - not available in store).

In case you're new to the Radio Dept bandwagon, jump on board! The trio has been nominated for two Swedish Grammy Awards, (“Album of the Year” and “Band of the Year”). In addition, they are one of twelve nominees for the first annual Nordic Music Prize. A list which includes Robyn and Jonsi. Even Pitchfork digs them. And they are coming to Seattle at the Crocodile on Saturday, February 12.

Want a sample of the kind of Radio Dept goodness we've got in store? The Labrador site has a nice sampling of MP3s from their catalog available for download.

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It's going to be Valentines Day before you know it, and we want to make sure that you have the spiffiest handmade valentine card to bestow on the object of your affection {or best friend, yoga teacher, or puppy}.

Let's gather together on Sunday, January 23, 2011 at Neptune Coffee to craft aplenty from 1pm-3pm.  The folks at Neptune will have a letterpress on hand to help us spiff up our omg hearts greetings and we'll also have some craft paper, markers, glue and the like. Feel free to bring any paper {or letterpress-able items}, craft punches, or crafty items to share and/or join in the fun.  While we cut and paste, we're throw two of our favorite new releases as of late onto the Neptune soundsystem.

You don't have to partake in the craft paper piles, bring your own knitting needles, or current craft project and join us for fabulous crafty conversations and good times! As always, it's a free all-ages event and we'd love to have you join us in Greenwood for an afternoon of crafty goodness!

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Join us Sunday, December 5th from 1pm-3pm at Neptune Coffee as we gather to craft holiday style. In this month's edition of the Imaginary Crafternoon Listening Party, we're going to work on our craft projects and listen three new releases in their entirety from beginning to end:

The Old 97's - The Grand Theatre Volume One - The eighth studio album that somehow captures the vigor and daring of their live show (finally).

The Young Evils - Enchanted Chapel - One of our favorite releases of the year, from Seattle or otherwise. It's full of "strumming, crisp drumming on a kick, tambourine, and a bright blue briefcase full of melodic punk-blues defines the schema."

The Matinée Holiday Soirée - a 5-song ep featuring festive songs by Northern Portrait, Strawberry Whiplash, Bubblefum Whiplash, Chamgagne Riot, and Math and Physics Club that will be a holiday staple for years to come.

While listening to these three stellar releases, we're going to have some paper craft projects going. We'll have some card stock, craft paper, and scissors for folks to cut out snowflakes or create holiday cards. Feel free to bring any paper, craft punches, or crafty items to share and/or join in the fun.

You don't have to partake in the craft paper piles, bring your own knitting needles, or current craft project and join us for fabulous crafty conversations and good times! As always, it's a free all-ages event and we'd love to have you join us!

JUST ANNOUNCED: We're going to have some hot crafty raffle action at this Sunday's event. Participants will be entered in a raffle to win a fabulous partying gift {a pair of tickets to see the Old 97s at the Showbox on January 24, 2011 or a Matinee Recordings / Math and Physics Club indie-pop treasure}.

{Old 97s and Young Evils photos by Victoria VanBruiniesse}

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{Orca Team / Elf Power photos from their MySpace pages}

This October is so full of amazing shows it's far from clever to simply call it rOctober (which has yet to prevent me one bit from doing so). We can't stop talking about the fact that our dreams are going to come true many times over during the course of the month with the likes of The Drums, Superchunk (featured in last month's podcast) / Teenage Fanclub / Telekinesis, James, Liz Phair, Belle & Sebastian, and The Vaselines are all coming to Seattle. You can imagine the hard time we had narrowing down what bands to feature in this month's Imaginary Mixtape to illustrate just how lucky we are going to be in the coming weeks. Have a listen to just a few of our recommendations for what to see this month in a wee concise sampler.

You can listen to a stream of the podcast below or download the MP3 version of the podcast on the imaginary bandcamp page. If you are the type that likes to listen to podcasts in itunes, download the .m4a file here {it's one single file with fancy chapter markers!} and then open it in your itunes {big thanks to Jigsaw Records for hosting the file!}.

Tracklisting: Imaginary Mixtape - October 2010:

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Join us Sunday, October 17th at Neptune Coffee {in Greenwood} for the  October edition of the Imaginary Crafternoon Listening Party from 1pm-3pm. For this month's Imaginary Crafternoon Listening Party we're going to combine a couple of our favorite British groups (one English and one Scottish) and one of our favorite crafts (screen-printing)!

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On Sunday, September 12th at Neptune Coffee, the Imaginary Crafty Listening Party will commence (Kelly's showing everyone how to make fabric flowers, woot!), and it will feature an original crafting soundtrack from Superchunk and the Thermals' new albums.

We have a full review of The Thermals coming up (it's a power pop romantic masterpiece), but we thought it would be good to specifically plug the seminal work of 90s punk pop royalty Superchunk. Especially since the new LP Majesty Shedding arrives along with must-have generational-rousing reissues of the band's second and third releases, No Pocky For Kitty and On The Mouth (1991 and 1993, respectively).

First of all, Majesty Shedding is the band's full-on reunion after many years and comes after Superchunk rubbed fan's tummies with their toys in the attic EP Leaves In The Gutter.

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{Visqueen photo: Ben Haley / Bunnygrunt photo: JoshBomb}

September marks the biggest festival season in the Pacific Northwest. In a move to test our endurance, the biggest of the mammoth festivals take place within days of each other: Bumbershoot from September 4-6 in Seattle and Music Fest NW from September 8-12 in Portland. But, besides those mega-shows, we've got plenty of our favorite Seattle bands taking to the stage. In this edition of the Imaginary Mixtape we'll share tracks from noteworthy bands with shows in the coming weeks, feature some exclusive live recordings from the Athens Popefest, and a sneak preview of brand new songs by The Thermals and Superchunk.

You can listen to a stream or download the MP3 version of the podcast on the imaginary bandcamp page. Bandcamp prohibits tracks longer than 25 minutes {I think it's some regulation against jam bands?}, so the podcast is split into three sections. Click below to listen via the bandcamp stream.

PART 1: Preview of some September Seattle shows, Bumbershoot and Music Fest NW

PART 2: A listen to more Seattle bands with September shows and a preview of our Imaginary Crafty Listening Party albums for September

PART 3: Live tracks recorded at the 2010 Athens Popfest and some lovely Seattle indie-pop

If you are the type that likes to listen to podcasts in itunes (and who doesn't), download the .m4a file here {it's one single file with fancy chapter markers!} and then open it in your itunes {big thanks to Jigsaw Records for hosting the file!}.

Tracklisting: Imaginary Mixtape - September 2010:

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{Thermals photo: Westin Glass / Superchunk photo: Jason Arthurs}

Last month's Imaginary Crafty Listening Party was bumpin with Lo & Behold Shrie teaching us all how to embroider {and armed us with TIG birdies to practice on} while we blissed out to the new Darren Hanlon and Menomena albums.

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{Menomena photo by Ben Moon. The Darren Hanlon photo is by someone equally as talented, but unknown to me}

It's time to get out your basket of needles and thread and join us for some quality crafty times! This month we'll be gather at Neptune Coffee (in Greenwood) on Sunday, August 8 from 1pm-3pm and hear brand new albums by Menomena (7/27 release on Barsuk) and Darren Hanlon (9/21 release on Yep Roc).  We'll have a raffle with Menomena and Darren Hanlon -themed prizes, a Neptune beverage special, and a stitching tutorial!

Stitch n B!tch class:
Bring your own craft or join in our first imaginary craft tutorial led by Shrie of Lo and Behold (see flickr / website for crafty portfolio). Shrie is going to show those of us interested how to embroider. If you want to join in, we'll have imaginary-themed stitching kits available so you don't even have to guess what supplies you'll need to get started (but make sure to bring your own scissors - those things are expensive!). Shrie will bring everything we need to learn to stitch and leave the Imaginary Crafty Listening Party with a finished and beautifully stitched craft.

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Join us Sunday, June 27 from 1p-3p at Neptune Coffee for the second edition of our Imaginary Crafty Listening Party! Last month we had a glorious time making new crafty friends and debuting the new Math & Physics Club album.  This time around, we'll fill the air with the likes of two album we think should be on your must-have summer playlist:

Carissa's Wierd - They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003
This retrospective reminds us why Carissa's Wierd should be counted as one of the most important bands to come out of Seattle. They perfected elegant sadness and inspired the beard-core movement that has penetrated today's music charts.

The album releases July 13, 2010 on Hardly Art and they will knock our socks off at the Showbox at the Market on July 9. Listen to "Die" on repeat.

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