It's always a surprise to hear a favorite song as the backdrop of a commercial {a la Los Campesinos! in a recent Budwieser commercial}... but imagine the gasp heard 'round the indie-pop community when it was discovered that ultra-conservative Fox News 'personality' John Gibson featured the Smittens song "Something Sassy" (with guest vocals from Tullycraft's Sean Tollefson) in a promo blurb on his radio show! They probably thought they were safe from anyone finding out as I don't know many twee-pop fans who also dabble in Fox-ness. Alas, Fox's  'sassy' ways have been caught.

But all is not ignoble with this news; I'd like to quickly temper it with this cute and wonderful video recapping the recent wedding of Dana {of The Smittens} and her wife Katie.

Here's the official word from The Smittens {via press release}:

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I'm not sure what neat Windows(R) software created this video, but even with the program I couldn't have come up with a funnier indie-pop girl / husband sample conversation.

For the love of Morrissey!!!  You'll never be English, get over it.

What should be the next video in this series?  A barista to boyfriend exchange?

So remember that Tullycraft covers compilation we mentioned a while back, Wish I'd Kept A Scrapbook? Well, it's done, and will be available for purchase next month. And, you can stream the whole thing on their website! I've been swooning all morning. This compilation features so many of my crush bands, like Gold-Bears, Fishboy, the Smittens, Bunnygrunt, and Math and Physics Club.

 

The folks at Unchikun Records have been nice enough to share a few MP3s, so for your listening pleasure, check out two of my favorite songs from the comp, Hot Lava covering "Pink Lemonade" and the Medusa Snare covering "Every Little Thing".

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{Tullycraft photo by Steve Louie}

Holy indie pop incredibleness! Do you miss Tullycraft as much as I do? It's only been less than a year since their farewell set at San Francisco Popfest (which still gives me chills just thinking about), but just knowing that there may be another chance to sing along to such glorious pop gems makes me happy. Well, this isn't a new Tullycraft record, but the next best thing: all your favorite (well, at least my favorite) indie pop bands together on one comp covering their favorite Tullycraft songs!

The wonderful folks who are putting the comp together put up an experiment of sorts on the site Kickstarter (a great website for getting funding for projects!) to see if they could raise a little scratch to make this cover compilation huge; to spread the love of Tullycraft to the masses! Only if they raise their amount will you be charged. Think of it like a pre-order: by paying in advance, you get tons of awesome benefits!

Full band list after the jump.

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{Long Winters photo by Trickshot Photography}

Because I'm some kind of masochist and a total nerd, I've been slaving over this list, keeping it brief (harder than you'd think!) at my favorite 20 albums of the decade without duplicating a band (even harder). Side note: I've probably forgotten something I really, really love, so let's just call this how I feel right this minute. These are the albums I know every note and breath of by heart and I love as complete albums with all of my soul. These are albums that in my humble opinion have no skipable track and are works of beauty in their entirety. I'd also like to point out that these are my favorite albums, as I tend to shy away from calling them "the best", as really, it's just my opinion, and who am I to tell you that you're wrong for not liking these records? (Though, if you catch me in a potentially altered state, I may completely negate that and call any number of these THE GREATEST of all time and call you wrong to your face if you disagree.) I digress. Here they are!

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Yesterday I divulged my favorite albums of the year. Today I am ready to let go of my latest obsession: My album recap of how I spent my 00's.

The below listage rant is my own little time capsule to remind myself why 2000-2009 musically ruled. As with my other list posts, I'm certain I totally forgot to add something really important to my end-all-be-all-recap. It's up to you to remind me by posting your favs of the 00's below.

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I love folks when great music taste and extra time futz around with iMovie. Thank you fanella55! You did a great job putting one of my favorite Fishboy songs ("Proper Name Spelling Bee") to digital video.

I recently saw someone do this sort of thing with a Tullycraft song; OldFlat24 set "The Punks Are Writing Love Songs" to scenes from High School Musical and it's rad! Sure, this is the first I've seen of HSM, but it looks pretty Degrassi cool when edited to three minutes).

Have you seen any more examples of this? Please link / post away. Could this be the downfall of MTV? Or an underground rebirth of the early days of 120 Minutes splendor?

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at Rickshaw Stop

And on with our San Francisco Popfest coverage coming to a close, here's our post about the Saturday evening show at the Rickshaw Stop featuring the Smittens, The Magic Bullets, My Teenage Stride, Northern Portrait, and our very own Seattle darlings, Tullycraft. Tonight was the night. The crowning glory of indie pop. I'd been calling this night the best show of the year long before it even happened.

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The San Francisco Popfest starts today (imaginary Keenan is already headed south to get there in time for tonight's shows)!!!

The 'fest runs though Sunday, May 24, 2009 and Keenan, amazing imaginary photographer Steve Louie and I will be running around the greater San Francisco area basking in all that fine fine indie-pop.

We're looking forward to most all the bands (ballboy ballboy ballboy), but we put together a podcast of some of the lesser known ones and ones with hit songs we've been listening to on repeat (ahem: Stay Flyin').

You should go listen to it now (and go subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes 'cause we have big plans to make this the summer of podcasts!).

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From Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, May 24, 2009, Three Imaginary Girls staffers Liz and Keenan will be running around the San Francisco partaking in all the fun of the San Francisco Popfest. This podcast showcases some of the bands they are most looking forward to seeing while there with