Three Imaginary Girls - Top of the Croc

Photo Essay: Top of the Croc with iji, BOAT, Tullycraft, and "Awesome"

three imaginary girls — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:24:00 +0000

4 Apr 2009

Huge mega thank yous to everyone who joined us this past Saturday for the Three Imaginary Girls' Top of the Croc party, celebrating the grandest of re-openings of the Crocodile.

The night featured stellar performances from iji, BOAT, Tullycraft, and "Awesome". Since we're a little biased with how much fun the night was, we wanted to share some of what a couple other fine Seattle reporting establishments had to say about the night:

Seattle Bids Twee Adieu {The Finest Kiss}
Tullycraft's Last Seattle Show at the New Crocodile {Megan Seling, The Stranger's Line Out}
BOAT / Tullycraft / "Awesome" @ the Crocodile {Dance Hall Hips}

And for our favorite part... your photos! There are so many amazing ones to choose from. Head over to the Three Imaginary Girls Sparkly Indie-Pop Flickr Photo Pool to see them all... and if you have any, you should add yours to the photo pool as well!

Here are some favorites...

iji photo by Button Dave

iji, photo by Steve Louie

BOAT, photo by Spooky the Cat

BOAT photo by Button Dave

BOAT, photo by Spooky the Cat

BOAT, photo by Steve Louie

BOAT (setlist), photo by the finest kiss

Tullycraft, photo by Spooky the Cat

Tullycraft photo by Button Dave

Tullycraft, photo by the finest kiss

Tullycraft (setlist), photo by the finest kiss

"Awesome" photo by Button Dave

Huge mega thank yous to everyone who joined us this past Saturday for the Three Imaginary Girls' Top of the Croc party, celebrating the grandest of re-openings of the Crocodile. The night featured stellar performances from iji, BOAT, Tullycraft, and "Awesome". Since we're a little biased with how much fun the night was, we wanted to share some of what a couple other fine Seattle reporting establishments had to say about the night: * Seattle Bids Twee Adieu {The Finest Kiss} * Tullycraft's Last Seattle Show at the New Crocodile {Megan Seling, The Stranger's Line Out} And for my favorite part... your photos! There are so many amazing ones to choose from. Head over to the Three Imaginary Girls Sparkly Indie-Pop Flickr Photo Pool to see them all... and if you have any, you should add yours to the photo pool as well!

Photo(s) of the day: Top of the Croc fun {tell us all about it}

imaginary liz — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:35:44 +0000

Huge thanks to everyone that came out to the Crocodile on Saturday night!

It was wonderful to have all of our favorite folks in one place at the same time. We hope that you had a tasty (and commemorative) Top Pot doughnut and a Vain updo? And most of all, we hope you had as much fun welcoming the Crocodile back as we did.

If you've got any pictures you want to share, add them to the Three Imaginary Girls Sparkly Indie-Pop Photo Pool group on Flickr. We'll be gathering all the photos in the coming days and putting together a photo album of the night on the site and we'd love to have your shots!

Also, tell us what you thought of the new place, the bands, the everything.

Was your beer really cold too?

As Steve Louie's photos of opening band iji (above) and BOAT (below) suggest, the bands really brought it. (BTW, nice Crocodile shirt D. Crane!)

Countdown to Top of the Croc {on Saturday 4/4} (!!!!)

imaginary liz — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:36:22 +0000

if you couldn't tell by listening to our visit to the TBTL studios on Wednesday night (listen here to the 9p slot on 4/1/09), we are so utterly excited for the big Top of the Croc bash to commemorate the grandest of re-openings of the Crocodile tomorrow night (Saturday 4/4).

Crocodile Rock- a rainy Thursday afternoon diversion

Imaginary Mimi — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:43:56 +0000

In celebration of the Croc reopening, for some reason, I spent more time than I probably should have this morning thinking about my favorite songs about reptiles. Please note- "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John was a deliberate omission, both for being obvious and trite and for the fact that I hate that high pitched laaaaaaaa-lalalala. Ugh, it's like a drillbit in my ear canal. Yes, I'm sure this makes me a heathen and perhaps, dare I say, a "Cold Hearted Snake" (ooh, ah, ooh, ahhhhhh...)?

Countdown to Top of the Croc: Tullycraft's last Seattle show?

imaginary liz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:27:47 +0000

We here at imaginary headquarters can keep a secret. Especially when we don't want to believe it's true.

As the band disclosed on their blog, Tullycraft's last live Seattle performance will be this Saturday at the TIG Top of the Croc show. For those interested, Tullycraft's last live show (at least for a long long long long time) will be at the San Francisco Pop Fest in May.

Imaginary Interview: iji interviews Tullycraft

three imaginary girls — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:35:50 +0000

Three Imaginary Girls is thrilled to host Top of the Croc: An imaginary pop celebration for the re-opening of the Crocodile on Saturday, April 4th with some of our favorite Seattle bands: "Awesome", Tullycraft, BOAT, and iji.

To mark the night, we set up the bands on the evening's bill on a date of sorts so that we can get to know a bit about those participating. In this imaginary interview installment, iji interviewed Sean/Chris/Cori/Jeff/Jenny of Tullycraft. Finally we'll get a bit of insight as to why their Top of the Croc show will be their last Seattle show (at least for some time).

{RIYL: "Awesome" interviewed iji, BOAT interviewed "Awesome"}

iji: Who do you think your kidding with this "We Are Breaking Up" thing? Please tell us it's just a big publicity stunt.

Chris: The nationwide outcry has been quite flattering and almost has us reconsidering.

Jeff: We have a publicist?

Sean: I’m not aware of any outcry. We're breaking up?

Jenny: The singer's always the last to know...

Corianton: Jeff and I need more time to work on our death metal side project, "Heavy Petting."

Sean: I’ve heard some of those demos. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call them “death metal.”

iji: You always manage to name drop tons of really obscure bands in your songs with out coming off completely pretentious. How do you manage that?

Chris: If we're not coming off as pretentious you're just probably not getting it!

Sean: Do The Decemberists come off as pretentious?

Corianton: Yes.

Sean: Huh?

iji: You talk a lot of trash about other bands in your songs. (For example, Mates of State and Orange Cake Mix.) Has there ever been any confrontation or rebuttal? Do you think you could take them in hand to hand combat?

Chris: HTH (or H2H) is our specialty! When we're not crafting underground classics we're pretty focused on our combat sports.

Jeff: I will hit you right now!!

Sean: I don’t think we’ve limited our trash talk to just songs. Unfortunately, I think some of the bands we’ve poked fun at may have taken it the wrong way. Fortunately, Jenny is proficient in a variety of hand-held weapons used in medieval tournament events, so we're good.

Jenny: Actually, Jeff's hair is our secret weapon. Have you seen it? It's gorgeous.

iji: In doing some research for the interview, this comment was found on one of your youtube videos: "This shit sounds like it's being shoved through a cheese grater." What do you think that is supposed to mean? Do you think that being shoved through a cheese grater is a bad thing?

Chris: I honestly cannot believe the poor quality control on some of our recorded output, it's almost unforgivable, but at least most of it's free!

Sean: Over the years I think we’ve been a bit “creative” at times during the recording process. For example: at one point, Chris set a cheese grater between the microphone and Cori’s guitar amp. At the time we thought it sounded cool, but I’m not so sure anymore.

Corianton: But afterwards we made spaghetti with fresh grated parmesan, so who's the real winner?

Sean: I had forgotten about that.

Jeff: I thought that was a zen saying at first. "What's the sound of one hand clapping?" "If a tree falls in the woods..." You know. But then I was thinking if I had a taco would I put a block of cheese on it or would I like to have it shredded. And I thought shredded would be better. But really the best tacos come with that crumbly cotija cheese, right? So then I looked at it from a different angle and thought maybe this person is saying that they have a bad internet connection and the sound is clipped as if the sound is actually being rocessed through a cheese grater and they are only getting little bits of the song at a time. I'm sure that's quite annoying and this person was probably looking for help troubleshooting the problem. I'm not very technically savvy but maybe they could just check the sound card in the computer, check the speaker connections and wire or take the fucking cheese grater off of the computer speaker. Now I'm hungry or tacos. Is it lunchtime yet?

iji: So, since Tullycraft won't be playing anymore shows (which we still don't buy), does that mean we can expect some Crayon or Six Cents and Natalie shows anytime soon? What about at least some fancy re-releases?

Jeff: Hey! Whoa, calm down champ. Re-releases? Re-unions? Aren't you a little young to be living so far in the past? Let's just get through the next show.

Chris: Define soon...

Sean: Will there be Crayon or Six Cents and Natalie shows anytime soon? No. As far as re-issues, I’m not sure there’s really a market for a fancy re-release of the “City of Subarus” album. Would people really want to hear the outtakes from those sessions?

Corianton: The deep disco cuts, yes. And probably Chris's ambient dub explorations.

iji: Tell us a secret. You can trust us.

Chris: Sean shaves with an electric razor in back of the van.

Corianton: I've shaved in the back of the van too. But not my face.

Jeff: Your breath smells. It's always good to carry a pack of gum with you. Here, have a stick.

Sean: Why are we always shaving in the van?

Jenny: I have a strict "no body hair" policy and I'm not afraid to enforce it!

tullycraft09mar.jpg

See Tullycraft and iji at Top of the Croc on Sat 4/4!

Imaginary Interview: "Awesome" interviews iji

three imaginary girls — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:41:11 +0000

To mark the night, we set up the bands on the evening's bill on a date of sorts so that we can get to know a bit about those participating. In this imaginary interview installment, Dr. David Nixon of "Awesome" interviewed Zach and Jon of iji.

{RIYL: iji interviewed Tullycraft, BOAT interviewed "Awesome"}

"Awesome": What was the first concert that each of you ever went to? How old were you? What happened?

Zach: The First concert I ever went to was James Taylor at The Cricket Pavilion in Tempe, Arizona with my parents. I was about ten years old and my dad pointed out someone smoking pot out of an apple. I don't remember the concert much but the apple thing blew my mind.

Jon: My first concert was Buck-O-Nine at CSUN (California State University Northridge) with my brother Ryan. It was sponsored by the big southern CA rock radio station KROQ. Shaggy also played and some others that I don't remember, we only saw Buck-O-Nine. It was where my brother taught me how to skank, ya know, SKA.

"Awesome": What are some of the non-musical influences on your music?

Zach: This is sort of a newer influence but lately I have been thinking about youth allot, like young feelings and ideas... The kind of thing that would have given you goose bumps when you were 15. But there are allot of other things too. My obsession with Woody Allen movies for example. Or dogs (any of them).

"Awesome": I sort of want to ask about the origins of the band, but sometimes those facts are boring. But as time goes on, origin stories can begin to take on more meaning. Eventually some of the facts are stretched. And then, give or take a couple of hundred years, the stories grow into fantastical myths. In a way, these myths, though completely fake, are able to express what is at the heart of the band's coming together better than the boring actual stories. What would your origin myth be -- you know, after a couple of hundred years of re-telling?

Zach: It all started with sea foam actually (which, if you don't already know, is made of dead mermaids). The story is long but involves a seagull drinking some particularly green sea foam and sprouting human legs and arms. The human/seagull hybrid spent the next few years walking from the bottom to the very top of the west coast. When he reached the town of seattle he was planted in some fresh soil and grew apples. These apples fell to the ground and rotted and then learned to play guitar. The End.

"Awesome": David Byrne's voice was never exactly, um, "good" in the classical sense. But he embraced his weird vocal style and turned what might have been a depressing liability into a charming and unique asset. I think a lot of great artists are like that. Maybe Jackson Pollock had difficulty painting in the lines. Maybe William S. Burroughs just didn't have enough focus for a linear narrative. The Presidents of the USA probably couldn't afford a full set of strings. What are some of your embraceable liabilities?

Zach: I don't know if this is the kind of thing you are supposed to talk about. Maybe you should tell us after the show?

"Awesome": We've done very little touring ourselves, but when I think about bands touring, there's two pictures that come to mind: 1. Led Zeppelin throwing furniture out of the windows of their fancy hotels, and 2. the Sex Pistols playing every dive bar in the South where no one would know (or like) them. What's your dream tour look like?

Zach: We have done allot of touring over the years with different line ups and I feel like every tour we go on is pretty much everything I could wish for. Everyday is such an amazing adventure and every night you are introduced to 10-50 kids who love music as much as you do. That is my dream tour and that is why I try and spend at least 3 or 4 months out of every year touring.

"Awesome": Lester Bangs once said that rock is dying and would be replaced by video games. Accept your fate: What kind of video game would iji be?

Zach: iji is a videogame. Google that shit (but note that I named the band long before the game was made). Most of us really love the game Super Smash Bros, although I imagine that an iji video game would be less violent.

iji09mar.jpg

See "Awesome" and iji at Top of the Croc on Sat 4/4!

Countdown to Top of the Croc: Come see my newest favorite band - iji

imaginary liz — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:33:13 +0000

There are so many reasons to join us at the Crocodile to mark its grand re-opening in imaginary style, but one of the reasons I'm most excited is the chance to see my newest favorite band, iji (pronounced eehee), take the swank new Crocodile stage.

Three Imaginary Girls is too beautiful to live

imaginary dana — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:17:54 +0000

The butterflies are all tied up again today, because Liz and I just found out some very exciting news: On Wednesday night, imaginary liz and I will be special guests on Luke Burbank's amazing radio show, To Beautiful To Live (or TBTL, as the kids like to call it).

Imaginary Interview: BOAT interviews "Awesome"

three imaginary girls — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:12:00 +0000

To mark the night, we set up the bands on the evening's bill on a date of sorts so that we can get to know a bit about those participating. In this imaginary interview installment, BOAT interviewed "Awesome" -- let's see how the band with the least headcount on the bill took on septet "Awesome" (with "Awesome"ites Basil Harris, David Nixon, John Ackermann, and John Osebold doing the answering duties).

{RIYL: "Awesome" interviewed iji, iji interviewed Tullycraft}

BOAT: The Latin word for seven is septum. September was the seventh month of the year until 153 BC, when the Roman Emperor moved September to its current position as the ninth month of the year. In it’s current lineup, "Awesome" is a septet- a seven piece musical group. Suppose Silvio Berluscone, the current Italian Prime Minister, mandated the addition of two musicians to the band, making the band a nontet. Which two famous musicians, living or dead, would you choose to add to the band? Why?

Basil Harris: I dated a woman in college with a deviated septum. Her nose was kind of big - not unattractive, but she always caught shit for it in high school - and when she went in to have surgery to correct her breathing, they asked her if she wanted some "cosmetic alteration" while they were in there. She said no, which I always thought was a pro move. Fuck those bastards and their small-nosed definitions of beauty. She looked a little like Jennifer Aniston, who I also think has a larger than "normal" (whatever that means) but completely proportional and distinctive nose.

David Nixon: According to ancient Greek myth, the deviated septum originates with the Nostrox. The Nostrox was kind of like the Cyclops -- who (according to Krull) gave one of his eyes in order to be able to see into the future but was tricked and ended up only being able to know his own time of death. Similarly, the Nostrox gave up one of his nostrils in order to be able to see the past but was tricked and ended up only being able to know his own birthday. After generations of interbreeding with normal humans, we're left with the recessive nostrox gene, which expresses itself as the deviated septum. So if we're going to add some band members, I guess we'd have one Nostrox, playing noseflute. And heck, let's also have a cyclops playing the eyeflute. They can also be the hot dancers with tambourine and cowbell. And they can work the merch table.

John Ackermann: I think the first use of an eyeflute on a rock 'n' roll record was the immortal Buddy Holly in the song "That'll Be The Day (Ow, My Eye)". So, yeah, him and Michael Bolton.

John Osebold: (1) the dude who always stood on stage with James Brown and did secondary vocals like "get on up"; (2) Frostie.

BOAT: Jennifer Aniston’s famous tresses provided her with pop culture immortality. Which member of "Awesome" is most likely to achieve pop culture immortality for a style, look, or coiffure? Why?

Basil Harris: Do you think it was her hair that really did it? That's what "tresses" means, right? Hair? If it means something else, I really can't address the question, but if you mean hair, you should just say "nice hair". In any case, I'm no fashion scientist, but I'd credit her fortuitous casting on "Friends" and her unlikely ability to perform with an ensemble cast on a TV sitcom for her pop culture immortality. Unfortunately for all of us, he career, like many of those in the cast of that show, has stalled since the show's demise.

David Nixon: I didn't know what 'tresses' were either. I thought it was a typo and you meant to say "famou stresses". So I looked up 'famou" and found this:

I think they're a band from Guinea. Was Aniston in the band for a while? So we're really asking which member of "Awesome" is most likely to achieve pop culture immortality thanks to the stress of being in a band. Wow, that could be any of us. I'm gonna go with Kirk though.

John Ackermann: Well, if Aniston wasn't in the band, she was certainly their driving creative force. I'm pretty sure she wrote all the songs from bed while they toured, like Brian Wilson. But I have to disagree with David about his choice of Kirk. Just wait until you see the live rabbit suit Evan's unveiling for the Croc show.

John Osebold: Frostie

BOAT: Tuxedo pants: vertical stripe or no vertical stripe? Why?

Basil Harris: Except for that dude who played Joey. I thought his spinoff show was okay.

David Nixon: I'm sort of anti-tuxedo nowadays, but IF you're going tuxedo, definitely have the stripe. Otherwise people will think you lost your tuxedo pants and tried to substitute some dark slacks. You don't want to be up there saying your vows and see the bridesmaids out of the corner of your eye whispering about how you might have lost your pants. That's distracting.

John Ackermann: I think I actually prefer the ones with horizontal stripes.

John Osebold: Stripe. without it, I can't tell which way the pants go.

BOAT: This is the third time Awesome and BOAT will share the stage on the same night. All three shows have been in Seattle. In what fictional city should "Awesome" and BOAT perform their fourth show together? Why?

Basil Harris: Plus his show had Adrianna from "The Sopranos" on it and she's pretty good-looking. Nice hair too.

David Nixon: Atlantis, obviously! It's an AWESOME city that you'd need a BOAT to visit! Hey wait, where's everybody going? Who turned my microphone off?

John Osebold: I did. we need the power to run the SLUT.

John Ackermann: Um, David, Atlantis was an ISLAND, not a CITY. Sheesh. As for me, the fictional city I'd love for us to play on would be the moon.

BOAT: Would you be willing to ever cover Supertramp?

Basil Harris: I always enjoy it when an actor can play drama and comedy. I think it shows real range and commitment to the craft. Some people think that dramatic acting is where the real "heavy lifting" takes place, but I disagree. If you can't do comedy, if you can't sell a joke or a humorous moment, you're sunk. I mean, how hard is it to say something unfunny? Not hard at all. In fact, it's one of the easiest things in the world. People say unfunny things every day without even realizing it.

David Nixon: There's so many great Supertramp songs to do. Imagine us playing "Breakfast in America" from inside the belly of a giant squid.

John Ackermann: "Take a look at my mollusc / It's the biggest one I've got / An eight-tentacled mollusc / It always seems to ink a lot."

John Osebold: Sure, I'm game. is Basil still talking?

BOAT: How great is Supertramp? Feel free to elaborate.

Basil Harris: It is kind of sad, though, watching someone try to tell a joke they can't remember. You just want to tell it for them. Kind of like mercy killing or something. Mercy joke-telling, I guess that would be more accurate. Man, I hope I'm never in that position again.

David Nixon: Um, maybe a 6?

John Ackermann: Actually, I really do love Supertramp. I think "Crime of The Century" is a great album. It's classic Pompous 70's Rock, in my opinion.

John Osebold: David, stop being racist.

awesome09apr.jpg

See "Awesome" and BOAT at Top of the Croc on Sat 4/4!

Top of the Croc countdown - one month to go and check out these pictures!

imaginary keenan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:22:25 +0000

Are you just as excited for the re-opening of our beloved croc as we are? Well then check out our Top of the Croc imaginary fun night on April 4th.

TIG welcomes back the Croc: We have an "Awesome" lineup for our April 4 show!

imaginary dana — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:33:58 +0000

We have a bill for our big imaginary "Top of the Croc!" bash! This news is so new, we haven't even written up Ye Olde Press Release yet... but we couldn't wait another millisecond to share this great lineup.