Three Imaginary Girls - seattle

Imaginary Amie's City Arts Fest Picks {10/20-10/22}

Imaginary Amie — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:01:23 +0000

Are y'all getting excited about this year's City Arts Fest yet? There's so much goodness packed into only three days! Since Victoria did such an incredible job picking stuff you can't miss, I thought I'd join the fun with a list of my must-sees:

Thursday 10/20

MUST SEE
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Movie Sing Along
SIFF Cinema
8pm | $12
buy tix

How do I even being to express my love for this movie? I can't. It's too much. If you've never seen it, you HAVE to. Like, right now. And if you have, how can you pass up a chance to sing "The Origin of Love" and "Sugar Daddy"? I mean, seriously. you guys. seriously. I only wish I had an official foam Hedwig hat/wig/thing to wear to this.

RUNNER UP
Crystal Castles
w/Crypts, Nightmare Fortress
Showbox SoDo
7pm | $27.50 adv, $32 doors
buy tix

These guys won my heart with their cover of Platinum Blonde's "Not in Love" featuring Robert Smith. I proceeded to buy their CD immediately and fall for their crazy retro electonic-y pop tunes. I kind of bet they're adorbs on stage too.

Pre-order the new BOAT album and be a part of the ltd. edition cassette revival

imaginary liz — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:58:53 +0000

We have been lucky enough to get a sneak listen to the new BOAT album, Dress Like Your Idols, releasing March 22, 2011 on Magic Marker Records and it rocks our sloppy pop socks off. If the album's cover art didn't give it away, the album is an aural thumbing through their personal record (and cassette tape) bins, paying homage to their influences with blatant Pixies references ("When Frank Black Says (No. 14 Baby)") and sly Pavement croons (as in "Kinda Scared of Love Affairs"). The collection of pop songs prove they are ready for prime time. They are still experts in the friendly quirk pop genre, but this time the expertly recorded songs burst with a swagger confidence (confi-pop?). And one Long Winters' inspired track, "Landlocked" even features guest vocals by John Roderick.

In true to analog BOAT cardbaord cutout form, the band has put together a special limited edition cassette gift for the first 100 pre-orders of this, their fourth studio album. The cassette features demos from Dress Like Your Idols and covers (click through to see track listing and video). Plus the b side will feature a D. Crane mix-tape.

I can't wait to see what tricks and treats the band has up their sleeve when at their album release show at the Tractor Tavern on Friday, March 25 (with Pickwick and Concours d'Elegance).

Our favorite indie rock Seattle tour guide: John Roderick

imaginary liz — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 22:12:10 +0000

We kinda don't know where to begin on this one as it combines so many things we love, our hearts are on the cusp of exploding. A couple more watches and we could be toast (albeit tasty brioche french toast like served at Odd Fellows).

Our dearest man about town and Long Winter, John Roderick, offers a tour of Seattle that exposes his favorite nooks and crannies of our fine city with stops at Odd Fellows, Pretty Parlor, The Crocodile (including a chat with photographer great Charles Peterson), Earthwise Salvage, The Showbox (the night of the Telekinesis show), Shelby Earl recording with Eric Corson, and Le Pichet.

Behold the latest in Rhapsody's Rock Star Guide to the Galaxy -- Destination Seattle - featuring at least four eyewear change ups, three curse word bleeps, a kitty and a Barsuk hoodie (watch it).

What would have been mentioned on your rockstar tour of Seattle?

I like J. Rod's choices, but I'd make sure to show off Remedy Tea, Bimbos (predictable, I know, but you can't deny the power of the no-meato burrito and their happy hour margaritas), Gainsbourg (absinthe cocktails), Molly Moon's Ice Cream, and Judy Fu's Snappy Dragon. Ok, so my tour would basically be a food and drink tour of the city. I'd also include a stop at Velouria and Sonic Boom/Easy Street Records for proper fashion accessories.

Photo Essay: Headlights w/ The Love Language & Alligators

Steve Louie — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:05:22 +0000

7 Apr 2009

headlights_nectar1.jpg

Headlights w/ the Love Language & Alligators

I was really looking forward to this show since seeing them last year at the Nectar Lounge. They've toured like crazy in the past year supporting their 2008 album "Some Racing, Some Stopping". They quickly followed up a Remixes album in the same year. The anticipation of whether there will be a new album was looming.

Alligators took the stage first while Headlights were still trucking in their gear into the venue as they came in late. Right away I thought "Oh man, they still gotta do a sound check then". A minor distraction but the pop sounds of Alligators made forget about that. They came across to me as pleasant creative pop. On their myspace page, they created 4 seperate myspace pages spelled out "all" "iga" "to" "rs" and lined them up in their Top 16 friends to spell out the name of their band. Clever. You should check them out. Alligators play their next show with Portugal the Man @ the Crocodile.

The Love Language. Beautiful folks hailing from Chapel Hill, North Carolina that are on tour with Headlights. They all got on stage ready to rock with drinks in hand but then were told no drinks on stage. Whoops. Some law or something that you can't have them on there. No matter though, the sweet combination of pop, Americana and soul searing through their melodies was enough to get the party started anywhere.

Headlights. They looked a little tired coming in late and then having to do a quick sound check before playing. Members of the gregarious bunch the Love Language, eagerly filed to the front of the stage for a song or two during Headlights banging away on tambourines. This seemed to energize the band even more and elevate the interaction between the crowd and the band.

It was refreshing to see them play new songs which sounded great. Their third full length will be out in August.

setlist:

Dead Ends
Secrets
Market Girl
Death
All Gonna Die
Get Your Head Around It
Chery Tulips
Mill
Yr Old St
Psych Jam

Headlights will be back in town opening for Loney Dear @ the Crocodile Wednesday, May 13th.

Gregarious indie pop of Headlights and The Love Language

Photo Essay: Chad VanGaalen w/ Women and Cataldo @ Chop Suey

Steve Louie — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:32:35 +0000

3 Apr 2009

Quick. What comes to mind when you hear Calgary, Alberta? the Stampede?

oil? The Flames? Cold? Sure, all those things are distinctly Calgary when the crowd shouted out those words for Chad when he introduced himself on stage at Chop Suey. He jokingly referred Calgary as a bumhole of a town but we know what the real secret is. For Sub Pop's Chad VanGaalen, he's been secretly honing and perfecting his homemade basement recordings since 2004 with his 'Infiniheart' release to fully untangling all the beautiful sound clutter with his albums Skelliconnection (2006) and Soft Airplanes (2008). Skelliconnection was on the shortlist in 2007 for Canada's Polaris Music Prize (our annual music prize for the best full length Canadian album based on merit, regardless of genre, sales or record label). That says a lot. With Chad's influence on the Canadian music landscape he brought out label mates Women (Flemish Eye) to support him on his US tour.

The first band that played was Cataldo who played simple predictable melodies of folk pop. They lost some of the crowd's attention after 3 or 4 songs but since they played first and everyone is just starting to get their drink on, you're forced to ponder the clever songwriting sung by frontman Eric Anderson. Not bad.

To be honest, the draw for me for this show was Women. They've had some hype when Pitchfork gave a a solid review of their debut self-titled album last year. Their song "Black Rice" was named as one of the top 100 tracks of 2008 by Pitchfork. While the above has garnered them much attention, the band continues to push the music envelope with their fuzzy noisy brand of post-pysch rock.

This was actually the first time I've seen Chad play live and it's only through Women that I've become a fan of his recently. He truly does have an inventive approach to his music. For example, incorporating sounds from an Nintendo DS and playing with a Steinberger guitar. With his hard to miss Neil Young-ish voice, all this adds up a unique blend of rock from the Stampede city.

a showcase of rock from Calgary

John Spalding Benefit Concert with Minus the Bear, Rocky Votolato, Cave Singers and more...

Steve Louie — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:28:22 +0000

9 Jan 2009

minusthebear2_john_spalding_benefit.jpg

On Friday night the Showbox hosted one of the many series of benefit shows for local Seattle legend John Spalding who passed away from cancer last November. All proceeds from the show including merch benefit the John D. Spalding Medical Fund. This was an all-ages show featuring Minus the Bear, Rocky Votolato, Cave Singers, Past Lives (members of Blood Brothers) and Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive To Death.

All the bands turned in great performances and spoke their appreciation for John in front of a supportive all ages crowd.

As local writer Chris Estey writes, “John Spalding… a truly astonishing underground Seattle musician and incredibly incandescent creative spirit… Former guitar player for late 90's punk band Ninety Pound Wuss and performance art/hard rock picadors Raft Of Dead Monkeys, John passed away from the cancer he was diagnosed with four years ago, shortly after marrying a lovely young woman named Jody… John was only thirty-three years old and leaves behind his wife, a deeply loving and proud mother, father, brother and sister, and loyal pooch Scooter. But he also leaves behind a legacy, both relational and musical, in the deep heart of Seattle.”

An all-ages show to support and remember the legendary Seattle musician John Spalding.

Is there a moratorium on covering Nirvana in Seattle?

imaginary keenan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:34:05 +0000

Last night I saw Of Montreal put on one of the craziest and funnest shows I've ever seen* (watch out for Chris B's review!). I was having the time of my life, until they decided to close with "Smell's Like Teen Spirit" (which I'd heard that they had been doing quite a bit on this tour). While Kevin Barnes started the song by saying "this means no disrespect", I feel like covering Nirvana in Seattle, especially that song, feels just the opposite. Or at least just really cheesy. I feel like there's a moratorium on doing it, and it's not over yet.

Am I just being a crankypants? Everyone else seemed to be having the time of their lives. All I could think was that they were too young, or didn't grow up here. After the show ended, and I looked visibly irritated, my friend (who just moved here) told me to get over myself. He explained that Of Montreal are the kind of band that always covers songs, and while it used to be the Kinks and the Who, now they have a younger audience, and they have to cater to them (they also covered Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out"). Am I really the only one who feels like covering Nirvana in Seattle is inappropriate? If so, do you feel like maybe someday it might not be inappropriate?

For reference, here's a clip of them covering it in New York.

Photo Essay: The Helio Sequence w/ The Pale Pacific & Tu Fawning at Neumos

Steve Louie — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:22:55 +0000

7 Nov 2008

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The Pale Pacific are a quiet band that I've followed for the past few years but haven't been able to see perform live until now. Being in the opening slot, there's only so many songs you can play and maybe half of the crowd wasn't even in the venue yet but nonetheless a good energetic set to folks drinking up for the night.

Early this week I saw some sweet video footage of the crowds of people partying in the streets of Capitol Hill celebrating the win of Barack Obama. I evidently missed it but I really to wanted to join in the celebration. I was curious to see if the hype would continue on into the weekend. During the Tu Fawning set girls in the front were yelling "Obama!" "Obama!" while cheering the band's opening songs. The band acknowledged the enthusiasm for the general political leanings of the crowd.

Tu Fawning are from Portland, OR and is project between Joe Haege and Corrina Repp. My immediate first impression of them was how their sound is really meshed with the some of my favourite Portland bands like Menomena and Talkdemonic. Not to draw comparisons but Tu Fawning have a distinct dark gothic experimental folk to them. The crowd looked and listened in curiousity if not in gentle awe as the band members (also with the addition of Liza Rietz and Toussaint Perrault) moved around between songs to play different various instruments - trombone, guitar, violin, drums, piano, melodica, and various percussion. With both Haege and Repp active and established in the Portland scene and coming out strong with this new project in Tu Fawning, I would expect more shows and good things to come.

By the time Helio Sequence was about to hit the stage I looked back behind me from the front and yeah, it was a sold out show for sure, complete with crowds of girls still yelling out "Obama!".

Benjamin Weikel on drums - I don't know how this guy does night in and night out but he's one of the most energetic and happiest looking drummers i've seen. Judging by the reaction the crowd, the songs that really resonated with them were "Keep Your Eyes Ahead" and the last song of their set "Hallelujah". I couldn't help but tie these songs together to what happened earlier in the week with the election which was nothing short of historic. So yeah, yell out or sing out what you will - it's a good time to rock out to what's to come.

By the time Helio Sequence was about to hit the stage I looked back behind me from the front and yeah, it was a sold out show for sure, complete with crowds of girls still yelling out "Obama!".

In high rotation: stella by starlight {now Star Lake Drownings}

imaginary liz — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:40:21 +0000

This morning I pulled stella by starlight's self-released EP from it's DIY photocopied sleeve, slipped it into my computer and I haven't stopped listening to this 7-song EP since.

Shane Tutmarc and the Traveling Mercies

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:33:43 +0000

Fences

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:59:54 +0000

Throw Me the Statue

imaginary dana — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:56:01 +0000

Body:

World War

NYC Kelly D — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:56:01 +0000

7.5

http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Das-Llamas/dp/B000RJSCNG/wwwthreeimagi-20

dasllamas07aug.jpg

On their third release, World War, Das Llamas mix hammering hooks, dub bass lines and propulsive percussion to craft gritty music that reflects post-punk and goth influences while incorporating elements of electroclash and no-wave. At times the instruments blend into a cacophonous blur of sound, but the music never veers into grating or atonal territory. Throughout the album, the band enigmatically manages to strike a balance between frenzied, speedy riffs and danceable melodies.

Lead singer Kerry Zettel’s voice combines high-octane intensity with full-bodied blues and his vocals are simultaneously velvety and venomous. He delivers a full range of screams and drones, but even at his most angst-ridden moments there is a melodic (albeit acerbic) tone to his voice.

His baleful bellow adds a shadowy undertone to “Whoa Oh Oh,” a playful and catchy collection of synthesizers and jagged guitars. Throbbing rhythms share center stage with Zettel’s vocals, and full-throttle drumming complements his frantic delivery on “Wood on Bone.” This song is the first cut on World War, and it introduces the listener to Das Llamas’ menacing guitars and malicious lyrics: “We took the money just for fun, but broke their legs so they won’t run.”

“The Wedding Song” begins sedately, and during the opening bars it’s easy to assume that the song may even be a ballad. But gloomy guitars and aching, angry vocals quickly make it clear that this is not a tune triumphing marital bliss. “The Others” is an eerie, but harmonic combination of the Das Llamas' quintessential sound, with spastic guitars, fat bass lines, and rich vocals.

Das Llamas’ music could never be described as joyful, but amidst all the growling, guttural savagery there is always a jocular levity that keeps you gleefully bopping to the beat while you barbarically bang your head.

Starting Friday: Stay the #@*! away from I-5

imaginary char — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:27:28 +0000

Major work on I-5 starts this Friday.

Buy old Seattle street signs

imaginary char — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:53:53 +0000

Mayor Greg Nickels announced this morning that they will be replacing Seattle's street signs with new ones.

Ships

imaginary liz — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:38:27 +0000

No more popcorn, fools

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:15:07 +0000

And if you keep burning your popcorn, then you just can't have anymore.

PWRFL Power

imaginary dana — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:38:08 +0000

Hungry Pines

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:19:41 +0000

Snowdrift

Thu, 24 May 2007 19:59:49 +0000