at Paramount Theater (Austin)

Playing a benefit for the Midwive's Alliance of North America on an unsuspecting Monday night, Glen Hansard (Frames, the Swell Season) and Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) blew the roof off of the sold-out Paramount Theater with a few hours of literal perfection. Opening up the night on more of a split bill than a warm-up, Glen took us on an hour-long trip through his diverse catalog: some choice Frames tunes (like "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops" and "Lay Me Down"), new-fan favorites from the Once soundtrack (opening the set with "When Your Mind's Made Up" and the jaw-dropping, haunted, screaming perfection of "Leave"), and a handful of new selections for a taste of the upcoming Swell Season album (most notably a lovely track called "Paper Cup"). Spending the bulk of the set wedged behind the speaker stacks stage left, I had a birds-eye view for everything Glen let loose -- from sheer blissed-out joy to the anguished cries at the ends of particularly staggering verses, and circling back again.

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at Marymoor Park

No Depression Festival - Short Version:

It was hot. We ate barbecue. I drank a lot of beer and cider. Most of us had dirty, bare feet. Zee Avi is adorable. Jeff Fielder is totally amazing. Jessica Lea Mayfield is a lo-fi version of Jesse Sykes. Everyone loved Justin Townes Earle. No one much liked Patterson Hood. Sam Beam makes me swoon, EVERY DAMN TIME. Lesbians love Gillian Welch.

No Depression Festival - Long Version:

Due to bad traffic across the water, I was a little late arriving at the No Depression festival on Saturday but still managed to hear the last two or three songs by the very pleasant Zee Avi. I was interested to see her live, owing to the lore that has built up around her unusual entry into the biz and she pulled it off with very confident stage presence. I have to admit though, she does sound a little like Norah Jones to me.

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No Depression has long been the place to get the inside scoop on the best Americana, roots and alt-country folks to watch - and we're pleased as punch that they've put all that know how into a full on festival of fabulous artists. The first ever No Depression Festival is set for Saturday, July 11th at Marymoor Park in Redmond. They've scored a stellar line up and you certainly don't want to miss: Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, Patterson Hood & the Screwtopians, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Justin Townes Earle, Jessica Lea Mayfield, a Seattle roots-music all-star revue, and Zee Avi. And we have a pair of tickets to giveaway to a lucky imaginary reader! Enter to win a pair of tickets by emailing us at tig @ threeimaginarygirls.com with "NoDep" in the subject line sometime prior to Friday, July 3 at 9am. Please include your mailing address so that we can put the tickets in the mail asap!

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Chris B's Schmindie News Roundup and it's ensuing comments lit a fire under me to write this little blurb I've been meaning to get out for a while. While some, Chris B included, may feel this way:

I'm regularly asked to define schmindie, so, to me, schmindie is boring indie rock that gets the benefit of the doubt because it's "indie". Generally, if it has guys with beards and/or acoustic guitars, you're probably going to need to wake me when it's over.

I tend to disagree. I totally love me some good ol' acoustic indie-folk rock and I feel like there is so much quality stuff coming out of Seattle right now. For the past year or so, I've often found myself in discussions with other local music lovers regarding the post-grunge Seattle sound and I've heard it called several things: "Campfire Rock", "Trucker Rock", "Beard Rock" and now this "Schmindie" label.

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Iron & Wine at Sonic Boom on 15th today! 6pm! What? I'm too late? oh...

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Judging by how fast tickets for The Shins' and Iron and Wine's two night stands sold out, everyone loves their schmindie. So, as a public service announcement, I'm compiling some schmindie-related news stories in one neat post.

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at Marymoor Park

Sam Beam loses his mind at Sub Pop Anniversary show (or maybe a little bit before).

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Sometimes I think it takes me waaay too long to come up with my Top 20 albums of a given year. There are a lot of internal debates and arguments that really have no right answer. Really, you reach a point where all the albums are good but how to rank them gets to be quite the challenge. This year was chock full of good music (not matter what the naysayers might groan). I counted something like 175+ albums worth mentioning in 2007, and that is only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything that was released in the year. However, I did whittle it down to 20... well, 22 if you count my 2 EP exception (EP's don't count as real albums).

If you're interested in some sub-lists, like my albums "with apologizes" (albums I didn't hear but should have) or "best imports" or "most disappointing" (hint, the band who made it rhymes with Milo Biley), check it out here.

So, here we go:

#21 The EP's - Two EP's made me happy this year, and really, they would be in the top 20, but it seems unfair to me to include EP's versus albums. They're both UK pop, and they're both brilliant in their own cute way.

Los Campesinos! Sticking Fingers Into Sockets (Thanks to igLiz for this band!)

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The Shepherd's Dog is a cornucopia of majestic songs that begs for repeated listens.

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The Cave Singers' release on Matador is finally out! I LOVE this record to bits. They are hands down my favorites from this year's Bumbershoot and KEXP BBQ and the timing is just right for crisp Fall listening. AND they will be here @ QA Easy Street TONIGHT @ 6 PM for their record release performance, so come on down!

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