Sunday morning's installment of the Sasquatch! music festival found us with smiling, weary eyes and happy tired feet from all the blissing-out (two posts' worth!), which worked out perfectly with the grey sky vibe and our first sets of the day. The alt.folk.traditional-yet-bizarre sounds of Cotton Jones began the trip for us on the small (Yeti) stage, and their sounds bled nicely into the warm, longing big-guitar melody of the Moondoggies on the Bigfoot stage. Bursts of sun came through just in time for the straightforward rock of Black Joe Lewis, who lifted us up perfectly to take on a dusk set from Gayngs and a mindmelting mainstage show from the Flaming Lips.

Photos below!

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It's high time we started scouring the schedule and getting that backlog of laundry done -- because this year's Sasquatch festival up at the Gorge is upon us, and we'll be heading up there for the long Memorial Day weekend (including Friday) to report back the best of what's good. Here's a blow-by-blow of what's really blasting some emotional sunshine into the damp, grey corners of our Seattle springtime:

Monday's main stage shows are going to kick serious ass. Starting with the finish line: the day will wrap up with a full frontal dose of Wilco on a stage warmed up by the Decemberists, a win-win for a variety of tastes. Prior to that, the throwback sounds of Best Coast will be assaulting us from the Yeti stage, and before that we'll shoot over to the Bigfoot stage to catch the sweet, smiling-but-melancholy sounds of Stornoway. All this and a bag of goodies after starting off our morning (at 1pm) with the Young Evils, and the first appearance at the main stage for the day to catch Mr. Miller and the rest of the Old 97's. Monday will be full of big guitars, upbeat jangle-pop, swoontastic harmonies, and hopefully, lots and lots of sunshine to go along with the vibe.

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{Sasquatch photo by asclepius6 from the Imaginary Flickr Photo Pool}

Do you hear that?

It is the sound of folks feverishly tweeting and posting about the amazing #Sasquatch line-up just announced. After weeks (who are we kidding, months!) of mathematically calculating probabilities based on tour schedules and record release dates, we finally have a firm answer of who's going to be at the Gorge this Memorial Day weekend, as well as explanations as to why certain folks don't have a Seattle tour date in the next few months.

Not to sound like everyone else every other year, but this year's line-up has left me speechless. The Sasquatch folks have brought together the best of the best of the best (except Allo Darlin, which I'm guessing will be begged to participate next year) to celebrate their 10th Anniversary.  I mean Wilco, Bright Eyes, Matt & Kim, The Radio Dept., The Thermals, Stornoway, and The Young Evils!?!?!?  You're killing me!!!

Are you headed that way? Who are you most excited about (mine bolded below)? Anyone else you think is going to be added to the bill before we pack up our roadtrip munchies and head Quincy, WA way?

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Can you say rOctober, anyone? We can!

Here in imaginary-land we've been prefunking fall tour since laying eyes on Bumbershoot a few weeks back, sending lucky ticket winners to everything from Cobirds Unite to Pavement to Matt and Kim. And to help keep easin' that weather transition on down the road, we want to send you to another free show! As of right this very instant, we've got not one, but two pairs of tickets to give away for the Flaming Lips show this coming Monday, September 27th.

Two. Two pairs! So what are you waiting for? Enter to win!  Tell all your friends! Tell them twice! Open a new tab right this instant and send an email off to tig@threeimaginarygirls, and let us know why we should send you to the show. Act quickly, because we'll need your entry by 5pm tomorrow -- that's 5pm on Thursday, September 23rd.

(Be sure to use the subject line PuttingAllTheVegetablesAway so that we know that it's you.)

Good luck, everyone! We'll see you at the Paramount!

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at Marymoor Park

The Flaming Lips are a piece of the beginning of a very long musical story for me. Country girl moves to city, meets guy in Tripping Daisy shirt, gets musical education and learns some hard lessons about life. That Tripping Daisy guy brought over the Soft Bulletin record, and my life really was never the same again. I can recount many nights spent with my best friend in my Camaro, seats laid back all the way, smoking a joint and marveling over Soft Bulletin or Clouds Taste Metallic. I've spent all these years pining for the Flaming Lips, embracing all their weird projects (hi Zaireeka) and geeking out on each release they put out. Finally seeing them perform, and in a venue so beautiful and comfy as Marymoor Park, was the culmination of all those years of anticipation.

Stardeath & White Dwarfs, the opener, is an Oklahoma band as well and the lead singer just happens to be Wayne Coyne's nephew Dennis. I give absolute props to them on the fact that they opened their set with "Sweet Loaf" from the Butthole Surfers. That song set the tone for the rest of the set, swirling psychedelia punctuated by seizure-inducing disco light flashes. The raspy-voiced Dennis sported nifty white jumper pants with suspenders, channeling classic rock mainstays like Black Sabbath or Pink Floyd, with a sprinkle of the weirdness of Can. Topping off their set was an overly dramatic and bro-rocky cover of Madonna's "Borderline", which would have probably been better left to queen of pop herself.

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We're counting down to Bumbershoot - but that hasn't stopped the weekends full of shows leading up to the big Labor Day fest.

Imaginary Shrie saw the Flaming Lips {words and photos to be posted soon!}, and {one of my favorites} No-Fi Soul Rebellion was at the Sunset... what did you do to mark Friday, Saturday and Sunday?

Thanks to nlarzalere for the Photo of the Day, a fab Flaming Lips photo in the Flickr Photo Pool!

I would be really really upset if I lived my whole fabulous life and never took the opportunity to see The Flaming Lips. From those early psychadelic garage-rock days to the immaculately produced and executed work of the last few years, they are a constant wonderment to me. Not only are their albums some of the most noted in indie rock, but the down-to-earthness of their personalities (as seen through the phenomeal docu-realness Fearless Freaks) and their continued sonic genius make them hard to put down.

A perfect venue for a near-perfect band, I'm positive that Marymoor Park will help put The Lips' best foot forward on Friday night (August 21st). I'm excited to experience their antics, be they Hatorade for the Arcade Fire or the NEW King of Pop outfitted in a fetching dolphin suit, I'll be there to soak it all up.

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As someone who has yet to see The Flaming Lips live, I get kind of tired of hearing accounts from my friends of how transcendent their shows are. I assure you this fatigue stems entirely from jealousy.

Enough about me, though, because you could care less about my pettiness and we have more important things to discuss. We have a pair of tickets to give away to a (very) lucky reader. The drill is that you need to send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com sometime prior to 9am on August 3rd with "FlamingLips" (all one word) in the subject line. The winner will, of course, be notified shortly thereafter to give you plenty of time before the August 21 show at Marymoor Park to brag to your neighbors, coworkers, postmen and women, et al.

What will The Flaming Lips show entail? Dancing Justin Timberlakes in dolphin costumes? Shit-talk about The Arcade Fire?

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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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As if Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill, Jesus Lizard and Tortoise weren't enough.. the brilliant minds (or not so) behind the lauded Pitchfork Music Festival have added the infamous Flaming Lips to the Sunday ender show, "Write the Night: Set Lists By Request". Ticketholders will be emailed a link to a website in which they can vote on which song they'd like to be played by each band. 

Setlist decided by audience!!! ("Kim's Watermelon Gun", "When You Smile", "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton"! I can't decide.)

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