May is a magical month here in Seattle. We've got spots of sun teasing us with summer promises, Sasquatch anticipation running rampant, and the warm glows of SIFF oozing with the best international indie films. There's only one reason we'd ever want to leave our emerald city bubble during this sweet spot of the year... a good ole fashioned PopFest!

This year, the month of May brought with it two very enticing reasons to head elsewhere: The New York City Popfest {May 20-23, 2010} and the San Francisco Popfest {May 27-30, 2010}. To mark these special events, we've gathered up some of our favorite songs by folks playing these festivals which includes a couple cover songs, a not-yet-released Math & Physics Club song and some rarities to up the popfest ante.  If you were one of the lucky folks that caught any of the NYC or SF Popfest shows, let us know how it went!

***Listen to the Imaginary Popfest Podcast MP3***
{To download the podcast, right click on the link above
and save to your computer}

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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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at House of Shields

Day 3 featured an early afternoon show with Sourpatch, Champagne Riot, and Gregory Webster!

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at Annie's Social Club

Day 2 of SF Popfest coverage featuring Springfactory, Bunnygrunt, The Orange Peels, ballboy, The Tartans, The Hot Toddies, and a bit of karaoke mischief.

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at Rickshaw Stop

Welcome to the very official {and very imaginary} Three Imaginary Girls San Francisco Popfest 2009 recap! We were lucky enough to have THREE of our own imaginaries there! Myself, Steve Louie (who provided all the photos), and imaginary liz all made the trek South for memorial day weekend! Here's our thoughts on the first night, which in order was Swedish indie pop songwriter Pelle Carlberg, Austin's Oh No! Oh My!, San Fran's own Still Flyin, and Sweden's indie pop dance extroirdinaires Suburban Kids With Biblical Names.

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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

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

Looks like slowly but surely the folks at the Noise Pop 2008 festival are releasing names of folks signed on to participate. Today's additions include Holy Fuck and British Sea Power... and a indie-fashions truck show!

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The Magnetic Fields and the Mountain Goats, along with fellow notables Cursive, and a new Greg Dulli/Mark Lanegan project titled The Gutter Twins will be making appearances and wowing indie-rock masses in San Francisco.

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