Three Imaginary Girls - san francisco

Imaginary Mixtape: NYC and SF Popfest edition {May 2010}

imaginary liz — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:29:59 +0000

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}

San Francisco Popfest: Day 3 {Saturday Evening}

imaginary keenan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:20:32 +0000

23 May 2009

sanfranpopfest09.jpg

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.

Keenan Dowers: 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.

igLiz: Me too! It was *the* night of the Popfest that was not to be missed. Northern Portrait, a and from Denmark who's two EP's I adore the heck out of AND Tullycraft on the same bill? Yes, please!

KD: It opened with the Smittens from Burlington, VT, who were already one of my favorite indie pop bands. Their straight forward songwriting with lyrics that crush my heart and beautiful melodies have long won me over, especially on their latest release, The Coolest Thing About Love. This was the first time I'd seen them without their keyboard player Max, whose deep, Stephin Merritt-esque voice has always anchored their sound. I was curious what it was going to be like, as honestly, Max's voice has always been one of my favorite parts about seeing the Smittens live.

They opened with "Sapphire", one of my favorite songs, that Max had always sung, but Colin, one of the group's guitar players and chief songwriters had written. Dana, another of the group's songwriters and singers traded off vocals with Colin and played the standard casio part on a wurlitzer electric piano. I was nearly in tears. Their set continued with gorgeous and fun songs, including "Gin and Platonic", a classic of theirs, featuring backup vocals by a few members of Tullycraft.

Steve Louie: The Smittens were great. It was their first show on the west coast. Lots of fun action seen on their set as the bass guitarist received a garland of flowers from a fan and Members of Tullycraft even came up on stage and joined for a song.

Here's a video of their song "11:11".

KD: Up next were Magic Bullets from San Francisco, who, I have to admit I missed (the hazards of popfests).

igLiz: I watched their whole set and by the end of it was smitten (no pun intended) with the lead singer's infectious giddiness (even though he was grounded by a pair of crutches and a hefty leg cast thing). He grinned with pure glee as he belted out vocals that I can only describe as part Lily Allen, part Bravery, with the post-big-win disposition of Michael Phelps. The songs floated in the usually murky terrain of poppy-punk with a ska-infused rhythm aesthetic and came out smelling like cute, dance-y confetti cupcakes. I'll admit it; It took me two songs before I felt this way (see text message to Keenan: "this first song feels like it's ten mins long") - but once I figured out what was going on, I was looking for the Magic Bullets' merch table and I highly recommend seeing them when they take a stage near you.

KD: After Magic Bullets were another one of my favorite bands, Brooklyn's My Teenage Stride. I feel like every other time I see them, my jaw winds up on the floor, and this was certainly one of those occasions. They blazed through a bunch of my favorites off of their 2007 release Ears Like Golden Bats, and a bunch of new songs from their E-music single series. There was magic in the air, and they were perfectly spot on, mixing their 80's jangle and 60's pop sounds perfectly. They even included an older song "Happy Mondays" by request from a friend, which includes the chorus "You only want to dance to the Happy Mondays/You never do a thing when I put on the Sundays", which I've long thought of as the perfect indie pop grump song. I hope they come out to Seattle soon. Here's a video of a song called "Theme From Teenage Suicide" (note - I normally don't start recording a video a second or two in, or without having a good spot to record yet, but this song is just too perfect and I couldn't let it go undocumented).

KD: Following My Teenage Stride were Denmark's Northern Portrait, who I've been calling the best Smiths ripoff band ever. They have every ingredient down. They didn't disappoint. While this performance was only their 5th show ever, every jangle and Morrissey-esque wail was perfectly in place. I nearly lost it when they started playing "I'll Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me" off of last year's Napolean Sweetheart EP. Here's a video of a new song of theirs, "What Happens Next", which will hopefully be on their new album, coming out hopefully soon on Matinee Records.

igLiz: I am so grateful to have seen Northern Portrait. Their lush melodies filled the Rickshaw Stop exactly how I dreamed they would sound live (have we talked about how perfect the sound was in that venue? Give Waldo the Soundguy a hand everyone). They played all the songs we knew (which is to be expected when you have two US-released EPs) and added in a bunch of equally sweet, unabashedly Smiths-y, songs. I'm not sure if the album is going to be released next month (one rumor I heard) or in the Fall (another rumor swirling around), but regardless, I can only hope that they tour the US to help get the word out. Folks need to know about Northern Portrait.

Want to know some neat random trivia to spout out at your next BBQ? The lead singer of NP is a wedding singer as his dayjob. Brilliant right? Do those hitching couples know how lucky they are?

KD: Closing out tonight were our very own local favorites, Tullycraft, playing their "last show" or whatever. Over the years Tullycraft have truly become one of my favorite bands, and it's sad to know that it may be quite a while before I get to jump around and sing along to them again. So, we decided to send them out with a bang. My friend decided that we should spell out the letters "T-U-L-L-Y-C-R-A-F-T" with tape over our shirts. Since we didn't want to kick the kids out who'd been waiting all night to stand up front, we met at the side of the stage and picked the best song to run up and "vandalize" their set. We missed the first one (note - it was supposed to be "If You Take Away the Makeup..."), because, well, organizing ten people, half of whom were quite drunk, is quite difficult, so we picked "The Punks Are Writing Love Songs". Here's a video that Steve took of the shenanigans.

SL: Tullycraft - oh my. That cheerleading crowd that came on during "Punks" was awesome. That was probably the highlight of their amazing set.

igLiz: It was ultra sweet to see such love (and organized cheering) on this monumental show.

KD: Their set was perfect, including most songs I wanted to hear ("Bailey Park" was incredible!), and the best part was that I got to see it surrounded by some of the biggest Tullycraft nerds I've ever met. I also loved watching all the Tullycraft virgins who'd never seen them before, including a girl I'd met outside who came all the way from Norwich to see Tullycraft. I was sore the next day from how hard we all danced, and I had no voice left for days. This was a perfect indie pop dance party.

Check out the rest of Steve's photos here.

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.

San Francisco Popfest: Day 3 {Saturday Afternoon}

imaginary keenan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:39:02 +0000

23 May 2009

sanfranpopfest09.jpg

Welcome to Day 3! After the craziness of Friday night, hardcore attendees had two shows to make it to, one in the afternoon at San Francisco's oldest bar, House of Shields, and another evening show at the Rickshaw Stop. Here's our thoughts on the early show, featuring Sourpatch, Champagne Riot, and Gregory Webster!

SL: Although I was still recovering from late night at Annie's Social Club the night before, I was nevertheless looking forward to Saturday's afternoon show at the House of Shields. It's a 100 year old school bar with all wooden decor and Victorian fixtures. The "stage" where the bands play is upstairs. There's actually no real stage but a floor where it can hold maybe 50 or so people.

KD: After Friday night's karaoke ending (followed by a bit too much to drink), I woke up very early Friday to meet a friend, and found myself at the House of Shields with a lot of time to kill. Despite my best attempts to layer up, it was still freezing. Shortly after arriving to the venue, I was rescued by a group of young girls, who introduced themselves to me as the band Sourpatch (check them out on our podcast!). I'd been really looking forward to seeing them, and as they scooped me up and drove me around downtown San Francisco looking for parking, I knew I was going to love them. And I did. Their three girls/one boy sound reminded me quite a bit of Tiger Trap, with super fun, loud, and melodic songs, often with beautiful harmonies. It was sort of one of those moments that I couldn't even really dance like crazy. I just stood their in awe, knowing that I was witnessing one of my new favorite bands.

SL: Champagne Riot is a pop side project of one member of Northern Portrait (from Denmark). I didn't know that until I met the guy before his set. Northern Portrait was one of the few bands I was really looking forward to before coming to the fest.

KD: Imagine a slightly danish New Order-esque single man laptop band. I had wished there had been more of a dance party, but maybe people were still too hungover from Friday night. Either way, I still enjoyed it, and had to stop myself from buying his $15 7" with the most beautiful packaging I've ever seen (out now on Shelflife Records).

SL: The guy's got some great tracks and his vocals are good. It just felt a little artificial as it felt his laptop was the main performer.

KD: Closing out the afternoon show (where despite it being advertised, I saw very little indie pop dancing and scrabble) was Gregory Webster, the frontman of the Razorcuts and Sportique, playing solo acoustic. I really, really love the Razorcuts, but it just wasn't quite the same without all the distortion and feedback. Still, it was fun to hear some of those songs, and especially fun to watch my friend in his homemade Razorcuts shirt geek out.

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

San Francisco Popfest: Day 2 {Friday}

imaginary keenan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:28:24 +0000

22 May 2009

sanfranpopfest09.jpg

Day 2 started off with a bang, featuring Springfactory, Bunnygrunt, The Orange Peels, ballboy, The Tartans, The Hot Toddies, and a bit of indie pop karaoke. And, Friday was the day our own imaginary liz popped in!

Keenan Dowers: Friday night started out with Springfactory, which was essentially just Suburban Kids with Biblical Names rotated, but much more in the loud, fast indie pop vein. I'd seen them in New York as well, and was very excited to see them again. Crazy fast and weird indie pop is pretty much my favorite thing ever, and they hit just the spot. The Swedes have a way with melody and song structure that no one else has seemed to figure out.

Steve Louie: All the festival shows start way early and I think I was late for each except the last night. Six bands on this bill - yep - six bands. Doors at 7:30PM. I ran in and saw Springfactory and I was taken aback that they were all members of Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - only the lead singer and keyboardist switching places. The sound was more raw and less pop than Suburban Kids but still all that is Swedish awesome.

KD: Here's a video of their song "Swedish Folk Highschool".

KD: Up next were Bunnygrunt a complete favorite of mine, who were incredible. They played lots of songs from their upcoming record, and by the end of their set, I looked at my friend, and we both agreed that Bunnygrunt's new record, which will be out on Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records this summer, will be their best ever record, and probably one of the best records of the year. Their boy/girl vocals, killer guitar solos, and punk rock "ba ba"s are insanely infectious and danceable. I can't wait to own the record. Here's a video of one of their older songs (I didn't quite recognize it, and was hoping it was on the new record) called "Acres of Fakers".

KD: After the 'grunt were The Orange Peels, a band I was really excited to see, featuring indie pop legend Alan Clapp. I'd been a fan of Clapp's music for a while now, and somehow didn't even find out about the Orange Peels until a friend's band said they were playing with them in San Francisco. On the drive down, my travel companion had made a Popfest playlist, which featured 10 Orange Peels songs, all in a style of very lush and beautiful power pop with excellent songwriting, which happens of be one of my favorite genres of music. They did not disappoint. Clapp's voice sounded beautiful over three guitars, bass, and drums with beautiful backup harmonies. Here's a video of their song "Something Strange Happened To Me Last Night".

KD: ballboy played next, and as a typical popfest went, I ended up missing them due to hanging out with friends. But, I did hear that "she only works in a record store" song, which I quite like. But, it wouldn't be a popfest if I hadn't missed at least one band I wanted to see because I was talking shit about pop music with friends.

KD: Following ballboy was LA's The Tartans, a band that I'd already seen and made friends with at NYC Popfest, and I was really excited to see them again. They have a sound that's a bit like a more groovier Orange Juice with a saxophone player, and despite the fact that their singer/guitar player had just had hand surgery, and their other singer had bronchitis and an ear infection, they played wonderfully, and to what I hear, impressed a lot of people. I can't wait until they come up to Seattle. Here's them playing their song "Your Favorite Song" (which may become my favorite song in the near future).

SL: I was all indie pop tired out by the time the Hot Toddies came on which was just after 1AM. Most of the crowd had scattered about and in wandering around I was in the back karaoke room where some of the bands were doing a karaoke off. I switched back and forth to see this and the Hot Toddies who were too cute to pass up.

KD: Closing out the night were the Hot Toddies, who, I know Steve watched, but right before they started, a little birdie popped over to me to warn me that all the Swede's were doing karaoke in the other room. I walked in just in time to hear one of the guitar players from SKWBN singing "Lola" (which was extra funny, considering I knew that he barely spoke English). Following that was back to back GnR with Karen from Bunnygrunt and Jenny from Tullycraft. It went on like that for the rest of the night and was well worth missing what was probably a very good band.

igLiz: Thanks to airline mayhem and luggage, I didn't arrive until just about this time. As the Virgin America employees were cluelessly running around looking for missing luggage, I could feel the ballboy set time slip through my fingers. Trying to salvage what we could of our first night at the Popfest, we dropped off our bags and the hotel and RAN to Annie's. Thank goodness we did. Any disappointment I had for missing ballboy and Springfactory was made alright by seeing members of my favorite indie-poppers take to the karaoke stage in the back of the venue (which is one of the most brilliant club ideas btw). This is what Popfests are all about: seeing and being a part of an indie popper Summer camp of sorts -- where anything can happen. I knew the rest of the weekend is going to be rad.

Check out the rest of Steve Louie's photos of Day 2 of the San Francisco Popfest.

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

San Francisco Popfest: Day 1 {Thursday}

imaginary keenan — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:07:57 +0000

21 May 2009

sanfranpopfest09.jpg

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.

Steve Louie: I arrived maybe half way through Pelle Carlberg's set but I think I caught his best songs. "Go to Hell, Miss Rydell" - a laughable serious song about the press. Guess you gotta be careful that you don't say anything bad about Pelle or he will hunt you down. "Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Live Clever Girls" - best song title.

Keenan Dowers: "Clever Girls" was so my theme song... but alas, I arrived just in time to catch the last minute of Pelle's set, after a 13 hour drive and another half an hour to park in Downton SF on a Thursday. As Oh No! Oh My! started, I realized I was not ready to be surrounded by people and see bands yet (after a million miles of driving), and ended up missing their set. Steve, what did you think of them?

SL: Not much to say but they were good, except the part when the lead singer brought out his acoustic guitar and the songs turned more folkish.

KD: As Still Flyin went on, I asked a friend how long they thought it would be until they started, and he said "oh, they're still setting up" (rim shot, please). After hearing the song "Hott Chords" that we podcasted, I was incredibly excited to see this ever growing technically San Francisco based 20+ member pop band. I'd always heard from friends "oh, yeah, they're a reggae band", and I never really believed it, but yeah, they were a reggae band. I have sort of a predisposition against reggae, due to my growing up around hippies, and found myself just a bit disappointed. However, their last few songs (including the afforementioned "Hott Chords") were more ska than reggae, and my friends and I had a dance party in the back of the venue. I'm now looking forward to seeing them again with Love is All on June 8th at Neumo's.

SL: My favourite Still Flyin songs were "Rope Burn" and "The Bird is Aware" - crowd favourites too. The mandatory dancing part of the evening started with these guys. Free style dancing good times.

igLiz: I am so sad to have missed this set (I didn't arrive in San Fran until Friday night) - I can't wait to see them at Neumo's in June and sing along to "Hott Chords" live and in person stylee. You can hear THE song for yourself on our SF Popfest podcast! For the last couple weeks, I've listened to it about five times a day. Whenever the going gets tough... I play "Hott Chords."

KD: I made sure that I got a spot right up front for Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, as they'd impressed me so much the previous week in New York, and again, they didn't disappoint. In fact, I think they were even better. Check out Steve's video for their song "Funeral Face" (and notice the dance party happening!).

SL: SKWBN carried off where Still Flyin' left off with more than enough infectious dancing to go around. The crowd's waited a long time for these swedes to finally play for the first time in the states. Well worth it.

igLiz: I have yet to see SKWBN live but in my mind they are brilliant. Steve's video (of one of my favorite songs no less) proves my suspicion. Thank you so much for filming! Now off to hunt for more videos of the night so I can feel like I was there.

KD: Steve and I both ended up grabbing setlists (though mine was a present for miss imaginary liz who sadly, couldn't be there).

igLiz: Sidenote: Keenan and Steve rule for making up for the fact that I missed this show.

1999
Peter's Dream
Loop
Parakit
Trees and Squirrels
Student
Funeral
Guns and Ammo
Marry Me
Seems
World Music
Rent a Wreck

Flash forward to the last night of popfest as everyone was saying goodbye, I was talking with Johan fron SKWBN, and a friend of mine walked up and asked him why they weren't bigger than Vampire Weekend. I wish I knew the answer.

Check out the rest of Steve's photos! And stay tuned for the rest of the weekend's coverage!

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.

We're so excited for this weekend's San Fran Popfest we had to podcast

imaginary liz — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:48:17 +0000

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!).

Three Imaginary Girls San Francisco Popfest Podcast {May, 2009}

three imaginary girls — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:27:13 +0000

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

49:44 minutes (43.81 MB)

Three Imaginary Girls San Francisco Popfest Podcast {May, 2009}

three imaginary girls — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:27:11 +0000

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

49:44 minutes (8 MB)

More NoisePop 2008 performers announced: Bring on the British Sea Power!

imaginary liz — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:41:08 +0000

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!

The SF Noise Pop folks announce Magnetic Fields and Mountain Goats confirmed for 2008 fest

imaginary liz — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:04:31 +0000

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.

The Makes Nice

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:11:59 +0000

Imperial Teen

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 20:02:37 +0000

The Hot Toddies

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:56:14 +0000

LoveLikeFire

admin — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:52:00 +0000

Matmos

admin — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:51:59 +0000

Black Fiction

admin — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 04:30:19 +0000

Ben Kweller

admin — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:33:40 +0000

Lyrics Born

admin — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:33:58 +0000

Grandaddy

admin — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:37:40 +0000

The Fairways

admin — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:11:52 +0000