I'm going to start this new "album round up" for Three Imaginary Girls with the above recent You Tube video for Sean Rowe's "Jonathan": (1.) Because I think it's the best song off of his recent Magic album (recently given full treatment here) and though it's been out a while the video is new. More-so, it's starting my summer off all rum and cola-sweetly, buzzy and bubbly at dusk-time, and I want to share it with you because the tune still grabs my attention. (2.) That's to help set the tone for a regular column that will primarily focus on the best songs on the albums I'm playing, while taking care of full length business as economically as possible. This doesn't mean I won't be doing more full length album reviews; but they might get the test-run here before they get the full heat treatment. Or, as in Rowe's case, I might remind you dear reader of previously scribed-about music that I think needs further attention, probably due to a bright jelly ear-worm melting in the candy jar of my brain.

Now to a hit and run consumer guide starting in my iTunes, and running into my headphones and down through my fingers briskly with the assistance of a jar of cold, strong coffee and soy milk:

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I thought the Vivian Girls were pretty good, a lot of pissy but prim potential. But I think La Sera, bassist-vocalist Katy Goodman's new band, is great. That's because her new thing's self-titled debut doesn't hide behind Ramones-wanna be riffs or Sonic Youth ear-gumming feedback. Instead, La Sera shows what the Shaggs would have been like if they weren't ridden by a freaky old alcoholic father-manager, and could have been produced by a post-treatment Phil Spector; and oh yeah, could feel free to play away sincerely and happily with her own toys by herself. Toys being guitars, basses, percussion, and cream cake layers of sumptuous vocals. (Uncle Joe Meek's ghost is in the closet, too, and Stephin Merritt would probably kill to produce the next one. Stand firm, Katy!)

And moreso, on going-to-outlive 2011 songs like "Never Come Around" (this year's "Young Folks" and I mean that with a pure heart) and "Dove Into Love" it's sort of like a revenge fantasy for every pretty girl who was told she'd never play beautifully. When you listen to the joy of creation and discovery Goodman puts into the design of sweet-torture chamber mazes like "Beating Heart" (all boxed in and sugar-coated) you want to go into that room and create fresh noise with her. She leaves that necessary space to put your heart into, even if the freezing lyrical icicles of "Left This World" and "Devils Hearts Grow Cold" threaten to pierce right through the ventricles.

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It is sheer madness that there are so many great live performers appearing at Bumbershoot 2010 this year. This is my personal schedule to see a cross-section of irascible indie-ness (be it indie pop-friendly Pac NW hip-hop, indie rock, Brooklyn funk, etc.) but mostly focusing on those TIG-sparking artists who either put out a great record recently (and may or may not have gotten the deserved acclaim) or have one coming right up.

So let's begin the plan, and bear in mind if you haven't heard the music that may already be available from these performers, we would recommend checking the releases hyped below out before you attend Bumbershoot 2010. This is not because you would be in any way disappointed with what you will see and hear when you hit the full-genre full-on phenomenon that is the festival this year; just the opposite, we want you to already have some of these songs down to sing/chant/rap along when they pop during the sets. All are recommended and approved.

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{Carissa's Wierd play the Showbox at the Market on July 9th with Aveo}

This is the way to do it. A properly posh and keenly-selected collection of band and fan favorites from the tribe that split open to become Grand Archives, Band of Horses, S, and (a lady named) Sera Cahoone. Call them time travel super troopers; elements of each of those smothered-by-hugs Seattle groups make up the melodic, melancholy, dialectically anxious and delicate anti-anthems swarming sixteen tracks deep here. Hardly Art has done an ace job of stringing up pearl upon pearl, purifying and balancing the sound of the scrappy original songs, and tying it together with a fact-filled little book (hardly a booklet) thrilling for followers and fun for beginners.

I bring up the phrase "super troopers" as they remind me of ABBA, for in a weird way Carissa's Wierd was the alternately icy and passionate twin sister of those pop opera experts. But instead of bouncy bass and sweeping ballads, on They'll Only Miss You When You Leave, CW explores pretty little wounds, beautiful but heartbroken days, bonfires with lovers clenching more than clutching each other. All set to the strum and pluck of a booze-soaked acoustic left after a party, some really gorgeous strings, and an occasional surge in emotion best exemplified by the photo of the "Ugly But Honest" sign on the lyric sheet. Strong emotions of all type are shared, with (S's) Jenn Ghetto's nectarous voice often more than hinting at a bitter center.

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Join us Sunday, June 27 from 1p-3p at Neptune Coffee for the second edition of our Imaginary Crafty Listening Party! Last month we had a glorious time making new crafty friends and debuting the new Math & Physics Club album.  This time around, we'll fill the air with the likes of two album we think should be on your must-have summer playlist:

Carissa's Wierd - They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003
This retrospective reminds us why Carissa's Wierd should be counted as one of the most important bands to come out of Seattle. They perfected elegant sadness and inspired the beard-core movement that has penetrated today's music charts.

The album releases July 13, 2010 on Hardly Art and they will knock our socks off at the Showbox at the Market on July 9. Listen to "Die" on repeat.

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(Unnatural Helpers play Neumos April 13 with King Khan & The Shrines and The Fresh & Onlys)

It's kind of appropriate that last summer in Seattle hometown kerosine-crunch bashers Unnatural Helpers assisted Billy the Fridge and the other Top Pot celebrities fete the sugary fried breakfast-death eating frenzy of a Top Pot donut eating contest. Garage punk veterans Brian Standefort and Leo Gephardt (two Mr. Hydes from Idle Times and before that the Catheters and Tall Birds) combine the caterwauling and string crunching at the center of the Kurt Bloch-produced Cracked Love & Other Drugs, due out from Hardly Art on April 27. The Unnatural Helpers are the sound of diabetes-inducing bubblegum rock of a Buddha label band fermented into a sticky, vodka like liquor-treat as sticky and savage as a Stooges rant. (Hence, forced feeding donut comparison, and what must be the resulting OD sugar rush.)

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The Moondoggies have captured our beard-loving northwestern hearts. They play American music.. music that is warm, stilted with lush harmonies and hinting at a prevalent and haunting sense of wanderlust. And much like most bands these days, their sound can't be classified singley. It's country. It's gospel. It's a rollicking bar-jam that is at once revelatory and mournful.

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Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison of The Dutchess and The Duke sit down at Cafe Vita with threeimaginarygirls to discuss their new album, Sunrise/Sunset, their upcoming tour with Modest Mouse, and poop. Check out Block Party's youngest patron, seven week old Oscar Lortz!

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Here is a little free association test for you: When you hear the expression "competitive eating," what comes to mind?

If the answer wasn't a Mexican Elvis impersonator, well, you're probably not the only one, but it feels kind of appropriate, no?

Indie record label Light in the Attic is hosting their 3rd annual donut eating contest on Saturday, August 1st at 1p at Top Pot Doughnuts (5th Avenue location). This event is free to the public. There are a few fun and exciting changes this year for participants and cheerleaders alike, including the participation of four other record labels (Barsuk, Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze, and Hardly Art).

The name of the game is doughnut eating, and apparently this will be a tag team-type affair. Volunteers from the audience will be selected at random and teamed up with one of the five label representatives to scoff down as many rings of fried deliciousness as possible.

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Pretty & Nice’s Hardly Art debut, Get Young, is music with a strong personality.

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