at Moore Theater

It's been a little bit of a rough go for me, as it has with many people, to get past the band name "Monsters of Folk." Really. Partially because it's just bonkers, and partially because the "folk" part conjures up old James Taylor reels and campfire sing-a-longs. And beards. But the roster has been the trump card thus far, boasting members of Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, and the gorgeous, prolific stylings of M. Ward himself. Take him, Conor Oberst, Jim James, and Mike Mogis, add two parts swooping red velvet curtains and one part spectacular sound system, stir, and you've got a band that's so good -- well, they could call themselves "Banana Eating Spaceships" for all anyone cares. This particular combination of frontmen from a cross-section of such notable indie bands does indeed a blissful sound make, strangely named or not.

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It pains me that I'll be out of town the night that Monsters of Folk take the Paramount Theater stage on Thursday, October 15, so I want a lucky imaginary reader to go and weep and cheer and love it all in my place.

Want to be my stand in? Email tig@threeimaginarygirls.com with the subject line "I will be your monster of folk" by Wednesday night at 9pm (PST) and you'll be entered in the drawing for the pair of tickets to the  (I hear they are going to be really really good seats too!).

If you want, when you email me your entry, let me know how long you think M. Ward is going to be able to stay clean shaven after prolonged exposure to his hairy band mates. I am guessing that Conor Oberst only held out for a few days into the recording of the album. His artist demeanor and devil may care attitude lends itself well to skipping the shaving cream morning sauce.

To confirm that I haven't taken this scheduling mishap lightly on my part, I've watched these two videos over and over to nurse my broken Oberst Ward'd heart:

Awesome Monster of Folk on Monster of Folk interview:

My favorite song from the new really rad 'cause it grows on you Monsters of Folk album:

Have you heard about Monsters of Folk yet? If not, it's probably because you're not lucky enough to get PR emails. Our imaginary inboxes have been full-to-overflowing with news of the project, a collaborative effort of three indie-heavyweights: Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Jimmy James of My Morning Jacket, and singer-songwriter M. Ward.

We batted the idea of who should blog the project up, without much success. We at TIG all hold our grudges, and Monsters of Folk seems to have hit on a few of them. First imaginary ChrisB chimed in. "The beard quotient seems a little low (50%) for a band called Monsters of Folk," he noted. And he has a point.

Imaginary Liz added, "Conor might be my imaginary boyfriend, but I'm not a fan when his friend Jim James takes over the vocal duties."

I sit on her side of the My Morning Jacket fence as well; however, I make an exception for this project. In fact, I had the pleasure of seeing them perform Liz back in... oh, what year was that? Let's just say 2004. The three had some special chemistry and a whole lotta talent up there together.

So it became my duty and pleasure to share all the exciting Monsters of Folk news. New record! New tourdates! Free song download! Here are the deets.

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Among other things, TIG 101 includes chapters like, "imaginary Dana is a master MC," "ChrisB is the king of all things Pop," and "imaginary Liz is a Bright Eyes superfan." So it should be no surprise that the following news (and five consecutive watchings of the trailer) has successfully pulled me out of my Tuesday blahs (perhaps the result of a sunshine hangover?):

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band are set to release “One of My Kind” on April 15th, a documentary that will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the band’s journey over the past year and a half.

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We've got some hot new releases for out hot summer day.

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at Neumos

Ladies and gentlemen, do not be mistaken: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band is not Bright Eyes.

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Last night's two Conor shows were great. We'll post a photo gallery recap in the next 24 hours with more photos to document the awesomeness.

But, for the time being, here's a photo that imaginary photographer Chona Kasinger took last night for us that you can find in the TIG Sparkly Indie-Pop Photos group.

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Wonder what it might be like to wonder the record store aisles with Conor? Would he head for the used 7" records? The local bin? Or surprise us all and go towards electronica vinyl or sound effects compilations?

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The real treat on the Stereogum post was a comment from Long Luke, who dropped a link to Rhapsody's free stream of the upcoming album.

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Our friend Jesse just whispered a little secret in our ear...

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