2011 was {is still!} a great year, not only for releases but also for live shows, festivals, and those grit-of-the-stage-under-your-fingertips kinds of moments that we have all come to love and live by: nights like The Head and the Heart blowing the roof off of Porterhouse in West Seattle, a few sweet Lovesick Empire sets, John Darnielle's solo show at UW, and some incredibly intimate events like David Bazan's performance at Barsuk Records and some killer in-studios at KEXP. And with that said, here's the start of {one of} our 2011 countdown, featuring our top moments and photos of the 2011 festival circuit:

Favorite photo #10: Andrew McKeag :: Whether he's taking a big stage with his regular band {The Presidents of the United States of America}, holding court as a Honky, or anything in-between, this man simply does his thing with an understated level of skill that most musicians can only hope to attain (and manages to look pretty damn good doing it, too). Pictured above as part of the Kasey Anderson and the Honkies set at this year's installment of Bumbershoot, Andrew made us pretty happy to have gotten to the 'fest in time for the early bands that day with this dead-on look into the lens. {more KA&tH shots from the 'shoot} {POTUSA official} {KA&tH}

Favorite moment #10: WATERS :: Maybe it was just that moment -- being New York City for a few days and suddenly realizing that the city has basically charmed your pants right off, and being totally okay with it -- in conjunction with some incredible live sets day after day after day,  but we really, really did very much dig the WATERS set that went on as part of KEXP's broadcast from the Ace Hotel for this year's CMJ. It was all those things you hope for from an indie rock band: big guitars, a cohesive sound, and an overwhelming sense of want-more! once the music stops playing, all wrapped up in a surprise as we hadn't seen or heard them enough previously to know what to expect -- get a taste of their glorious noise over at Stereogum, where a post this year offered a free download that's still up for the taking. {more photos of WATERS at CMJ 2011} {WATERS}

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We've had the pleasure of seeing Brandi Carlile twice in as many years: most recently during a full-bore daytime set at this year's Austin City Limits festival, and prior to that at an intimate-yet-packed house at the Crocodile back in 2010. Both sets were packed with energy and positively enrapturing from start to finish, whether Brandi + band were playing sing-a-long, clap-a-long crowd favorites or simply serenading the masses with sweet, sweet ballads.

Fans of The Story and of her earlier work will agree that, long story short, you just can't go wrong at a Brandi Carlile show. That said, and with what basically amounts to a guarantee of an incredible evening, we're beside ourselves with excitement to announce that we'll be giving away a pair of tickets to Brandi's New Year's Eve performance at the Neptune this Saturday night. Come and ring in 2012 with us!

For a chance to be there with bells on, just send an email over to tig {at} threeimaginarygirls {dot} com with the subject line "LetItBendBeforeItBreaks" sometime between now and 10am on Friday, December 30th.

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Austin City Limits is usually a shoe-in to win, and this year's festival was no exception. Beat down with brilliance, both in the form of relentless sunshine and amazing bands playing their hearts out everywhere we looked, we took to the grassy knolls of Zilker Park doused in 50 SPF and spent the first day and a half of our show-goings with the likes of Brandi Carlile, Delta Spirit, Ray Lamontagne, the Cave Singers, Kurt Vile, Cold War Kids, Foster the People, Charles Bradley, Bright Eyes, Mavis Staples, Telekinesis, Aloe Blacc, Phosphorescent, Iron & Wine, the Moondoggies, and Fitz and the Tantrums. Every single stage was thoughtfully billed, easing in our late-mornings with incredible starts, and building seamlessly through their lineups during the day to absolute crescendos of performance from the headliners at night.

In between soaking up sun, getting our fill and desperately looking for shade, and dodging errant shower-storms with the camera, we even managed to grab a few photos to prove it all went down. Here's a mere fraction of what we were able to take in -- keep an eye on the site for part II of our photo-review, coming up shortly!

Seattle's own Brandi Carlile, tearing up the giant AMD stage before Ray Lamontagne on day one:

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Yup. There sure are a lot of exclamation points up in that headline, and with good cause: we're heading off for Austin City Limits this weekend, to catch some bands and some tan in the near-hundred-degree sun. Between pre-trip laundering, hydrating, charging our camera batteries and getting all that three-ounce-or-less business handled for the flight, we thought we'd take a minute to let you know about some of the acts we're particularly excited about this year -- especially since there seems to be a particularly strong PNW presence to be reckoned with every single day of the 'fest.

The start of the fest on Friday is kind of like easing in to that hot, soapy, not-too-dirty-yet festival bath. Hometown heroine Brandi Carlile will be getting things going early in the day, and we're hoping her sweet sounds will put us in the right kind of mood to slide over into Ray LaMontagne's late afternoon set -- they're both playing at the AMD stage starting around 2p. As the day darkens, we hope to get a little more gritty with the Cave Singers, and while Cold War Kids and Bright Eyes blow their sets out back-to-back {on the Honda and AMD stages respectively, for those of you following along in your custom-made schedules at home}, we might have to weasel our way forward to get a bigger-than-Bumbershoot-sized helping of Charles Bradley as he closes out the Vista Equity stage just before forever-legend Mavis Staples. As to whether we end day one with Kanye West or Coldplay -- my vote's on Kanye. But seeing as the fest is all sold out except for a few Sunday passes, we might not be able to make it close enough for a photo report. Fingers crossed!

Pending crowd surges (and weather permitting), we hope to also make time to get a little Delta Spirit, Smith Westerns, Kurt Vile, and Santigold into our schedules too!

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As I was picking out my favorite shots from this past year, it quickly became apparent that I couldn't just leave it at ten.  I've posted my top picks below (in no particular order), but you can check out the rest here.

Huge thanks to the TIG crew, especially Chris and Keenan, for giving me the opportunity to share these amazing moments with all you lovely people! And thanks to all my fellow photographers, both in Seattle and elsewhere, for giving me inspiration every day. Hope you all have a safe, prosperous, and Happy New Year! Here's to an even bigger and better 2010!

2009-09-05: Hotels @ Bumbershoot - EMP | SFM's Sky Church

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at Easy Street Records

As Brandi Carlile and her band took the Easy Street Records stage last Friday in front of her hometown crowd, something magical was in the air. Just a quick glance around the store, and you would have thought that half of Seattle had come out to witness one of the most epic in-store performances in recent history.

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It’s always odd to revisit what you’ve reviewed over the course of a year. Sometimes, much can change – as after subsequent listenings, you realize that record you thought was pretty decent just blows (see The Killers’ Sam’s Town) or you come to love an album that you’d previously dismissed as mediocre (see “Into the Wild” soundtrack). The true test of a “best release of the year” is its stability, so I’ve tried to pick “long-haul” contenders—albums I’ll go to for months (or even years) to come, with no requirement for a set amount of finalists. Here’s what made the cut...

TOP ALBUMS:

• LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver (this one sits significantly higher than the rest)
• Interpol: Our Love to Admire
• The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
• Eddie Vedder: "Into the Wild" soundtrack
• Minus the Bear: Planet of Ice
• Aqueduct: Or Give Me Death

And, topping the list of what sadly wasn’t as good as I expected:
Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

I’ll leave it at that. I can hardly fathom how disappointed I was by that output (mixing the quirky fire of Modest Mouse with legendary jangler Johnny Marr? How did it fall so flat?).

TOP NORTHWEST ALBUMS:

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at The Paramount

Carlile put on a magnificent performance showcasing her soulful, bluesy material.

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ChrisB calls out Brandi for plugging in the words "all messed up" when something stronger could've -- should've -- been there instead. In fact, this is an old song, one of Brandi's mainstays at live shows. That word "messed" has always been "fucked" in the live venue.

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Brandi Carlile's second major label release plays it safe at every opportunity.

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