Here's wishing you a good holiday weekend, if you're doing the holiday weekend kind of thing. Looking for a place to spend Christmas alone, together? Check out the Stranger's movie listings: here's what's playing Saturday, and Sunday too. We're particularly excited about the original black-and-white version of It's a Wonderful Life, which is playing through December 29th at the Grand Illusion {and where you may very well find us at the 8:30p showing tomorrow}.

We'll see you next week with some end-of-year highlights and more best-ofs than you can shake a stick at! And don't forget -- tune in to KEXP on Sunday morning for a holiday version of Preachin' the Blues, DJ El Toro's daytime holiday set, and pop on over to Greg Vandy's site for info on how to stream his very vintage Roadhouse holiday show anytime.

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Well, there's just about a day's worth of hours left until the party officially gets started, and it's time to talk about Eef. Eef Barzelay, mainstay of Clem Snide, heartstring-yanker extraordinaire, producer of subtle genius with every touch. On top of killer studio albums, he put out an EP recently of Journey-only covers, a second of fan-request outtakes, and has longstandingly offered to pen you a custom song or record a few live tracks of your choice in an only-yours kind of session.

But rather than wax poetic about all the reasons why you need to come and see Eef Barzelay headline our holiday party tomorrow, we're just going to flood this post with gorgeous songs and videos so that you can let the love light shine in your own personal way. You're imaginary, just like us. You know Eef. You love Eef. Just bathe in it, feel all the feelings, and then come and stand in the front row with us tomorrow night and experience it all in person, for the first or fifteenth time.

You won't be disappointed -- we promise. (But you already know that.)

Hear more of Eef here, and for the love of all things good-music-y, get tickets for tomorrow's show already. They're only eleven dollars and you can pick them up with minimal fees over at Brown Paper Tickets.

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Whether you're ready or not, the holidays are upon us! Seattle is gearing up to be softly aglow as neighbors light up the block with LEDs and the flavors of peppermint, ginger spice and eggnog infuse themselves everywhere.  But, best of all, it means it's time for the Imaginary Holiday Party!

This year's shin-dig will be Friday, December 16 at the Columbia City Theater and feature all the important elements of a fabulous holly jolly time:

***MUSIC!***
-> Eef Barzelay (of Clem Snide) will beautifully croon poignant vignettes against a backdrop of holiday melancholy.

-> Seattle supergroup Mal de Mer will dirty it up with their catchy, no holds barred post-garage-pop. With members of Slender Means, The Divorce, Lila, the Amazombies, and Ms Led / The Redwood Plan, you know it's gonna be good.

-> Heligoats come to us by way of Bellingham and bring a road-trip-worthy stash of exuberantly bittersweet songs.

***SANTA RODERICK!***
As is the imaginary tradition, Santa John Roderick will be on hand to spread holiday cheer with amazing photographer Laura Musselman ready to take your photo on his lap.  Yes, you read that right. You can sit on Indie-Rock Santa's lap and get your photo taken by an amazing photographer like Ms. Musselman.   We do our best to make your holiday wishes come true!
 

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You have got to be frigging KIDDING US.

First there was the gorgeous cover for the AV Club. Then the Kickstarter project to fund this EP. And now, the cumulative effort of your dollars + Eef Barzelay's unstoppable genius has yielded the product that's a contender for EP of the year: Clem Snide's Journey.

We really don't mean to seem cliche here, but this EP is loaded to the hilt with absolute gems. From the gorgeous, sparse "Faithfully" to the sweet uke meandering of "Lights" to the dying strains and cry-outs at the close of "Anyway You Want It" -- we are somewhere between spun-out, white-light blissyness and a teary-eyed, this-is-so-going-on-the-next-mixtape sad-bastard melancholy lovefest.

There's joy, relief, heartbreak, and the occasional expletive abounding on the interwebs as we send the link off to all of our friends (which we'll spare you, of course). However, we will say these expletive-free words: Buy This Album. Right Now. Because the fact that all this amazing exists for a mere dollar a track is mindbending, to say the very least.

It's all waiting for you to {stream and} purchase at the Clem Snide / Eef Barzelay bandcamp page here.

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You love Clem Snide. You love Journey. And it's a natural progression to assume they're two great tastes that taste great together. Right? Right.

Seated on the floor armed with nothing but charm and a ukulele, Eef Barzelay proceeded to blow us last year with a rendition of "Faithfully" for the AV Club sessions. (You can dig on it right over here if you're so inclined.) Given his propensity for stellar cover choices -- take "Two Tickets to Paradise" for starters -- it's no surprise that even a Journey track, in his hands, gets morphed from a tired hipster cliche to a handful of heartache on a plate. Can you even imagine what he'd do to an entire album? We can, and our heartstrings are worn thin (in the very best of ways, of course) at the mere thought of it.

Turns out, we're not alone: between now and June 2nd, you can be one of the people that helps back the latest Clem Snide project, which is nothing less than Eef & Co. doing a whole proper EP of Journey songs. FOR THE WIN. They've managed to almost triple their $5,000.00 Kickstarter goal, but the treats are so good that people just keep on keepin' on -- and you can get in on the action too. (Got $16.00? You'll get a limited edition EP plus a download. Got $1500.00? Eef Barzelay will come to your m-f HOUSE and play a show, and you get the album, and you get on guest list for life for all of his shows, plus all kinds of other treats.)

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The turn of the weather and shortness of days in Seattle over the last couple weeks has left little room to deny that winter is upon us. Thankfully, imaginary victoria has gathered a subtle and soothing mix of songs that is warming our tootsies as of late.

You can listen to a stream of the podcast below or download the MP3 version of the podcast on the imaginary bandcamp page.

If you are the type that likes to listen to podcasts in itunes, download the .m4a file here {it's one single file with fancy chapter markers!} and then open it in your itunes {big thanks to Jigsaw Records and Indie Pages for hosting the file!}.

 

Tracklisting: Imaginary Mixtape - December 2010 {part 1}

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It goes without saying that at any given point, especially in Seattle, we are absolutely inundated with new music to listen to. So much so that, in a veritable sea of sound, little gems can slip by without us even noticing, rolling right out of our sight and falling down the drain without as much as a telltale metallic 'tink' on the drainpipe to get our attention. The perpetual optimist among us would like to think that albums of worthiness will always float to the top of the pile on their own merit and deservedness alone, but that simply isn't always the case.

With that said -- here's a few gems we've been shining up in the imaginary office these days, in hopes that they've already caught your eye:

Lovesick Empire / The Grind EP

Holy heaven in a download, Batman. To say that this brand-stinkin'-new release from local notables Alicia Amiri and Jason Lajeunesse is in heavy rotation would just about be the understatement of the year -- about thirty seconds in on our first listen, something told us we were into something good. Lovesick Empire manages to give a nod to their roots while maintaining a sound that's completely their own -- we can hear hat-tips to true grunge and "He War"-esque Cat Power, layered with a good helping of black eyeliner and a missle-lock stare. You can almost see the movie scene playing out in a deafeningly loud bar during "Something in my Blood," hear the radio hit two tracks later, and realize you've got the perfect addition to your next mix tape with "Can't Get Right." Big, filthy guitars will keep the post-punks happy; and just enough forlorn-ness in the lyrics will draw the indie rockers in.

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at The Tractor Tavern

A cold, blustery, torrentially wet Wednesday night proved to be an ideal backdrop for a cozy night at the Tractor Tavern. The warmth in the air created by the large crowd, the dim, intimate lighting, and the soothing, sometimes haunting sounds of Clem Snide came together to smear a dreamy, Vaseline-over-camera lens haze on an evening of truly magnificent music.

Despite touring on the very newly released Meat of Life, the focus of the night's performances was not specific to that album. They spanned a wide range of tracks from the beginning of their career to current, and the selections seemed to be left to the whim of lead singer Eef Barzalay. Many requests were shouted from the crowd, to which he coyly purred, "I am in a certain zone. I can't be jostled out of it."

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Tonight is the Clem Snide show at the Tractor. If Imaginary Victoria didn't convince you of the Eef Barzelay magic yesterday, perhaps this stunning photo taken by Laura Musselman at last year's Tractor show will?

If Clem Snide isn't your thing right now, here's the full range of options on the imaginary calendar for tonight:

• Cartel Invasion/Flatline/Certified Cartel/Feezable The Germ, Rendezvous
• Clem Snide/The Heligoats/Cady Wire, Tractor !
• Hypocrisy/Scar Symmetry/Hate/Blackguard/Swashbuckle/Irony, El Corazon*
• Portal/Aldebaran/Mitochondrion/Scorched Earth/In Memorium, Funhouse
• Evelyn Evelyn {Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley}, Showbox !
• Big Spider's Back/Boomsnake/Thousands, Sunset
• Whalebones/Hard Drugs/Low Hums, Comet !
• Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, Triple Door*
• The Jesus Rehab/Julia Massey & The FFD/Audioart, Nectar
• Soulive/Staxx Brothers, Neumo's
• Guns For Radios/Astrovan/Hot Sue, High Dive

If you know and love Clem Snide the way we do, you've had this Wednesday's show at the Tractor carved out with a heart-shape on your calendar for at least a month now. He's coming through town to sweeten the stage of one our favorite imaginary venues, and we're just beside ourselves at the mere thought of it!

But if you haven't been formally introduced, and our sheer love and compelling adjective of all things Eef Barzelay isn't enough to convince you, may we suggest you pull up a chair for a moment and dig on this two-part in-store performance Clem did back in 2003 -- courtesy of the one and only Laura Musselman. (If you squint, you might be able to see her sitting somewhere in the front row on one of the clips.)

Although the tour is in support of the most excellent new release, The Meat of Life,, this almost-forever-ago set still lends itself to giving new fans a great snapshot of everything that's perfect about Clem Snide. A few quick warnings: One, the videos are impossibly lo-fi, but the sound shifts to pure magic after the first song on Part I. (Promise.) Two, you'll probably want to make sure you have some plastic ready, for when you go running off to get tickets for the show the minute you're finished. It's not sold out yet, but we're expecting it will be by showtime tomorrow.

Enjoy!

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