Got plans Thursday night? No? Good! Get yourself over to Solo in Lower Queen Anne, because there's a Bumbershoot prefunk party going on -- and we're all invited.

On August 25th (this Thursday) from 5-8p, a handful of local photographers (along with the fine folks over at One Reel) will be combining forces to present a happy hour of festival-sized proportions.  We will bask in the glory of the amazing work of James Bailey, Laura Musselman, Christopher Nelson, Jim Bennett, Erin Lodi, Nate Watters, and our very own Victoria VanBruinisse while snacking on tasty food and drink specials as a handcrafted playlist plays on the Solo soundsystem.

What a way to kick off the weekend (because we all know that weekend's *actually* start on Thursday night): happy hour specials and getting our Bumbershoot frenzy on!  After we peruse the art on the walls, let's chat about our Bumbershoot schedules and figure out a strategy to fit in all the must-sees.

Admission is free and the show will be hanging for a few weeks in case you can't join us for the fab opening night festivities.

Hope to see you there!

{Free / 21+ / 5-8p. More information on the Facebook event page here. Photo of Mark Pickerel and the Tripwires from Bumbershoot 2010 by Victoria VanBruinisse.}

Holy hair whip, Batman!

I spied this photo by Amelia Gydé in our Sparkly Indie-Pop Flickr Stream and had to share it with you guys. Check out the rest of her set and photos from this weekend's shows (including some awesome shots by our own Imaginary Victoria from The Head and the Heart show!) and escape the rest of your Monday.

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We are counting down to the moment that we get to {gently} plop our imaginary arses on the knee of Santa Vanderslice for a pretty photo taken by photographer extraordinaire Laura Musselman at the Imaginary Holiday Office Party next week {December 16, 2010}.

But we know that things haven't always been so indie-rock for all of us... and we want proof! Please share your favorite / best / worst / funniest / cutest photo of you with Santa by posting it in the comments section of the Facebook invite for the Imaginary Holiday Office Party.

We'll reward the photo with the most 'LIKE's by 9a December 13th with a pair of tickets to the Imaginary Holiday Office Party {Thursday, December 16 at the Columbia City Theater}.

We can't wait to see what Santa looked like when he has his photo taken with you!

{I know it doesn't look like I wearing a skirt in the above photo. Short skirts were in that year!}

at Neumos

 

It's hard to believe it's not the weekend yet - if you happened to be at Neumos Tuesday night, there was definitely some Friday-night style action going on!

The Octopus Project played a mesmerizing set, wowing the audience with their ecclectic mixture of home-engineered instruments, whimsical animated stage props, and intricately layered music. The Octopus Project doesn't just make noise, they smash decibels, photons and surrealism together to create an all-encompassing atmosphere of awesome.

Check out some more amazing photos of The Octopus Project and Starfucker after the jump.

 

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As if we needed another reason to love The Head and the Heart and Seattle and KEXP {who put together the free show last week}, imaginary photographer Victoria VanBruinisse captured all three in one of the most beautiful dreamy shots ever.

Now that we've kinda rested up from the crazy past few days, tell us all about your faves, notsofaves, surprises, and happiest moments of the weekend!

You can peruse all the other amazing photos from this weekend in the Imaginary Flickr Photo Pool {and add yours}!

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Skeletons with Flesh on Them {Photo: Steve Louie}

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Crocodile last Saturday night for the big birthday show with Aqueduct, Math & Physics Club, and Skeletons with Flesh on Them. It was wonderful to spend the special evening with you... even if none of us could break out the candy in the #8 pinanta {thanks to Skeletons with Flesh on Them for supplying the pinata!}.  It was such a joyous time, it made us wish that we could celebrate a birthday more than once a year. Good thing time flies!

Double thanks go to our photographers Steve Louie and Lori Paulson for capturing the evening in photos.

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at Showbox at the Market

The all ages show kicked off with with boisterous applause and exclamations of "I love you Gareth!" and " I Love You Harriet!" as the eight-person band gathered on stage. Within the first few bars of their set, the comfortably filled floor was insanely shaking with Campesinos fans singing along to every word and joyfully bouncing with the ebb and flow dancing as the band moved through the first part of their set with numbers like "Romance is Boring" and "A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State or, Letters from Me to Charlotte".

About halfway through the set, lead-singer / glock-maestro Gareth explained a bit about the Seattle / LC! mutual love affair and took a moment to profusely (and deservedly) thank the lovely and talented John Goodmanson and Eric Corson for all their help in and out of the studio. The imaginary highlight was when he followed with a shout out of appreciation to The Stranger, KEXP, and Three Imaginary Girls--a moment from which we are still blushing.

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I think everyone's ears might still ringing from Saturday's The Big Pink and A Place To Bury Strangers show at Neumo's... in the best way possible. I love how jandrew33 captured the mesmerizing A Place To Bury Strangers set with this shot. Big thanks to him for adding to the TIG Flickr Photo Pool.

Have you recovered from the show and ready to head out this week? There are a bunch of options... my favorite being tonight's White Stripes film showing (FREE!!!) at the Crocodile. Other options over the next couple days include:

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Only a few more hours and the weekend will officially be upon us (that is, unless you started it last night... is so, my hat is off to you!).

There are so many good shows to thrust us to and fro. Tonight, the Fruit Bats will be at the Vera Project with Sonny Smith and Tu Fawning while another TIG recommended show, Drew Grow and the Pasters Wives will be at the Comet.  And then there's Steve Earle at the Moore (zow!).  Here's the full list of tonight's choices:

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at The Vera Project

Nana Grizol played The Vera Project on Tuesday, Jan. 19th along with Max Levine Ensemble, iji and A Million Years Ago. If you didn't already know about this show... see here, here, here, here, and here.

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