The fifth anniversary of NYC Popfest kicked off with a sold-out show at the Cake Shop with headliners the Pains of Being Pure at
Heart, who were announced to the opening night bill only a week before the start of the festival. (Talk about a pleasant surprise!) Pet Milk {hailing from Philadelphia} started the night in strong fashion, belting out amiable noisey-garage pop tracks. The impending rumour that May 21st would be the end of the world didn’t stop Pet Milk from playing an upbeat catchy pop number called “Christian Solicitors,” which managed to making us feel like it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were one of the last bands we ever saw.

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at The Crocodile

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart played a sold-out show to promote new album Belong at The Crocodile last Friday, with many of the Imaginary crowd eagerly in attendance.  Offering a welcome retreat from the Sakura-Con crowds, the show also heralded in the spring concert season that I have long been anticipating.

This was not a concert to thrash about to, and at times it seemed more fitting to be cross-legged under a willow tree with a hot cuppa (Do POBPAH sell thermoses or teasets?  I sense a niche in the merch stand!) than shuffling to-and-fro amid the humid belly of The Crocodile.  The music of POBPAH is cardigan-clad, awkward, and unapologetically poppy - but who cares?  This love is fucking right.

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It's been a tough past couple days as I whittle down the countdown clock to Friday night and the big Pains of Being Pure at Heart show at The Crocodile!

The tick tock on the clock started months ago when I first heard whispers from the blazingly pretty new album, Belong {listen to a full stream here}, and began fantasizing about how they are going to tear the stage up {in the nicest way possible} with fuzzy pop the next time they visit town {read Chris Estey's spot on imaginary review}.

An added bonus is that Seattle twee-phenom Seapony will be opening up. Their recent signing to Hardly Art Records only confirms my suspicion that they are poised to take over the indie-pop scene.

The show has recently sold-out {score one point for all the shy guys in the room!}, so I'm extra proud of myself for procuring tickets early.

Are you headed to the show too? What songs do you want them to include in the set?

Have other plans/suggestions for this weekend? Details please!

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For some reason as stressful as it is sometimes to do, I found myself compiling a bunch of year end and decade end lists over the holiday weekend. So many so, I decided to spread out all my lists throughout the week. Today we'll start with the meat of the list -- my favorite releases of 2009.

As long as I've been making lists, it's always been apparent that I'm partial to Pacific Northwest bands... and this year it's especially so. I'm sure I've forgotten something that I love beyond belief.. but here is the list as of *right now*. What are your favorite local and non-local releases of 2009?

 

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at Neumo's

I love living in Seattle and getting to see my favorite New York City bands come through town on tour together. So I was a little disappointed when I found out that Cymbals Eat Guitars had food poisoning on the night of the Seattle show during their tour with Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Of course, POBPAH are enough to draw me out of my apartment, but without Cymbals, the show lacked energy between openers The Depreciation Guild and headliners POBPA.

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Considering the window of weather for outdoor antics is pitifully small in Seattle, it seems we have learned to really pack the few months of sunshine with good times, great oldies and a bunch of great new bands as well. 12 years ago Capitol Hill Block Party began and next week you can take part in its revelry. With a particularly punk-rock lineup, what a good time it will be! With three stages and over 50 bands between July 24th and 25th, not to mention satellite parties to attend, you ‘d really have to strive to not have fun at Block Party. This year the headliners on the main stage are The Jesus Lizard on the main stage Friday night and Sonic Youth on Saturday.

Tickets are still available (but I can't imagine it wont sell out soon - so go get yours soon). And if you're headed there, note that the main entrance has moved to 12th and Pike which should make for a better traffic flow.

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Mark the holiday of St. Valentine with some of the finest fresh and new indie-pop in the blogosphere!

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The song on the limited edition vinyl is entitled "Kurt Cobain's Cardigan" and not only does it conjure up visions of that one Sassy magazine cover, it rules... AND it's on the PoBPaH's MySpace. Go listen!

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We imaginary girls look for any opportunity to thrust free indie-pop downloads your way, celebrate indie-pop music festivals, and talk about the bands Brown Recluse Sings and Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

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Planning on being on the East Coast in early November or looking for a reason to pack your bags and head there? The schedule for the New England Popfest has been announced and it's four-packed bills of bands from up and down the East Coast sprinkled with a couple British, Swedish and Nordic cuties.

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