! = recommended
* = all-ages
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"Watching The Globes at the Showbox. Holy crow and OMG."
Chris Walla's Twitter post during The Globes' set was just a sign of things to come. Not only was the Death Cab for Cutie guitarist in attendance to show support for three of his favorite (local) bands, but he later joined Telekinesis on stage as their second guitarist. In a way, it was a bittersweet set as frontman Michael Benjamin Lerner announced that it was David and Jonie Broecker's last show with the band.
Coming off their electric Bumbershoot performance back in September, The Lonely Forest took the stage just before 11 PM to a nearly sold out crowd, some of which had been waiting in line outside since 5. It was amazing to see such a huge turnout, especially on Black Friday where everyone was either still in a food coma or exhausted from a full day of shopping. This was the first time that any of the bands had played at The Showbox and it certainly will not be their last. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

TIG staffers are a lot like you -- coming up with our list of faves for the year is a fun and gripping process. After comparing/contrasting/debating our individual favorites, we figured the sum of our imaginary parts would make for an interesting list.
While ChrisB and Keenan, among other things, brought in the power-pop elements, Chris Estey stood by the smartie subtle elements of this year's Northwest offerings. Imaginary liz, as usual, loved the lo-fi and indie-pop songs, while imaginary dana spent much of the year obessed with Throw the the Statue and of course, the Fleet Foxes. And nearly all of us agreed that the Saturday Knights album was a force to be reckoned with. Here's our our staff votes tallied up...
As of today, we're officially in the second half of 2008. Welcome! To gear you up for another fabulous six months of local Northwest releases, we here at imaginary headquarters have brainstormed an imaginary mix for all of you, containing some of our favorite songs by Northwest artists released this year to date thus far.
No promises that each of these will make our Best of 2008 Reader's Poll final list, but at least this way you have the next six months to follow-up and listen to these releases before you have to decide. To paraphrase imaginary ChrisB, we feel like this list is pretty unfuckwithable. But that doesn't mean that we didn't inadvertently overlook something great. If you have additions for our list, please chime in with your comments below.
Latest comment by: Mike: "Including mbison on your half-year list will turn out to be a insightful and an early prediction for this bands' success. Caught them this weekend at the Hi-Dive, and got their EP. Great stuff- they're here to stay."
For the keyword curious, here's the full top 50 ways folks found TIG in Google last month.
Latest comment by: Joseph Riippi: "I'm gonna have to go ahead and take credit for the "fuck photo" link. Without Music Fuck It"
The DCFC guys we'll adoringly refer to by their first names have gathered a fine lot of news as of late. Here's the skinny in boardroom agenda format.
Latest comment by: Tim Hanken: "This years Coachella doesn't stack up to previous years and for $100 a day you should get more. Last year they had LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Hot Chip, New Porno's, Kings of Leon, Justice and Ghostface and that was just on Saturday. I'm guessing the All Points ...
Anyone else excited about the coming release of Chris Walla's infamously confiscated-at-the-border new record, Field Manual?
Latest comment by: imaginary liz: "And did anyone else see that there's bonus tracks if you order the album from Barsuk? "Order by February 4th and get 3 non-album MP3 bonus tracks.""
Great news about the forthcoming record... but yikes, this is scary stuff! Isn't there a petition somewhere we should all be signing?
Latest comment by: Danniel: "Larry Craig porn..."
Recent comments
Imaginary Mixtape: Shuffle Surprise!
Imaginary exclusive! More Than Shapes, starring John Roderick of the Long Winters
Imaginary Mixtape: Shuffle Surprise!
For the (whole) love of Wilco
For the (whole) love of Wilco
The Seattle sound. Does it exist?
Imaginary exclusive! More Than Shapes, starring John Roderick of the Long Winters
For the (whole) love of Wilco
Imaginary exclusive! More Than Shapes, starring John Roderick of the Long Winters
Imaginary exclusive! More Than Shapes, starring John Roderick of the Long Winters