Come on down to Chop Suey tonight and help us celebrate the last event of our tenth year anniversary! 2012 has been a very good year, so let's get together and see her out right: with a bunch of great bands and a ride on Santa Roderick's lap. We'll have the lovely and talented John E. Hollingsworth on hand to take your photo!

Seriously, you guys. This could be you:

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I've loved Pablo Trucker just about as long as I've been in Seattle. Literally.

Picture it: Capitol Hill, 2008. It's summertime. I've got a habit of hiding out at the back bar in Victrola during the morning, often before I head in to work at my temp agency gig. Andrew Rudd, drummer and vocalist for the band, is my faithful barista, always taking a moment to chat with me while he crafted my morning brew. One day, our conversation turns to an intriguing red flyer on the front of the espresso machine. Pablo Trucker, it claims, playing one night of a Jack Wilson and the Wife Stealers residency at The Sunset. "You should come," Andrew says to me, over the whirr of the grinders. Having never heard of the band, knowing nothing of the sound, I tell him I'll be there with bells on.

And such was my introduction to Pablo Trucker. I made my way down to Ballard that fateful Monday night, rife with apology since it was getting late, and I wasn't sure if I'd make it through the whole show. Well, I wound up fighting those dayjob schoolnight blues, staying on for the set, and the mighty Pablo Trucker melted my face off with awesome. Never in my life had I seen and heard so much coming out of two people -- here's a clip from my first ever imaginary writeup:

I feel like I should have worn more layers, or prepared somehow otherwise, for what wound up transpiring. One guitar. One drumkit. Two voices, red spotlights, and enough ache to last all of us well into next year sometime. Beyond that, I don't even have any words for it, except go buy the album the minute it comes out, and go see them live next time you have the chance. Seriously. They're my new favorite everything. 

Fast forwarding to this past fall: when I checked in with Andrew to see if he and Brian Wagner were up for playing our holiday show, I knew it was a shot in the dark. You see, the Pablo Trucker has been a bit dormant as of late -- Kory surfaced in Pickwick, Andrew and Brian haven't done m/any shows out -- a few of us had begun to wonder if Pablo Trucker was no more. Friends would tweet about how incredible a reunion would be, but no plans were laid out for a show anytime soon. And then, Andrew responded to my email with an enthusiastic "Count us in!"

Well, we've been party plannign ever since, and now that we're a day out from our Imaginary Holiday Spectacular {do you have your tickets yet??}, we found a few minutes in the happy holiday mayhem this week to catch up with Andrew about life since then, what's going on with the band these days, and more.

TIG: So, what have you and Brian been up to? We haven't heard much from the Pablo Trucker camp since that Christmas album you did in 2010.

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It’s probably impossible that you haven’t heard Lesli Wood sing, either from her awesome Ms. Led days, or covering songs for Jenny George’s annual Dancing on the Valentine benefit, or fronting her kick-ass band The Redwood Plan.

It also goes without saying that the imaginary girls LOVE the heck out of Ms. Wood, and are beyond thrilled that she’s agreed to sing at our Imaginary Holiday Spectacular this Friday! (that’s the 21^st, people! SO CLOSE!) Every time she takes the stage, I’m personally blown away by her powerhouse vocals and amazing presence. Hell, sometimes when I see her out and about in Seattle I’m too awe-struck to say “Hi” because I’m rendered unable by my starstruck fandom.

I can’t imagine anyone NOT loving Lesli Wood, and I’m so looking forward to seeing her play on Friday. You’re coming too, right?

Head on over to the StrangerTickets site to grab some $10 tix before they sell out, because we really really really really want you to be there to celebrate the holidays with us!

Photo by Victoria VanBruinisse. 

Happy Friday! You know what that means, right? Well, besides the end of the work week, of course, it means that a mere seven days from now, we'll be gearing up for the Imaginary Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey, full of friends and good cheer. On Monday we told you a little bit more about show openers Brite Lines and our pal Chris Otepka, and today we'd like to get into our middle-set stars, Cristina Bautista and Leif Anders.

We've loved Cristina B. oh-so-muchly for as long as we can remember, from her time in Connecticut Four to her days as a member of Visqueen {photo above from Visqueen's Last Show at the Neptune, RIP} to her much-loved recent excursions as a solo artist. If you only know Cristina in one of her previous incarnations, take a trip on over to her website to get a sample of her sound. It's sweetly upbeat without sounding saccharine, clean and gritty alt.pop without the pomp and circumstance, all while remaining decidedly Pacific Northwest: Gold Parts, specifically, is a soundtrack for the days when you need to kick ass (or be kicked in the ass) -- and fills those train-out-the-window movie-scene grey-day quotas we need filled around here in the wintertime too. [Editor's note: Am I the only one who thinks "Long Divisions" should be synced up with some kind of tormented day-starting modern-day Angela Chase scene in whatever the 2012 My So-Called Life equivalent is? I can't be!] 

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Happy Monday, imaginary friends! We're here bright and early this morning to start the week off right: there's just two weeks until our annual Holiday Spectacular {taking place on Friday, December 21st at Chop Suey}, and that gives us just enough time to get you as excited about the bands taking the stage as we are. Off we go!

First up, a familiar face: Chris Otepka of The Heligoats. If you think you recognize Chris from last year's party, you're right -- we adore him so much, we had to have him come and play for us again this year! We've waxed on and on about all the things we love about Chris, from his quirky songwriting perspective to his charming, bard-like delivery. If you know his sound, you know why we're so excited to have him back for this year's lineup -- and if you don't, check out some of his internet on his Facebook page, and then come to the show early and catch some of his beautiful deliriousness for yourself. Chris will be taking the stage second, after our show openers Brite Lines. 

{Superfans, take note: The Heligoats have a new album in the works! It will be available in February, so keep your eyes here for release details and supporting tour dates.} 

Brite Lines is fronted by our pal Zach Gore, and even in the band's simplicity, they span such a wide array of adjective from song to song (as evidenced on this year's EP Make Shift) that they're hard to sum up in a few short sentences. The music is earnest, rooted in New America; part haunted songwriter; broken-hearted and hopeful, with an all-encompassing catchy post-indie rock folk vibe. Somewhere between the pain of breaking up with your last girlfriend and the day that the sun finally shines through the clouds on your face lies your allegiance to this band. 

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Yep, you guessed it -- with the passing of Thanksgiving, the holiday season is now officially in full swing, and with that, we're super excited this morning to announce the 2012 lineup for the Imaginary Holiday Spectacular!

Get your calendars out and mark the date: this year's show will be taking place on Friday, December 21st, and we'll be returning back to the Hill {Chop Suey, to be specific} for a 21-and-up night of music, good vibes, and Santa-lap hilarity. This year's theme is Open Mic Night, and will be featuring some stripped-down sets from Pablo Trucker, Lesli Wood (of The Redwood Plan), Cristina Bautista, Leif Anders (of The Orca Team), Chris Otepka (of The Heligoats), and Brite Lines. Of course, we've got the inimitable John Roderick playing Indie Rock Santa for the evening, with John E. Hollingsworth bringing his photo-tastic skills to capture your special holiday moment. Hooray!

Tickets are on sale now, and if we do say so ourselves, ten dollars (!) is a mighty fair price to pay for an evening of all this fun! But if you still need convincing, stay tuned: we'll be posting features in the upcoming weeks about all the artists taking part in this year's show. And PS, be sure to head on over to the Facebook page for the event to stay in the loop.

Happy almost-holidays!

{Photo of John Roderick and Eric Elbogen from 2011's Imaginary Holiday Spectacular by John Hollingsworth.}

Man, are we lucky! Our friend Nate Watters piled on to the already-bursting set of photos from our Rockstar New Wave Karaoke Party {from the de-lovely Laura Musselman}, giving us oodles more to ogle at. Not only did he contribute to a set of shots over at the City Arts Blog, he also tossed a few pics in our flickr pool -- so go poke around and have a peek at all the awesome! More views of Sean Nelson, Jenny Jiminez, Cristina Bautista, Cody Hurd, Lesli Wood, and so many of our friends and fellow fans are just waiting for your eyeballs. Here's a taste:

Jenny Jiminez and Anna Banana slaying the stage!

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We can't thank you enough for helping us celebrate our 10th Anniversary in Rockstar New Wave Karaoke style last Friday {June 1, 2012} at Chop Suey!!! The evening was so much fun and having you all there really made it all super special.  There were so many amazing moments, some that we can't even believe actually happened!  If we weren't already in love with every one of the performers that took the stage, we are certainly over the moon with them now.

There were so many amazing performances it's impossible to list all the amazing moments here... but here are just a couple off the top of our heads:

Ben Hooker re-writing Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" to "Three Imaginary Girls On-Line."  We still don't know how he did it and really wish it was caught "on film." We are still blushing from the honor of having a Ben Hooker-penned song about us!

Patrick from Your Favorite Book singing "99 Luft Balloons" IN GERMAN!  We're not sure if you noticed, but the words on the karaoke monitor were in English, which means Patrick actually memorized the German version. From seeing YFB shows in the past, we knew he was going to go all the way.  But, blow up red balloons and fill the crowd with them as he broke out into song? While singing in German?

Jenny Jimenez capturing all that is "She Bop" by Cyndi Lauper. The face paint, the outfit, the dance moves, AND a spot on rendition of this classic Cyndi tune.  It was a big undertaking and Jenny nailed it!

Sean Nelson singing "Peace, Love, and Understanding."  Sean not only covered the Elvis Costello song beautifully, he got so into the moment that he left the stage with a hole ripped in the knee of his pants and a bloody knee! We admire his new wave devotion!

Jenny and Chris of Tullycraft's version of "Come On Eileen."  The overalls, the dance moves pulled directly from a Dexy's Midnight Runners video and the over-the-top vocals. Thank goodness it was captured on video (posted below)!

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We've loved the Young Evils something fierce since those first strains of Enchanted Chapel made their way onto our iPods and into our headphones back in 2010. Since then, the music they make has proven the perfect soundtrack for those beautiful, sunny Seattle days, the mornings covered with grey when we need a little pick-me-up, and everything in-between. We've emphatically featured the YEs on our best-of-2010 playlists, faithfully recommended show after show, leapt into the air with glee when they agreed to come on the bill for our oh-ten holiday party, shimmied stage left when they played a killer set at the 2011 Sasquatch! Music Festival... the list goes on and on.

So, you can imagine how beside ourselves with happy we were when Cody Hurd agreed to come and spend some time at our 10th Anniversary Rockstar Karaoke New Wave Bash this Friday! He'll be taking the stage at Chop Suey with the likes of Sean Nelson, Lesli Wood, Alicia Amiri, Cristina Bautista, and more all-stars than you can shake a stick at. As is the case with the rest of our performers, there's no divulging which song he's going to serenade us with -- but we can tell you that it's going to be completely spectacular and that you won't want to miss it! A duo with Cristina Bautista, perhaps? Or with bandmate and Mal de Mer member Michael Lee? The possibilities are endless!

Tickets are only ten dollars {whoa!} and are going fast, so pick up a few here before the night sells out. Don't forget, the show is 21+ and doors open at 8:30pm!

{Photo of Cody Hurd at Sasquatch! 2011 by Victoria VanBruinisse.}

Shane Tutmarc might have picked up and moved to Nashville a few years back, but in our hearts, he's always going to be a fixture in the Seattle music community.  It's safe to say that Shane has written hundreds of songs under the monikers of Dolour, Shane Tutmarc and the Traveling Mercenaries, or simply, Shane Tutmarc. The guy can hold a spotlight and captivate an audience with a melodic chorus, a hook and a slight twang.  You could say he's our very own Rhett Miller.  

We can't believe our luck that Shane is going to be in town for a series of shows the week of our big 10th Anniversary Rockstar New Wave Karaoke Bash at Chop Suey{tix} this Friday, June 1st!  It's total imaginary kismet if I do say so myself.

We know the new wave karaoke song he's going to do is going to amazing (it's such a great pick too!) and it surely wont be enough Shane for us all. You can also catch him on Saturday night {June 2nd} at the Columbia City Theater when he takes the stage for the Noise for the Needy benefit, with Side Saddle, The Outlaws (a Waylon Jennings tribute band) and Country Lips.

Speaking of an extra dose of Shane Tutmarc, Shane was kind enough to donate an exclusive song to the Imaginary Zine mix cd!  The Imaginary Zine is a printed old school zine recounting our first 10 years in stories and recounted memories from our imaginary friends. As I eluded to, it comes with a cd chock full of rare, live, or exclusive songs by some of our favorite local artists, including The Long Winters, BOAT, Exohxo, The Femurs, Tullycraft and MORE!  It's limited to a hand-numbered print run of only 333, so you should make plans to pick up your copy at the show.

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