The best thing about the San Francisco PopFest, besides the fabulous line-up gathered in one city over five consecutive days for the massive delight of p-fest attendees, is fact that all of those PopFest bands sometimes spread their west coast wings and, in the most wonderful of cases, travel north to visit us in Seattle.

On Friday, June 3 at the Rendezvous we have just such a migration from SF as two Seattle (and imaginary favorite) bands share a bill with two indie-popolicious artists from far away to make my one-night-mini-popfest dreams come true.

Opening the night is Monnone Alone, a band consisting of the most charming Lucksmiths' bassist of all time, Mark Monnone {and, sometimes, a couple very talented friends}. There has been a hole in our heart since the Lucksmiths called it quits (or how we like to remember it, put a hiccup in our happiness by hitting the 'pause' button), and here comes Monnone Alone to the rescue.

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at Rendezvous

{Photos by Steve Louie}

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Rendezvous on Saturday, October 29, 2010 to welcome Allo Darlin' to Seattle on their first visit to our fine city {full disclosure: the Three Imaginary Girls presented the show}. The sold-out show was filled with joy, even before the music began. With such an intimate space, everyone there knew that this was an important night. The unmatched mix of indie-pop gathered was bulletproof and we knew we were in store for a night we would all recount over many a summer campfire to come.

The evening started off with sweetheart-folksters The Special Places {2/5 of Seattle's Tullycraft}. It was Jenny Mears's first show donning an accordion, an instrument she only started learning four days before. She and her co-conspirator, Corianton Hale, weaved their way through a short 20-minute set hitting a {Tullycraft} cover song as well as their catalog of songs about hating and loving each other.

I had been waiting for months for the moment Allo Darlin' would crack open their catalog of songs and perform them steps away from me. With all the anticipation, it's hard to believe they actually surpassed my expectations. They effortlessly converted their silky, flawless pop songs about Woody Allen and polaroids into a rambunctious, jaw-dropping hootenanny that filled the room with euphoric jubilation.

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It's no secret that 2010 is the year of Allo Darlin'.  Since the moment I, {like all my fellow indie-pop heartsters in town} heard the first sweet notes of the Allo Darlin' debut full-length self titled album, I've wished on each falling star that they'd some day they'd bring their twee-liciousness to Seattle.

Well Seattle, tonight is the night! Three Imaginary Girls is honored to present tonight's sold out show at the Rendezvous with guests Math and Physics Club and The Special Places rounding out the dreamy bill.

Please tell me you got your ticket already and you'll be joining us for this fine display of dazzling indie-pop. The doors will open at or around 10p (maybe 10.10p?) and the music starts very soon thereafter.

Tonight is also our opportunity to wish Ethan {of Math and Physics Club} happy travels as he leaves to go out on tour with imaginary favorite Eux Autres. Our superstar bass playin' guy is going to tour and and record with them for the next few months at least. His first show with Eux Autres is 11/11 in Seattle, then they head south and have a few shows scheduled with Wild Flag!

Huge thanks to Seattle Show Posters for the Smith-a-licious poster art!

As I've professed already, Allo Darlin' have released my favorite record of 2010 {and, perhaps my favorite love song of the decade}. So, it's no surprise that when TIG got wind that they were thinking of visiting our fine city  for the first time from the UK, we crossed all our fingers until the date was set and we could put together our dreamiest line up of sweetheart indiepop.

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(Photo by Laura Musselman)

April is trending to be one of the best months ever here at Imaginary Headquarters. Among the reasons we're kinda losing our stuff over here:

APRIL 10 and 17: Early Math & Physics Club shows at the High Dive (6p-8p)
Math and Physics Club will play a couple low key shows at the High Dive on Saturday, April 10 and Saturday, April 17 to test drive some new songs for their upcoming trip to the San Francisco Popfest their album release show at the Crocodile on June 12. Both High Dive shows are going to be early (6p-8p) and have the sweetest of openers: Eux Autres (on April 10) and The Special Places (on April 17).

APRIL 16-18: EMP Pop Conference
I always look forward to EMP's annual Pop Conference because it allows me to sit only feet away from my favorite, most inspiring pop (and non-pop) writers and listen to them casually espouse (and if all goes well, rant) on all things music and popular culture, which confirms my obsession's tangible significance. This year the biggest must see on my whole Pop Conference schedule is Tim Quirk and his look at "The Quiet Revolution: From the Walkman to the iPod, How Portability and Infinite Storage Have Changed the Way We Listen, and What We Listen To" on Friday at 10.45am. Tim is one of my all time favorite wordsmiths, music industry honchos (at Rhapsody), and band frontman (Too Much Joy) ever. When I am not sitting front row at his Pop Conference sessions, I'm hanging on his every tweet. Some studies suggest that I can link Tim/TMJ to who/where I am today.

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March Madness has morphed into Awesome April and it's kicking into high gear with a pair of Math and Physics Club shows this month.

The updated four-piece (now with new drummer and sans-strings), will play a couple low key shows at the High Dive on April 10 (this Saturday) and April 17 to test drive some new songs for their upcoming trip to the San Francisco Popfest (over Memorial Day weekend) and their highly anticipated album release show at the Crocodile on June 12. Both High Dive shows are going to be early (6p-8p) and have the sweetest of openers: Eux Autres (on April 10) and The Special Places (on April 17).

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Tonight is the night!

We would be so honored to have you join us at the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular tonight {December 23} at Chop Suey!

There's a lot of exciting stuff going on, including but not limited to:

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It's hard to believe, but the Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey on December 23rd is only one week away!

Today we are giddy to unveil the posters for the show! The Spectacular is *so* spectacular it has two color combos. The poster was designed by our friends at Admiration Society and lovingly screen-printed by Seattle Show Posters - who will make limited edition huge prints of the gray version of the poster (above) available for purchase at the show.

But, if you're more in the winning mood than the buying mood, everyone who comes through the door will be given a raffle ticket (extra tickets will be available for purchase with proceeds going to charity) with a chance to win a slew of amazing prizes donated by our generous sponsors:

 

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{photo: John E. Hollingsworth}

Day 2 of the countdown to the big huge wonderful Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular at Chop Suey on December 23rd {an evening full of big huge wonderful fun including, but not limited to Christmas Belles, free mega-raffle ticket goodness, MC David Schmader!}.

The band that is going to kick off the evening is the Special Places, a Seattle duo who recently started to take Seattle by storm with opening slots at BOAT's album release show and Aussie Darren Hanlon's recent visit. You might know them as 2/5 of imaginary favs Tullycraft, so you can imagine we jumped at the opportunity to sit down with them for their first ever interview as the Special Places. Jenny and Corianton spilled some deets on how they started out and whether or not they are secret (or not so secret) lovers. Now we're doubly looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us at the Spectacular.

 

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The month of December sometimes gets a bad rap. For most, it's chock full of stress, mayhem and not-so-merry necessities. But don't go all glum on us, we've got a remedy: The Imaginary Winter Holiday Spectacular 2009!

Join us as we mark our fifth year spending the winter holidays imaginarily on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at Chop Suey. The night will be filled with performances by some of our favorite Seattle bands of 2009 and enough festive cheer to even make Rudolph forget about his holiday duties. The lineup will include the music stylings of:

The Redwood Plan
Wallpaper
the Nightgowns
Skeletons with Flesh on Them
The Special Places

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