Chances are you might not recognize Mayer Hawthorne but you probably already know his music. His song "Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’" was featured on an episode of Ugly Betty, and Kanye even used a Hawthorne track in his short film We Were Once a Fairytale. His soulful throwback sound, reminiscent of Motown’s hit makers, has made him a cross-genre favorite and he’s played with everyone from Chromeo to Booker T. Jones.  And he’s about to sing Seattleites right out of their skinny jeans, appearing at the Neptune on Wednesday October 24 with his band The County. This is baby making music for hipsters.

His last album, How Do You Do featured the single "The Walk" and showcased what Hawthorne does so damn well: tongue-in-cheek humor wrapped in a Smokey Robinson-style melody.  And the video ain’t bad either -- a Mr. and Mrs. Smith ass kicking, assassins-getting-even montage. His ladykiller persona is helped along on the seductive "No Strings", a guaranteed panty dropper for even the Ira Glass faithful.

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My love affair with The Cult began with, appropriately, the single “Love”, from their 1985 release of the same name. From there, I snapped up all the imports I could find, including a copy of the Death Cult 1988 re-release, picture CDs with remixes, a tape of Electric scored from the Lynwood Fred Myer that I eventually wore out, and spent many hours dancing to "She Sells Sanctuary" at The Underground.

After 5 concerts spent swooning over Ian's voice and wishing that Billy Duffy was my boyfriend, and stomping around in my boots wearing jean shorts with ripped up black tights and Cult concert tees, my fascination admittedly waned after 1991’s Ceremony failed to wow me like their previous albums, and I am barely familiar with the songs on The Cult and Born Into This.

But the release of their new album, Choice of Weapon, has prompted a fresh tour, and because I know someone (Hi, Jenny George!) who is as excited as I am about The Cult, I HAVE TO GO to the show at The Neptune next Tuesday night (8/21). And you should too.

{The Cult with Murder of Crows | Neptune Theatre | Tuesday, 8/21 | Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm | Tix $38.50 online, before fees | All Ages, bar with valid ID}

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Who wouldn't want to listen to some amazing girl powered music AND give big to charity at the same time? That's why we love the bejeezus out of the collaboration between KEXP, STG, and Starbucks that is making the magic known as the Little Big Show happen. A few times a year they put on their explorer caps, search out some great bands, bring them to the Neptune, and then donate all of the ticket sale money to a Seattle nonprofit. And this latest installment on July 28th {this Saturday!} features the dreamy indie punk/pop sounds of the Dum Dum Girls and the soft electro of Craft Spells. And did we mention that all of the money will benefit the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (that sponsors the largest youth film festival in the whole wide flippin' world, based right in our hometown)? Rad!

Are you feeling lucky? Because we have a pair of tickets to giveaway! You betcha, you could be the first to hear Dee Dee and the gals play tracks of their new EP, End of Daze, which drops on September 25. And homegirl can belt it out so you don't want to miss it! Think Joan Jett meets Joey Ramone, crossed with Robert Smith. The Dum Dum Girls are the type of badass band I dreamed of joining when I was thirteen.

So you wanna win those tickets? Just shoot us an email at tig {at} threeimaginarygirls {dot} com with the subject "LittleBigShow3" anytime between now and 2pm on Wednesday, July 25th. We'll choose a winner Wednesday afternoon, and send you an email letting you know that you +1 are on the list for Saturday's show.

Good luck!

{All ages / bar with ID / $15 adv / 8pm doors. Tickets and more info available here.}

It seems like only yesterday that I was standing at Zilker Park in Austin, finally feeling about four percent relief from the heat post-sunset, losing my shit to the sweet, gritty madness that is a We Are Augustines set. Even though they were performing on one of the smaller stages at 2011's Austin City Limits festival, they were one of the most impressive acts of the weekend: whipping the crowd into a frenzy, half-full of die-hard WAA and Pela (R.I.P.) fans, half full of people streaming toward the stage like a moth to a light, murmuring "Who is this?" and digging through their schedules to figure out the name of their new favorite band. We Are Augustine's ability to convey a dirty, shredding, true indie-rock vibe that's interspersed with a melodic, full-volume earnestness gives them a sound that no other band can really replicate, and that vibe-sound is the reason I drop everything I'm doing and catch their sets every chance I get.

If you've never seen them before or are chomping at the bit to see them again, you're in luck: while it is opposite both Radiohead's and Andrew Bird's shows the same evening (hey, that just means there's going to be more room up front for you and your friends!), We Are Augustines will be taking the second slot opening up for Band Of Skulls this coming Monday, April 9th at the Neptune -- and we've got a pair of tickets to give away to the show. Just drop us an email at tig {at} three imaginary girls {dot} com with the subject line "LostToTheLonesome" so that we know it's you. We'll pick a winner at 5pm sharp on Thursday (yep, that's April 5th) and email you to let you know that you and your +1 are on the list for the show, and you'll be set for a killer time on Monday night.

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at The Neptune

As expected, it was an incredible week and weekend full of shows, up to the brim with the sounds of the Magnetic Fields, Sharon Van Etten and The War On Drugs, and most notably, Nada Surf's show at the Neptune Theater. We went into Saturday's set with last month's performance {with Say Hi at the Tractor} fresh on our lips and minds, knowing it was going to be a tough night to beat -- but even with triple the crowd and a significantly more cavernous room, the band still managed to bring a good dose of incredible to the table. Matthew Caws & Co. pulled two hours of hits and B-sides from a wide cross-section of their catalog, gracing our ears with everything from tracks like "Blonde on Blonde" and "The Way You Wear Your Head" to "When I Was Young" and "No Snow" from their latest and greatest the stars are indifferent to astronomy, and proving for the umpteenth time that these indie rockers are a full-frontal force to be reckoned with.

Australia's An Horse opened up the night.

An Horse:

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As if the upcoming week of shows isn't good enough already -- two nights of Magnetic Fields, Mudhoney at the Tractor, and Nada Surf, just to name a few! -- it's all capped off with the best place to be on a Sunday in recent memory, with Sharon Van Etten {and special guests The War On Drugs} at the Neptune Theater. Touring on the heels of her already much-loved latest Jagjaguwar release, Tramp, an album that both 'defies and illuminates the unsteadiness of a life in flux' (not like we weren't already smitten enough with tracks like "Love More" and "One Day" off of 2010's Epic), Van Etten and band will be bringing their particular brand of sad embrace to the stage, and we want to send you and a guest to the show.

Send us an email anytime between now and 10am Friday morning {that's this Friday, the 23rd} to tig {at} three imaginary girls {dot} com with the subject line "MagicChords" so that we know it's you. We'll pick a winner Friday and notify you that you're on the guest list +1 to Sunday's show.

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Remember that time when Nada Surf brought serious amounts of rock to the stage and melted our faces off with Say Hi at the Tractor? Oh, right -- that was just last month. Well, if you're anything like us, the strains from that show have been stuck in your frontal lobe ever since, running side-by-side with the still-in-heavy-rotation the stars are indifferent to astronomy. And whether you saw or missed the show, whether you're listening to the new album  and putting "When I Was Young" on a mix for the first or thirty-fifth time, you (and we, and the rest of Seattle) are in luck: Nada Surf is coming back to town this weekend, after a string of successful shows, South by Southwest performances, and all-around positive response to their latest studio effort.

Tickets are available through STG now for the upcoming show at the Neptune this Saturday, and we strongly recommend picking up a pair (or two) in advance before the show sells out. But if you want to roll the dice on getting in with a +1 for free, you can enter to win a spot on the guest list from us! Just drop an email our way, to tig {at} three imaginary girls {dot} com with the subject line "PicturesInOurPretendWallets" anytime between now and the end of the internet day, say 5pm-ish, on Thursday.

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Huzzah! The Magnetic Fields are coming to Seattle (!!!) and we've got a pair of tickets for you to win! One of the Imaginary Girls' favorite melancholy indie-pop bands will be gracing the stage at The Neptune for two nights: Monday, 3/19 and Tuesday 3/20. Their newest album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, was released 3/6 on Merge records. (You can take a listen to the single "Andrew in Drag" in the video above.)

But look, I don't need to explain to y'all how great they are, YOU ALREADY KNOW IT. On to the deets! Shoot an email over to tig {at} threeimaginarygirls {dot} com sometime between now and the end of the day Tuesday {3/13}, with the subject line "69 Love Songs". We'll pick a winner and notify you on Wednesday, 3/14 that you're on the list +1 -- just don't forget to let us know which night you want to attend! ♥

{Photo by Peter Ellenby}

We love the expansive, inclusive pop sound of Anacortes-based The Lonely Forest so much we imagined listening to their previous release was akin to infusing your body with light drawn directly from the heart of the sun. The 2006 Sound Off! winners have only grown since then, signing with Chris Walla’s Trans Records, and releasing Arrows last March. In a combination as brilliant as chocolate and peanut butter, they’ll be playing a special show with the Seattle Rock Orchestra at the Neptune on Saturday.

If all that wasn’t enough to earn them Recommended Show status, Black Whales will be opening. If you haven’t heard this mid-fi, 60s-tinged, Richard Ashcroft-gone-country band yet, don’t wait until Sasquatch. Black Whales’ album Shangri La Indeed! was released last June, a fact that will be quite familiar to regular readers, because we just can’t stop talking about, and watching, this great local band.

While you’re waiting for Saturday night, take a listen to a few tracks after the jump:

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Riveting, modern yet vintage-without-trying, just the right amount of haunted and desolate vibes while remaining full to the very seams.

These are the notes from my first few watches through the official video for "Nothing Is The News" by Damien Jurado, off the much-anticipated, almost-released new album Maraqopa, but they might as well be the words that describe both the music and Damien as a whole from a fan and listener perspective. To date, there's been nothing Damien Jurado has done that hasn't been fully immersive: each album a project unto itself, each track an experience, each phase clearly defined, described, presented, and finally ventured on from. The last album, Saint Bartlett, is a perfect example of this, where we traveled along for the story of the tracks, sat listening in the rain, stood stage-side and were all scarred beautifully by our favorites -- and now, the time has come to shelf it for the takings-on of a new journey. It will always be there when we need the nostalgia, of course, or when that phase of the journey re-presents itself sometime down the line -- but as of today, it's Maraqopa time.

Our friends at Secretly Canadian describe this latest work as "the most vital and engaging... heard from Damien in five plus years of working with him here at Secretly Canadian. In this second project with producer Richard Swift, Damien's folk roots are fleshed out with flourishes of blues, psychedelia, and soul breathing a whole new world into Damien's sound" and inform us that "with each visit to National Freedom, Jurado is exploring, taking risks. He's not only freeing his songs. The gate is opened wide to allow us all into his once-isolated musical universe. One gets the sense he's just now hitting his stride." We couldn't have put it any better ourselves, and strongly encourage you to pick up the album as soon as you're able -- preorders are alive and well here, or, take the in-person trip with us and several hundred of your closest friends for the record release party next Friday {2/17} at the Neptune, where you can see Damien play live and pick up a real-live copy at the merch table.

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