Blog: Three Imaginary Girls

At an all ages show at Neumos on Monday night, Phil Elverum, Mt. Eerie's center of gravity, stood behind a white milk crate filled with Mt. Eerie and The Microphones vinyl. Promptly at 9:20, he and his new lineup took the stage to play their debut show as a band. And you could tell they hadn't played live before. The bassist exchanged nervous glances with the mostly inactive keyboardist. The keyboard player's shining moment was when the slight notes she played eked out between excessive reverb and the roar of two drummers, during "Mouth of Sky." This is one [...]

Weekend three of four! Are you feeling the SIFFatigue yet? I am. But I'll be queuing up for these films anyway. read more

Director Kevin Hamedani turned out a horror/comedy that's frankly a lot cleverer than I expected. Some of the acting is a little amateur at first, but give it about 15 minutes. The acting gets better, and once the extreme gore hits, the buckets of corn syrupy splatter and one liners don't stop (fans of Evil Dead and Dead Alive will be very, very happy). I guarantee you'll appreciate it as a whole. read more

I got an e-mail last week assuring me that I would love this singer/songwriter Kate Earl, mentioning names like Lily Allen, Feist and Cat Power (two of the three I really enjoy, and that ain't bad). When I went to her MySpace page to check her out, she reminded me of someone who splits the difference between Allen and Regina Spektor (two of my very favorite artists). read more

STIFF director Clint Berquist explains in his letter to the editor in The Stranger that the difference between the two festivals is that "unlike those hooligans who show up at SIFF screenings, our audience is fucking civilized." read more

I really hate being the one who mentions band breakups here, but alas I must post another one. This is for a band that is near and dear to my heart for more than decade: Harvey Danger. read more

And on with our San Francisco Popfest coverage coming to a close, here's our post about the Saturday evening show at the Rickshaw Stop featuring the Smittens, The Magic Bullets, My Teenage Stride, Northern Portrait, and our very own Seattle darlings, Tullycraft. Tonight was the night. The crowning glory of indie pop. I'd been calling this night the best show of the year long before it even happened. read more

The Apple War came into existence when the founding members met in Bellingham in 2007. Upon relocating to Seattle in 2008, they recorded this engaging full-length album. Part funky post-punk, part progressive rock and a large part melancholy ballads, it is an amalgam of interesting sounds and textures. Alarm Bell City took me by surprise. By the look of the cartoon adorned cover, I thought that this was going to be your standard contemporary Seattle indie rock, but the opening moments of the first song proved my prejudice to be dead wrong. The song, "Alarm Bell City," is a [...]

Little Joe is screening at the Seattle International Film Festival on Saturday, June 6 at SIFF Cinema at 7:15 pm and SIFF was kind enough to give us several pairs of tickets to readers. If you want to go, e-mail us at tig@threeimaginarygirls.com before 9am on Friday morning with "Little Joe" in the subject line. Dallesandro is expected to attend this screening along with director Nicole Haeusser. read more

Three of Nam's (Steven Cheung) friends have recently committed suicide, but that's okay, since he can still see them now that they're dead. In fact, Nam spends all his time either seeing dead people around his apartment building or trying to get the attention of the beautiful girl next door. read more

Los Campesinos emailed me this morning (ok, their record label sent out a mass email, but I know they'll be sending a personal note my way soon) to let me know that they had some GOOD news and some SAD news on the Campesinos! front. The GOOD news: They have a new album coming out later this year (more info coming soon on that) and they'll be touring the US in August! The SAD news: Right now they've only committed to the below tour dates... which suspiciously doesn't include a stop in Seattle (I'm [...]

Who amongst us didn't love Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Who amongst us didn't fall in love with Russell Brand and his over the top rock star persona (even though some of you don't want to admit it) in the movie? Who didn't want to Twitter him a big "Brilliant kudos!" after he hosted the 2008 MTV Video Awards a slipped in that swift G W Bush jab on live TV? Yeah, he's pretty rad. We're excited to be able to send one imaginary reader a copy of his new DVD of his recent stand-up Comedy Central [...]

Oh the raw britpop vim and vigor of the Arctic Monkeys! Now we can watch the quartet take the Apollo stage (repeatedly) and get a bonus live CD (only available on the US version of the release - take that limeys!) with the release of the appropriately named DVD/CD set Arctic Monkeys at the Apollo. You want to arm wrestle me for a copy? To enter the drawing, e-mail us at tig at threeimaginarygirls.com with the subject line "WrestleForMonkeys" before 9a on Friday, June 5th (no arm wrestling required). read more

To me, the most inspiring homily was that though it can seem hopeless to try and attack an industry with such vast wealth and power, we did in fact succeed against the tobacco companies in many respects. Great point. read more

I was originally apprehensive about The Hurt Locker as I tend to avoid all things involving war (in order to also avoid emotional overload), but I am a Kathryn Bigelow fan, and boy howdy does that lady know how to make a film. read more

It sure is a gorgeous Monday! How else are you going to celebrate that, than with a rad show at the Sunset? I was introduced to Dreamdate, known as "East Bay pop sensations" by friends a few weeks ago, and found them to be perfectly up my alley, with two female singers harmonizing and a laid back poppy/punky beat. They seem straight out of the mid-90's, and that makes me very happy. read more

I am pleased to announce the debut of The Smittens new video for "One Hundred Roses" off their HHBTM album The Coolest Thing About Love. This song has been ruling my world since I got the record last summer, with its perfectly Magnetic Fields-y chorus "It doesn't mean that I love you any less/It only means that I'm a mess". Not only that, but we also have the debut of another video from The Coolest Thing..., "Magpies and Eccles Cake", which is a collection of live videos. read more

Wow - what a great weekend to finish up May and start June with a smiley grin. This photo by Adamsayswhatt of Gabriel Teodros from the flickr pool sums it up for me. There were a ton of great shows on the calendar, not to mention lots of sunny good times for those who enjoy sunscreen and out of doors activities. I know that a group of us imaginaries volunteered at KEXP on Sunday answering phones and taking pledges during Larry's Lounge (mega fun!). What did you do? read more

Day 3 featured an early afternoon show with Sourpatch, Champagne Riot, and Gregory Webster! read more

On Elvis Perkins' first album, Ash Wednesday, he sounded like a mixture of Bob Dylan and Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. I even initially mistook the song "While You Were Sleeping" for a lost Neutral Milk Hotel song, due to Perkins' uncanny resemblance to Mangum's nasally voice and the use of an excellent horn section. On this new album,Elvis Perkins In Dearland , he mostly just sounds like himself. Sure, the comparisons to Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Mangum are still valid, but you wouldn't mistake a song onDearland for an Aero plane Over The Sea B-side. Sophomore slump is [...]