{Allo Darlin' photo by Steve Louie from the Imaginary Flickr Photo Pool - taken at their October, 2010 show at the Rendezvous}

It's barely 2012 and already we have news worthy of a shower of fireworks. Imaginary favorite Allo Darlin' are coming back to town!!!

Three Imaginary Girls is beyond excited to present their all-ages show at the Vera Project on Friday, May 11, 2012 as part of our big 10 year celebration (yes, can you believe it? TIG is turning 10!!!).  Don't delay, tickets go on sale at 10am on Wednesday {1/4/12}!!!

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It was a great weekend for the music books, with so many good shows going on around town -- and you can call us biased, but we really do think Friday's Imaginary Holiday Spectacular took the cake as the weekend-starter to top them all. We spent the night flitting between Santa Roderick's lap and the gorgeous theater proper with a hundred and fifty of our closest imaginary friends, with heartmeltingly good sets from some of our favorite bands: Heligoats opened the night up and managed to slay us with the achiest, best kind of hope; Temp Score and Mal de Mer kept the indie-pop party going mid-lineup, and the evening closed out with a solid, gorgeous set from Eef Barzelay. Between the bliss of getting to spend a party-show with such good folks, the full frontal ache of Eef's catalog, and the transition into "Wal-Mart Parking Lot" about midway through the set -- our polka-dotted holiday mixtape hearts were just about done-for.

Heligoats {Chris Otepka}:

Temp Score:

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Thank you all so much for making our holiday wishes come true! Last Friday's Imaginary Holiday Party was so much fun--all thanks to you and yours for coming out to the Columbia City Theater to toast the season and 2011 with us.

We had to call in an audible and our friend John E. Hollingsworth took care of all the Santa Roderick photography duties at the last minute. He is an amazing photographer and we can't thank him enough for the last minute favor.  His talent, combined with the cutest Santa ever {John Roderick of the Long Winters} and all of our saucy imaginary friends and their poses, have made it hard to pick a favorite Santa photo of the night!

To see them all, head over to our Three Imaginary Girls Sparkly Indie-Pop Flickr Page.  You can download printable versions {perfect for next year's holiday card!} and "favorite" the ones you like best.

Come back in the next few days as we hope to post photos of the evening's fabulous performers {Eef Barzelay, Mal de Mer, Temp Score, and The Heligoats} soon soon soon.  I haven't seen any yet, but know they will be as stunning as our Santa photobooth shots.

Here are a few of our favorites... which ones do you like best? 

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Here I am, just sitting here at work stressing out about end of year deadlines and I decide to click on a link to watch the brand-new Princess Superstar video, for her sure-to-be-a-holiday-classic song, "XMAS SWAGGER."  I've long enjoyed PS for her kooky, white girl rap that lives up to her moniker since her debut album, Strictly Platinum (specifically "Blue Beretta"). She's like the Trucks if they were a blonde rapper who lived in NYC and was obsessed with Grand Royal Records.

Anyway... I'm just sitting here, revving my ho ho ho engines with a holiday-themed video and THERE IT IS!!! A PHOTO OF OUR AMAZING INDIE ROCK SANTA IN A PRINCESS SUPERSTAR VIDEO!!!

See it for yourself:  The above photo {taken by the lovely and talented Laura Musselman} is in the below video at the 14 second mark. 

It's quick and all, and I'm sure the Princess Superstar machine is such a lo-fi operation that they didn't know who or how to get proper rights to use it {sorry John and Laura}; but in case there's anyone out there who's wondering, we can give you the hook-up to the folks who made this amazing photo happen!  Email us, or just meet them at tomorrow night's Imaginary Holiday Party!

Well, is it? We sure hope so! Because one of our favorite parts of the holiday party every year is getting to grace the ever-lovable John Roderick's lap with our sweet jingle-bell backends, and getting the whole thing immortalized forever by way of Laura Musselman's brilliant camera skills. So, to get you warmed up for all the joy that awaits your rear this year, here's a few peeks back at the last few years of Indie Santa-ing (including last year's stand-in Santa, John Vanderslice).

2009:

2008:

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You may recognize the handsome gent in the photo above as Michael Lee, a critical piece of one our favorite things to happen in the music scene of late, The Young Evils. And you'd be absolutely correct! But what you're looking at in this particular context is Michael Lee as lead singer of the band Mal de Mer, the third band on our lineup for Friday's Imaginary Holiday Spectacular.

Mal de Mer first popped full-force onto the imaginary radar earlier this year, when they took the first-of-three spot opening for Telekinesis at the Crocodile back in March. Like we said then, we knew of MdM but didn't quite know enough about MdM, so we set to do some digging -- and immediately fell in hearts. Allow us to refresh your memory of what we penned up about them then:

"The vibe varies from a Henry Clay People-esque alt.dirty-pop on songs like "Bubble Bobble" to the more melancholy, moderately anthematic sad-pop sound of "All I Want" -- but there's a running consistency through all the songs they've put out, and that consistency is one of No Bullshit. MdM isn't out to please the herd or become the next-best-something-or-other, they're just making the sounds that they need to get made. This, coupled with their all-star lineup (Michael Lee, Lesli Wood, Jimmy Curran, and Eric Wennberg), would make it appear as though the band itself could do no wrong. And based on the attention they've gotten so far, that might just be the rightest thing we've heard all week."

All of that still rings true, and tenfold at that. While The Young Evils have been keeping Lee busy, he reported in recently that he's almost done writing the next Mal de Mer album (!!!), and he's not the only one -- The Redwood Plan has a new album in the works as well, and Lesli Wood and Eric Wennberg have been rhythm sectioning for Wood's husband's new band, Lazy Animals.

We're stoked to hear them at the show, and hope you are too! If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you can still take advantage of the advance price: just pop on over to the Brown Paper Tickets page here, and you can get some more digs about the show at the Facebook page here.

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There's plenty more to talk about this week as we count down to our imaginary holiday party: we've already filled you in about the goodness that is Heligoats {and Chris Otepka's previous incarnation, Troubled Hubble}, and our most recent addition to the line up, Sean Nelson and Kyle O'Quin's Temp Score. We'll have a little more on Mal de Mer for you before Friday, of course, along with some of our favorite John Roderick photos from years past to get your holiday backend ready for his lap -- but this morning, we just needed to gush a little bit about Eef.

Eef Barzelay {and the wide world of Clem Snide} has a rich, multi-layered catalog of studio work, to say nothing of crazy cover projects, various musical sidebars and brave creative endeavors. However, one of our absolute favorite media-marrying results were the contributions Eef made to the score of Rocket Science, a perfectly heartbreaking little indie film that you should absolutely go pick up / queue up this instant / rent on the way home from work today. Here's a little more about Eef's role in the process:

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With all the holiday joy that fills the month of December, comes the spreadsheet madness of end of year "Best of" list tabulations.  I must admit I've been distracted by sparkly things and holiday party excitement the last couple weeks, so I really need to step up my subjective calculations by next Wednesday because...

On Wednesday, December 14th, I'll humbly join Seattle's very own Larry Mizell Jr. of The Stranger / KEXP's Streetsounds / a number of amazing Seattle bands, Josh Powell, Vera Project Program Director, and KUOW's Steve Scher in an end of the year look at our favorite releases of the year at the lovely KUOW, 94.9 FM studios from 9am-10am.

I have a few ideas of what is going to be at the top (and bottom) of my list... but I'm sure I've missed something. What does your Favorites of 2011 list look like?

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One of the best things about a Seattle Saturday night is listening to KEXP's Audioasis radio show as we prep to head out for the evening (or put the finishing touches on things before turning on the movie for nights at home). 

We've had this tradition as long as our Seattle memories serve, so you can imagine the roar of happiness that wafted across the imaginary offices when we received an invite to play some songs and chat with Hannah on this Saturday's edition of Audioasis!

Dana and I plan to spill some details on the Imaginary Holiday Party (mark your calendars: Friday, Dec 16th) as well as play a few brand new exclusive (never before heard) songs and some new local stuff that has been melting our hearts as of late.

Tune in at 7 pm PST to 90.3 fm or at KEXP.org to hear us buckle under the weight of Hannah's coolness... and play some songs we think you'll like.

Any last minute requests? Any Pacific Northwest bands what to record a quick cover of "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You" so we can play it? 
 

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It's only ten days until our 2011 Imaginary Holiday Spectacular out at Columbia City Theater? Holy ____! If you haven't done so already, take a moment to mark your calendar and pop on over here to pick up your tickets. Done? Great!

As we whittle away the days until then, we thought it might be nice to give you a little more background on the artists that have graciously agreed to join us for this year's event. First up: Heligoats, aka Chris Otepka. Currently functioning as a one-man show, Chris Otepka hails from Bellingham and had the honor of being featured last year as NPR's Tiny Desk Concert's 100th performer. Here's a little more from them on his performance:

He may be a lone guy with an acoustic guitar, but Chris Otepka gives fans a lot of ideas to unpack. Even his backstory necessitates some explanation: The former lead singer of a criminally underheralded band called Troubled Hubble, Otepka now performs solo and unplugged as The Heligoats — a strange name for a guy strumming a guitar, but oddly befitting someone who stuffs his songs with so many sideways ideas and observations. Given the yarns he spins here, it's easy to imagine Otepka envisioning a herd of goats with propellers and setting the concept to music.

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