As you may have heard, 2012 marks Three Imaginary Girls' 10th anniversary of being Seattle's sparkly indie-pop press and we can't think of a more imaginary way to celebrate than with a big bash with some of our favorite rockstars and YOU!

On Friday, June 1st at Chop Suey, we're going to host the biggest TIG birthday party of all imaginary time with some of Seattle's most stellar rockstars taking the karaoke mic to sing in the key of new wave, including:

Sean Nelson
Lesli Wood
Megan Seling
Jenny Jimenez
Shane Tutmarc
Alicia Amiri
Cristina Bautista
Anna Banana Lange
Jenny George

and members of:
Visqueen
The Young Evils
Exohxo
Tullycraft
Math & Physics Club
Tennis Pro
Mal de Mer
Black Nite Crash
Kithkin
The Mangles
Your Favorite Book
Noddy

It can't get any more astonishing, right?  Well, the rockstars aren't the only ones taking the mic, we want YOU to sing too! Throughout the night, audience members can volunteer to take the Chop Suey stage by storm to karaoke their favorite new wave hit.  Folks will be chosen first come, first served, so get there and turn in your song early (doors are at 8:30pm)!

To add to the birthday merriment, the evening is going to be hosted by imaginary Dana and Adrian LeFluer (of Iron Composer fame), who you might remember stealing the show as emcee at our 69 Love Songs cover night a few years back. 

Get your ticket to the night of new wave love and big imaginary fun now!

As an added bonus for those at the show,  you can be the first to pick up a copy of the Imaginary Zine! A printed old school zine recounting our first 10 years in stories and recounted memories from our imaginary friends. It will have a special (glow in the dark and sparkly) screenprinted cover (thanks Seattle Show Posters / 112 Printworks!) and 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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There's been an incredible current underfoot in our fair city these past few weeks, as two noteworthy nonprofits -- the Seattle Theater Group and 826 Seattle -- have been gearing up for their annual fundraising events. On April 28th, STG presented DOORS: Opening Doors to the Arts, a combination dinner, live show and paddle raise held at the Paramount Theater that funds dozens of incredible programs and community initiatives each year. Between the silent and live auctions and the actual straight-donation paddle raise that collectively brought in over $430,000.00 {!!!}, there was also a live show featuring some of the teachers, students, and performance groups that STG has been able to reach out and impact -- and a special performance from Allen Stone with members of the Seattle Rock Orchestra.

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It's that time of year again! Record Store Day is upon us, and while tomorrow's buying spree may not be much of a change of pace from our regularly scheduled weekend crate-digging, we'll be out there getting our hands dirty amidst a ton of great sales, up to our elbows in limited releases, and (in most locations we frequent) with a live soundtrack at the ready.

Here are a few of the highlights of what to expect around town:

Easy Street Records {Queen Anne}: Open at 9a, Diercks Bentley will be performing at 1p, and Brad will be taking the stage at 4p.

East Street Records {West Seattle}: Open at 7a with Lance Mercer's photo show all day, and a performance by imaginary faves The Young Evils at 7:30p. Reignwolf at 9p!

Everyday Music: DJ sets will be going on all day starting at 1p, with the likes of DJ El Toro, DJ Ya Sure Shot, Naiomi Punk, and DJ Veins; and Seapony will be kicking off a few bands at 6p. 10% off everything new, 20% off everything used!

Silver Platters {Queen Anne}: Open an hour early with bands all day, including Will Hoge at 12p, Gravel Road at 1p, Dar Williams at 2p, Caveman at 3:30P, and Perfume Genius at 5p. 15% off all regular and clearance items, excludes RSD specials.

Sonic Boom {Ballard}: Giveaways all day, Jack White Listening Party at 2p, Star Anna performs at 4p. [Note that there will be no Record Store Day product at the Melrose Vinyl Market.]

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It was a great long weekend for sight and sound as we took in some goings-on around Seattle, the most notable of which was the release party for Damien Jurado's Maraqopa this past Friday at the Neptune. Sharing the bill with Gold Leaves and Bryan John Appleby, Jurado and the most recent incarnation of his band sold out our newest favorite venue to an attentive, appreciative crowd. Maraqopa {which is officially out today}, his latest brand of soundscape, is the perfect blend of everything we've come to love about Damien Jurado's work, packaged in a collective series of sounds we've never quite heard from him before. There's a little bit on Maraqopa for everyone: it's part singer-songwriter, part freak-folk, part guitar-shredding psychedelia heaven, and fourteen other different kinds of good. {Read a little more about what we've heard and adore about Maraqopa thus far here.}

Here's a few shots from Friday's show:

Another knock-it-out-of-the-park win this weekend was the screening of Fever Year, the documentary that followed Andrew Bird along for a seemingly insane 180-date tour a few years back. As avid fans, we've seen everything from those early 2000s shows where six fellow attendees stood in rapt appreciation to bursting-at-the-seams capacity nights from this most recent grueling tour {including a sold-out show at the Paramount and a set for a few thousand people at Austin City Limits in 2009} -- and it was an absolute delight to see every facet of Andrew Bird's career represented so brilliantly in this film. Historical flashbacks to his Bowl of Fire days fused together perfectly with recent tour clips and an incredible glimpse of his on-, off- and backstage life, all of which blended together into a gorgeously intimate eighty-minute portrait of the Andrew Bird of today. The mini-doc was warmed up perfectly by the screening of the Fleet Foxes' The Shrine / An Argument, an absolute delight to take in -- both visually on the big screen and as it poured out of the theater's state-of-the-art soundsystem.

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$7, 714.83!!!!

You guys. That is. AMAZING!!! Jenny George (pictured atop an Exohxo pyramid above!) was sobbing with joy when we dropped the money off to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society {check out this sweet comment from Erin @LLS}. They told us straight up that it would help SO many people! This is the most money that DOTV has ever raised, and Jenny is so so so so thankful for all the volunteers and bands and attendees who made it happen! We can't wait to help plan next year's bash and raise even more money. 

As for Ben Haley's amazing photobooth pictures - they are on the way! Please take a moment to gaze upon Ben as "The Chauffer" and his assistant Merilee Jones - who had THE BEST 80s OUTFIT EVER! So totally tubular. There's a few more pics after the jump - and you can watch for yours in the ever expanding DOTV 7 Flickr set. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED MAKE JENNY'S BIRTHDAY SO FANTASTIC! 

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at The Crocodile

It was another amazing year for Dancing On The Valentine, Jenny George's annual leukemia and lymphoma Duran Duran cover night benefit concert. Friends and fans packed the Crocodile while we heard most excellent renditions of DD hits and B-sides from the likes of Lesli Wood, Daniel G. Harmann, Noddy, John Roderick, and Fly Moon Royalty. Show-stealers NighTraiN took the stage with Hotels for a mindblowing cover of "Come Undone," Princess brought metal sensibility to Duran Duran's music like we've never quite heard it before, and Exohxo and Katie Kate rounded out an incredibly successful night. The tally is still in the works, but rumor has it that a very impressive amount of money was raised for a donation. Nice work, Seattle!

In case you were up in the photo booth (thanks Ben "The Chauffeur" Haley and assistant) and missed one of the songs, here's a recap of who oh-so-amazingly did what! We got our photo booth on too, so if you see any errors here, please let us know and we'll update:

Lesli Wood with Jupe Jupe - Girls on Film / Wild Boys
Davidson Hart Kingsbery - Skin Trade / Do You Believe in Shame?
Daniel G. Harmann & the Trouble Starts - Planet Earth / Electric Barbarella / Secret Oktober
Noddy - Red Carpet Massacre / Big Thing / Someone Else Not Me
Hotels - Come Undone (with NighTraiN) / Save a Prayer / A View To A Kill / Late Bar
Princess - Careless Memories / New Religion
John Roderick - Lonely in Your Nightmare / Hold Back the Rain / The Chauffeur
Fly Moon Royalty - Read My Lips / All You Need is Now
Exohxo - Rio / The Reflex / New Moon on Monday / Union of the Snake
Katie Kate - Hungry Like the Wolf / Notorious / Ordinary World

And, here's some photos to prove it all happened:

Lesli Wood and Jupe Jupe:

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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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Adam Pranica, filmmaker and principal over at Dorsia Films and true indie rock enthusiast, with the perfect opening line:

"In the winter of 2011, Victoria VanBruinisse came up with a crazy idea to invite John Roderick of The Long Winters over for a potluck dinner. He played a few songs, told some stories, and ate all of the food."

And that's pretty much the long and short of it. When I found out that I was going to be in New York at CMJ for this past year's City Arts Festival, and would subsequently be missing the only performance by the Long Winters for the 2011 calendar year, I almost cried. Not literally, but still. It was a huge disappointment, a sigh to end all sighs, the conundrum that comes from being vested in so many interests and not being able to be everywhere at once. And so I did what any fan would do: I suggested to John that perhaps he might want to play a show in my living room.  I base much of my interactions on the simple methodology of the old adage that it never hurts to ask, because as the lottery tells us, you can't win if you don't play.

Well, we played alright, and we won. All of us, and that's you {yes, you!} included, because we won something big: a beautiful, candle-and-twinkle-light-lit evening with two dozen of our closest friends, where we enjoyed food, comraderie, and a series of brilliantly performed songs by the one and only John Roderick. And because of the genius embedded in Adam Pranica, Tyler Kalberg, and Zach Varnell -- the latter two being names you should recognize from the Notes from Home series -- we get to share the collective product from that near-perfect night with the world.

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In the throes of a killer party at the Neptune last night, we were thrilled beyond belief to find out the details on another most excellent year for the Sasquatch! music festival, taking place out at the Gorge on Memorial Day weekend {May 25-28}. Sasquatch! is by far one of our favorite fests every year, and 2012 is going to be no exception.

We're particularly excited about partying down with the likes of Jack White, Beck, Tenacious D, Beirut, Girl Talk {hell yes!}, The Head and the Heart, Tune-Yards, Wild Flag, Blind Pilot, Mark Lanegan Band, The Cave Singers, Grouplove, Ted Leo, Deer Tick, Alabama Shakes, We Are Augustines, Shearwater {!!!!!}, Charles Bradley, Pickwick, Hey Marseilles, Sallie Ford, Dyme Def, Fresh Espresso, and Katie Kate -- but by no means does that even scratch the surface of the seemingly-zillion fantastic bands included on this year's lineup. As usual, there's a thoughtful mash of notable locals and squee-worthy headliners, so much so that slapping down the ticket price to spend the long weekend with twenty-plus thousand of your closest friends is an absolute no-brainer.

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It's coming! The crowds, the sun, the bands -- my stars, THE BANDS. We're beside ourselves with anticipation as we wait for the announcement of this year's Sasquatch! music festival lineup, and it won't be long now! The news will be public in less than forty-eight hours, as the folks at Sasquatch! HQ gear up for the announcement party taking place tomorrow night {2/2} at the Neptune. And you can join in, too! The show is all ages and tickets are just $16.00, which is a fair price to pay to be spending the night with the likes of Junip {feat. Jose Gonzales}, Matthew Caws {of Nada Surf, also playing a sold-out show later that night at the Tractor}, and The Physics.

Add the cherry on top of Luke Burbank playing host, and you've got the best party / show / festival lineup announcement / gathering-thing this side of the Puget Sound. We can't wait to start making our schedule for this year's trip to the Gorge, and hope to see you tomorrow night!

{All ages / $16 adv / 7p doors. Photo of the main stage at Sasquatch! 2010 by Victoria VanBruinisse.}