Adam Green has recently released his sixth solo album, Minor Love, and he's coming to town. Newly signed to Fat Possum Records the new album is at once haunting and playful. The lilt in his sparse vocals, reminiscent of Lou Reed, on the first half of the album is accompanied by finely place organ, guitar and bass, the drums skittering around in the background. The second half of the album takes on more of a Leonard Cohen feel, growing a bit darker and unfolding a seriousness that flatters the singer/songwriters skills while expanding his scope.

I can only imagine how the slight kitsch of a song like “Goblin” and the video game sound clips on the lo-fi “Oh Shucks” will translate to stage. Find out by emailing us for these tickets!

Send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com by Monday, March 26 with "AdamGreenWonder" in the subject line. If you win these tickets, I'll see you there and together we can wonder whether or not Greg Rogove of Megapuss is going to be playing on this leg of Adam Green's tour.

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Well, we love you all the time. In the most appropriate of imaginary ways, of course. But right now we love you a little bit extra for all the love you're showing for Friday's lineup -- tickets are selling like hotcakes! Sweet, indie-rock singin' neckerchief wearin' hotcakes.

Speaking of sweet, we wanted to give you a little more lowdown on Hey Marseilles, third up on tomorrow's bill. As we've gushed over them time and time again, this is for sure the best alt.indie.orchestral septet in town -- in fact, they're soon to be the best seven-piece on both coasts because they're embarking off on an east coast tour leading up to their dates in Austin for this year's SXSW.

Check it out!

March 7   Putnam Den, Saratoga Springs NY
March 8   Rockwood Music Hall, New York NY
March 9   TT the Bear's [swoon!], Cambridge, MA
March 10 Higher Ground, Burlington, VT
March 11-12 Canadian Music Fest, Toronto, Ontario
March 18 SXSW
March 19 SXSW
March 20 SXSW
March 25 Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR

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You know those bands that always seem to be there for you when your heart gets mangled? The band that gets your groove back in gear? For me, that's the Wedding Present.

The wonderful thing I've come to learn over the years? The Wedding Present is *that* band for a bunch of you too!

It's a strange and glorious fact that Bizarro, the Wedding Present's classic second studio album and the one that includes our favorites like "Brassneck" and "Kennedy" (to name a couple), will turn 21 years old this year. To celebrate, Gedge and company will be playing the album live, in its entirety, at concerts across North America, Japan and Europe (full tour shed-jule below). Obviously, those of us in Seattle are counting the days until April 21 when the Wedding Present is set to play the Crocodile.

We here at Three Imaginary Girls, especially me, want to mark the occasion here as well! Let's gather forces and geek out all Bizarro stylee!

Here's the idea: Send me a few sentences, a paragraph, or a story about a favorite song from the Bizarro album.  Tell us all about why the song (or songs - feel free to take on more than one!) rules or how it has affected you. It can be short, long, quirky, solemn, desirous, uplifting or clinical (i.e why the particular chord progression is magical).

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I'm going to be honest with you: seeing Evan Dando is completely a crapshoot. The last time he graced our fair city with the Lemonheads last June, it was, well, sort of a heartbreaking disaster. But when he's on, he's 110% on, crooning delicious indie rock like there's no tomorrow. Those of us that still stand behind him after all these years wait and hope and pray for those moments of clarity, and all we can do is show up  tonight at the Tractor and hope for the best. This fairly recent video makes me lean towards the side of hopeful for tonight (and seriously, doesn't this song still give you chills?)

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Just a few days ago I got a Facebook message from a friend in Denmark who said "you need to go see the Danish band, Efterklang, at the Triple Door on March 11th. They are amazing!!"

Intrigued, I wanted to learn more and Wikipedia told me:

The name Efterklang comes from the Danish word for "remembrance" or "reverberation." Formed in Copenhagen, its four core members are: Casper Clausen, Mads Brauer, Thomas Husmer, and Rasmus Stolberg.^[1] The original lineup also included Rune Mølgaard, but he has taken a more secluded role since 2007.^[1] When performing live, the core four-piece band is complemented with the addition of three to four closely-related live band members.

So that doesn't tell us too much more, but trust me, I've come to enjoy the music I've heard from the band (including their song "Mirador" embedded above) and am now looking forward to their show next week at the Triple Door. Even better, we can sneak a few more people in. If you want to see Efterklang, please send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com before 9am on Monday, March 8 and put "Efterklang" in the subject line. Shortly thereafter, we'll draw a name at random and that person will win a pair of tickets to see Efterklang at the Triple Door.

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Saturday night is the finals to the EMP's always excellent Sound Off! competition for under 21 Northwest bands. After three narrowing down the competition to four bands over the past four weeks, the winner will be named here, with Candysound, Hooves and Beak, Great Waves and SEACATS viable to take home lots of great prizes (including a guaranteed spot at Bumbershoot). A few days after the first night of Sound Off!, I ran into a local music legend at a book reading and she was raving to me about Candysound, for what that's worth.

On another note, our friends from the EMP asked me if we thought we had readers of TIG who wanted to see the finals for free. So, if you are one such reader who would like to go (and bring a friend), please send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com before 9am on Friday, March 5 with "Soundoff" in the subject line. Of course, this is all-ages with the show starting at 8 (doors 7).

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Come and get your gee-haw on this Friday night at Neumo's -- on us!

That's right, we're giving away a pair of tickets to the show of the week, our very own SXSW 2010 Sendoff! You can rage along to Visqueen's big guitars, swoon to the orchestral-pop melodies of Hey Marseilles, get your groove on with Mash Hall, and warm your night up right with Fences -- all under one roof! (And PS -- tickets are only ten dollars in advance. Ten! It's a steal at twice the price!)

Just send an email to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com with the subject line, "Let'sGetReadyToSX!" by this Thursday, March 4th at 10am, and tell us why you and your +1 should be our lucky guests.

Good luck -- we'll see you all at the show!

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As you shake free from your mandatory PNW hibernation, you've undoubtedly caught wind of all the rad lineups coming our way as the first whiffs of spring tour sneak up on us. And next week is bringing one of the first post-winter shows to Seattle that we're really beside ourselves about -- those gorgeously accent-laden Scottish sad bastards We Were Promised Jetpacks will be hitting the stage at Neumo's on Tuesday, March 2nd.

(Yes, next week is March. Already. Yikes!)

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The Philadelphia-based rock band Free Energy makes 1970s-influenced classic rock in the vein of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, T-Rex or Thin Lizzy, but does so without a touch of irony. They don’t so much as borrow liberally from that era as try to put them in a time when people drank cheap beer because it was both cheap and beer.

The five-piece band is nearing the release of their much anticipated debut album Stuck on Nothin’ early next month (March 9 on digital and vinyl, May 4 on CD), which was produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy (and released via his DFA Records label). That has bigger implications than mere name-dropping, though. What Murphy’s seal of approval and endorsement means is that this is unpretentious music that was made to collectively shake asses. The spiritual ancestor of “Bang Pop” (one of Free Energy’s catchiest songs) is The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” and Pitchfork approved of their single “Dream City”, saying it is “totally rad”.

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Team imaginary has been counting down to the Magnetic Fields Town Hall two-night residency for months and months... and the wait is finally over. Tonight kicks off their massive double fantasy of Fields-ness and to prepare we've been working on converting our overt joy to somber nods as to not scare those on stage.

Who else in the imaginary circle is headed out to the big show?

Any thoughts on the new album? I have to say I agree with this recent posting on the Tullycraft blog about the similarity of a certain song.

By the way, want to be the luckiest guy on the lower east side with a poster of this artwork on your wall? Mark Gamble, an amazing co.uk designer, has printed a limited run of his above design and he might just have a few left!  Thanks to ChrisB and How Fucking Romantic for finding it!

PS - Mark Eitzel is opening so get there early to catch the whole show. It's what Claudia would want you to do.

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