It's a red-letter day, you guys.

Last week, our friends at Barsuk announced their fifteen year anniversary celebration. After we all get our faces melted off listening to Death Cab for Cutie run Transatlanticism start-to-finish at Bumbershoot, we'll have a mere sixty days until a weekend of incredible shows: from Thursday, November 7th through Sunday, November 10th, Barsuk will be showcasing present and alumni artists at lineups across town; specifically, at the Showbox, the Neptune, the Tractor, and Neumos / Barboza. Holy shit!

Before you start building your fantasy shows off of the roster {like, Ben Gibbard doing a set of All-Time Quarterback songs to open up for John Vanderslice opening up for Nada Surf at the Tractor, maybe?}, get this: today at noon, Barsuk is selling fifty pre-sale wristbands that get you into all four shows, with Uber transportation to and from each one and a complete set of limited edition numbered and signed screenprints {by Jason Munn}. The wristbands are $175.00, which works out to about $43.00 per show for the bands and a ride and a poster. That's not new math or anything, it's just a really fucking good deal. In fact, it saves you money! And PS, all of the net proceeds -- all of them, from these wristbands and all of the single show tickets -- are going to benefit Gilda's Club Seattle.

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In the onslaught of "I think I can smell spring tour" shows that took over the city this weekend, we found ourselves front-and-center for some of the best sets we've seen yet this year.

Thursday night, John Vanderslice played to a mostly-attentive yet less-than-capacity crowd at the Crocodile. Despite some technical difficulties, he put on the kind of performance we've come to expect: both the physical set and the vibe of the night were warm, inviting, and mindbendingly good. A night with JV is about as close as you can get as a fan to a night where you're sharing the stage-time with an old friend -- the familiar selections he chose to play were as excellent and comforting as ever, and the newest songs were folded in perfectly, leaving us wanting more of both. Which is not the easy feat for an artist with a compelling back catalog, mind you. Add in three parts local notable / designstress / musician Dianna Potter on accompanying vocals and one part audience participation bit, and our swoon-meters were absolutely done for.

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San Francisco's John Vanderslice has worked his subtle, unique, elegant, and memorable musical magic for about eight full-lengths' worth of material. But like many excellent writers who fill lit journals and staff picks sections of bookstores, I have always walked away from his releases craving a little more, I don't know, danger. Vision. More happy accidents. Less concern to detail, a greater chance things might fall apart.

White Wilderness is his collaboration with Minna Choi and the Magik*Magik Orchestra, and just what he needed to do after hitting his singer-songwriter peak with 2009's Romanian Names (his last album for Barsuk). I wasn't able to hear his self-released Green Grow the Rushes EP before this debut on Dead Oceans, but the modern classical elements and instruments used to unpack or bundle up the nine songs on White Wilderness really help to make it more compelling to me than any of his earlier releases.

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We're sad to report that by the time you read this post, this show will probably be sold out.

Somewhere in the depths of Tacoma this Wednesday night, a few dozen die-hards will be crowding the space of a stranger's living room to hear the sweet sounds of two imaginary favorites: none other than the esteemed Damien Jurado and John Vanderslice will be gracing us with their respective presence, in one room, at the same show. (We know. Seriously.) With the recent work these two gentlemen have seen fit to bestow upon the masses -- Jurado's St. Bartlett making a slew of top ten lists of 2010, and Vanderslice's White Wilderness (out earlier this month) starting the 2011 off right -- we can only surmise that this will be one hell of an evening.

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Last Thursday night, Three Imaginary Girls and a crowd of awesome music lovers kick-started the holidays with a benefit for Teen Feed (we raised enough to provide 20 youth direct mentoring with Support Coordinators, with a little leftover + a full garbage bag of clean socks!) featuring John Vanderslice -- who pulled double duty as Santa, Jose Bold, The Young Evils, and The Tripwires. DJ Greg Vandy warmed everyone up in The Bourbon Bar pre-show with classic holiday tunage, the Teen Feed peeps were rockin' a delicous table of homemade cookies, and there was lots of dancing, and many, many drinks were had (including one bright-green concoction called "The Elf" which was kind of terrifying, but easy to gulp down).

Luckily, we had fine photographers Jason Tang and Lori Paulson on hand to help capture the magic. It was hard to pick a few favorites to showcase here, but we did! Of course, you can always view the complete set in our Three Imaginary Girls Flickr Pool.

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Grab your sleigh bells because tonight is the big night! Please join us at the Columbia City Theater this evening to kick the holidays into high gear with joyous cheer and amazing bands while raising money for stellar Seattle nonprofit, Teen Feed.

Besides having a stellar line-up, the night will feature a visit from Indie-Rock Santa, John Vanderslice! Take your place on his lap and have your photo taken by photographer extraordinaire Laura Musselman. These professionally taken photos with Santa are free and will be available for download on the Imaginary Flickr page by noon on Sunday, December 19.

If you've encountered our Santa Vanderslice before, you know that he's a dashing and wry indie-rocker, but did you also know that the guy is sweeter than a sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles? PasteMagazine.com recently posted a heartwarming interview with John Vanderslice by Litsa Dremousis. Truthcode, I teared up while reading it. JV gets pelted by school kids playing dodgeball while volunteering at 826 Valencia and loves it!

That's the Santa I want to have my photo taken with for sure.

See you at the party tonight. Doors are at 7pm with DJ Greg Vandy spinning vintage holiday favorites, photos with Santa start at 7:30pm, and the bands take the stage at 9pm.

{Photo: Jeanine Anderson}

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{Photo by Victoria VanBruinisse from the Imaginary Flickr Photo Pool}

There is nothing we'd love more than to celebrate this month of many holidays with us at this year's Imaginary Holiday Office Party. The night is going to have so many holly jolly wonderful things that going on we can't list them off in one breath (but you can read all about it here).

It's all going down on Thursday, December 16 at the Columbia City Theater and all proceeds from the show go to Seattle nonprofit, Teen Feed. We've gathered some of our favorite bands from Seattle as well as Santa John Vanderslice, who is not only taking the stage to perform, but will also be our Indie-Rock Santa for the evening (and you can get your photo taken upon his lap).

But don't take our word for it, this episode of the Imaginary Mixtape podcast is a sampling of each of the bands taking the Holiday Office Party stage. You can listen to a stream of the podcast below or download the MP3 version of the podcast on the imaginary bandcamp page.

 

If you are the type that likes to listen to podcasts in itunes, download the .m4a file here {it's one single file with fancy chapter markers!} and then open it in your itunes {big thanks to Jigsaw Records and Indie Pages for hosting the file!}.

We hope to see you at the holiday party!

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We are counting down to the moment that we get to {gently} plop our imaginary arses on the knee of Santa Vanderslice for a pretty photo taken by photographer extraordinaire Laura Musselman at the Imaginary Holiday Office Party next week {December 16, 2010}.

But we know that things haven't always been so indie-rock for all of us... and we want proof! Please share your favorite / best / worst / funniest / cutest photo of you with Santa by posting it in the comments section of the Facebook invite for the Imaginary Holiday Office Party.

We'll reward the photo with the most 'LIKE's by 9a December 13th with a pair of tickets to the Imaginary Holiday Office Party {Thursday, December 16 at the Columbia City Theater}.

We can't wait to see what Santa looked like when he has his photo taken with you!

{I know it doesn't look like I wearing a skirt in the above photo. Short skirts were in that year!}

At 10am today {an icy November 24th}, the tickets to the Imaginary Holiday Office Party went on sale!

Tickets are limited, so race on over to Brown Paper Tickets right now to make sure you don't miss out on this jam packed night of amazing music and holiday cheer:

The Tripwires
The Young Evils
John Vanderslice {aka Indie-Rock Santa!}
Jose Bold

DJ Greg Vandy spinning vintage holiday songs in the Bourbon Bar while you get your photo taken by Laura Musselman on the lap of Santa Vanderslice.

Tickets are only $15 each and all proceeds will benefit Teed Feed, a Seattle non-profit who helps homeless youth as they meet their future off the streets. Teen Feed runs a free dinner program for youth ages 13-25, seven nights a week -- and we couldn't be more excited to have the opportunity to help support their efforts! In addition to purchasing a ticket to the event, party attendees can make donations in the form of cash, cheques, and packages of white tube socks (yes, white tube socks) the night of the event.

We do hope you can make it -- we can't imagine a holiday party without you!

The search for mistletoe has begun -- and we're counting down to the big Imaginary Holiday Office Party!

The most exciting development of today: it's now officially official that John Vanderslice will not only be our Indie-Rock Santa for the night {and yes, you'll be able to get your picture taken with him for posterity by the amazing photographer Laura Musselman}, but he'll also be taking the stage to perform a set! That makes for a killer 4-band bill of:

~ The Tripwires
~ The Young Evils
~ John Vanderslice
~ Jose Bold {John Osebold of "AWESOME"}

We're eternally grateful to Killorn O'Neill for helping us to get the word out to the masses with this rad poster! We'll be slopping on our winter boots to staple these up around town (remember, imaginary volunteers are always welcome -- especially when it's a benefit!) Feel free to grab the above image and slap it on your blog / facebook page / desktop background to remind you to get your fine self there... and yes, there will be full-color mondo-size screenprints of the poster at the event for purchase.

We can't wait for this night of amazing music, tons of imaginary cheer, and to celebrate it all with you! Tickets will be on sale tomorrow {Wednesday, 11/24} at 10a {or there abouts} and all proceeds will benefit Teen Feed.  We'll post and twitter and Facebook profusely when they are available for purchase -- but they are limited, so make sure you get yours while you can!

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