{Head and the Heart photo by Victoria VanBruinnisse from the Imaginary Flickr Photo Pool}

I love this time of year. Besides the {sometimes forced} joyous disposition of folks and my annual fancy birthday breakfast {on December 24 for those keeping track}, we all get to ruminate on the best albums and songs of the year for hours on end.

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Oh man is tonight going to be a good one! Get thee to the Tractor tonight for a very, very special night, as everyone sings "It's Your Birthday" to two Seattle pop legendaries - Lulu and Kurt of the Fastbacks. The evening starts off promptly at 8:30 with a heavy dose of Seattle royalty - the Young Fresh Fellows. Then, as if that wasn't enough, a bunch of other, a bunch of Seattle pop royalty, like PUSA, the Tripwires, Thee Sgt. Major III, and tons more will join the stage to sing a bunch of Fastbacks covers. And then, Seattle's favorite Fastbacks cover band, The K-Streets (hint - it's basically just the Fastbacks) will perform all the hits and classics. To top it all off, the night is only $5. I can't possibly think of a better way to spend a fiver.
In honor of this wonderfulness, we at TIG decided to re-run this beautiful piece of Fastbacks nerdery, origially posted by a Dear Mr. Oswald a few months ago for the last K-Streets show at the Sunset.

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{Visqueen photo: Ben Haley / Bunnygrunt photo: JoshBomb}

September marks the biggest festival season in the Pacific Northwest. In a move to test our endurance, the biggest of the mammoth festivals take place within days of each other: Bumbershoot from September 4-6 in Seattle and Music Fest NW from September 8-12 in Portland. But, besides those mega-shows, we've got plenty of our favorite Seattle bands taking to the stage. In this edition of the Imaginary Mixtape we'll share tracks from noteworthy bands with shows in the coming weeks, feature some exclusive live recordings from the Athens Popefest, and a sneak preview of brand new songs by The Thermals and Superchunk.

You can listen to a stream or download the MP3 version of the podcast on the imaginary bandcamp page. Bandcamp prohibits tracks longer than 25 minutes {I think it's some regulation against jam bands?}, so the podcast is split into three sections. Click below to listen via the bandcamp stream.

 

PART 1: Preview of some September Seattle shows, Bumbershoot and Music Fest NW

 

PART 2: A listen to more Seattle bands with September shows and a preview of our Imaginary Crafty Listening Party albums for September

 

PART 3: Live tracks recorded at the 2010 Athens Popfest and some lovely Seattle indie-pop

 

If you are the type that likes to listen to podcasts in itunes (and who doesn't), 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 for hosting the file!}.

 

Tracklisting: Imaginary Mixtape - September 2010:

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John + Jon + John + Sgt + Sherman? Will there be a reading? Nonstop witty banter? Amazing bearded riffs? Yes to all of the above. Must get to Tractor tomorrow night.

And if you have the radio on as your make your way to the Tractor tomorrow, make sure to listen to me and Dana on KIRO {97.3 FM) at 9p. We're going to be on TBTL's AwesomeNotAwesome segment talking up all the Top of the Croc show goodness (April 4th / The Crocodile}.

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How do you kill the blahs and the stress, you might ask? By seeing some kick ass local power pop!

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at The Tractor

Almost a dozen bands, copious amounts of large guitar, one classic album, and a whole lotta love.

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at Funhouse

The Coconut Coolouts are an energetic mutt; equal parts Hawaiian surf, proto-punk, and bashed out garage rock.

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