There's an excellent show going on at Neumo's on Sunday night with two fantastic local bands: Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band and Hey Marseilles.

MSHVB (who are about to begin a west coast tour in a few hours from the time I type this in San Francisco) were recently featured in Seattle Sound Magazine for going "From Nobody to Neumo's in 120 Days" and their evolution through the hype machine was detailed but they were written about in Stereogum before playing a local, public show.

MSHVB headlines but you would be ill-advised to skip Hey Marseilles, as well. Recently featured on TIG's 11/25 podcast, my very smart friend and TIG colleague Deborah Barnard wrote of HM about a month and a half ago:

Before Hey Marseilles even made an appearance, people who had been at their CD release party in August were getting that glazed, fanatical look in their eyes when they described how amazing they expected the set to be. When the band hit the stage, they sounded like a Northwest hybrid of The Decemberists and Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground: basically beautiful. Eight hot musicians on stage with accordion, cello, viola, drums, trumpet and guitar? Yes please.

The audience was at its largest for this part of the show–in part because of the draw that Hey Marseilles has on the local music scene, but also because it was a Wednesday night and the 9-5 folk are usually ready to leave around 11:30. Later outside, one of the band members (I think Matt Bishop) described their music as "folkestra," a hybrid of folk and the orchestra pop that's been popping out of the woodwork these days.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to this show. All you have to do is e-mail tig@threeimaginarygirls.com before noon on Friday with "MSHVB/HM show" in the email subject line and your full name somewhere in the body of the message. The show is all-ages and HM promises to be unveiling some striking new t-shirts and even more striking new songs.