Exile in {Imaginary} Girlville

15 years ago Liz Phair released Exile in Guyville, her song for song answer to The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street. 6 years ago the awesome web site Three Imaginary Girls launched. Celebrate both anniversaries at the Exile in {Imaginary} Girlville bash Wednesday night at Chop Suey.

Here are the details TIG provided:

The night will features the songs from Liz Phair's debut record "Exile in Guyville" as interpreted by some of the best up-and-coming bands in the Northwest, including Throw Me the Statue, Team Gina, Star Anna, Tennis Pro, Lucy Bland, M. Bison, Tea Cozies, as well as special performances by Rachel Flotard of Visqueen and Lesli Wood of Ms. Led. The bands will perform the record in order, from "6'1"" to "Strange Loop" and everything in-between.

The night marks the 15th anniversary re-release of the record, as well as the sixth birthday of Three Imaginary Girls, and is co- sponsored by Easy Street Records, Seattle Sound Magazine, and 90.3 KEXP.



Poster by Seattle Show Posters

Recommended shows for the week of 3/23/08

Sunday the 23rd:
Visqueen at the Sunset (7:00pm)

Ms. Led/Siren’s Sister/Speaker Speaker at High Dive

The Greatest Hits on “Loud and Local” KISW 99.9FM (10:00pm)

Thursday the 27th:
Wig Pre-Bash with Blackie at the Comet

Curtains For You at the Tractor

Friday the 28th:
Wig Bash with Shim at High Dive

Cute Lepers/The Greatest Hits at King Cobra

Saturday the 29th:
Young Sportsman/Andy Werth at High Dive

Jon Auer at Fremont Abbey Arts Center (8:00pm)

Recommended shows for the week of 3/2/08

Sunday the 2nd:
Visqueen at the King Cobra

Thursday the 6th:
Harvey Danger at the Triple Door

Friday the 7th:
Magic Christian/Boss Martians/The Knast at the Comet

The Earaches/Branden Daniel & Everybody Gets Laid/The Bug Nasties at the Sunset

Saturday the 8th:
The Lund Bros./The I Love Myselfs/Doll Test at the Skylark

Detroit Cobras/The Blakes/Dragged By Horses at the High Dive

Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands/The Fucking Eagles/Star Anna at the Tractor

Visqueen tonight @ Sunset

Replacements Tribute/Kim Warnick Benefit

The following is an excerpt from a message sent by long time Replacements fan and KEXP DJ Kevin Cole:

Tuesday night you'll want to head over to the Comet Tavern for Seattle's Got a Boner - A Tribute to the Replacements. The night features Thee Sgt. Major III, The Small Change, Love Battery, Andrew McKeag and Ben London, Joe Reineke (Meices, Alien Crime Syndicate), Scott Kannberg (Pavement, Preston School of Industry), Jared Clifton (Radio Nationals), Massy Ferguson, John Ramberg (Model Rockets, Minus 5, Tripwires), and Transmissionary Six. Most importantly, all proceeds go to pay Seattle music veteran Kim Warnick's medical bills. Check it out!

Should be a great show and a lot of fun. Kim Warnick is the former bassist/vocalist of not one but two of Seattle’s all time great Powerpop bands, The Fastbacks and Visqueen.

Here’s a video from The Fastbacks:



Here’s one from Visqueen:



And to give you a taste of what to expect here’s a video shot last month when Kurt Bloch and Andrew McKeag teamed up at a previous benefit for Kim Warnick:



And finally how about one from The Replacements (Tommy must have been all of 12 years old):

Visqueen photo slideshow/live audio

Here's a slideshow w/live audio of Visqueen that I just came across via YouTube. The audio is from a KEXP show at the High Dive. The slide show includes older and more recent photos.

New Visqueen tunes

Hat tip to Three Imaginary Girls for hipping me to the fact that Visqueen has new songs posted on their myspace page. The songs appear to be for a new EP. Sounds like typical high-quality Visqueen output. Go check 'em out.

And while they're on your mind, they have a show slated for this Saturday, November 17th at Neumo's with The Walkmen.

Visqueen video & show tonight

Visqueen is playing the High Dive tonight as part of KEXP's audioasis. In fact, they've already done the early show and will be doing the late show in a few hours. So, you should head down there.

As a bonus, here's their video of "Crush On Radio."

Free Visqueen show on Thursday

Hat tip to Three Imaginary Girls for this bit of news:

Visqueen will be playing a free show this Thursday (8/23) at noon at the Seattle City Hall Plaza (700 Fifth Avenue, Seattle).

Visqueen & Bill Dwyer?

I'm at home today rather than work, and I happened to have the television on one of VH1's "I love the 90s" deals. Comedian Bill Dwyer was providing commentary on some banal 90s topic, and I happened to notice something interesting. It looks like he was wearing a Visqueen t-shirt. Anyone know if there is a connection between the two, or is he perhaps just a fan?


Rachel Flotard of Visqueen: Photo credit - Steven Dewall

Visqueen video

Photos: The Small Change and The Nice Boys

As I mentioned earlier, I showed up at the Sunset Tavern this past Saturday just in time to hear Visqueen announce "thank you, goodnight" from the stage. So, that's sucked. But, the rest of the night was entertaining.

On next was The Nice Boys from Portland. Their set was somewhat shambolic, but still very rock and roll in a 1970s CBGBs kind of way that I fully appreciated. The whole thing felt like it could careen off the rails at any moment. But, it never did, and they ended their set with my favorite tune of theirs, called "Teenage Nights."

Here's a shot of their guitar player.


The Nice Boys

Third on the bill was the Buffalo Killers. I didn't get any good pictures of them. But, I'm not sure it would've done them justice anyway. They came out and just blew the doors off in a very 1960s power trio kind of way. I'd never want to hang the albatross of this comparison upon anyone, but I was reminded of the Hendrix trio and of Creem. My friend Chris said he felt the drummer was a direct descendant of John Bonham. And having these guys follow The Nice Boys made for an interesting study in musical aesthetic. Both rocked, but they couldn't have been more different in their approaches.

Closing out the night was The Small Change. These guys always rock nuts, and they did just that on Saturday. Greg's energy and enthusiasm for what he's doing is infectious and they write great tunes. I'm hoping they get their butts back into the studio for a new release sometime soon.

I took a bunch of shots, but they all sucked. So, here's one of Greg that's been photoshopped to be slightly more interesting.


The Small Change - Greg

The Nice Boys - video & show tonight (5/5)

Down at The Sunset Tavern tonight you'll be able to catch The Nice Boys and The Small Change. Supposedly Buffalo Killers are on the bill, too. But, last night at the Comet, the buzz was that they had to cancel and that a surprise set by Visqueen was going to happen. I have no idea if that's reality or not. So, take it for the rumor that it is. The Sunset's website makes no reference of this.

In the meantime, here's some footage of The Nice Boys to get you ready for the rock. The song, "Teenage Nights," begins with a most excellent cowbell. :)

Visqueen performance video

Here's a video of Visqueen performing "Last to Know" live at the Crocodile Cafe.

Visqueen & Llama "secret shows"

I'm not sure exactly how secret they can be if we're able to read myspace bulletins about them. But, this just in from Visqueen:

Dudes:

A week from today Visqueen boards a plane bound for London to support Neko Case on a fall UK tour. Ben's language lessons are going great and he's got a real handle on "English" and “Irish”.

Starting tomorrow, Jules Maes in Seattle's beloved Georgetown neighborhood will secretly open it’s bar doors to host two nights of Visqueen warm up shows. Rusty Willoughby's master-threepiece LLAMA joins us on this very rare and special double-decker occasion.

Tuesday 10/24 & Wednesday 10/25
Jokes start at 9.

Love,
Rachel

Visqueen video - Crush on Radio