Occasionally - albiet it mostly rarely these days - I will venture out to see a band that I literally know nothing about. I will usually try to listen to one or two tracks of theirs beforehand, but my time these days for extended research is rare. I will say though, that when I do take these "leaps of faith" (which I at one point called a JOB) I am often very pleasantly surprised at the outcome. This was happily the case when I decided to stop into Knitting Factory one night a few weeks ago by myself at a publicists request to check out Imaginary Cities.
The band, who hail from Winnipeg, captivated their first NYC crowd ever - that might even be an understatement. Duo Marti Sarbit and Rusty Matyas pack a one two punch of stellar vocals (she blew me away, honestly) over tunes both soulful and undeniably catchy. Add on the fact that 1. they have been together for only a year or so 2. they have opened for acts like Ra Ra Riot, the Weakerthans, The Dears, Young Galaxy and The Besnard Lakes, and 3. they were handpicked by Black Francis to open for THE PIXIES on their recent Doolittle Canadian Tour - and I'm pretty sure you cannot deny that Imaginary Cities are going some very real places.
Their debut album, Temporary Resident, is out now on Hidden Pony Records and you can sample a track below.
Imaginary Cities - Hummingbird
