The Crocodile will play host to a lineup of local indie bands for a holiday cover show tonight, featuring the talents of Kris Orlowski, Eternal Fair, Exohxo, the First Times and Elk and Boar. Advocate for the everyman, Orlowski has taken to the stage around town following the late November release of his newest four-song album, Warsaw. The EP builds on the songwriting of last year’s full-length, Happiness is Waiting, which succeeded two previous albums (including a Christmas album to mark last year’s holiday season). Orlowski will apply his skills to some holiday classics again this evening, and is set to play a sold-out show at the Neptune on Jan. 4, along with Allen Stone.

Jingle Bell Indie Rock Holiday Cover Show

Doors: 8 p.m.

Tickets: $10

21+

-Kate Shepherd

Dreamy instrumentalists Corespondents will play tonight at The Sunset Tavern, sharing an opening slot with Shana Cleveland and the Sandcastles, and followed by Colt Kraft. After touring last year, the band returned to the northwest, armed with soft-edged lullaby-like tunes that mix eastern influences with a west coast sensibility. Plucked strings float over bouncy yet understated bass lines; muffled crooning and hazy guitars suggest cowboys’ heady daydreams. The combination culminates in a textured layering of sounds that, despite its ethereal quality, is far from boring, and should warm up tonight’s crowd with the same apparent ease expressed in their songwriting.

Doors: 9 p.m.

Tickets: $6

-Kate Shepherd

05 Juneau Wat by corespondents

Electronic Renaissance-woman Anomie Belle is poised to release her fifth album, Machine, at a free event at The Tractor Tavern on Dec. 14. With a musical pedigree that includes both multi-instrumental proficiency and studio know-how, the diversely-talented artist has already prompted positive responses from critics across the country. Machine’s marriage of synthetic backdrops, organic flourishes and haunting vocals creates an aesthetic that is at once eerie, melodious and at times, a little disconcerting, but is invariably unique. In the album’s title track, featuring Boston-born hip hop artist Mr. Lif, the songstress dissects the dangers of ambition based on materiality and self-absorption, over deceptively smooth beats and tastefully applied instrumentation. Anomie Belle will take the stage on Wednesday with her string quartet, Cataldo, and Michel Navedo.

Doors: 8 p.m.

No Cover

21+

-Kate Shepherd

Genre-bending electronic instrumentalists Spyn Reset will make an appearance at The Comet Tavern on Monday, along with pop rock newcomers Open Blue. Fresh from the recording studio, Spyn Reset are set to follow up their 2009 debut, Objects in the Abstract, in January. Composed of four musicians with disparate talents and tastes, the band self-produced their sophomore effort, the 11-track Four Dimensional Audio, which they say will combine the jazz-inflected spontaneity of their first album with a carefully constructed framework. Opening track "L.E.D." is a marriage of flowing synthetic melodies and the clean rhythmic structure provided by drummer Pierson Martin and percussionist Thomas Whiteside. The combination of compositional complexity and impulsive experimentation delivers what the band promises, and suggests growth that could help the recording eclipse their first outing.

Spyn Reset and Open Blue, December 12 @ The Comet Tavern

Doors: 9 p.m.

Cover: $5

-Kate Shepherd

Post-punk dissidents Virgin Islands will embark on another tour in the New Year, after spending much of 2011 on the road in support of their first full-length release, Ernie Chambers v. God. Singer/guitarist Mike Jaworski, drummer Aaron Ball, guitarist Chris Meyer and bassist Chuck Keller deliver a one-two of rumbling bass lines and searing guitar play that compliments the band’s frequently provocative lyrical bent. Punctuated by Ball’s driving rhythm, Virgin Islands’ first EP lives up to the promise of their four-track 2009 debut, The Age of Anxiety, which turned heads and teased palates eager for a taste of gritty, blistering and most of all, insurgent new music. The band will kick off their next 11-date tour in Seattle early in 2012.

February 17              Neumo’s (with Cursive and Ume)

Doors: 8 p.m.

Tickets: $15

-Kate Shepherd

Up-and-coming indie act Smokey Brights will bring their folky, soul-tinged rock to The Comet Tavern tomorrow night. After releasing their debut album, Can’t Rightly Say, this May, the band garnered the attention of local critics and concertgoers alike. They wrapped their first tour in November, which they documented in a series of postcards from the road, and are once again playing shows in town – including a sold out appearance at The Tractor on Nov. 23. Experimental duo Fort Union, the latest project from Friday Mile founder Jace Krause will also share the stage. Krause and Jake Rohr released Solstice Day Parade, their first single featuring ethereal melodies and rippling guitars, back in March, and have been building a following ever since.

Doors: 9 p.m.

Tickets: $8

-Kate Shepherd

Neo-soul buzz band Pickwick will make their final live appearance in Seattle tomorrow night, before a New Year’s Eve show in Wenatchee and a three-date circuit in Oregon to start 2012. Along with Campfire OK, the band will play to a full house at the Neptune Theater. Coming off a free show at Easy Street Records on Dec. 6, and an a cappella announcement for Thursday’s event, the six-piece former folk band promises to fill the one-time cinema with the moody keyboards, minimalistic guitar and swinging rhythms that have made them one of the city’s bands to watch over the past year. Pickwick is set to head into the studio to record their first full-length album, following a successful year for Myths, a compilation of EPs that helped affirm the band’s growing popularity.

Doors: 7 p.m.

Tickets: SOLD OUT

-Kate Shepherd

The Crocodile will play host to a benefit for Northwest Center Kids tomorrow night, featuring a handful of local acts. Colonies, the Icarus Kid, Ghost Town Riot and Smile for Diamonds will take the stage in support of the center’s child development program, which helps kids between six weeks to 12 years old, both with and without developmental disabilities. Relative newcomers Ghost Town Riot, who are currently in the process of recording a new full-length album, and the Icarus Kid, who released his self-titled debut album in September, will be joined by established indie rockers, Colonies. The mix of electronic and instrumental artists should ensure that concertgoers with varied tastes can have a great time while supporting an even better cause.

Doors: 8 pm

Tickets: $10

21+

-Kate Shepherd

Maru Mari (Metroid) by The Icarus Kid

Light-hearted power pop quartet the Hoot Hoots know how to have fun, and their newest release Appetite for Distraction proves it. On the shelves since Dec. 3, their second full-length album of the year is rife with singsong choruses, idyllic imagery and enough peppy riffing to keep listeners feeling fuzzy long after the last track has finished. The animated call and response dialogue in “Worlds” is alternately whimsical and unsettling, but never strays far from the lively spirit of the album. “All these men, I hope they get along,” sings frontman Adam Prairie, and it seems hard to picture any kind of confrontation with such a playful soundtrack. The album ends on the appropriately titled “No More Sad Songs”, an appeal for the end of others’ melancholy outlooks. With a handful of shows slated for the coming months, the Hoot Hoots will get the chance to combat those downers themselves, as they bring their party to the people.

The Hoot Hoots’ upcoming shows:

December 17 The Benbow Room in West Seattle

January 7 The High Dive in Fremont

January 28 The Skylark Cafe

-Kate Shepherd

On the heels of a live appearance on KEXP on Dec. 3, indie rock lightning rod Cristina Bautista will be back onstage at The Sunset Tavern tomorrow night, along with Los Angeles acts Mike Bloom and Miracle Parade. Performing songs from her Gold Parts EP, the six-song follow up to 2006’s This is the Team, Bautista’s live appearances promise an amplified version of the explosive energy found on her recordings. The Visqueen bassist performed in the band’s farewell show on Nov. 26, but the future looks promising for her solo endeavors, something Bautista’s unabashedly honest lyrics and optimistic delivery express with eloquence.

Doors: 9 p.m.

Tickets: $6 advance

-Kate Shepherd

For some, the winter holidays are a time of warmth and togetherness, shared with friends and loved ones. For others, it is a time of acute anxiety, insecurity and, sometimes, even ostracism. If you (or perhaps someone on your gift-giving list) fall into the latter category, then the season might just be the perfect time for the release of Please, Please, Please, a new compilation of tributes to the masters of angst-ridden romanticism, the Smiths. Washington outfits Solvents and Telekinesis have lent their talents to the 20-track ode to Morrissey et al, performing “Is It Really So Strange?” and “Sheila Take a Bow”, respectively. The album is due for release on Dec. 13 from American Laundromat Records.

-Kate Shepherd

Latest tracks by solvents

Michael Benjamin Lerner and company will play their second show of a four-date northwest mini tour tonight at The Crocodile. After an appearance last night in Bellingham, they’ll appear with the Young Evils and Caveman before making their way north. Telekinesis wrapped up a 13-stop American tour supporting February’s 12 Desperate Straight Lines in October, with Death Cab for Cutie and the New Pornographers, and returned to the coast for their last appearance before the new year. They’ll end their abbreviated tour in Portland, rejoined by Death Cab for Cutie.

Doors: 8 p.m.

Tickets: $13 advance

-Kate Shepherd

Telekinesis by telekinesismusic