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Alicia Dara w/Jean Mann

Genre: Pop , Pop-Rock , Singer-songwriter

Alicia has appeared in such venues as The Knitting Factory in New York City, Genghis Cohen in LA, and The Limelight in Nashville, as well as locally in Bumbershoot, Folklife, at the Crocodile, and the High Dive. Her latest CD "The Secret Dream of Tigers" was released in 2008 on Chroma Records and is available through ITunes.

Tonight's timeline is as follows:

9-9:45 Jean Mann

10-10:45 Alicia Dara

11-11:45 Julia Massey

Alyse Black

Genre: Indie , Pop , Singer-songwriter

1. Thursday, December 30 7:30 PM (All ages)

Local singer/songwriter. Black's music is described as indie pop with jazz influences, in the vein of artists such as Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor and Norah Jones. Her song "Stood for Stand for", which was featured on Black's debut album Too Much & Too Lovely, won Billboard's 2007 World Song Contest in the Jazz category.

http://www.alyseblack.com/Alyse_Black_-_Home_of_the_Siren.html

Emily Wells with Anomie Belle

Genre: Classical , Hip Hop , Pop , Rock

Emily Wells:

I love rap music and Vivaldi. Nina Simone and Biggie Smalls make my world go round. The first record i really, you know, heard, in headphones, was Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence". I play the violin and have since i was a little kid. Growing up, my home was filled with music. There was a lot of singing, french horn playing, and symphony listening, plus youth orchestras, church choirs and xylophones, I use to listen to the classic rock station in a three up front car with my two best friends, the windows cracked and the Indiana winter creeping in. I was born in Texas.

I love the studio, it could very well be my favorite place, (especially when it's raining). So I do a lot of live sampling and looping in an attempt to bring the studio to the stage. All the live looping is like a sporting event, or keeping the first take of every recording. I could fall off the balance beam... which makes it all so much more exciting.

As a dirty teen I would sneak into a tiny jazz hole in the wall almost every night and watch the band play. My favorite person there was an old upright bass player with a bushy smile. The women who worked there knew I wasn't of age... They served me coffee while I fell in love with jazz and live performance.

I really like to make beats, sample old records, but I often leave the beats up to my favorite drummer, Sam. Joey is the bass player and together we make a live trio. I started playing with them both a couple of years ago while making my first record "Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks." Even though I made and released a number of cassette tapes and CDs before that, I call "Sleepyhead" the first because all the others were similar to going to college. Very important, very influential to my future, but mostly, they were about learning. This year I released my latest work, "The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties", which consists of 10 songs heavily influenced by classical music and hip hop production.

I'm interested in old or odd instruments, samplers and synthesizers, mallets, and analogue reverb. I collect toy pianos, though I only have three. I'm interested in songs, and word play, and sonatas. I'm curious.... Most of all, I'm grateful for every day I get to make music.

http://www.myspace.com/emilywells

Anomie Belle:

Anomie Belle (born Toby Campbell 7 August 1980) is an American musician. Originally a classical violinist and songwriter from Portland, Anomie Belle began performing and recording her own music as a child. She has since worked as a musician and producer in Madrid, Glasgow, Amsterdam, New York, Buenos Aires, and London before moving to Seattle in 2006 to focus exclusively on Anomie Belle. Anomie Belle is also active as a film composer.

Anomie Belle is noted for her provocative vocals and lyrics set to complex, often down-tempo, beats and layers of herself on strings, electric guitars, and synths. Haunting melodies and experimental soundscapes transport listeners through the crowded nature of their modern minds and urban spaces. Her material also grapples with issues ranging from suburban alienation, consumerism, human spirituality and sexuality.

http://www.anomiebelle.com/

Grand Hallway w/ Nick Jaina & Drew Victor

Genre: Atmospheric , Pop

1. Wednesday, November 17 7:30 PM (All ages)

GH were recently on the cover of CITY ARTS MAGAZINE. Grand Hallway is an eight piece orchestral pop band from Seattle, Washington. Featuring singer/songwriter Tomo Nakayama (Asahi, Jen Wood Trio) and various members of local favorites Voyager One, the Maldives, Sleepy Eyes of Death, Widower, and Shenandoah Davis, Grand Hallway's lush, baroque pop songs evoke influences such as The Smiths, Andrew Bird, the Beach Boys, and Nina Simone. In the two years following the release of their debut album and the follow up EP, Grand Hallway have honed their live show with tours of the West Coast and Japan (with Arthur and Yu and Shugo Tokumaru), local shows at Neumo's, Tractor Tavern, and the Crocodile, and performances at the 2008 Sasquatch! Festival, building a solid and loyal fanbase along the way.

http://www.grandhallway.com/

http://www.myspace.com/grandhallway

Guy Sebastian

Genre: Pop , R&B , Singer-songwriter , Soul

Recently, in a dingy bar with the slightly unusual name of Drom on New York's Lower East Side, Guy Sebastian found himself playing to an audience of eight. And he loved it.



"I played a residency in that bar for a month, and no one had any idea who I was, but it grew from a few people to a few hundred people. The whole experience of doing that has been so satisfying," says Guy. "It's been really good for my soul."



And a huge serving of soul is exactly what informs Guy Sebastian's fifth studio album Like It Like That. If there's one thing that this album will do, it will move both your feet and your heart and get right into your bones whether you like it or not.



Recorded over the first six months of 2009 in Los Angeles and New York, the album was produced by David Ryan Harris (John Mayer, Mariah Carey, Neville Brothers), and Fredrick Rodesjo - with Mayer himself featuring on guitar on a few tracks - "All To Myself", "Fail To Mention" and "Never Be You".



The result is an album of true musical depth, an album which perfectly showcases the rare and charismatic talent of one Guy Sebastian. It's all about big sounds, bigger beats, blasting horns and those oh-so-soulful Sebastian vocals.



And for the first time creatively, Sebastian says he's exactly where he wants to be.



"I'm in a really happy place musically," says Guy, "because this is exactly the style of music I want to do and that I've wanted to do for so long. It's not about me changing the world; it's just about fun music - pure and simple."



Indeed it is. One of the album's standout tracks, "All To Myself", will hit you with a great big tidal wave of sound and get you up and dancing. With its nods to classic'60s soul - from the beautiful harmonies of the soulful backing vocals, to the big blast of the horn section, this song rises and rises again to a joyous crescendo, which will have you moving before you realise it.



"It just opens up into to this happy love song," says Guy. "It's about when you don't want to share someone, but you know you're gonna have to or you're going to have to let it go".



If "All To Myself" gets you moving, the album's title track and first single, "Like It Like That", is a bonafide dancefloor hit. There's no doubt this is the album's true party song. The opening claps and Wurlitzer organ immediately takes you away to a grooving place of musical fun. Then there's the soul that pulses through "Attention", which is given added oomph by a booming horn section and a light guitar that skips and jolts and gives the whole tune rhythm.



There's the lush, orchestral sounds of "Bring Yourself", a romantic ode to Guy's wife of just over a year, Jules. Then there's the exquisite "Fail To Mention" (with an equally exquisite guitar solo from John Mayer), which showcases the true depth of Guy Sebastian's rare vocal talents. It will make you feel and make you smile, and it's sure to be played at a million weddings.



"With my ballads, I want to break people's hearts or inspire them to love," says Guy. "It's more of a personal thing than a political thing. When someone puts my songs on the radio, I want it to lift them from whatever they're feeling. Make them feel great, make them move, make them feel happy."



Another of the album's tracks, the funky, bass-heavy "Never Hold You Down" - which has something very Jackson 5 about it - is Guy's personal favourite.



"This I wrote about a friend of mine, who is wonderful. She's one of those girls that you would hate to be her boyfriend, because you would know as much as you would want to believe that you've got her, you know that you don't... I'll never be able to hold you down."



There is no doubt that Like It Like That will stamp Guy Sebastian as a true soul singer with a unique modern sound.



"I wrote the music on this album based on how I feel when I listen to the Otis Reddings and the Wilson Picketts of the world. I'll put that music on and it always just lifts me and makes me feel great."



With Like It Like That, Guy just wants whoever hears it to just enjoy.and you won't have a choice. The sounds of Like It Like That will make you feel something very strong indeed.



"Music is so powerful. It's powerful enough on a personal level, without me trying to change the world," says Guy. "I just want to change someone's 10 minutes on the way to work."



One listen of Like It Like That, and there's no absolutely no question that Guy Sebastian will do just that. Turn it up and dance.

Happy Hour: Jubilee

Genre: Pop , Rock , Soul , Soul Jazz

Seattle based JUBILEE is a non-profit band - redistributing wealth through music. They play a nourishing, "gut-felt" blend described as "tropical jazz/global soul/garden rock" (think Coldplay/Jeff Buckley living in Brazil). JUBILEE enthusiastically gives half of all CD sales to the International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) - a group that fights forced child prostitution and slavery around the world.

Listen to JUBILEE on their website at www.livejubilee.org

Happy Hour: Kacey Evans

Genre: Country , Hip Hop , Jazz , Pop

Pianist and singer Kacey Evans has about as much fun making music as should be allowed. His unnervingly broad repertoire begins with jazz and standards, but includes rock, country, hip-hop, and up-to-the-minute throwaway pop. Drawing on all these elements, he weaves a musical tapestry, which he then drapes over a couple of chairs, and makes a fort. His warm baritone voice, instrumental acumen, sardonic wit, and amenability to requests make him a favorite with audiences who like that sort of thing.       

A native of western Washington, Kacey worked as a cruise ship bandleader out of Miami and Los Angeles, and later as a freelance pianist and arranger in Las Vegas. He returned to the Northwest in 2002, when he began producing electronic music. In 2006, following a four-month engagement in Dubai, UAE, Kacey began performing regularly in the Seattle area as a jazz instrumentalist and piano entertainer. He appeared most recently on Earshot Jazz's 2008 Album of the Year, Byron Vannoy's Meridian.    

Kaylee Cole

Genre: Piano , Pop

Not even two years ago, Kaylee Cole sat down at a piano. It had been nearly a decade since the twenty-two year old had played, and as her hands and her voice gently cozied up to a sound that was earnest, almost unconsciously haunting, and breathtaking in its elegant sincerity, her brain opened up to a style of songwriting that reflects a careful reverence toward what it means to be human.

With the release of her first full-length album this month, We’re Still Here Missing You, Cole goes to show how art that emerges quickly and effortlessly is often the stuff that penetrates the deepest into the core of its audience. It’s the blackberry bush that pops up out of nowhere—ripe, healthy, and confident—then quickly becomes the fruit, the comfort, the decadence that you rely on most. You didn’t even know how much you craved/adored/needed blackberries, but when they thrust themselves into your universe, they are simultaneously exotic and familiar. A welcome change from your supermarket apples and bananas; they are repeatedly refreshing.

Cole grew up in the quiet, wee town of Bay View, Washington, then moved to Spokane in 2005 to study business. Just months after she hunkered down with a keyboard—revisiting the wispy memories of childhood piano lessons and essentially re-teaching herself the nuances of music—Cole played her first Spokane show in April 2007. By January 2008, she was out in Seattle on a mini seven-show tour that warmed the ears of repeatedly rapt audiences. Cole’s diverse audiences across Pacific Northwest gigs have gobbled up her two EPs, waiting hungrily for the release of the album.

Recorded in September 2008 We’re Still Here Missing You, collates Cole’s unpretentious lyricism with a style of music that does not waver in its organic attention to unique, charming melodies.

By turns smoky and whimsical, the changes within a single vowel sound can hook a listener into Cole’s thoughtful, lovely world. Before you know it, your mouth is so crammed full with fifteen huge blackberries—some sweet, some tart, some complicated—and you’re so enormously satisfied you don’t even noticed the thick line of juice dripping off your chin.

-Jane Berentson, New York, NY, November 2008

Kinsey Sicks: Each Hit and I

Genre: A cappella , Comedy , Folk , Political , Pop

THE KINSEY SICKS, America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet, assault all the senses in their brand new musical show, Each Hit & I, coming to The Triple Door August 29th & 30th.

Spawned in San Francisco 16 years ago, THE KINSEY SICKS combine rich, four-part harmony, biting satire and over-the-top drag. THE KINSEY SICKS have performed in 40 states, Mexico, Canada, Australia and Europe. Billboard Magazine calls them “one act that should not be missed” and the New York Times has praised their “voices sweet as birdsong.”

 THE KINSEY SICKS starred in their own Off-Broadway show at New York’s legendary Studio 54 and have headlined in Las Vegas. They have been the subject of two feature films, both of which premiered at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

Coinciding with their run at the The Triple Door is the release of their seventh album, also entitled "Each Hit & I." Read more about the Kinsey Sicks at www.kinseysicks.com.

In their all-new musical review, “KINSEY SICKS: EACH HIT & I,” the girls treat us to an evening of politics, personal revelations, social critique, sexual foibles and plain old raunch – all in glorious four-part harmony! According to THE KINSEY SICKS, “Each Hit & I” is an intimate evening, in which the audience can enjoy the dragapella divas “without the constraints of plot, the shackles of good taste, the false god of talent -- or the illusion of refunds.”

In addition to hilarious new original songs, THE KINSEY SICKS brilliantly skewer Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Katy Pery, Amy Winehouse and other icons of pop culture through their sharp parodies. THE KINSEY SICKS promise you that you will not be disappointed. You’ll be appalled, but not disappointed.

For more information, visit http://www.kinseysicks.com/

Lucy Woodward

Genre: Folk , Pop , Singer-songwriter

"I grew up," Lucy Woodward says of Hooked!, her third album and her Verve Records debut. "As you get older and make more music, you gain a better understanding of who you are and what you need to feel satisfied. That's what this record is for me."

The 12-song album's emotional depth, organic musicality and personally-charged songcraft will come as a revelation to listeners who are only familiar with Woodward via her 2003 pop hit "Dumb Girls." Seamlessly drawing from a deep well of vintage jazz, swing, R&B and Latin music influences, Hooked! marks Woodward as an effortlessly engaging, deeply expressive vocalist, an insightful, disarmingly witty songwriter, and distinctive, charismatic interpreter of outside material.

Woodward's formidable songwriting talents animate the slyly swinging "He Got Away," the tongue-in-cheek, yet direct “Babies,” the bittersweet breakup song "Purple Heart," the liltingly blue "Slow Recovery" and the playfully humorous "Too Much to Live For." Another highlight is the breezily elegant "Another Woman," especially written for Lucy by admirer Nellie McKay, who lends her harmony vocals to the track. Woodward's interpretive gifts are also showcased on her hauntingly seductive reading of the obscure Peggy Lee number "Sans Souci," her poignant take on Hoagy Carmichael's 1930s pop standard "Stardust," and a rousing rendition of "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)," originally sung by Louis Prima in Disney's The Jungle Book, and a tune that Woodward has been singing since her teens.

"I wanted to make a modern-day torch record, but I didn't want to do a record of all standards, because I had stuff I wanted to say," says Woodward, adding, "This is the first time I've made a record where I didn't write or co-write all of the songs. At first I was resistant to the idea of doing covers, but then I fell in love with the process of taking a song and trying to make it my own. And I could never write a song like 'I Wan'na Be Like You' or 'Stardust' or 'Sans Souci,' so why limit myself?"

Woodward recorded the bulk of Hooked! with legendary producer Tony Visconti, best known for his seminal work with David Bowie and T. Rex. Visconti also plays guitar, bass, ukulele, autoharp and various other instruments on the album, as well as providing string and horn arrangements. Additional tracks on Hooked! were produced by Justin Stanley (Nikka Costa, Eric Clapton) and longtime Woodward collaborators Tim K. (Les Nubians, Colette, Esthero) and Itaal Shur (Groove Collective, Santana).

The new album features vivid, inventive arrangements that incorporate an adventurous array of instrumental textures while keeping the focus firmly on Woodward's voice. "There's not a lot of bells and whistles on this record, and everything was recorded straight-up live," Woodward notes. "What I miss in a lot of music these days is the actual breath that lets a singer act and dance through their voice. There is so much musicality in that, but a lot of music now is so processed that that is gone. So I wanted to allow space for breath on this record, which I'd never really done quite this way."

Hooked! is both a dynamic creative reinvention and a compelling return to Woodward's musical roots. The child of a composer/conductor father and an opera singer/musicologist/teacher/belly dancer mother, Lucy was born in London and spent part of her early childhood in Amsterdam, before moving with her parents to New York at the age of five. Growing up in the cultural melting pot of the Bronx, she absorbed a range of musical styles, from salsa to house music.

http://www.myspace.com/lucywoodward