There's a whole cavalcade of delicately dear boys in town tonight. Head to the Triple Door for pretentious Juilliard grad/Philip Glass collaborator Nico Muhly who composes and plays experimental classical works. He's part of the 802 Tour, along with Sam Amidon and Doveman, who recently covered the Footloose soundtrack non-ironically and in its entirety. It's actually his touching and bittersweet tribute to a childhood friend's half-sister. For reals. Stream the whole thing at Doveman's website.......

RETAIL AMBIVILENCE: Ballard boutique Olivine is closing—quelle tragédie! The store had designer favorites, as well as a healthy dose of local designer treats, guaranteeing that you won't show up to a party in the same outfit as anyone else. Over the next few days, Olivine will have a store-closing sale, with prices from 50-70 percent off—quel plaisir! August 13-17 // Olivine // 50-70% of regular prices HAPPY MUSICALS: Remember when musicals were based on......

Yes, there's other shows this weekend besides the Capitol Hill Block Party. Tonight, there's The Watson Twins, who will bring their lovely harmonies and creepy identical-ness to the Tractor. And if you're lucky, they'll cover The Cure: For something completely different, there's Kill Hannah, along with The Medic Droid and Innerpartysystem at El Corazon. Or head to the Sunset for the island-smooth pedal steel guitar stylings of Neko Case sideman Jon Rauhouse, with Visqueen's own......

Boy, we wish we'd heard about this one sooner, before we tied ourselves to the Block Party. Nicole Atkins writes lovely, singer-songwritery tunes backed exquisitely by the busy-but-purposeful accompaniment of her backup band, aptly named the Sea. She's also gorgeous and has a voice the size of Manhattan, and the smarts to know how to control it, when to back off, when to let it rip. Check it: 10 p.m. // Triple Door // $20......

NOT BURLESQUE: Columbia City Theater is a really great room to watch singer-songwriters do their thing. Tonight, the room will host a CD release party for the exquisitely talented Shenandoah Davis, featuring special guest Molly Rose, and others. Grab a drink and kick back in the old Vaudeville theater for a night of introspective, arty songwriting. 8 p.m. // Columbia City Theater // $10 I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED FOR SPEED: Pacific Science Center's......

Electro-Pop: Matmos released their new record, Supreme Balloon, to acclaim back on May 6. The Baltimore-based pop/electronica duo have moved away from the conceptual electronic compositions of their earlier work and deliver a record of "cosmic pop" deliciousness. Check out the song "Rainbow Flag" [mp3] here, and check out the band down at the Triple Door tonight. 8 p.m. // 216 Union St. // $20 (+ don't forget about the Triple Door's seating policy) Guilty......

POLITICALLY CRAFTY: If you're a Washingtonian for Obama and you love arts and crafts, you'll love making buttons for Obama. The buttons you make will be passed out locally at voter registration and special events, and in communities as far away as West Virginia. Make a difference with a small piece of metal. 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. // Vivace Espresso // 901 East Denny Way // FREE JOB HUNTING/LIFE SEARCHING: Richard Bolles, author......

SCIENCE WITH A TWIST: We've always had fun at the Pacific Science Center's monthly events for adults. If you enjoy science and drinking, you can't get much better than this. This month's event is focused around their new exhibit, Speed, and a drink they're calling the "Turbo Charger." Win tickets to the new Batman movie, watch a speed-themed movie on the IMAX screen, and eat and drink to your heart's content. 6 p.m. Happy Hour,......

The end is near. Come Sunday night, this year's SIFF will come to a close. There are still plenty of great films showing, so if you haven't hit the fest yet, you've still got time to catch a flick or two before the movie fun is done. Saturday's closing night film selection is Bottle Shock, based on the true story of how the Napa Valley wine industry made a name for themselves: by beating......

SALMAN RUSHDIE: He'll be hitting Town Hall tonight to read from his latest effort, The Enchantress of Florence. According to the press release, it sounds like it's one of those quasi-fictional tales pitting opposites against each other (and, possibly, in the process, showing how opposites attract?). Tickets are available at University Bookstore for $5 a pop, or you can just buy a copy of the novel and use that as your entry. 7:30 p.m.......

NOT THE YANKEES: The Mariners, bless their hearts for trying, will take on the Red Sox tonight at Safeco Field. We weren't impressed with the one game we already saw this year, but we're willing to cheer on the home team tonight as they take on that East Coast team that's not the Yankees. 7:10 p.m. // Safeco Field // $7-73 BIG, BIG VOICE: British singer/songwriter Adele will be gracing the stage at the Triple......

That's what opener Anna Ternheim dubbed the Ternheim-Li-del Mar lineup at the Triple Door last night, the "Swedish girls tour." She was the solo singer/songwriter of the night, with a throaty, room-filling voice, a setlist stuffed with love and anti-love songs, and a guitar. (She also took over the grand piano.) "That one was about a girl who's a stalker," she mentioned off-handedly. "Any stalkers here tonight?" Her songs often ended surprisingly, in mid-flow. Twice......

HOT! SHORTS! SUNBURN! SPRING!: Or should we say "SUMMER!"? It's going to be hot and sunny and clear today. You can do something with that, or you can sit under a tree and do nothing. Just put on some shorts and a tank top while you do whatever it is you do to revel under father sky. We wanna see some skin in Cal Anderson Park today. Also, skin will likely be visible at......

POLAR BEAR APPRECIATION: If you’ve heard about global warming affecting the polar bears, you’ll want to head down to the Point Defiance Zoo for Bear Awareness Week. Learn more about the plight of the polar bear and watch the resident polar bears, Blizzard, Glacier, Kenneth and Boris, frolic. 9:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. // Point Defiance Zoo // $11 (adults) HUNGRY: In the not-so-starved neighborhood of Ravenna, author Mark Winne reads from his book, Closing......

We seem to be covering the benefit beat lately--Wednesday night David Schmader takes over the Triple Door to "annotate" Paul Verhoeven's "film" Showgirls. It's to raise money for the the Urban Rest Stop, a "hygiene center" downtown. We're for a free place for people to freshen up, don't get us wrong. It's just funny to have the Showgirls tie-in, in that the one and only time we watched it we had to take a long......

Don't call it a comeback, but the Cherry Poppin' Daddies have a new album out (Susquehanna) after a nearly ten-year hiatus. The '90s swing revival band plays two shows tonight at the Triple Door. Seems like local quartet Lucy Bland play a show every weekend. Tonight the blip-happy electro-pop band are at the Comet, and coming up at the High Dive, they're on the bill for the one of the many Noise for the Needy......

Laura Veirs has been writing and performing dreamy folk and pop songs for nearly a decade. She graces Seattle with a solo performance this Friday night at the Triple Door. 7:30pm & 10pm (21+) // Triple Door // $17 adv, $20 dos // Liam Finn opens Seattlest: Can you tell us a little about the solo tour? Laura Veirs: I start on Wednesday in Vancouver and then the second show will be in Seattle. It's......

MUSICAL: Just you wait, 'Enry 'Iggins! Lerner & Loewe's proto-Pretty Woman fantasia, My Fair Lady, opens at the Paramount, starring British theatre actors Christopher Cazenove and Lisa O'Hare as Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. The production unites the original U.K. artistic team with Trevor Nunn (director), Matthew Bourne (choreography and musical staging), and Anthony Ward (production design). 7:30 p.m. // Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine Street // Tickets: $25-$72 MUSIC: Peter Morén, the lead......

Head to the Showbox this weekend for Ghostland Observatory tonight and tomorrow night. We've seen the Austin duo thrice before, and we can guarantee their yelpy dance-rock is much better live than in the recorded form (and much better in a packed and sweaty room like the Showbox than a spacious outdoor venue). Also two days in a row: local epic shoegazers Voyager One, who have a free listening party for new album Afterhours In......

ENVIRONMENT: Down at the Aquarium, KC Golden, policy director of Climate Solutions, talks with KING 5 meteorologist Jeff Renner about the innovative work the state is doing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and the history of the struggle to get global warming on the public's radar, concluding with the obligatory list of "things you can do." There's a reception with light refreshments beforehand. 7-9 p.m. // Seattle Aquarium, 1483 Alaskan Way // Tickets: $20......

If you're familiar with the Asylum Street Spankers, you don't need us to fumble through explaining their sound, their talents, or their puckish charm. If you have no clue who they are or what they do, we urge you to educate yourself. ("Hick Hop" represents just one "genre" they've invented.) Ultimately, what the Spankers are is unmissable. So if you did miss their two shows at the Triple Door on Friday, we feel sorry......

As previously mentioned, tonight's Wig Bash at the High Dive, as well as the second, final, and sold-out performance of Nada Surf at the Showbox. Also sold out: Springsteen at Key Arena Saturday. But never fear, there's still other options out there, like Golem at Nectar tomorrow night. We don't know much about them, but we've heard that the six-piece klezmer band play "Eastern European drinking songs" and that they're "fun as hell." That's enough......

MUSIC: The question of the day is whether to hear Jens Lekman at Neumos or a re-formed The Cult. It's six of one, half-dozen of the other, isn't it? But since The Cult show is sold out, you're better off dropping by Neumos for Swedish indie pop. His new album, says Pitchfork, spans "the baroque pop of Scott Walker, the upbeat rhythms and bright harmonies of Northern soul, and the beach-party disco of fellow......

Last weekend was dead, so of course this weekend there's approximately one bajillion bands playing. We've already mentioned Kaki King, Dengue Fever, and Born Ruffians, so here's the other weekend shows of interest: Tonight, Boredoms will be at Neumo's for their first show in Seattle in thirteen years. Though Pitchfork describes them as a "beauty and noise machine," it's pretty clear that, at least live, they're heavier on the noise than the beauty. Some clips......

THEATRE: Young Jean Lee's Theater Company presents Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven (A Show about White People in Love), which is an aggressively exotic title for someone raised in Pullman, WA.Writer/director Young Jean Lee's worst nightmare was to make a confessional, ethnic identity play with a flowery Asian-sounding title. So, the young NYC-based artist did just that [...] a character named "Korean-American" navigates increasingly disturbing levels of a pseudo-Korean world intercut with......

Mike Doughty (yeah, he used to be in some other band) has a new album out this week, Golden Delicious. We saw him at the Triple Door in December for his Question Jar tour; he sat on stage and played songs (even one from that other band), occasionally drawing questions written by the audience from a large glass jar and answering them with charming humor and candor. Most felicitously, we didn't even have to ask......

When Mono In VCF took the stage Saturday night, Mrs. Seattlest had to shut our mouth for us as singer Kim Miller sauntered up to the microphone in a little black dress and a pair of high-heeled boots straight out of our best dreams. We don't mean to be crass, of course. But it was... nice. And then the lights came up, but just a little. And a guitar began its slinky strum, the haunting......

Lounge lizards the Dudley Manlove Quartet take over the Triple Door tonight for two "Valentine's Day Swingout" performances. The video above, crappy sound notwithstanding, gives you a good idea of how much fun audiences have at a DMQ show. For this highly romantic Triple Door appearance, we're told:Paul Jensen, the band's lead singer, will serenade the crowd with everyone's favorite slow jams (and maybe some fast ones too!) There will be a dance floor,......

Not so long ago, wandering the halls of a local music venue, we noticed a cool-looking poster for a band called Mono in VCF. Strange name, we thought. Some nights later, making dinner at home. Kind of half-listening to KEXP when a song came on that sounded at once old and new. We turned the volume up and listened as an arresting female voice pleaded with us to "run fast, escape..." as a troupe of......

It felt like a veritable love fest inside the elegant Triple Door Wednesday night. Petals of adoration rained down upon the boys of Nada Surf and even with the sold out crowd, it seemed like we recognized more people than not. Bloggers, photographers, local musicians (The Long Winters were in attendance) -- all were there to show love. The first half of the set was largely focused on new material from the band's fifth LP,......