The Animals at Night

(Easy Street, West Seattle) Graig Markel and Jeff McCallum started the Animals at Night, and their upcoming record features a bunch of indie rock stars such as Jeremiah Green of Modest Mouse, Nabil Ayers and Eric Corson of the Long Winters, Trent Moorman of Head Like a Kite (and The Stranger), and Daniel G. Harmann. But the Animals at Night aren’t what you’d expect from such a lineup—they don’t even have a guitar. The duo uses a slew of electronics to paint wonderfully mellow downtempo that’s littered with samples from records that span decades (old soul from the 1960s to 1980s pop). The new record (featuring the all-star lineup listed above), should be out early this year. MEGAN SELING

Cadillac Radio, Thunderbird Motel, Megasapien, Wright Brothers

(Comet) Oh, if the walls of the Thunderbird Motel on Aurora Avenue could talk. Think of the incredible stories of hookers and cocaine it could tell, the tales of unmatched bravado and human frailty. It would be sacrilege then if a band decided to use the name of Seattle’s landmark adultery shanty for anything other than pure, unadulterated rock and roll. Luckily, the band Thunderbird Hotel are everything you could hope from a musical incarnation of such a gritty, damnable place. They play straight-up, no-bullshit rock and roll with just the right amount of blues—the perfect soundtrack to the best night of your life, before you wake up and realize you’ve just ruined everything. JEFF KIRBY

“Unscrew the Croc” Benefit w/ Coconut Coolouts, The Intelligence, The Girls, Das Llamas

(Chop Suey) Another chance to help out the dumped employees of the old Crocodile Cafe (last weekend’s all-star benefit was a rousing success), with party tunes and punk rock provided by a handful of rad local bands. Everybody wins.