Friday, Feb. 4: Heatwarmer

Northern

By Jason Baxter on February 2, 2011

Young Seattle band Heatwarmer have an interesting vibe and clearly, there's a lot of talent going around between its four members, who gig from time to time at Seattle's jazz and progressive-friendly college-area bars. There's a "School of Music" approach evident in their sound, but also a real adult contemporary schmaltziness that feels more accidental than ironic (which is how it should be). Some of their songs take crazy, daring left turns, following strange and twisty paths in a figurative, ramshackle vessel cobbled together from the scraps of numerous musical varietals (jazz, folk, rock, country, world, etc.). File them under "potpourri" maybe, but whatever you do, don't shrug off their super-heated sound just because they've got a dorky song called "We've Got the Beat" (ugh). 

[Northern, with Beep, Ben Kamen, 8 p.m., all-ages, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]