Songstress Erin McKeown will be performing at the very first show to be held in the Ninth Ward, the newly christened lounge in the basement of Ani DiFranco’s Babeville at the Church. McKeown is noted for her genre-defying style, which has touched on everything from pop to rock, electronic to swing. Starting out on the folk scene while still a student at Brown University, the now 30 year-old McKeown has five albums, two EPs and numerous compilations and soundtrack credits under her belt, in addition to playing an average of 200 live shows every year. Her latest album, Lafayette (Signature Sounds), was released in September of last year and was her first live album, featuring her vocal and multi-instrumental talents as well as her six piece Little Big Band. McKeown’s fourth album, 2005’s We Will Become Like Birds (Nettwerk Records) was a huge critical success, the Boston Globe saying: “Her playing is so muscular, her arrangements so well conceived…she succeeds brilliantly.” Without having taken a break from touring in nearly ten years, McKeown’s live shows are a treat to all who attend, and the lounge-like atmosphere of the Ninth Ward should make for an intimate venue. Opening the show is local singer/songwriter and Buffalo Music Award winner Dee Adams.

Between 1995 and 2001, Anders Parker recorded and performed under the name Varnaline, both solo and with a backing band. Virtually ignored by mainstream audiences, Varnaline was nonetheless a critics’ darling, with such recordings as Man Of Sin, Sweet Life and Songs From a Northern Key. Veering between psychedelic noise and gentle folk, the band won praise from fans such as Steve Earle and Jay Farrar (with whom Parker has since collaborated with under the name Gob Iron). Parker dissolved the Varnaline moniker in 2002 and began performing under his own name. His debut solo record, Tell It to the Dust, garnered attention for its mellow Laurel Canyon sound while his most recent self titled release is a collection of electronic beats and loops that filter through sparse folk arrangments. When he performed at Mohawk Place this past August, his collision of straightforward songs and sound collage was an awe inspiring show and it left the audience amazed, winning many new fans along the way. Also on the bill are Tracy Morrow and the Magi Chippie and Ellen West. Please note that this is an early show and will be done by 10pm. The show will be followed by Mohawk Place’s monthly Transmission Dance Party: the Smiths vs. the Cure, at 11pm.

A darling of the crtics this year, Jersey-born Italian girl Nicole Atkins is being hailed as a “next big thing” in the manner of Amy Winehouse or Corinne Bailey Rae. Looking and sounding the part of a sultry torch singer, Atkins’ February/March tour will hop from east to west coast, culminating in the four day SXSW Festival to be held in Austin, Texas, in mid-March. Atkins is one of the most highly anticipated acts at this year’s Festival, and she’s not hitting a whole lot of cities on her way so we should count ourselves lucky that her third gig of the tour will be played in Buffalo. Let’s count ourselves even more lucky that it’s booked at an atmospheric venue like Soundlab. Atkins’ husky voice and compelling looks seem like they’d be best heard and viewed through those veiled layers of smoke particular to jazz clubs of old; if you close your eyes you’ll feel transported—imagine Isabella Rosselini in Blue Velvet, if she’d had the voice that Atkins does. Her song “The Way It Is,” off her latest release Neptune City (Red Ink) captures this transportive quality perfectly, with its eerie and slightly sinister undertones hidden in a simple love song. With the upcoming slate of performances at SXSW, Atkins may be poised on the verge of becoming a star, and should that occur, shows such as this one just won’t be happening anymore.

Known for boundless experimentation but never losing their roots in rock and pop constraints, Gruff Rhys and his Cardiff compatriots Super Furry Animals have been at it for over a decade and haven’t rested a moment. Busting into the party just at the moment when Britpop was about to turn bitter, these Welshmen set themselves apart with an ability to sonically shapeshift and never repeat themselves, working in psych-rock, elaborate pop constructions, electronic experimentation and even entirely in their Cymraeg tongue—sometimes all once. SFA’s latest Hey Venus! (Rough Trade) marks a return to what Rhys calls “speaker-blowing” rock. Times New Viking offer a garage-glam synth and guitar strewn feast that is part Pavement-style slackitude and purposeful lo-fi carelessness, withjust enough of a nod to Velvet Underground bootlegs and Bowie conceited art rock. Their just released debut on Matador Records, Rip It Off , shows that as much as these homespun-recording Ohio noiseniks try to dirty up the proceedings, there’s a melodic prowess that never gets lost even in their noisiest, “taped on a ghetto box” numbers. Rounding out the evening is acclaimed NYC anti-folkster Jeffrey Lewis. Triple bills rarely get much richer than this one.