Tonight in Seattle: The Smokers Club Tour, Alberta Cross and more!

The Smokers Club Tour featuring Juicy J (Taylor Gang) with Smoke DZA @ Neumos | 7/28 | $18 (Get Tickets!) | 8pm | All ages, bar with ID

Preview by Julie Cochran:

Memphis-based artist and Academy Award-winner Juicy J (Jordan Houston) will perform at Neumos this Sunday as part of the Smokers Club Tour. As one half of duo Three Six Mafia (also known as “666 Mafia” and “Triple Six Mafia”), Juicy J helped put Southern-style crunk rap on the map with DJ Paul in the mid-1990s. The duo released several albums together before receiving a Best Song of the Year Honor for their track, “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp,” featured in the 2005 film, Hustle and Flow.  Written specifically for the film, the track is only the second hip hop song in history to have received an Oscar.  Newfound notoriety earned the duo an MTV reality show (Adventures in Hollyhood), which ran in April and May of 2007.  The group also found time to continue to record, releasing their ninth studio album Last to Walk in June of 2008. Promises of a tenth album titled Laws of Power have yet to materialize but the album is slated for a release date later this summer.

Recently, Juicy J confirmed that he is now part of Wiz Kalifa’s Pennsylvania Record Label, Taylor Gang. Look for his next solo album, Stay Trippy, sometime this year.

This show also features Harlem-based rapper Smoke DZA of Curren$y‘s Jet Life Crew. Stylistically, DZA ‘s raps are more in the vein of fellow East Coast artists like Jay Z and Notorious BIG than the Southern style of Juciy J. In the past, Smoke DZA has collaborated with such artists as Curren$y, Wiz Kalifa, and A$AP Rocky, among others. His most recent release, Rugby Thompson (High Times Records), reportedly inspired by Boardwalk Empire character Nucky Thompson, sees the artist gravitate toward harder themes and spitting fast-flowing rhymes chronicling life in Harlem. This album also features an epically catchy track, “Kenny Powers,” named in honor of the main character of HBO’s Eastbound and Down series.

Alberta Cross, Everest, Aaron Lee Tasjan @ The Crocodile | 7/28 | $13 (Get Tickets!) | 8pm | All ages, bar with ID

Photo courtesy of albertacross.net

Get ready to romp ‘n’ roll with Alberta Cross at the Crocodile tonight. They’ve got a well earned reputation for raucous and gritty live performances, and vocals reminiscent of Our Lady Peace. Tonight’s show is gonna get hot and you’re going to get sweaty. Alberta Cross have been hard at work traipsing across the US of A and our neighbor to the North, Canada. They will be taking their tunes across the pond to Europe in August — so the Seattle show will be one of the last opportunities to pay witness to their shakin’ grooves while Alberta Cross is still state side.  Everest will be contributing catchy rock songs to the evening’s festivities. With the release of their latest album, Ownerless, the band should be in fine form. Expect a mix of tunes ranging from hypnotic blues to staple ballads. The evening will be rounded out by Brooklyn, NY resident Aaron Lee Tasjan tickling your ear hairs with sharp guitar licks and top-notch songwriting.