Gig Guide Archives April 2010

Previews by Mike Davies

Sunday April 4

The Paddingtons

Five years on from their two top 40 singles and despite solid full throttle teenage rock n roll albums First Comes First and No Mundane Options, the Hull trio are still trying to make a crossover impression. Entering the new decade with the Lady Boy EP (Mama Bear), they maintain their way with rowdy punk pop on Walking In The Rain, but the chugging guitar and metronome beat of Consequence, the squally rock guitars of Pretty Pity and the alt-folk collaboration with Adam Green on the risque title track indicate a willingness to look beyond their original full tilt parameters. It’s not going to have the masses suddenly raising them on their shoulders, but it should at least keep the faithful in line. 7pm. £6. O2 Academy 3

Sunday April 4

Amy Macdonald

Refreshing proof that you can still make it with an acoustic guitar, an unmannered voice and a clutch of catchy songs ready to be sung on the way back from the pub rather than relying on label hype, weird hairdos and Autotune, the Glaswegian singer-songwriter proved something of an unexpected hit and breath of fresh air when her debut album, This Is The Life took the No 1 slot a couple of years back.

There’s nothing groundbreaking about her Scottish folk pop, indeed you can almost hear her leading a chorus of Frankie Miller’s Darlin’ come closing time, but she has a real knack for penning emotionally direct lyrics and infectious melodies that connect straight to the feelgood centres of the brain.

She’s back for more with A Curious Thing (Vertigo), a sophomore collection that picks up where Mr Rock N Roll, LA and Run left off, bursting with anthemic tunes designed to be played loud with the windows open. Out of the starting gate with the urgent driving Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over, there’s not a false step as she belts her way through the soaring Spark, the jittery Roxy Music meets Buddy Holly of the whirlaround Love Love, piano and strings backed stormer An Ordinary Life and the inspirational Your Time Will Come with its flourish of 60s girl pop strings.

Lyrically, many of the songs reveal an ambivalence about success and celebrity, and an awareness of its transience, notably so on the self-explanatory An Ordinary Life, Next Big Thing where she sings about being taken home so she can be alone and This Pretty Face with its reference to the people you meet on the way up and again on the way down. As such the closing unadorned hymnal piano ballad What Happiness Means To Me comes with an additional emotional clout.

Not that she need worry about falling from favour yet awhile, this is a terrific album that, bristling with confidence, has a depth of maturity in equal measure to its radio friendly melodies and singalong choruses. She’s often been compared to Kirsty MacColl, and both the wistfully acoustic folksiness of My Only One and the Celtic swirl of Troubled Soul reinforce this, but seek out the hidden world weary cover of Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark and you may be surprised to find her phrasing and deep tones calling more to mind the early Joan Armatrading. She’s going to be a very interesting artist to watch grow, and, it goes without saying, someone who delivers the sort of live show you’ll be replaying in your head for days afterwards. 7.30pm. £20.50. Wulfrun Hall

Tuesday April 6

Cerys Matthews

Like her previous mini-album, Don’t Look Down (Rainbow City), the latest from the former Catatonia warbler is sung entirely in Welsh. However, aware that the land of song isn’t going to produce sufficient sales on its own to keep the home fires burning, she’s also recorded the entire thing in English too.

She can speak several musical languages too. New single Into The Blue, for example, rides along on a Latin rhythm shuffle while Arlington Way and Smash the Glass are both retro 60s girl soul pop, the former harking to smoky Dusty the latter to Motown , Evelyn takes in the dreamy, breathy chill out of St Etienne, Aeroplanes channels Astrud Gilberto, Oranges To Florida has a touch of the Nancy Sinatra and John Barry to it, and Salutations even has her speaking the diary of a lonely mother lyrics (in a hushed edge of a breakdown voice) over a cinematic orchestral backing. She may no longer be in fashion and lacks the scenester cool to attract today’s hip young things, but for those willing to listen to what they hear, she can easily sing fellow countrywoman Duffy into a corner. Take note, there’s no support and she’ll be playing two sets, whether one will be in Welsh remains to be heard. 8pm. £20, Glee Club

Tuesday April 6

Davy Knowles and Backdoor Slam

A first appearance hereabouts for the Isle of Man born blues guitarist trading licks from his Peter Frampton produced album Coming Up For Air. Firmly in the mould of Bad Company, Robert Cray, Jeff Beck and early Clapton with strong hints of acknowledged influences Rory Gallagher and Dire Straits, he has the wail and the chops to earn himself a place in the same firmament.

Showing he can write as well as play, Riverbed spins the story of an Alabama train crash while the stripped down Saving Myself and a cover of George Harrison’s Hear Me Lord, show he can play like a devil. A certain studio slickness should have the edges knocked off when he lets rip live, and any self-respecting blues fan owes it to themselves to check the man out. 7.30pm. £6.50. O2 Academy 3

Tuesday April 6

There For Tomorrow

The Florida punk pop emo quartet cite such influences as Jimmy Eat World and Blink-182. Nothing wrong with that, but sophomore album A Little Faster (Hopeless) never really seems interested in doing anything with them other than delivering more of the same. There’s plenty of angsty rough guitar chops, urgent choruses, solid drumming and Maika Maile has the right sort of generic vocal for the genre, but generic is pretty much what they are.

The Remedy and A Little Faster make all the right moves but stick them in a dark room with a bunch of soundalikes and you’d be hard pressed to distinguish them from the crowd while the obligatory slow acoustic numbers, Just In Time, I Can’t Decide and Burn The Night Away are unmemorably average. They probably play a solid enough live show, and with nothing else on they’re worth a punt to go with the lager, but there’s nothing about them to suggest they’re going to live up to the name. 7.30pm. £9. Slade Rooms (Little Civic)

Wednesday April 7

N-Dubz

Winners of the MOBO best live act for 2009, the north London trio are without doubt the most successful British hip hop act around, couching their rap within a sparkling pop context that consistently sees them battering the singles charts, scoring their biggest hit to date withI Need You. It’s lifted from current album Against All Odds (Universal), a curious combination of the social commentary of teen pregnancy themed Shoulda Put Something On and juvenile playground sexual smuttiness of Duku Man Skit, plus, of course, the usual self-referencing and self-promotion that goes with the territory.

They’re clearly not for everyone’s tastes, although the Mr Hudson collaboration Playing With Fire likely made a few converts among the unconvinced, but you can’t knock their enthusiasm, musical suss and youth focused positive messages. Even if they are delivered in shell-suits. 7.30pm. £20. O2 Academy

Monday April 12

AFI

Alt-rock underachievers, on current album Crash Love (Interscope) the California crew do a nice line in yearning, chiming arena epic with the folk tinted Beautiful Thieves while End Transmission pitches up somewhere between Rush and U2 and Too Shy To Scream is all Adam and the Ants drumming and radio friendly pop punk hooks.

Unfortunately, it’s not a level they’re able to sustain and everything ultimately sinks into the standard issue alt rock riffage of Medicate, Sacrilege and I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here. They recover for a final flourish with stadium anthem ballad It Was Mine, but by then it’s likely the attention - like the audience - will have already wandered away in search of something more interesting. 7.30pm. £16. O2 Academy

Monday April 12

Joshua Radin

Hailing from Ohio and reared on a diet of Motown, Beatles, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens and James Taylor, the breathy-voiced singer-songwriter was clearly born to write melancholic aching songs to be played on TV shows like Scrubs, Greys Anatomy and One Tree Hill. Which, indeed, he has.

Confessional, reflective and easy on the ear, he’s in town to support current release, Simple Times (14th Floor), a gentle collection of folky pop that sees him baring his lovelorn soul and wistful optimism to the accompaniment of sweet harmonies and summer cruising melodies.

The Simon-esque tones of One Of Those Days and soft shuffle I’d Rather Be With You pretty much define where he’s at and the album’s stuffed with similar fare, striking notable high points with Patty Griffin break-up duet You’ve Got Growin’ Up To Do, the Jack Johnson vibe of Brand New Day and the playful Vegetable Car, a love song to an eco-conscious girl in Lisa Loeb glasses. Cutting edge and challenging it’s not, but anyone with a penchant for 70s soft rock will doubtless reckon they’ve found the new messiah.

Support comes from flaxed-haired Illinois songstress Lissie, a new disciple of 70s Laurel Canyon rock steeped in its trademark sun-baked meld of pop, country and soul. She releases her debut album, Catching The Tiger, later this year, previewing the uptempo likes of When I’m Alone, Loosen The Knot and new single In Sleep (Columbia) and making you wonder if you’ve slipped on a forgotten Stevie Nicks track by mistake. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday April 13

Whitney Houston

Returning to the music spotlight after years of marital and drug related problems, Houston's 2009 comeback, I Look To You (Arista), was touted as "the most anticipated album of the year." If that's the case, it was probably also one of the most disappointing.

Given it was her first new release in seven years, it not surprisingly made its US debut at No 1 but was frozen out of the Grammys without a single nomination, a reflection on its middling material, very little of which would have found a place on a Beyonce album or any of the other A list female r&b singers who've come along during her absence.

The first single, Million Dollar Bill, was run of the mill club pop, an accusation that could be equally levelled at For The Lovers, an ill advised dance version of Randy Newman's A Song For You, Worth It and For The Lovers, the only real muscle coming with new single Nothin' But Love.

As an artist best known for The Greatest Love Of All and her soaring cover of I Will Always Love You, the ballads here are especially underwhelming, sounding almost scared to let rip on the title track and the factory line Diane Warren of I Didn't Know My Own Strength, a sort of mediocre I Made It Through The Rain written to riff off Houston's troubled past.

Then came that disastrous appearance on the X-Factor when, interviewed after a particularly unmemorable performance, she made Robbie Williams seem focused. It won't be much cheer for those who've forked out the obscene ticket prices to hear reports from the Australian leg of the tour where the opening night audience, several of whom walked out early, complained of her shaky voice, missed notes, disorientation and a 20 minute break to get her breath back. And her inability to even try to hit that high note at the end of I Will Always Love You.

With reviews of subsequent shows equally unencouraging and even the promoter calling it a 'warts and all' performance, LG punters may already be wondering how they can flog off the tickets or come up with an excuse for a refund. Houston, you have a problem. 7.30pm. £100/£75. LG Arena

Wednesday April 14

Lou Rhodes

There’s no news whether last year’s Lamb festivals reunion is going to be repeated, but it’s a promising sign that Rhodes and Andy Barlow have collaborated on her third solo album, One Good Thing (Motion Audio).

After Bloom’s more experimental groove and elemental folk, it marks a return to her spare, sombre acoustics while the long-standing Nick Drake influences remain constant. Once again it’s a highly personal affair, not least on Janey, a heartbreaking simply stated lament for her late sister and the despairing Melancholy Me, undoubtedly part of the fall out from a major relationship collapse.

It’s not all such wrist-slashing stuff; There For The Taking and the strings adorned title track (where she sound a little like a cross between early Joni and Melanie) marry optimism to their fingerpicked rippling stream guitar lines, but generally speaking you won’t be listening to this or going to the gig looking to find sunny singsongs. However, her beautiful voice and sensitive arrangements of guitar and strings (shown to fine effect on the bluesy Baby) make the comedown sadness an irresistible experience. 8pm. £12. Taylor John’s House, Coventry

Wednesday April 14

Polly Mackey & The Pleasure Principle

Teaming up with her band a couple, of years ago, the Welsh songstress is now being tipped as one of the breakthrough names for 2010, their music being likened to a cross between Radiohead and The Killers. I’m not sure that’s quite the case, but there’s a certainly a touch of The Pretenders about the upcoming EP with lead single Silent Film clearly built to be blasted out loud across summer lawns.

There’s a darker tinge to The Wall’s chugging, circling guitar melody line but, like I Don’t Mind’s staccato rhythmic drive and the chiming mid-tempo Leave Me Out, its veins are pumping with a strong rock sensibility that suggests the live shows could be particularly forceful. Keep an eye on them. 8pm. £5. The Rainbow, Digbeth

Thursday April 15

Stackridge

Long overdue the critical reappraisal that is their due, the West Country outfit have never quite shaken off the novelty parochial prog folk tag they acquired with early live favourites like Slark and Let There Be Lids, despite the fact the bulk of their material has always been melodic, folk tinged rock, that George Martin produced their finest album and that the likes of Squeeze surely owe them a debt of influence.

Since reforming the original line up they’ve been busy shifting perceptions and building a new fan base while reaffirming the faith of longtime followers. Last year saw the release of A Victory For Common Sense (Helium), an album brimful of radio friendly melodies and songs veined with their brand of English whimsy that conjures echoes of XTC, the bucolic moments of Ray Davies, and, on the old ex-pats longing for The Old Country, thoughts of WWII music halls and Flanagan & Allen.

That mood of nostalgic reverie also informs (Waiting For You and) England To Return, a song made to be heard in country churchyards, and the waltzing North St. Grande while a Lennon-esque harder edged Red Squirrel is cut from similar thematic stock as Working Class Hero.

Boots And Shoes will be familiar from the original version by James Warren and Andy Davis’ 80s incarnation as The Korgis, though this is of a far more rocking mind, while the Beatles colours on the woodwind coloured Lost And Found would, given the exposure, surely find favour with Paul Weller’s older fan base while the 11 minute The Day the World Stopped Turning is a perfect marriage of Pink Floyd, Crowded House and Squeeze.

In a just world, a shorter version of Long Dark River, with its hints of George Harrison, dreamily melody line and close harmonies chorus, would be filling the Radio 2 airwaves, but for now at least such a real victory for common sense remains frustratingly still just out of reach. 8pm. £13.50. Robin 2, Brierely Hill

Friday April 16

Laura Marling

Backed by Munford & Songs, her second solo album since splitting from Noah and the Whale finds Marling in heady folk form, deepening further the richness of Alas, I Cannot Swim and finding her voice bolder, more confident and forceful on songs that explore her transition from teenager to woman.

Her traditional roots are marked from the opening Devil’s Spoke, a bluesy whirling dervish of a tune with fiery banjos that climaxes in what might be described as a folk rave. Those brooding folk notes spill across the the lyrically bleak Hope In The Air with its Balkan hints while the intense city angst of Alpha Shallows dances English trad around what sounds like a hurdy gursy in some Egyptian bazaar.

Her Nick Drake and Joni influences remain present and correct, heard to melancholic calming effect on the live sparse recording of Made By Maid and Blackberry Stone, a strings washed number which, in noting how she’s moved on while her ex hasn’t let go, would seem to refer to the last Noah album which documented her break up with Charlie Fink.

She’s been reading up on her Greek too. In the gentle acoustic What He Wrote, a forbidden love confessional inspired by wartime letters, she calls on Hera, the goddess of marriage, while, slowly building to a swaying swell, the title track retells the story of Oydsseus from the perspective of Penelope, the wife left at home.

Elsewhere there’s a touch of Dylan and Baez about her delivery of self-acceptance crisis themed Rambling Man, a perky account of encroaching madness Darkness Descends musically nods towards Be Good Tanyas territory while, reminiscent of Eddi Reader, Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) provides an orchestral air of wistful romanticism as she gets rid of the clutter that brings her down.

It’s a hugely accomplished step forward in establishing Marling at the forefront of the new indie folk revival and one which should provide for a particularly rewarding live set.

She’s supported by fellow female singer-songwriter Alessi’s Ark, aka Alessi Laurent-Marke, with the winsome and whimsical breathy voiced folk pop to be found on Notes From The Treehouse amid such numbers as Magic Weather, Ribbon Lakes, and the poppier notes of Memory Box. 7.30pm. £16. Alexandra Theatre

Friday April 16

Dropkick Murphys

pic (c) Scott Legato

An Irish-American paddy rocking outfit from Boston in the manner of The Pogues and a rowdier Saw Doctors, DKM have been belting out rousing Celtic folk-punk for some 13 years now, gathering an army of fans along the way.

Their ability to rouse the rabble and get the crowds whipped into a frenzy can be seen on Live On Lansdowne (Cooking Vinyl), a CD and DVD recorded at last year’s hometown St Patrick’s Day shows and featuring 20 fan favourites, among them Famous For Nothing, Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya, Sunshine Highway, Caught In A Jar, drinking song The Dirty Glass and the arms linked swayalong Forever.

They’re a month late for the festivities here, but that’s no reason not to raise a glass of the black stuff and join the hoolie. 6.30pm. £15. O2 Academy

Friday April 16

Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou

Formerly founder members of London bluegrass folk skiffle outfit Indigo Moss, the husband and wife team have been working as a duo since the band split a couple of years back. Their eponymous debut album (Loose) sees them in Guthrie-tinged acoustic folk and country blues mood, though the opening track, Allotment Song, basically a day in the life of a bloke growing his vegetables, serves to underline that their narratives are firmly based in a nostalgia for bucolic England with its green and precious fields and, on the music hall like One Wednesday In June, parsnip sellers, fisherman and ale houses that serve peas, mash and pie.

Should there be any doubt about their fondness for a lost Albion, there’s even a bluesy drawled track called England while the dusty The Lion And The Unicorn raises a glass to the clatter of pubs in Lancashire, sterling and the bitterness of our beer and Concorde offers a wistful, flute kissed lament for a very British part of aeronautical history.

Elsewhere the spare strum and high-pitched mournful female vocals of Sally Took The Ivory and the rainy afternoon arpeggios of Ruth Drink My Whisky show they are as at home sketching characters as they are landscapes while Heaven Knows is an aching love song with ragtime guitar and backwoods harmonies.

It’s not without its flaws, but don’t be surprised to find this figuring on several folk mag best of lists come the end of the year as well as making for a magical, intimate live set.

They’ll be the opening act on the programme and, as sometimes members of folk-country outfit Danny And The Champions of The World will likely be joining them for songs from their current Ronnie Lane influenced album Streets Of Our Time while the night is headlined by The Duke and The King, the new duo featuring former Felice Brothers drummer Simon Felice and instrumentalist Robert Burke whose terrific debut album, Nothing Gold Can Stay, affords hints of James Taylor, Cat Stevens and CS&N. 6pm. £13. O2 Academy 3

Saturday April 17

Red Shoes

Following gathering critical acclaim, the Birmingham duo’s self-released internet only Ring Around The Land has now secured a major distribution deal that will see it repressed and stocked by the likes of HMV as well as through Tower Records in Japan and the USA.

By way of celebration, tonight marks their debut bow at the city’s most prestigious folk club, joined by veteran fiddle player Tom Leary and featuring support from Celtic Goth folk singer-songwriter Beck Sian.

This will be the first major headline show Mark and Carolyn Evans have played in their hometown since the album’s release and affords a welcome opportunity for old friends, those yet to see them live and those only just discovering them to experience the electricity of their performance.

Taking turns on lead vocals and sharing harmonies, the Dave Pegg produced album draws on influences that encompass Fairport, Sandy Denny, The Byrds and REM and comes packed from start to finish with such classic songs as Celtic Moon’s tale of lost love, the jangling Ray Bradbury inspired Something Wicked This Way Comes, the poignant waltzing Diamonds She Once Wore, slow sway shanty Seeds and the celebratory title track, a May Day themed song of renewal and hope that deserves to become a 21st Century folk anthem.

The set is likely to include at least one Denny cover, either White Dress off the album or the haunting Who Knows Where The Time Goes, but also, as a bonus treat, a sprinkling of new, as yet unrecorded material; the wistful Wizard Of Oz referencing yearning reverie of Kansas and River Rea, a heartbreaking end of innocence memory of a young girl sexually abused on her way to school. Between that and My Father’s Green Beret’s lament for her war hero father who died of MRSA, you may just have to surreptitiously wipe a sleeve across your eyes before the lights come up. Prepare to be enthralled. 8pm. £10. Red Lion, Kings Heath

Sunday April 18

Robyn Hitchcock

Just a couple of months after the full distribution reissue of Goodnight Oslo, the idiosyncratic master of English psychedleia returns with Propellor Time (Sartorial), a third album teaming him with Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, Bill Rieflin alongside guest contributions form John Paul Jones, Nick Lowe and Johnny Marr.

Sometimes Hitchcock can be a little too musically ‘difficult’ for his own good, a trait that’s always kept him within cult circles, but here (for all his obscure lyrics) he sounds positively poppy on a countrified crooning Star Of Venus, the drawled jangling Velvets-stealing The Afterlight, and the mandolin bubbling Luckiness while the Marr co-penned Ordinary Millionaire recalls 60s baroque folk-pop and Evolove sets his Lennon influences to an existential meditation on the effect of evolution, parents and love on personal growth.

Long time devotees will be relieved to know that, as the scuffed jogging Sickie Boy and stream of consciousness John In The Air happily demonstrate, he’s not sacrificed the weirdness quota in the pursuit of accessibility, all of which makes for another fine collection of skewed pop and a typically unpredictable live set.

Playing his first full tour in some years, the evening’s special guest will be Mike Heron, former founder member of the Incredible String Band and, with his early solo albums, one of Hitchcock’s formative influences. 7pm. £11. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday April 20

Paul Brady

Leaving trad Irish music behind after his first solo album back in the late 70s, for a while it looked as if Brady was poised to become something of a major star. Although neither were hits, both Steel Claw and Crazy Dreams received massive air play, the latter becoming something of a standard, while Paradise Is Here, written for Tina Turner, firmly established him a songwriter of note.

However, the praise and respect of his peers has never translated into commercial success and, over the years, his music has become more workmanlike, reliably listenable but without any real stand outs, although he can still guarantee fairly full houses for his live shows.

Now approaching 63, he’s just released Hooba Dooba (Proper), his first album in five years, a solid but unremarkable set of rock and blues with country tinges. The influence of Little Feat and The Band permeate the country funk of Rainbow, Follow That Star and Cry It Out while The Winner’s Ball leans to Clapton blues and the Ronan Keating co-written The Price Of Fame is a Celtic ballad of a Morrison persuasion.

The album’s at its strongest when Brady takes things easy, as on the dreamy old fashioned orchestral piano ballad One More Today, harmonica haunted love song Living The Mystery, the gently lilting Luck Of The Draw (originally written for Bonnie Raitt) and the moving Alzheimer’s themed piano waltz Mother And Son. However, that a Celtic soul cover of Lennon and McCartney’s You Won’t See Me is the strongest song here says much while Over The Border’s dismissal of both sides of the war on terror in favour of some idyllic all singing, all dancing utopia is just wilfully naive.

Doubtless, whatever he selects for the set list will sound just fine alongside favourites from his lengthy career, but it still remains rather had to get excited about. 7.30pm. £23. B’ham Town Hall

Tuesday April 20

Rufus Wainwright

Having gone all out last year with full blown opera Prima Donna, Wainwright has ditched his orchestral excesses for All The Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu (Decca), a collection of songs featuring just him and a piano. Of course, tinkling the ivories doesn’t mean he’s any less flamboyant, his classical arrangements channelling the likes of Debussy, Schubert, Gershwin and Sondheim, often attacking the keys with unbridled physicality to the extent they sometimes overshadow the vocals; especially so when he goes for the dissonant descending scales on True Loves.

Lulu representing his dark brooding alter ago, it’s an album heavily informed by personal and professional events in his life over the past five years. Les Feux D’Artifice T’Appellent is an aria from his opera about an ageing diva giving it one last hurrah while When Most I Wink, A Woman’s Face (the only musically ‘comfortable’ one of the three) and Shame are all adaptations of Shakespeare sonnets written for the Berliner Ensemble.

Although completed before her death from cancer, there’s still substantial material informed by his late mother, Kate McGarrigle. Although initially conceived as an ode to a high school crush, the words ‘mother’ and ‘hospital’ in the same line inevitably conjure darker associations for the almost funereal Zebulon while, slightly more airy, Martha has him ringing his sister to tell her to come home and see their mother as well as asking after father, Loudon.

Elsewhere the Broadway show tune feel of So Sad With What I Have is an exercise in despairing self-pity, the arpeggios of The Dream address a sense of waking loss, What Would I Ever Do With A Rose? is a Shakespeare influenced melancholic meditation on love and pain that concludes no dream can come true without the nightmare while, the album’s only up tempo dazzle, the racing notes of Give Me What I Want And Give It To Me Now mask a particularly virulent strop.

Even with the cascading repetitive notes of the opening showstopper, the obscure object of desire themed Who Are You New York?, these aren’t the sort of numbers designed for an evening of feelgood uplift, so just hope that he’s willing to open his past songbooks and let a little light into the room too. 7.30pm. £45.50. Symphony Hall

Tuesday April 20

Angus & Julia Stone

Frequently gigging hereabouts through 2007/08, the Australian brother and sister folk-blues duo have been absent for the past couple of years, busy working on their follow up to A Book Like This. That now unfurls in the shape of Down The Way (Flock), again evoking airy California summers, dusty highways and outdoor late nights sipping heady wines.

He sounds less like Paul Simon this time around while her Joanna Newsom meets Victoria Williams twee tones remain intact (and still occasionally irritating), the pair also conjuring Fleetwood Mac thoughts on the likes of Big Jet Plane, the lush Hold On, the rolling pop And TheBoys, a blues-country streaked On The Road and the seven minute West Coast rock of Yellow Brick Road.

Just as the music is deeper this time around, so their world view is darker, more stained by the experiences of the past four years as songs like Santa Monica Dream, I’m Not Yours and For You deal with loves and dreams lost and found. It’s still all very mellow and the live set is going to need a bit of a kick to avoid becoming soporific, but if you’re looking to chill this should hit the spot.

Support Alan Pownall has notched up an impressive CV since switching from art student to singer-songwriter, opening shows for the likes of Adele, Noah and the Whale, Florence and the Machine, Mumford & Sons and Mr Hudson. Signed to Mercury, he’s on tour again in support of just released debut single, Chasing Time, a number that will do little to dispel the English Jack Johnson tag. He says he wants his music to sound like a 40s jazz festival in the South of France but set in a dingy bar on a radio day. You’ll have to wait until next month’s album to see quite how successful he’s been at that, but early other Johnson-esque tasters such as Colourful Day, the jaunty old school pop of Take Me, Life Worth Living (a sort of reggae tinge nick of Everything I Own) and a Gilbert O’Sullivan-like Too Many Holes suggest there’s not too many clouds in his sunny sky. 8pm. £10. Glee Club

Tuesday April 20

The Features

The first signings to The Kings Of Leon’s label, it’s a little hard to know what to expect from the small town Tennessee fourpiece. Originally self-released two years ago and now reissued by Serpents And Snakes, Some Kind Of Salvation opens with the lurching gypsy mazurka-like Whatever Gets You By complete with la la la-ing chorus before swiftly giving way to the brass belting Dexys meet Gogol Bordello stomp The Drawing Board, but then a guitar chugging, vocal warbling The Temporary Blues swerves into anthemic Hold Steady territory, Wooden Heart is a brassy, organ riffing Zutons belter, Foundation’s Cracked echoes their sponsors, Still Lost comes rolling along like Supergrass and Concrete is all drum machine, metronomic burbling rhythm and shanty melody.

Trawling 50 years of music for influences (The Gates of Hell finds them in swayalong doo wop by way of Gary Glitter), they’re definitely of the art school persuasion, their skewed wit finding notable expression in the rock n roll meets 10cc of GMF where they sing about being reborn as a vegetable. An intriguing live proposition to say the least. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Wednesday April 21

Shakespears Sister

Originally formed in 1988 as a solo project by former Bananarama singer Siobhan Fahey, they became a duo with the addition of Marcella Detroit, notching up substantial hits with Stay, I Don’t Care and You’re History before she quit in 1994 leaving Fahey to go it alone for a further two years. She finally knocked the band sobriquet on the head in 1996, continuing to make music under own name and taking part in a couple of Bananarama reunions.

However, Fahey’s now taken up the banner again for a new album and accompanying dates. I say new album, but that’s not strictly true. Songs From The Red Room (SF) has, in one form and another, been knocking around for the last decade.

Originally intended as her solo debut, release plans were shelved both in 2000 and again in 2005 when it was going under the title Bad Blood. It was again announced for release two years ago, finally being scheduled for last October under the revived Shakespears Sister name, although several tracks have been available as downloads and three, Pulsatron, Bad Blood and an alternate version of Bitter Pill, now sounding like Marianne Faithful singing The Velvets, are previous singles.

Available as limited edition six years ago, It’s A Trip now forms the album’s first official single, a swaggering slice of electrop-pop disco that shows the newcomers how it’s done as Fahey delivers like some feline femme fatale (she even growls at one point) while elsewhere on the album A Man in Uniform and Hot Room mine Grace Jones and krautrock influences, You’re Not Yourself offers bleeps and whistles catchy pop of the kind once made by Danielle Dax and Was It Worth It teams her with Terry Hall on a dark swirly industrial electro track that recalls the original version of Warm Leatherette by The Normal.

Released with scant publicity and greeted by media indifference, it’s unlikely too many of the old fans are even aware of its existence and, even those who are might find it hard to reconcile with the new, harder and darker sound. But then, Fahey shouldn’t have to rely on her past to forge a present, not when she’s making music as potent and as striking as this. For now, though, she may find attendance a bit thin on the ground. 7.30pm. £14. O2 Academy 2

Thursday April 22

Idlewild

Although guitarist Rod Jones is releasing a solo album and Roddy Woomble’s working on his second, for now the band are focused on continued promotion for last year’s Post Electric Blues (Cooking Vinyl) and such stand out tracks as the REM-like Younger Than America, an anthemic Circles In Stars and salt-tanged ballad Take Me Back To The Islands.

They’re supported by Sparrow And The Workshop, a Glasgow based trio comprising Welshman Nick packer, Scot Gregor Donaldson and Chicago raised Irish born Jill O’Sullivan (with a voice that sounds like a backwoods Grace Slick), who pull together psychedelic rock, grunge and trad folk on debut album Crystals Fall (Distiller), a collection of songs trading in gothic romance and revenge, coloured with fiddle, slide and post rock guitar.

Although reworked and remixed, all but three cuts have already appeared on their previous two EPs, including the Riders In The Sky sounding surf noir Last Chance, Into the Wild’s cocktail of trad folk and White Stripes garage band blues, the dark folky rumble of new single I Will Break You, Swam Like Sharks’ bluesy country and Hendrix guitar, Joplinesque country blues waltz You’ve Got It All and crooner Broken Heart, Broken Home.

Of the new material, Medal Around Your Neck is another rumbling Appalachian-sounding acid-folk tune loosely inspired by the story of a veteran with Gulf War Syndrome and, a song about misguided do-gooders, Mercenary runs a military drum roll through an almost nursery rhyme melody before climaxing in a post rock explosion. But it’s Crystals that is the album’s piece de resistance, a transitional excursion into almost Floydian-Americana that could well point the way to future directions, establishing them as a dark psych folk Cowboy Junkies for the 21st century. 7.30pm. £15. Slade Rooms (Little Civic)

Friday April 23

Ash

Half way into their year long fortnightly releasing of 26 download singles, the Irish trio gather together the first 13 for A-Z Vol.1 (Atomic Heart), a physical album release for those who still like something tangible in their CD collection.

That none of the downloads have registered in the singles Top 40 says much about the band’s current standing compared to the chart bothering days of nine years ago. However, that’s no reflection on the music the band’s making, indeed the jubilant guitar noise of Joy Kicks Darkness, Arcadia , True Love 1980, Dionysian Urge, the chugging Tracers and piano led tumbling War With Me are as good if not better as any of the vintage classics they produced at the peak of their success.

Not everything hits the mark, Ichiban a fairly messy flurry of punk, and the bossa nova into bombast Pripyat and the dark electro Neon not quite working, but for the most this could easily be a collection of greatest hits and, fired up with a renewed sense of purpose that’s fining exuberant live expression, releases N-Z should be eagerly anticipated. 8pm. £15. Irish Centre, Digbeth

Sunday April 25

The Primitives

Fronted by singer Tracy Tracy, the Primitives were Coventry’s major contribution to the guitar pop explosion of the mid 80s, drawing on a love of the 60s and such influences as The Ramones and Buzzcocks. They only had one big hit single, Crash, but that was one of the best of the decade and has become a classic. Never able to follow up, commercial success declined and they finally called it a day in 1992 after their third album failed to chart.

Although bassist Steve Dullaghan tragically passed away in February last year, the surviving members reformed to play two shows and have decided to keep the ball rolling. There’s no indication of what they sound like these days, but the set will naturally include their signature hit alongside old favourites like Sick Of It, Really Stupid, Way Behind Me, Thru The Flowers and Secrets as well as tasters from their upcoming covers album of obscure female fronted songs such as Toni Basil’s Breakaway. It’ll be great to hear them again. 7.30pm. £12. Little Civic

Sunday April 25

Kirsty McGee

If anyone who caught McGee a couple of years back, wondered what the Kansas Sessions album’s amalgam of jazz, vaudeville and American folk-country would sound like performed live with a full band, the answer can be found on the recently released No 5 (Hobopop). A live album recorded at a one off Manchester show with the six piece Hobopop Collective, it features a breakneck skittering take on Alibi Blues that foregrounds the banjo and brushed percussion but loses the twangy guitar, and faithful, vibrantly fresh versions of the 30s flavoured, clarinet streaked Sandman, a sensual late night jazz-blues Dust Devil’s and a gorgeous Appalachian folk coloured Faith that sounds even more hymnal.

Revisiting and reworking the dreamy Bliss from her debut album, it also showcases four new numbers; the double bass swinging Stonefruit, Omaha’s sashaying loose limbed New Orleans jazz vibe, a mournful and lyrically sinister Last Orders with its cabaret mood and a harmonica that sounds like gypsy violin, and the starkly beautiful, achingly sad The Last To Understand with its Scottish folk flavour and a melody part borrowed from Dylan’s Love Minus Zero.

Sadly, touring logistics mean she can’t take a band on the road, but, once again teamed with multi-instrumentalist and Collective mainstay Mat Martin, that doesn’t mean this is going to be anything less than superb. Playing support comes will be Cafe favourite KTB (aka Katy Bennet), making a welcome a return hometown visit. 8pm. £10. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Sunday April 25

Sorry & The Sinatras

A side project for Wildhearts bassist Scott Sorry, musically it’s still pretty much the same punked up tattooed barroom sleaze rock n roll, played full tilt and the songs shouted out rather than actually sung. They’re parading material from last year’s debut album, Highball Roller, so expect high octane stuff like Black N Blue, Gimme More, Borrowed Time and new single Hated Heart. 9pm. £5. Asylum, Hockley

Sunday April 25

The King Blues

Following a brief relationship with Island that saw the reissue of their Under the Fog debut and last year’s Save The World, Get The Girl, now signed to Transmission there’s been a few upheavals in the camp. Four of the six piece have departed, leaving the founding core of Itch Fox and Jamie Jazz and while Luís Boa Morte and Zebedee Jones are listed as band members, it’s not clear if they’re fully fledged. For live duties, it’s possible they’ll be back up to sextet strength, but they’ll certainly still be playing their Clash meets Madness-like amalgam of poppy punk n ska and previewing new material from the forthcoming Punk & Poetry.

Of these the first single, the infectiously bouncing Headbutt (a lyrical counterpart to The Crystals He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss), has already earned extensive radio play and should, along with established favourites like My Boulder, the fiddle firing Let’s Hang The Landlord and, showing their sensitive side, Underneath This Lamppost Light (their Crouch End answer to Wonderful Tonight), go down a storm in a set that, for all the line-up shifts, should see them as explosive as ever. 7pm. £9.50. O2 Academy 2

Monday April 26

LCD Soundsystem

It’s been a long three years for James Murphy to follow up Sound of Silver, but This Is Happening (Parlophone) amply repays the wait. The influences remain pretty constant with its nods to Bowie, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk and Human League, but Murphy has exceeded himself here, delivering a clutch of tunes that both hit the dance spot and catch the pop wave without compromising on musical intelligence.

With its scratchy guitar and jabbing staccato bass, the single, Drunk Girls, sounds like David Byrne channelling Bowie’s Boys Keep Swinging while One Touch is Talking Heads with a jungle beat and loads of whippling electronics and, its bleeps conjuring thoughts of Ashes To Ashes, Change swings back to Bowie with a waxing of surf pop.

The single’s the only number clocking in under five minutes and both the naggingly simple chugging rhythm of Hit and Dance Yourself Clean’s falsetto psychedelic funk beats touch the nine minute mark. Yet, long as they are, the tracks are also consistently inventive, Somebody’s Calling Me finding him in pulsing neon noir blues, complete with electronic fingerclicks and Pow Wow adding new colours to the Once In A Lifetime palette.

All the more frustrating then to hear Murphy say it’ll probably the final LCD album, but if that’s the case then they’re going out on a high point of Everest proportions. 7.30pm. £18.50. O2 Academy

*******POSTPONED Tuesday April 27 POSTPONED*******

Brandi Carlile

Her name may not yet mean much over here, but the Seattle based singer-songwriter’s been steadily making a name for herself in the States since being spotted at a music fest back in 2003 by Dave Matthews. Since then she’s released three albums, been heavily featured on Grey’s Anatomy and toured over here, both as support to Newton Faulkner and in her own right. She’s back now (volcanic ash permitting) to scare up support for her current album, Give Up The Ghost (Columbia), a collection of alt-country flavoured American folk-rock that highlights her twangy Grand Ole Opry alto and strummed acoustic guitar.

Opening with the strident anthemic Looking Out, it’s big on hummable melodies and catchy choruses with songs that strike a balance between the uptempo poprock of Dying Day, Dreams and the honkytonk boogie of Elton John duet Caroline and the more reflective, emotion squeezing balladry of Pride And Joy, the fingerpicked scurrying break up I Will and Before It Breaks, a piano ballad heartbreaker about a school friend’s suicide.

I’d assume this will be something of a stripped down rather than full band show, which may not fully sock across her power but, while this may not be the album to break her in the UK it’s more than enough to convince it’s only a matter of time. 8pm. £11. Glee Club

Tuesday April 27

Megson

Two years on from Take Yourself A Wife, their album of songs from North-East songwriters of the past three centuries, Teeside husband and wife folk duo Debbie Palmer and Stu Hanna return with The Longshot (EDJ), another collection of traditional and self-penned numbers which, inspired by the current recession, address working life past and present.

Two 19th century writers featured on the previous album are reprised here with the jaunty Time To Get Up, Joe Wilson’s witty complaint about having to rise early for work, and the rather more melancholic Two Match Lads, poet Elizabeth Tweddell’s account of two kids trying to eke a living selling matches on the street.

Elsewhere among the trad material, economic hard times cast their shadow over the musically robust Working Life Out, The Old Miner’s prescient concerns over the pits and the ironic William Brown about a bloke who found himself out of work for producing too much surplus stock.

Of the self-penned numbers, the simple Last Man In The Factory is an all too familiar story about a family business going to the wall while, Palmer on vocals, skiffle-blues Working Town extends the image to entire working communities.

It’s not entirely downcast. Published in 1862, The Cab Man is a mandolin bubbling comic number about a cocky Newcastle Hackney Carriage driver while a spare, slow swaying California harks back to a time when Teesside became the steel and iron capital of the world. The age may have passed, but the song serves reminder of how hard graft can overcome adversity. And that optimism is at the heart of the album’s standout title track, a football folk ballad for Middlesborough fans who still hold faith that, when all hope is gone, “the long shot is better than none”. The team may still be struggling to overcome last season’s relegation, but Megson are in the folk premier league to stay. 8pm. £9. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Wednesday April 28

Rose Elinor Dougall

Formerly of The Pipettes and now joined by ex Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong guitarist brother Thomas in her backing band, this is an early showcase for her forthcoming (and overly delayed) debut album, Without Why. She still has a soft spot for the 60s girl-group pop sound of her former band, but to this she brings an affection for the ethereal 80s music associated with such names as The Cocteau Twins and Sundays.

Having won audiences and acclaim alike with previous singles Another Version of Pop Song, Start/Stop/Synchro and the more synth-pop Fallen Over. her appearance coincides with the release of her fourth, the heat hazy lazy summer afternoon melancholy of Find Me Out (Dance To The Radio), featuring languid cornet from British Sea Power’s Phil Summers and some dreamy background whistling. Prepare to fall in love. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Wednesday April 28

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Appearing to have lost their focus a couple of years back with the final departure of long serving drummer Nick Jago and the release of the all instrumental download album The Effects of 333, San Francisco duo Robert Been and Peter Hayes have begun again from scratch.

Now joined by former Raveonettes drummer Leah Shapiro, they spent six intense months putting together resurrection album Beat The Devil’s Tattoo (Abstract Dragon), a distillation of their past cocktail of folk, blues, gospel, Americana and fuzzed garage psychedelia along with familiar themes of religion, politics, redemption and self-destruction.

It’s a terrific, fired up return to form that storms out of the starting gate with the swampy T Rex/Zep inspired blues of the title track, stomping Bolanesque punky black snake moan Conscious Killer and the grinding Grand Funk meets the White Stripes heaviness that is War Machine.

The influence of the Boppin’ Elf (along with Glitter Band drumming) can also be heard on the barrelhouse boogie of River Styx and the amped up trash glam rock out Mama Taught Me Better while Evol patently tips the hat to the Jesus And Mary Chain.

Breathing country barroom fumes for the beers and tears of Sweet Feeling, The Toll and piano ballad rolling Long Way Down, it’s a confident comeback marred only by indulgent 10 minute effects pedal jam Half-State, and one which should return them firmly to the front of the leathered pack on that sun-baked desert bikers highway. 7.30pm. £15.33. Wulfrun Hall

Thursday April 29

Darwin Deez

There’s some new quirkiness in town. Holed up in his New York apartment with a four string electric guitar, casio pop synth and microphone, the corkscrew-permed Deez (or Smith, as he was born) has been likened to Julian Casablancas from The Strokes but, especially with his deadpan delivery and simple tunes, he’s actually a lot closer to Jonathan Richman.

Making what he variously terms “happy music for sad people”, “white music for black people” and “indie rock with a side of calisthenics”, his self titled lo-fi debut (Lucky Numbers) is a grab bag of cheery tunes that sometimes belie the downcast lyrics. Perky synth stabbing opening track, Constellations, actually opens quoting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, underlining a skewed, playful wit that on the chiming metronomic Deep Sea Divers charts a crumbling relationship through images of two divers on the ocean bed while chirpy Radar Detector has him shopping in LA and falling asleep in a mattress store (suggesting he may well have seen Zooey Deschanel film Gigantic), Bad Day wishes all kind of misfortunes on a romantic rival and, mattress imagery making a reappearance, the echoey Bed Space is a decidedly Richmanesque take on lost love.

It gets a bit samey after a while, so the tolerance factor live may well depend on whether this is a one man show or whether he’ll have a band along to flesh things out, but for now he’s the cool flavour of the month. How he evolves is another matter. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds 2, Kings Heath

Friday April 30

Scouting For Girls

Having spent two weeks atop the chart with This Ain’t A Love Song, a song that somehow manages to combine The Streets and James Blunt, the Harrow trio clearly prove the million selling triumph of their debut album was no one off.

Certainly anyone who bought into its radio friendly, hooks laden indie pop will also be overjoyed that the new Everybody Wants To Be On TV (Epic) offers more of the same. However, you wonder if the reason they scrapped the original follow up might be because they were trying out new ideas but realised that it might be better not to mess with a good thing.

However with the sexist laddish attitude towards the opposite sex that runs though Little Miss Naughty, Good Time Girl, 1+1 =3 (where it’s the ‘naughty’ girl’s fault the bloke gets her pregnant) and the jaunty but lyrically trite Posh Girls alongside the tired dig at famous for being famous culture in, er Famous, they’re not exactly full of original ideas to go with their bouncing melodies.

There’s also a rather worrying air of the 70s about them with both Famous and On The Radio sounding depressingly deliberately reminiscent of The Buggles and while there may be hints of Squeeze aspirations there’s also a rather less encouraging shadow of Men At Work.

They do at least push their envelope slightly with their first crowd-swayer orchestral ballad as the album closes with Roy Stride intoning Take A Chance On Us. If only they’d had the courage to practice what they preach. 7pm. £22.50. O2 Academy

Friday April 30

Basia Bulat

An auto-harp playing Canadian folk singer-songwriter, Bulat’s still much of an unknown quantity on these shores. Hopefully the release of Heart Of My Own, her second album for Rough Trade, will go some way to deservedly expanding awareness.

The feisty opening Go On with its military snare drum beat and the almost tribal feel of its vocals and rhythms is a solid calling card, swiftly followed by the gentler, rolling folky warble of Run, the open plains, crystal streams yearning of Sugar And Spice and, evoking the young Buffy Sainte-Marie, the blustery gathering marching stride of Gold Rush.

While she can whip up a leg slapping gusto with ease, she’s arguably at her most effective on the rootsier material, notably the Celtic Isles and Appalachian backwoods swathed moods of the title track, Sparrow’s delicate ukulele notes, the emotion quivering vocals of Once More, For The Dollhouse and the lovely voice and hammered dulcimer simplicity of The Shore. Make her your discovery of the month, you won’t be disappointed. 8pm. £6. Glee Club