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ARCHIVED REVIEWS February 2008 Previews by Mike Davies Saturday February 2 Thirty Seconds To Mars
Fronted by Jared Leto, best known for his work in Fight Club, Requiem For A Dream and Alexander, they’ve been around a while but although sophomore album Beautiful Life appeared back in 2005, it’s only recently made its way over here. The timing seems to have been right though, it’s emo meets the Cure and themes of pain and purification having already produced a hit with the swelling stadium anthemics of The Kill and now being followed by the equally big ballad anguish of From Yesterday. Their time is clearly not up yet. 7pm. £12.50. Carling Academy Saturday February 2 Palladium
Having tickled the fancies of unreconstructed 80s pop devotees with their Happy Hour and High Five singles, this tour should be tying in with the release of debut album The Way It’s Not. However, that’s been shunted back to next month, so look on the gig as yet another preview to whet the appetite for those who really can’t live without a band who can channel The Police (Greatest Dancer), Styx (Miracles) and Asia (White Lady) without a hint of irony or shame. 6.30pm. £15. Bar Academy Sunday February 3 Adele
Making her first public appearance by way
of Later...With Jools Holland before she’d even released
anything, a clever marketing campaign generating massive advance
buzz paid dividends when her debut XL single Chasing Pavements
entering the charts at No 2 last month. But the 19 year old
Tottenham born blue eyed soulster certainly has no need to rely
on hype. The single a classy example of torch r&b that
underlines her declared love of Jill Scott and Peggy Lee, it
perfectly illustrates why Adele Laurie Blue Adkins is being
hailed as one of the voices of 2008. Having decided she was
going to be a singer when she was 14, she got her training at
the college that numbers Amy Winehouse, Katie Melua and Kate
Nash among its graduates, being further encouraged by her second
year next door neighbour, Shingai Shoniwa from the Noisettes.
Monday February 4 Blood Red Shoes
Having released I Wish I Was Someone Better towards the end of last year, Brighton’s switch answer to White Stripes, guitarist Laura-Mary and drummer Steven, seem to be going round in circles by following it up with a new, slightly louder and a bit more snide new label re-recording of 2006’s You Bring Me Down (V2) which actually sounds rather like a punky Fuzzbox. Oh dear. 7.30pm. £6. Little Civic, W’hampton Monday February 4/Tuesday February 5 Paramore
Fronted by teenage punk pop volcano Hayley Williams, the emo pounding outfit appear to have taken the world by storm, earning themselves a Best New Artist nomination for next week’s Grammy Awards and selling out a two night stint here. It’s all been sparked by last year’s sophomore album Riot! (Fuelled By Ramen) with its slick polished jerky riffs and Williams’ Tennessee sugargum vocals. Things get a bit bogged down with the mid-tempo We Are Broken and When It Rains, but when they stoke up the energy buttons on For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic, the Pat Benatar like Crushcrushcrush and swaggery new single Misery Business, then you can see why, for the moment at least, they seem to be unstoppable.7.30pm. £15. Carling Academy Tuesday February 5 Joan Osborne
Still best known for the wry One Of Us, the Anchorage songstress is pretty much now consigned to one hit wonder status. Other than minor follow-up St Teresa, she’s not troubled the charts here in over a decade and although she maintains a decent following Stateside, that’s more down to her live work (she briefly served as vocalist for The Dead (featuring former members of The Grateful Dead) than the success of her albums. The failure of Righteous Love, on which she never really sounded comfortable, saw the end of her major label deal while the follow-up, How Sweet It Is, ditched any self-penned material for a collection of classic rock and soul numbers, ranging from Think and War to The Weight and Axis:Bold As Love. Switching genres, she then released her self-styled Nashville (but sounding pretty soulful) album Pretty Little Stranger, mixing originals like After Jane with such covers as Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends and Jerry Garcia’s Brokedown Palace. That neither of these set the world alight is no reflection on her abilities, and hopefully her current release, Breakfast In Bed (Time Life), will re-ignite interest with its collection of new Osborne numbers and her covers of 60s and 70s r&b nuggets that follow a personally inspired theme of busted relationships. As anyone who caught the Standing In The Shadows of Motown documentary can testify, she does a mean Tamla. The two songs featured in the film, Heat Wave and What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted resurface here alongside solid versions of Ain’t No Sunshine, I’ve Got To Use My Imagination, Midnight Train To Georgia, the smooch friendly fat brass flavoured title track and even Hall & Oates’ Sara Smile that ably demonstrate just how good her voice can be. And, as Baby Is A Butterfly, the Simone-shaded Eliminate The Night and the funky I Know What’s Goin’ On show she can write a pretty authentic sounding 60s r&b number too. Inevitably, most of the audience at the gig will be there on the strength of that 1996 hit, but when they leave, hopefully they’ll have had their ears and minds opened to where Osborne’s musical heart really lies and spread the word to those of kindred listening spirits. 8pm. £12.50. Glee Club Wednesday February 6 The Cribs
Having finally got people’s attention with Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, the Wakefield punky indie pop trio now headline the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour with the mix of art rock and Strokes influences packed into things like My Life Flashed Before My Eyes and Men’s Needs. They’ll be previewing the new single I’m A Realist (Wichita), that comes with bonus new material a cover of The Replacements' Bastards Of Young produced no unofficial mentor Bernard Butler.
They’re joined by the seemingly forever gigging Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong still plugging their jerky shiny bright pop current single Lonely Buoy and previewing material from the Spring’s debut album.
Then there’s indie-electronica trio Does It Offend You, Yeah! who, following on from the steamrollering aggressive bleeps and beats mosh of Let’s Make Out, are whetting appetites from the album with things like industrial electro meets Talking Heads strobe-disco With A Heavy Heart and the hissing nu-raveology Battle Royale. 7.30pm. £15.50. Carling Academy Wednesday February 6 Operahouse The Camden quartet dipped a catchy toe in the water last year with the Eastern mazurka flavoured Man Next Door and return now parading their sophomore single Born A Boy (Marrakesh), a bounce along slice of angular riffing indie-pop with a chorus (Bang, bang Betty dressed like your mother, caught you in the toilets catching eyes with your brother) you’ll find hard to shake. With the slower morphing to frantic Telescopes showing their summery colours, you can see why they’ve been touted as ones to watch over the coming year. 7.30pm. £4. Barfly Wednesday February 6 Jaymay
Barely catching her breath after supporting Teddy Thompson, New York indie folk singer-songwriter Jamie Kristine Seerman returns for a headline slot and another chance to win you over with debut album Autumn Fallin’ (Heavenly). If lovely melancholic tales of bruised love (Ill Willed Person), heady rushes of blood to the heart (Sycamore Down), carnival whirligigs (You’d Rather Run) and wistful sadness (You Are The Only One I Love), ring your bell then you’ll wanting to be elbowing your way to the front. 8pm. £7. Glee Club Thursday February 7 Alison Moyet
The announcement that Moyet and former musical partner Vince Clarke were getting back together for the first Yazoo shows in 25 years might be taken as a sign of the artistic bankruptcy and depleted bank accounts usually associated with such reunions were it not for the fact that she’s just released The Turn (Universal), one of the best records of her solo career. Indeed, after the eminently forgettable Hometime and Voice, it’s even more of a dazzling return to form, batteries doubtless recharged by her excursion into theatre land in Chicago and opposite Dawn French in Smaller. The album showcases three of the songs from the latter production, the Brecht/Weill cum Sondheim World Without End, the moody blues-waltzing Smaller and the Piaf influences of the accordion backed French cabaret Home. That theatrical flavour is evident elsewhere too, especially on the opening showstopper heartbreak big ballad One More Time and the jazzed torch mellowness of The Man In The Wings and Fire while Anytime At All marries Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers, to acts well known for their big drama approach. Coincidentally perhaps, both It's Not The Thing Henry and A Guy Like You hark back to Yazoo days, the inclusion of either in the set alongside past solo classic like Ordinary Girl, Al Cried Out and Weak In The Presence Of Beauty offering a taste of what lies ahead as well as a reminder of an illustrious past. 7.30pm. £25. Symphony Hall Thursday February 7 Kerrang Tour 2008
The last time Coheed And Cambria were here, two years ago, they were touring the fourth part of their galaxy spanning sci fi adventure The Amory Wars, the band named after the central characters. Now they return with No World For Tomorrow (Columbia), the Volume 2 wrap up, again marrying a mix of emo, folk, hair metal, power ballads, hard rock and radio friendly pop but with even stronger Rush and Thin Lizzy echoes this time around. With high-pitched singer-guitarist Claudio Sanchez on blisteringly good form, tracks like The Hound (of Blood and Rank), Feathers, scarf-waving stadium ballad The Road and the Damned (part of the 25 minute saga The End Complete) and the emo storming No World For Tomorrow conspire to have you punching the air and singing along to the choruses and whoa-oh-ohs. Of course, having concluded the saga, it probably means that they’re going to have either disband or change their name. If so, it’s a hell of an exit.
Next up are Philadelphia outfit Circa Survive with their own experimental prog-rock in the form of new album On Letting Go (Equal Vision). However, fronted by the one colour falsetto vocals of Anthony Green, even the stronger numbers, Kicking Your Crosses Down, The Difference Between Medicine And Poison Is In The Dose, and In The Morning And Amazing, all begin to sound the same and ultimately the album sinks into overblown sonic tedium that bodes badly for the live set.
Rounding out the package is the hammering hard rock and softer balladry of Fightstar and post-hardcore Chicago outfit Madina Lake. 7pm. £15. Carling Academy Saturday February 9 Kula Shaker
Reformed after Crispian Mills’ post-split outfit The Jeevas ground to a halt amid mass public indifference, they’re unlikely to ever regain the sort of popularity they had when Tattva, Hey Dude, and Govinda were hits but at least comeback album Strangefolk has some worthwhile moments in the shape of the ELO sounding Second Sight, folk dervish rocking Hurricane Season and glammed rock n roll romp Great Dictator of the Free World. Not, however, sufficient to warrant any urgent desires for a follow-up. 7pm. £15. Carling Academy Saturday February 9 Devon Sproule & Paul Curreri
A double bill of the husband and wife singer-songwriters, each promoting their own new albums. Taking inspiration from the recent marriage, hers is Keep Your Silver Shined, a lazy sun dappled set tinged with jazz and swing influences, embracing the back porch banjo n fiddle moonshine blues of Old Virginia Block, breathy bossa nova Stop By Anytime, jaunty lollopping 1340 Chesapeake and the plaintive traditional The Weeping Willow.
A stew of angry but witty lyrics and menacing images, Curreri’s The Velvet Rut is a darker affair than his wife’s, opening with Mantra’s rumbling hints of the Velvets and proceeding through leg slapping blues (A Song On Robbing, Don’t Drink), swampy Jim Morrison (Fat Killer At Dawn) and sounding like a delta blues Loudon Wainwright with Why I Turned My Light Off. Doubtless, since each tends to contribute to the other’s albums, they’ll also be lending mutual helping hands in the respective solo sets.7.30pm. £10.50. mac Saturday February 9 Puressence
Rescheduled from last year, this marks the welcome return of the Oldham quintet once hailed as the new Simple Minds. Five years on from things falling horribly apart, they’re back, minus the original guitarist but still fronted by choirboy voiced tenor James Mudriczki, for Don’t Forget To Remember (Reaction), featuring the smoulderingly nervy Life Comes Down Hard, a flamenco stadium rock Burns Inside and the early U2-like Moonbeam and Drop Down To Earth. With their big swelling sound now having found favour via the likes of 7.30pm. £10. Little Civic, W’hampton Sunday February 10 American Music Club
Reconvened a couple of years back after a string of well received solo albums by Mark Eitzel, AMC follow up comeback album Love Songs For Patriots with The Golden Age (Cooking Vinyl) and a new line-up that sees Eitzel and guitar genius Vudi now joined by bassist Sean Hoffman and drummer Steve Didelot. It’s a much more mellow affair, conjuring thoughts of faded ballrooms and lonely dancers shuffling round the floor to sad waltzes and ghostly memories. But while songs such as The Dance and the desert rocking Decibels And The Little Pills are still stained with Eitzel’s trademark melancholy and romantic pessimism, it’s hard not to notice the clouds have an at least tarnished silver lining with hope and a refusal to go quietly evident on The John Berchman Victory Choir, drunkard's waltz On My Way, the boozy carnival waltzing I Know That's Not Really You and the poetic portrait of faded but unbowed dreams of The Grand Duchess Of San Francisco and All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco. "I know your world is full of people who have nothing to give" Eitzel murmurs on the early hours sway of Who You Are, before declaring "all I can give you is one of my stupid songs." You’d be foolish not to be there to receive the gift.
Support comes from Bee & Flower, a five piece vehicle for Berlin based New Yorkers Dana Schechter and Roderick Miller whose debut album, Last Sight of Land (Tuition) is strings laden introspective chilled pop with songs of loss and longing informed by electronics and European noir cabaret sensibility. The early hours basement bar lonely dancing Don’t Say Don’t Worry is probably the best track here, but Schechter’s cool minimalism and the cinematic arrangements ensure that tracks such as the ethereal Kiss It Goodbye, a star kissed desert slow dance In The Hush, the Portishead meets Nico of Planets Fall and the eerie spaced-out title track all leave their mark. 8pm. £13.40. Glee Club
First visit of the year by the Atlanta five piece led by bearded
teen Andy Hull, back for a reminder of debut album, I'm Like A
Virgin Losing A Child and its brooding emo-esque sound and
densely layered songs like Wolves At Night and Now That You’re
Home.
The name means ‘the farmers’ in Spanish and the Cardiff Uni
spawned septet certainly plough a bouncy shambolic pop furrow
with debut album Hold On Now Youngster (Wichita) that sounds
like a meeting between Jilted John, Pavement, Deaf School and
Broken Social Scene. With added glockenspiels.
The first woman to ever make Rolling Stone’s Guitar God list,
mate of the Foo Fighters (guesting on their current album) and
recent Golden Globe nominee for the score to Sean Penn’s Into
The Wild, Atlanta born Katherine Elizabeth King is currently the
one everyone’s falling over themselves to outpraise.
Having seemingly been around for years refining and shaping
their sound, the Birmingham trio finally pop the champagne corks
to celebrate the arrival of debut album X (InExile). Past
singles, the riff crunching Shame and Come Clean’s Mark Lanegan
meets Led Zep and the Chilli Peppers, are included alongside
past tasters such as the guitar stabbing melodics of Big In
Japan that blends the Foo Fighters and Police and the stadium
thumping Easy Smile. Saturday February 16 Eddie Morton
Billed, not entirely geographically accurately as a Stourbridge evening, this showcase by acts on New Mountain Music comes headlined by the criminally underrated singer-songwriter showcasing his current album, the appropriately titled Stourbridge Town with its gentle blend of Americana, Celtic and Britfolk. He’s got a warm burr of a voice that calls to mind a mingling of Martyn Joseph, Ralph McTell and Dylan while his often poetic songs are steeped in a blend of romanticism and observation, as at home in front of the hearth as they are on the open road or the lonely city streets. The rambling (as in troubadour vagabond rather than unfocussed) country-blues King Of My Own Country, Starlight Road, the trad flavoured Rambling Rose At Heart and Going Home all conjure thoughts of evenings under star filled skies while The Vision is swirled by Celtic mists. He also manages to sneak a reference to hometown venue, Katy Fitzgerald’s, into both the harmonica wailing strum of The Other Side of Town and the trad folk blues in which the Queen Of Stourbridge Town’s tale of a local legend is couched. It’s well worth a visit, as will be tonight’s set which should also see him slipping in songs from last year’s The Singing Tree, most hopefully Can You Hear Me’s take on the human race from the point of view of the whale, his metaphorical road trip across a lost America on Liberty Falls and the hymnal love song that is Lighthouse. From Malvern way come Splatt!!, a trio whose backgrounds include Quill and Doctors of Madness. Their Primal Hordes and Partisans album explores the pagan roots of English and Irish folk, embracing trad chestnuts like Matty Groves and Irish street ballad The Hackler From Grouse Hall alongside original numbers like the fine jangling Solstice song Grey And Silver Crown and a blues setting of Shakespeare’s The Wind And The Rain. Unfortunately, Paul Beadle’s strangled, overcooked, overemphasised nasal vocals make them a rather uncomfortable listen. Third up, from Birmingham, is Welsh-Romany Ben Smith whose Live At Katie Fitzgerald’s shows him to be an acoustic fingerpicking folk blues troubadour drawing on both British and American traditions. Mingling covers such as Guthrie’s Ain’t Got No Home and Merle Travis’ Nine Pounds Hammer with self-penned numbers like Meth Blues and Strip It Down (on both of which he evokes early Steve Earle), he’s reliably workmanlike rather than inspired, but should provide the basis for a solid evening. 8pm. £10. Red Lion, Kings Heath Saturday February 16 Gallows
Fronted by the wiry skeletal Frank Carter whose attention-seeking tends to manifest itself in audience baiting, getting tattooed on stage and generally throwing himself about, the keyboard dominated Brit punks have made something of a name as a UK answer to the Stooges. They also have the honour of being banned from playing a gig at Disneyland because of the lyrics to their Orchestra Of Wolves album. Doubtless, Carter will be making reference to that and their other recent US adventures tonight in between screaming, shouting and generally hammering their way through such family friendly ditties as the thrash metal In The Belly Of A Shark, mosh pit magnet Staring At The Rude Bois and the flesh tearing Just Because You Sleep Next to Me Doesn't Mean You're Safe. With the special edition version of the album now featuring two new cuts in the shape of Sick of Feeling Sick and Black Heart Queen as well as their Black Flag cover Nervous Breakdown as well as various session and live recordings, they’ll be making noose for a while to come yet. 7pm. £13. Carling Academy Saturday February 16 The Mekons
Formed back in the early 70s, now based in America but still built around the early 80s nucleus of Jon Langford, Tom Greenhalgh and Sally Timms the Leeds outfit is one of the longest lived from the first wave of British punk, although for the past 20 years or so they’ve been far more of dark punk-folk inclinations while both Langford and Timms have regularly taken time out for their rather fine country projects. Back in the UK, they’re gathered tonight in the name of new album, Natural (Touch & Go), another eclectic collection of politically inclined material decrying the compassion challenged establishment and championing the dignity and endurance of the underdogs, served up in a swaying folk template variously shaded by blues, country and even reggae (Cockermouth) and sea shanty (Burning In The Desert Burning) and coloured, as ever by moody scraping violin. There’s a strong sense of the pagan and the fecund, particularly evident on Dark Dark Dark , Old Fox and the pastoral rippling of White Stone Door and Perfect Mirror, that sits well with the ramshackle booze fumed folk club feel generated by the likes of Diamonds, the jogging Give Me Wine Or Money and a drunkenly swaying Zeroes And Ones. A perfect setting then and a welcome opportunity to catch them in such intimacy on an all too rare appearance in this neck of the woods. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Sunday February 17 Kate Walsh
A bit of a regular here, the Brighton songbird returns to continue plugging Tim’s House (Blueberry Pie) with wistful acoustic songs like Talk of the Town about broken hearts, bruised lives and yearning optimism. This time round she’s also highlighting waltzing slow shuffle breathy voiced single Don’t Break My Heart which comes with her pizzicato string arranged folksily bruised version of Morrissey’s Please Please Please Let me Get What I Want. If you’ve yet to succumb to her charms, you really need to make a housecall. 8pm. £10. Glee Club Sunday February 17 Benji Kirkpatrick
The son of folk legends John Kirkpatrick and Sue Harris, sometime member of Bellowhead and Faustus, and now acclaimed solo artist dubbed a ‘fretboard wizard’, the Bouzouki playing Shropshire lad arrives tonight to preview his third solo album, Boomerang (Navigator). Save for a cover of The Band’s The Moon Struck One, everything here is self-penned, displaying a medley of folk, jazz and blues influences as well as, on Flyover, some time spent listening to Richard Thompson. Even if, at times, his lyrics feel a little overwritten and his rhymes a touch forced, it’s highly accomplished stuff. The cello haunted, Iraq themed (dad dies fighting, never sees his child) trad shaped Willow Weeps, slacker song (or is that social indictment?) Rocky Brown, the choppy percussive blues People and a fiery Eastern hued Wallbreaker show off his more musical muscle flexing side while Drift and More Life are the gentler, dreamier aspects. And, if you want to know how he got that tag, take a listen to his fingers working overtime on the blues bottlenecking title track. Not, perhaps, an album to elevate him to the young Britfolk elite, but certainly one to push him up the ladder. 7.30pm. £8. mac Sunday February 17/Monday February 18 Darren Hayes
Having played Symphony Hall a few months back, the former Savage Garden singer returns for not one but two virtual sell out and more intimate dates, affording the opportunity to run through cuts from his current double album, This Delicate Thing We’ve Made (Powdered Sugar), that didn’t make the set list last time. An ambitious conceptual collection that explores his ambiguous relationship with his father, his childhood, and his coming out a couple of years back as well as making observations on the world around him, it finds Hayes in musically diverse form, channelling Prince on Me Myself And (I), visiting Clannad and Enya territory on A Fear Of Falling Under and Neverland, digitalising his vocals for the socio-political conscience rapping Madonna electro mash of Bombs Up In My Face, spiing Cure meets Gabriel electro shapes with The Future Holds A Lion’s Heart, recalling the Buggles with Waking The Monster and coming over all Kate Bush on current single Casey. And, if you just want big noise or dreamy straight ahead balladeering pop then The Great Big Disconnect, The Sun Is Always Blinding Me and Maybe will do the trick. Inevitably there’s too much here for it all to work for everyone, but you can’t say it’s not ambitious and there’s very little to get the skip finger twitching. Given the last tour only featured seven numbers from the album (and it’s unlikely he won’t be reprising Casey), there’s plenty left to choose from and, even with two nights, still have songs left over, especially since he’s going to have to filter in some fan favourites from previous solo and Savage albums too. After this, he’s apparently taking the rest of the year off to recharge and work on new material. Expect a box set for the next visit. 7.30pm. £27.50. Carling Academy 2 Monday February 18 Robyn Hitchcock: rescheduled show
He’s never really enjoyed popular success, but then again, with his determinedly idiosyncratic psychedelic pop, he’s never really courted it either. He has, however, long sustained an enduring cult following and a critical reputation as one of the country’s most interesting songwriters. He’s also been pretty prolific. To which end, he’s finally got rounding to compiling the catalogue of solo recordings he’s released following the break-up of The Soft Boys. The first of two collections comes in the shape of I Wanna Go Backwards (Yep Roc), a box set that pulls together his first three albums (also reissued individually) along with bonus material that includes two discs worth of unreleased B-sides, outtakes and home recordings, as well as assorted poetry, cartoons, and even a sample of his novel in progress. Black Snake Diamond Role (from which comes The Man Who Invented Himself and the whimsical Brenda’s Iron Sledge) was his solo debut, Eye, with its mix of electric folk and stripped back acoustics and memorable numbers like Cynthia Mask and Queen Elvis II, was the third. But it’s 1984’s all-acoustic I Often Dream of Trains that forms the basic of this tour. Generally regarded as his definitive solo release, it took an undercurrent theme of death and gave it a witty treatment dressed up in stark but resolutely non-gloomy arrangements. The album comprised 19 tracks, among them the surreal Furry Green Atom Bowl, the train journey fantasy romance of the title track, a wintry wistful instrumental Heart Full of Leaves and,, Uncorrected Personality Traits, a pithy Freudian summation of sexual deviance and hang-ups sung a capella in the manner of a trad unaccompanied ballad. Now, with Isobel Campbell on cello and vocals and Terry Edwards playing horns and keyboards, they’ll be performed in their entirety for the first time along with, as he puts it, other Phenomena from what is, you have to admit, a brilliantly eccentric career. 8pm. £13. Glee Club Tuesday February 19 Jimmy Eat World
Since the demise of Blink, there’s really little out there to overshadow this lot’s brand of spiked sherbert and snot American teen-pop emo. They come out of the gate with all guns blasting for new album Chase This Light (Interscope), sending all pretenders scurrying with the swaggering fire and confidence of Big Casino’s swelling Killers-like drive and big chorus. They don’t let up either, Let It Happen and Always Be keeping the blood pumping with bursts of guitar storms before they pull back to the more mid tempo pop of Carry You and moody acoustic ballad Gotta Be Somebody’s Blues, separated only by the punky political invective rompalong Electable. It trails off a little in the final stretch and chances are Firefight and Dizzy won’t be making the set list, but there’s more than enough here to gobble up planet emo and leave you asking for afters. 7.30pm. £16.50. Carling Academy Wednesday February 20 Sandi Thom
Best known, of course, for I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker, the Scottish singer-songwriter embarks on her first tour in two years, but without the benefit of Pink and the Lily, her follow to Smile, It Confuses People, being released to coincide. There’s no tasters on her website, so it’s hard to say what to expect although advance word is that she’s sounding more country this time around. Playing solo, she’ll doubtless be previewing as much new material as possible along with pleasant if forgettable numbers such as When Horsepower Meant What It Said, Superman and Sunset Borderline from the debut. 8pm. £10. Glee Club Thursday February 21 Cazals
British but signed to French label Kitsune, the four piece get their year off to a good start by headlining the Levi’s Ones To Watch tour in advance of new single, Life Is Boring, an angular dollop of guitar dancefloor electro pop with a hint of a more radio friendly Gang of Four and perhaps a twinge of Police. Sharing the backstage bonhomie are New Zealand’s London based indie art-punk popsters Cut Off Your Hands who’ve been described as a cocktail of Split Enz and, yes, Gang of Four although their jaggedly perky catchy Oh Girl (sixsevennine) single and its Turn Cold B-side suggests a dose of Smiths too. Worth going out on a limb for. 8pm. £7. Barfly Friday February 22 Hot Chip
The casio popsters have beefed up a bit since The Warning, new album Made In The Dark (EMI) showing a bit more dancefloor aggression to its 80s electropop, weaving in New Order elements, saluting hero Todd Rundgren (who they sample on Shake A Fist), taking rave pills, clanging through industrial krautrock with a grin and even finding space for the dreamy ballad title track, the folksiness of Whistle For will and some Pet Shop technorockabilly with One Pure Thought. Currently ruling the commercial end of the club spectrum with the likes of Ready For The Floor, bass throbber Bendable Posable, Out At The Pictures and, the album’s masterpiece, Hold On, they might have a harder time persuading those whose limbs don’t automatically twitch when the beats start dropping but right now they’re the Harry Ramsdens of the motherboard. 7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall Friday February 22 Vampire Weekend
Making World Music for the 21st Century dance village, the geographical genre hopping New Yorker university grads are suddenly the cool name to drop among the hipper hip-swayers with the release of their eponymous debut album (XL). Building upon the African percussion and soukous guitar style foundations that rejuvenated Paul Simon’s career, they then throw in harpsichords, strings, and whatever comes to mind to create a joyous noise that defies you not to start shaking a leg, Their academic roots poke through too with songs about punctuation (Oxford Comma), Ivy League lifestyles (Campus), Victorian Imperialism (Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa), and neo baroque architecture (the 50s doo wop lounge meets art-rock Mansard Roof) mixing it up with the more usual tales of student life and love. With M79 bringing together European classical chamber music and Zimbabwean pop, Walcott taking steel drums to the 50s prom, and Bryn and A-Punk relocating the Talking Heads to Soweto, they could make afro-pop trendier than its been since Graceland. 6.30pm. £7.50. W’hampton Civic Hall Bar Saturday February 23 Gabrielle
After comeback single Why failed to crack the Top 40 last year, there must have been a sigh of relief when the album, Always (Universal) put in a brief Top 20 appearance. However, things seem to have soured again with the first night of tour proving a disaster as, whether through nerves or illness, the voice refused to work properly and she ended up saying that if she’d been watching she’d have asked for her money back. Hopefully things will have settled down by now, but even so it has to be said that she’s not the force she was when she was scoring Top 10 hits seven years ago. Heartbreaker’s a solid slice of Motown goes glam stomp pop while Love Me Like You Do also harks to the days of Diana and the Supremes, but for the most the album’s rarely more than pleasant r&b listening with only I’m Not In Love, torchy soul ballad Wiser and the stand-out country tinged Cold Sober Moment coming within spitting distance of things like Shine, Rise. Eclipsed by the new wave of British r&b divas, she’s got an uphill struggle if she’s going to hang on to the old fans let alone find new ones. 7.30pm. £27.50. Symphony Hall Saturday February 23 Exit Calm
The South Yorkshire quartet must have spent some time chilling out on the moors to get the ethereal ambience that informs numbers like the cinematic clouds of Higher Learning and Awake. Bearing the influence of the Verve, Spirtualized and, in the eruption of guitars on the latter number, My Bloody Valentine, they’ve been tipped in some quarters as a potential UK answer to Sigur Ros. It’s early days to talk in such praise, but they clearly are a sound worth keeping your ears on. 8pm. £5. Flapper and Firkin Saturday February 23 The Lines
Also busy making waves, this lot hail from Wolverhampton and have also had Verve references thrown around their shoulders because they tend to favour euphoric amped up guitars. This hometown gig serves to launch debut single Domino Effect (Weekender), a passion infused flurry of riffs and sonics that points to their explosive live sound and those Radiohead albums in the collection while Tue Me Up In Knots is more inclined to noisier, declamatory indie rock end of the spectrum with a worrying tendency for the guitars to sound all a bit Big Country at times. Could be big. 7.30pm. £8. Wulfrun Hall Sunday February 24 Newton Faulkner
Sharing a similar surf scene vibe to Jack Johnson, the whiskery ginger dreadlocked crooner’s done extremely well for himself with debut album Hand Built By Robots and its soft pop melodies. So here’s another helping to warm the cold winter nights with the sunkissed grooves of Feels Like Home and Lullaby and UFO’s jazz-blues scat.
Those who arrive early can get a taster of mellow brother and sister acoustic folk blues duo Angus & Julia Stone who’ll be previewing cuts from the upcoming A Book Like This (Capitol) album prior to their headline show at the Glee. I certainly can’t imagine anyone hearing the desert stoner folk of The Beast, the jazzy acoustic frills to the Victoria Williams-like Here We Go Again or Another Day’s raggy waltz and not rushing home to book a ticket. 7pm. £13.50.Carling Academy Sunday February 24 Stephanie Dosen
The Wisconsin born singer-songwriter’s been variously likened to Sinead O’Connor, Joni Mitchell. The Sundays and the McGarrigles, but that doesn’t really catch the flavour of A Lily For The Spectre (Bella Union) with the hushed, melancholic tunes of her ‘cradlesongs for ghosts gone astray.’ Liltingly acoustic evoking early morning mists and crystal streams, her lyrics are full of images of vampires, birds, landscapes and, of course, ghosts. When she sings The Lakes of Canada, you can almost hear the waters lapping at the grassy banks while the mournful Owl In The Dark conjures exactly the mood the title suggests. With the sublime Daydreamers, a beguiling Death & The Maiden, the violin scraping romanticism of the title track and the childhood memories filtering through Vinalhaven Harbor, this is the sort of gig that requires a perfect hush. But then she’ll have you dumstruck with wonder anyway.
Guest is German-Swedish labelmate Peter Von Poehl whose Going To Where The Tea Trees Are leans rather obviously on the 70s and 80s, at times suggesting a nu-folk version of Howard Jones. All very restrained and languid, it’s fair to say he’s unlikely to prompt any sudden urges to boogie but as music to soothe the troubled brow then The Story of the Impossible, Travellers, Scorpion Grass and the tweely titled nursery lullabying Tooth Fairy will do the job nicely. 8pm. £8.50. Glee Club Sunday February 24 The Bad Robots
Out of London wearing the jerky punk rock n ska colours once sported by The Clash and Jam, the four piece declare themselves to be about making music that gets people sweaty and dancing, having fun and not caring what other people think. Judging by demos of 4 Reasons and We’re Not OK, they should haven’t too much trouble. 7pm. £5. Barfly Sunday February 24 Michael Weston-King
This is his first local gig since releasing last year’s A New Kind Of Loneliness, an album that saw him stepping further away from the Americana sound that's long distinguished his work as both solo artist and leader of The Good Sons, and entering the rarefied field of classic singer-songwriters. The Texicali n Cajun rocking n rolling Let The Waves Break Around Your Face and the Gram-like My Heart Stopped Today show he’s not wholly forsaken his roots, but listen to the piano cascading Here's The Plan with its swelling chorus, hymnal piano ballad The Last Hurrah, This Man Can Break So Easily with its Broadway tune flavours, or the poignant big building It Will End In Tears, and you'll hear a musician who's risen above pigeonholing to produce an album categorised only by its sheer class. Lyrically it's a bit of a downer with songs of loss, isolation, broken marriages, self-recriminations and, on the simple waltzing From Out Of The Blues, a quietly crushing song about the parents of a murdered girl and her killer. Appropriate then that the sole cover should be a harmonium and French horn arrangement of Alone Again Naturally, Gilbert O'Sullivan's hymn to sadness and loss, a song that both echoes the emptiness that informs King's own songs. a perfect grace note to arguably the finest album of his career and, if it makes the set list, likely to prove a show highlight too. 8pm. £12. Robin 2, Bilston Monday February 25 The Von Bondies
It’s four years since Jason Stollsteimer and the lads were last sighted here, busy plugging then current album Pawn Shoppe Heart. Welcome back then with We Are Kamikazes Aiming Straight For Your Heart ( ), the first of three planned EPs leading up to new album Love, Hate And Then There’s You, later in the year. Those won over by the loose-limbed guitars and rubble raising stomps of No Regrets, Poison Ivy and Crawl Through The Darkness will be happy to hear that, although Pale Bride does sound a lot like Morrissey, there’s been no major revision to the game plan with a ringing, rousing 21st Birthday, a sunny California kissed pop Wake Me Up and the scorched driving Ramonesy punk I Don’t Wanna. Party up and roll on the next two then. 7.30pm. £10. Bar Academy Monday February 25 Tegan & Sara
Identical twin Canadian sisters, the Quin duo have been around since the late 90s, playing a punkish folk rock that got earned them a spot on the Lilith Fair carousel and saw them covered by the White Stripes. It’s been four years since their last album, so they’re out jogging memories in earnest, this being their first major UK tour and appearance hereabouts. They bring with them a set list that will be leaning heavily on new album The Con (Sire), a diverse collection that mixes quirkily arranged leafy goblin folk with jittery childlike pop punk over songs that pick around the skin and bones of the heart to see what lies beneath. Those looking for plinketty toss of the hair jauntiness should be directed towards Back In Your Head, the infectiously catchy Hop A Plane, Nineteen and the title track. Heads more inclined to the twistier shapes and darker curves will be listening out for I Was Married, the electro pulsing alt-folk beats Are You Ten Years Ago, a Bush-like baroque Knife Going In, and the spidery Call It Off while Floorplan has clearly been custom built for those lazy but slightly decayed fruit smelling days of summer. Either way, this is one con trick you don’t want to not be suckered into. 7pm. £8. Wulfrun Hall Tuesday February 26 The Eels
Still best known for Mr E’s Beautiful Blues (you know, the one that goes ‘goddamn right, it’s a beautiful day’), Mark Oliver Everett’s musical alter-ego has never really matched the commercial success of the first two albums, Beautiful Feak (which featured Novocaine For The Soul and Susan’s House) and Electro-Shock Blues. Not that this has stopped a steady flow of idiosyncratic material, both in the fluid band format and as solo releases, maintaining a loyal if cult following. Those who piled in to see Hot Fuzz might also be familiar with him now for Souljacker Part 1, the 2001 released Bolanesque rocker that wound up on the soundtrack. He’s not played over here for an eternity and there’s no predicting what sort of shape the set’s going to take, whether he’ll bow to fan desires for the favourites or pursue a more dogged experimental art-rock course. But he’s certainly got plenty of material from which to choose. Not only has he just released the 24 track compilation Essential Eels Vol 1 1996-2006 (Geffen), he’s accompanied that with a double set of rarities (and DVD), Useless Trinkets, that includes remixes, live recordings, BBC sessions and previously unissued tracks. Those with a fondness for his covers, will be pleased to know that his personalised stripped down versions of Falling in Love With You, Dark End of the Street, and even a Silver Band flavoured take on the Hollies’ Jennifer Eccles, are included. Shout loudly and maybe he’ll oblige. 7.30pm. £20. B’ham Town Hall
Tuesday February 26 Royworld
Disarmingly unique, according to the blurb, in reality the latest London based outfit to have inspired superlative overkill are deeply influenced by Roxy Music (Elasticity) and, as their debut Virgin single Man in The Machine demonstrates, the Buggles. Fronted by Somerset’s Rod Futrille with brother Crispin the behind the scenes lyricist, they make a catchy enough radio friendly pop noise but unless the rest of the material is a little less derivative, they’re not about to be leading any pop revolutions yet awhile. 7.30pm. £5. Bar Academy Tuesday February 26 The Audition
A Chicago pop-punk crew with a leaning towards funky party music and old school riffs, they’ve been regularly tarred with Fall Out Boy meets Maroon 5 comparisons, but new album Champion (Victory) extends the reference points to add The Police (Make It Rain, Heaven For The Weather) to the mix. However, while they may pen catchy melodies, they don’t write particularly memorable songs and while you wouldn’t switch stations if the riff chugging Warm Me Up, stop start Hell To Sell or jerky rhythmed Can You, Will You? came on the radio, you wouldn’t retune to try and hear them again either. 7.30pm. £8.50. Carling Academy 2 Wednesday February 27 Electric Six
With a frequently changing line up centred around singer Dick Valentine, they’ve never really managed to build on their initial flurry five years back with Danger High Voltage and Gay Bar. But they doggedly keep slogging along, this time around toting new album I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master (Metropolis), a catchy little title borrowed from a satirical drawing by German artist George Grosz. Electrofunk remains the name of the game, part Prince, part Right Said Fred, dirtied up with choppy guitars and, on Lenny Kravitz, some sleazy Stranglers organ riffage while Broken Machine and the bubbling Randy's Hot Tonight!" find Valentine doing his what if Roxy Music were really Franz Ferdinand thing. Rip It’s digs at politicians with direct lines to God while strutting a sleazy Jaggery disco number, Ferry resurfaces for Lucifer Airlines and Sexy Trash curiously seeks to take Captain Beefheart and Zappa out partying down the clubs. Nothing’s going to suddenly make them as cool as they like to imagine themselves, but you could do worse if you’re looking to snap a spine to the beat. 7.30pm. £10. Carling Academy 2 Wednesday February 27 Sarabeth Tucek
Born in Miami, raised in Manhattan and soaking up such diverse influences as Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Young, The Velvet Underground, Elliott Smith, Dylan and Joy Division, Tucek’s been around the fringes for a while, providing backups for both Smog and Brian Jonestown Massacre. However, she’s not stepping into her own spotlight with her brittle but beguiling self-titled debut album Echo) and lead off single Something For You, which crosses Coldplay’s Yellow, the Velvets and hushed psychfolk to scintillating effect. The Nico are evident on the bluesy slouch of Stillborn, Neil informs Hot Tears and the freak out erupting Holy Smoke, country pop flavours percolate through Nobody Cares and the likes of Ambulance, the lullaby-like Come Back, Balloon and a chiming Broken Kisses will go down well with admirers of early Beth Orton. You want warm brass and strings soaked fragile balladry, check out Home. Suitably pensive and sarcastic in equal measure, Tucek’s whispery intimate voice luring you closer to hear her confessionals about busted relationships, be prepared to find yourself hooked in her narcotic web. 8pm. £6. Glee Club Thursday February 28 Alicia Keys
Growing older and more mellow, Keys has shifted from her early urban r&b to more old school soul for current album, As I Am (J Records), largely relegating her piano playing to a back seat in the process. It’s possibly not the best of moves because, while slick and polished with Keys’ voice creamily warm, far too much here simply passes politely by without making any impression. When it does ignite, as with the skewed beats of I Need You, soul ballad Where Do We Go From Here, the jazzed Wreckless Love and a dreamy Prelude To A Kiss (where she finally tickles those ivories in earnest) then you’re reminded why she created such a fuss in the first place. But too often this is processed radio friendly bland with Teenage Love Affair’s supposed street story and the girl power Superwoman bordering on the mawkishly dull. When the tribal rhythms and backing vocals of Waiting For Your Love overshadow the star out front, then maybe it’s time to take stock before audiences do. 7.30pm. £27.50. NIA Friday February 29 The Editors
Following a massively successful 2007, the Birmingham based fusion of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen don’t intend to rest on their laurels. Taking on the arenas they were born to conquer, they enter 2008 with the slow waltzing melancholic ballad Push Your Head Towards The Air, the fourth single to be lifted from And End Has a Start (Kitchenware) and destined to prompt outbreaks of illuminated mobile phones held aloft as it joins the set alongside skyscraping anthems Escape The Nest, The Weight Of The World, Spiders and, of course, the momentous Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors. They’ll be busy thinking about the follow up album around about now, so don’t be surprised to find one, perhaps, two new numbers being rolled out for a reaction. 7.30pm. £18.50. NIA Friday February 29 Hoosiers
The Trick To Life having happily romped to the summit of the charts and still hanging around the Top 30, they’re unlikely to be much bothered about those who carp on about Irwin Sparkes’ falsetto and the overly obvious ELO, Supertramp and Cure influences that hung around the Worried About Ray and Goodbye Mr A singles. But while they’re an ordinary band, they do write annoyingly catchy tunes and with third single Worst Case Scenario demonstrating folk have yet to tire of the relentless upbeat bounce, they’ll probably be annoying for a while to come yet. 7pm. £12.50, Carling Academy Friday February 29 John Fiddler
Those of a certain age will recognise Fiddler as the Darlaston born former member of duo Medicine Head who graced John Peel’s Dandelion label back in the late 60s and enjoyed 70s chart favour with (And The) Pictures in the Sky, One Is One Is One and Rising Sun. After they folded, he went on to sing with British Lions and Box Of Frogs, and he’ll be casting his set list across 37 years’ career worth of songs, focusing on the Head but also including numbers from 90s solo album The Big Buffalo and new material. Well worth lending an ear, and if you’re too young to remember those early days Cherry Red have reissued the classic New Bottles Old Medicine so you can catch up. The venue’s certainly worth a look too since it houses the world’s largest collection of signed classic album artwork and, for collectors, Fiddler will be selling his own signed prints of original collage, print and artworks on the night. 7pm. £15. St Paul’s Gallery, Hockley Saturday March 1 Kate Nash
Linked in with Lily Allen school of Larndan chav wannabes mixing up dance beats and savvy street poetry with urban kitchen sink tales of larging it, debut album Made Of Bricks at least proved Nash one of the better examples. Both the Foundations and Mouthwash singles were solid slices of pop while the album demonstrated her range with the purring blues ( Dickhead, modern folk pop Birds, the jogging 50s girl group of We Get On and a clattering kletzmer Skeleton Song. Once people stop seeing her a novelty and more as an artist with a diverse and promising future, then she can really get on with escaping that pigeonhole. 7.30pm. £15. W’hampton Civic Hall
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