Previews by Mike Davies
Monday February 1
Nancy Elizabeth
As well as
dipping into debut album Battle And Victory, the Wigan born
singer-songwriter will be showcasing last year’s follow-up
Wrought Iron (Leaf). Drinks will need to be ordered through sing
language and coughs stifled because this is quiet, fragile stuff
indeed with her cracked husky voice set against instrumentation
so sparse it’s often barely there. Listen to the wintry ghostly
Steve Reich minimalism of Canopy, the blues folk Bring On The
Hurricane with its hints of TalkTalk or Divining with its
mournful trumpet over the piano’s icy fingers and you’ll feel
the sense of solitude and stillness she seeks to evoke.
Not that it’s
all so skeletally contemplative. Feet Of Courage employs
puttering hand percussion on a jazzy folk rhythm while,
relatively speaking, The Act positively wigs out with bluesy
electric guitar and harmonica as she comes over all bluesy wail.
Even so, outbreaks of crowd diving are unlikely.
8pm.
£5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Monday February 1
Carolina Chocolate Drops
It always
struck me as ironic that, for a musical form that had its roots
in the African-American community, there were only three black
musicians featured on the Oh Brother soundtrack. A young trio
comprising Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson,
the Carolina Chocolate Drops (a riff on the Tennessee 20s
outfit) are dedicated to reclaiming their string-band heritage,
even if they had to learn some of their songs from white
hillbilly recordings.
Playing 4 and
5 string banjo, fiddle, resophonic guitar, jug, bones, snare and
other percussion in trio, duo and solo permutations, debut album
Heritage (Dixie Frog) consists of traditional standards, Flemons'
banjo adaptation of Schubert's Erlkonig (Earl King) and a
setting of Banjo Dreams by Black poet Lalenja Giddens
Harrington.
Indeed, it's
Lalenja and Rhiannon who get the ball rolling with their
unaccompanied rendition of chain gang prison song Another Man
Done Gone, Rhiannon taking a stunning solo spotlight (and
sounding far older than her years) for Po' Lazarus, the folk
hero tale that opened the Oh Brother soundtrack.
Elsewhere,
you'll be familiar with titles like Jack O'Diamonds, bluegrass
waltz Short Life Of Trouble, Real Old Mountain Dew and Flemons
and Giddens' own slow tempo take on 30s blues standard Sittin'
On Top Of The World.
Lesser known
but no less invigorating tunes include rousing banjo and fiddle
instrumental Rickett's Hornpipe with its martial snare beat from
the fife and drum tradition, Lottie Kimborough-Beaman's 1928
Wayward Girl Blues, Don't Get Trouble In Mind, and a Flemons
talking blues solo with Bye-Bye Policeman.
Fittingly
they end the album by going back to the roots with Gambia, a
song taught to Rhiannon by a Senegalese troupe during her visit
to West Africa and featuring her playing on the native akonting,
one of the lute like instruments from which the banjo descended.
It’s
tremendous stuff and the live set should be a stormer.
8pm.
£12. Tin Angel, Coventry
Wednesday February 3
Rammstein
Given their
preposterously over the top live shows, the gargantuan
industrial size riffs, taboo rattling lyrics and tongue in cheek
approach, it’s surprising that the German metal six piece
haven’t become at least part way as big here as they are back
home.
However, as
their ability to pack the stadium shows, they’re not without a
sizeable following. One which should have expanded considerably
in the wake of their current and most commercial album Liebe Ist
Für Alle Da (Universal) where the Nine Inch Nails grind and
slabs of guitar assault has been tempered with massive, operatic
orchestral melodies and swathes of Wagnerian choral voices.
Opening with
a Gregorian chant that gives way to bone crushing piston driven
industrial metal, Rammlied sets the mood perfectly and should
provide an equally attention grabbing intro to the live show
before they head off into the likes of the dark Depeche Mode
influenced Ich Tu Dir Weh, a slamming Waidmanns Heil complete
with hunting horns, and the synth driven Haifisch.
Incorporating
the pivotal line from Piaf’s Je Regret Rien, Frühling In Paris
is a soaring highlight, a stadium swelling slice of Germanic
folk delivered by singer Till Lindemann with the full monty of
crooning, chest bursting camp melodrama.
It is, of
course, all sung in German. All, that is for the bubbling sleazy
cabaret synth rock of Pussy, a send up of German sexual mores
that came with an explicitly porno video that was immediately
banned (as indeed have several other promos from the album),
thereby ensuring it masses of attention.
The band
don’t need to rely on such controversy though, they make the
sort of rock that lifts you up and carries you along over the
crowd’s outstretched arms while the likes of Iron Maiden and
Megadeth can only stand and gawp. 7.30pm. £40. LG Arena
Thursday February 4
Will Kevans
If you still
like the idea of Robbie Williams but wonder where he lost the
song plot, then London singer-songwriter Kevans may well be the
answer to your prayers. Listening to the likes of Believe, Bye
Caroline and soaring ballad Shoot You Down off debut album
Everything You Do (Stunt Dog), you feel like junking your copy
of Reality Killed The Video Star and slipping this inside the
album sleeve instead to remind you of the return to vintage form
you’d hoped it might be.
Bringing
together jangly Americana with classic British suburban pop,
Kevans equally calls to mind the breezy countrified best of
Beautiful South on things like Sand Makes A Pearl, the shuffling
Dialling Tone, Picking Up The Pieces and Velveteen. Indeed,
former BS singer Alison Wheeler even contributes backing vocals
here and there and duets on the tumbling title track.
The organ
driven Spencer Davis influenced boogie Super Casanaova doesn’t
really work, but it’s the only misstep on an album that deserves
to put Kevans firmly on the path to success.
8pm. £6. Glee Club
Thursday February 4
Peter Von Poehl
He’s from
Sweden, he’s big in France, counts Air as fans and has been
compared to Brian Wilson and Ben Folds. Here, however, he means
virtually nothing, a state of affairs that should hopefully be
rectified with the release of new album May Day (Tot Ou Tard),
the follow up to 2007’s debut Going To Where The Tea Trees Are.
The 70s/80s
influences remain but, where that was all rather dreamy nu-folk,
this time round he’s a little less languid. While admittedly
more Jack Johnson than funk, Parliament (dedicated to George
Clintons freak-soul outfit) gets on some tumbling rhythms and
brass, the Beatles-influenced Moonshot Falls lopes along on a
swaggery psychedelic summery beat with itchy drums, brass and
strings and Dust Of Heaven goes in for those Wilsonesque
backward tape sounds and wheezing effects over which he double
tracks the vocals.
The spirit of
Nick Drake inevitably hovers, but listen to the rhythmic groove
of Carrier Pigeon with its rare use of burbling electric guitar
and you’ll also trace touches of Peter Gabriel while Lost In
Space curls around you with sun-streaked rippling banjo,
Forgotten Garden crafts a mood of rain day gardens and Near The
End of the World strides purposefully along with Morricone
horns and bubbling Floydian bass line underpinning the sweet
folksy vocals.
He’s unlikely
to cause any mosh pit or dance floor riots, but for gentle,
contemplative soothing then you could do a lot worse.
8pm. £7. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Friday February 5
JLS
Almost as if
they know they need to capitalise while they can, tickets for
the X-Factor runners-up’s December arena shows are already on
sale, cashing in on the current frenzy of adulation and earning
some hefty interest between now and then.
Of course, it
may well be that, come the end of the year, the anodyne Brit
four piece will still be as massively popular among the easily
pleased as they are now but that doesn’t negate the fact that
their well tooled eponymous debut album (Epic) is as much about
authentic soulful r&b as, say, Blue.
Give them
their due, Everybody In Love is a Take That stadium ballad in
everything but name, Beat Again is perfectly polished boyband
R&B pop, Close To You provides the obligatory acoustic
handclapping dreamily sensitive romantic ballad while Taio Cruz
lends a writing helping hand to lift Keep You into a decent
dance floor mover and the Jackson-aping Heal This Heartbreak has
some solid hi energy beats to go with the acoustic guitar intro.
However,
pretty much everything else is interchangeable Europop or
waving mobiles balladeering with only the gaps between the
tracks to distinguish one from another.
They have, of
course, delivered exactly what their young girl audience wanted
of them and, whether down to studio magic or not, they are in
tune considerably more consistently than they were on the TV
show. Whether they decide to repeat the exercise for the second
album or show there’s more to them than slick sheen will
determine whether they’ll still be selling out tours months in
advance in two years time.
They’re
supported on this leg by Stevie Hoang,
an Asian urban pop newcomer whose DIY 2007 debut album This Is
Me made him a star in Japan and proved a runaway success on the
social networking sites. The tour’s designed to build demand for
his debut UK single, No Coming Back (Mercury), which comes out
in early march, three days after the final date, and which seems
pretty much assured of a high chart placing even if it is rather
generic Boyz 2 Men derived R&B pop.
7.30pm. £26.50/£22.50. LG Arena
Friday February 5
Adam Green
Sometime half
of anti-folk shamblers Moldy Peaches with Kimya Dawson, Green’s
past solo work has, to be honest, often had a whiff of the
juvenile, the giggly schoolboy sniggering over references to
bodily functions. Of late, however, he’s been growing up. His
last album, Sixes & Sevens, fleshed out his whimsical approach
with strings and brass while the songs drew on 50s and 650s
influences for a mix of croon, doo wop, blues, country and
vaudeville. Now comes Minor Love (Rough Trade) which, while the
desert mooded Cigarette Burns Forever still bears witness to his
Jonathan Richman influence, often finds him sounding a lot like
both Lou Reed and Johnny Cash, with darker emotional narratives
to match.
“I’ve been
too awful to ever be nice”, he talk-sings on the opening
Breaking Locks, proceeding through the strummed countrified
murder ballad Boss Inside, the Cash-inclined twangy You Blacken
My Sky, and the Velvets-lined double punch of a brooding Buddy
Bradley and the chugging What Makes Him Act So Bad.
There’s a
couple of stumbles, the dated wah wah fuzz guitar funk of
Lockout and the raggedly shapeless Oh Shucks while the rhyming
line about flatulent assholes on Castles & Tassles is an
unnecessary throwback to less lyrically mature days, but
otherwise this is a very welcome coming of age.
Support’s
provided in furiously fine form by Scouse guitar slingers
Sound of Guns, a five piece with
a bristling mastery of stadium shaking anthemic choruses,
ringing guitars and air punching melodies. Following last year’s
barricades storming debut single Architects and the Elementary
Of Youth EP they return in even more explosive epic form with
Alcatraz (Distiller), leaving you in no doubt that their fusion
of U2, Alarm and The Editors is about to make them world
leaders. 6.30pm. £10. O2 Academy
2
Friday February 5
The Transatlantic Sessions
Aly & Phil
The final
weekend jewel in the crown of Glasgow’s annual Celtic
Connections Festival, this is the first time the show’s gone on
the road for its celebration of the shared musical roots between
Celtic folk and Americana.
Featuring a
mix of traditional and contemporary material, the touring
version brings together an impressive line up of old hands and
new names. There’s no less than eight different singers. On the
homegrown front Scotland and Ireland are respectively
represented by Eddie Reader, Karen Matheson and Cara Dillon
while from across the water comes Nickel Creek vocalist/fiddler
Sara Watkins, mandolin maestro Dan Tyminski (who provided Geprge
Clooney’s singing voice in O Brother Where Art Thou?), fiddle
player Bruce Molsky and, a festival regular, bluegrass star
Tim O’Brien accompanied by sister Mollie making her Sessions
debut.
Aside from
making their own instrumental contributions, they’ll be joined
by a house band that will include legendary bassist Danny
Thompson, Phil Cunningham, Donald Shaw, Michael McGoldrick and
James Mackintosh alongside musical directors Aly Bain and dobro
wizard Jerry Douglas. It’ll be a bit special.
7.30pm.
£24.50. Symphony Hall
Sunday February 7
The Low Anthem
A welcome
return for Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams and
another chance to soak up the pleasures of current album Oh My
God, Charlie Darwin (Bella Union) with its contrasts between
whispered folk-hymnal songs like (Don't) Tremble and the
Cohen-like Ticket Taker and the gravel gargling, clanking and
stomping of Champion Angel, Home I'll Never Be and The Horizon
Is A Beltway. 6.30pm. £11. O2
Academy 2
Sunday February 7
Jesca Hoop
A former
Mormon whose CV includes working on an Arizona wilderness
rehabilitation programme for troubled kids and being nanny for
Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, California born Hoop released
her debut album two years ago and, following a tour supporting
Elbow, decided to move to Manchester.
Guy Garvey's
involvement in her life continues on new album Hunting My Dress
(Last Laugh) with an appearance on the acoustic tumbling Murder
Of Birds, one of her nine skewed takes on folk music.
From the
opening trill of Whispering Light with its staccato burbling
rhythm and her idiosyncratic swooping vocal delivery, it's clear
she's something of a singular talent. Beginning with what sounds
like bird song and a crackling fire, The Kingdom shifts from
being trad Brit folk to a clattering percussive Native American
tribal rhythm that sounds like Kate Bush doing a slow tempo
version of Womaniser. Keeping your ears on their toes, new
single Feast Of The Heart has vague eastern bazaar colours
behind the gulping breath vocals, piston beats and an ending
that bursts in from another dimension.
The headily
infectious Four Dreams is a stew of blues, nursery rhyme,
gospel, swamp rock and 60s girlie pop and pixie folk with a
slide guitar interlude, Tulip a clanging murder ballad Irish jig
with reverberating guitar and synth drums and the title track a
peat and streams distilled Scottish romantic ballad complete
with the accent and a layered voices finale.
The nature
linked lyrics often abstract and impressionistic to the point of
downright Bjork, the musically no less pulsingly sonic Angel Mum
is, by contrast, pretty direct and emotionally unambiguous in
its unsentimental tribute to her late mother. Waits describes
her music as like going swimming in a lake at night. I'd suggest
you dig out your bathing costume and join her.8pm.
£7. Glee Club
Tuesday February 9
Twin Atlantic
The four piece return for
another bout of the broad Glaswegian accents, big, noisy
guitars, pulsing riffs, angry vocals and urgent melodies that
spill from debut album Vivarium and the likes of Human After
All and Audience and Audio with their staccato rhythms, the
anthemic Scot rock roar of What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? and
the rather more musically complex light and shade six minutes of
Caribbean War Syndrome. They also have do
nice line in unexpected live cover versions with Crowded House’s
Fall At Your Feet and I Got A Feeling by Black Eyed Peas among
those likely to put in an appearance.
7.30pm. £6. O2 Academy 3
Tuesday February 9
Cobra Starship
Photo by
Matthew Salacuse
They may be a
current hot proposition in America, but the punk synthpop five
piece have yet to make any real impression over here. This,
however, looks like being their breakthrough year. Having
already gone Top 10 in the US, Australia and Canada, while only
just scraping into the Top 20 Good Girls Gone Bad single did, at
least, provide them with their first UK hit. Released back home
last year where it reached the No 4 slot on the Top 100, their
third album, Hot Mess (Fuelled By Ramen) finally surfaces on
these shores next week and seems pretty certain to debut fairly
high on the album charts.
It’s certainly
their most directly poppy affair, opening with the glam stomping
Nice Guys Finish last which not only sounds like a cross between
Britney and Adam & The Ants, but actually includes the line
‘goody two shoes’ in the lyrics. Unfortunately, so pleased is
leader Gabe Saporta with this little in joke that he feels he
has to do it again. Thus Living In The Sky With Diamonds has a
Beatles punning title while sounding like a Hall & Oates
throwback complete to the extent of quoting from Maneater.
However, while
unlikely to find a home in the halls of the timeless, you have
to admit that, as disposable instantly catchy 80s influenced
snarky and sometimes self-parodying pop goes, it does (well with
the exception of the dreary, rap infested The World Will Never
Do) sustain at three listens before you start to find you’re not
longer paying attention.
The Fall Out Boy
referencing Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous barrels
along nicely despite being one of the tamest clarion calls to
teenage rebellion you’ll ever hear, You’re Not In On The Joke
nods to Britney again, only this time re-imagined as Journey,
while The Scene Is Dead Long Live The Scene courts stray Jonas
Brothers fans and Fold Your Hands Child shows they’re not beyond
going for the cheesy achieve your dreams anthem. Needless to
say, they fall several hurdles short, but, at least for now they
can look forward to audiences waving along rather than waving
goodbye.
There must be
some reason why French punk and rock bands always sound so dated
and stodgy. You wouldn’t need all the fingers on one hand to
name those whose music has even vaguely caused ripples across
the Channel. And even the shortlist of Taxi Girl, Metal Urbain
and, er, Trust, would make pretty depressing reading.
It’s unlikely
that Plastiscines are
going to change the situation. A Parisian femme four piece they
profess themselves rebels against the current state of the
French music scene. Unfortunately, to judge by the About Love
(Nylon) album, they appear to have defined their rebellion by
sounding like a poor homme’s pop punk version of The Go Gos,
Bangles and Blondie.
They look cute
and seem to be adequate musicians, but when they attempt
attitude on, say I Could Rob You or Bitch, they sound about as
street tough as Vanessa Hudgens and while Barcelona may start
off all sneery stabbing punk riffery by the time it gets to the
chorus it succumbs to its inner Abba.
It’s not
terrible. They make a decent fist of Swinging Blue Jeans/Linda
Ronstadt hit You’re No Good, Marine Neuilly rips up some solid
rock n roll guitar on Friends And Lovers and there’s nothing
here that’s actually painful to sit through. Perhaps inevitably,
they sound most assured on the three numbers that are in French,
Pas Avec Toi being one of the set’s strongest, and, as Runnaway
shows, although they may sing they well enough in English,
writing in it is another matter entirely.
7.30pm. £13. Wulfrun Hall
Wednesday February 10
Vampire Weekend
Bursting on to
the scene two years ago with their debut album’s infectious
cocktail of art rock and Zimbabwean pop, the
polyrhythmic New
York university grads return in even stronger form with Contra
(XL), still echoing Paul Simon’s visit to Graceland on White Sky
and Run, marrying African and classical colours on the
multi-textured California English and unleashing the tropical
sunshine with Horchata and the ska tinged Carib-flavoured
Holiday.
But they’ve also
built on the debut’s foundations so that Cousins is a dervish
dance stomper that also touches on Eastern European mazurka
influences, the musically intriguing Taxi Cab’s tinkling piano
scale and harpsichord nods to Mozart, Diplomat’s Son samples
M.I.A for its shuffling electropop burble and I Think Ur A
Contra closes the album on a cool breeze of looped ambient
guitar and the feel of stars twinkling above sprawling plains.
As the original
pioneers of world music increasingly look towards reaching
pension age, it’s good to know their legacy is being nurtured
and propagated by such capable hands.
7.30pm. £15. O2 Academy
Thursday February 11
Shockwaves NME Tour
Another year and
another round of value for money package tours. This promises to
be one of the best, headlining The
Maccabees who ably proved their worthiness of
elevation to the star status ranks with last year’s Wall of Arms
album with its staccato guitars, Arcade Fire anthemics and the
folk-inflected vocals of Orlando Weeks.
They open the
batting for the new decade with a revised version of their No
Kind Words single, the Joy Divisionish live favourite now
deconstructed and retooled as Empty Vessels, featuring new
lyrics and vocals by Roots Manuva. He won’t be along for the
live dates, so it’ll be interesting to see which version they go
with on stage, but hopefully whatever the set list they might
find room to include the new EP’s cover of Roy Orbison’s I Drove
All Night.
Frequent
visitors to the venue, Bombay
Bicycle Club return for another shake of their debut
album and the reissue of the Strokes-like single Early/Morning,
though singer Jack Steadman’s twitchy, epileptic stage
mannerisms remain an irritant.
Named after The
Band’s seminal album, Big Pink
layer debut album A Brief History of Love (4AD) with
lashings of Jesus & Mary Chain and Stone Roses styled guitar
feedback, Spectorish echo, and droning vocals. It is, though,
opiate heaven as they unleash 60s acid rock psychedelia and
rockabilly judders on numbers like Young To Love and At War With
The Sun while the slow swaggering Dominos sounds like a fusion
of Chumbawamba, Public Image Ltd and Robbie Williams.
Finally, there’s
The
Drums, four blokes from Brooklyn who fuse
the contrasting influences of 80s Factory with 50s Sun and,
oddly enough, 60s girl groups , deftly illustrated by their
MoshiMoshi single Let’s Go Surfing with its New Order like
bassline, Ventures echoey guitar and streetcorner whistling.
Elsewhere, Make You Mine brings together The Supremes,
Shangri-Las and Richie Valens while Don’t Be A Jerk splashes
electro pop ripples over Jay and the Americans bobbysox pop and
Submarine finds The Beach Boys and Paul Anka holding hands.
With their debut
album still a work in progress, they hit town on the back of new
single Best Friend (MoshiMoshi), a jangling slice of harmony
rich indie pop that introduces Smiths affections and Mexican
brass to their 60s Cali pop bedrock. It may not be the one to
translate hype into hit, but rest assured you’ll be hearing more
of them this coming summer. 7pm.
£15.50. O2 Academy
Thursday February 11
Cluster
One of the
pioneers of 70s Krautrock alongside Kraftwerk, Neu!, Tangerine
Dream and Can, Hans Joachim Roedelius, Dieter Moebius
and their fusion of prog-rock, classical, jazz and
that distinctive industrial ‘motorik’ beat would prove
crucial influences on such names as PiL, David Bowie,
John Foxx and The Orb and even today echoes of their work can be
found in that of Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem and Delphic.
Originating as
Kluster in 1969 with third member Conrad Schnitzler, they
released three albums before adopting the anglicised spelling
following Schnitzler’s departure and, joined by ‘Conny’ Plank
(who would subsequently remain their producer until his death in
1987), the release of their eponymous debut in 1971.
Although they
spent 1997-2007 working on solo and collaborative projects, the
past 29 years has produced 11 studio and four live albums,
including 1977’s seminal Cluster and Eno, the most recent being
last year’s Qua, their first in over a decade.
Rather
inevitably, live performances here have been few and far
between. They played one show in London in 2007, another last
year as support to Tortoise and now, promoted by Birmingham’s
Capsule, comes this one off audio-visual performance that will
feature music from both the new album and their impressive back
catalogue of ambient industrial electronica.
A rare treat for
avant rock devotees, support comes from
Einstellung, Birmingham’s
own sonic warriors fusion of krautrock and Sabbath riffage.
8pm. £15. B’ham Town Hall
Thursday February 11
Twisted Wheel
Having spent the
latter end of last year as Paul Weller’s special guests, the
Oldham crew bring their Mod and punk influenced retro indie rock
to town for a headline tour, picking out choice nuggets from
last year’s self-titled debut album and showcasing as yet
unheard tracks from the forthcoming EP.
Citing such
influences as The Jam, Kinks, Ramones, The Clash, Pistols, The
Who and, er, Slaughter and the Dogs, you’ll have a pretty good
idea of what to expect and numbers like Oh What Have You Done,
Bad Candy, Bouncing Bomb and She’s A Weapon don’t disappoint,
though the folk-punk Bang Of The Beat may come as a not
unwelcome surprise.
6pm. £6.13. O2 Academy 3
Friday February 12
Daisy Dares You
Taking her name
from the CITV kids show, this is one Daisy Coburn, a lippy 16
year old Essex blonde who’s been tipped for big things by those
desperate to be first to find the next Lily Allen. One of the
BBC’s 15 Sound of 2010 finalists, her debut album’s due in May
and apparently includes a bubblegum punk version of Who Will Buy
from Oliver. Meanwhile, you can suss the lie of the land with
kick off single, Number One Enemy (Jive) which, featuring a
guest rap from Chipmunk, sounds like it was cobbled together by
a teenpop production line after sifting through bits of Avril,
Pink and, yup, Lily. Pretty much guaranteed to be a Top 10 hit,
doubtless more dispiritingly catchy homogenised songs about like
boys and stuff lie ahead. 7pm. £11.
O2 Academy 3
Saturday February 13
Kelly Clarkson
Although
Thankful, her debut album after winning the first season of
American Idol, failed to make the UK Top 40, the three
subsequent releases have all landed in the Top 3 and, since Miss
Independent provided her first British Top 10 single in 2003
she’s notched up a further 9 Top 40 hits, including last year’s
No 1, My Life Would Suck Without You, the lead off track from
current album All I Ever Wanted (RCA). On top of which, the show
sold out ages ago.
It is, to be
honest, a bit difficult to fathom her popularity. Certainly her
raspy vocal acrobatics carry a real punch and the album’s wall
to wall with huge rock-pop power chord tunes driven by stadium
sized guitar riffs and big choruses as Clarkson gets all teen
angst and attitude on numbers like I Do Not Hook Up, Long Shot
and All I Ever Wanted. Ticking the necessary boxes, she does
petulant punk on Whyyawannabringmedown, chews bubblegum for I
Want You and delivers the requisite illuminated mobiles
swayalong balladry with the Halo-like Already Gone, If No One
Will Listen and Cry.
But with songs
and sounds recycled and rehashed from the factory floor
production line, other than a slight Texas country tinge to the
voice this could equally be Avril, Katy Perry (indeed part of
Ready sound a bit like I Kissed A Girl and Long Shot was
intended for her original aborted debut), Pink or Miley making
you wonder if the fanbase even check the photo on the front
cover. 7pm. £28.50. O2 Academy
Saturday February 13
Imogen Heap
She does like to
take her time. It took three years to make her solo debut after
the demise of Frou Frou, then another seven for the follow up.
Now, four years later comes album number three, Ellipse (Epic).
Unfortunately
the creative spark would appear to have diminished somewhere
along the way. Her arty electropop has always been of the coffee
table variety, but it used to have a twinkling sophistication
that lifted it above aural wallpaper. No longer. This is all
pleasant but bland and dated, the tunes often sounding like
they’re auditioning for B division American teen soap operas.
Lyrically too her edge has been dulled, so that now she’s
singing about the healing powers of time and a clutch of other
clichés.
There’s
occasional flashes of past inventiveness, like the found
background chatter on breathy piano ballad closer Half Life and
the pizzicato buzzing neurotic feel of Aha, but then Earth
sounds like a feeble attempt at pastiching Lily Allen while Bad
Body Double takes an intriguing idea about the dodgy alter-ego
in the mirror and drains it of any lyrical or musical interest.
A total ellipse of the art, I’m afraid.
7pm.
£17.50. O2 Academy 2
Saturday February 13
MV & EE
That’ll be Matt
Valentine and Erika Elder, prolific veterans of America’s
homespun avant/psych folk movement with its roots in Grateful
Dead jams, rambling Neil Young style guitar solos and
bleary-eyed way back in the mix croaky vocals.
The duo mark their return to
Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label with Barn Nova, the eight
track album that will form the bedrock of this brief flurry of
dates. Get Right Church has Elder taking lead while the guitars
chop out a laid back and loose funky groove, Wandering Nomad
amps up the Crazy Horse reverb, Snapperhead drifts away on
psychedelic clouds, Summer Clouds spends six minutes in a
narcotic 60s Haight Ashbury fuzz guitar reverie while the
noodling Feelin’ Fire and the acoustic Fully Tanked are both
laid back country tinged children of campfire nights.
Bedroom Eyes provides an 11
minute bleak desert blasted raga prog centrepiece of guitar
twangs and drones that threatens to take on paint blistering
volume if they do it live in a set which, with your mind
suitably primed beforehand with the complementary substances,
should feel like a particularly heady trip.
8pm. £10. Taylor John’s House, Coventry
Saturday February 13
Sunshine Underground
Based in Leeds
but originally from Telford and Shrewsbury, it’s taken four
years to follow up debut album Raise The Alarm with its unlikely
cocktail of Snow Patrol and PiL. However, they’re finally
unveiling Nobody's Coming To Save You (City Rockers) which finds
them in even more muscular dance beats and yearning vocal form
on the swaggering Coming To Save You, a Muse-tinged Spell It
Out, We’ve Always Been Your Friends, a funk infused of In Your
Arms and the marching drums driven urgency of A Warning Sign
which imagines The Killers fronted by John Lydon.
Nodding back to
those Snow Patrol influences, The Messiah takes the route from
gently puttering beginning to soaring crashing sonic crescendo
while elsewhere Any Minute Now serves reminder that they’re
quite capable of doing emotionally bruised anthemic balladry
with the best of them.
Had justice been
served, 2006’s Commercial Breakdown single should have seen them
riding the crest of chart waves, as it is, with the long gap
between released and live appearances limited to a few festivals
last year, they may have a struggle ahead to regain the impetus
and the success they warrant. 8pm.
£11. Kasbah, Coventry
Sunday February 14
Band Of Skulls
Coming together
at college in Southampton a couple of years back, Russell
Marsden, Emma Richardson and Matt Hayward aren’t the thrash
metal outfit the name might suggest. Rather, debut album Baby
Darling Doll Face Honey (You Are Here) ranges from the Mary
Chain fuzz chugg of Friends (as featured on the New Moon
soundtrack) and a Gram Parsons coloured Fires to the New York
swaggery reverb guitar bluesy punk Death By Diamonds And Pearls,
Honest’s acoustic folk and current single I Know What I Am’s low
slung scuzzy White Stripes groove. A little too defined by their
influences, perhaps, but enticing stuff all the same.
8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
