Friday
March 19
Him
The Finnish outfit have gotten seriously in
touch with their inner stadium pop selves for new album
Screamworks:LOve In Theory & Practice (Sire), dumping the last
album’s gloom for a set of upbeat, uplifting and catchily
melodic songs spawned by singer Ville Valo’s newfound romantic
bliss.
Dogmatic devotees might grumble at them
embracing American rock blueprints, but from the opening In
Venere Veritas through the cascading radio friendly Scared To
Death, Heartkiller, and the Taking Back Sunday feel of Love,
The Hardest Way, to the pop waterfalls of In The Arms Of Rain,
Ode To Solitude’s dark power chords and the tougher Bon Jovi
shapes of Like St Valentine, it’s hard to imagine the wider
world not welcoming them with open arms.
7pm. £20. O2 Academy
Friday
March 1
Hayseed
Dixie
The quartet look pretty miserable on the
front cover of new album, Killer Grass (Cooking Vinyl),
and well they might. After six albums transfiguring assorted
rock, pop and punk into bluegrass, the one trick pony is
pretty much ready for the knacker’s yard. The live Weapons of
Grass Destruction reaffirmed their virtuosity as musicians,
but it was clear that the novelty was wearing thin as the band
were having to look ever further musically afield for their
reinterpretations. Then came an album without any covers
whatsoever that merely revealed a lack of songwriting
inspiration and, devoid of their gimmick, a fairly average bar
band.
Now comes Killer Grass (Cooking Vinyl), an
album which balances both self-penned and reinterpretations.
Unfortunately, not much life has been breathed back into the
walking corpse. Their own songs (more drinking and cheating
numbers) are competent at best, at times sounding like the
sort of fillers Dr Hook used to put on their early albums
while banjo driven countrified versions of Won’t Get Fooled
Again, Alien Abduction Probe, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and a
hideous Bohemian Rhapsody are frankly rather painful. Time to
sell the cabin and bury the still, boys.
8pm. £16. Robin 2,
Brierely Hill
Friday
March 19
Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby
After five solo studio albums and a
collection of lost songs, the Pittsburgh born
singer-songwriter has now joined forces with her husband,
the warbly voiced 70s New Wave underdog best known for
The Whole Wide World.
Writing individually and together, the pair
sharing vocals and duetting, it’s an inspired musical union
that brings together her country edge, his British busker
folk-punk and their common love of 60s
pop. Eric returning to his original Stiff Records home, the
eponymous debut album slipped out virtually unnoticed two
years ago, but hopefully this brief jaunt will raise its
profile.
It certainly doesn’t deserve to languish in
obscurity, even of Rigby’s spoken passage on the opening
psychpop Here Comes My Ship immediately recalls T’Pau’s Heart
& Soul. Unpolished perhaps, but laced with their shared wry
humour and cynicism it’s also packed with stand out tracks,
prime among them the chugging Beach Boys influenced music biz
themed Round, Astrovan’s bontempi organ eulogy to Rigby’s
trusty tour, the Spectorish Please Be Nice To Her and the
wistfully autobiographical Another Drive-In Saturday where
Eric pays reflective homage to 70s outfits like Mott The
Hoople.
Rounding off with a synth backed tremulous
duet of Johnny Cash’s I Still Miss Someone, it leaves to
eagerly anticipating their second album, due later this year,
tasters of which should appear in what is, by all accounts, a
terrific live show.
8pm. £12. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath
Saturday March 20
The Courteeners
Short of
having Morrissey on board, the Manchester outfit’s debut, St
Jude, couldn’t have been more like The Smiths if it tried. The
echoes are still there (Take Over The World is like The Smiths
doing Take That), but this time round, Falcon (A&M) is also
likely to evoke comparisons with Elbow and, at times Oasis,
with its accomplished collection of sometimes chiming indie
guitar pop that, on folky tinged The Opener, even offers a
wistful love song to his hometown, references to which are
littered throughout the album.
Clearly
life on the road put frontman Liam Fray is in a melancholic
romantic mood, crooning away on the likes of the 60s Motown
flavoured Cross My Heart And Hope To Fly, the buzzing New
Orderish Scratch Your Name Upon My Lips, the acoustic strum of
The Rest Of The World Has Gone Home, the lushly cinematic Will
It Be This Way Forever and reflective gentle piano ballad
Last Of The Ladies.
There’s
plenty of other highlights here too, whether the Bowie-dance
mood of excess rebuking You Overdid It Doll, the tumbling
melody line of potential anthemic crowd swayer Sycophant or
Cameo Broach’s slow waltzing tale of child abuse
and emotional alienation, all
of which should safely see them taking wing to even greater
heights.
7pm.
£16. O2 Academy
Saturday March 20
Tiesto
Best
known as one of the world’s top DJs and remixers, Tijs
Verwest’s also produced a series of his own euphoric dance
albums to get the masses both hot and chilled. His latest,
Kaleidoscope (Musical Freedom), is no exception, a collection
of itchy trance instrumentals and unlikely collaborations with
a diverse range of vocalists and flirtations with indie rock
and pop.
Among
these you’ll find Sigur Ros leader Jonsi doing his widescreen
thing on the title track, Tilly and the Wall’s Kianna pumping
the dance of You Are My Diamond, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke
sounding emotionally fraught on It’s Not The Things You Say,
Canadian alt-rock cult Emily Haines with Knock You Out, Tegan
& Sara channelling the Eurodisco of Feel It In My Bones while
Calvin Harris breaks out the glo sticks for Century and Nelly
Furtado rides Who Wants To Be Alone into the single charts.
Of
course, none of them will be putting in cameos for tonight’s
DJ marathon with the Dutchman spinning the grooves until the
early dawn, but I daresay the thronging masses won’t be too
concerned.
9pm.
£27.50. LG Arena
Sunday March 21
Frank Turner
Million
Dead’s former frontman makes his first appearance of the year
to serve reminder of his third solo album, Poetry Of The
Deed (XtraMile). Strummy troubadour folk pop protest laced
with shards of country and an affection for the The Clash, The
Pogues and Billy Bragg, it’s designed for live impact with the
shanty bashalong call to songwriting arms attack on apathy
that is Try This At Home, the Springsteenesque Faithful Son, a
fiddle driven Sons Of Liberty, and the hip-slung guitar of
Live Fast Die Old. He’s also releasing a live version of Long
Live The Queen and next month’s marching beat single Isabel,
both of which should loom large on the set list.
Support
comes from sometime Hot Water Music frontman
Chuck Ragan who, taking
the solo route, has swapped punk for a toe tapping blend of
rock, folk, shanty, bluegrass and country, delivered with
raspy vocal, scrapping fiddle and acoustic guitar. Released
last year, Gold Country (Side One Dummy) is a terrific
collection of organic, honest songs streaked with a coating of
dust and the smell of pine, the likes of Rotterdam, the Men
They Couldn’t Hang like Glory, Ole Diesel and Don’t Say A Word
all guaranteed crowd rousers. Good Enough For Rock n Roll he
sings; most certainly so.
7pm. £12. O2 Academy
Sunday March 21
Lou Dalgleish
The
second of the Month of Sundays, and this time round it’ll be a
set of classic covers of material from such diverse names as
Nick Cave, Cole Porter, Tammy Wynette, Bjork and Burt
Bacharach, a list that pretty much sums up the sort of quality
she represents.
8pm.
£12. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath
Sunday March 21
Emma Pollock
Pic by Steve
Gullick
Following 2007 solo debut, Watch The Fireworks, the erstwhile
Delgados vocalist returns with The Law Of Large Numbers (Chemikal
Underground), a follow up that leans more to the brooding and
angular than the art pop and dreamy folk aspects of its
predecessor.
While
she maintains an undercurrent of pop sensibilities, spikiness
and stroppy drums invest I Could Be A Saint, Letters To
Strangers feels like dropping Kate Bush into the heart of
Alice In Wonderland, while Red Orange Green adopts an urgent
clockwork rhythm, Nine Lives sways into jazzy cabaret
territory and Chemistry Will Find Me slouches along on a
torpid late night prowl through the shadows with sudden stabs
of guitar and drums and guest vocals by Adem.
Deceptively innocent on the simple acoustic The Child In Me,
Pollock keeps needles hidden under her nails, the album’s
mathematical precision concealing rumbling threats of chaos at
its dark and intelligently literate heart. It’ll be an
interesting night.
8pm.
£10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Monday March 22
Diana Vickers
When she
was voted off the X-Factor semi-final a year and half ago,
Vickers was a quirky Lancashire 16 year old with a warbling
voice who liked to perform in bare feet. Today, after an
acclaimed West End stint starring in Little Voice, she’s a
confident 18 year old with smouldering sex appeal and about to
launch herself as a pop star. 2008 was clearly a good X-Factor
year. Eoghan Quigg may have sunk from sight, but Alexandra
Burke and JLS have become massive stars and Vickers seems set
to follow in their path.
However,
her debut album, Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree (RCA), may
come as a bit of a surprise to those expecting to hear her
doing things in the manner of her X-Factor triumphs with
Yellow, Everybody Hurts and Smile.
That
distinctive strangled warble is still there, but lead single
Once clearly has its eyes on Britney dance floor pop, a
stylistic choice mirrored on Remake Me & You, the electro pop
of My Hip and breathy disco sashayer The Boy Who Murdered
Love. Put It Back Together will keep those waiting for the
tremulous big building ballad happy, though even that picks up
the dance-pop tempo. What else the album contains remains to
seen on its delayed May release, but tonight’s show will
provide an early preview of what’s in store, though whether
she’ll be reprising any of those X-Factor favourites is
another matter.
8pm. £10.22. Glee Club
Tuesday March 23
Zebrahead
Orange
County’s Grammy nominated punks return for another breakneck
bout of body slamming, mosh pit party frenzy and the
occasional stab of rap, exuberantly bouncing off the walls as
they slam though songs about mental health, unfaithful
girlfriends, and how great their fans are.
Current
album Phoenix (SPV) comes wall to wall with catchy choruses
for pretty much all its 16 high energy tracks and, as you’d
expect from their party attitude, very little hardcore punk
angst and anger.
New
single Juggernaut is a perfect example of what they do well,
with its spray of hooks, swaggering vocal tumbling verses and
big shouting singalong chorus in a sort of Blink 182 stylee,
sharing that good time supercharged blast with the likes of
Hell Yeah!, Death By Disco, Morse Code For Suckers and Be
Careful What You Wish For. They do all tend to sound a bit
similar when played back to back, even with breakouts of
rapping and blistering guitar solos like that on The Junkie
And The Halo and All For None And None For All, but then who’s
looking for sudden mood swings when you’re bouncing round the
room like madmen.
7.30pm.
£O2 Academy 2
Wednesday March 24
Paloma Faith
The
Anglo-Spanish singer’s debut album Do You Want The Truth Or
Something Beautiful? (Epic) has deservedly set the world afire
with its cocktail of Eartha Kitt, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Billie
Holiday and Shirley Bassey.
Her
theatrically mannered slightly squeaky voice stylistically
trampolining between r&b, torch soul, jazz, blues, swing and
vaudeville, she can certainly deliver a tune and from the
opening slinky Tina Turner prowl of Stone Cold Sober and the
Gloria Gaynor disco suggestions of Smoke & Mirrors through the
title track’s pantherish ballad with its Bond theme
persuasions to the finger-clicking sassy soul swing of new
single Upside Down, the Broadway and gospel New York and
Stargazer’s harp shimmering contempo dreamy r&b ballad it’s
patently obvious that this former magician’s assistant casts a
spell all of her own.
7.30pm.
£12.50. O2 Academy
Wednesday March 24
Chris Brokaw & Geoff Farina
The
former drummer of slowcore pioneers Codeine joins forces with
the frontman of Boston indie jazz outfit Karate, but the
result isn’t what you might expect. Rather The Angel’s Message
To Me (Fina) is sees them mining the songs of pre-WWII
American folk, blues and ragtime, playing fingerpicked guitar
with dust-coated vocals.
They
know their roots too, the album featuring genre standards from
such names as Rev Gary Davis (the title track), Blind Arthur
Blake (That’ll Never Happen No More), The Kentucky Ramblers
(Ginseng Blues), Irvin Mills (St. James Infirmary Blues) and
Walter Vinson (Sitting On Top Of The World) as well as such
trad nuggets as Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor, Stagger Lee,
Oh Death and Poor Wayfaring Stranger. If they play live as
well as they do on disc, then mouths should be duly agape.
8pm.
£6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Thursday March 25
The Automatic
Surging
to prominence with the Kaisers-like Monster, the Cardiff combo
have seen their fortunes dwindle with successive releases,
their second album failing to dent The Top. Things didn’t look
up last year when Interstate, the first single on their own
Armoured Records label, pretty much sank without trace.
Now
comes the accompanying album, Tear The Signs Down, where they
find themselves coming across as just another generic indie
rock outfit without any strong songs to lift them above the
pack. Guitars duly chug along in the hope of finding a
memorable tune, but from Insides to Tear It Down there’s
little lasting impression here, and certainly nothing with a
chorus you’ll be chanting on the way back from the pub.
There’s
glimpses of their old selves on Race To The Heart Of The Sun
which sounds like it could be a live stormer and on the all
too brief sonic frenzy of Something Else, but mostly it’s all
rather dull and, as the song says, Cannot Be Saved.
Following last year’s EPs Tell Your Friends (It All Worked
Out) and You’re Not Invincible and the Remains single,
anticipation is high for the Yorkshire trio
White Belt Yellow Tag’s
debut album. Good news then that next month’s Methods
(Distiller) doesn’t disappoint with its cocktail of Echo & The
Bunnymen, Doves and Joy Division. Indeed, listen to Tell Your
Friends (It All Worked Out) or It’s A Long Way, Don’t You Fall
Behind and you could be back in the Bunny days of Ocean Rain.
Perhaps it’s not just coincidence that two of the tracks are
titled
Where
Echoes Land and Always & Echoes!
If
anyone doubted their ability to pen heart stirring anthem
ballads, then Ode, with its swirling synth intro and
Atmosphere-like steady military drum pattern, and the swell of
closing track Carleless Talk And Sinking Ships, should
persuasively settle that matter. Armed with a ferocious live
reputation, they’ll be looking to make 2010 very firmly their
own. You’re Not Invincible, they sing. But they very well
might be.
7.30pm.
£9. O2 Academy 2
Friday March 26
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
I may be
wrong, but dancing to beats driven songs about knife crime
(apparently it’s not about stabbing people but feeling
disaffected with modern Britain) somehow seems a bit off. But
then, it’s hard to escape the social commentary hectoring on
the second album from the producer and MD duo, especially on
Get Better which unfolds like a youth contraception and
self-education infomercial. It actually starts with Pip saying
‘imagine a song that really reached out and touched kids’.
Sick
Tonight might profess not to know everything but a strident
moralising, preachy tone runs rampant throughout and at times
it feels like being in a club run by some earnest social
worker. Then you get Stake A Claim, which sees itself as a
lesson on democracy and plays out as a citizenship oath about
rising up to change things. It’s almost a relief when Snob
simply has a go about musical elitism.
When
they ease up on the agendas, Five Minutes proves a rather
wistful lost love lament, but for all the fact that these are
undeniably infectious dark hip hop beats it’s going to be hard
to think with your feet when they’re constantly trying to
instruct your brain.
7.30pm.
£12.50. O2 Academy 2
Saturday March 27
Ellie Goulding
Topping
the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll and winning the Brits Critics
Award without anyone actually hearing much of her music, the
Welsh singer has been heavily touted as the big new thing and,
doubtlessly, the saviour of EMI’s collapsing economy. Sighs of
relief and back-patting all round then when Starry Eyed became
a top 4 single and the Lights album debuted at No 1.
However,
when, the following week, it plummeted an astonishing 15
places, company shares undoubtedly took a beating and all
those self-congratulations began to look a little misplaced.
It may
yet prove a chart stayer, but it’s also easy to see why
interest paled so fast. She has a decent if occasionally
irritating breathy little girl voice with that Cerys quiver
and the music is well manufactured and polished.
But it
sounds exactly that, a synth trigger here, perfectly placed
beats there, some warm electronics, and rippling melodies
designed to sound like inoffensive daytime radio, clothes shop
and dinner party background music rather than something you
whip out to impress your friends with your cutting edge taste.
The
Writer has a lilting melodic swing reminiscent of Catatonia,
Guns And Horses opens with an acoustic guitar and a vague
Latin flavour before she’s suddenly directed towards the Lily
Allen side of the street, and Wish I’d Stayed has a gentle
Goldfrapp trip hop feel mingled with her own folk influences.
But nowhere do you get the feeling that she’s actually
comfortable with any of this and would rather be channelling
the likes of Bon Iver an Midlake, both of whom she’s covered
live, than mirroring what her producers and A&R people think
is still the latest musical fashion. She may yet find her own
voice, but for the moment it’s a case of Light on, no one
home.
7pm.
£9. O2 Academy 2
Saturday March 27
Lauren Pritchard
You’ll
probably not know the name but if you’re up for taking a punt
on an unknown quantity then you could do a lot worse than
checking out this Tennessee songstress who’s been described as
a cross between Janis Joplin, Karen Carpenter and Carole King.
Amazingly, the hype is actually spot on this time too.
When The Night Kills
The Day, the Ed Harcourt co-written piano based lead track on
her upcoming debut EP, The Jackson Sessions (Island),
sounds as if it could have come from one of King’s 70s
classics while Stuck is a pure vintage
New York
blues groove. Released in at the end of April (when she’ll be
on tour again), both are early versions of numbers that will
appear on her debut album. On the evidence so far, a star is
clearly about to be born.
7.30pm. £5. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath
