Gig Guide Archives April 2009

Previews by Mike Davies

Wednesday April 1

Broken Records

An Edinburgh seven piece who meld European trad folk and Scottish alt-rock sensibilities, they incorporate violin, cello, accordion, mandolin, piano, trumpet, and glockenspiel into the familiar guitar, bass, drums sound. The result’s a rowdy, ragged but blood-churningly infectious noise that embraces the lurching cabaret squeezebox, Ibsen referencing mood of If Eilert Lovborg Wrote A Song, It Would Sound Like This and the Balkan mazurka like fiddle and feedback fire of If The News Makes You Sad Don’t Watch It alongside the spare, spooked Slow Parade and a drunken gypsy swaying Lies. Just signed to 4AD and with a Glasvegas style buzz already building, it’ll be worth getting to know them now. 7.30pm. £6.50. Glee Club

Wednesday April 1

Starsailor

Having made a persuasive bid for critical credibility with On The Outside, leaving four years before the follow up and with a fairly low touring profile hardly seems the best way to consolidate matters. The good news is that All The Plans (Virgin) keeps up the forward momentum, even if they now never seem likely to veer far from the familiar comfort zone of the Travis/ Coldplay/U2 comparisons.

Kick off single Tell Me It’s Not Over is pretty much the decider. If you’re not won over by James Walsh’s Bono-esque warble and the big music approach from the start then there’s not much point proceeding with the rest of the album. Those that do, however, will be rewarded with the strummily acoustic yearner Boy In Waiting, spaghetti western twang The Thames, crowd swaying tumbler Stars & Stripes, the stadium ballad sweller title track and the tender Safe At Home with its caressing steel guitar.

There’s some skip over tracks with the directionless Hurts To Much, a clumsy gospel infused Change My Mind and the formlessly bombastic Bono aping Neon Sky, but for the most the emotional heft carries them through. You Never Get What You Deserve, the sing but, likely to pull out the stops live, perhaps this is the year they finally will. 7.30pm. £16. Wulfrun Hall

Wednesday April 1

Delta Spirit

With debut album Ode To Sunshine (Rounder), the San Diego quintet have been called a honky tonk Creedence Clearwater Revival, compared to the early Kinks, tagged with 60s protest folk, likened to the Violent Femmes and had Streetwalker described as South of the Border Orbison twang. To which Tomorrow Goes Away may well ass Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance and a dash of McCartney while People C'mon nods to Oasis and, if you dig deep, Trashcan could even be a close but less intense cousin to Cream's Badge

You'll also hear Phil Ochs and John Prine (rather than Dylan) blowing through the closing time swaying 60s anti-war folk protest People Turn Around.

But, the music’s more than its reference points, a collection of singalong songs about living while you can played with a barroom shuffle of boogie woogie piano, waltzing acoustic guitars, loping drums and frontman Matthew Vasquez' dusty adenoidal twang.

There's an honesty and enthusiasm here, the melodies instant and infectious whether they're riding the fuzzy waves of Strange Vine's surf pop or going for the reverb blues of Parade. Listen to Bleeding Bells, an album highlight that begins with just a strummed guitar and Vasquez again in his Greenwich Village persona and then introduces Texicali horns to add an extra air of desert melancholy. Or the simple honky tonk piano slow waltzing sadness of House Built for Two, a song on which you can almost see him drinking away the heartache as the melody lurches down the street to an empty bedroom. And, just for one final unlikely comparison, the album closes up with the horns belting, upbeat waltzing title track that sounds like the Denny Laine era Moody Blues partying at Big Pink. It’s terrific stuff and those who fancy a flutter should take odds on them appearing on those best of lists come December. 7pm. £6. Barfly

Thursday April 2

David Ford

Rather than tread the usual cycle of making and album and then touring it, the former Easyworld frontman’s got off the business treadmill, releasing songs on line when he feels like it and out gigging simple because he reckons it’s time he did. He promises a full career retrospective, so fans of the late lamented band can look forward to some pleasing nostalgia though it’s likely that his solo career will furnish the bulk of the set list.

So, from debut album I Sincerely Apologise For All The Troubles I’ve Caused keep hopes up that he elects to include such quivering voiced epic misery soaked ballads as A Long Time Ago, What Would You Have Me Do?, and I Don’t Care What You Call Me, this is misery well worth the wallowing in.

Then there’s the sophomore and even better Songs For The Road, a frayed heart album that fully deserved to see him find the sort of acclaim and sales that greeted the like of Damien Rice, David Gray and Stephen Fretwell. Certainly, it would be cloth ears that didn’t melt on hearing the tremulously slow sad waltzing I’m Alright Now, the early Waitsian piano ballad Song For The Road and the Buckleyesque splendour of St Peter or have their protest spirits be stirred by the patter of A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall across the prophetic lacerating society critique Requiem before it erupts into a raging guitar howl.

Since then he’s released a brace of MySpace EPs (Pages Torn From The Electrical Sketchbook Vol 1 and 2), from which the banjo plinking pub crowd clapalong I Want More, gorgeous lullabying piano ballad Down By The Sea and the clankily drunk Waits meets The Pogues shanty I’m Nothing At All Like I Wanted Me all warrant a place among in the evening’s delights. He’s talking about a new project later in the year, if the gods have taste they’ll smile on this one and make him the star he so patently deserves to be. 7.30pm. £11. Glee Club

Saturday April 4

James Morrison

Having had the temerity to release an album of easy on the ear soft pop-soul that spawned airwaves dominating hits that included You Give Me Something and Wonderful World, the Scottish singer with the Rod Stewart husk has become the favourite whipping boy for whenever James Blunt doesn’t have a new release.

Inevitably, the, his sophomore album, Songs For You, Truths For Me (Polydor) received a critical savaging all the way to into the Top 3, some special venom being reserved for his No 2 hit collaboration with Nelly Furtado on Broken Strings.

So, a little perspective please. Morrison isn’t the pop anti-christ and, yes while the 60s flavoured songs may sometimes veer towards the emotionally mawkish, they aren’t portents of musical armageddon.

He has a pleasingly attractive rasping voice (like a polished Frankie Miller in places), he writes catchy melodies with hummable choruses and sounds like he means them, the album throwing up several highlights in the surely Otis Redding inspired If You Don’t Wanna Love Me, the uptempo pop of The Only Night and You Make It Real, the crowd swaying Precious Love and the Ragavoy-Weiss like big ballad Dream On Hayley. Ignore the vitriolic putdowns, liking Morrison doesn’t make you a lesser person nor he a lesser talent.

Opening act will be multinational London based blue eyed soul quintet Vagabond who’ll be mellowing the groove down with warm buttered new single Sweat Until The Morning (Geffen) and showcasing material from the upcoming album that shows they’re not just a reincarnation of The Lighthouse Family. 6.30pm. £21.50. O2 Academy 2

Saturday April 5

Kris Drever and Heidi Talbot

Taking a break from his other life as part of Lau, the award winning Scottosh folkie Drever partners up with Cherish The Ladies’ honey-voiced Irish lead singer for a duo tour of songs from their respective albums. Since the pair duetted on fiddle scraping waltz The Blackest Crow from her current In Love + Light release, it’s a pretty fair assumption that’ll be on the set list.

In an ideal world they’ll also be featuring the old parlour hymn When They Ring The Golden Bells, Tom Waits’ Time and the hopelessly romantic If You Stay from the same album while Drever’s selection contributes the trad Green Grow The Laurel Harvest Gypsies, and Navigator from hi Black Water debut. With the follow up due late this year, if luck’s in you might even get the odd sneak preview, too. 8pm. £11. Red Lion, Kings Heath

Sunday April 5

Golden Silvers

Co-winners of the Glastonbury New Talent competition, the London trio dispense with guitars, happy instead to make itchy psychedelic disco with drums and Bontempi beats. Filtering dance influences takes from Sly Stone, Prince and Bowie (Let’s Dance era) but also the pop sensibilities of Squeeze, following annoyingly catchy debut single Arrows of Eros and spacepop samba follow up Magic Touch, they’re out and about in service of current single, cosmic lounge groover True Romance (XL), the title track from the upcoming debut album to feature the singles to date along with live favourites like midtempo summery lolloper Please Venus and the jaunty Blur-like Queen Of The 21st Century. 6pm. £7. O2 Academy 3

Monday April 6

People In Planes

Previously known as Tetra Splendour, the Cardiff alt-rock six piece saw their own green shoots of recovery start to bloom when their Beyond The Horizon (Wind Up) album fired up something of a buzz Stateside. Released here towards the end of last year, they head out not to raise the profile for its solid, stadium-filling muscular rock with the release of new single. Last Man Standing, a widescreen slice of swaggery swampy blues with echoes of Nick Cave and an almost tribal chant feel. It comes with two new tracks, the throaty bass lines, growly guitar and voodoo garage bluesy rock of Barracuda and the darkly moodier Baked with builds from a slow tempo intro into the sort of full on rumbling desert dance stomp Jim Morrison might have done on a head full of mescaline. Grab yourself a flight ticket. 7.30pm. £6. Eddie’s Rock Club

Monday April 6

Eskimo Joe

Overe here towards the end of last yearm the piano-based Australian outfit return for what’s likely to be the last tour in support of their Black Fingernails, Red Wine (Warner) album and its cocktail of INXS funk-tinged rock, Crowded House, and Midnight Oil. That threw up a clutch of highlights, among them the dark swirling Sarah, Elton-like piano ballad London Bombs and the melancholic waltzing How Does It Feel, so expectations should be high for the follow up, Inshalla. Released in Australia next month, there’s as yet no UK date set but advance clips sound promising with kick off single Foreign Land a driving rock number with an attacking chorus hook and a storm of guitars. 7.30pm. £10. The Rainbow, Digbeth

Tuesday April 7

Jason Mraz

The laid back San Diego singer’s often sounds like a mix of Jack Johnson and some blue-eyed soul Paul Simon with added Latin rhythms, a comparison borne out by Make It Mine, the new single off to the current We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (Atlantic) album. The Johnson/Simon comparison is particularly notable on the jaunty jogging I’m Yours, a relaxed sunny vibe continued on Colbie Caillat duet Lucky and James Morrison collaboration Details In The Fabric.

Elsewhere he you’ll find Timberlake-aping disco funk (The Dynamo of Volition), jazz funk (Butterfly), some sub James Blunt (If It Kills Me) and sensitive man acoustic on the Gilbert O’Sullivan-like Love For A Child. The latter, along with the beatnik Ben Folds vibe Coyotes, rather points up Mraz’s lyrical deficiencies but if you’re looking for chilled Muscat music, he’s your man.7pm. £17. O2 Academy

Tuesday April 7

Official Secrets Act

Having made an impressive entree with So Tomorrow’s poppy amalgam of XTC and Wire and the following in with the Televisionesque The Girl From The BBC, the instruments-swapping Leeds synthpop quartet (Mike Evans sitting in behind the kit after Alex MacKenzie’s road accident) spread the word on just released debut album Understanding Electricity (One Little Indian).

A collection of angular but accessible indie pop it deftly displays their eclectic musical colours, ranging from the 80s indie pop bounce of Mainstream with its hints of early Roxy through the late night slow dancing Little Birds and a carnival coloured Momentary Sanctuary to the note synth pulsing folk-waltzer A Head For Herod, December’s soft harmony and synths 60s West Coast pop and the lyrically dark Victoria which sounds exactly like a Gene Pitney ballad reincarnated with perky synths. Ultimately, they may prove a little too diverse for their own good, but there’s no denying they make a very appealing noise. 7.30pm. £6. Barfly

Tuesday April 7/Wednesday April 8

Tina Turner

It’s been nine years since Anna Mae Bullock’s last full on tour, and for most of the current decade she’s been in semi-retirement. Other than a couple of guest artists appearances on other’s albums (though she did get a Grammy for her contribution to Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell tribute), she’s not recorded anything new since Wildest Dreams back in 1996. However, last April she announced she was getting back into live action for a 50th Anniversary tour,. Although a couple of dates were rearranged because of flu, things are back on track and these two nights are her last remaining UK shows before heading for Europe prior to wining things up in Sheffield in May.

They promise to be particularly spectacular complete with dazzling props, costume changes, Mad Max and James Bond theatrics, and, of course 50 years worth of classic hits that are guaranteed to include River Deep, Mountain High, Proud Mary, Nutbush City Limits, What's Love Got To Do With It, Private Dancer, We Don’t Need Another Hero, GoldenEye and, naturally, Simply The Best. She may be 70 this year, but she still has that defining voice and those famous legs, even if she still looks like a constipated chicken when she shimmies and dances. 7.30pm. £100-£50. NIA

Wednesday April 8

Go Audio

When they released their debut single Made Up Stories, this time last year, things looked rosy for Walsall frontman James Matthews and his fellow band members. Follow up, She Left Me, another early Busted style number with a dash of chewy US teen pop, was supposed to herald the Made Up Stories album that August. But then things turned sour. The album got taken off the schedules and the band parted company with their label, Epic, the following month. Intended to finally emerge this January via their own Rubix Records, it was postponed yet again until May when the band decided to record new material. That now includes the new single, due later this month, Drive To The City, which, while maintaining that fizz pop bubblegum guitar bounce and coats it with a dance beats electro sheen. Other new additions seem likely to include This Isn't Hollywood, though hopefully the revised version will still find room for So Quiet You Were, Brake! Brake! Save Me Now, stadium ballad I'm With You and the Green Day orchestropop Forget About It. 7.30pm. £8.50. O2 Academy

Wednesday April 8

Maybes

It’s hard to believe that the Liverpool five piece have been variously likened to The Beatles, Zutons, Stone Roses, Beach Boys and Oasis with singer Nick Ellis compared to Jagger and Steve Tyler. In fact the main reference point of debut abum Promises (XtraMile) turns out to be The Who, most especially so on Turn Me Over, Boys, and Modern Love while album stand out Summertime which sounds like Townshend and co recasting Joy Division's Transmission. But in the cold critical light of day, there really doesn't seem a lot here to justify the drooling superlatives with which they've been lavished. Catchy retro-minded pop songs like Ronnie Loves Julie and new single Trick of the Light with its unexpected hint of the Spectorised Willy DeVille are fun in the moment but don't entice you back for a prolonged relationship. They parade their ambitions with the final title track, a twelve minute instrumental of spaced, dub rock and swirling psychedelia, but like the rest of the album it just reminds you that the bands they look to emulate did it all much better. 7.30pm. £6. 444 Club, Rainbow

Wednesday April 8/Thursday April 9

Jackson Browne

One of legendary seminal names of 60s SoCal rock with his introspective confessional and political lyrics, Browne’s career boasts some classic songs, among them The Pretender, Take It Easy, These Days, Before The Deluge, Late For The Sky and Running On Empty.

The voice remains as potent as ever and, with campaigns for the environment, Tibet and Darfur, the passion clearly remains undimmed. 2002’s The Naked Ride Home found him in good form with the brooding world commentaries of Casino Nation and Walking Town while the title track and About My Imagination were about a definitive a Jackson Browne sound as you'll get. However, since then the musical fire’s rather turned down the heat. Two live solo career retrospective acoustic albums saw him in stripped down form, almost looking like he was trying to find the path back to his roots.

Then came last year’s Time The Conqueror (Inside) which addressed his frustrations and anger with the Bush administration on such songs as the Katrina-centred Where Were You and The Drums of War’s Iraq concerns while the title track reflected on how things have changed since the 60s. Unfortunately they did in a manner verging on the soporifically dull, wrapped in meandering bluesy folk melodies that just refused to engage the ear and arrangements so bland as to verge on musak. Maybe he’ll find some life in them on stage, but it does seem that, as the title suggests, time may well have taken its toll. 7.30pm. £40. Symphony Hall

Thursday April 9

The Leisure Society

With a variable line up that can number nine or thereabouts and an instrumentation that includes double bass, violin, cello, flute, ukulele, and glockenspiel, so, as you might imagine, this isn’t your usual combo. The core however comprises Christian Hardy and fellow multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Nick Hemming, whose past work includes writing the music for a couple of Shane Meadows film, and you can hear his cinematic ear at work in the evocative melodies and widescreen vistas of the band’s debut album, The Sleeper (Baked Goods).

They sparked considerable Radio 2 interest with the Elbow-endorsed debut single, The Last Of The Melting Snow, a delicately lovely, piano led, strings soaked winter ballad, and the album should prompt further attention with its pastoral folk, country and classical colours. The glockenspiel tinkling The Darkest Place I Know musically mingles Japanese water garden moods with that of a tropical beach campfire (even if the lyrics are nowhere as serene), Are We Happy? trots along like an even more mellowed out Harpers Bizarre while Come To Your Senses and A Short Weekend Begins With Longing both sound like they could have been scored for Midnight Cowboy.

The Nick Drake references have been duly rolled out, but they’re much closer to Stephen Duffy’s Lilac Time, the young Ray Davies and Dream Academy (whose Nick Laird-Clowes is also a renowned film composer) while We Were Wasted bears the marks of both Leonard Cohen and Nico influences.

Save It For Someone Who Cares and the album’s title track deftly show them to have lyrical worms buried inside the sweet apples of the melodies, but any underlying sadness is also veined with wit and wistful humour while the ukulele driven 30s vaudeville flavoured Love’s Enormous Wings closes the album on a blissfully upbeat note. All in all, you may not know them yet but they well be your new favourite band. 7.30pm. £6. Glee Club

Friday April 10

Jaded Sun

Hailing from Dublin, this young Dublin five pice may play nuts and bolts classic rock but they do it with guts and vitality, doing full justice to their obvious influences, Free, ZZ Top, AC/DC, Led Zep, Black Crowes, Skynyrd and so on. Last year’s debut album, Gypsy Trip (SiAn) deservedly had rock critics slavering with praise about its pistol packing bluesy hard rock swagger and frontman John Maher whose voice has been dipped in the well of Plant and Rogers and come up glowing.

Steeped in southern blues for tracks like the slide guitar driven Crazyman, Fever and the Stonesy boogie new single Can’t Stop with the ballads Sweetness and He Knows Home standing comparison with the best of the breed, when they let rip with the bourbon soaked riffs they really hit the spot. They might need to rein in the guitar solos a little on record to make the most of the punches the songs pack, when they launch into the swampy lemon squeezing stomp of She’s Got Class or cut loose on Breaking Through, there’s no doubt these boys have full wattage solar flair. 8pm. £5. Sound Bar, Corporation Street, B’ham

Saturday April 11

Templeton Pek

Three years ago, the Birmingham trio were a fairly bog standard alt-rock/punk outfit far too in thrall to their better America role models. Since then, however, they’ve released debut album The Association and proven greatly improved with a clutch of soaring big noise melodies and Neal Mitchell’s increasing control of his vocals. They first foray into 2009 comes with new eo Kill This Sound (Small Town), a five tracker headed up by the non nonsense balls out attack of Control and Red_Lights_Flash and featuring a new strings arrangement of the album’s title track and an acoustic guitar rework of If All Else.

There’s still room for improvement to sharpen the songwriting and polish up some of Mitchell’s flatter notes, but the building blocks are clearly set on a firm foundation. 7pm. £5. 02 Academy 3

Saturday Apr 11

Jon Byrne

In the tradition of the Levellers, Bragg, Cooper Clarke, and Chris T-T, discovered by Mick Jones of the Clash the Barrow-in-Furness songwriter sings sharp, witty and pointed left wing slanted songs about grim life in a northern town, drugs, the recession and trying to claw your way through troubled social times. These are now served up on his debut album, It’s Boring Being In Control (Militant Entertainment), which doesn't stray musically far from the blues or busker folk punk as he sets out his socio-political lyrical agenda on the likes of the twangy Alabama 3 sounding Cocaine (yep, it’s about drugs screwing you up), the one man band stomping ASBO baiting Scumbags, No Future Generation’s portrait of a loser society and the London’s Burning styled murder ballad Voices.

He’s well aware of couching his commentary in humour, hence Don’t Let Life Get You Down’s account of being out of step with the conservative attitudes of Barrow and the Cigarette’s bawdily funny tale of asking for a light off a sex-crazed 400lb woman and ending up being questioned by the police as to why he’s wearing a bra.

He’s not the greatest of singers, and when it’s just him and a guitar on Wonderful Woman and Halfway To Ruin you can hear him unsuccessfully straining to be somewhere between Johnny Cash and Billy Bragg, but if you like your Socialist Worker with a tune you can hum, then you might want to take out a subscription. 6.30pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

Saturday April 11

Terrorvision

Despite having played their last ever show three years ago, the Keighley rockers have since reunited on several occasions since their 2001 split, the latest excuse being to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their breakthrough album, How To Make Friends And Influence People. To which end, that will comprise the bulk of the set list, opening with Alice What's the Matter and running through to What Makes You Tick by way of Oblivion, Stop The Bus, Stab in the Back Pretend Best Friend and so forth. It would be nice, though, if they found room for the likes of Tequila, Perseverance, Celebrity Hit List and Easy too. 7.30pm. £17.50. Wulfrun Hall

Sunday April 12

Bat For Lashes

Conjuring another persona, that of destructive femme fatale Pearl, Natasha Khan returns with an explorative excursion into self and duality for Two Suns (EMI), the follow up to her Mercury-nominated Fur And Gold.

If you were seduced by that, then there’s every reason to believe you’ll be totally intoxicated by this, a musically dense, often tribal sounding affair drawn from the experiences of a two year relationship. Melding Khan’s crystal-sharp vocals around melodies laced with electronics, piano and strings, the songs draw on darkling folk (the witchy Sleep Alone), Kate Bush-like operatics (Glass), breathily Tori Amos inclined stark piano romantic laments (Moon And Moon), spooked pop (Pearl’s Dream), gospel (Peace of Mind) and even the Clannadesque ethereal New Ageisms of Two Suns and Two Planets, the latter sounding like something nurtured within Peter Gabriel’s Realworld greenhouses.

She’s joined by the godlike genius of Scott Walker for the closing piano piece The Big Sleep, spinning a wondrous otherwordly web of star glimmering night skies and dusk dew wet open fields while Brooklyn experimentalists Yeasayer lend their own offkilter weaves to Glass and the itchy fabric of the Stevie Nicks styled breathy folk-pop and beats that is Daniel.

Assuming she doesn’t come on too heavy with the shamanic cod-philosophy for the live performance (and there’s every danger this lends itself to all manner of stage theatrics), then you’ll be in for an evening of wondrous if slightly cosmic kooky enchantment. 7.30pm. £12.50. B’ham Town Hall

Tuesday April 14

Iain Archer

He’ll probably never shake of being referred to as the former Snow Patrol member who co-wrote Run, but now into his third, self-released, album he’s certainly proven he can sustain an enduring solo career. Recorded at and inspired by living in a cottage near the Black Forest in Schwarzwald, as you might surmise from the title, To The Pine Roots is a pastoral, leafy folk affair, a collection of airy acoustic songs that never come within a note of the noisier moments of its predecessor.

Nor is there much hint of past melancholy, the songs much more about shrugging off cares and embracing the hopes and joys life has to offer. It’s a state of mind evident on the delicate opener The Acrobat and its metaphor for flying above your cares, it’s there on Hey Mia, Don’t Be Lonely and Everest with its image of keeping a handhold on life and most joyously so on the self-evident Streamer On A Kite with its ragtime guitar picking and echoes of early Donovan. On Frozen Lake, which can’t but help conjure thoughts of Neil Young at his most plaintive, he even sings about wanting to cover you with love.

Even when sorrow and worry intrudes, as in Bangor childhood memory Black Mountain Quarry or on Songbird, Archer still finds self-determination and promises of a better tomorrow just as the character in his closing song, The Nightwatchman, is content in the world he inhabits and ‘doesn’t let the lonely silence bring him down’.

Although guest musicians bring harmonium, double bass and strings to thicken the rhythmic textures, it’s still a gentle, spare sound, full of spaces to breathe with Archer’s hushed whispered delivery as soft as dreamy lullabies. Alone tonight with just his guitar, he’ll mesmerise. 7.30pm. £8.50. Glee Club

Wednesday April 15

The Perils

A new name from Brighton, the four piece are cut from similar cloth to The Jam, Supergrass, and The Clash, they even number Mick Jones in their fan club. However, it’s hard to get overly excited by their debut album, Good People To Bad Things (Renegade), which, while decently played (the guitarist is particularly nifty, as the solo on Tell Me That You Love Me demonstrates) and with catchy enough tunes, doesn’t have sufficient strong enough songs to lift them out of the good for a night down the club league.

When they do spark, as with the chiming, loping Give Me A Reason, a clatter along Britpop pop punk Prize Band, the country jazzed Sleeping In Vegas and the Strummer styled romp along If I Was King then you can hear the potential to be honed into a more impressive second or third album but for now, the Perils aren’t in much danger of living up to the overstated hype. 7.30pm. £4. Barfly

Thursday April 16

Give It A Name

The latest package jaunt for upcoming names includes Florida punks Whole Wheat Bread, femme fronted LA metalcore crew In This Moment and Toronto’s electronica-based pop, rock songstress Lights. But it’s new signing to Fueled By Raman, VersaEmerge, who promise to be the big interest buzz. A five piece fronted by Sierra Kusterbeck, they play the sort of post grunge pop rock you’ve come to expect from the label with thick muscled guitars, big hooks and urgent vocals, their self-titled new EP straddling an emo sound somewhere between Paramore’s pop sensibilities and the operatics of Evanescence.

With Past Praying For and the excellent Moments Between Sleep setting the template, there’s not a huge stylistic range across the six tracks (one’s just brief piano and strings Danny Elfmanish instrumental Theatrics), but it’s a blood stirring sound with Clocks showing their floatier ballad aspects with its hints of folk and prog as Kusterberg trades harmonies with guitarist Blake Harnage. They’ll be massive before the year’s out. 7.30pm. £5. O2 Academy 2

Thursday April 16

Pink

She may seem almost like a shrinking violet in the exhibitionist stakes compared to Lady Gaga, but the artist almost never known as Alecia Beth Moore can still pull a few tricks out of the theatrical attention seeking flamboyance bag when the need arises. The fact she’s also one of America’s best purveyors of glam n gloss pop is a bit of a bonus too. She seems to have become a bit of a sensation on these shores too, her So What single and the accompanying Funhouse (Laface) album both being sturdy chart toppers while ticket demand is so high, she’s back later in the year for two further stadium shows here.

However, this being her marital break up and newly single identity questioning album, that pop streak is veined with a deal of both anger and vulnerability, the former strikingly in evidence on the funky beat title track where she talks about burning down the house while Crystal Ball sees her in rueful reflective mood over lessons learned and the power pop Please Don’t Leave Me pretty much speaks for itself.

Thankfully there’s not a surfeit of wallowing in misery ballads and, while I Don’t Believe You and Glitter In The Air go for the heartstrings she also makes a sterling therapeutic effort at channelling pain and heartache into feisty crowd rousers like Sober, the too much tequila Bad Influence and Mean’s countrified blues twang.

Not, it has to be admitted, quite as much fun as Let’s Get The Party Started, but she should still have them dancing through the tarnished confetti and, let’s face it, as divorce fall-outs go it’s a lot less controversial alternative to going off and adopting Malawian babies. 7.30pm. £32.50. NIA

Thursday April 16

Nashville Pussy

Down and dirty basic rock n roll from the Southern states, the Atlanta outfit’s repertoire largely tends to revolve around songs about sex, drugs, drinking, fighting, rock n roll and more drinking and sex. Fronted by raw throated Blaine Cartwright and featuring hellcat Karen Cuda on bass, their current album’s From Hell To Texas (Steamhammer) and pretty much does what it says on the tin, spraying out piledriving kickass riffs, hammering drums and gunslinging guitars on such expletive littered titles as Ain’t Your Business, Speed Machine, the Brown Sugared Stonesy Give Me A Hit Before I Go and the hard to argue with Dead Men Can’t Get Drunk. Forget political correctness, forget lyrical subtlety and don’t let them near your pets or daughters, but if you’re in a hard drinking mood then they’ll be the cat’s whiskers. 7.30pm. £12.50. Barfly

Friday April 17

Doves

After a four year hiatus, reassessing their sound and direction after the sold selling but disappointingly safe Some Cities, the Mancunian trio return with what, steeped in songs of romantic loss and disillusion, may well be their finest album in Kingdom Of Rust (Heavenly).

The set opens with Jetstream, an atmospheric, moody falsetto voiced track that harks back to their early darkly swirling dance moves with Kraftwerk underpinning and, apparently, a Blade Runner soundtrack vision. It’s a thrilling introduction to what follows with the title track’s desert country rumblings, riders in the sky galloping rhythms and widescreen Leone guitars erupting into a massive sonic panorama of high sierra proportions, a driving blues riff heavy crunching The Outsiders with its lyrical Chuck Berry reference, and, by way of a tonal swerve, the circling U2 meets Spiritualized sound of Winter Hill.

It’s a potent brew, ranging from the Blondie furrowed funk groove of Compulsion and the psych-blues stomp of House Of Mirrors to the gathering sonic typhoon 10.03 and the quieter, more brooding elements of Spellbound’s yearning whirlpool sway and, opening with what sounds like an Eastern European call to prayer, the psychedelic ebbs and flows of Birds Flew Backwards.

The sound of a band re-energised with a renewed sense of purpose and self-confidence, it beats with a bruised heart but, as with the stadium swaying finale to the burnished anthemic pop of Lifelines, it soars on wings of glory. The live set will be awesome. 7pm. £18. O2 Academy

Friday April 17

Ultravox

You can’t move at the moment for EMI’s Ultravox reissues, released to tie in with the reformation and tour by the original 80s line up of Midge Ure, Chris Cross, Warren Cann and Billy Currie after more than 20 years. There’s remastered versions of both 1982’s Quartet and 1983’s live Monument albums, now both double disc sets with extra tracks, the former including five live cuts and fan club only flexi The Voice and the latter now coming with a bonus DVD of six of the performances, Vienna included.

The tour is, rather predictably, going to be a greatest hits set list, so, if you need to brush up there’s the remastered Best Of with 18 tracks that feature Passing Strangers, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, All Stood Still, Vienna, Reap The Wild Wind and All Fall Down plus a DVD version of promo videos, a live Sleepwalk and Vienna, All Stood Still from TOTP and the uncensored Visions In Blue.

Since my memory of seeing them live is of Ure’s flat tones desperately straining to find the Vienna notes and a rather dull stage presentation, this means nothing to me, but there’s clearly enough fans out there with more rose-tinted nostalgia to ensure this is a full house. 7.30pm. £32.50/£29.50. Symphony Hall

Friday April 17

Polly Scattergood

Having clearly spent rather more time closeted with Tori Amos albums than might be good for a young psyche, the Essex 22 year old regurgitates everything all across her self-titled debut album (Mute). Which isn’t to say it’s an unwelcome experience. 2007’s radar establishing single Nitrogen Pink is included here, a glorious foray into layered guitars and a psychiatrist’s waiting room full of the neuroses and insecurities that pepper her songs. Nothing quite matches its splendid delirium and there’s times when the lyrics need to have the trite and twee police give them the once over, but it’s hard to resist wanting to take her in your arms and pushed the exposed nerves back under the skin as you listen to Untitled 27, the swirling density of I Hate The Way, and the self-persuading I Am Strong. Please Don’t Touch and the electronic burping Bunny Club reveal her ambitions of wrapping up the emotional angst in pretty pop beats, but it’s the sweet lacerations that will earn her the biggest following and applause.7.30pm. £6.50. Glee Club

Saturday April 18

Papa Roach

They used to play rap metal, these days the rap’s been given the elbow and the quartet are firmly focused on squeezing out hard rocking but accessible riffs. To which end they arrive parading new album Metamorphosis (Interscope), a rather misleading title since it finds them still trading in the same sub Nickleback goods as the previous The Paramour Sessions. Fair enough, if you want to play air guitar to sleaze and sex swagger I Almost Told You That I Loved You and the pumping power chords of Lifeline, March Out Of The Darkness and Live This Down or come over moody and hard bluesy for celebrity rehab number Hollywood Whore and the obligatory slow and sensitive Carry Me. However, the repetitive song structures and delivery aren’t going to win any new converts to the fold, suggesting that perhaps they out to take their own song advice, Change Or Die. 7.30pm. £16. O2 Academy

Saturday April 18

Bombay Bicycle Club

Named after the chain of Indian restaurants (or perhaps the Wisconsin cycling club?), the Crouch End quartet earned quite a reputation with their first two EPs, released while still at school, following on with the Evening/Morning single and Reading Festival last year after studies came to an end. Now, full time musicians and signed to Island, they’re readying their debut album, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, for a summer release, paving the way with a short tour and the new single, Always Like This.

Highlighting Jack Steadman’s catching breath crooning tremor, jittery guitars that conjure thoughts of The Strokes and Interpol fed through a scratchy Television filter, and tumbling melodic influences that feed off folk and indie alike, it’s an infectious danceable groove that seems set to pedal its way to a significant chart debut.

With album previews likely to include the tremulously wonderful Dust On The Ground which older ears might find themselves prompted to thoughts of Men Without Hats, the rolling drums and guitar limbo riffs of Lamplight and the leafy Morning After with its shiny cocktail of Vetiver, Incredible String Band and Coner Oberst, it’s safe to say this is going to be a transport of delight. 7.30pm. £7.50. 444 Club. The Rainbow, Digbeth

Sunday April 19

The Days

South Devon’s white-shirted answer to the Fratellis (the No Ties single even had a da de da chorus a la Chelsea Dagger), the four piece trade in catchy summery melodies and harmony vocals. On the evidence of such songs as The Days, the arm in arm seaside prom swayer Jane, and new single Never Give Up they’ve clearly been trawling through the Kinks, Squeeze, Beatles, Madness, Wham, and Jeff Lynn songbooks. In fact, listening to Who Said Anything, they may even be closet Barry Manilow fans. All of the above should be nestling cosily on debut album, Atlantic Skies (Atlantic), due at the end of June, by which time you should already be on familiar whistling terms. 6.30pm. £5. O2 Academy 3 (Mon Apr 20 Civic Hall Bar)

Sunday April 19

Loney, Dear

Mellifluous, melancholic Swedish multi-instrumentalist Emil Sanangen is apparently drawing a line under the current phase of his musical career with the release of fifth album, Dear John (Parlophone). Where phase two goes remains to be seen, but for now this upbeat goodbye note and love letter to himself is typically soft focus pop, opening with the mellow Krautrock synth groove of Airport Surroundings and proceeds through a collection of folksy electro pop songs that suggest what might be the result of Flaming Lips writing a Broadway musical.

There’s shuffling uptempo sunny rays from Everything Turns To You and the shimmering Summer while more dreamily drifting hazes envelop the euphonium wheezing I Was Only Going Out, the theatrical I Got Lost with its lone new agey violin, a pulsing Distant where choirs rise from the mists and the celebratory title track finale. Go and bid a fond farewell, and be ready to make new friends for tomorrow’s rebirth. 7.30pm. £9.50. Glee Club

Sunday April 19

KTB

Oxford born and Birmingham based, Katy Bennett’s the younger sister of Goldrush brothers Robin and Joe Bennett and has been penning her own songs about “elephants, vegetarianism and unrequited love” since she was 12. Some 13 years later, she’s just about to release her third own label album, Indelible Ink, for which this serves as the launch gig. Unfortunately, late pressing meant it wasn’t ready in time for this preview but the title track did fetch up earlier on 2007’s A Taste of KTB EP and a rather lovely affair it is too, Bennett’s pure, folk-loamed vocals rippling across the melody like a meadow stream while a simple guitar figure gently massages the soul.

The graceful Willow Tree from the same sampler shows her trad English folk influences along with, perchance, a touch of the Gracie Fields 40s while I Like You Like Me shows more to blues colours. Whether any of these also surface on the new album remains to be seen, but apparently you can expect songs about Shakespeare, disasters, disturbed minds and a bit more unrequited love with nods to influences that range from Patsy Cline to Dory Previn and Bjork. You can also expect to fall in love with her music. 7.30pm. £2. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Monday April 20

And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead

It’s been s slippery downhill slope since the Texas riff crew released their downhill album, with both Worlds Apart, and So Divided greeted by diminishing critical and commercial returns. Having now swapped major label for the indie Superball Music, they’re trying to arrest the rot and reclaim lost ground with back to the roots latest The Century Of Self.

The good news is that it’s not terrible and, with the opening instrumental The Giant’s Causeway, clearly not at a loss for grand designs and vaulting ambition. Indeed, you could probably guess as much from titles that include Isis Unveiled, Bells Of Creation, Inland Sea and Pictures Of An Only Child. And yes, that ebb and flow of intensity is all present and correct, with the guitars shooting off sparks, the rhythms marching along and the vocals shredding out the passion while Insatiable One and Insatiable Two wheel out the piano for some anthemic balladry.

However, not terrible doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually especially good and far too often the band just sound like they’re substituting sonic grandeur for depth and, while Far Pavilions, the surging Fields of Coal and the six minute vaulting Floydian epic that is Halcyon Days do get the hairs on the back of the neck tingling, the album as a whole fails to make a persuasive argument that the good old days are quite as thrilling as you remember them. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy

Monday April 20

Jo Hamilton

With Caribbean, Kenyan and Shetland blood in her veins, the mesmerisingly willowy singer-songwriter had a nomadic childhood, growing up in Scotland by way of Turkey, Kuwait , Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka while her musical past has included touring with Colin Vearncombe and playing with Ashley Hutchings in both the Albion Band and Rainbow Chasers. Today, however, she’s a familiar face on the Birmingham music scene, so there should be a hefty contingent of local admirers along for the launch of her debut album, Gown (Poseidon).

She’s been likened to Bush, Harvey and Lennox as well as Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap, and while you’ll hear the comparisons, she’s very much her own voice. The album’s an exotic musical journey, brushing the multicultural wings of dreamy celestial pop tinged with Gaelic mist (Exist), cobwebby jazz soul folk (the Bush infused Pick Me Up), airy Brill building balladry (There It Is), the panoramic rhythms of African plains (How Beautiful), and the melting icicle soulful ebb and flow fragility of Deeper (Glorious).

Then there’s the Weill cabaret shades to All In Adoration with its puttering percussion beats and woodwind trills, the classical hymnal majesty of Liathach’s choral beauty and, drawing on her time in Cambodia , the intoxicatingly hushed seductiveness that is Mekong Song.

She’s releasing Winter Is Over as a single, a playfully catchy pizzicato strings waltzer that suggests a sort of Oriental Bjork by way of an arthouse 40s Broadway musical. But it’s the closing Think Of Me that’s the real deceptive killer, a windchime, musical box Gaelic lullaby that floats you away on a pillow of clouds and twinkling night stars.

Sophisticated, sensuous, complex, layered and utterly beguiling, there’s a song here called Paradise . A better description of her music would be hard to conjure. 7.30pm. £10. Glee Club

Tuesday April 21

Benjamin Taylor

The son of James Taylor and Carly Simon stretches his name and your listening patience with his tiresomely titled third album, The Legend Of Kung Folk Part 1 (The Killing Bite) (Iris Records). Sounding like a slightly jazzier Jack Johnson flirting with laid back trip hop folk and slow jogging beats (or, on She’s Gone, a lazing Paul Simon), it’s a relaxed acoustic groove with a set of witty, clever lyrics, a Jamie Cullum piano duet (After It’s Over) and a fair amount of background or double tracked vocals.

As late night moods go, You’re The One For Me has a nice soulful finger-snapping jazz lounge vibe but then you have to balance that alongside Dangerous Girl which with its meandering organ chops and thin r&b threatens to lapse into a coma before the end of the song. Like his dad, he’s got a sweet, cosy voice that, also like his dad, has a tendency to make you feel like drifting off and even when he gets funky, as on the scratchy loping Wilderness, it’s still only a notch above enervating. Immaculately groomed easy on the ear blandness, remains blandness.

He’ll likely be swapping harmonies with David Saw who plays guitar on the album and will also be doing his own set in support of upcoming new album Broken Down Figure (Iris). A belated follow up to 2004’s A Different Story, it’s a collection of wistfully reflective acoustic, strings backed love songs sung in warm voice akin to that of David Gates, Art Garfunkel or even Fran Healy from Travis. Again, his hushed, intimate three minute songs are personal and emotional rather than pontificating on world issues, with the likes of Savannah’s Song, the jauntily upbeat Someone’s Gonna Love You, Don’t Call and the aching title track all beguiling, heart enfolding affairs. Buy My Record he sings on the bluesy boho shuffle. And so you should. 7.30pm. £11.50. Glee Club

Tuesday April 21

The Virgins

Currently frequenting the upper ranks of the hot new band lists, the art school New Yorkers arrive on these shores to promote their eponymous debut album (Atlantic), a cool collection of sharp-suited white boy American funk that has no qualms about parading its Nile Rogers, INXS, Hall & Oates and Emotional Rescue era Stones influences on numbers such as She’s Expensive, Rich Girls, and Murder while threading in more of a Strokes vibe with Radio Christiane, a throwback to 80s pop rockers The Knack for One Week of Danger and, on Teen Lovers and Private Affair, even a wave of Duran Duran.

Nothing new then, but stirring together low slung scuzzy sleaze and high end disco gloss rhythms with stylish hooks and frontman Donald Cumming providing a charismatic focal point as he sings about sex, drugs and funk roll. There’s nothing to suggest they’ve the staying power for more than three albums, but for now they have the mirror balls in their back pocket. 7.30pm. £7.50. 444 Club, The Rainbow, Digbeth

Tuesday April 21

McFly

Does anyone detect the start of a downward spiral? Maybe it’s just cynicism, but from having gone from multiple stadium dates to the failure of last year’s Children In Need single Do Ya to make the top 10 and what’s being promoted as the small venues Up Close...And This Time It's Personal acoustic tour you might start to suspect the foursome don’t command quite the same following they did at the height of their pop fame. There again, it may just be a case of the boys releasing the pressure valve for a more laid back set of dates, showing a more intimate side to that captured on the upcoming Live At Wembley Arena DVD from last year’s RadioACTIVE tour. Either way, if the prospect of hearing them strum out versions of past hits and the forgettable new single Falling In Love and being able to get close enough to spot the pimples, then this is a must. 7.30pm. £22.90. W’hampton Civic Hall

Wednesday April 22

PJ Harvey & John Parish

Resuming the creative partnership for their first joint album in 12 years, ostensibly with Polly providing the voice and lyrics and Parish the music, A Woman A Man Walked By (Island) provides the fulcrum for tonight’s set list. It should make for something of an eclectic evening given that the album veers from the raw, ferocious barking howls (literally) of the jazz freeform stomp Pig Will Not, the title track’s discordant Zappa-infused clattering rage and Black Hearted Love’s stridently angular dark indie power rock to the scratchy mountain folk breakdown of Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen, The Soldier’s nerve-endings ukulele strummed waltzing across stark disturbing images and Leaving California sounding like some soundtrack accompaniment to a sepia toned experimental art movie.

Lyrically and musically designed to discomfort, even the dreamy space floating Passionless, Pointless wracked on emotional coals, there’s times when it descends into sonic primal chaos as the songs explore loss, death, horror and other generally black lined topics. Likely to be peppered with memories from the pair’s earlier Dance Hall at Louse Point, itself no gentle set of lullabies, don’t expect to close your eyes and drift off into any reveries tonight. 7.30pm. £20. B’ham Town Hall

Wednesday April 22

The Wailers

Released in 1977, Exodus was the album that established Bob Marley firmly in the mainstream conscience and, featuring such classic numbers as Jammin’, One Love/People Get Ready, Three Little Birds, Waiting In Vain and, of course, Exodus, is probably the most widely known reggae album of all time.

It’s also the latest to get the ‘in full’ live tour treatment, however, given that Marley and Carlton Barret are dead, of the musicians involved only the band’s original bassist, Aston Barrett, remains to lead the current line up. Indeed, with Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite and Cherry Smith also dead and Bunny Livingston and Beverley Kelso not involved, this is less The Wailers and more a new version of the Wailers Band. That said, word is that, with Elan Atias on vocals, they do a passable job of preserving the legacy. 7.30pm. £17.50. O2 Academy 2

Wednesday April 22

Esser

Having almost torpedoed his rising career with the last single, the dull 70s synth funk Work it Out, the Cry Baby hairstyled electro pop Essex geek looks to regain his handhold with debut album, Braveface (Transgressive). Aside from the aforementioned drone, it includes superior previous singles I Love You, Headlock, and Satisfied with the drolly morose clanking title track’s fusion of Ian Dury, Mike Skinner, and Madness likely to prove a sizeable summer hit.

He’s all over the map musically, the opening Leaving Town a sort of Jilted John rockabilly blues pop with romping drums, buzzing guitars and la la la backing vocals, the infectious Bones reminiscent of Cornershop jamming with Jonathan Richman and what sounds like hare krishna finger cymbals, and This Time Around a stab of twitchy disco funk with a dose of the ooh oohs and some more la la las.

Lyrically, his heart’s in his boots with most of the songs dealing with ended up or demanding relationships, but he does couch this is eminently danceable pop music in which you might also trace a hint of Brian Wilson influence while the dizzy slow swaying closer Stop Dancing suggests what might have been Blur’s post Parklife trajectory had it been Coxon rather than Albarn behind the wheel. If he can avoid any more dodgy blips on the CV, he could well be the sound of your summer. 7.30pm. £6. Little Civic

Wednesday April 22

KTB

Oxford born and Birmingham based, Katy Bennett has been penning her own songs about “elephants, vegetarianism and unrequited love” since she was 12. Some 13 years later, she’s just about to release her third own label album, Indelible Ink. Unfortunately, late pressing meant it wasn’t ready in time for this preview but the title track did fetch up earlier on 2007’s A Taste of KTB EP and a rather lovely affair it is too, Bennett’s pure, folk-loamed vocals rippling across the melody like a meadow stream while a simple guitar figure gently massages the soul.

Thursday April 23

AC/DC

From the opening guitar riff of Rock ‘n’ Roll Town and the first gravelly notes from Brian Johnson’s throat, it’s pretty clear that current album Black Ice (Columbia) isn’t going to be any huge departure from the down and dirty, ballsy noise they’ve been making for the past 34 years. Cynics might say that they’ve spent the time basically playing the same song, but in a world of turmoil and change there’s something reassuring to know exactly what you’re going to hear and that, despite now being 54, Angus Young still dresses like a schoolboy and romps around the stage like an electrocuted chicken.

What more can you really say. Four of the songs include the word rock in their title, they all feature Young’s economical but blistering guitar solos, most indulge in smutty innuendo or right out debauchery, and they all know exactly where they’re going and how long it will take to get from the opening note to the closing one. They are, essentially, God’s own bar band, Anything Goes sounds like Rod Stewart jamming with Creedence, Big Jack swaggers like Jagger when he was 25, and even the most earnest Perry Como fan would have difficulty trying to not nod the head and finger invisible frets as Wheels and Rocking All The Way scorch from the speakers.

There’s nothing sophisticated here but, like Big Jack, they play it with a full sack and it’s a sorry state of affairs if you can’t just forget your posing and stomp round the floor with them like a schoolboy idiot with his first drink.

Support comes from Irish hard rock riffsters The Answer who share not just the same management as the headliners but the same brand of classic rock n roll, to the extent that, in a darkened room, there’s times when you might be excused for confusing one with the other. Except, that is, when singer Cormac Neeson isn’t doing his best Robert Plant.

Three years on from debut album, Rise, they return to the fray with Everyday Demons (Albert Productions), a no nonsense set of bluesy rock with pop friendly hooks and head nodding choruses that make no bones about drawing on such influences as Free, Bad Company and Thin Lizzy as well as Led Zep.

Demon Eyes provides a sterling album opener and seems a good bed to head up the set list with its hammering Zep riffery before they head down the road into drum thundering rocker Too Far Gone, the 70s Aerosmithisms of Cry Out, On And On’s nods to Guns n Roses and the obligatory acoustic bluesy balladry of Comfort Man.

There’s nothing here you haven’t heard before, but that familiarity simply makes it easier to throw away the chin stroking critical assessments and simply get down with the music. Even if the material’s formulaic and at times becomes interchangeable, the band rock like they mean every guitar solo lick and every throaty note. You might not remember anything an hour after the CD ejects or the show ends, but while you’re in the moment you’ll be too rocking to bother. 7.30pm. £40. LG Arena

Thursday April 23

Joe Bonamassa

He’s been around a while, paying his dues and building a following for his brand of blues, closely modelled on 70s Brit heroes like Mayall and Clapton. Now, having gone from playing small clubs to selling out the Royal Albert Hall he’s clearly breaking out into a wider audience. This tour serves to spread the word on current album The Ballad of John Henry (Provogue), a classic example of blue collar blues rock that showcases his molten guitar chops to exhilarating effect. There are, as you’d expect, a fair few wailing blues guitar passages (the slow burn Stop! even opens with one) along with the driving boogie riffs, hot stabs of horns and organ and Bonmassa’s throaty drawled vocals.

He transforms Tom Waits’ Jockey full Of Bourbon into a sleazy prowl, Story Of A Quarryman recalls vintage early Clapton. The Great Flood sees him trading moody guitar licks with mournful sax, while the Southern bar grooved Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter pretty much describes itself. There’s been a few contenders looking to fill the hole left by Stevie Ray Vaughn. Bonmassa may just be the one to prove the ideal fit.

Special guest is Ben Montague, an upcoming singer-songwriter who got his big break with an impromptu performance at one of Formula 1 boss Eddie Jordan’s Grand Prix parties. This in turn led to hooking up with veteran producer Peter-John Vetesse and the own label release of his debut single, Can’t Hold Me Down (BM). Given that it sounds very much in the vein of the uptempo Billy Joel with that big racing New York pop and some Who style guitar chords while Haunted is a classic show tune piano and strings ballad with dramatic Gerard Kenny meets Eric Carmen delivery, it’s hard to imagine Bonamassa’s audience calling him back for an encore, but this is definitely a name you’ll be hearing more of. 7.30pm. £20. W’hampton Civic Hall

Friday April 24

Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet

Reunited with the classical string combo with whom he recorded The Juliet Letters, Costello promises a night of seminal songs and new arrangements. It’s an enticing set list with a tango revamp of Robert Wyatt’s Shipbuilding, the equally anti-Thatcher era Pills and Soap from his incarnation as The Imposter, a new version of 2005’s Bedlam and reworks of such soundtrack rarities as My Mood Swings from The Big Lebowski and his Oscar nominated The Scarlet Tide. With new songs, arrangements of folk ballads and, naturally a smattering of epistles from The Juliet Letters, it’s going to be a night of musical sophistication and a fair few surprises. 7.30pm. £29.50/£25. Symphony Hall

Saturday April 25

Brakes

Three albums in and it’s clear this is more than a side project for the assorted members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade, The Pippettes and The Tenderfoot. Signed to Brighton’s Fat Cat and with singer Eamon Hamilton recently wed, Touchdown is their most confident, epic and upbeat release yet, setting out to display all their different wares on the market stall. With its naggingly persistent rumbling bass line and drumming, opening track Two Shocks gets the ball rolling in sterling form while Ramonsey alien abduction rocker Don’t Take Me To Space (Man) keeps the bass prominent but in more of a glam power pop punk meets The Who context.

For those fans who prefer their sonics served urgent, noisy and with plenty of thrashing the band oblige with the furious punk of Red Rag and the poppier Pixies assault of Why Tell The Truth (When It’s Easier To Lie). The band’s affection for the 80s sugar rush of the Jesus And Mary Chain is well in evidence on the steady trundling Crush On You and even more so with the buzzsaw guitar reverb of Hey Hey while the brief but glorious Ancient Mysteries is what the Velvet Underground might have sounded like had they been a bubblegum pop outfit.

On the other hand, if you lean towards the band’s less sweat spraying side, their country influences rear their head on the strummed jaunty sunshine bounce of Worry About It Later and the bluegrassy Eternal Return while Leaving England is a folksy acoustic bashalong and, stripping it back to the busker roots, the final First Dance is Hamilton’s romantic love song to the missus. 7.30pm. £8. Little Civic

Saturday April 25/Sunday April 26

The Specials

Born from Rock Against Racism, the Coventry progenitors and leading lights of the ska-led 2 Tone movement back in the late 70s, the band made their debut with Prince Buster rework Gangsters but were best known for such socially and politically aware material as Rat Race, Too Much Too Young, Stereotype and the classic Ghost Town. The departure of Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding to form Fun Boy Three left founder Jerry Dammers to carry the flag as The Specials AKA, adding to the chart CV with Racist Friend and Nelson Mandela before finally knocking the band on the head.

A mid 90s revival of the band with Staple, Golding, original bassist Horace Panter and guitarist Roddy Byers came to nothing, but last year came news that the original line up were getting back together for a tour. Well, the original line-up minus Jerry Dammers, the reunion being surrounded by acrimonious accusations and counter-accusations (largely between Hall and Dammers) as to why he wasn’t taking part.

However, while Dammers may have been the band’s figurehead and principal songwriter, he wasn’t the only one providing material nor was he the singer, so, given that the set’s going to include all the band’s classics and that Hall’s singing them, musically at least this latest 80s revival is going to be true to the sound if not entirely the spirit. Time to fish those pork pie hats out of the box in the wardrobe, then. 6pm. £32.50. O2 Academy

Sunday April 26

The Old Dance School

First of World Unlimited’s new Music Room sessions, this sees the Birmingham Conservatoire spawned sextet in an intimate setting for another burst of trad and self-penned material taken from the Based On A True Story debut album, showcasing their jazz, folk, classical and early music influences. Although guitarist Robin Beatty provides the vocals for his trad flavoured ballad The Silver Pin, Scottish whalers son My Donald, and A Learned Man, the music’s predominantly instrumental, violin, whistles, guitar, bass and flugel horn making a fine noise in the service of such tunes as Cooking Pickles, Karen Tweed’s Cacodemon and violin jig Amber suggesting that it might be an idea to keep the tables and chairs well to the back of the room. Sharing the bill are singer-songwriters James Rea and Chris Tye. 7.30pm. £2. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Sunday April 26

InnerPartySystem

Back for a second go round with their self-titled debut album, the Pennsylvanian electro-rock quartet are lifting the Ultravox-like Heart Of Fire (Island) as the new single, fleshing things out with four extra new tracks. The headily danceable The Way We Move underlines their melding of Krautrock and Duran influences while Night Is Alive is a darker, more swirly concentrated dose of the latter and Lovers Dancing harks to the band’s poppier side to recall, of all people, Flock of Seagulls.

Support is rising new Brighton outfit Telegraphs, an emo-inflected quintet with angular guitar riffs, urgent intense rhythms and passionate vocals from Darcy Harrison and bassist Hattie Williams. They’ll be showcasing We Were Ghists (Small Town), a debut album that, despite the Biffy Clyro. Oceansize and Idlewild influences, occasionally makes them sound like a less bombastic, male fronted Evanescence.

They make an impressive urgent rock noise with opening track The Argument and the jerky propulsive new single We Dance In Slow Motion while, behind the sawing guitar noise of Forever Never lurks darkling folk influences. They’re evident too on I Don’t Navigate By You, on which Williams shares lead vocals which also adds in the 80s New Wave territory of Blondie and Toyah. The Rules Of Modern Policing probably captures the band’s aggressive fire at its most driving while the quivering anthemics of Notes From An Exit Station and the soaring emo swell of Eyes Stitched Open amply underline the huge potential bristling to explode into your consciousness. 7.30pm. £9. The Kasbah, Coventry

Monday April 27

Duke Special

If the piano playing dreadlocked Belfast singer-songwriter’s first album was a cocktail of Motown, Brian Wilson, West Coast pop and Neil Hannon and the second nodded to Billy Joel and Broadway musicals, on numbers such as If I Don’t Feel It, Let Me Go (Please Please Please) and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, his third, Never Thought This Day Would Come (Universal), frequently finds him sounding a lot like the Lilac Time’s Stephen Duffy .

However, if carnival waltzer I Never Thought This Day Would Come reprises his affection for 30s Music Hall, there’s some interesting stylistic diversions. The catchy Sweet Sweet Kisses is a brass punching slice of Northern Soul, Diggin’ An Early Grave suggests Tom Waits gone mazurka ska, while Flesh And Blood Dance mixes up ragtime piano with various hints of Weimar cabaret, gypsy melodrama and even a brief burst of drum clattering and some voodoo circus barker.

Given the songs are predominantly downbeat if not downright morbid, much of it takes a while to get used to, so while Why Does Anybody Love? may prove a fan favourite. chances are the album won’t occupy the bulk of the set list. But it’ll be interesting to see the reaction if he does include the ‘difficult’ Bernard Butler co-penned Those Proverbs We Made In The Winter Must End. 7.30pm. £12.50. Irish Club, Digbeth

Monday April 27

Fightstar

Out and about serving the cause of self-funded third album, Be Human (Search and Destroy), Charlie Simpson puts off the Busted reunion a while longer with a set of radio friendly rock numbers that variously throw strings and choirs into the sea of Linkin Park and co styled tunes. There’s not a huge variety across the album and the throaty Slipknot growls on the thrashy War Machine and Damocles sound rather forced and out of character, but the likes of the pop infused Tonight We Burn, a surge driving The English Way, Give Me The Sky, infectious bouncy new Green Dayish single Mercury Summer and obligatory moody piano ballad Follow Me Into The Darkness keep them as contenders. 7.30pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday April 28

Art Brut

Having been dumped by their old record label, Eddie Argos and his pop punk outfit have used the experience to fuel new album Art Brut vs Satan (Cooking Vinyl) with songs about being screw ups, underachievers and failures still hung up on DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake, only just discovering The Replacements and. on Demons Out, taking a swipe at the record buying public. Or, in the band’s case, the non record buying public.

It’s all delivered in Argos’ usual talk sing Spizz Energy punk poet manner with the guitars spiking and jabbing while the rhythm section underpins the material’s basic melodies, but there’s considerably more wit to something like Slap Dash For No Cash, The Passenger and What A Rush than Mike Skinner’s entire back catalogue. 7.30pm. £9.50. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday April 28

A Camp

The Cardigans taking another sabbatical after the release of Super Extra Gravity, Nina Persson has revived her side project with hubbie Nathan Larsson, roped in Joan As Policewoman and former Pumpkins guitarist James Iha as guests, and recorded a second solo album, Colonia (Reveal). It opens with the tinkly out of tune piano of The Crowning, a waltzing madrigal like number that sounds a lot like Eddi Reader and Persson sings about going to “party like its 1599”.

The musical references are a little less dated though, again variously highlighting her love of the 60s (Here Are Many Wild Animals channels the Shangri-Las, Love Has Left The Room could be an old Cilla ballad) and the fragile tinkling pop of Sparklehorse (Bear On The Beach) to engaging effect.

Build for swaying on the spot, Stronger Than Jesus is classy brass splashed pop full of sunbeams and smiles and, for all the darker clouds of the lyrics, that’s the prevalent musical mood. Radio friendly with dreamy class, it works its way through Nikolai Dunger duet Golden Teeth and Silver Medals, the quietly building sparkle of Chinatown, sad waltzer I Signed The Line Of Separation, Dusty-ish strings swathed chamber pop It's Not Easy To Be Human to the closing desert night skies atmosphere of The Weed Had Got There First. And a finer row of tents you’d be hard pushed to find. 7.30pm. £10. Glee Club

Wednesday April 29

Bob Dylan

There is, of course, never any guarantee of exactly what you’re going to get from a Dylan set list. It could be a stream of his greatest hits (some of which he may even remember the lyrics to) or it could be a wander through the more obscure elements of his back pages. However, there’s seems a reasonable chance that this latest retirement fund outing will include at least some of the numbers off his new album, Together Through Life (Columbia).

Originally asked to write some songs for My Own Love Song, Olivier Dahan’s follow up to La Vie En Rose, he ended up with a complete album of, apparently, playfully upbeat and ebullient material about life’s transience recorded with a no frills immediacy. No review copies were available in time, but online samples suggest that ones to look out for include the bluesy My Wife's Home Town, the accordion drenched lazy TexMed border sway of If You Ever Go To Houston, the fiddle waltzing This Dream Of You, jaunty boogie blues romp Shake Shake Mama and the politically pointed ironic state of the nation commentary It’s All Good. Beyond Here Lies Nothing, he sings on the swaggery horns and accordion lashed opening track. Don’t you believe it. 7.30pm. £42/£37. NIA

Wednesday April 29

1990s

Fairly quiet since the release of their debut album, Cookies, the Scottish electric rock n soul trio put themselves back in the frame with follow up Kicks (Rough Trade). However, if the first album didn’t grab you, chances are this isn’t going to change things since it’s pretty much more of the same alt pop with musical references to the Bunnymen (Vondel Park, Local Science), Stones (Tell Me When You’re Ready, Everybody Please Relax), Stooges (Kickstrasse), and The Kinks (I Don’t Even Know What That Is, 59) as they wander through swaggering rock, glam stomp and pumped up pop. There’s nothing wrong with the likes of the gently chiming choppy Balthazar, but nor is there anything especially memorable likely to lift them above an okay retro outfit for a night down the pub. 7.30pm. £7.50. O2 Academy 3

Thursday April 30

Priscilla Ahn

That’s Priscilla Natalie Hartranft to be accurate (Ahn’s her Korean mum’s maiden name) , an LA based singer-songwriter who’s recorded with Amos Lee and Joshua Radin, had her songs featured on Grey’s Anatomy and recent clunky comedy Bride Wars. Released Stateside last year, her debut album A Good Day (Blue Note) now surfaces here to coincide with a brief tour, revealing a collection of dreamily winsome summery folk pop tied around melancholy, childhood reflections and romantic confessions. She’s got a pure clear voice with a tint of little girl ingenue breeziness to the lilt that allows her to get away with something kookily playful like Astronaut or the ukulele and whistle old school country folk la la laing mood of Find My Way Back Home without sounding in the least irritating.

The slow strummed, quietly whispered waltzing Masters In The China and the wistfully hushed 40s flavoured brushed swing jazzy Leave The Light On show what she can do with just the basic accompaniments while Red Cape, the skipalong I Don’t Think So and Opportunity To Cry flesh out the sound without overwhelming the dewy delicacy in her voice. She’s probably at her best on the cafe circuit where she first made her name, but you wouldn’t be surprised to find her fetching up with a full orchestra sometime in the future. 7.30pm. £8.50. Glee Club