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ARCHIVED REVIEWS December 2008 Previews by Mike Davies Monday December 1 Swing Out Sister
Named for a 1945 movie musical, Andy Connell, Martin Jackson and Connie Drewery scored a No 1 with 1987 their jazz and electropop debut album It’s Better To Travel, going on to settle into a more easy listening retro sound winning a massive Japanese following but finding ever more diminishing chart returns at home. However, while now down to just Drewery and Connell, they’ve never thrown in the towel and, in the wake of their ninth album, the self-released Beautiful Mess, they’re enjoying something of a return to favour. Musically, nothing’s much changed, still delivering cool cocktail lounge jazz that draws on such staple influences as Bacharach and Barry. I’d Be Happy takes a pastiche pass at Northern Soul, Butterfly (and its instrumental version) does slinky bossa nova, My State Of Mind goes for jazz funk, Secret Love hits hot Latin and the title track even slides into slinky trip hop cabaret territory. Soft focus chic, they continue to deliver exactly what you’d expect from them, so that nobody goes home disappointed. 7.30pm. £21. Glee Club Monday December 1-Wednesday December 3 Coldplay
Having felt the cold wind of critical disdain and incipient commercial disinterest whipping around the X&Y album, Chris Martin and co took the tried and tested route of making the ‘bombastic big album’ with Viva LaVida Viva or Death and All His Friends (Parlophone). So, in came Eno to produce and magnify the band’s U2/Radiohead aspirations while they got down to the business of writing ‘important’ statement songs, conceiving a sleeve depicting French peasants in full Bastille-storming revolution and concocting a title that referenced artist Frida Kahlo. Apparently not overly bothered about Yellow-like hummable melodies and hooks, they then wrote a bunch of moody, stadium-sized songs infused with elements of Irish folk, Southern blues, and Middle Eastern tones into which to pour Jonny Buckland's massive Edge-like guitars and Martin’s Bono-esque vocal passions as he talked of death, ghosts, endurance, war, religion and other world surveying topics. Launching with Violet Hill, a single that more worryingly conjured thoughts of Genesis, they then unfurl the likes of the choppy Cemeteries Of London, a church organ and handclap beat driven Lost!, Lennon style piano ballad 42, and the reverb-heavy Lovers In Japan’s big rock with its delicately tender instrumental coda Reign Of Love. Throw in a hefty dose of Celtic loam for Strawberry Swing, some Arabic swirls with Yes and top with the violin pulsing, heart swelling Viva la Vida and it’s unlikely to find them repeating the humiliation of being voted The Band Most Likely To Put You to Sleep in a Travelodge poll. However, nor is it likely to prove an enduring iPod addition to which you’ll be returning for aural pleasures this time next year. It will provide a triumphant, roof-lifting arena experience, but, Martin’s recent comments about quitting while ahead when he hits 33 should not be dismissed as just headline soundbites.
Hardly warranting a rush to arrive early, support comes from Cardiff’s Eugene Francis Jr who’ll be working hard to drum up interest in the strummy folk balladry of The Golden Beatle album with limp love songs like Savour and The Beginners and clumsy protest numbers such as My Own Pollution and new single Hobo Occupation. Chris T-T he’s not. 7.30pm. £42.50/£38.50. NIA Tuesday December 2 Jarvis Cocker
A rare gig from the former Pulp man, he’s actually out and about headlining his label Rough Trade’s 30th anniversary tour. However, with label guests unavailable at time of writing (though it’s reasonable not to expect The Strokes, Arcade Fire or Antony and the Jonsons), it’s the wiry bespectacled Cocker who gets the spotlight here with his first live outing since the release of solo debut Jarvis. Doubtless audience expectations will be for a trawl through the Pulp hits and, he’s likely to oblige with a couple, but show forbearance and let him introduce you to his present state of musical mind. Actually, collaborating with fellow Sheffield bruised romantic Richard Hawley, it’s not that far removed from the days of A Different Class, marrying snappy melodies with sharply observed lyrics veined with familiar Cocker sardonic wit. Certainly the 60s sounding poppy chorus friendly singaglong Heavy Weather, the starry-sky romanticism of Tonite and the deceptively catchy but lyrically sour From Auschwitz To Ipswich can stand alongside his early work unabashed. With tinkling glockenspiel and vibraphone, the Righteous Brothers influenced Baby’s Coming Back To Me is easily one of the best melancholic love songs he’s written while, a tale of dying after being mugged, with lines like “parents are the problem; giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies”, the punky Fat Children shows he’s as caustic as ever. It probably also underlines why he’s chooses to live in France these days. Good to have him back for a few days. 7.30pm. £17.50. Carling Academy Wednesday December 3 Pendulum
Having ravaged the Top 10 earlier with year with Propane Nightmare, the Aussie drum and bass rock outfit are busy consolidating their sell out show standing with another jaunt in support of the In Silico (Warner) album. Marrying the Freestyler and Prodigy hard pumped dance beat colours of Visions, Midnight Runner and synthstomping Mutiny with the ballsier edges of the krautrock styled 9,000 Miles, hard rock riff grinder The Tempest and a heads down slamming Showdown, they cover both audience bases with persuasive assurance. 7.30pm. £17.50. Carling Academy Wednesday December 3 Flamboyant Bella
Three guys and a girl from Hitchin whose indie electro-pop manifesto apparently revolves around getting blathered and sex, and, to judge by new single Touch, sounding like a get together between Lily Allen and Jilted John. They rather spoil the shouty, sweary teen cool bit though with My Skies where Flo Kirton clearly wants to be a folkie. 7.30pm. £6. Bar Academy Thursday December 4 Primal Scream
After 25 years Bobby Gillespie and the boys can pretty much do what they like. So, after the last album’s meld of barroom country and swaggering rock, Beautiful Future (B-Unique) travels down a poppier avenue for a collection of they’ve termed 'sugar coated bullets'. That’s certainly true of the riot themed title track, Oriental flavoured glam stomp single The Glory of Love, the driving rock rush Can’t Go Back, and the John Tokoloshe meets Bowie Zombie Man. They indulge their psych side pairing up with Josh Homme for sonic wig out Necro Hex Blues, but they sound a lot more into it when they’re bending the airwaves with funky strut Uptown or harmonising with folk icon Linda Thompson on a dreamy pared back, reverb tinged cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Over And Over. Quite which aspect of their ever-changing moods will dominate the live set is anyone’s guess, with as much likelihood of reaching back to Screamadelica or XTRMNTR as the more recent Riot City Blues or new material. Either way, floors will tremble and walls melt. 7.30pm. £22.50. Carling Academy Thursday December 4 Oleta Adams
It’s been over a decade since the Seattle soul singer came even vaguely near to troubling the British charts, so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of audience she can pull for this rare UK tour. It’s being billed as an evening of gospel and Christmas classics, so that pretty much gives a good idea of what’s in store, with things like I Won’t Forget and If You’re Willing mingling with Winter Wonderland, Let It Snow, and Christmas Time Is Here. Plus, obviously, her two major hits, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me and the still classic Get There as well as tasters from next year’s new album Let’s Stay Here. The hits may have dried up, but that voice has certainly never diminished. 7.30pm. £27.50-£22.50. Symphony Hall Thursday December 4 Man Raze
Barely have the Sex Pistols packed away the flight cases after their recent globe trotting jaunt than drummer Paul Cook is back on the road, this time hammering the kit for his side project outfit, a now four year collaboration with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and his former Girl cohort bassist Simon Laffy. They’re in for kicks, working a straight ahead rock trio approach with plenty of punchy riffs, shoutalong choruses and solid rock n roll party music that reflects their individual and collective influences. They’ll be showcasing just released debut album Surreal (Surrealist), an album that finds them ducking and diving between the heads down punky assault of This Is, the air-punching terrace riffery Turn It Up, Police inflected dub skanker Runnin’ Me Up, the AOR of Every Second Of Every Day and the stadium swellers of Low and Shadowman. The UK release comes with a bonus 5 track CD that includes a very Clash-like You’re So Wrong and, just to whet the appetite, a stonking live recording of Low that makes you wonder how on earth they’re going to get their arena sized sound into such a small space.7.30pm. £9. Barfly Thursday December 4 Gloria Cycles
The Brighton indie punk four piece may well cite Dexy's, The Clash, Supergrass and My Bloody Valentine among the influences, but bass throbbing new single No Zeros (A&G) and B side Wonderbus suggest they’ve a few Stranglers albums in the closet too while Astronaut Swapshop screams Who. The songs are nothing to get over excited about, but they come with a fearsome live reputation that should safely see them on the ones to watch list for 2009. 8pm. £5. Eddie’s Rock Club, Gough St Thursday December 4 Glasvegas
Having erupted with the double whammy of social services anthem Geraldine and absent father themed Daddy’s Gone, the Glaswegian cousins continue their upward momentum with their self-titled album (Columbia) and more blood stirring cocktails of The Proclaimers, Jesus & Mary Chain and Phil Spector sung in a proud hometown accent. The spoken word Stabbed with its Moonlight Sonata piano accompaniment is a bit of an oddity, but, like the closing drone backed quivering social concern ballad Ice Cream Van, does show the band willing to take chances rather than simply rely on a continuous spray of closing time singalongs. Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter, at least not when they come in such sterling shape as Flowers And Football Tops, It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry, the tumultuous Lonesome Swan (where they add a little Chris Isaak to the mix) and the rockabilly rowdy masculinity critique of Go Square Go. It’s not the world conquering album advance hype let everyone to expect, but it’s still one of the year’s best, most exhilarating debuts. Not content to let the dust gather, they’ve already recorded (in Transylvania) a mini-album follow up, A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss), released as download and part of a special edition reissue of the debut, featuring new single Please Come Back Home alongside Cruel Moon, Careful What You Wish For and seasonal chestnut Silent Night (in both English and Romanian) featuring The Concentus Choir. 7.30pm. £12. Wulfrun Hall Friday December 5 The Fratellis
If incessant airplay exposure to Chelsea Dagger and the accompanying Costello Music album didn’t win you over to the Scottish trio’s perky beer swilling geezer rock-pop then follow up Here We Stand (Island) should finally beat you into submission. Drawing on influences that range from the Faces to (on A Heady Tale) Robbie Williams, Mud, Wizzard and Chas n Dave, it’s piano bashing, pub rock n roll that doesn’t make any pretence about having anything to say but does deliver a great soundtrack to getting blathered on a Friday night with the guitar-slinging stomping My Friend John, Shameless, Mistress Mabel, Tell Me A Lie, Milk And Money and the Beatles emulations of Look Out Sunshine, Straggler’s Moon and the strumming acoustic pop Babydoll. The inevitable backlash has been whipping them round the buttocks, but they’re the ones laughing all the way to the boozer with a barmy army of scarf-waving, lager lads. 7pm. £20. Carling Academy (Sat 6 W’hampton Civic) Friday December 5 The Futureheads
It’s a little hard to see how it all went wrong. Despite following up their self-titled debut with the superior News And Tributes, the band got dumped by their label, leaving them to fend for themselves. The good news is they’ve come back as strong as ever with the self-released This Is Not The World (Nul).A torrent of rampant three minute punk pop energy, it wallops out of the starting gate with The Beginning of the Twist, a track that bangs together The Clash, Men Without Hats and New Order to blood-surging effect, and builds on that with Walking Backwards, Broke Up The Time, This Is Not The World, Everything’s Changing Today and the Jam like sparks of Radio Heart, Sale of the Century and Work Is Never Done. If there’s a downside, it’s that there’s no time to catch your breath as the numbers drive forward at full chorus rousing throttle with only the midtempo anthemic Hard To Bear even remotely resembling a moment of quieter contemplation. No worries, who wants to get mopey when there’s so much musical jubilation to scrape off the walls. 10.30pm. £5. Carling Academy Friday December 5 Official Secrets Act
On the ones to watch list for 2009, the instruments-swapping Leeds synthpop quartet stake their claim for attention with the rush the barricades So Tomorrow (One Little Indian) which captures the poppier end of the XTC/Wire new wave spectrum while B-side Do Not Be Alarmed wheels out the harmonium to inject some folk flavours into the mix. They’ll be offering tasters for next year’s debut album, among them The Girl From The BBC, which shows their Television influences, and the tremulously voiced, single note synth pulsing folk-waltzer A Head For Herod.7.30pm. £6. Barfly Saturday December 6 Eskimo Joe
Named for the 1962 Steve McQueen movie, the piano-based Australian outfit are out rubbing noses with Black Fingernails, Red Wine (Warner), two years old but only just getting its UK release. Imagine a fusion of INXS funk-tinged rock, some Crowded House, and a bit of Midnight Oil and you’ll be on the right lines with stadium sighted numbers like the moody, Comfort You, New York and the sterling title track. They exude assurance as they sweep into the heat zone of This Is Pressure and the dark swirling guitar chugging Sarah, a nervy Breaking Up and the stripped down strikingly Elton-like piano ballad London Bombs (or bowmbs as they pronounce it), underlining their balladeering prowess with Suicide Girl and the melancholic waltzing How Does It Feel. They’ve already become one of the biggest bands down under and, given the right push and exposure, there’s no reason to think they won’t translate that to the Northern Hemisphere too. 7pm. £10. Bar Academy Saturday December 6 People In Planes
The Cardiff alt-rock six piece formerly known as Tetra Splendour take their template from such diverse influences as Radiohead, Super Furry and Supergrass colours. They’re out on the road paving the way for next year’s UK release of the Beyond The Horizon (Wind Up) album, the follow up to As Far As The Eye Can See which earned them a cameo in John Tucker Must Die. It’s solid, stadium-filling muscular rock with plenty of emphasis on texture and atmosphere, the moody Last Man Standing a widescreen leviathan with an almost tribal chant feel to its strobe flashing rhythm while Mayday (M’aidez) turns on the synth drive and Know By Now nods to U2 soaring hooks and chorus. America’a already got a head start, but it shouldn’t take long for the rest of us to catch up. 7.30pm. £5. Kasbah. Coventry Sunday December 7 TV On The Radio
A Brooklyn art-rock five piece with strong dance sensibilities, vocals shared by Tunde Adebimpe and falsetto voiced guitarist Kyp Malone with multi-instrumentalist David Sitek masterminding the musical vision, they made a hefty impression with recent album Dear Science, (4AD), tackling songs about war, death, taboo love, and the music biz while paying as close attention to the feet as the mind and heart. Opening with a storming ba ba ba-ing Halfway Home that marries a Krautrock rhythm with a soft pop sheen, proceeding through the hip hop synth beats Dancing Choose, the funked up Red Dress and Golden Age, Family Tree’s brooding but beautiful balladry and Shout Me Out’s mangle of swirling anthemic protest pop, stabbing guitar, and crashing beats. They’ll take you to backbeat washed dreamy shores for Love Dog and Stork & Owl, but it’s their Afro funk and Prince references that will have you dancing on the sand. 6.30pm. £13.50. Carling Academy Sunday December 7 Tina Dico
Last time she played the club earlier this year, the Danish songbird was plugging her new Count To Ten album with songs that variously conjured thoughts of Cohen (the folk blues title track), Elkie Brooks (On The Run), Radiohead (Open Wide) and a cocktail of REM and Kiki Dee on Sacre Coeur. A busy bee, she returns with Beginning, A Detour, An Open Ending (Finest Gramophone), a 20 song box set of three acoustic based confessional EPs that didn’t fit in the album’s context and which chart a year in the life, progressing through a shift in musical and emotional moods. Beginning and A Detour range from the bruised purity and reverb of Quarter To Forever and a folk blues Some Other Day to the darker haunts of No Time To Sleep and the hypnotic, icy London while An Open Ending expands the arrangements for the riffs and pared down percussion of Stains and the electric guitar backed bluesiness of A New Situation. Quite what sort of emphasis they’ll be given in the live set is anyone’s guess, but any chance to hear her in such intimate surrounds should be eagerly welcomed. 7.30pm. £11. Glee Club Sunday December 7 Rachel Taylor-Beales
Headlining the night’s line up, the Australian born singer-songwriter will be drawing deeply on Red Tree (Hushland), the second part of her colour trilogy (the first being Brilliant Blue) and another intoxicating collection of airy folk, jazz, Americana, gospel and blues. Joni, Tori, the Buckleys and Nick Drake were all touchstones last time around, and you'll hear them again here, Ms Amos especially so the fragile piano backed bluesy Moses Basket and the swirling leafy folk-soul of Something Aches. But you might want to also add a touch of Buffy Sainte-Marie spliced with Beth Orton on Please Don't Pass Me By (which borrows its tune from A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, coats it with violin and adds lines from Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore) and a spooked Natalie Merchant on the banjo lined backwoods spiritual Liberty. Taking folk music as her bedrock, she weaves an eerie, otherwordly spell which links to the album's source of inspiration in an illustrated children's book by exploring the fear and magic of childhood. Rachel's songs may use some childhood imagery, such as the rope swing of the title track, but they’re very much about adult concerns and experiences. Listen to Something Aches’ portrait of a woman searching for answers to an emptiness inside and the world around her, the turbulent heart of What If I Said? and the self-assertion, self-liberation of the stripped back acoustic blues Today Is My Own. An articulate, literate songsmith with a heady, hushed and husky voice that sounds like she’s gargling with cobwebs, this is a captivating album that you could almost imagine Arthur Spiderwick playing as he wrote his Field Guide. 7.30pm. £6. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath Sunday December 7 The Kooks
The Brighton boys’ return for another dose of the chart topping Konk’s bubble and fizz, its short and snappy songs filled with hooks and bouncy melodies, delivered in a Larndan accent. They cheerily wear the influences of early Bowie (Love It All), Madness (Mr Maker), Beach Boys (Shine On), Blur (Down To The Market) and, as you might expect from an album that takes its title from the Ray Davies studio where it was produced, The Kinks (Stormy Weather, the reggae inflected Tick Of Time). The opening of See The Sun even sounds like Billy Bragg while there’s surely a big touch of The Police to Luke Pritchard’s vocals on Gap. Surprisingly reflective in places (One Last Time) for their years, there’s a couple of filler plods, but, whether cranking up the indie guitar power on the sexual come on Do You Wanna, playing the acoustic sensitive side on All Over Town or romping along the seafront arms linked on the jaunty Mr Maker, the overall result is feelgood, handclappy, jig around riffery designed to send you home with a stride in your step. 7.30pm. £21.50. W’hampton Civic Hall Sunday December 7 The Sawdoctors
Celebrating 20 years of making rowdy, floor bouncing Irish folk-pop rock n roll, they remain one of the most enjoyable live acts around with a set list of air-punching good time, pub closing rollicking anthems to get everyone singing along. They’ll naturally be including their current single, a tremendous rowdy cover of Sugarbabes hit About You Now (Shamtown) sounds as though it was custom made for their brand of knees up. 7.30pm. £20. Wulfrun Hall Sunday December 7/Monday December 8 Will Young
Six years on from Pop Idol, it’s fair to say now that Young’s here to stay, each new album expanding his audience and reputation for classy pop soul and r&b where the heart and emotion’s never lost amid the orchestrations. Case in point recent album Let It Go (RCA) where the uptempo balladeering likes of Grace, Changes, Tell Me The Worst, Disconnected and Love readily stand comparison to the best of George Michael, Mick Hucknall and Michael Jackson. Young’s voice has matured greatly over the years, now even a careless whisper carries a weight of experience and feeling, heard to striking impact on the soulful If Love Equals Nothing and the moody jazz flavours of Free My Mind. There’s no flash to the live show, no distracting dance routines or sets, just Young giving his all to the songs and punctuating them with a growing confidence in comedic banter. The new album’s well represented but you’ll also hear plenty from Friday’s Child (where he shows off his new drum machine) and possible even his sung run-down of the merchandise on sale. Support comes from Lindsay O’Mahony and Martyn Shone aka Honey Ryder who’ll be turning in a short warm-up set of soft rock numbers from their Rising Up debut, including, recent hit Numb, poppier new single Fly Away and an attractive country waltzing cover of Dr Hook’s Years From Now. 7.30pm. £32.50. Symphony Hall Monday December 8 Ben Kweller
Last time here, the nasal voiced baby-faced Texan was making music of the Matthew Sweet power pop persuasion as featured on his eponymous album. Since then he’s had a shift in styles and is currently to be found plying old school country. A new album, Changing Horses (Alto), is due next year, so he’ll doubtless be trailing that in tonight’s set with such numbers as the Western Swing influenced twangy Fight, a jaunty piano backed Sawdust Man and the pedal steel Willie meets the Burritos of Things I Like To Do mingling with old favourites like the Springsteenesque Penny On The Train Track and the classic American pop of Sundress. 7.30pm. £10. Glee Club Monday December 8 Iglu And Hartly
Back in more spacious confines this time, the LA five piece trade in 80s surf, electro-funk, raps, pop and hip hop for debut album And Then Boom with Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Eminem flavours alongside the Jefferson Starship echoes of In This City, the summery Scissors Sisters pop flurry Dayglo, and Violent And Young’s cocktail of Hall & Oates and Dead Or Alive. With more space to move the limbs, expect this to be a dancing ocean. 7pm. £7.50. Carling Academy 2 Wednesday December 10 Kings of Leon
Claiming pole position on the UK charts with both the single Sex On Fire and accompanying album Only By The Night (RCA), headlining Glastonbury and selling out stadiums, the Followhill clan still remain perversely all but ignored back home, dismissed as a Tennessee answer to The strokes. That’s America’s loss then, because the current album has rightly been greeted here as among the year’s best, amping up the big rock approach to their swampy Southern country inflected sound with Caleb’s slurred distinctive drawl and the band’s melodies now also embracing the influences of Brit acts like the Bunnymen and Joy Division. Listen to Manhattan and Use Somebody and you’ll hear Ian McCulloch’s guiding light while Cold Desert, the dissonant politically biting Crawl and Notion surely lean towards the big music of U2. They transcend carbon copy though, taking the nuts and bolts and constructing their own vehicle, climbing to the top of the mountain under their own steam. With a set list powering out album opener Closer and applying their new skin to old favourites like King of the Rodeo, On Call and Molly’s Chambers should ensure this status as one of the year’s most explosive gigs. 7.30pm. £25. NIA Wednesday December 10 I Am Ghost
A Los Angeles outfit who marry post-hardcore with dark goth rock (singer Steve Juliano is also a graphic artist for horror comics) had a line-up change earlier this year that saw rhythm guitarist Gabe Iraheta replaced by Chad Kulengosky. Whether that relates to the fuller bloodied song of new album Those We Leave Behind (Epitaph) is unclear, but it certainly blows the cobwebs away with a storming vengeance. Kicking off with Don’t Wake Up they swiftly establish urgent, hard and heavy pop credentials with pounding drums, soaring breathless vocals and driving guitars. The title track’s considerably screamier, but the template is much the same throughout as it welters its way through the grinding riffs of Bone Garden, Buried Way Too Shallow, the bass rumbling and vocals howls to Smile Of A Jesus Freak and, just to give a flavour of the lyrical moods, Burn The Bodies To The Ground, Rock n Roll High School Murder and the chugging Stephen King referencing They Always Come Back. Phil Spectre or what! 7.30pm. £8.50. Barfly Wednesday December 10 Hot Melts
The upcoming Liverpool power pop four piece return with their chug and fizz guitars, serving reminder of recent punchy punk debut single (I Wish I’d) Never Been In Love and previewing an as yet unannounced follow up for February. 7.30pm. £5. Little Civic Thursday December 11 Cancer Bats
Having had a highly successful year, the Canadian quartet give it a fond farewell to leave fans with high octane hardcore metal memories of the Hail Destroyer album’s blistering bass and coruscating guitar riffs before returning home to contemplate their skull crushing follow-ups to the likes of Harem of Scorpions, Pray For Darkness and Lucifer’s Rocking Chair. 7.30pm. £8. Carling Academy 2 Friday December 12 Buraka Som Sistema Not a live set as such, the Portuguese sound system will be handling DJ and MC duties for the Naked Lunch Christmas Party, but it does afford opportunity to direct twitching dance limbs in the direction of Black Diamond (Fabric), their current album of Angolan kuduro, Lisbon ghetto-funk grooves and political comment. And who won’t forgive them if, among the spun platters, they might squeeze in a couple of their own cuts, such as Kalemba, Skank & Move with its Zulu chanting intro or the Brazilian fuelled Aqui Para Voces. 10pm. £5. Rainbow Warehouse, Digbeth Saturday December 13 James
Resurrected and reunited with former frontman Tim Booth last year, comeback album Hey Ma! (Mercury) feels like they never went away. So, lashings of anthemic songs with soaring choruses and Booth’s tremulous warble, kicking off with Bubbles where he declares ‘I’m alive’ (as indeed they most certainly are), proceeding to the raggy waltz title track where they deliver a stinging riposte to the Bush administration’s response to 9/11 with a catchy chorus of ‘Hey Ma, the boys in body bags, coming home in pieces’ It might not replace ‘hey sit down’ as the stadium crowd rouser, but it certainly gives it a try. Then it’s Waterfall, a brass punching, tumbling Lou Reed infused nugget that, again hooked on an irresistible chorus, sounds like classic James as Booth talks about watching too much TV and having too much baggage in his life. And on through the 60s Merseybeat flavoured ballad Upside, a song about immigrant labour thinking of home that might have been sung by Gerry and the Pacemakers had they been in to that sort of commentary, the jangling White Boy (‘my mum says I look like Yul Brynner, too old for Hamlet, too young for Lear) where Pete Townshend hangs out with Dexy’s brass section, the crushing melancholy of semi-spoken shanty piano ballad Of Monsters and Heroes And Men and, again echoing Reed with its melody line, the closing singalong chorus despair of I Wanna Go Home. A jubilant second coming, you’ll be far to energised to stay sat down for long.
They’re supported by Athlete who’ll be hoping top score some pre-Christmas sales for their Beyond The Neighbourhood (Parlophone) album, though understandably fans of Wires might have not yet shed their reservations about the band’s current embracing of Pink Floyd (The Outsiders), Sting (Hurricane) and the Radiohead meets Phil Collins of Airport Disco. 7.30pm. £29.50. NIA Saturday December 13 Dandy Warhols
Hang on, isn’t that Donna Summer’s I Feel Love they’re channelling on The World The People Come Together? Cheeky sprites, eh. But then, as evidenced by song titles like Not If You Were The Last Junkie, Bohemian Like You, The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone and A Loan Tonight, they clearly have a wry sense of humour. So it is with new album, Earth To The Dandy Warhols (Beat The World) which cheerily bounces from the aforementioned psychedelic rock opening track through the squelchy synth Bowie glam of Mission Control, the Stones’ Miss You aping Welcome To The Third World, some bursts of Flaming Lips with And Then I Dreamt Of Yes, spooked space rock Wasp In The Lotus and the ice caverns on Mars mood to Beast Of All Saints. And then they even slide into rockabilly swamp swagger for The Legend of the Last of the Outlaw Truckers aka the Ballad of Sheriff Shorty and heading into a carnival freak out with Mis Amigos while Love Song is a country hoe-down featuring Mark Knopfler and Mike Campbell. It’s all a bit overdone for one sitting, and even their most ardent fans will surely slip a note backstage begging them not to include Valerie Yum with its channel surfing slo mo spoken word section or the 15 minutes of oceanic synth drone and French mutterings that is tone poem Musee d' Nougat, but you can’t help but admire their complete lack of pandering to commercial security. 7.30pm. £20. Wulfrun Hall Sunday December 14 Imelda May
Dubbed the Amy Winehouse of rockabilly, though hopefully only for musical reasons, the Dublin born singer comes with a parcel of attitude wrapped around debut album Love Tattoo (Ambassador) which finds her riding through a heady brew of 50s swing flavoured soul, jazz and blues. With a husky voice that mingles nicotine, bourbon and honey in a cocktail of Dinah Washington and Wanda Jackson, and accompanied by fat horns, string bass and jazz bar piano, she kicks up the dust on the likes of Johnny Got A Boom Boom, Feel Me, Smotherin’ Me and the title track, takes a dive into burlesque and Mariachi for Big Bad Handsome Man but also turns sultry tricks with Knock 123, Falling In Love With You Again and the jazz trio lounge torch of Meet You At The Moon. Some might wheel out Mari Wilson comparisons for her retro boogie woogie, but May’s got considerably bigger musical balls as she curls herself around songs of good loving and wicked thoughts and, while her genre revival might not have the mainstream crossover of Winehouse’s soul resurrections, there’s no doubt that, as the song says, she got her voodoo working to hypnotic effect. 7.30pm. £10. Glee Club Monday December 15 Stereophonics
As the title of their best of album, Decade In The Sun (Mercury), reminds, the Welsh outfit have been churning them out for ten years now, notching up six albums (five of which made No 1) and 21 top twenty singles. To which end they’re on the road with a personal jukebox reminder of their finest moments, revisiting everything from early underperformers Local Boy In The Photograph and More Life In A Tramp’s Vest through Top 20 debut Traffic and breakthrough hit The Bartender And The Hit to their first, and so far only, No 1 hit Dakota. The last album, Pull The Pin, fared less well with its singles, Bank Holiday Monday failing to chart while It Means Nothing stalled outside the Top 10 and My Friends failed to crack the Top 30, but, given the strength (and U2 comparisons) of new number You’re My Star (a second new track, My Own Worst Enemy appears on the 2CD version), it would be very foolish to think they’ve even begun to peak.
Support is Manchester’s The Courteeners whose St Jude (A&M) plays the Smiths card to good effect with the swaggery lad life What Took You So Long, rowdy stomping If It Wasn’t For Me, and Motown infused slow swayer Please Don’t. Teen self-pity with choruses doesn’t get too much better. 7.30pm. £29.50. NIA Monday December 15 The Hold Steady
Rescheduled from earlier in the year, the Brooklyn outfit finally make it to town to promote Stay Positive (Rough Trade), an album that’s figuring on many year end best of lists. Imagine Bruce Springsteen recast in the voice of Bob Mould in his Husker Du days and you'll have a good idea what lies in store as they roar out of the gate with Constructive Summer, a piano driven song that could have come straight from the Asbury bars of The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, The pace rarely dips. The horn laced Sequestered In Memphis, a belting tale of being stitched up by some femme fatale, is another E Street rocker while on One For The Cutters Craig Finn again tells a literate Boss-like story about a girl gone to the bad and self-harm. It's impossible not to reference Springsteen on things like Yeah Sapphire and Magazines, but you'll hear other flavours too; the backwoods banjo swampiness of a broodingly claustrophobic folked Both Crosses, Peter Frampton 70s rock voice box touches to Joke About Jamaica, some alcohol lubricated Buffalo Tom country-gospel to Lord I'm Discouraged. Not everything works, Navy Sheets is a formless rocking mess, but with the title track’s punch the air anthem about music carrying the torch. The Hold Steady's flame clearly burns bright.
Support comes from Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs, a five piece who came together through a mutual love of Dylan, evidently so on Arms Like Boulders, the opening track of their Wagonwheel Blues (Secretly Canadian) album. They take their Americana influences and add a sprinkle of indie rock so that although Barrel of Batteries and Buenos Aires Beach may nod to Bob and Bruce, the instrumentals Coast Reprise and Reverse The Charges evoke the fuzzed moods of My Bloody Valentine while There Is No Urgency is a spaced Wilco. A ten minute Show Me The Coast rather outstays its single repetitive drone riff's welcome, but otherwise you might well consider enlisting in the fight. 7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall Tuesday December 16 Bellowhead
The 11 piece folk outfit formed by John Spiers and Jon Boden and featuring Benji Kirkpatrick on guitar made an auspicious debut two years back with their Burlesque album, going on to win Best Live Act at 2007’s Folk Awards, repeating the success this year. Once more mixing up folk, jazz, soul, ska, sea shanties, music hall and world music, they’re currently treading the boards in service of sophomore album Matachin (Navigator). Titled after a sword dance, it’s a collection of trad and self-penned material that suggests a circus, carnival or cabaret troupe more than the folk big band they’re usually called. With over 20 instruments to their name, including tuba, flugelhorn, bagpipes, spoons, sousaphone, cello, fiddle, oboe and kitchen cutlery, they’re inevitably something of a busy visual experience, the album variously turning their musical hand to leg-slapping shanties like Whiskey Is The Life Of Man, trad folk ballad Fakenham Fair, military beat German cabaret swirler Spectre Review, and cello led Eastern European flavoured jig Trip to Bucharest. With particular highlights that include a terrific version of Rudyard Kipling’s Cholera Camp, decidedly bawdy oddity Kafoozalum and a lurching jazz arrangement of murder Ballad Bruton Town that’s considerably far removed from the old Maddy Prior and Tim Hart version, it promises to be a splendidly rumbustious night. 7.30pm. £18.50. B’ham Town Hall Wednesday December 17 The Stiff Dylans
Reecruited to play the fictional band in the film version of Angus Thongs, James Flannigan, Charlie Wride, Matt Harris and Tom Slaytor clicked well enough to keep it going for real, playing guitar pop that embraces both Biffy Clyro and McFly. They were featured in the film performing a fizzing version of Buzzcocks classic Ever Fallen in Love and the self-penned Ultraviolet which in turn became their debut single after being signed to Columbia. However, they seem to have been considerably more popular with the on screen crowd at Georgia Nicholson’s birthday bash than with the record buying public since it failed to dent the Top 40. It seems an album has been recorded, but the fact that a follow-up single has yet to materialise and their mini tour has seen the London gig cancelled may well suggest that their fifteen minutes of fame may have stalled at just under seven. 8pm. £10. Asylum, Hockley Wednesday December 17 Roy Wood
With I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day making its annual return to the charts, Woody is out presenting his seasonal contribution to festive cheer with his big band (now featuring four saxophones) turning up the party vibe for a romp through his biggest hits and slightly lesser known numbers like Green Glass Windows. Opening with a rock n rolling sax steaming version of California Man, you can expect to be up and dancing to the likes of Flowers In The Rain, See My Baby Jive, Angel Fingers, and Chinatown. And yes, the bagpipes will be there. 7.30pm. £20. B’ham Town Hall Thursday December 18 Biffy Clyro
Having spent most of the last year spreading the word around the globe, supporting the likes of the Stones, Chilli Peppers and Muse as well as amassing a string of festival appearances, they’ve not had time for any headline UK tour. They make up for that now with a pre-Christmas quickie that will show just how much they’ve developed in musical stature. There’ll be plenty of numbers from last year’s outstanding Puzzle album, doubtless including the operatic guitar storm that is Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies, the anthemic Love Has A Diameter and A Whole Child Ago steel tipped pop. Earlier this year the released Mountains (14th Floor), their first new material since the album’s release, a massive skyscraping stadium ballad that proved their biggest hit to date, slamming into the Top 5. Complemented with the folky acoustic strummed Little Soldiers, it bodes well for next year’s album which, according to the band, will feature their heaviest riffs yet and is shaping up to include new numbers Sky Demon, Born On A Horse and the recently roadtested God And Satan.
Taking the chill off the room, support comes from fellow Scots Frightened Rabbit whose sophomore Midnight Organ Fight (Fat Cat) album earned them considerable plaudits with such jangling indie guitar rockers as Fast Blood and clattering recent single I Feel Better. Getting into the festive spirit, they’ll likely also be resurrecting last year’s folk inflected seasonal ditty, It’s Christmas So I’ll Stop. 7.30pm. £16.50. Carling Academy Saturday December 20 The Lines
A hometown celebration gig for what’s been a sterling year in the wake of debut single Domino Effect and dynamite live shows that have seen the likes of swelling ballads Over And Out and Sirens justify those Verve comparisons. They see the year out now with their last gig of 2008 and a very limited release of the lovely Christmassy ballad Half Dream which will be limited to just 100 CDs only available at the show, or on download from the day after. Next year should be theirs for the taking. 7.30pm. £8. Wulfrun Hall Monday December 22 Toy Hearts
Fronted by the Johnson sisters, Hannah (lead vocal and mandolin) and Sophia (guitar/harmonies) with dad Stewart on banjo and dobro, Howard Gregory again handling fiddle duties and Lauren Rogers taking over double bass, Birmingham’s bluegrass will be in party spirit for the rousing pre-Christmas bash. They’ll be digging into numbers from both the If The Blues Come Calling debut and recent follow-up, When I Cut Loose (Woodville), with a set list likely to feature honky tonk waltzer The Angels Sing To Me, the hot club and jazz-blues notes of Giving You Back Your Troubles, Girl That You Can't Fool’s Grapelli grooves, Bob Wills cover Right Or Wrong and the fiddle and banjo interplay of Piccadilly Special. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a couple of bluegrassed Christmas numbers in there too. 8pm. £7. Kitchen Garden Cafe. Kings Heath Monday December 22 Ocean Colour Scene
Regular rumours of their imminent demise consistently confounded, if anything the lads are on better form than ever, still putting up the house full signs on major venues. There’s no Birmingham Christmas gig this year, but it’s worth the journey for what’s a consistently explosive live show. They’ve kept a deliberate low profile over the past year in terms of releases, working on material for next year’s new album. However, they have released a DVD of their Birmingham Town Hall acoustic show (available from www.oceancolourscene.com) featuring sterling stripped down arrangements of Chelsea Walk, an Eastern coloured Big Star, swelling instrumental ballad The Word, a tremulously quivering Bee Gees-like It’s My Shadow and, of course, Riverboat Song (as fiery acoustic as it is in full rock throttle) and show closer The Day We Caught The Train. They’ll be lining up the crowd favourites and, if you’re especially lucky, Steve Craddock might well drop in a taster for next year’s solo debut, The Kundalini Target, which, from advance clips, sounds very 60s psychedelic baroque soft pop. 7.30pm. £22.50. W’hampton Civic Hall
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