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ARCHIVED REVIEWS January 2009

Friday January 9

The Lights

The Brum quintet welcome the New Year with their first gig of 2009, the set list recapping on the journey so far with single The Score and tracks such as the anthemic Film Within A Film and Stop Stop Carry from The Fairweather Travelling Companion EP. Comparisons bandied around have included The Manics and Pat Benatar, and, having built a healthy local following, now’s the time to see them strike out into wider waters.  10pm. £4. 444 Club @ The Rainbow, Digbeth

Saturday January 17

New Kids On The Block

The definitive American boy band, created by Maurice Starr the Boston five piece sold some 80 million records worldwide, nothing up such hits as  Please Don’t Go Girl, I’ll Be Loving You (Forever), Step By Step and If You Go Away before falling out of favour in 1992.  With sales and hits drying up, the band slip in 1994, the various members striking out on their own,  Jordan Knight forging a successful solo career while Joey McIntyre and Donnie Wahlberg focused their attention on acting. Rather like brother Mark, the latter’s screen career has taken a downward spiral, most recently appearing in DeNiro/Pacino turkey Righteous Kill.

However, after various failed attempts, the original line-up finally got back together last year, recording comeback album The Block, a contemporary update on their r&b sound that saw them back in the bottom end of the Top 40 with Summertime, their first hit here since 1991.

They’ve not exactly reinvented the wheel, but the likes of Dirty Dancing, Big Girl Now, Sexify My Love and Lights, Camera, Action show they’re as slick with the grooves and harmonies now as they were back at their peak. Whether, with the Take That reunion still with a full of a head of steam, anyone here really cares that much is something only the number of empty seats will show.7.30pm. £45/£35. NIA

Sunday January 18

Duke Special

Two years on from Songs From The Deep Forest, the piano playing dreadlocked Belfast singer-songwriter is gearing up for the March official release of album number three, I Never Thought This Day Would Come (Universal), for which this set of dates serves as something of an advance showcase.

If his first album offered 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 IfI Don’t Feel It, Let Me Go (Please Please Please) and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck this one frequently finds him sounding a lot like Stephen Duffy .

However, there’s some interesting stylistic variations, and if carnival waltzer I Never Thought This Day Would Come reprises his affection for 30s Music Hall, the naggingly 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 much of it takes a while to get used to (not least since the songs are predominantly downbeat if not morbid), chances are he’ll not risk basing a large proportion of the set list on the new material, but it’ll be interesting to see the reaction to the ones he does include, with the Bernard Butler co-penned Those Proverbs We Made In The Winter Must End likely to prove the biggest struggle and Why Does Anybody Love? the enduring fan favourite. 7.30pm. £10. Glee Club

Monday January 19

Grace Jones

She may be 60 and not released an album in 19 years (she recorded two in the 90s that remain in the vaults), but finally returning to the studio after a decade of appearing in straight to video B movie fodder (Cyber Bandits, Palmer’s Pick Up anyone?) last year’s Hurricane (Wall of Sound) found her cold delivery sounding as sexually feral and ferociously intimidating as in the days of Pull Up To The Bumper, Slave To The Rhythm and Private Life.

Ably assisted by producers and rhythm section Sly and Robbie, there’s as strong a club dub  feel to the album as there is a Massive Attack vibe, the former embodied in Well Well Well, Love You To Life and the infectious dancehall of This Is while Devil In My Life, dark, prowling industrial-gothic machine churning Corporate Cannibal and the bluesy title track process the latter influences.

And if you’re looking for those heady Afro-Caribbean flavours, then xylophone flavoured eco message Sunrise Sunset ably serves the purpose.

 Interestingly, letting down the defences it’s the most confessionally introspective album she’s made, the sinuously funky gospel and dramatic pop of William’s Blood recalling her rebellious childhood, stern Pentecostal preacher father and musically gifted mother before fading out on a snatch of Amazing Grace while the tender Mother’s Tears again pays tribute to mom.

“This is my voice, my weapon of choice”, she declares at the start, and it’s good to see she still wields it with deadly force like the ‘hurricane ripping up trees’. Doubtless clad in an array of  sado-maso styled outfits, stalking the stage like some voodoo tigress, and mingling the new material with the old classics, this promises to be an electrifying evening. 7.30pm. £35. Symphony Hall

Thursday January 22

Pussycat Dolls

After the sassy sophisticated slinky soul n strut of debut album PCD and cuts like Don’t Cha, Buttons and We Went As Far As We Felt Like Going it’s all let down to find sophomore release Doll Domination  (Polydor) so dispiritingly formulaic. With 18 tracks (22 on some editions), they don’t stint on quantity but the quality standard frequently slips well below the bar.

On the plus side, When I Grow Up is a rush of stomping pop r&b, Whatcha Think About That is catchy swingbeat, Bottle Pop takes Britney on at her own game while the Timberland produced In Person hits a driving groove and doesn’t give an inch.

But you still have to wade through some decidedly lightweight r&b and yawnsome ballads to find the bright moments, and it’s hard to fathom what they expect anyone to make of their cabaret karaoke cover of Doris Day’s 1967  Latin pop nugget Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps.

  Given how the group’s reality TV shows bombed and the less than glittering success that has been featured singer Nicole Scherzinger’s solo career, this may well be the last time around. A suspicion compounded by the reissue of the album with five tracks each spotlighting the different girls, rather like testing the water for the inevitable implosion. Hopefully, given the energy of their last tour, they’ll be doing more than going through the motions, but I wouldn’t have my hopes up too high.

Support (and possibly guest collaborator) is Ne-Yo, aka nattily attired LA R&b singer-songwriter Shaffer Chimere Smith, whose Year Of The Gentleman (Def Jam) self-deprecatingly examines his qualities as boyfriend and his love of the opposite sex without ever resorting to the crude misogyny of so many of his peers. He does it in style too; piano pop ballad What’s The Matter conjures thoughts of Elton John, Closer’s infectious driven 70s disco, So You Can Cry shimmers with Stevie Wonder influences, Miss Independent does a synth shuffle, Back To What You Know  is pop-rock friendly while Lie To Me bubbles with strings as a sadly turns a blind eye to his lover’s unfaithfulness. Capable of the dreamy r&b of Part Of the List and the jerking funky Jackson grooves of  Nobody, this should be the year he finally topples Kanye West and Usher from their thrones. 7.30pm. £40/£32.50. NIA

 Thursday January 22
Shinedown

There’s been a line-up rejig since the Florida five piece were last here, with Zach Myers being promoted to lead guitarist following Nick Perri’s decision to leave and explore other projects. However, it’s unlikely to make much difference this makes to their mix of Bon Jovi hair rock (Second Chance) and crunching juggernaut metal (Devour) that make up their soon to arrive Sound Of Madness album, the boozy Southern rock swagger title track preceding it as the new single. 7.30pm. £9.79. Barfly

Thursday January 22

The Buzzcocks

Long serving veterans of the original New Wave explosion of the late 70s, founding members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle are still going strong, regularly turning out new material that doesn't disgrace their legend. However, for this tour, they’re firmly in retrospective mood with a set that include their first two albums, Another Music In A Different Kitchen and Love Bites, in their entirety.

Which, to save you searching the archives, means numbers such as Fast Cars, Sixteen, Ever Fallen in Love, Just Lust and, er, Sixteen Again. It all ties in with the reissue of remastered, expanded versions of  both albums and A Different Kind of Tension, all featuring associated singles, demos (including rarities like Jesus Made Me Feel Guilty and Run Away From Home), John Peel sessions and other live recordings, bulking up to some 40 tracks per album. Since, save for Ever Fallen In Love, the original albums didn’t actually include hits like What Do I Get?, Love You More, Everybody’s Happy Nowadays and Noise Annoys, they’ll be added to the set list too. What more could an old punk ask! 7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall

Saturday January 24

Guildean Gang

Touted as a name to watch for 2009, the unsigned Biggleswade indie pop four piece released bouncy debut single Swirls last  May 2008, and earned themselves comparisons to the likes of The Wombats, Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things. They head off on the campaign trail now to unveil follow up Dennis Bergkamp (a tribute to the Dutch footballer) with its marching drum beat, rumbling bass lines and spiky angular guitar riffs and spread the word on emerging live favourites Pat Attack, Can't You See Emily and 102 Know Kung Fu. 7.30pm. £5. Barfly

Monday January 26

Boys Like Girls

There’s still no sign of the Boston emo pop outfit’s follow up to their self-titled 2006 album, and while last year saw the release of the live DVD Read Between The Lines the songs were all lifted from the album. Hitting what seems to be a creative impasse this early in the career is hardly encouraging, especially when even their best songs, Heels Over Head, Five Minutes To Midnight and Broken Man are punk pop by numbers at best. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

Monday January 26

Threatmantics

A drummer who simultaneously plays keyboards, a guitarist who doubles up on SatNav and a lead singer armed with a viola? The Cardiff trio certainly aren’t your usual rock n roll outfit  They get the new year rolling with a second leg of their promotion for  debut album Upbeat Love (Double Six) with its Pogues and Gogol Bordello flavours.

It’s a suitably idiosyncratic offering that juggles its ungainly way from Get Outta Town’s gypsy psychobilly jiggery stomp through  the lurching zombie folk-drone High Waister and brushed lonesome country waltzer Lonely Heart to the spaghetti western mazurka cacophony of Buried Alive. Partly sung in Welsh, the swaggering Don’t Care sounds designed for swigging ale while leaping around Wicker Man bonfires. Where they take things from here is hard to second guess, but the live shows promise an energetic flurry. 7.30pm. £6. Little Civic

Thursday January 29

Richard Thompson

Leaving his back catalogue at home, this sees Thompson reviving his 1000 Years of Popular Music tour with a set list that does just what it says on the tin, ranging from ballads of the early middle ages to material by an eclectic list of artists that, on past showings, have included Nat King Cole, Nelly Furtado, Gilbert & Sullivan, and The Who.

They material all’s given a Thompson makeover, his virtuoso guitar sharing the spotlight with his between song wit while his accompanying musicians include Judith Owen, the Welsh born, LA based folk-jazz singer (and wife of Spinal Tap’s Harry Shearer) described by Jamie Cullum as a female Randy Newman. Whether she’ll get to do a solo spot is unclear, but fans might care to know she’s just released Mopping Up Karma, a reworking of material (and a couple of new tracks) from her hard to find sophomore album that includes the folksy Creatures Of Habit, the Tori Amos-like Ruby Red Lips and  I Promise You, the haunting Celtic tinged ballad which featured prominently in Charmed. 7.30pm. £25/£20. B’ham Town Hall

Thursday January 29

Black Tide

Last year saw the teenage Miami quartet hailed as the saviours of heavy rock and compared to Guns N' Roses, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth. Well, debut album, Light From Above (Interscope) does certainly borrow plenty of riffs from their role models, Shockwave recalling the early days of Skid Row,  Live Fast Die Young emulates Motley crue while Shout and Warriors of Time brazenly ape Maiden. They even do a faithful cover of Metallica’s Hit The Lights.

They certainly have the chops, and young Gabriel Garcia is clearly a guitar god in the making, but they’re going to have to shape their own identity out of their 80s metal influences if they’re going to be in this for the long haul. Keeping the headbangers happy, the Kerrang tour line up also includes In Case Of Fire, Mindless Self Indulgence and Bring Me The Horizon. 7.30pm. £15. O2 Academy

Friday January 30

Shared

Curated by and featuring Wonder Stuff frontman Miles Hunt and violinist Erica Knockalls, this is an acoustic night showcasing a somewhat eclectic set of singer-songwriters that figure among Hunt’s personal passions.

So, along with their own material you get stripped down sets from Mission singer Wayne Hussey

 Aztec Camera founder Roddy Frame, former Haircut 100 alumni Nick Heywood and, adding the icing to the cake, engimatic Welsh chanteuse Katell Keineg who, if your luck’s in, may well include a taster or two from her long overdue new album.

 7.30pm. £19.50/ B’ham Town Hall

Saturday January 31
Innerpartysystem

Named from George Orwell’s 1984, the Pennsylvanian electr-rock four piece make their first visit of the year to give a renewed push to recent self-titled debut (Island). The last single, Die Tonight, Live Forever, owed a little to both Ultravox and Depeche Mode but elsewhere, on such furiously surging tracks as Last Night In Brooklyn, This Town Your Grave, Heart Of Fire and Obsession you’ll also hear elements of Nine Inch Nails, Interpol, and Bloc Party.
They make an agitated noise, fuelled by dark-tipped lyrics and Patrick Nissley's passionate vocals, but it’s not all designed to rattle the nerves, Everyone Is The Same, the krautrock soul Structure and the slow pulse This Empty Love all very much in club groove mood while Night Is Alive surely owes a debts of influence to both Duran Duran and the Arctic Monkeys.
They do the business live too, whipping up a palpable electricity and frenzy of limb thrusting, that should comfortably see them ruling the dance floors for the forthcoming year. 7pm. £8. O2 Academy 2

Saturday January 31/Sunday February 1

Bloc Party

Follwoing underwhelming electro-pop single Flux, last year saw the band release Intimacy (Wichita) as a swift follow up to 2007’s disappointing A Weekend In The City. Unfortunately, rushing it out without time to bed in the songs proved one of poorer decisions, the songs sounding raw but unfinished and unformed, covering over the gaps with the clattering sonics and squalls of opening track Ares and Talons or amping up the riffage with jerkily staccato single Mercury, One Month Off and Halo, the latter sounding uncomfortably like an attempt to meld The Smiths and The Cure.

A little more time and a little more thought might have weeded out the plodding sub Ultravox goes synth chorale Zephyrus and pared both hushed ballad Biko and the jittery train rhythm chug of Ion Sphere to more sustainable length and let their strengths and emotional core shine. The handclappy beat of Better Than Heaven and the Oriental shimmers to Signs offer the album’s most readily accessible tracks, but with its electronic headrushes and Chemical Brothers sounding beats it’s undeniably an urgent, frantic and aggressive affair that should push the live experience beyond the comfort zone into something far more threatening. 7.30pm. £23. W’hampton Civic Hall

 

Town, Postcode, Attraction... -- Country -- UK England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland Rep. of Ireland ---------------- Andorra Argentina Australia Austria Azerbaidjan Bahamas, The Barbados Belgium Belize Bermuda Brazil Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Rep. Ecuador Egypt England Estonia Fiji Finland France Germany Greece Grenada Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Israel Italy Jamaica Jordan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malaysia Maldives Malta Martinique Mexico Monaco Morocco Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Northern Ireland Norway Panama Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Rep. of Ireland Romania Russia Saint Lucia Samoa Scotland Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Tunisia Turkey UAE USA Wales Zambia -- Room Sleeps -- 1 person 2 people 2 + 1 child 2 + 2 children 2 + 3 children 3 people 4 people 5 people 6 people 7 people -- No. of nights -- 1 night 2 nights 3 nights 4 nights 5 nights 6 nights 7 nights

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