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ARCHIVED REVIEWS July 2008 Previews by Mike Davies Tuesday July 1 Foy Vance
The Irish singer-songwriter’s not go so far as actually completing a follow up to the Hope album, but since he says he’s currently working on material for three separate albums, it seems a good bet that he’ll be road testing a fair number of new numbers in tonight’s set. Which, if any measure up to the likes of his heart-stopping Gabriel & The Vagabond, the Van-like Shed A Little Light, a smouldering jazzy jamming soul Hope, Peace & Love or Dry Wells’ late night piano bar moods, has to be worth the visit.
He’s supported by smoky voiced Glaswegian Phil Campbell who’s busy reminding folk of his retitled, rejigged and reissued After The Garden (Safehouse) sophomore album. Headed up by the singles, a folksy strummed Cold Engines and the sunnily optimistic Neil Young influenced Maps, there’s some excellent stuff here that suggests a mingling of James Blunt, David Gray and Blue Nile in its cocktail of mellifluous melody and Celtic soul, stirred with a swizzle of American roots-country. Sweet Sister, the scuffling No Love Songs, the cocaine hell experience of Should Have Stayed Home, and the reflective self-engineered fall from grace are all standouts from an artist that really deserves to be far better known and appreciated than he is. 7.30pm. £8. Glee Club Tuesday July 1 White Denim
Those too lazy to stretch the comparisons will likely talk about the blue collar Austin garage-rock trio in terms of the White Stripes or the Strokes, but a little more effort reveals the roots are much more embedded in the influences of the early Stones, Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion, MC5, the Minutemen and even Devo. Re-recorded from previous EP, debut album Workout Holiday (Full Time Hobby) is a scratchy, itchy nerve, jittery beast more concerned about deranged, skinny-limbed rock n roll that tunes as such. Fronted by the raw blues shouter vocals of James Petralli, they also boil together such ingredients as country, electronica, punk, art rock, prog and country to produce a ragged but compellingly urgent concoction. Opening the album with the riff thrashy Let’s Talk About It and barrelling straight into the flailing lo fi Shake Shake Shake, they proceed to ingest psychedelia blues with I Can Tell, wind up the vaudeville machine on Sitting, dig into Afropop vibes for Don’t Look That Way At It and let loose with experimental punk dub blues on All You Really Have To Do that would likely bring a smile to Captain Beefheart’s lips. At the end of the day, there’s probably less to them than the glowing praise would have, just three guys kicking around making a noise to see what it sounds like, but you have to admit it’s a potent, energised noise that threatens to deliver an even more incendiary live show. 7.30pm. £6. Bar Academy Wednesday July 2 Dolly Parton
Decidedly overpriced, but those with flexible bank accounts can be assured of a night of top of the line country-pop delivered with their flair and style of a Vegas entertainer, veined with self-deprecating wit and as much charm as rhinestone glitter. It’s been a long time since Parton played these parts, so there’s plenty to catch up on, most especially her back to bluegrass roots albums Hungry Again, The Grass Is Blue and Halos and Horns and now the new more mainstream country Backwoods Barbie (A&M) which includes an amazing banjo and fiddle flavoured cover of Fine Young Cannibals’ (She) Drives Me Crazy and a sweetly soulful version of Tracks Of My Tears. There’s nine new self-penned tracks here that see her giving the fans what they want, good old country music with wry lyrics that deal with the honky tonky staples of broken hearts (Made Of Stone), cheating (Cologne), defiant spirits (the Dolly advice column that is Better Get To Livin’) and Jesus (Jesus & Gravity). At its best on the dumb blonde stereotype baiting title track, the yearning Appalachian Only Dreamin' and the wonderfully waltzingly maudlin I Will Forever Hate Roses, you’re probably at best only going to get a couple of numbers in the live set, but if that means she’s making room for best of favourites like 9-5, I Will Always Love You, Jolene, Potential New Boyfriend and Dagger Through The Heart then there should be few complaints. Be great if she did her bluegrass Stairway To Heaven as well, though. 7.30pm. £65.50. NEC Wednesday July 2 You, Me At Six
The Surrey emo punk quintet’s If I Were In Your Shoes may sound a little generic with its snarly riffs and angsty vocals, but in the choppy You’ve Made Your Bed and earlier storming Panic At The Disco-ish single Save It For The Bedroom they can rest assured of having at least two personal classics under their belt. 7.30pm. £7. Carling Academy 2 Wednesday July 2 Idlewild A rare chance to catch Roddy Woomble and the lads in a more intimate setting, the opening night of the tour also promises to be a little different in terms of the set list too. The band will be doing a half hour acoustic support slot before following up with a full electric set to include rarely played material, B sides, fan favourites (they do, after all, still have a Best Of album to promote) and even a couple of new numbers. 7.30pm. £12.50. Glee Club Wednesday July 2 Rotary Ten
The latest Sheffield outfit (though they actually originate in Lincoln) to get a next big thing label, the four piece aren’t yet a widely known name but debut album These Are Our Hands (XtraMile) should go some way to rectifying that. There’s a touch of Smiths to I Fear The Fields while Idols of Our Own Design owes a debut to The Cure’s In Between Days while scratchy, angular indie guitar tracks like Action Man, Leo And Rosa, Strategy and Time Is Not a Line And I Am Not a Rock are likely to prompt comparisons to Maximo Park and Good Shoes with a hint of Jarvis. However, the songs transcend their influences, bouncing along with infectious good-natured energy, parading quieter colours with the tempo switching These Men Are Made Of Rust and seven minute slow handclap album closer Don’t Lean On The Wires. It’s a little premature to start talking about them as the city’s next Arctics, but you can be sure next time they visit they’ll be needing a bigger stage than this. 7.30pm. £3. The Yardbird, Paradise Place, Birmingham
Wednesday July 2
Here last year as part of the Rootsville festival, the Australian electro-goth duo return with the follow up to Beams in the shape of Apocalypso (Universal). Again delivering a solid dark dance groove, tracks like This Boy’s In Love With You, My People and A New Sky once more summoning the spirits of Depeche Mode, Human League, Blancmange and OMD while Yippiyo-Ay tips the hat to vintage Prince. The Spandau touches of If I Know You are a little worrying, but really this is an album and a gig you’d be silly to ignore. 8pm. £6. The Rainbow, Digbeth Thursday July 3 Jack Johnson
The laid back surfer coasts into town on the back of current album Sleep Through The Static (Brushfire) which, no surprise here, is business as usual with reggae inflected soft rock and campfire surfer folk melodies, and songs about cosy snuggle-ups with the wife and kids occasionally punctuated by slightly more worried numbers that detail broken relationships (If I Had Eyes) and concerns about the ecology or war (They Do They Don’t, Sleep Through The Static). Lightly brushed and served with gentle guitars, lazy rhythms, it never works up a sweat but as long as there’s those who like to contemplate domestic bliss and environmental issues as they drift away in the sweet smoke, he’s going to keep shifting albums by the truckload. But please, no more dreadful wordplay like ‘Monsooner or later’.
Since Johnson obviously doesn’t want to spend too much time on stage, he’s got a whole pack of supports. Mojave 3’s Neal Halstead is along for a quickie solo slot then warming things up will be Minneapolis singer-songwriter Mason Jennings, recently featured providing the vocals for Christian Bale’s lip-synching in I’m Not There. He’ll be featuring material from his new, sixth, album In The Ever which, sounding not unlike a cross between Loudon Wainwright, Jonathan Richman and (on My Perfect Lover) a touch of Randy Newman, (Brushfire), is a collection of laid back scuffed folk-pop that variously addresses an ex lover’s jealousy (Your New Man), the oneness of religions (I Love You And Buddah Too), the tragedies of Katrina and Iraq (Going Back To New Orleans) and, as on Never Knew Your Name and How Deep is That River, a fair bit about God.
Offering a bit more musical muscle will be G Love & Special Sauce, the self-styled hip-hop blues Philly singer digging into the new Superhero Brother, B (Island) album. It’s an eclectic funky stew , finely seasoned with grooves that snake through blues-rock (Communication), tropical lilts (City Livin’), languid blue-eyed soul (Crumble), chunky jazz funk (Wiggle Worm, What We Need) , slouched rap (Who Got The Weed?), stoned rock steady (Wontcha Come Home), delta blues (the falsetto Superhero Brother) and, inspired by the Rio slums, the Sympathy for the Devil vibe of Peace Love and Happiness. Should be a mellow evening. 7.30pm. £30. NIA Thursday July 3 Paul Heaton
Now going it alone, the former Beautiful South singer is doing the rounds to raise the profile of his second solo album, The Cross Eyed Rambler (Universal). It’s business as usual with his trademark sardonic observations on Northern life, filtered through a musical marriage of English pop folk and American country roots. There’s a touch of gospel blues bubbling through A Good Old Fashioned Town’s portrait of homegrown rednecks, a bit of Nashville stomp with God Bless Texas, the Mariachi rockabilly flavoured, drink, drive, duck and dive Mermaids and Slaves, some Spanish colourings on Little Red Rooster’s wry look at growing old. However, given something of a low key release, he fight be finding this a little more of an intimate outing than he’d envisioned. 7.30pm. £15. Carling Academy 2 Friday July 4 Kaki King
Here some months back with a set list culled from her instrumental debut, Everybody Loves You and then current album Until We Felt Red, the much acclaimed guitarist returns now with follow-up Dreaming Of Revenge (Cooking Vinyl). Once again it’s a showcase for her fretboard dexterity, both fingerpicking style and more bluesy electric, with the likes of the layered, snare grooved snake charmer rhythmed Bone Chaos In The Castle, cosmic new age lounge floater Sad American, the bouncy post-rock pop of Montreal and the experimental whimsy of Air And Kilometres. However, once again she’s insisted on playing singer-songwriter too and while her muted, whispery vocals have a certain ice-melting appeal when she brushes them across the jazzy new age and Oriental textures of Saving Days In A Frozen Head or the deliberately poppy inflections of Pull Me Out Alive, once more the lyrics don’t bear too close an inspection. It’s a bit like the captain of the math team wanting to head up the English group when she’s not up to snuff on the grammar or spelling. When she sticks to what she’s best at, she’s formidable. When she doesn’t, she’s a bit of a bore. 7.30pm. £9. Glee Club Saturday July 5 Godiva Festival
The country’s biggest and best free festival has a touch of deja vu about it with Coventry outfits The Enemy and The Ripps reprising their same day appearances from last year, though this time both should have plenty of material to preview from their impending new albums.
They’re joined by Art Brut bashing out the art-punk songs of sex and broken relationships that fill up the It’s A Bit Complicated album and its energetic, crunchy spiked pop. Exit Calm will be doing their My Bloody Valentine meets Sigur Ros fuzzed guitar ethereal ambience symphonics, Glasvegas are here celebrating the success of the Mary Chain sings Roy Orbison single Geraldine and local boys Pint Shot Riot are showcasing their shouty marriage of 2Tone and punkpop in the shape of hometown bashing new single Start Digging (Life In The Big City). Noon. Free. War Memorial Park, Coventry Saturday July 5 Jason Mraz
Apparently when he’s not being a pop artist he’s an avocado farmer. It may explain a lot about the San Diego singer’s mellow, laid back style. Sort of Jack Johnson lite, Mraz often sounds vaguely like a sort of blue-eyed soul Paul Simon with some Latin rhythms thrown in, readily exemplified by Make It Mine, the opening track to the current We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (Atlantic) album. The Johnson/Simon comparison is especially acute on the jaunty jogging beach picnic single I’m Yours, a relaxed sunny vibe continued on the Colbie Caillat duet Lucky and James Morrison collaboration Details In The Fabric. Elsewhere he turns over some 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, airy Muscat music, he’s your man. 7.30pm. £15. Warwick Arts Centre Sunday July 6 Godiva Festival
The second day brings Sam Duckworth’s folktronica alter ego Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and numbers from Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager and current follow up Searching For The Hows And Whys (Atlantic) where dance beats, synths and strings to flesh out the social commentary of songs like The Children Are (The Consumers) Of The Future and I Could Build You A Tower. New single Keep Singing Out suggests a promising hint of a possible Paul Wellerish direction, but for now he’ll be keeping the afternoon lazily swaying.
Birmingham’s answer to Squeeze, Envy And Other Sins will be doing the Difford/Tilbrook shuffle and a hint of Radiohead with material from their We Leave At Dawn debut while offering the day’s quota of glamour, teen songstress Gabriella Cilmi will be showing exactly why debut album Lessons To Be Learned (Island) has had them calling her Melbourne’s answer to Duffy and Amy Winehouse.
And yes, I daresay she will be doing her version of Martha and the Muffins classic, Echo Beach, so make sure you’ve learned the chorus. Noon. Free. War Memorial Park, Coventry Monday July 7 Duran Duran
Revitalised with some of the best reviews of their career for the Astronaut reunion album, following the departure of Andy Taylor they took an even bigger second bite of the cherry with Red Carpet Massacre (Epic). Again a marriage of the old Duran sound with contemporary electro, it kicks off in persuasive form with the paranoia pulsing futuristic groove of The Valley. Simon LeBon will never have the most colourful voice in the world but there’s no denying these days that he knows how to keep a song on firm track. Sounding a lot like Bobby Vee’s The Night Has A Thousand Eyes, the electro dance beat and retro pop title track gives way to the snaky Nite Runner sounding like the Bee Gees after a shot of viagra. Falling Down seems them on the ballad side of the r&b dance floor beforefunky sleaze returns with the hypnotic Skin Divers while a classic Duranie dancepop Tempted, the crunchy leviathan Dirty Great Monster and slinky night trade Last Man Standing, all blister the ears and feet. With a set that mixes in the best of the rejuvenated recordings with the classic hits everyone wants to hear, this should be a hometown triumph.
Special guests are Sheffield indie five piece Long Blondes, not averse to a little disco themselves as witness recent Grace Jones like single Century off the Couples album. That’ll be there likely sharing a set list with the Debbie Harry reggae-pop lurching Guilt, a futuro pop I Liked The Boys, Round The Hairpin’s krautrock and the louche Nostalgia. 7.30pm. £65-£40. NIA Monday July 7 Parka
Take a pinch of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, some early Stones and a lot of Franz Ferdinand, and you’ve got another bunch of Scottish indie funk n punk rockers who play full tilt with the rhythm section on speed and guitars cranked to overdrive. Certainly if you’re looking to throw yourself around the room, then Attack Of The Hundred Yard Hard Man (Jeepster) offers plenty of incentive with Bosses And Bastards, Disco Dancer, DJ In The Corner and the swaggering crunch of There’s A Riot Going On. The bouncing I Don’t Want To Fight You Tonight nods to Scotpop roots (Big Country/Skids) while If You Wanna? suggests a Men Without Hats revival might not be far off. They should be forcibly restrained from doing ballads, but they’ve certainly got the modern highland fling thing sorted. 7.30pm. £5. Barfly Tuesday July 8 Laura Veirs
There’s no new album to plug but she will be serving reminders of favourites lifted fromTroubled By Fire, Carbon Glacier, Year Of Meteors and the recent Saltbreakers (Nonesuch), the latter hopefully to include the backporch jangling Cast A Hook, a Latin coloured Don’t Lose Yourself and the full on rocking Phantom Mountain . She’ll also be touting copies of her ltd edition EP Two Beers Veirs, a covers collection that includes her version of trad folk nugget Wildwood Flower. 8pm. £10. Glee Club Wednesday July 10 Brian Jonestown Massacre
Perhaps better known for Anton Newcombe’s habit of fighting with or firing his band, the size of his ego and believing his own hype than the music they made, if nothing else the Dig! documentary about the spats between him and The Dandy Warhols has prompted an increase in touring to cash in on a reprised 15 minutes of fame. However, there’s been nothing to arrest the downward musical slide they’ve successfully maintained over recent years. Certainly not current album My Bloody Underground, an amateur sounding cacophony of mangled guitars and half-thought out songs that drone on forever. That it features provocative titles like Bring Me the Head of Paul McCartney on Heather Mills' Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs on the White House), Automatic Faggot for the People and Just Like Kicking Jesus is a reasonable indication of a desperate attempt to court controversy in the hope of attracting an audience.
Support comes from Seattle based The Blakes, another in a seemingly endless stream of bands who owe their existence to their Stooges, Strokes, Vines and White Stripes albums. However, their self-titled debut (Light In The Attic) shows them using the influences better than most, Two Times opening with a raw ripped throat garage energy before Don’t Bother Me, Magoo and Modern Man flip the switch to show their jangly poppy flavours and distinct evidence of The Who, The Kinks, Stones and other 60s English outfits. Then something like the low slung bass and dark groove of Vampires takes a mirror to the 80s goth of Bauhaus and the Batcave bands while Picture suggests a touch of the rougher palm of glam.. Only one (Streets) of the 13 tracks exceeds the three minute mark, so they should be able to ram the entire album into the set list and still have time to spare, though you get the feeling that they’re going to be a lot of a looser and messier proposition live.7.30pm. £12.50. Carling Academy 2 Friday July 11 Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, according to his birth certificate, the skateboarding Islamic Chicago rapper’s already got one Grammy on the shelf for his debut’s Jill Scott duet, Daydreamin’ and is currently riding high on the back of follow up The Cool (Atlantic), a concept album about being a black American celebrity rapper with a couple of detours concerning immigration and kids with guns. Refusing to have anything to do with the usual hip-hop's misogyny and materialism, he does rather tend to overindulge in the other extreme with some dogmatic, not to mention smug, moralising and baffling intellectual thought processes. This, after all, is an album which, on Gotta Heat, talks about life through the metaphor of a hamburger. He’s not going to have album collaborators like Matthew Santon (Superstar), Unkle (Hello Goodbye) or Snoop Dog along for the live ride, but, with a reputation for getting into the dramatics and an iron fisted band to drive the grooves, you’ll probably not notice. 6pm. £16. Carling Academy Saturday July 12 The Starlets A Glasgow quartet (expanding to include brass and strings), past releases have seen them firmly in the manner of the gentle, soft focus Scottish indie guitar rock championed by the Postcard label during the 80s. However, upcoming single Radio Friendly (Stereotone Records) finds them essaying more of a Jesus and Mary Chain/Velvets sound to go with the leather jackets, though it’s partner piece, Maggie Loves Hopey, is a more gently subdued, hushed affair. 8pm. £4. Sunflower Lounge, Queensway Sunday July 13 The Punch Brothers
You may recognise the name Chris Thile as mandolin player with bluegrass trio Nickel Creek. However, with the band on indefinite haitus after an eighteen year career, he’s now pursuing new directions. Forming How To Grow A Band, a string quintet featuring mandolin, banjo, violin, guitar and bass, he released How To Grow A Woman From The Ground two years ago, a progressive bluegrass album that earned itself a Grammy award. Now, sporting a rather better name (taken from Mrak Twain’s Punch, Brothers, Punch!), they’re back with new album Punch (Nonesuch), an intriguing fusion of bluegrass, folk and classical that involves a great deal of improvisation. You’ll hear blues in the bluegrass on the opening Punch Bowl while Sometimes while It’ll Happen is a fairly traditional ballad lament, but indications of the progressive thinking are clear on the jazzy sounds of Sometimes (which surely nods to Django) and the time signatures and pizzicato drone of Nothing, Then. However, the centrepiece is The Blind Leaving The Blind, a 40 minute four movement suite written in response to Thile’s divorce four years back about a guy dealing with a broken relationship and trying to find his way back to the light. It’s a remarkable piece of music that weaves extensive musical passages around Thile’s aching vocal parts and impressionistic lyrics, roving between typical fiery bluegrass hoe down to ghostly folk and improvisations on the classical scale. Quite how they fit it into the live show and still have room for much other material remains to be seen, but it’s unlikely anyone will be breaking the spell to visit the bar while it unfurls. 7.30pm. £16. Glee Club
Tuesday July 15 Death Cab For Cutie
Named after the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band song featured in Magical Mystery Tour, having sold a million copies of Plans after being featured on The OC, Ben Gibbard and the boys ably rise to the challenge of the difficult follow-up with Narrow Stairs (Atlantic). Raising their game, it’s a less immediate but more complex collection that favours brooding atmospheres and dysfunctional relationships to teen soap singalongs. The dense industrial rhythm guitars bolstering the opening Bixby Canyon Bridge and the spare bass and piano underpinning the moody, darkly sinewed psychedelia of a disconcertingly menacing I Will Possess Your Heart pull you into the album with hypnotic effect. The likes of the brief You Can Do Better Than Me’s woozy timpani beat and sleigh bells the shimmering ache to Grapevine Fires, Cath’s jangling heartbreak, the breezy pop No Sunlight that deceptively masks a song of disillusionment, and the fragile emotions of The Ice Is Getting Thinner ensure you have no wish to leave. They’ve yet to find the same following here (Plans didn’t make the Top 40, they’ve yet to have a hit single, and even the new album stalled outside the Top 20) as they have back home, but with a solid live rep to go with their studio excellence, it can only be a matter of time.
Support comes from Styrofoam, aka Antwerp based electro-pop one man show Arne Van Petegem, who’ll be showcasing bubbling new single Bright Red Helmet (Nettwerk) which, like the folksy The Other Side Of Town, rippling water pop ballad duet No Deliveries and the stately waltzing title track, is taken from upcoming album A Thousand Words. 7.30pm. £15. Carling Academy Tuesday July 15 Transgressive Hot Summer Tour
Anglo-French pop-folk singer songwriter Jeremy Warmsley heads up the label’s package tour which serves to launch How We Became, his follow up to 2006 debut The Art of Fiction. Back then he was compared to Rufus Wainwright and Sufjan, and doubtless the same references will be rolled out again. However, like past tracks 5 Verses and I Knew That Her Face Was A Lie, new electro-pop single Lose My Cool does little to change the opinion that he writes clever, inventive songs but lacks the voice or melodies to make them memorable.
He’s joined by whimsical popster romantics Absentee who’ll be showcasing impending new album Victory Shorts and tracks such as Boy, Did She Teach You Nothing?, The Nurses Don’t Notice a Thing and lovers’ tiff We Smash Plates.
Then there’s the bedroom trashy glam dance pop of Ben Esser whose I Love You single’s been called ‘playschool pirate pop, goth-prog quartet Ox, Eagle. Lion, Man with their catchy ditties about idolatry, religion, and parenthood, and New Zealand art-punk-synth purveyors So So Modern.
The one to make sure you catch though must be Liam Finn. The son of Crowded House’s Neil Finn (and nephew of Tim), he’s already been fronting his own outfit in New Zealand, Betchadupa, and, along with being part of dad’s touring band, has just released solo debut I'll Be Lightning.
He's very much following in the family footsteps, taking Beatles influences and shaping them to his own form, making melodic classy pop that adopts the loose limbed syncopated quirkiness of the skittering Second Chance and the clattering rowdy Lead Balloon and and balances them with the dreamy loveliness of Gather To The Chapel, a Brian Wilson-like crooning Lullaby and the harmony rich piano ballad Shadow Of Your Man. The latter richly underlines the Lennon influences at work, equally evident on the languidly atmospheric Wide Awake On The Voyage Home, and the title track's melding of I Am The Walrus and Oh My Love into something magical of its own. With the folky-pop of Wise Man easily standing alongside his father and uncle's classics, it's clear that lightning can strike at least three times in the same family. 7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy Wednesday July 16 The Rocket Summer
It’s not trumpeted by his label, but Bryce Avery (for whom the band is a vehicle) is part of the Christian music movement, albeit without any overt references to God or Jesus that might put off the secular record buying public. There again, listening to Do You Feel (Mercury), you’d probably have to some sort of faith to stick with his breathy, faux-urgent nasal falsetto, frequently samey songs and often clunky lyrics long enough for the pop sensibility to work its spell. Pitched somewhere between Ben Folds, Rick Springfield and any number of adenoidal chewy US teen ‘n’ twenty guitar pop outfits, Avery sounds so blessedly determined to sock across his songs that he almost batters down resistance by sheer force. If you can take repeated listens, numbers like the piano pop swing of So Much Love, the stadium power ballad title track, the refusal to sell out A Song Is Not A Business Plan, the choppy chugging Taken Aback and the closing soul-surrendering six minute So, In This Hour do grow on you. But, ultimately, the earnestness makes it an exhausting listen and, one suspects, something of an overstated live set.
Rather more immediately engaging support comes from fellow God-thanking Orange County quartet Mêlée whose piano based Devils & Angels (Warner) album conjures elements of Elton, Queen, Coldplay and American college rock for a melodic assault on the airwaves. Led by pianist-singer Chris Cron, they write songs about love but also address such issues as schizophrenia, unemployment, and the general struggle of living in the modern world, wrapped up in a confident mix of blue eyed soul, piano-pop, stadium balladeering and infectious dance rocking pop. Opening with the Beach Boys washed soul pop classicism of Built To Last, they knock out highlight after highlight; the soaring Rhythm of the Rain, the boogie woogie rollicking pop of Frequently Baby, the Queen flavours of power anthem Can’t Hold On and gospel hued pomp pop Love Carries On, the jubilant Billy Joelisms of My Biggest Mistake and the Marc Cohn soulfulness on She's Gonna Find Me Here. Given the strong Hall & Oates influence at work on Imitation and Stand Up, it’ no surprise when they drop in a bouncy bonus cover version of You Make My Dreams. It’ll be even less of a surprise if they become one of this year’s biggest pop names. 7.30pm. Carling Academy 2. £9 Wednesday July 16 Martin Stephenson
County Durham's very own Van Morrison has released a whole slate of solo albums in recent years, however the current Western Eagle (Barbaraville) is the first 'band' album with the Daintees since 1992's A Boy's Heart. With long time associates Paul Smith on drums and Anthony and Gary Dunn on bass and guitars respectively, it's another eclectic collection of musical genres. There's Celtic folk ambience on the semi-spoken Western Eagle Part 2, a slide from lazing 40s flavoured country into reggae and calypso on Indian Summer, heads down blues boogie for Stone Broke Stone Cold Sober, and the jangling folk rock guitar of an unassumingly anthemic We Are One and the handclappy Right By You. If you're looking for influences, there's echoes of Rambling Jack Elliott to the jaunty talking blues Shadow of the Sun while the simple acoustic I Cannot Run borrows the melody of Banks Of The Ohio and harks to the old tyme gospel bluegrass of The Carter Family. There's even a 50s sarsaparilla pop flavoured slap bass Cherryade & Rock 'n' Roll which, dedicated to Syd Barrett , features a Bert Weedon style guitar break. And, while we're talking solos, there's a fabulous jazz guitar and buttery sax interlude midway through The Bubble that will make the toes curl with pleasure. It's all lovely stuff, the melodies and his voice as welcomingly warm as fresh baked bread, Stephenson at peace with the world and content with himself. "I want to change my music, won't you give me a hand.", he says on the jangling upbeat Change My Music. Don't you dare! 8pm. £10. Robin 2, Bilston Thursday July 17 Ian McLagen & The Bump Band
Best known as the keyboard player with the Small Faces, a regular member of Billy Bragg’s band and one of the most in demand session men in the world, McLagen also runs his own outfit. It’s in that capacity he’s out on the road at present, plugging new album Never Say Never (Proper), a laid back, easy rolling set of pub blues, boogie and ballads designed for slow dancing round the barroom when you’re not crying into the beer. It never works up a sweat but there’s no doubting the musical prowess behind its seemingly effortless guitar licks and piano rolls and while he’s not got the best voice in the world, McLagen’s dusty vocals are well suited to the material. You’ll likely hear hints of The Band on the title track and My Irish Rose, discern the country gospel shades of Hank to a woozy When The Crying Is Over while A Little Black Number adopts a reggae lilt and Killing Me With Love marries George Formby with Leon Redbone down Chas n Dave’s boozer. Most obviously though, his Faces background shines through on I Will Follow, I’m Hot, You’re Cool, and Loverman, all of which you could well imagine being belted out by a younger Rod Stewart. Which, in a venue more readily associated with more contemporary indie acts rather begs the question of what audience they’re expecting to draw. 7.30pm. £12. Barfly Thursday July 17 Murder By Death
The name might suggest some heavy metal outfit, but, variously hailing from Texas, Detroit and Kentucky the quartet’s cello laced dark country/bluegrass gothic tales of sin, death, revenge, redemption and guilt more readily prompt references to Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and 16 Horsepower. They’re here in service of new album Red Of Tooth and Claw (Vagrant), a rumbling, throaty, blackened soul affair that swaggers like a death’s head preacher through Comin’ Home, Steal Away and Rum Brave, prowls across the dirt in whisky dementia on The Black Spot and Ash, and waltzes or tangos with a pistol in its belt and a bottle in its fist for Ball & Chain, 52 Ford and the lurching Spring Break 1899. There’s a certain restraint to the studio recordings but they sound like they’re a much fierier proposition in the flesh, only to be expected, perhaps, from a band who once released an album titled Like the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing. 7pm. £6. Bar Academy Sunday July 20 Robert Cray
Releasing his debut album, Who’s Been Talking, in 1980, the Virginia bluesman got his breakthrough with 1986’s Grammy winning Strong Persuader, progressing from playing support to the likes of Clapton (who he again toured with last year), to headlining his own sell out shows. Over the years, he’s continued to release strong selling albums but his sound’s mellowed considerably, losing a lot of the fire of his early years. He arrives tonight on the back of From Across The Pond (Nozzle), a live double album that clearly shows the band’s blues chops but all sounds a little too polite and smoothed out round the edges. It’s at its best on mid-tempo country reggae tinged Poor Johnny and the Clapton/Ben E King inspired Bad Influence but otherwise the likes of I’m Walkin’, Phone Booth, Back Door Slam and I Guess I Showed Her never really ignite like they should. And, given how the set list ranges across his career, fans will be disappointed that it doesn’t feature his crossover hit Smokin’ Gun. It’ll be a cosy night’s gig, but you won’t find the devil waiting by the stage door to buy any souls. 7.30pm. £27.50. B’ham Town Hall Sunday July 20 Rachel Harrington
Raised on gospel roots in Oregon and now based in Seattle, Harrington’s debut album, The Bootlegger's Daughter (Skinny Dennis) pulled together a backwoods mix of folk, blue grass and country with a nasal twang that as much hints at early Dolly as it does Emmylou, Gillian Welch or even the McGarrigles. There’s a couple of covers, her moody spare blues take on Laura Veirs’ Up The River, a version of Mississippi John Hurt’s Louis Collins that would be at home on the Oh Brother soundtrack and the olf trad hymn Farther Along, but otherwise it’s impressive self-penned material. She digs into American folk history for two of them. Shoeless Joe tells of the shame of Joe Jackson, once star baseball player with the White Sox who was banned from playing after being linked to a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series. Then the banjo driven Blow - The Ballad of Bill Miner, is sung in the persona of America’s most famous stagecoach robber, a man credited with originating the phrase ‘hands up’ and whose story was told in the film The Grey Fox. Elsewhere, on the fiddle waltzing Sunshine Girl, Walk To You and Halloween Leaves she deals with the old staple of love and relationships while the bluegrass dappled Summer’s Gone tells of a young girl lost in the flood and the unaccompanied Untitled harks back to those childhood days of Pentecostal church hymns about God’s grace and salvation. It’s an impressive calling card that, touring here with Zak Borden on backing vocals, guitar and mandolin, she’ll be showcasing tonight. She’ll also be previewing her follow up, City Of Refuge, due for release over here later in the year, which. along side a cover of Bobby Gentry’s Ode To Billie Joe, features more stories from the American West with songs inspired by the memoirs of Alaskan gold rush prostitutes, the short stories of Raymond Carver and Harry Truman, the crotchety 83 year old who refused to leave his cabin at the foot of Mount St Helens when the volcano erupted in 1980 and is now buried along with his 16 cats under the lava flow in Spirit Lake.
She’s supported by Shropshire lad Jake Flowers, a folk-blues singer-songwriter and nifty guitar picker who’s gradually gathering some well warranted attention in the wake of his self-released recordings. Most recent is Fireworks (Shackled Ram), an EP that includes the lovely title track about a relationship's lost spark setting off stolen fireworks that in turn re-ignite the romance and Anyhow’s witty story about an invented romantic conquest that conjures thoughts of the young Steve Forbert. Decidedly a name to pay close attention to over the coming months. 8pm. £12. The Robin 2, Bilston Wednesday July 23 The B52s
Formed in 1976 but only intermittently active over the past few years, Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Keith Strickland were the original wacky party band, playing funky disco surf pop and sporting a line in colourful thrift store costumes and outrageous wigs. Without them there would be no Scissor Sisters. Debut single Rock Lobster remains their defining release, but they’re probably best known for their biggest hit, Love Shack while subsequent crowdpleasers have included Roam, Good Stuff and, er (Meet) The Flinstones. Pierson also featured on REM’s Shiny Happy People. After 16 years, they’ve finally got round to a new album, Funplex (EMI). Unfortunately, since promo copies weren’t made available by the publicists, it’s impossible to say what sort of form they’re on, though current single Juliet Of The Spirits is pleasant electro-edged pop that oddly sounds a bit like a disco ABBA while the titles like Pump and Keep This Party Going gives a good idea of where the vibe’s still at. 7.30pm. £27.50. Carling Academy Wednesday July 23 Attic Lights
Five blokes from Glasgow (Newcastle born guitarist Tim went to school, with Dec form Ant and...) who cite such influences as Guided By Voices, Sparklehorse, Pixies, Bruce Springsteen, and ELO, they make spangly indie guitar pop with close harmonies and tumbling summery melodies. Following on from the bouncy surf pop of Never Get Sick Of The Sea and God, they’re currently out plugging the equally sunshine infused Bring You Down (Island) which mingles 60s West Coast with Phil Spector and classic Scottish pop. A debut album’s due this autumn and while they’ve yet to find that elusive hit, it can only be a matter of time. 7.30pm. £4. Little Civic Thursday July 24 Eve Selis
A San Diego native, she's got a killer voice as big as Southern California, as capable of honeyed sweetness as it is sandpapery rasp, and she calls her music Roadhouse Rock, though Nashville Soul might be an equally succinct label for her mix of country twang and muscular rock n roll where echoes of Bonnie Raitt, Maria McKee, Steve Earle and Wanda Jackson hit you between the eyes. It’s been four years since her last release, Nothing But The Truth, and while that one passed me by, its 2002 predecessor, Do You Know Me?, was one of the year’s best with Tear This Old House Down a no messing around tear it up bluesy belter, Love Came Just In Time etched in bluegrass twang and the title track’s hymn to life’s forgotten angels all knockouts. She arrives now with album number five, Angels and Eagles (HCT), another fine set of countrified rock that sees her covering Patty Griffin's tear-stained Goodbye and turning Gram Parsons’ classic She into something The Band might have written. The upbeat bluegrassed title track and the Texas twangy Cryin’ Eyes are both non originals, but the remaining 10 cuts are all self-penned, taking her from swaggering ringing guitar barroom rockers (I Believe In Love) to blues hued tough guitar chuggers (Street I Grew Up On), gutsy rebel yell bluegrass (One Day At A Time) and wistful aching ballads (That’s Enough). Soulful gospel hints are there on Love You Away From Me while Welcome To Paradise is moody bluesy country and 1000 Kisses veined with strong pop colours, which, all put together packs a poke and a punch that, given a voice that could demolish walls, promises to deliver one hell of a night. 8pm. £12. The Robin 2, Bilston Friday July 25 51 Breaks
Having spent a couple of years playing support to the likes of The Twang, Little Man Tate, The Infadels, and Battle, the Birmingham four piece headline their own set to launch the self-titled debut EP (Animal Farm). There’s definite hints of early Duran, especially on the synth prominent Embers, and the electro tinged Blueprints surely borrows influences from the defunct Cooper Temple Clause. A strong pop sensibility, plenty of energy and solid tunes suggest they’ll be soon in the running for the city’s next new big thing. 7.30pm. £3. Sunflower Lounge, Queensway Friday July 25 The Lights
Yet another Birmingham outfit, fronted by keyboardist Lizzy Keys and guitarist Kellio the alt-pop quintet like to bandy round comparisons to Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub, Costello, ELO and the Manics and indeed you might hear bits of all of them floating around their tunes. iTunes downoad debut single, The Score is unabashed jingly poprock with, perhaps, a hint of the Go Gos while last year’s Stop Stop Carry On is another local nod to the Duran boys. They can be a bit rough at times, but there’s no doubting the pop confidence while both Film Within A Film and The Leaving Song indicate a strong sense of psychedelic folk inflected balladry.8pm. £4. The Rainbow, Digbeth Sunday July 27 The Coral
There’s nothing new on the horizon following up Roots & Echoes, but this is a rather special acoustic one-off that affords the chance of hearing James Skelly’s yearningly bruised soulful vocals in a more intimate setting. There’s no indication as to what shape the set list will take, but any opportunity to hear them playing stripped back versions of thinks like Fireflies, Who’s Gonna Find Me, Put The Sun Back or Cobwebs shouldn’t be missed. 7.30pm. £15. Glee Club Tuesday July 29 Brigade
After supporting his brother’s band Fightstar, Will Simpson’s hard hitting London rock outfit headline their own show in service of Sink, Sink, Swim (Caned & Able), the riff pumping new single lifted from debut album Come Morning We Fight where the band’s My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy aspirations find expression on What Are You Waiting For, Shortcuts, Pilot and niftily titled power ballad Four Kids To A Glockenspiel.
Support is Slaves To Gravity who’ll be channelling the Soundgarden, Creed, Alice In Chains influences scattered around the Scatter The Crow (Gravitas) album and the likes of a grinding Heaven Is A Lie and the swellingly majestic Doll Size. 7.30pm. £6. Bar Academy Tuesday July 29 Cerys Matthews
The erstwhile Catatonia singer launched her solo career a couple of years back with Cock A Hoop, a rather fine country inflected album that paraded her love of Dolly Parton on Louisiana, did swampy honky tonk for The Good In Goodbye and delivered some sozzled goodtime clumpings with If You're Looking For Love and La Bague. It also included her rendition of old Welsh hymn Arglwydd Dyma Fi. Perhaps because it was one of the album's strongest moments, her mini-album follow up, Awyren, wa ssung entirely in her native tongue. There’s no immediate country flavours this time, but with Y Corryn Ar Pry, Awyrennau and Lisa Lan there’s a definite mood of the smoky lounge 60s frequented by Dusty Springfield and St Etienne. Quite how the linguistic balance falls for the live shows remains to be seen, but, please, I know there’s a new X-Files movie coming, but no catcalls for Mulder And Scully, ok! 7.30pm. £15. Glee Club Wednesday July 30 Jim White
With albums like Wrong-Eyed Jesus, No Such Place and Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See, if it's Southern Weird you're after, Jim's your man. However, his music’s been nudging ever closer to the mainstream, settling to the laidback blend of country, funk, gospel, jazz and soul of current album Transnormal Skiperoo (Luaka Bop).. An air of grace under open skies percolates through A Town Called Amen’s quiet acceptance of life and enfolds even darker tipped songs like the lilting Blindly We Go’s meditation on the unknowability of God, the magnificently wounded desert night moods of Jailbird and the soft shoe loon shuffle Turquoise House brings to its celebration of misfits. Elsewhere, conjuring the spacy textures that often coil around his music, there’s the ethereal Pieces of Heaven that recalls Led Zep’s bucolic pagan folk, Counting Numbers In The Air’s spooked cosmic bluegrass and the ghostly Southern folk hung around the downbeat tale of thwarted dreams Fruits of the Vine. Live, it’s going to demand plenty of hush to get the most from his observational and insightful storytelling, but the effort’s well worth it. 7.30pm. £12. Glee Club
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