Gig Guide Archive March 2010

Previews by Mike Davies

Monday March 1

Los Campesinos!

Demonstrating something of a Protestant work ethic, Romance Is Boring (Wichita) is the Cardiff outfit’s third album in two years. It also finds them moving forward yet again, ditching their sometimes twee persona for something a little noisier and spikier on an album they declare to be about “death and decay of the human body, sex, lost love, mental breakdown, football and, ultimately, that there probably isn't a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Translated into action, that means that the snotty sneer indie pop of There Are Listed Buildings and the pop punk of the title track is still proudly present but you also find them entering sonic squall Fall territory on Plan A and I Warned You Do Not Make An Enemy Of Me, touching on Krautrock chugging rhythms with the exhaustingly titled A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State; Or, Letters From Me to Charlotte, and mingling electronic fuzzings and brass with In Media Res. The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future even sees them trying on folk shanty wellies with their post punk raincoat.

Bouncing up and down with the warped singsong Straight In At 101 or threatening to invite ballad sways amid the discordant Who Fell Asleep In, it should be an, er, interesting gig and certainly far from boring, though you do kind of wish Gareth would stop singing in that irritating Jilted John whine. 8pm. £9. The Rainbow, Digbeth

Monday March 1

Field Music

Another bunch who clearly don't have homes to go to, having been busy with side projects following the release of 2007’s Tones Of Town, for their third album (Memphis Industries) Sunderland brothers David and Peter Brewis have packed in 20 tracks, most of them clocking around three minutes plus. Like their debut, it’s a self titled affair, though to set them apart they do add (Measure) after their name on this one.

With plenty of room to explore ideas, it’s a pretty diverse collection too. The opening In The Mirror strides along with a mechanical rhythm, wailing guitars and echoes of Sparks in their experimental mode, but that’s immediately followed by the almost Fleetwood Mac tumbling pop, jangly guitars and handclaps of Them That Do Nothing with Each Time Is A New Time showing the influences of Bowie’s funk period, Effortlessly chugs along like a mix of Beatles and 70s American college rock pop and Measure itself recalls the bucolic approach of the previous two offerings.

There’s a lot to take in here and, with the varied diet on offer, it’s probably best not digested at one sitting, the better to appreciate the inclusion of the soft rock of Choosing Numbers and the Talking Heads funk of Share The Words alongside the Sparksy rock opera orchestral crashes of The Rest Is Noise, the psychedelic bluesy juddering Clear Water and The George Harrison flavours of First Comes The Wish.

Quite how much of this they can shoehorn into a set that will also be looking back over their shoulder at older material remains to be seen, but it’s fair to say that if one number doesn’t hold your interest another of a totally different nature will be along shortly to snap you to attention. 7.30pm. £7. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday March 2

Tom McRae

A decade and four albums on from his Mercury Music Prize nominated debut, McRae’s not parlayed critical acclaim into commercial success, but each successive release has seen him stretching out within his genre parameters and largely shaking off the Nick Drake comparisons that first greeted him.

His fifth album, Alphabet Of Hurricanes (Cooking Vinyl), may still lack the killer song that will attract wider, mainstream audiences, but it does find him painting his literate songs of bruised hearts, distances between and troubled souls from a colourful musical palette.

The opening Still I Love You, for example, has him accompanied on banjo, A Is For is a 52 second clarinet led instrumental from the gypsy quarter that leads into the acoustic raggy waltzing Won’t Lie where Django meets Brubeck in some klezmer dive and Told My Troubles To The River is a clattering percussive, discordant piano affair with echoey gospel blues vocals.

He’s not forsaken the melancholic pleasures of unadorned acoustic guitar and fragile, hurt stained vocals, indeed, building to a sonorous swell of brass, the six minute American Spirit may be one of the finest songs he’s produced from that blueprint. Can’t Find You picks out loneliness with minimal guitar notes, and with its meditative piano and yearning delivery, Out Of The Walls conjures thoughts of a furrowed brow Thom Yorke.

Lyrically, the songs are shot through with darkness and resignation. Summer of John Wayne alone finds him singing of things that slip through the cracks in time, while elsewhere there’s talk of blood (Me & Stetson), swimming from the shore “till I can’t swim no more” (American Spirit) and, on Won’t Lie, of easing the pain of deserted lovers with a knife.

After such shadows, it’s a relief to end on a more positive note, for while the country-folk flecked Fifteeen Miles Downriver is still forlorn and reflective, the break up lyrics at least see him finding peace in letting the wind blow him where it will. It would be nice to think he might be taking a few more devotees with him on the journey. 8pm. £14. Glee Club

Tuesday March 2

Fionn Regan

Previously, if you were going to tag comparisons on the Dublin singer-songwriter, his acoustic gentleness and fine guitar work would most likely have prompted talk of Nick Drake, Damien Rice, Bert Jansch and Paul Simon.

However, for sophomore release The Shadow Of An Empire (Heavenly), he’s done a Dylan and gone electric, bringing a rougher, tougher, punkier edge to songs that have never been far from the darker side of the abyss.

Addressing themes of institutionalised oppression, as you might surmise, titles like Genocide Matinee, naked bluesy howl Violent Demeanour and the multinationals bashing Protection Racket aren’t about falling in love under a summer moon. It’s not just the plugging in and turning up the amp that prompts the Dylan reference. Both House Detective and the riff raging Genocide Matinee trundle along in a Subterranean Homesick Blues style manner while the simple chord piano-led title track is hewn from the same American folk-roots that inspired the young Bob.

It isn’t, of course, all full pelt rhythms and licks. Lines Written In Winter is a mid-tempo folksy roller with masterful finger-picking, the harmonica stained Little Nancy lurches drunkenly like a honky tonk at closing time while Lord Help My Poor Soul is a stripped back acoustic guitar and mandolin confessional. Shouts of ‘Judas’ are not anticipated.

Opening the show will be Danny & The Champions of the World, new album Streets Of Our Time (Loose) seeing Danny George Wilson edging even closer to Slim Chance, the folk-country outfit founded by one of his musical heroes, Ronnie Lane. Indeed, Henry The Van, a campfire song about the demise of the tour bus en route to Aberdeen, even includes a line about a poacher.

That homespun feel of back porches and dusty byways runs throughout, noticeably so on the pedal steel coated Appalachian flavoured Wandle Swan, a reference to a South London river and the fiddle and banjo rousing bluegrass and Irish stomp of Parakeets.

Lane's not the only influence to ring clearly. The steady rolling Follow The River nods to Springsteen's optimistic romantic nostalgia, complete with a Clarence Clemons style sax solo, the keening Bluebird harks to the West Coast colours of CS&N, Restless Feet takes a Neil Young like wistful stroll through memories of youthful dreams, and the pedal steel jaunty Lose These Rags recalls Gene Clark. 8pm. £8. The Rainbow, Digbeth

Tuesday March 2

Blood Red Shoes

The Brighton duo haven’t exactly set the world alight so far with their debut album barely registering in the Top 50 and none of the singles charting. So, follow up Fire Like This (V2) looks like being the last chance to prove themselves before the label accountants take a look at the balance books.

They certainly tackle matters head on musically, adding more steroids to their Fugazi inspired post punk muscle with pop-tinged heads down assaults like Don’t Ask, the steady rhythm chiming Light It Up and the right between the eyes shots of It Is Happening Again and Keep It Close.

However, while One More Empty Chair does the quiet/loud shifts with an air of spooked folk behind its guitar riffs and Colours Fades ends things with a seven minute squall, the album tends to stick to the dominant short sharp high energy attack mode rather than reinforcing the ambitions they previously showed with Hope You’re Holding Up, suggesting it was made for live performance rather than home pleasures. Doubtless loyal footwear fans won’t be disappointed and the gig should be a loud, sweaty affair, but ultimately you have to suspect that they’ve probably reached the ceiling of their career. 7.30pm. £8. O2 Academy 3

Wednesday March 3

Local Natives

Hailing from Silver Lake, the LA five piece have been compared to both Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend. Debut album, Gorilla Manor (Infectious), confirms the references points with lush three part harmonies and woozy melodies behind keyboard lilts and skittering percussion.

It’s a potent statement of intent, with stand outs include the Robert Palmer jog along feel of Camera Talk with its violin kisses, the dreamy 10cc-like new single Airplanes, campfire shuffle Cards & Quarters, the airy SoCal rhythmic currents of Sun Hands and the Latin-infused Shape shifter with a choppy shouter make-over of Talking Heads nugget Warning Sign a likely live high spot.

Support comes courtesy Peggy Sue, a Brighton trio who, originally named Peggy Sue & The Pirates self-released limited editions of three singles and two EPs before signing to Wichita last year. The first fruits will be debut single, Watchman, a lolloping dose of rhythmic, brooding moss hung indie folk that showcases joint vocalists Rosa Slade and Katy Young while Olly Joyce provides the underpinning drums. They’ll also be showcasing material from their upcoming album, Fossils And Other Phantoms, due for release next month. 7.30pm. £9. O2 Academy 3

Thursday March 4

The Miserable Rich

A Brighton chamber folk-pop quintet, they’ve been knocking around for a couple of years, releasing an own label album, Twelve Ways To Count, and an EP of 80s covers featuring Sweet Dreams and Golden Brown. They make the big push this year with in the pipeline follow up album Of Flight And Fury (Humble Soul) which they’ll be previewing tonight alongside lead-off single, Somerhill, an airy carousel waltzer that sounds like it came from some 60s Paris romance movie, and the equally retro Bye Bye Kitty with its pizzicato strings. 8pm. £6.50. Glee Club

Thursday March 4

Red Stripe Music Award

Supported by Last FM, this is the competition’s fourth year and it’s in town again to sort the wheat from the chaff with three local bands looking to land a place in the finals.

The Skeletons are a, er, hardgore horror punk four piece who clearly wish the BatCave was still going and whose Heads Will Roll and The Ripper bear out such admitted influences as The Cramps, White Zombie, Slipknot and Test Icicles, though the end product sounds more like a low rent Screaming Lord Sutch.

Deceptions Pocket do the psychedelic indie rock bit and profess to have folk and ska roots though, to judge by their MySpace demos, they would most love to be Lou Reed.

Third up are The Carpels, a teenage indie-punk 5-piece from Moseley who filter Klaxons, Strokes and Foals influences and an Ian Curtis vocal style through a raw Birmingham sound on numbers like the angular Learn To Dance and the spicily urgent Abababa from their forthcoming EP. 7.30pm. £5. The Rainbow, Digbeth

Friday March 5

Lady Gaga

In character 24/7 and weighed down with wigs, sunglasses, outrageous costumes and BRITS awards alike, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta arrives for what will, undoubtedly, be the most spectacular show you’ll see this year. Dubbed The Monster Ball, the Arena version of the Fame Monster tour comes with completely new sets and a four act structure that, punctuated by videos to fill in the 15 costume changes, unfolds an electro-opera narrative about her getting lost on the way to the party, finally arriving at the ball to be met by a massive animatronic tentacled sea monster. Did I mention the burning grand piano?

Dripping with New York gay camp, the tour ties in with the release of the deluxe version of the Fame Monster featuring both that album’s eight tracks (the Madonna-esque Alejandro, and Telephone among them) as well as the original version of The Fame with such world conquering numbers as Just Dance, LoveGame and, of course, Paparazzi and Poker Face.

Opening the show with Dance In The Dark, another number that underscores her early Madonna influences, performed in a glitterball suit, before slipping in a taster of a new song called Glitter And Grease, the journey proceeds from City to Subway (where, seated at piano and stripped of the high concept glitz, she features the showstopping confessional Speechless) to Forest (with Monster and Teeth) before arriving at the Ball for a finale of Paparazzi and Bad Romance.

By the end of all this, if your breath hasn’t been totally taken away, then take a look at the prices on the merchandising stands and the queues in front of them.

Fresh from their cred-challenging appearance on the, ahem, Alan Titchmarsh show,

Alphabeat, Denmark’s answer to The Human League, have the thankless task of warming the crowd up, knowing full well that the moment she steps on stage all memory of their new single, Hole In My Heart, and indeed the entire set, will have vanished from the collective mind. 7.30pm. £25/£27.50. LG Arena

Saturday March 6

Stereophonics

After the poorly reviewed, rather lacklustre last album, Pull The Pin, you might have thought Kelly Jones and the boys might pull their boots up and try and recapture the sort of spirit that characterised the sound and songs that made their name in the first place. Especially having signed to a new label, made guitarist Adam Zindani a full time member and roped in Kasabian producer Jim Abbiss. However, from the opening stodge of routine Bolanesque blues groove rocker She’s Alright, it’s apparent they’re happy to coast along in a manner that echoes the title of the new album, Keep Calm And Carry On (Mercury). No wonder it was their least successful yet.

Like its predecessor, this too is a mish mash of styles with a drum machine hissing like escaping air through BeerBottle’s sub U2 attempt at pick yourself up anthemics, Innocent bashing out pop rock and Motown beats for some half-hearted youthful optimism, I Got Your Number rolling with a glam rock Glitter And The Ants beat, the uninspired riffing Trouble sounding like it was knocked off to fill some time and Uppercut deludedly fancying itself a Stonesy call to arms and unity that even includes a line about fighting in the streets.

By the time they’re applying to fill the vacant Oasis slot with the ponderous riff of Live’n’Love with cliched lyrics (“be what you wanna be, don’t be afraid to dream”, oh come on) that make the banalities elsewhere seem meaningful, you have to wonder just how much of a stodgy meat and potatoes diet even their staunchest fans can take.

If you don’t judge it by their own early high standards, it’s not a bad album, just a rigidly workmanlike one that, were they just starting out, would almost certainly be lost in the crowd and quickly find it way to the bargain bins. As they once famously observed, there’s More Life In A Tramp’s Vest. 7.30pm. £30. NIA

Saturday March 6

Hadouken

Released earlier this year, For The Masses (Surface Noise) saw the Leeds five piece talking about hard and fast dance rock with a grime and punk coating cut from the same cloth as The Prodigy and Pendulum. Unfortunately, the album failed to walk the talk, and rather than lining up alongside Invaders Must Die or In Silico, tracks like the wannabe brutalist Rebirth, Run DMC echoing Turn The Lights Out with its posturing street tough ‘wanna be starting something’ machismo, the similarly empty Linkin Park swaggering Bombshocker and House is Falling Down with its Tubeway Army underpinnings, just make you want to wince. And that’s even before you actually hear the lyrics.

If all you want is dance floor thumping beats to clump along to in a drunken haze, then this will probably see you right. If you want, as singer James Smith puts it, “something really new and exciting”, then you’d best be looking elsewhere. 7pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2

Saturday March 6

Fairport Convention

Forty three years after they were formed and 12 with their current line-up of founder member Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie and, most ‘recent’ addition, Gerry Conway, Britain’s longest serving are still going strong, playing at least two lengthy UK tours each year as well as curating and headlining the now legendary annual Cropredy festival which continues to generate a series of live albums.

The last studio release was 2007’s 40th anniversary A Sense of Occasion, an album which, with numbers ranging from a revival of the trad staple Tam Lin to Nicol’s rueful South Dakota To Manchester and an inspired cover of XTC’s Love On A Farmboy’s Wages, showed their edge hasn’t dulled over the years. There’s no sign of any follow up on the horizon, and it’s unlikely that any new material will figure on the set list but, given it’s the last night of the tour, you can be pretty sure that they’ll be in a mood to deliver fan favourites and perhaps a couple of surprises too. 7.30pm. £21. B’ham Town Hall

Saturday March 6

Spiers & Boden

Photo © Hugo Morris

Twice winners of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for best duo, Jon Boden named this year’s Folk Singer of the Year accolade and the prime movers behind Bellowhead who won Best Live Act for the fourth time in six years, this should have the place packed so full the walls will be bending.

Hailed by The Guardian as “the finest instrumental duo on the traditional scene”, Boden provides the fiery fiddle while Birmingham born Spiers supplies melodeon and concertina to deliver a set of contemporary infused traditional English folk songs interspersed with energetic dance tunes, doubtless a fair selection of both culled from their most recent album, Vagabond. 8pm. £12. Red Lion, Kings Heath

Sunday March 7

Club Smith

Based around York and Leeds, the four piece have been quietly accruing a wedge of favourable reviews and ones to watch tips for their catchy indie guitar/synth pop with added glockenspiel. Debut EP, The Loss (All Sorted), announces their arrival in strong form with lead-off track Lament while No Friend Of Mine should find favour among pining Kaiser Chief fans and Courtyard confirms a knack for well crafted melody lines and the effectiveness of singer Sam’s slightly quivering warble. It’s early days yet, but if they can build on this first outing then applications for membership should soon prove sizeable. 8pm. £4. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Sunday March 7

Husky Rescue

Helsinki ambient pop with all the glacial melancholy that implies, fronted by the whispery voiced Reeta Vestman the five piece are here to promote new album Ship Of Light (Catskills), A collection of frosty, cinematic Nordic synth pop, Sound Of Love recalls The Cardigans at their most artlessly innocent while Wolf Trap Motel with its lengthy instrumental prelude, the tinkling Beautiful My Monster and the sunny synth pulsing We Shall Burn Bright are the sound of icicles melting in the first light of a spring sun. Definitely ones to strap your sled to. 7pm. £6.50. O2 Academy 3

Monday March 8

Lisa Mitchell

A welcome return for the expat who’s put Australia on hold while looking to make a name for herself back home. She really should have a higher profile and be filling bigger venues than this by now, especially in the light of last year’s excellent debut album, Wonder (RCA).

Disappointingly, however, it somehow failed to register in the national consciousness despite the piano plinking electronica pop single Coin Laundry and such chirpy folk n country pop numbers as Neopolitan Dreams, So Jealous and the lollopping Red Wine Lips. That she’ll eventually win through isn’t in doubt, it’s just taking longer than it should. 7.30pm. £6.50. O2 Academy 3

Monday March 8

Errors

Two years on from their well-received debut, the Glasgow electro instrumentalists (now up to a quartet with the addition of a full time drummer) return with Come Down With Me (Rock Action). It’s 10 tracks worth of woozy synth pop and psychedelic tinged drones, spiking the dance floor with the nervy funked beats of Supertribe and the buzzing flutters of the jazz-funk derived A Rumour In Africa.

It takes individuality for an instrumental outfit, especially one favouring chilled ambience, if the live set’s not going to become just background music to crowd chatter, so the darker soundscapes of Antipode and the burping Jolomo are here to balance the more hushed caresses of The Erskine Bridge and Sorry About The Mess while, with its shifting time signatures and sonic squall guitars climax, Bears promises to be the one to stop everyone in their tracks. Make no mistake. 8pm. £8. Flapper & Firkin

Monday March 8

Peter Andre

It’s fair to say that without I’m A Celebrity and his and Jordan’s subsequent tabloid hogging marriage and divorce, the Great British Public would have remained content to let English Greek-Cypriot Andre languish in the forgotten pop stars home to which he’d been shipped off at the end of the 90s after being dropped by his record label.

However, this meeting of like minds and their seemingly insatiable desire to parade every second of their lives in front of a TV camera saw him at the top of the charts for as third time with the 2004 reissue of Mysterious Girl, swiftly followed by the all new Insania.

But when the accompanying comeback album, The Long Road Back, failed to crack the Top 40 and his and Katie’s duets covers album A Whole New World swiftly fizzled, it was obvious that his second 15 minutes could soon be over.

Fortunately, the couple then had a very public break-up and, with poor Peter cast in the teary-eyed role of wronged husband and distraught daddy, what better time to release the divorce album, Revelation. It soared into the Top 5, put him back in the singles charts with Behind Closed Doors while the reviled Price was left to pay the price of the break-up and her subsequent affairs with a barrage of viewer vindictiveness on her short-lived I’m A Celebrity return.

Earlier this year, looking to keep the momentum flowing before another celebrity marital bust-up bumped him off the news pages, he rushed out Unconditional, an album of love songs compiled from past releases alongside five new recordings. Released just prior to Valentine’s Day (his pr company once again inevitably declining to provide a review copy), it soared to #7, before swiftly vanishing from sight once the romantic rush had subsided.

Failing to generate a hit single, even with him breaking down in tears on Sky News, things must be starting to look a little desperate on the long term career front, doubtless one reason why he’s announced a series of stadium concerts for later in the year hoping to flog tickets now while there’s still some interest. There are, after all, only so many Peter still loves Katy headlines you can milk for sympathy. 7.30pm. £24. Symphony Hall

Tuesday March 9

You Me At Six

The release of Hold Me Down (Virgin) has seen the Surrey boys take a giant leap to join the ranks of kindred emo spirits Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory with its punk-pop and its chugging riffs, hammering drums and swirling chorus lines.

Fuelled by the collapse of singer Josh Franceschi’s relationship, it’s wall to wall with big sounds, from angsty piston pumping opener The Consequence through the boundalong Playing The Blame Game and the riff chopping Take Your Breath Away to the quiet-loud Safer To Hate Her and short, sharp pop hammer Trophy Eyes.

They have a clutch of stadium-friendly ballads too with Liquid Confidence and the closing crescendo of Fireworks guaranteed to have arms swaying. I’d place bets too that they’ll be dedicating There’s No Such thing As Accidental Infidelity to Ashley Cole.

Getting the ball rolling will be Forever The Sickest Kids, a Dallas high school teen punk-pop six-piece, one of whom appears to be a Russell Brand impersonator. Since they and debut album Underdog Alma Mater are little known over here, this is something of an introduction by way of new release The Weekend:Friday (Island). A six track mini-album packed with energetic synth tinged power pop, you’d be hard pushed to distinguish it from any dozen of their similarly inclined peers in a blindfold test. However, given that proviso, the likes of the surging Do Or Die, chugging tumbling chorus teen romancer She Likes (Bittersweet Love) and the Weezerish Hip Hop Chick have all the right ingredients to set the place bouncing.

Also aboard are Florida’s We The Kings who arrive on these shores to promote new album Smile Kid (Virgin), another buzzing guitar punky-pop collection of instantly catchy summer and girls songs, bouncy melodies and nasally vocals that’s fuelled all manner of teen-friendly American bands in recent years.

Again there’s not a great deal of individuality to distinguish them musically from the herd, but they have the tunes and, calling to mind such bands as The Rembrandts, Blink 182, Boys Like Girls and All Time Low, numbers like Summer Love, The Story Of Your Life, Heaven Can Wait and the irresistible sherbet powerpop She Takes Me High are more than enough to have the place shaking with teen hormones. 7.30pm. £15. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday March 9

Turin Brakes

Following polished but generally dispiriting, dull and limp fourth album Dark On Fire (Source), few would have placed bets on them being around for a fifth. However, contributing Here to Take That’s Circus album has given Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian a new line of credit so here they are with the just released Outbursts (Cooking Vinyl). It’s a rather misleading title for what is, after all, a return to their origins in the new acoustic movement with a collection of dreamy soft rock burnished with string arrangements and lyrics about smelling like fresh magazines.

It is, despite some unfortunate rhymes (“You make my pain drip down the drain” they sing on The Invitation), undeniably pleasant if undemanding listening, twinkling along with the woozily melodious waltz-time Paper Heart, a 60s Paul Simon-ish scurrying Sea Change, and 30s country flavoured The Letting Down.

Things hit a bumpy patch when they turn up the tempos and volume on the Latin-tinged Apocalips, Will Power and unconvincing folk blues Never Stop, but the Radiohead melancholia of Radio Silence and the Travis-like summery strum and soaring crescendos of Rocket Song are reason enough to keep the duo on the back burner for a while longer. 8pm. £16.50. Glee Club

Tuesday March 9/Wednesday March 10

Chris Rea

The 2006 farewell tour a thing of distant memory, Rea hits town with his current Greatest Hits version in tandem with double CD best of Still So Far to Go (Rhino). Doing exactly what it says on the label, there’s 34 tracks culled from his lengthy career (though in some instances ‘best’ may be rather subjective), from debut single Fool (If You Think It’s Over) through to a brace of new numbers, the Tom Waits-like semi-spoken strings and piano ballad Valentino and, underlining his rebirth in the blues, the compilation title track.

Checking the statistics, you may be surprised to realise that Rea’s biggest hit, The Road To Hell, only ever got as far as #10, that the excellent Stainsby Girls stalled outside the Top 20 and, while it resurfaced in both 2007 and last year, seasonal regular Driving Home For Christmas was never a hit first time around.

Indeed, the last time Rea troubled the singles chart with a new release 16 years ago with the throaty Bad Company styled blues rocker You Can Go Your Own Way, a direction he’s developed further in recent years with the Blue Guitars, Blue Street, and The Blue Jukebox jazz blues box sets and, most recently, The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes.

Given the blues has been his lifelong love, it’s reasonable to assume there’ll be a fair bit of guitar wailing in among the more familiar numbers of the set list tonight. 7.30pm. £29.50. Symphony Hall

Thursday March 11

Colvin Quarmby

Having played a solo set previewing his new Jack Jonesy jazz material at the end of last year, Gerry Colvin regroups with Nick Quarmby, Martin Fitzgibbon and, with Dave Dutfield having moved to pastures new, fiddler Marion Fleetwood and guitarist Allen Maslen for what will, hopefully, give an early taster of the band’s own long overdue follow up to 2005’s A Short Walk To The Red Lion.

There’s been no indication of what shape the new album might take and no idea about what will be in the set list tonight but, having recently been voted the best live band of 2009 by Fairport Convention fansite Talkawhile, you can be pretty sure it’ll be a trademark stormer. 8pm. £13. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Friday March 12

Newton Faulkner

This is his first visit to the city since the release of last year’s Rebuilt By Humans (Ugly Truth), so a welcome opportunity to catch up on the live shape of its mellow folksy pop and dreamy sunkissed jazz soul and such numbers as the laid back funky blues of Badman, Won’t Let Go’s toe-tapping breezy shuffle, the dreamy husky pop of I Took It Out On and the respective Paul Simon and Labi Siffre echoes of Resin On My Heart Strings and Heart Of Gold. Had winter not already receded, Faulkner’s warm glow would be guaranteed to bring buds to bloom. 7.30pm. £19.50/£17.50. B’ham Town Hall

Friday March 12

Dave Matthews Band

Massive in America and considerably less so here, DMB are a jamming outfit in the tradition of the Grateful Dead but with a more AOR feel to their southern soul rock. This is their first tour since the accidental death of founding member saxophonist LeRoi Moore, and comes on the back of most recent album, Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King, over which his brassy spirit hovers.

Review copies weren’t available, but, if the Funny The Way It Is (Warner) single is an indication, expect the mood to be slanted towards jazzy funk blues punctuated by rock guitar workouts, stabbing horns, power chords and classic riffs. 7pm. £33.50. O2 Academy

Friday March 12

Frightened Rabbit

Affording a taster with last year’s shantyish, salt tanged single Swim Until You Can’t See Land, the Selkirk quintet now provide the full monty with new album The Winter of Mixed Drinks (Fat Cat), a far brighter-eyed affair than the break-up mood of The Midnight Organ Fight.

Leaving the baggage of his old life behind on opening track Things, Scott Hutchinson proceeds through a series of epiphanies and optimistic reaffirmations about embracing an emotional new world order delivered in the form of such surging, soaring folky pop as the circling melodic eddies of The Loneliness And The Scream, brash strumming bashalong new single Nothing Like You, the anthemic Big Country skirl of Living In Colour and, Skip The Youth, a six minute chiming and tumultuously building epic that prepares them for graduation to stadium contenders.

As capable of stirring the heart on the slower numbers as they are the chest-swellers, Foot Shooter, Not Miserable and the tumblingly defiant The Wrestle all make the base of your spine tingle and speak of a Snow Patrol-like elevation to mass adulation. Peppered with older favourites like Heads Roll On, The Modern Leper, and the stomping Old Fashioned, the gig promises to be something of an epiphany itself. 7pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

Friday March 12

Grizzly Bear

Titled after a small, uninhabited island off Cape Cod, Veckatimest (Warp), the Brooklyn quartet’s third album, has seen them break out of cult following to crossover into wide ranging critical acclaim and sell out venue mainstream consciousness.

Sharing vocals between Daniel Rossen and Ed Droste, if you’ve yet to discover their sophisticated charms, imagine a meld of Animal Collective, Peter Gabriel, Brian Wilson, Steely Dan and a concept-free Flaming Stars weaving complex rhythms and shifting time signatures, laced with ethereal harmonies, whispering strings, soaring crescendos, and nods back in time to classic Motown and 60s street corner pop.

A dreamy Southern Point lays out their jazz textures, taking them to some Andalucian plain and introducing them to Spanish guitar, clattering drums and a buzzing synth while Two Weeks conjures clouds of Pet Sounds and Fine For Now offers New York chamber baroque before disappearing in a storm of guitar.

Such structural and instrumental virtuosity could easily become dry, navel-gazing art rock but here technical mastery is fused with emotional fire and classy songcraft, and while something like While You Wait For The Others or I Live With You may not hook you immediately the longer you listen the more their intricacies take root in the brain. But, if you want an instant fix, then try the swooning echoey Brill Building soft crooning balladry of Cheerleader or the warm flushed samba pop ripples of About Face. But, whatever your point of entry, they’re a bear hug you’ll want to embrace. 8pm. £16. Warwick Arts Centre

Saturday March 13

The Stranglers

Formed in 1974 in the heat of the New Wave movement, original members Dave Greenfield, Jet Black. Jean-Jacques Burnel and relative newcomer Baz Warne are still going strong five decades later and, while they’ve been chart strangers since 2005, their track record includes 23 Top 40 singles and 18 Top 40 albums.

They’re on the road now with a greatest hits (and a fair few that weren’t) tour built around latest compilation Decades Apart (EMI), a 2CD collection featuring such classics as (Get A) Grip (On Yourself), Peaches, No More Heroes, 5 Minutes, Golden Brown, Skin Deep and Always The Sun. Additionally, there’s two new numbers, the surfy organ riffing I Don’t See The World Like You and the rather limp, self-pastiching Retro Rockers, neither of which are likely to feature on any budget release best of a few years down the line. 7pm. £23. O2 Academy

Saturday March 13

General Fiasco

Having paved the way with the singles Rebel Get By, Something Sometime, We Are The Foolish and the current effervescent, guitars chiming Ever So Shy, the Irish trio reaffirm their status as the best Londonderry band since The Undertones with debut album Buildings (Infectious).

Joining previous releases, there’s the equally infectious chugging Talk To My Friends, the jerky First Impressions, a jubilant I’m Not Made Of Eyes and guitars akimbo beater Dancing With Girls while Sinking Ships comes with sweeping strings and a limbo dancing vocal. They don’t just do short and sharp either, the title track is a six minute tick tocking sweller that builds from a simple line to a vaulting crescendo. It’s patently going to be their year. 7pm. £6. O2 Academy 3

Saturday March 13

States Of Emotion

When you release a single called Fight Them on The Beaches (Perfectly Blue), it seems rather predictably obvious to begin it with that extract from the Winston Churchill WWII rallying cry. But then predictable and obvious are two words that fit this Essex outfit well.

So then, that’ll be Oasis/Manics influenced meat and potatoes indie rock with moody guitars, pounding drums, swirling keys and whiny vocals then. Despite any discernible charisma, they went down well enough on the Introducing stage at last year’s Glastonbury so doubtless there’ll be a few along to check out what will be on their upcoming debut album, Black And White To Gold, but I’d not start giving any V for Victory signs yet. 8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Sunday March 14

Lucy Wainwright Roche

Rufus and Martha’s folky half-sister, Roche has yet to find the sort of awareness and acclaim they’ve been afforded but, as her 8 Songs and 8 More EPs demonstrated with its mix of self-penned gems like University Drive with chestnuts such as Wild Mountain Thyme, it’s not for want of talent. She’s got a bagful of new material and, lacking label backing, is currently raising funds from fans to finance the recording. She’ll be offering up samples tonight, so leave a donation on the way out. 8pm. £7.50. Glee Club

Sunday March 14

Delphic

Following on from last year’s Kitsune tour and the This Momentary single, the Mancunian trio are currently preaching the word on debut album, Acolyte (Polydor). Placed third in the BBC’s Sound of 2010, their restyled nu rave seems set to help shape the face of the year’s dance floors with their infectiously steady beats, sweet vocals and influences that hang upon the techtronic legacy of New Order’s Brotherhood album while, as on Submission, occasionally filtering it with a hint of Pet Shop Boys electropop.
But, if Doubt nods to Touched By The Hand Of God, they’re no mere record collection regurgitations and come with their own ideas and maps clearly laid out. The title track, for example, opens on a glacial cosmic breeze before transforming into an eight minute instrumental of driving trance while an anthemic swirling Red Lights should break out the warehouse glo sticks and Remain closes out the album on an euphoric keyboards led soul pop chill.

With Halcyon released as a single to welcome spring with its catchy pop chorus and summery vibe and the Hook and Sumner homage Clarion Call the big hit in waiting, they’re about to make the likes of Hot Chip start looking nervously over their shoulders. 7pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

Sunday March 14

Lou Dalgleish

Motherhood and other distractions have meant there’s been little heard of the Birmingham songstress over the past decade, appearances largely limited to occasional outings for her Costello covers theatre piece They Call Her Natasha. However, she resurfaced last year for a joint show with husband Michael Weston King (with whom she’s also recorded a fabulous but as yet unreleased old school country duo album in the manner of George & Tammy) and now prepares for a full fledged return to the spotlight with this Month of Sundays (well, three anyway) at the venue, each night offering a different set.

The first sees her dipping into her previous two and a half albums, the eponymous 1995 debut, Music and Calmer, to feature songs such as Orange Plane, I’d Never Lie and Melted as well as showcasing material from her as much anticipated and yet untitled new album, her first in 11 years. Anyone who’s seen or hear her in action should be forming an orderly queue at once. The three other shows (for which combined tickets are available) will be covers sets, the first featuring classics by such artists as Nick Cave, Dusty Springfield and Cole Porter, the second the Elvis Costello Songbook. 8pm. £12. Kitchen Garden Cafe

Sunday March 14

Katatonia

Massive gothic doom metal from Sweden, unlike some of their peers, tender voiced Jonas Renkse’s outfit are big on melody rather than noise, influenced by The Cure and Fields of the Nephilim and incorporating elements of folk and prog into their melancholic songs of emotional alienation and urban decay.

Recently seen as support to Paradise Lost, they return for their own headline tour to coincide with Night Is The New Day (Peaceville), their eighth album and the first to feature new keyboard player Frank Default. Opening with Forsaker’s dark churns and metal swirls. it’s an album of immense depth, both musically and emotionally, exploring acoustic tapestries with The Longest Year, the orchestral sweeping Inheritance and closing slow burn stand-out Departer.

Stately, majestic and mountainous, there’s atmospherics by the ton on things like The Promise Of Deceit with its echoes of the electronic ambience and folk strains of Aphex Twin and Mogwai while both Onward Into Battle and Idle Blood hark to Dark Side Of The Moon era of Pink Floyd. Guaranteed to be a behemoth live, this is a revelatory album that deserves to see the band find a huge following beyond the regular metal audience and bring them back to play the arena size venues the music demands. 7.30pm. £10. Little Civic

Monday March 15

Chris T-T

Having blazed his way through his politically minded trilogy of London albums, the bearded Brighton singer-songwriter takes a bit of a swerve now with Love Is Not Rescue (Xtra Mile), turning to confessional themes of career choices, love and complexities of relationship. As such, it’s a more intimate, quieter affair as befits the introspective lyrics, opening with the delicate piano ballad single Nintendo and maintaining the self-reflective, thoughtful hushed air with Open & Shut, the strummed In The Halfway House, and Blueness.

He’s not entirely curled up in the corner; the scathing Stop Listening jogs along nicely, Elephant In The Room comes with a political bite and distorted blues guitar solo and the Words Fail Me and Market Square are both bash em out busker rock n rollers. Stripped back with no frills and a somewhat ragged round the edges, it’s a basics affair but also an honest one that should provide for an interesting rapport with the crowd. 7.30pm. £6. O2 Academy 3

Monday March 15

(hed) pe

Although its only three years since their last studio album, a lack of presence on the UK gigging circuit makes it feel a lot longer since anyone heard from the Californians with their rap-metal-punk fusion. They put that to rights now, touring in the back of New World Orphans (Suburban Noize), their most hardcore political statement yet, an angry slab of invective about government corruption, intimidation and media manipulation that, on Ordo (ab Chao), believes it’s never too late to slam a riff into George Bush’s face even if their revolutionary battle cries may feel a bit dated these days.

Mixing touches of reggae in among the musical textures and frequently shifting genre shapes, it’s a driving assault, firing off the likes of Middle Class Blues, Bloodfire, Live Or Die Free, Renegade and Renegade that barely gives you time to breathe let along think about what they’re saying.

It isn’t, to be honest, a great album if you line it up alongside the best of Rage Against The Machine or Linkin Park, and lyrically it sometimes sound as if it’s trying too hard to be snottily offensive, but if you just want to feel the screaming noise and hammer your body into the wall, then it’ll do nicely. 8pm. £9. Asylum, Hockley

Tuesday March 16

New Young Pony Club

For their self-released second album, The Optimist, the London five piece keep their eye on their post punk and New Wave influences but now cloak them in synth and bass robes, so that, for example, Lost A Girl and Chaos has you thinking of the B52s as opposed to the Siouxie and the Banshees colours of the title track .

As such, they’re even more club dance floor friendly than before, the likes of We Want To, Dolls and the krautrock tinged Oh Cherie all designed to massage the disco spine while Before The Light even hints at what a female fronted Duran might have sounded like back in the mid 80s. Definitely a case of looking on the bright - and shiny - side.

Somewhere between Talking Heads and a lite version of New Order, support comes from Is Tropical, a London guitar, synths and drums trio who tend to perform wearing bandanas or masks across their faces. The music’s no reason to hide, a quirky take on scratchy casio pop with a slightly laconic delivery that proves naggingly catchy on new single When Oh When while Seasick Mutiny suggests a meeting between cheesy 70s hit Hot Butter and Jonathan Richman’s Egyptian Reggae. Interesting, if nothing else. 7.30pm. £11.50. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday March 16

Brute Chorus

You have to admire the self-belief it takes to record your self-titled debut album live in front of 300 fans. However, the other side of the coin is self-delusion and, with the cowbells and its borrowing from Falco’s Amadeus, opening track Hercules suggests the London quartet could well be prone to the latter.

A mash up of garage blues (The Cuckoo & The Stolen Heart, Chateau), fuzz rock (Nebuchadnezzar, She Was Always Cool), punky rockabilly (All The Pilgrims), and spiky art rock (Send Me A Message, The Ransome), it comes complete with stop start rhythmic structures, squally noise, handclaps and, yes, more cowbells. There are some good ideas here, albeit filched from the likes of Waits, Beefheart and The Fall, and the bluesy Love’s Chains and Blind Ulysses (a Cream reference perhaps?) are highlights while Grow Fins is clearly the one to get the crowd leaping around.

The forthcoming studio recording single, a twitchy limb psychobilly Could This Be Love, sounds more promising but at the end of the day, nothing really grabs you by the throat and makes you want to force your way inside without paying. If they record the second album the same way, they might be struggling to get quite the same size of audience. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Wednesday March 17

Two Door Cinema Club

The Bangor art pop trio made a strong showing last year with catchy synth driven single Something Good Can Work while the likes of the catchy staccato Cigarettes In The Theatre and Do You Want It All? boded well for the future. Now, with an added drummer, they look to build on that initial wave of interest with debut album Tourist History (Kitsune), a collection of short, sharp dance friendly offerings that could catch the roving eye of Bloc Party fans.

There’s nothing especially original about them and the vocals can be a bit thin in places, but it’s hard to deny the squiggly charms of the choppy Eat That Up, It’s Good For You, tumbling electro-summer nugget This Is The Life and the way they seem to falling over themselves to deliver Undercover Martyn within three minutes. Whether they have the muscle to make it in what’s becoming an overcrowded electro indie guitar pop field remains to be seen, but they’ll likely be having fun trying to find out.

They’re supported by The Citadels, a drum free London trio whose keyboardist, the delightfully named Lucy Sunchild, doubles on flute and whose widescreen pop has been compared to both The Flaming Lips and the Cocteau Twins. You’ll certainly hear a touch of the former - though more so The Polyphonic Spree - on their fabulous debut single The Chemical Song (Pure Groove), a slow marching melody swelling anthemic singalong swayer that plants their feet firmly on the path for greatness. 7.30pm. £5. O2 Academy 3

Thursday March 18

Martyn Joseph

Having appeared at the Kitchen Garden Cafe last year, the Cardiff troubadour seems set on playing all of the city’s best intimate venues. Again it’s a solo set, punctuating songs like I Can’t Breathe, Vegas, This Being Woman, Please Sir, and Five Sisters with a mix of amusing and thoughtful anecdotes. Those in the fan club will have recently received their free CD of demos from 93/94, several songs from which have never been released or played live. Hopefully, having rediscovered them, he might now give an airing to lost gems What’s It Gonna Take, I Prefer Fishing Boats To Battleships and Beautiful Day as well as revisit the original stylings of Gift To Me and Heaven’s Waiting. 8pm. £15. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Friday March 19

Him

The Finnish outfit have gotten seriously in touch with their inner stadium pop selves for new album Screamworks:LOve In Theory & Practice (Sire), dumping the last album’s gloom for a set of upbeat, uplifting and catchily melodic songs spawned by singer Ville Valo’s newfound romantic bliss.

Dogmatic devotees might grumble at them embracing American rock blueprints, but from the opening In Venere Veritas through the cascading radio friendly Scared To Death, Heartkiller, and the Taking Back Sunday feel of Love, The Hardest Way, to the pop waterfalls of In The Arms Of Rain, Ode To Solitude’s dark power chords and the tougher Bon Jovi shapes of Like St Valentine, it’s hard to imagine the wider world not welcoming them with open arms. 7pm. £20. O2 Academy

Friday March 19

Hayseed Dixie

The quartet look pretty miserable on the front cover of new album, Killer Grass (Cooking Vinyl), and well they might. After six albums transfiguring assorted rock, pop and punk into bluegrass, the one trick pony is pretty much ready for the knacker’s yard. The live Weapons of Grass Destruction reaffirmed their virtuosity as musicians, but it was clear that the novelty was wearing thin as the band were having to look ever further musically afield for their reinterpretations. Then came an album without any covers whatsoever that merely revealed a lack of songwriting inspiration and, devoid of their gimmick, a fairly average bar band.

Now comes Killer Grass (Cooking Vinyl), an album which balances both self-penned and reinterpretations. Unfortunately, not much life has been breathed back into the walking corpse. Their own songs (more drinking and cheating numbers) are competent at best, at times sounding like the sort of fillers Dr Hook used to put on their early albums while banjo driven countrified versions of Won’t Get Fooled Again, Alien Abduction Probe, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and a hideous Bohemian Rhapsody are frankly rather painful. Time to sell the cabin and bury the still, boys. 8pm. £16. Robin 2, Brierely Hill

Friday March 19

Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby

After five solo studio albums and a collection of lost songs, the Pittsburgh born singer-songwriter has now joined forces with her husband, the warbly voiced 70s New Wave underdog best known for The Whole Wide World.

Writing individually and together, the pair sharing vocals and duetting, it’s an inspired musical union that brings together her country edge, his British busker folk-punk and their common love of 60s pop. Eric returning to his original Stiff Records home, the eponymous debut album slipped out virtually unnoticed two years ago, but hopefully this brief jaunt will raise its profile.

It certainly doesn’t deserve to languish in obscurity, even of Rigby’s spoken passage on the opening psychpop Here Comes My Ship immediately recalls T’Pau’s Heart & Soul. Unpolished perhaps, but laced with their shared wry humour and cynicism it’s also packed with stand out tracks, prime among them the chugging Beach Boys influenced music biz themed Round, Astrovan’s bontempi organ eulogy to Rigby’s trusty tour, the Spectorish Please Be Nice To Her and the wistfully autobiographical Another Drive-In Saturday where Eric pays reflective homage to 70s outfits like Mott The Hoople.

Rounding off with a synth backed tremulous duet of Johnny Cash’s I Still Miss Someone, it leaves to eagerly anticipating their second album, due later this year, tasters of which should appear in what is, by all accounts, a terrific live show. 8pm. £12. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Saturday March 20

The Courteeners

Short of having Morrissey on board, the Manchester outfit’s debut, St Jude, couldn’t have been more like The Smiths if it tried. The echoes are still there (Take Over The World is like The Smiths doing Take That), but this time round, Falcon (A&M) is also likely to evoke comparisons with Elbow and, at times Oasis, with its accomplished collection of sometimes chiming indie guitar pop that, on folky tinged The Opener, even offers a wistful love song to his hometown, references to which are littered throughout the album.

Clearly life on the road put frontman Liam Fray is in a melancholic romantic mood, crooning away on the likes of the 60s Motown flavoured Cross My Heart And Hope To Fly, the buzzing New Orderish Scratch Your Name Upon My Lips, the acoustic strum of The Rest Of The World Has Gone Home, the lushly cinematic Will It Be This Way Forever and reflective gentle piano ballad Last Of The Ladies.

There’s plenty of other highlights here too, whether the Bowie-dance mood of excess rebuking You Overdid It Doll, the tumbling melody line of potential anthemic crowd swayer Sycophant or Cameo Broach’s slow waltzing tale of child abuse and emotional alienation, all of which should safely see them taking wing to even greater heights. 7pm. £16. O2 Academy

Saturday March 20

Tiesto

Best known as one of the world’s top DJs and remixers, Tijs Verwest’s also produced a series of his own euphoric dance albums to get the masses both hot and chilled. His latest, Kaleidoscope (Musical Freedom), is no exception, a collection of itchy trance instrumentals and unlikely collaborations with a diverse range of vocalists and flirtations with indie rock and pop.

Among these you’ll find Sigur Ros leader Jonsi doing his widescreen thing on the title track, Tilly and the Wall’s Kianna pumping the dance of You Are My Diamond, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke sounding emotionally fraught on It’s Not The Things You Say, Canadian alt-rock cult Emily Haines with Knock You Out, Tegan & Sara channelling the Eurodisco of Feel It In My Bones while Calvin Harris breaks out the glo sticks for Century and Nelly Furtado rides Who Wants To Be Alone into the single charts.

Of course, none of them will be putting in cameos for tonight’s DJ marathon with the Dutchman spinning the grooves until the early dawn, but I daresay the thronging masses won’t be too concerned. 9pm. £27.50. LG Arena

Sunday March 21

Frank Turner

Million Dead’s former frontman makes his first appearance of the year to serve reminder of his third solo album, Poetry Of The Deed (XtraMile). Strummy troubadour folk pop protest laced with shards of country and an affection for the The Clash, The Pogues and Billy Bragg, it’s designed for live impact with the shanty bashalong call to songwriting arms attack on apathy that is Try This At Home, the Springsteenesque Faithful Son, a fiddle driven Sons Of Liberty, and the hip-slung guitar of Live Fast Die Old. He’s also releasing a live version of Long Live The Queen and next month’s marching beat single Isabel, both of which should loom large on the set list.

Support comes from sometime Hot Water Music frontman Chuck Ragan who, taking the solo route, has swapped punk for a toe tapping blend of rock, folk, shanty, bluegrass and country, delivered with raspy vocal, scrapping fiddle and acoustic guitar. Released last year, Gold Country (Side One Dummy) is a terrific collection of organic, honest songs streaked with a coating of dust and the smell of pine, the likes of Rotterdam, the Men They Couldn’t Hang like Glory, Ole Diesel and Don’t Say A Word all guaranteed crowd rousers. Good Enough For Rock n Roll he sings; most certainly so. 7pm. £12. O2 Academy

Sunday March 21

Lou Dalgleish

The second of the Month of Sundays, and this time round it’ll be a set of classic covers of material from such diverse names as Nick Cave, Cole Porter, Tammy Wynette, Bjork and Burt Bacharach, a list that pretty much sums up the sort of quality she represents. 8pm. £12. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Sunday March 21

Emma Pollock

Pic by Steve Gullick

Following 2007 solo debut, Watch The Fireworks, the erstwhile Delgados vocalist returns with The Law Of Large Numbers (Chemikal Underground), a follow up that leans more to the brooding and angular than the art pop and dreamy folk aspects of its predecessor.

While she maintains an undercurrent of pop sensibilities, spikiness and stroppy drums invest I Could Be A Saint, Letters To Strangers feels like dropping Kate Bush into the heart of Alice In Wonderland, while Red Orange Green adopts an urgent clockwork rhythm, Nine Lives sways into jazzy cabaret territory and Chemistry Will Find Me slouches along on a torpid late night prowl through the shadows with sudden stabs of guitar and drums and guest vocals by Adem.

Deceptively innocent on the simple acoustic The Child In Me, Pollock keeps needles hidden under her nails, the album’s mathematical precision concealing rumbling threats of chaos at its dark and intelligently literate heart. It’ll be an interesting night. 8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Monday March 22

Diana Vickers

When she was voted off the X-Factor semi-final a year and half ago, Vickers was a quirky Lancashire 16 year old with a warbling voice who liked to perform in bare feet. Today, after an acclaimed West End stint starring in Little Voice, she’s a confident 18 year old with smouldering sex appeal and about to launch herself as a pop star. 2008 was clearly a good X-Factor year. Eoghan Quigg may have sunk from sight, but Alexandra Burke and JLS have become massive stars and Vickers seems set to follow in their path.

However, her debut album, Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree (RCA), may come as a bit of a surprise to those expecting to hear her doing things in the manner of her X-Factor triumphs with Yellow, Everybody Hurts and Smile.

That distinctive strangled warble is still there, but lead single Once clearly has its eyes on Britney dance floor pop, a stylistic choice mirrored on Remake Me & You, the electro pop of My Hip and breathy disco sashayer The Boy Who Murdered Love. Put It Back Together will keep those waiting for the tremulous big building ballad happy, though even that picks up the dance-pop tempo. What else the album contains remains to seen on its delayed May release, but tonight’s show will provide an early preview of what’s in store, though whether she’ll be reprising any of those X-Factor favourites is another matter. 8pm. £10.22. Glee Club

Tuesday March 23

Zebrahead

Orange County’s Grammy nominated punks return for another breakneck bout of body slamming, mosh pit party frenzy and the occasional stab of rap, exuberantly bouncing off the walls as they slam though songs about mental health, unfaithful girlfriends, and how great their fans are.

Current album Phoenix (SPV) comes wall to wall with catchy choruses for pretty much all its 16 high energy tracks and, as you’d expect from their party attitude, very little hardcore punk angst and anger.

New single Juggernaut is a perfect example of what they do well, with its spray of hooks, swaggering vocal tumbling verses and big shouting singalong chorus in a sort of Blink 182 stylee, sharing that good time supercharged blast with the likes of Hell Yeah!, Death By Disco, Morse Code For Suckers and Be Careful What You Wish For. They do all tend to sound a bit similar when played back to back, even with breakouts of rapping and blistering guitar solos like that on The Junkie And The Halo and All For None And None For All, but then who’s looking for sudden mood swings when you’re bouncing round the room like madmen. 7.30pm. £O2 Academy 2

Wednesday March 24

Paloma Faith

The Anglo-Spanish singer’s debut album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? (Epic) has deservedly set the world afire with its cocktail of Eartha Kitt, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Billie Holiday and Shirley Bassey.

Her theatrically mannered slightly squeaky voice stylistically trampolining between r&b, torch soul, jazz, blues, swing and vaudeville, she can certainly deliver a tune and from the opening slinky Tina Turner prowl of Stone Cold Sober and the Gloria Gaynor disco suggestions of Smoke & Mirrors through the title track’s pantherish ballad with its Bond theme persuasions to the finger-clicking sassy soul swing of new single Upside Down, the Broadway and gospel New York and Stargazer’s harp shimmering contempo dreamy r&b ballad it’s patently obvious that this former magician’s assistant casts a spell all of her own. 7.30pm. £12.50. O2 Academy

Wednesday March 24

Chris Brokaw & Geoff Farina

The former drummer of slowcore pioneers Codeine joins forces with the frontman of Boston indie jazz outfit Karate, but the result isn’t what you might expect. Rather The Angel’s Message To Me (Fina) is sees them mining the songs of pre-WWII American folk, blues and ragtime, playing fingerpicked guitar with dust-coated vocals.

They know their roots too, the album featuring genre standards from such names as Rev Gary Davis (the title track), Blind Arthur Blake (That’ll Never Happen No More), The Kentucky Ramblers (Ginseng Blues), Irvin Mills (St. James Infirmary Blues) and Walter Vinson (Sitting On Top Of The World) as well as such trad nuggets as Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor, Stagger Lee, Oh Death and Poor Wayfaring Stranger. If they play live as well as they do on disc, then mouths should be duly agape. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Thursday March 25

The Automatic

Surging to prominence with the Kaisers-like Monster, the Cardiff combo have seen their fortunes dwindle with successive releases, their second album failing to dent The Top. Things didn’t look up last year when Interstate, the first single on their own Armoured Records label, pretty much sank without trace.

Now comes the accompanying album, Tear The Signs Down, where they find themselves coming across as just another generic indie rock outfit without any strong songs to lift them above the pack. Guitars duly chug along in the hope of finding a memorable tune, but from Insides to Tear It Down there’s little lasting impression here, and certainly nothing with a chorus you’ll be chanting on the way back from the pub.

There’s glimpses of their old selves on Race To The Heart Of The Sun which sounds like it could be a live stormer and on the all too brief sonic frenzy of Something Else, but mostly it’s all rather dull and, as the song says, Cannot Be Saved.

Following last year’s EPs Tell Your Friends (It All Worked Out) and You’re Not Invincible and the Remains single, anticipation is high for the Yorkshire trio White Belt Yellow Tag’s debut album. Good news then that next month’s Methods (Distiller) doesn’t disappoint with its cocktail of Echo & The Bunnymen, Doves and Joy Division. Indeed, listen to Tell Your Friends (It All Worked Out) or It’s A Long Way, Don’t You Fall Behind and you could be back in the Bunny days of Ocean Rain. Perhaps it’s not just coincidence that two of the tracks are titled Where Echoes Land and Always & Echoes!

If anyone doubted their ability to pen heart stirring anthem ballads, then Ode, with its swirling synth intro and Atmosphere-like steady military drum pattern, and the swell of closing track Carleless Talk And Sinking Ships, should persuasively settle that matter. Armed with a ferocious live reputation, they’ll be looking to make 2010 very firmly their own. You’re Not Invincible, they sing. But they very well might be. 7.30pm. £9. O2 Academy 2

Friday March 26

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

I may be wrong, but dancing to beats driven songs about knife crime (apparently it’s not about stabbing people but feeling disaffected with modern Britain) somehow seems a bit off. But then, it’s hard to escape the social commentary hectoring on the second album from the producer and MD duo, especially on Get Better which unfolds like a youth contraception and self-education infomercial. It actually starts with Pip saying ‘imagine a song that really reached out and touched kids’.

Sick Tonight might profess not to know everything but a strident moralising, preachy tone runs rampant throughout and at times it feels like being in a club run by some earnest social worker. Then you get Stake A Claim, which sees itself as a lesson on democracy and plays out as a citizenship oath about rising up to change things. It’s almost a relief when Snob simply has a go about musical elitism.

When they ease up on the agendas, Five Minutes proves a rather wistful lost love lament, but for all the fact that these are undeniably infectious dark hip hop beats it’s going to be hard to think with your feet when they’re constantly trying to instruct your brain. 7.30pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2

Saturday March 27

Ellie Goulding

Topping the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll and winning the Brits Critics Award without anyone actually hearing much of her music, the Welsh singer has been heavily touted as the big new thing and, doubtlessly, the saviour of EMI’s collapsing economy. Sighs of relief and back-patting all round then when Starry Eyed became a top 4 single and the Lights album debuted at No 1.

However, when, the following week, it plummeted an astonishing 15 places, company shares undoubtedly took a beating and all those self-congratulations began to look a little misplaced.

It may yet prove a chart stayer, but it’s also easy to see why interest paled so fast. She has a decent if occasionally irritating breathy little girl voice with that Cerys quiver and the music is well manufactured and polished.

But it sounds exactly that, a synth trigger here, perfectly placed beats there, some warm electronics, and rippling melodies designed to sound like inoffensive daytime radio, clothes shop and dinner party background music rather than something you whip out to impress your friends with your cutting edge taste.

The Writer has a lilting melodic swing reminiscent of Catatonia, Guns And Horses opens with an acoustic guitar and a vague Latin flavour before she’s suddenly directed towards the Lily Allen side of the street, and Wish I’d Stayed has a gentle Goldfrapp trip hop feel mingled with her own folk influences. But nowhere do you get the feeling that she’s actually comfortable with any of this and would rather be channelling the likes of Bon Iver an Midlake, both of whom she’s covered live, than mirroring what her producers and A&R people think is still the latest musical fashion. She may yet find her own voice, but for the moment it’s a case of Light on, no one home. 7pm. £9. O2 Academy 2

Saturday March 27

Lauren Pritchard

You’ll probably not know the name but if you’re up for taking a punt on an unknown quantity then you could do a lot worse than checking out this Tennessee songstress who’s been described as a cross between Janis Joplin, Karen Carpenter and Carole King. Amazingly, the hype is actually spot on this time too.

When The Night Kills The Day, the Ed Harcourt co-written piano based lead track on her upcoming debut EP, The Jackson Sessions (Island), sounds as if it could have come from one of King’s 70s classics while Stuck is a pure vintage New York blues groove. Released in at the end of April (when she’ll be on tour again), both are early versions of numbers that will appear on her debut album. On the evidence so far, a star is clearly about to be born. 7.30pm. £5. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Sunday March 28

Motion City Soundtrack

They’ve been circling the mainstream for a while now, but with My Dinosaur Life (Columbia), it looks like they may finally make the big breakthrough. Packed with fizzing indie power pop guitars, bouncing riffs and jump up and down melodies, Justin Pierre delivering the songs in an appealing nasal burr, it’s been produced by Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 and his influence clearly sounds on radio friendly numbers like Worker Bee, A Lifeless Ordinary, the handclappy Stand Too Close and Her Words Destroyed My Planet, a song that references Veronica Mars.

They toughen up the sound slightly for the stop start Pulp Fiction, the urgent Disappear and The Weakends, but for the most part this is a collection of straight to the vein three minute pop rushes, the descending vocal line of History Lesson flexing their semi-acoustic anthemic wave the flag balladry muscles. They’ve come of age, so now seems a good time to join the celebration party. 6.30pm. £12. O2 Academy 2

Sunday March 28

Lou Dalgleish

The final session of her month of Sundays is another covers night, but this time the focus is entirely on Elvis Costello. As borne out by her musical play They Call Her Natasha (the title lifted from the line in I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea), there can be little doubt that she’s one of the finest Costello interpreters around, her version of Indoor Fireworks standing shoulder to shoulder with the original. Whether the set list mirrors the show or whether it explores other material from the songbook, you can be pretty sure this is going to be a wondrous evening. 7.30pm. £12. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Sunday March 28

Timothy B. Schmit

Former and current bassist with The Eagles, Schmit’s currently taking leave of absence to promote Expando (Universal), his first solo album in almost a decade. It is, as you might expect, heavy on West Coast rock, sounding not unlike, well, The Eagles or, on Parachute, Crosby, Stills & Nash.

He gets into some funky chops with the scratchy One More Mile and the r&b flavoured drawled White Boy From Sacramento while Ella Jean conjures the harmonising country side of Lindsey Buckingham, Secular Praise finds him hitting soulful churchy notes in company with The Blind Boys Of Alabama and Friday Night plays like a classic acoustic Eagles ballad.

There’s no timeless classics here, but its relaxed peaceful easy feeling and Schmit’s immaculately polished playing are rewards enough, especially when he squeezes the California sunshine over A Good Day, a good time country-folk roller reminiscent of Dylan’s You Ain’t Going Nowhere that could have come from Sweetheart of the Radio.

With four previous albums to his name, he’s got ample material of his own for the set list, but it’ll be no surprise if he does drop in a feather or two from the Eagles’ nest. 8pm. £35. Glee Club

Sunday March 28

Katy Lied

Between last year's debut and the current Echo Games, there's been something of a major shake up for the London based four piece. Founder singer-guitarist Dan Britton has left to pursue solo projects and handling lead vocals in his place arrives the, conveniently named, Katie Harnett.

However, other than that they now sound somewhere between Katrina & the Waves and The Pretenders, nothing else has much changed. You'll be pleased to learn too that their jangling roots rock style is still in evidence, notably on the opening, self-titled Katy Lied where, with its ringing guitar and soaring harmonies, those Katrina comparisons are the most striking.

They have fleshed things out a touch, though, introducing new colours to the fabric. Mr Vertigo is a bluesy swagger with slide guitar and a Glitter band clapalong beat while When It Rains takes a trip to the Deep South for some moody everglades soul-blues with blistering electric guitar work with the title track adopting a similar brooding snake-eyed blues roots feel.

They clearly like the weather down South, since the organ backed A Little Rain is drenched in the sort of swellingly soulful precipitation in which the likes of the young Bonnie Raitt and Karla Bonoff showered. Appropriately enough, it's followed by the equally climate conditioned Sun Comes Out with its mid-tempo military drum beat, pedal steel and parched desert Cowboy Junkies groove.

The hooks friendly Somewhere We Can't Go and Thea Gilmore co-penned Piece By Piece are more in keeping with the debut's West Coast folk rock tone, the latter reminiscent of the Stevie Nicks contributions to the early Fleetwood Mac. The final track, a wearied Blue Wind, is Harnett's only co-writing contribution, and if its alt-country flavours are down to her then hopefully she'll have even more input on the third album.

This is going to be an acoustic set with just Harnett and guitarist Duncan Hamilton, but it should be no less unmissable for that. 8pm. £3. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Monday March 29

Kill It Kid

Fronted by Chris Turpin and Stephanie Ward and with Richard Jones on violin, you’ll find this Bath quintet filed under ‘the new Gomez’, but, as witnessed by the eponymous debut album and current single Ivy And Oak (One Little Indian), they also embrace White Stripes, Tom Waits, Elvis, Led Zep, and Johnny Cash in their mash of delta blues, rock n roll and roots. The name, by the way, derives from an old Blind Willie McTell song, so they know their history, too.

Though it sometimes sounds like he’s straining too hard to seduce Antony Hegarty fans, Turpin’s tonsil swallowing dark tones certainly sound like they’ve been sucking up a cocktail of Mississippi mud and bourbon while, by the sound of Fool For Loving Me, Ward was clearly weaned on Janis Joplin albums.

Heaven Never Seemed So Close gets the ball rolling with handclaps, roiling slide guitar and stomping percussion while Burst Its Banks flows from clattering gospel blues through strings drenched folk blues boogie, Ward takes Private Idaho up to the cabin in woods, My Lips Won’t Be Kept Clean visits Elvis and Janis Martin on the rockabilly Lousiana Hayride and the violin scraping, devil blues soaked Bye Bye Bird showcases their rough sawn folk harmonies.

Tour de force atmospheric finale, Taste The Rain throws pretty much everything into the mix leaving you utterly drained come its final notes. Whether there’s an audience out there remains to be seen, but they should definitely kick up a rowdy, sweat soaking live set. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Tuesday March 30

Editors

Returning to the venue for which they played the opening night, previewing virtually all of new album In This Light And On This Evening (Kitchenware), it’ll be interesting to see how subsequent gigs have honed the live material, especially with the audience now more familiar with numbers like the krautrock inspired Bricks And Mortar, Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’s Sledgehammer like drive and the Scott Walker melancholy of The Boxer.

Moving into a synth and electronics dominated world after making their name with the dark Joy Division tones of the previous albums was a brave move, and one that’s yet to really pay off in commercial terms, but, while it’s unlikely that calls for Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors will be replaced by shouts for Papillon anytime soon, this is clearly a band with a vision that promises massive future rewards. 7.30pm. £30. O2 Academy

Tuesday March 30

The Besnard Lakes

A Montreal four piece playing what might feasibly be called prog-shoegaze Americana, current album The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar) has affinities with such pioneers as Mercury Rev without actually sounding like a pale imitation. A fondness for widescreen guitarscapes, soaring harmonies and songs that head past the five minute mark gives them a lysergic quality. Chicago Train builds from symphonic opening to a wall of guitar, Albatross spotlighting the calm, floral tones of bassist Olga Goreas on a dreamy Spectorish melody line specked with buzzing background guitars, Light Up The Night an ethereal orchestral epic that could almost be Yes and Glass Printer a swarm of multi-layered fuzz guitar.

They rock out a bit with a more focused melody line on And This Is What We Call Progress, and chances are that’s more likely to be the tenor of the live set rather than an ocean of sonic waves, but either way they’re well worth a dip. 8pm. £8. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Tuesday March 30

Corrine Bailey Rae

Away for two years following her husband’s death, it’s not too surprising that her sophomore comeback album, The Sea (Virgin), is a melancholic affair, veined with unsentimentalised sadness and grief but also seeking upbeat notes, as with the jazzy soul funk of The Blackest Lily, even then the lyrics lean elsewhere.

Musically, she’s consolidated the soul of her debut, deepening the groove and honing those Northern Soul and Philly influences, the latter notably evident on the slinky mellowness of Feels Like The First Time. The romantic Paris Nights/New York Mornings sees her displaying her jazzy wares while her affection for the 70s spills all over the likes of the summery breeze of Are You Here, the dreamy organ backed I Would Like To Call It Beauty and the heartfelt title track soul ballad.

Sophisticated, seductive and lushly sweet, it’s a classy and, in the wake of personal tragedy, triumphant return that has deservedly caught the ear and hearts of audiences prepared to listen.

Support comes from Fyfe Dangerfield, still busy promoting his giddily exuberantly solo debut Fly Yellow Moon (Geffen) with its package of such classic carefree pop as When You Walk In The Room, So Brand New and She Needs Me. 7.30pm. £18.50. The Assembly, L.Spa

Wednesday March 31

We Have Band

The electro bandwagon rumbles on, and turning the wheels this time we have a Manchester trio who’ve adopted the DIY approach of punk and pretty much learned to play on the job, so to speak. Three years down the line from sitting round the table where the band was born, signed to French label Naive they’re gearing up to release their debut album, WHB. It’s trailed by the single, Divisive, a jittery synthpop number that sounds just like what you might get if you cloned early Depeche Mode and The Human League.

And that’s pretty much what lies in store with the album too where deliberately flattened blanked male/female vocals bounce upon down on the trampolining rhythms and robot keyboard patterns while swathing numbers like Hear It In The Cans and Love, What You Doing and Honeytrap with a swirl of goth mist that suggests they’ve heard a few Bauhaus albums in their time.

Rather inevitably there’s some krautrock in there too, Oh! sounding like Kraftwerk at a gypsy bar mitzvah while the spindly synth, choppy beats and whistling of You Came Out conjures the bizarre image of amphetamine-high imps dancing on a floor littered with tin tacks. But maybe that’s just me.

The darker hues of the atmospheric Piano and WHB itself hints that that they have aspirations to artier realms than Hot Chip floor fillers, but for now it’s perky mascara streaked limb twitchers like potential single Centrefolds & Empty Screens that’s going to spread the name. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath