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Previews by Mike Davies

Monday September 1

The Wedding Present

David Gedge still sings off-key, but two decades on from being indie darlings, it’s good to see his seminal outfit’s still got the batteries charged and have proven more influential (listen to the Artics) than might have been reckoned.

They’re back out on the road servicing latest album, El Rey (Vibrant), a reunion with producer Steve Albini who did the honours for Seamonsters, and yet more tales of unreliable relationships, this time littered with such references to America as the Santa Monica Freeway, Spider-Man and even Winona Ryder.

Unusually, Gedge seems to have polished up his accessibility stick here, with tracks like the jangling Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk, Santa Ana Winds, Spider-Man On Hollywood and, once past the two minute intro, The Thing I Like Most About Him Is His Girlfriend all catchy, radio friendly melodies.

Of course, if you prefer to work at things, you can always take the angular riffs of Soup and Boo Boo, the slow low level rumbling to The Trouble With Men or the gathering anthemic sludge of Lost The Monkey and Model, Actress, Whatever.

Heading towards his 50s, it’s probably about time Gedge sorted out a settled relationship he could write about rather than yet more tales of being given the elbow, but then he’s always been better at being the bridesmaid rather than the bride. 7pm. £11. Barfly

Tuesday September 2

Bryn Christopher

A new Birmingham old soul boy, Christopher deservedly set superlatives fluttering with debut single, The Quest A song about his brother’s experiences serving in Basra, it ably demonstrated that when he cites Al Green, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Nina Simone as influences he's not just looking to boost the bio hype.

Warm, muscular, deep with a fiery passion and bolstered by a tight horn section and musicians weaned on Stax milk, we're talking the new Terence Trent D'Arby, Roland Gift, Percy Sledge and Seal rolled into one. New single, Smilin’(Polydor), has a slightly more psychedelic pop twinge to its rolling gait while, from the upcoming My World album, Gone Gone Gone suggests The Temptations doing Northern Soul and the handclapping beat, brass parps and urgent rhythm drive of Seconds Ago has Amy Winehouse getting into bed with his Prince and Jackson grooves.

With Mary J Blige a fan and his acoustic recordings of I've Been Loving You too Long and Bobby Hebb's Sunny suggesting that this is a voice for whom the charts are just a stepping stone to knocking them dead in Vegas, you should catch him while he’s still in the country. 7.30pm. £7.50. Barfly

Wednesday September 3

Gomez

It’s been 10 years and a consistent line-up since Southport’s stoned American roots-blues blues-rock and southern soul crew released Bring It On and, to mark the occasion, like many a recent act, they’re out on tour playing their entire Mercury Music Prize winning debut album from start to finish. Presumably including 44 second playout track Comeback.

Featuring the dust throated tones of Ben Ottewell, the album holds up well with its frazzled sun and drugs shuffles and hip hop lurches, with Get Miles still sounding like a loose limbed Tom Waits outtake while Whippin’ Piccadilly, Here Comes The Breeze, Tijuana Lady, Get Myself Arrested and 78 Stone Wobble variously in tune with the current output of Devendra Banhart and Alabama 3.

The Collector’s edition reissue (EMI) comes as a double disc with 11 tracks lifted from two previously unissued 1998 Radio One sessions (including their fine downhome stomp version of Stag O’Lee) and the nine B-sides featured on the album’s three singles.

While their last studio album, How We Operate, may not have made the UK Top 40, it’s served to consolidate their success in America, tracks finding their way on to episode of House and Grey’s Anatomy, underlining the fact that this tour really is about celebrating their past rather than trying to recapture it. 7.30pm. £20. Carling Academy

Thursday September 4

Jackie Leven

In his press blurb, Leven reckons Lovers At The Gun Club (Cooking Vinyl) is one of the best albums he’s ever made. I doubt anyone’s going to quibble with that, though it’s a little disorienting when the first thing you hear, the ‘psychosexual voodoo redneck’ title track (a wry observation on the connectivity of firearms, sex and machismo) actually features the liquid sleaze vocals of Johnny Dowd. He also takes spoken verse duties on the sax soaked, neon lite rainy sidewalks slow funk groove of The Dent In The Fender And The Wheel Of Fate. A song about revisiting his dad’s old yellow Lada, it’s one of several numbers reflecting on the past and lost connections.

There’s the memories of young crushes and runaway lovers on The Innocent Railway, the sense you can never truly go back on My Old Home’s warm Celtic soul and the tender acoustic Woman In A Car while I’ve Passed Away From Human Love is an aching lament of loss and the gospel blues doo wop Head Full Of War examines destructive inner rage.

It’s a rich and eclectic album. Olivier Blues is a straight rewrite of blues chestnut My Babe, To Whom It May Concern a spoken Irish mist setting of a poem by Kenneth Patchen, the jaunty countrified Fareham Confidential a snapshot on a city of lost soul which borrows the melody from Top Of The World and is surely the only song to namecheck Somerfields. And, by way of a bookend, the last track, the yearning hymnal Americana of Heart In My Soul, not only hands over to another voice, American singer-songwriter David Childers, but is actually lifted from his own Hard Time Country album. Should make for a fascinating evening. 8pm. £8. Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Rd, Kings Heath

Monday September 8

Stevie Wonder

It’s been over a decade since Wonder last toured these shores, three years since he released the underperforming A Time To Love album. However, next year reportedly sees two new conceptually based studio recordings (The Gospel Inspired By Lula and Through The Eyes Of Wonder) while, having claimed his late mother came to him in a dream, he’s now back doing the live thing.

This is the opening night of the UK tour so the set-list is pretty much up for grabs, though with his critical and commercial star not shining as brightly as it did during the 80s chances are it will lean fairly heavily on crowd favourites like Signed Sealed Delivered I'mYours, Higher Ground, Superstition, Living For The City and, of course, I Just Called To Say I Love You. Undoubtedly a musical genius, he can also be a bit self-indulgent, so hopefully he’ll be favouring the former rather the latter traits tonight. 7.30pm. £65/£55. NIA

Monday September 8

Little Man Tate

Somewhat perversely, although they’re just releasing a new album the Sheffield outfit have elected to play a series of shows featuring just former B sides and rarities with the set list decided by their fans. So, apparently there’ll be no sampling any live showcases from Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy (Yellow Van), doubtless meaning a second tour not too far down the line. You’ll be pleased to hear, though, that it builds confidently on their About What You Know debut, easing out the folkier elements in favour of the cranked up melodic indie guitar pop and anthemic singalong choruses embodied in such numbers as new single Hey Little Sweetie, What Your Boyfriend Said, A Little Heart and the jubilant bounce along Reflection In His Sunglasses.

There’s some slower paced moments, at their best on the vaguely Oasis-like swaying Joined By An iPod, while Shoulder To Sigh On closes out on almost a clunky vaudeville note, but it’s those rousing, arms in the air flurries that carry this off and which you’ll be wishing they’d bend their rules for tonight. 7pm. £10. Bar Academy

Tuesday September 9

Gemma Hayes

The Tipperary singer-songwriter's debut album, Night On My Side, earned a Mercury Music Prize nomination and saw her being compared to the likes of Beth Orton and Joni Mitchell. However, come the equally fine follow up, The Roads Don't Love You, the fickle nature of the business had seen new names take their place in the next big thing spotlight and, outside of Ireland where she picked up a Best Irish Female Artist award, the album slipped past almost unnoticed. Now comes The Hollow Of Morning (GH), released on her own label and a pretty even balance of the stripped down acoustic and more fleshed out, rockier tracks, but all again sharp with the emotional depth and observations of her past output.

Of the uptempo material, Out Of Our Hands is the most obviously direct though In Over My Head is a shimmering wall of sound that at times feels almost shoegazey and Don't Forget is scuffed beats pop.

However, it's the quieter moments that are the most persuasive; a gently rippling Chasing Dragons where her whispery delivery sounds incredibly strung out and world weary, At Constant Speed's six minute simple synth pulsing reflections on an ended relationship and, showing off guitar dexterity, the dreamy haze of This Is What You Do where she sings in a languid, husky whisper that's both sensual and sad. It's not going to bring a return to the attention she received first time out, but those who've kept the faith will find no disappointments as she wheels them out tonight.7.30pm. £12. Glee Club

Tuesday September 9

Lights, Action!

Listening to mini-album All Eyes To The Morning Sun (Xtra Mile), anthemic, emotionally driven numbers like Aurora, Story of A Broken Boy and Satellites make it almost impossible to talk about the London five piece without comparing them to U2 and The Editors. They’re not yet in either league, but Patrick Currier’s soaring falsetto vocals and the big drama guitars show they have their aspirations well sharpened. That they also include an organ backed cover of Imogen Heap’s Hide And Seek adds to their credibility weighting, and with debut album Welcome To The New Cold World due in November, their time in the spotlight shouldn’t be far off.

They share the bill with label-mates A Silent Film, a piano-led quartet who’ve seen their share of Keane, Radiohead and Coldplay references on the back of staccato driving debut Sleeping Pills and recent follow up You Will Leave A Mark, a song about feeling guilty for being born in the West.

Actually, given Robert Stevenson’s vocals, the electronica sheen and racing, pulsing rhythms on both singles, a more likely influence might well be Ultravox and those rain-washed noir streets of Vienna. They’ll doubtless be looking to prove otherwise with the live set which will be showcasing numbers from next month’s debut album, The City That Sleeps. 7.30pm. £5. Bar Academy

Wednesday September 10

The Dodos

Hailing from San Francisco and playing psychedelic folk pop, drummer Logan Kroeber and songwriter-guitarist Meric Long’s Visiter (Wichita) album comes over like a folk version of The White Stripes, Joe’s Waltz showing they share the same Led Zep influences. But Kroeber’s inventive percussion on the likes of Ashley, Winter, new single Fools and The Seasons equally suggest Tyrannosaurus Rex while Long’s guitar work on God? and Paint The Rust evokes vintage John Fahey.

Walking comes dappled with country banjo and female harmonies, Red And Purple a Latin flavoured swayer with Kroeber skittering rimshots while Jodi builds from crystal water guitar figures to thundering tumbling clatter. They make a hell of a noise for an acoustic duo and if it’s sounds remotely like this, then the gig should be a stormer. 7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy

Thursday September 11

Kirsty McGee

Rapidly establishing itself as a singer-songwriters venue of note with its eclectic programme of both rising and established names, this week proves no exception to it high standard of guests. It also affords the Mancunian songstress a chance to unveil her latest album, The Kansas Sessions (Hobopop), one which marks a huge departure from the pastoral contemporary folk and dusty English vocals of her previous releases.

Recorded, as you might guess, in Kansas, it’s very much an album of old school American folk-country with a dose of New Orleans jazz and vaudeville for good measure. What she terms, hobopop.

It may also be the best thing she’s recorded. Which, if you’ve heard her three other albums, is really saying something.

There’s a political streak to the material too, whether in the self-styled anti-capitalist New Orleans brassy gospel swing The Profit Song, the good timing (yodelling even) Bonecrusher’s sly metaphor about greed that could well apply to US foreign policy, or the more direct (yet never obvious) banjo dappled carny shuffle Gunsore with its line about ‘bombs that splutter in the road’.

These are finely offset by the personal with songs about loss; of a relationship (the gentle Janis Ian like acoustic filigrees of Sparks, the Baez echoes of the hushed No Way To Treat A Friend,) or trust (a world-weary Faith).

And if anyone’s written a song that captures the itch of paranoid delusion and nervous breakdown better than the skittering Harlem jazz jive and gypsy guitar of Killer Wasps, I’ve yet to hear it.

But, if there’s loss, psychological hives and self-deluding wanderlust (Alibi Blues), there’s also the pledge of love to the burnished Southern torch sway of Sandman and the mountain music bluegrass of Lamb, the dark passion and sensual intimacy of Dust Devils’ clarinet kissed, Yiddish jazz-blues moods.

Playing live as a duo with fellow multi-instrumentalist Mat Martin, they’ve been described as a Tim Burton version of Simon and Garfunkel. Which sounds incentive enough for anyone’s ears. 8pm. £8. Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Rd, Kings Heath

Friday September 12

Sun Kil Moon

Named for a South Korean boxer and the current vehicle for former Red House Painters singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek's tales of memory and melancholy, it’s been five years since his last original material with Ghosts Of The Great Highway. But, with a running time that pushes the clock past 70 minutes, he’s certainly made the wait worth the while.

The same applies to the songs and musical mood which, in dealing with trademark themes of loss, loneliness and death, calls to mind the Harvest/Zuma days of Neil Young veined with traces of Nick Drake and, on Harper Road and the disturbingly dark Heron Blue, traditional English folk transplanted to the stark Appalachian mountains. Some might wish to toss the Tim Buckley tag around and, while it’s not without merit, Tonight In Bilbao is probably more a kindred soul to David Ackles.

He turns up the guitars to throaty for The Light and the reverb growling Tonight The Sky, but otherwise his dominant mode is pastoral strum, Lucky Man and Moorestown (one of two numbers previewed on 2006’s Little Drummer Boy live album) both dressed in crystal tinkling guitar arpeggios, the latter gilded with dreamy strings and piano that echo the sadness in his warm wearied voice.

Mortality and ghosts (of the departed, if not necessarily dead) haunt the album; on the lengthy guitar and violin opener Lost Verses with its reflections on youth, in the angel that whispers word of comfort as she follows him down the Unlit Hallway and, most poignantly, on the closing plucked flamenco guitar Blue Orchids with its reference to his sister’s death.

Drawing on both albums (and quite possible his Modest Mouse tribute collection), it’s not, perhaps likely to be the cheeriest of sets, but sorrow and sadness has rarely been so intoxicating. And, besides, who knows, he may be persuaded to drop in one his AC/DC covers, too. 7.30pm. £12. Barfly

Saturday September 13

Stone Gods

Rising from the ashes of The Darkness, now fronted by former bassist Richie Edwards the new incarnation is a far tougher proposition. They’re back in town plugging the debut album, Silver Spoons And Broken Bones (Integral), having fun with the metal cliches and poses as they swagger their way through fret racing flurry Don’t Drink The Water (think hard rock Mud), Lizzy meets the Faces barroom air punchers Where You Coming From and Start Of Something, Burn The Time and the Bryan Adamsy terrace anthem to a boozy good time Oh Whereo My Beero. With Ronnie Lane style folksy ballad Magadalene a likely live favourite, they’re well worth raising a glass to. 7.30pm. £10. Barfly

Sunday September 14

Jubilee

Given individual backgrounds include stints in Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age, this LA quartet make surprisingly straightahead raspy edged guitar pop on the lines of The Replacements. They made their debut earlier this year with Rebel Hiss and now follow up with the equally chorus friendly, soiled bubblegum of In With The Out Crowd (Buddyhead), both of which will figure in the set list alongside previews of material from the upcoming Shabbey Road album. 7pm. £7. Bar Academy

Monday September 15

Hot Club of Cowtown

Having taken a two year sabbatical, fiddler Elana James, guitarist Whit Smith and upright bassist Jake Erwin are back in action doing their string thing with old school Western swing and the Hot Club jazz of 20s, 30s and 40s America. They’re in the process of putting a new album together, but in the interim they’ve gathered together a Best Of (Hightone) compilation trawled from their previous one live and three studio albums which, if you’re a new set of ears makes for a pretty succinct introduction to their charms. Bookended by trad tunes Ida Red and Orange Blossom Special from the live Continental Stomp, highlights have to include James taking vocals on her own Forget-Me-Nots, a gorgeous reading of Hoagey Carmichael instrumental Star Dust, the Smith penned gypsy swing It Stops With Me, fiddle rousing and hollering Cherokee Shuffle and, just to prove they’re not entirely rooted in the past, a tremendous Jimmie Rogers style hobo folk country rework of Aerosmith’s Chip Away The Stone. One not to be missed. 7.30pm. £13. Glee Club

Tuesday September 16

Alannah Myles

Shooting into the spotlight in 1989 when sophomore single Black Velvet stormed to the top of the US charts and hit the No 2 slot here the following year with the accompanying self-titled album reaching the top 3, Myles has never had another hit in either country. She’s fared better in her native Canada, but even there her singles have generally fallen on the wrong side of the Top 20. She’s not released an album since the inappropriately named Arrival back in 1997, but, after an eight year songwriting sabbatical she arrives here now with, er, Black Velvet (Linus).

Headed up by an electronic washed remake of her signature song, it’s not about to break the dry spell with wholly forgettable material that wanders from electro swagger soul (the Lady Marmalade aping Comment Ca Va), mediocre Joplinesque bluesy rock chick fodder (Prime Of My Life, Anywhere But Home), and routine classical strings laden acoustic ballads (Faces In The Crowd, I Love You). Trouble lifts proceedings with some swampy slide guitar blues, but given it’s the last track, it’s all a bit too little too late. If she’s not looking to play to an empty room by the time the set runs its course, it’ll be wise to keep that hit until late in the proceedings. 8pm. £17.50. The Robin 2, Bilston

Wednesday September 17

Scars On Broadway

The side project of System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan, their self-titled debut album gets under way in pretty much the sort of quiet/loud, screamo/pop manner you might expect with Serious. But then things get a little more interesting as the band spreads its wings.

Funny is a catchy, almost 60s noir pop number with distant surf guitar, choppy rhythm and a hint of the pair’s Eastern European heritage, Exploding/Reloading races along on at a breakneck punk pace with what sounds like an electronic xylophone rearing is head here and there and Cute Machines rocks in a Queens of the Stone Age meets Hawkwind fashion.

And if Insane leans to hard tipped chugging college rock then World Long Gone brings it back to hammering throaty vocal nu-metal, Babylon touches on Cossack folk rock, They Say spits out the spirit of the Dead Kennedys and 3005 finds them in moody ballad mood.

But the two tracks that leap out into your face and seem likely to rip things apart live are Chemicals with its throbbing urgent rhythm, insidiously menacing chorus hook and Malakian’s vocal acrobatics and the blistering staccato riffing Stoner Hate that sounds like the Kennedys’ California Uber Alles on steroids and speed. The scars cut deep and you’ll be bleeding from ear to ear for weeks. 7.30pm. £13. Carling Academy

Wednesday September 17

Born Ruffians

A Toronto avant-indie trio, self-proclaimed geeky dorks Luke Lalonde, Mitch DeRosier and Steve Hamelin play skewed melodic pop with bits of harmonium, piano and ‘hootin and hollerin’ dribbled into the mix to shake things up a bit. Their Hummingbird track recently featured on the Orange TV ads, they tread the boards now to plug their new Little Garçon (Warp) EP, the title track a soothing, lapping waves ditty that conjures images of more laid back Beach Boys circa Smiley Smile. On the other hand, Ready For Bed is an itchy bon tempi mood hula sway instrumental, Coldness Hot a toy orchestra sounding robot’s dream dance with Wedding Rings And Midnight Strollers a more conventional excursion into languid watery indie pop.

With quirky sensibilities buzzing under the surface, the live set’s likely to be an interesting experience that may even see them get a bit loud at times, but on the whole if you’re looking to match your Brian Wilson with your Animal Collective this is the place to be. 8pm. £6. 444Club, The Rainbow, Digbeth

Thursday September 18

Nickleback

Three years after its original release as All The Right Reasons climb into the Top 20, this year’s reissue took it to the No 2 slot in the wake of the Rockstar single’s huge success at the end of 2007. That in turn saw a re-release for the Bon Jovi-like Photograph finally cracking the Top 20 to be followed by another chart appearance for Rockstar.

Now the Canadians are gearing up for the eagerly anticipated as yet untitled album which will doubtless get some serious spotlighting here along with Far Away, the last to be spawned from All The Right Reasons, and the new album’s kick off single If Today Was Your Last Day. 7.30pm. £32.50. NEC

Thursday September 18

Keith Caputo

Anyone expecting the Life of Agony frontman to regurgitate his band’s mosh pit friendly alt-metal for solo album A Fondness For Hometown Scars (Suburban) is in for a bit of a surprise. Sure Troubles Down has a touch of the Motorhead and Devil’s Pride is a Sabbath-like rocker, but otherwise what you get is tender, piano ballad dominated mellow emo with (as on Crawling) hints of the Beatles and, on the lengthy Sad Eyed Lady, even Pink Floyd.

You may not be able to throw the limbs about when he launches into the heartfelt guitar and violin framed Silver Candy, a chiming guitar In December, the weary acoustic encouragement to carry on In This Life or the big building stadium power of Nothing To Lose, but it’ll be hard to resist not melting and swaying along to their charms. And if he drops in the lovely jazzy-blues narcotics of Bleed For Something Beautiful with its mournful trumpet then be prepared to be lifted heavenwards in reverie. 7pm. £10. Carling Academy 2

Thursday September 18

Hayes Carll

Born in Houston, dues paid in Galveston's Gulf Coast dives, Carll clicked with his self-released second album, Little Rock. Now he's back with Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway), a collection of Texas country-rock informed by such acknowledged influences as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard and given musical muscle by guest players like Al Perkins and Dan Baird. Indeed, the twangy swagger of the marvellous Bad Liver And A Broken Heart sounds like a meeting between Clark and Baird's old band The Georgia Satellites.

A good time mood hangs around the album's shoulders, the songs stitched with observations from hard lived experience and the characters who've crossed his sightlines. Figures like the "barefoot shrimper with a pistol up his sleeve" in the low slung bluesy I Got A Gig, the wild lover who "likes to lay naked and be gazed upon" in Drunken Poet's Dream, the banjo dappled love story of the Girl Downtown "with freckles on her nose, pencils in her pocket and ketchup on her clothes" and the lovelorn guy with the single white rose trying to win a hard heart in Beaumont.

Musically, he keeps pretty much to the template of southern honky tonk and barroom country, Faulkner Street even swinging like Billy Swan's I Can Help and from the likes of the slap-swing Wild As A Turkey and the Clark-sounding Knocking Over Whiskeys, you can bet he's done more than his share of sampling the wares as well as entertaining the customers.

Other than a fine slow country lurch cover of Tom Waits' I Don't Wanna Grow Up, all the material's self-penned, the songs revealing that, along with a keen eye, Carll also has a wry sense of tongue in cheek humour, notably so on She Left Me For Jesus where a clueless redneck complains about his girlfriend dumping him for "that freak in his sandals with his long purty hair".It might not get him too many gigs in the Bible belt, but he's always going to be welcome where they serve long tall cold ones. 7.30pm. £11. Glee Club

Friday September 19

Gym Class Heroes

Two years on from tearing up the charts with songs like The Queen And I, Clothes Off and Cupid’s Chokehold, the quartet return with third album The Quilt (Fuelled By Ramen) and a further amalgam of rap, hip hop, rock and reggae. Full album’s weren’t available for preview, but opening single Cookie Jar is a dreamy beats slice of falsetto hip hop pop while Peace Sign/Index Down is a tumbling rap with Busta Rhymes while Blinded By The Sun sounds like a lost UB40 track. As for the rest, you’ll just have to get your shorts and sneakers down to the exercise mat to find out. 6pm. £13. Carling Academy 2

Saturday September 20

The Academy Is...

Although, to some extent, most bands playing emo punk pop are fairly interchangeable, TAI’s third album, Fast Times At Barrington High (Fueled By Ramen) stands out from the crowd by sheer dint of the quality of their catchy melodies and nagging hooks.

Fronted by William Beckett, they sound fresher than ever as he and the boys romp through tales of high school life and loves, opening with rebuffed heart single About A Girl and bouncing through a succession of jubilantly upbeat guitar pop songs like the chugging girls and cars of Summer Hair = Forever Young, the clandestine kisses of the impossibly glorious His Girl Friday and prom last dance and fumbled embrace swayer After The Last Midtown Show where he sings about “the best days of our life!”

They’re growing up too. Coppertone may be about ‘the trials of our youth’, but Beware! Cougar! (their Mrs Robinson number), Paper Chase (about leaving home) and One More Weekend are all recognition that youth passes and time and people move on. It’ll be interesting to see where the next album takes them, but they’ve certainly graduated with honours.

Support comes from Florida’s We The Kings, another punk pop crew with bubblegum chewy melodies, a nasal vocalist and songs about scoring or breaking up with girls. Their self-titled debut (Virgin) gets a belated UK release to go with the tour, bursting with familiar effervescence, infectious hooks and teenage heart guitars on the likes of Check Yes Juliet, Secret Valentine and a Blink-inclined Stay Young while This Is Our Town shows off their reflective anthemic piano ballad side. But spread across an album, as they themselves say in Don’t Speak Liar, it all begins to sound like you’ve heard it before and while their power pop fizz may lift you up in the moment there doesn’t seem too much there to keep you or them afloat. 7.30pm. £11. Barfly

Saturday September 20
Voodoo Six

Songwriter Tony Newton having won a plagiarism claim against Velvet Revolver for nicking the melody and guitar riff from Cyber Babe, a song by his previous outfit, Dirty Deeds, doubtless the Brit hard rockers should be in jubilant mood, They’re currently on the road plugging Feed My Soul (White Knuckle), the Guns n Roses sounding single from their remixed and reissued First Hit Free debut album. Sporting Aerosmith, Maiden and Sabbath influences, they’re being touted as the band to put homegrown hard rock back in the spotlight. They may well do.
7.30pm. £5. Little Civic

Monday September 22

Sam Beeton

The high voiced 19 year old Nottingham singer-songwriter’s being touted as the big new pop thing, but there’s nothing new or big about debut album No Definite Answer (RCA). Pretty much everything here sounds to have been borrowed from or heavily influenced by artists old enough to be his grandfather. There’s Squeeze (Mocha Mocha, This Is Where We Are), The Monkees (Finally Gone), Paul Simon (Under The Fence, Sweet Luigi), and any number of Beatles, Beautiful South, Graham Nash, Lilac Time and other 60s shaded folk-pop hybrids. Given dad was in minor division punk outfit The Drain, you have to wonder whether it’s a deliberate musical rebellion.

There’s undeniably some catchy tunes, not least the What You Look For single (another Squeeze echo with a dash of Nilsson), but as Trouble And Strife shows he shouldn’t be let within 100 miles of a blues-jazz shuffle while the bluesy flamenco guitar and piano based Angels Gather Here with its Lennonish outro is just embarrassing. Blandly pleasant and totally forgettable, file under the new Chesney Hawkes. 7.30pm. £6. Barfly

Monday September 22

The Little Ones

With no review copy provided of debut album Morning Tide (Heavenly), it’s a bit hard to second guess where the LA power pop quintet are at these days. Their mini-album, Sing Song, offered seven slices of catchy Anglocised California guitar pop with a strong Kings influence with the Lovers Undercover single all summer jangle. Lifted from the new album, follow up Ordinary Song followed the same blueprint, marrying bits of XTC, Beatles and Magic Numbers while the title track current single is yet more upbeat, mellotron dripping bouncy pop. Apparently the album has a couple of vaguely darker moments, but it’s a reasonable bet tonight’s gig is going to be all about smiles and fizz. 7pm. £6.50. Bar Academy

Tuesday September 23

Millencolin

Given Machine 15 (Epitaph) is the Swedish pop punk outfit’s seventh album, they’re obviously doing something right. Hard to see what, though, since this is a rote collection of the sort of choppy power pop riffs, bouncy chords and snarly vocals churned out by every Green Day/Blink emulator that’s come along in recent years.

The opening title track and Done Is Done hark back to their earlier days but from then on in pretty much all the tracks have been sweetened up for radio and are pretty much interchangeable. There’s nothing intrinsically bad about the likes of Detox, Broken World, Route One or the finger to the critics Who’s Laughing Now, but their three chord punk pop has now reached such saturation level that you’ve got to bring something special to the party to stand out from the crowd. And this album is just another face. 7.30pm. £15. Carling Academy 2

Tuesday September 23

The Metros

Trashy, scuzzed Larndan punk rock sung in an overemphasised Guy Ritchie movie accent with sweary laced tales of sex, booze, bank robbing, shooting and generally being in trouble with the law, lyrically coming across like Squeeze’s bratty young brother, debut album More Money Less Grief (1965) isn’t one to slip in the stereo when the vicar pops in for tea. However, for the post Libertines army and laced with dashes of ska skank, numbers such as Sexual Riot, Last Of The Lookers, the rockabilly biased Missing In Action, Robbin Hood and the slightly more musically adventurous Education Part 2 will keep the lager and mosh genes satisfied, though Too Many Hannah’s attempt to show their quieter, weary downcast ballad side doesn’t bode well. 7pm. £7. Bar Academy

Tuesday September 23

Neil Halstead

The Mojave 3 frontman’s hitched his wagon to the Jack Johnson family train and signed to the surf-songsters Bushfire label for new solo album, Oh! Mighty Engine. But if there’s a little more of the beach campfire glow to the feel, he’s remained faithful to his English acoustic folk-pop roots and soft murmured delivery. So, if you’re looking for those Nick Drake and co reference points then you don’t have to search far with Witless Or Wise, Little Twig, No Mercy For The Muse, and the gently rolling slopes of the title track all laidback, wistful and leafy with the prerequisite finger picking guitar and literate lyrics. And, if anything, Baby, I Grew You A Beard is even folkier than those, vaguely recalling Jackson C Frank or the young Ralph McTell while Paint A Face has a similar vibe to Simon & Garfunkel’s Punky’s Dilemma.

Even with the beats behind Queen Bee and a poppy A Gentle Heart, it’s all too slight and sublime to open any commercial success floodgates, but armed with a chilled wine and a few fireflies it affords ample mellow charms. 7.30pm. £6. Little Civic

Wednesday September 24

Teddy Thompson

Having seen chum Rufus Wainwright soar free of his father's shadow and become both critically feted and huge commercial success, Richard and Linda's offspring follow in his spangly footsteps with fourth album A Piece Of What You Need (Blue Thumb) marking his Top 10 debut.

There's hints of dad there but more obvious reference points would be Orbison, Springsteen, McCartney and, on Jonathan's Book, the heady glories of Roddy Frame. Kick off single, In My Arms, is just fabulous, twangy Orbisonesque mid tempo rockabilly pop with a carnival feel and Doug Sahm organ and, were there any justice, would be a massive hit.

But then the album leaks catchy tunes. The self-flagellating opening The Things I Do has that hood down, open road Springsteen strummed chugging feel, Where To Go From Here is a shuffling country waltz, One Of These Days a brass blasting Jerry Lee Lewis rocker, and both the cascading 60s country pop melody of Don't Know What I Was Thinking and the closing title track's marching beat call to embrace life make you want to dance down the street.

Addressing despair and happiness with equal wit and humour, Thompson again proves a master lyricist and, on the mordantly sly Turning The Gun On Myself even conjures the great Randy Newman. "I need ten more years to get to good" he sings on the hand-slapping rock n roll gospel blues Can't Sing Straight. He's wrong, he's at great already.

Opening the evening will be Australian born New York based songstress Sandrine. Daughter of a minister and child singer with a Christian version of the Partridge Family, she kicked religious music into touch as a teenager and discovered the devil’s tunes in rock n roll. Not that she’s some ballsy rock chick. Recorded near Woodstock, latest album Dark Fades Into The Light (Nettwerk) is much more in tune with 60s soul infused classic Brill Building pop. Indeed, songs like the breathy voiced Let The Love, a gently scuffling organ backed gospel hued Love And Pain, the 3am slow dance moods of Red Shoes and the hushed pairing of Sea Of Love and Late Night Insomnia are likely to summon thoughts of Carole King, Laura Nyro, and maybe even Pet Clarke. Riding a bluesy vibe sounds a little like On Broadway while the pub piano jangled Julietta comes over like a distaff early Billy Joel and the lullaby inclined Eleven shows her slinkier, sensual colours. Definitely worth arriving early to sample. 7.30pm. £11. Glee Club

Wednesday September 24

Rolo Tomassi

Ear bleeding, skull crushing hardcore extreme noise, art jazz-rock experimentation and spaced prog funk from Sheffield, the quintet’s Hysterics (Hassle) album isn’t something you’ll slip into the stereo to lull you off to sleep. Mixing up schizoid time signatures, manic riffs, guttural doom metal howls, bleepy synths, hammering drums, abstract fragmented rhythms and white noise numbers like I Love Turblence, Abraxas, Scars, Fantasia, Macabre Charade and An Apology To The Universe are what might result from a random splicing of Soft Machine, King Crimson and Underoath. Acoustic ballads not anticipated. 7.30pm. £6. Barfly

Wednesday September 24

White Lies

With a definite Bryan Ferry touch to the vocals and an air of Editors to the big sound dramatics, building on predecessor Unfinished Business, the London post punk trio’s succinctly titled new single, Death (Fiction), should easily see them on next year’s bands to make it big list.

Likewise support crew The Joy Formidable, a North Wales trio fronted by feisty femme Ritzy. While The Greatest offers a punky synth pop sound, they’re more usually larded up with buzzsaw guitar and circling bass. Making their debut with Austere (Another Kitchen), sashaying from poppy coo to spiky sonics, it’s a little early to make predictions but you’d certainly be advised to keep a close eye on their cred status.

Filling out the line up are Leamington’s very own beats and bass four piece Post War Years who’ll doubtless be dribbling the angular melting ice moods of Latin Holiday and the Clor meets Talking Heads drum and bass of That’s All. 7.30pm. £7. Little Civic

Thursday September 25

The Rascals

Prior to touring with Arctic Alex Turner as part of The Last Shadow Puppets. Miles Kane briefly returns to the day job fronting his indie trio to give another boost to debut album Rascalize. So, that’ll be well worn set list favourite the 60s surf retro Freakbeat Phantom and similarly noir soundtrack inclined tunes like The Glorified Collector, Does Your Husband Know You Are On The Run, darkling waltz Stockings To Suit, the itchy Fear Invicted Into The Perfect Stranger and a scratchy Bond Girl with yet more surf guitar and thumping drums. To tie in with the dates, they’re lifting live favourite I’ll Give You Sympathy as the new single, its twangy dark guitars and shadowy alleyways moods quite possibly giving them their first Top 40 hit. 6.30pm. £4. Kasbah, Primrose Hill Street, Coventry

Friday September 26

Aidan Jolly

A nasally voiced contemporary folk singer and multimedia artist with a strong socio-political conscience and reggae, blues, jazz and Asian musical influences, Jolly's material tends to focus on the struggle of communities and places but also throws in some offbeat love songs too.

Last time around he was promoting debut album System Fault with its songs about Liverpool Dockers, the BNP, sweatshop labour, the bloody history of Christian colonisation and Jeffrey Archer. Now, again featuring violinist Jila Bakhshayesh and Indian percussionist Jaydev Mistry, he’s showcasing new release State of Hysteria (Well Red), another collection of issue driven protest songs.

This time, in a more trad folk frame of musical mind, he’s tackling the manipulative control of agenda driven propaganda radio (Radio Independence), eco issues (What Makes A Place), the Iraq war from an indigenous perspective (Just Another Day In Baghdad), the de Menezes shooting and climate of fear paranoia (the spare, mournful State of Hysteria) and the homesickness of Kurdistan refugees (dirge lament The Singing Of Water), the latter two numbers both featuring Bakhshayesh on vocals

The displacement experience also forms the backbone of Captives while Ghost Hill Farm, The Tortoise And the Hare and Swallows share a theme about the damaging impact industrial development and progress has on the rural landscape and communities. He’s not got the strongest of voices, but with commitment and concern oozing from every word, it should be a potent evening. 8pm. £3. Tower of Song, Cotteridge

Friday September 26

Dennis Locorriere

After last year’s tour dedicated solely to the songs of Dr Hook, their former lead singer returns with a mixed set list drawn from the band’s hits and his own solo material. So, along with Hook staples such as Sylvia’s Mother, A Little Bit More, Ballad of Lucy Jordan and If Not You there’ll be songs like Shine Sun and Passion Street from Out Of The Dark alongside a fair sample from the recent One Of The Lucky Ones which includes such trademark country inflected easy listening romantic ballads as If You Had A Heart, Underneath The Moon and Guess Again alongside funkier single The Truth as well as a gospel styled reading of the evergreen Misty Blue. He’s also putting the finishing touches to Alone In The Studio, an album of ‘lost’ solo recordings from 2004 that will be on sale on the night and features Queen Of The Silver Dollar, The Wonderful Soup Stone, A Couple More Years and If Not You. 8pm. £18.50. B’ham Town Hall

Saturday September 27

Kate Rusby

Along with Seth Lakeman, Rusby’s proven the most successful of the young tradition movement in finding commercial crossover success. She’s back here for a reminder of Awkward Annie (Pure), an album stained with the pain of her divorce and the death of various relatives on the likes of the self-penned title track, The Bitter Boy, Planets and Daughter of Heaven.

It’s not all about gloom, though. Hope spreads its rays across High On A Hill and a fine reading of the traditional Streams Of Lovely Nancy while even Farewell’s tale of lovers torn apart by death looks to a reunion in the life beyond.

Having included the excellent cover of The Kinks’ The Village Green Preservation Society she recorded for Jam And Jerusalem, she recently released a single of her stripped down achingly plaintive version of Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where The Time Goes from the same series, which she’ll hopefully be showcasing in what promises to be yet another memorable live show. And while it may be a little early, there’s always the chance she might try out one of the numbers she’s currently recording for her Christmas album. 7.30pm. £20. Birmingham Town Hall

Sunday September 28

Iglu & Hartly

A LA five piece with their hearts in 80s surf funk, trading in raps, synths, pop and hip hop for the electro-funk of party vibe debut album And Then Boom (Mercury). It’s all very California dude and despite the macho cred swearing on some of the tracks, clealry has pop sensibilities firmly directed at mass airwaves saturation.

There’s an inevitable touch of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Eminem but then catchy kick off single In This City sounds a lot like they’ve listened to Jefferson Starship too. Fronted by the flamboyant Jarvis Anderson and Sam Martin, the likes of the summery Scissors Sisters pop flurry Dayglo, a swaggery Believe, Violent And Young with its odd mix of Hall & Oates and Dead Or Alive in the melody lines and a handclappy Whatever We Like are clearly there to ensure a good bounce around good time while a Pet shop Boys hinting Build demonstrates musical muscle too.

They caused something of a sensation with their festival gigs, so you can expect this to a somewhat cramped gig when it comes to moving the dance limbs. 7pm. £6. Bar Academy

Tuesday September 30

The Automatic

What’s that coming over the hill? Actually, it’s the difficult second album and anything but a monster. Keyboardist and yelper Alex Pennie no longer part of the team to be replaced by Yourcodenameis:milo’sPaul Mullen on guitar, they’ve settled into early guitar pop middle age, bashing out big noise numbers pretending to be serious indie rock rather than the chart chasers of their albatross hit. It also means they do a lot of grumpy whinging about how everybody lies and distorts the truth, be it the press (Magazines), movies (Bad Guy) or the music biz (Accessories) and, since they’ve grown up now, they have a knock at binge-drinking, doing things to excess and the self-deluded who think they can control it (Responsible Citizen).

Now, it has to be said there are some catchy moments; Responsible Citizen’s chorus hook, the juddery Magazines, an 80s rock stained The Ship, the fuzzy pop swell of In The Mountains. And, if first single Steve McQueen was a bit of a plod, the romping terrace anthem singalong Secret Police should certainly rectify matters.

But, ultimately, just as the first album was accused of sounding samey, the same’s true here, albeit on a different sonics scale. Nothing has any real lasting quality and if this is the fix, maybe they’d have been better off leaving things broken.

Support is upcoming Camden quartet Operahouse, following up their Born A Boy and limited edition Diane singles, they’ll be previewing their as yet untitled debut album with Geordie singer Johnny Lloyd parading his obvious Ziggy era Bowie influences on Machine Palace, Red Hats For The Masses, Kidnap For Suburbia and the excellent Change In Nature while Genius Child recalls the Eastern colours of first single Man Next Door. 7.30pm. £11. Carling Academy 2

Tuesday September 30

The Redwalls

Having released it in 2003 and then updated it, the Chicago outfit are probably fed up with promoting debut album Universal Blues (Fargo) by now. Well, they’ll have to stick with it a bit longer since its belated UK release seems likely to boost demand for their jangly guitar 60s retro rock with its mix of Merseysound, British Beat and surf pop influences. Speed Racer is Hamburg period Beatles hanging out with Jan & Dead singing Larry Williams’ Bad Boy, It’s All Right sees singer Logan Baren doing Lennon fronting early Stones swagger, and It’s Love You’re On imagines Lennon & McCartney getting together with Ray Davies.

A little further up the years, Colourful Revolution patently channels Stealer’s Wheel’s Stuck in The Middle while, by way of more homegrown flavours, Balinese sounds like the ZZ Top song of the same name with added Crazy Horse riff, How The Story Goes is the Fab Four doing country and I Just Want To Be The One is so faithful to the sound of Highway 61 Revisited even Dylan might wonder whether he actually wrote it. With 2005’s De Nova and last year’s eponymous album still to come, this seems like the perfect time to get in on the flowing tide. 8pm. £4. The Sound Bar, Corporation St, B’ham

Tuesday September 30

Travis

Now back on their own label and so energised they recorded the new album in just two weeks, Fran Healy and the boys return in mature reflective mood with Ode To J Smith (Red Telephone Box), building on the return to form of last year’s surprisingly undervalued The Boy With No Name.

If that was swathed in an optimism that reflected in the melodies, this is about urgency and sense of focused purpose, opening with the resonating piano rocker Chinese Blues conjuring thought of Neil Young while J Smith itself is more a cocktail of McCartney and Steely Dan, until it throws in a choir, pulsing keyboard note, raging guitar solo and massive operatic finale. It’ll be something live!

Elsewhere you might find yourself musing about Radiohead (Something, Anything, Broken Mirrors), Oasis (Long Way Down), U2 (swelling stadium anthem Song To Self) and, on the percussion galloping maybe even a bizarre mixture of Led Zep, Bolan and the Wonder Stuff. There’s no Driftwood or Sing this time around, but this is less about instant musical fixes and an album that will grow with you over time. Something which, on this evidence, the band still have plenty of in reserve.

Support comes from Birmingham’s very own Guillemots, still looking to recover lost momentum in the wake of the inexplicably poorly received Red (Polydor), an album of astonishing ambition and musically diversity that soars from the massive orchestral pop of Kriss Kross to the sleazy Prince funk of Big Dog, from the Glitter Band glam stomping Get Over It to stadium folk ballad Words. 7.30pm. £18.50. Wulfrun Hall

Thursday October 23

Blood Red Shoes

After failing to chart with the six singles (seven if you count the reissue of You Bring Me Down) featured on debut album Box Of Secrets (V2), itself barely scraping into the Top 50, the Brighton duo must be wondering what to do next. Their blueprint of US influenced snarly punk a la Fugazi and Babes in Toyland has earned a solid fan base, but they don’t seem to have been able to build upon it. The folk shades to the juddery pop Take The Weight and the five minute stadium basher Hope You’re Holding Up show they have the ambition and textures to explore further afield, so maybe next year might be a good time to take the step before new footwear fashions take over. Support from hardcore extreme noise, art jazz-rock and spaced prog funk experimentatalists Rolo Tomassi. 7.30pm. £8. Carling Academy 2

Thursday October 23

The Datsuns

Last time around, touring Smoke & Mirrors, there was a feeling that the New Zealand punks had driven themselves up a dead end alley with their recycling of the Stooges, Saints, Led Zep and Aerosmith songbooks. Now they’re back with a new label (Cooking Vinyl) and a new album, the anagrammatic Headstunts. And it’s clear they’ve not even bothered to look for a crack in the walls they could break through.

So, more aggressive adrenalised blues charged riffery with loud ragged guitars and relentless drums except this time Your Bones adds a smidgen of punky Bowie swagger to the mix while High School Hoodlums is probably fonder of a Gary Glitter backing than it should be. Heavy hitters Ready Set Go!, Pity Pity Please and Human Error will keep the mosh mob happy and Eye Of the Needle has a dash of psychedelic acid rock for the stoners, but ultimately, this is just so much forgettable noise. 7pm. £10. Kasbah, Primrose Hill Street, Coventry

Friday October 24

Peter Broderick

A singer-songwriter/composer from Oregon and sometime touring member of Danish outfit Efterklang, Broderick’s likely to be more at home in a dubbing studio scoring soundtracks for indie dramas than playing solo shows, but you’ve got to prod CD sales somehow. So, he’s out and about to launch Home (Bella Union), an album of hushed, ethereal beauty and songs loosely themed around the search to find roots.

Opening with the multi-tracked vocals and field recordings that form the ambient Games, he offers gently strummed Nick Drake sunny meadow folk (And It’s Alright),a little young Paul Simon (With The Notes In My Ears), woozy mountain folk instrumental (Esbern Snares Glade 11, 2tv) and watery, contemplative Red House Painters style minimalist roots blues (Not At Home). It’s all very hushed and lo fi, so be careful not to drown the man out with the sound of your breathing. 7.30pm. £8. Tin Angel, Taylor John’s House, Coventry

Saturday October 25

Emily Barker

A three act package tour, this is actually a headline gig by Frank Turner, back out plugging Love, Ire & Songs fine collection of angry acoustic songs about the personal, the political, the underdogs and the defiant dreamers. He’s just released the upliftingly poignant Long Live The Queen as a single while, as coincidence would have it, label-mate support turn Chris T-T mirrors the monarchic thinking by lifting his angry five minute Kratwerk influenced (We Are) The King Of England from the Capital album to tie in.

However, on a quieter note, the real focus of interest here has to be the Australian born former Low Country singer Barker who’s launching Despite The Snow on her own Everyone Sang label, the follow up to acclaimed solo debut Photos.Fires.Fables.

Recorded live in a Norfolk barn over a snowy Easter weekend with her all female string and woodwind band Red Clay Halo, taking its title from a Robert Graves poem it’s another lovelorn excursion into spooked Americana and old school banjo plucked backwoods trad folk that will conjure thoughts of Gillian Welch, Laura Veirs, the Be Good Tanyas and, on Breath especially, the golden age of Emmylou.

Opening on woozy harmonium notes for the reflective Nostalgia, Barker quickly sets the standard for what’s to follow. Most immediately is All Love Knows which adds Natalie Merchant to the comparison tally and, with its image of wind bending the poplars, perfectly captures the wintry but warm mood of the album. And so it goes, Anna Jenkins’ fiddle taking control of the tempo gathering instrumental jig If It’s All

Night Long, a spooked banjo providing the underpinning pulse to Storm In A Teacup, Breath taking a country waltz through the pines, and Barker navigating through the sometimes troubled, sometimes soothing waters of love on standouts like The Greenway, the Shaker hymn-like Oh Journey and the appropriately sunny Bright Phoebus.

Perm any of these with nuggets such as Blackbird, Reason For The Rain and If Love Could Save off her debut, and you’ll be demanding her return for a headline show of her own as soon as possible. 7.30pm. £8. Barfly

Sunday October 26

Funeral For A Friend

Despite its Top 3 chart placing, the Tales Don’t Tell Themselves album didn’t quite make the Welsh posthardcore emo five piece the world conquerors it should have, which may well explain why they’ve left Atlantic and resurface on their own Join Us label for Memory And Humanity and their first UK dates since the departure of founder member bassist Gareth Davies and the arrival of Gavin Burrough.

They certainly deserve to crush all opposition this time round, opening the attack with a throaty Rules And Games with its piston pumping guitars and proceeding through a molten lava of melodic riffs that embrace jubilant single Kicking And Screaming, the pounding Constant Illuminations, a guitar chopping Beneath The Burning Tree, and industrial strength screamo Waterfront Dance Club.

Although closer to debut Casually Dressed And Deep in Conversation than its predecessor, they’re still willing to push down the walls of their pigeonholes, the hook laden Maybe I Am setting sights on big music U2 stadium anthemics, the terrific mid-tempo tumbling Charlie Don’t Surf suggesting early REM pop while Constant Resurrections and Buildings both play the stripped down acoustic card with a hand of aces and kings. Join the cortege now, they’re going to be unstoppable.

Support comes from Cardiff quartet Attack! Attack! (not to be confused with post-hardcore electro Ohio six piece Attack Attack!), whose self-titled album (Rock Ridge) offers a solid set of grunge and pop-punk influences, chewed out with loose limbed guitars, snarly bass, heads down percussion and Neil Starr’s semi-shouty vocals. They sound not a million miles from fellow Welshmen Lostprophets (whose Stuart Richardson produced) but with some of the American colours of Fall Out Boy and (on Honesty and Lights Out) the rockier Blink 182 clones.

The sweat spraying This Is The Test and a pummelling Time Is Up are shaping up to be mosh about live favourites while numbers like Too Bad Son and Home Again should fare even better in America as they will with here. 7pm. £15. Carling Academy

Sunday October 26

The Week That Was

One for art rock and literature fans alike, TWTW is actually Peter Brewis from Sunderland collective Field Music and his eponymous solo debut is a crime thriller concept album inspired by the writings of novelist Paul Auster and a cynical view of society’s relationship with the media that feeds it the news, opinions and misinformation.

To be taken entire rather in individual bites, it’s an intriguing work, both lyrically and in musical influences that clearly lean towards the likes of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Roger Waters, the less pappy Genesis and, at times, even the pop sensibility of Squeeze.

Offering different perspectives on the story with each song, drawn from a cast of the involved and the onlookers, it opens with the pattering beats and echoing drums of Learn To Learn before proceeding through the pop-funk The Good Life (shades of Level 42 perhaps), the rippling Oriental synth shades of It’s All Gone Quiet and The Airport Line’s piano, strings and puttering percussion train journey.

The seven minute progrock epic Yesterday’s Paper is a perfect testament to Brewis’ wide-ranging musical abilities, his slightly thin nasal voice the only downside, never quite bringing the emotional resonance something like Come Home’s melancholic meditation on loneliness needs. Not a gig for idle chatter, one suspects, but with a playing time of just over half an hour, it’s to be hoped he has a sequel on the set list too. 7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy

Monday October 27

One Night Only

Having done Chas n Dave indie pop with You & Me and then married Simple Minds and Pulp on Just For Tonight, the Yorkshire quintet continue to plugging debut album, Started A Fire (Vertigo) in similar jaunty singsong down the pub form. It’s About Time is a breezy ivories bashing tune, Sweet Sugar tumbling pop, He’s There a bouncy little rock pop number and Start Over one of several with the U2 style guitar bits. But, while Time and It’s All right seem them getting to grips with slower material, ultimately it all begins to shade into sameness, suggesting that in the great calendar of pop careers, they may be well named.

They’re supported by General Fiasco, a much touted Derry trio who’ve been winning friends on the festival circuit with a sound pitched somewhere between The Killers and The Undertones and songs that deal in the fall out from bad or broken relationships. They’re working on a debut album, so there should be plenty of road testing tasters in the set including Dancing With Girls, Ever So Shy, A Wise Decision and I Like It When You're Naked alongside upcoming live favourite single, the jerky pop Rebel Get By (Another Music=Another Kitchen). It would be wise to board the bandwagon early. 7.30pm. £10.50. Carling Academy

Monday October 27

Mystery Jets

A fairly intimate gig this round will allow audience sot get more up close and personal with Blaine Harrison as he and the band work their magic on their decidedly retro flavoured Twenty One (Sixsevenine) album with its skewed collection of songs that tip the hat to 80s synth pop (Two Doors Down), Syd Barrett Floyd (Umbrellahead), 70s summery pop soul (Young Love) and, on Flakes, the quivering big ballads of Chris Martin. They’re releasing the Smiths meets Haircut 100 Half In Love With Elizabeth to tie in with the tour, but with numbers like Veiled In Grey and the suicide-themed piano ballad 21 under their belts, there should be no half measures in your affections. 7.30pm. £11. Glee Club

Tuesday October 28

Beth Rowley

Plastering predictions like The Next Big Thing over the front of her Little Dreamer (Blue Thumb) album seems like courting disaster, but while her anaemic reggaed cover of I Shall be Released should have Dylanophiles stalking her with shotguns, the Bristol based erstwhile Ronan Keating backing singer, comes close to warranting the accolades. First though, she going to have to decide where her focus lies.

Does she want to be a slimline Mama Cass as the sax stroked Oh My Life suggests, is she into blues-country and gospel as represented by her covers of Willie Nelson’s Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground and 60s David Houston hit Almost Persuaded, or does her heart lie in channelling Nina Simone and Etta James as she does on the traditional blues Nobody’s Fault But Mine.

I’d lean towards the latter and, as reinforced by the gospel and revivalist moods of When The Rains Came, Only One Cloud, and the slide guitar accompanied traditional Beautiful Tomorrow, it’s certainly in the deep roots of American folk music that she should readily build her musical church. The congregation could be huge. 7.30pm. £13.50. Glee Club

Tuesday October 28

CANCELLED********James Hunter********CANCELLED

When Hunter released People Gonna Talk two years ago and suddenly everyone was talking about this white boy from Colchester who sounded like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’d sprung from nowhere. The truth is Hunter’s been around for some 25 years waiting to become an overnight success, during which time he built a considerable live following on the London circuit as Howlin’ Wilf & The Vee Jays, releasing three albums before reverting to his own name and recording two solo releases.

‘Discovered’ by Van Morrison, he sang back ups on A Night In San Francisco and Days Like This before finding himself having to busk to make a living. Then a long time fan formed GO Records to provide an outlet for Hunter’s music. Which is where the world sat up and started to notice, People Gonna Talk going on to earn a Grammy nomination.

Now he’s back, and while he’s not playing the size of venues he deserves, he’s on blisteringly hot form with The Hard Way, an album so good the legendary Allen Toussaint flew over to guest on three tracks.

As before, it’s a terrific throwback to old school soul and r&b, the Cooke comparisons to the front again with the title track, Hand It Over and Tell Her but Don’t Do Me No Favours is a New Orleans jazzy horn groove that reminds you of Georgie Fame, Carina and Jaqueline have ska flavours burping beneath their Stax jump jive, Believe Me Baby, Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere and She’s Got A Way conjure thoughts of Ray Charles and Bobby Bland.

Listening to the voice, unadorned by anything other than a shrugging guitar on Strange But True, it’s hard to understand why he’s not been feted before now, but now the spotlight’s finally shining you’d best ensure you’re down the front row to hear what you’ve been missing. As his song says, he’s a Class Act. 7pm. £13. Custard Factory

Wednesday October 29

Hot Chip

Things looked rosy for the casio electropopsters after Ready For The Floor slammed into the Top 10 in February this year and the Made In The Dark album climbed into the Top 5. Unfortunately, the follow up failed to even register in the 50, so they’ll be working hard to regain the momentum with new single Hold On (EMI). Given it’s the best thing on the album, that shouldn’t prove too much of a problem, but even if it comes up short they still have the satisfaction of knowing that things like the Pet Shop technorockabilly One Pure Thought, bass throbber Bendable Posable, and Out At The Pictures still hold a firm grip on the dancefloor. 7.30pm. £16.50. Carling Academy

Wednesday October 29

Viva Machine

More Welsh contenders on the indie rock scene with their angular rhythms, stabbing synths and big hairy guitars, after playing support to The Automatic, the five piece head out on their debut headliner in support of download single Robot Bodyrox, the first to be lifted from next year’s as yet untitled debut album. The band cite Queens of the Stone Age and Daft Punk among the influences, but listen closely and you’ll hear some definite hints of Queen struggling to get out too. Worth keeping an eye on. 7.30pm. £5. Barfly

Wednesday October 29

Robin Thicke

Postponed from earlier this year and relocated to a different venue, at least now the slickly smooth Beverley Hills white soul boy will be touring new material rather than reheating his The Evolution Of album of two years back.

Looking strangely like a young Clark Gable on the album cover, Something Else (Interscope) finds Thicke again indulging a lover for creamy high voiced 70s bedroom soul on things like the samba flavoured You’re My Baby, jazz grooved Ms Harmony, and the Stevie Wonder influenced The Sweetest Love.

He’s a little more contemporary with the scuffed beats and R Kelly style Sidestep while Loverman flecks towards blues with some unexpected banjo tones before slipping back into the Gaye village while, with a stretch of the imagination, you might hear a hint of Led Zep simmering beneath the psychedelic Temptations swaggering Shadow of a Doubt.

Ultimately, his voice is a little on the thin side to warrant going overboard on any Marvin or Alexander O’Neal comparisons, but between the social commentary interracial relationship lyrics of Dreamworld (he’s married to actress Paula Patton) and the Gaye-like album stand-out Magic, he’s clearly going to sell a lot of satin sheets. 7pm. £17.50. Alexandra Theatre

Thursday October 30

My Ruin

If you need persuading that women can sing guttural metalcore as well as any heavily tattooed bloke, then look no further than Tairrie B. She’s fronted the L.A. outfit since 1999, following the demise of her previous band Turu Satana, and she’s not much mellowed over the course of five albums. Savage, raw, vocally brutal and lyrically in your face, she’s like an unleashed pale faced goth demon on stage while the band, pretty much your standard Sabbath riff grinders, lay down the relentless sonic spine.

They’re in town to shift some copies of Alive On The Other Side (Rovena), a live CD and 24 hours on the road DVD recorded in Leeds this January during the Tell Your God Tour tour that sees them skullcrush their way through a set list that includes Memento Mori, Ready For Blood, Burn The Witch, Slide You The Horn, Through The Wound (a song about her car crash and surgery on her arm), new number Ready For Blood and fan favourite Blasphemous Girl. Not one for the faint-hearted, but if you enjoy the feel of blood spilling over the ears, then they’re your pick of the day. 7.30pm. £10. Bar Academy

Thursday October 30

Jane Taylor

‘Discovered’ when Johnny Walker played a track off her self-financed shoe-string debut album on Radio 2 and listener response went crazy, the Bristol singer-songwriter has since found herself supporting the likes of Seth Lakeman, Paulo Nutini and Jools Holland.

She’s now in the solo spotlight to launch her second album, Compass (Bicycle), a collection of songs about the beginnings and ending of relationships, of reflection, and of self-exploration and self-confidence.

Her alternatively hushed and soaring gingham and girlish vocals building on core backing of cello and double bass, the instrumentation also includes piano, banjo, ukulele, violin, the Grimethorpe Colliery Band’s cornet, horn and euphonium on Home and, on the gospel hued closer I Will Get There, even a choir.

While loosely fitting into the folk bracket (Nick Drake touches to Old Friends), her canvas also encompasses shades of blues (Where Is Your Grace?) and jazz (I’m Fine) while piano based numbers like Lay Down Your Sword. Home and the title track evoke a less quirky, more direct Tori Amos reared on Joni Mitchell. The jazzy-folk hypnotic rhythms of opening highlight Cracks also suggests she may have heard some Dave Brubeck along the way.

There’s an infectious summer breeze and dragonflies over rippling waters feel to All Things Change while melancholy leans over the shoulders of Home’s song of self-encouragement to carry on and the marvellous Hallelujah is a tenderly touching, grace-infused memory of childhood at her grandmother’s side.

Weaving quiet charms and emotions that talk to direct to universal everyday emotion experiences, it’s ultimately an album about journeys; you could do worse than become a travelling companion. 7.30pm. £7. Glee Club

Friday October 31

Fleet Foxes

Strip Polyphonic Spree down to its essentials, soak in a brew of church music, Brian Wilson, trad British folk, backwoods Americana and the essence of Tim Buckley and you'll get a hint of what this Seattle quintet refer to as their 'baroque harmonic pop jams'.

On the eponymous debut album, they're the sound of pine angels washed in morning rain, sometimes beating wings to soaring uptempo melodies like Ragged Wood or Quiet Houses at others, as on the spooked dreamscape stillness of Meadowlarks or the leafy acoustic strummed simplicity of Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, bathing in melancholia. Interestingly, listening to both the closing stripped down Oliver James and the choral sounding Blue Ridge Mountains, you'll hear distinct Chinese and Japanese influences at work, more tea gardens than mountain cabins. It's an unlikely exotic touch that adds further lustre to this already beguiling collection. Join the hunt. 7pm. £12. Custard Factory

Friday October 31

Many Things Untold

Part of a Halloween all day bash that includes Australian outfit The Red Shore and American acts The Warriors, The Banner and For The Fallen Dreams, MTU are a teenage metalcore outfit from Cambridgeshire and Essex. Given the inability to make out more than a smattering of lyrics among the guttural raw throat vocals, there hardly seems much point actually titling the tracks on debut album Atlantic (Rising), but for those who like to make a note of these things tracks include Where We Both Belong (where you can distinguish the chorus), Safety In Monotony, Theory of the Fallen, Slovakia and In Oceans. I daresay the initiated will be able to identify where one set of molten brutal riffing ends and the next starts, and, after all, they’re the ones for whom the music’s made. 2pm. £12. Barfly

Friday October 31

Radar Bros

Fronted by songwriter Jim Putnam, with Senon Gaius Williams, Jeff Palmer and Steve Goodfriend, the Bros have been around for over a decade, making Americana infused slow rock veined with a constant melancholia. They’re over here now with Auditorium (Chemikal Underground), deceptively catching listeners off-guard by opening with an almost uptempo When Cold Air Goes To Sleep where the guitars get a bit antsy before slipping into the familiar comfort zone of low key melodies and outdoor-ambience songs peppered by nature, water and animal imagery.

The three step waltzing Lake Life’s the most easy on the ear, Brother Rabbit perhaps the most sleepily laid-back while such numbers as Pomona, A Dog Named Ohio, the piano tinkling Hills of Stone and Hearts Of Crows keep the lethargic wooziness circulating.

On Watching Cows, Putnam sings about, well, watching cows actually, swimming across a river one by one, though obviously this is about more than just bovine observation, just as the accompanying songs deal with deeper facets of the human condition. You have to work at mining them, but, whether on disc or on stage, the rewards are worth it.

Opening the evening will be the no less atmospheric wooziness of Gemma Ray, an Essex songstress variously described as a narcotic Norah Jones, PJ Harvey veined with the Shangri-Las, a female Lee Hazelwood, and the middle ground between Nina Simone and Isobel Campbell. Elements of all such references (as well as a little Thin White Rope) can be validated by hearing The Leader (Bronzerat), an album of noirish blues-country born out of two years of a debilitating mystery illness. Like the headliners, it’s a little lethargic, built around slightly distorted guitars and her honey-smoked voice, but a swampy gospel-blues infused Name Your Lord, a Kate Bush clattering ...The Leader, Dry River’s pulsing musical revisiting of I Put A Spell On You and the haunted desert Bring It To Me crank up the atmospherics while glockenspiel shimmered new single Rise Of The Runts with lines about scribbling in the sand, ably underlines her ability to crafty seductive pop. 7.30pm. £6. Tin Angel, Taylor John’s House, Coventry