Gig Guide Archives September 2010

Previews by Mike Davies

Wednesday September 1

The Depreciation Guild

While it may feature The Pains of Being Pure at Heart members Kurt Feldman and Christoph Hochheim, this isn’t a new side project. Rather the Brooklyn band was formed prior to their current day job and, with Hochheim’s brother Anton on drums, has been taken out of mothballs between Pain activities.

They’re not entirely world aparts, but The Spirit Youth (Kanine) has a slightly heavier edge to its reverb drenched dreamlike power pop as evidenced by such tracks as the pounding Through The Snow, a pulsing November, the psychedelic colours of the title track and the shoegaze bliss of My Chariot. Drawing on such influences as Bill Nelson, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Cocteau Twins and Pale Saints, they perform backed by a Nintendo Entertainment System, the saturated sound enveloped by the 8-bit sound chip which, in layman’s terms, basically means you’ll feel the music as much as you hear it. 8pm. £7. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Friday September 3-Sunday September 5

Moseley Folk Festival

Another year and, even if they’ve again passed over Birmingham’s superlative Red Shoes, another star-studdedly impressive line up of folk in its various hues. Whatever the weather, the sun’s shining from these stages.

Fri:

Among those over at the Lunar stage you’ll find Tyneside’s Beth Jeans Houghton who, with country inflected pop folk somewhere between The Boothill Footappers and Joanna Newsome, deserves promotion to the main event next year, while Static Caravan label-mates Starless & Bible Black will be showcasing the psychedelic 70s folk-rock of current album Shape Of The Shape.

A solid opening day on the Main Stage gets underway with Ben Calvert, followed by Glasgow’s Sparrow And The Workshop’s psychedelic rock, grunge and trad folk and Erland and The Carnival’s retro psych-folk. Then local (though not exactly folk) lad Fyfe Dangerfield provides a taster for his upcoming solo tour with music from the current album and inevitable calls for She’s Always A Woman To Me. You can safely catch up on sleep while Turin Brakes doodle through their pleasantly undemanding soft rock then wake up for headliner The Divine Comedy.

Having had a bit of a chart dip with 2006’s underrated Victory For The Comic Muse, an album reminiscent of early Scott Walker that saw the end of his EMI deal, Neil Hannon’s finally back in action with the own label Bang Goes The Knighthood, still trading in English ennui, Noel Coward wit and orchestral chamber pop, nudging sexual innuendo with the lyrics of Assume The Perpendicular but also finding touching melancholy on Down On The Street’s reflection on stagnant domesticity and sharpening the satirical knife for The Complete Banker, a cabaret ditty for our times that rhymes the titular profession with ‘malignant cancer’. He adopts the same cabaret pose for the title track, the tale of some establishment type indulging his scandal risking addiction to S&M while The Lost Art Of Conversation offers a jaunty Newman-esque lament for our inability and disinclination to talk to one another.

The whimsy can get a little irritating at times (check out Can You Stand On One Leg and At The Indie Disco), but when he gets in direct touch with the heart, as on the 40s flavoured piano skip of Have You Ever Been In Love or the meditation of masculine vulnerability that is When A Man Cries, he surely deserves that gong. Rather depressingly though, it’ll still be National Express the crowds will be calling for.

Sat:

Highlights of the Lunar Stage today come in contrasting form. Kings Heath’s Malpas make tinkling folktronica, Jo Hamilton serves up chilled jazz-folk poise while headliners Goodnight Lenin will be in banjo strumming rumbustious mood following the launch of their debut single.

Across on the Main Stage, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver get the day underway, followed by the new saviour of Scottish trad Alasdair Roberts and, now in his 70s, making his first UK tour in 30 years, 60s folk-blues legend Spider John Koerner.

Then it’s the turn of Johnny Flynn, the once much heralded Mercury Music Prize nominee who got dumped from his major label when that failed to propel the debut album into the charts. Now back with Transgressive, he’s recently released Been Listening which, apparently, has an African influence. However, since promo copies were scarce, it’s impossible to say much more.

A live appearance by The High Llamas is always a welcome if unpredictable treat, Sean O’Hagan and the boys as likely to serve up a set of bossa nova or electronica as folk-rock; either way it should be perfect for a summer dusk. Penultimate act of the day is a welcome festival visit by The Low Anthem with the folk-hymnal and Cohen-esque pleasures of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

“I was the only big solo success apart from Dylan, but musically I was the more creative and influential, and dynamic”. So writes headliner Donovan in his self-regarding not to say self-delusional autobiography. Certainly, he was a 60s icon, releasing wistful love songs like Catch The Wind and Colours, being one of the first of the UK’s folk protest singers with The War Drags On and his cover of Universal Soldier, and going on to become a leading figure of the flower power and hippie movements, recording such classics as Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman, Hurdy Gurdy Man and Goo Goo Barabajagal. But more influential and dynamic than Dylan?

His fey whimsy swiftly fell from favour and the fact is he’s not had a chart single since 1969 and his last hit album, Cosmic Wheels (which contained the juvenile Intergalactic Laxative), was 33 years ago. Even teaming with Rick Rubin for 1993’s Sutras, hoping to do a Johnny Cash, failed to excite anyone and he hasn’t released any new material since Beat Cafe (and some of that was old reworks) flopped six years ago. Since Donovan’s last chart entry, Dylan, has had 32 Top 40 albums and proven a continuing influence on at least two generations of musicians and writers.

Still, Mr Leitch remains an entertaining and enjoyable live performer, especially when he serves up the favourites, and Catch The Wind remains as haunting now as it was in 1965, and this rare outdoor performance should make the evening spark.

Sun:

For the final day it’s worth checking out the Bohemian Jukebox stage to find out what James Summerfield’s up to these days, while well worth attention over at the Lunar platform you’ll find excellent Worcester based Welsh singer-songwriter Deborah Hodgson alongside Eva Cassidy’s fiddle playing brother Dan plus Birmingham’s very own Be Good Tanyas, Little Sister, Ashley Hutchings’ current outfit Rainbow Chasers (featuring Jo Hamilton) and folk dance rousers Cut A Shine.

Currently featured on the new David Rotheray album, Bella Hardy kicks off the final day on the Main Stage, with sets from folk guitar legends Martin Simpson and John Renbourn punctuated by a mazurka knees up with The Destroyers before things ride off into the sunset with the jazz tinged Irish trad of Lunasa, the somewhat more spare tones of The Unthanks and, bidding another year farewell, the all strumming footstopping Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain with their folked-up takes on music by Nirvana, the Pistols and Tchaikovsky. Fri 2pm. Sat/Sun 11am. Fri £28 (12-16s £12), Sat/Sun £37 (12-16s) £15, Fri+Sat £65(kids 25), Sat + Sun £65 (£30), Dri-Sun £77 (£35), Family Fri-Sun £160). Moseley Park

Tuesday September 7

Hugo

Looking a little like Tom Hulce without the beard or Dean Friedman with it, John Hugo Ungar hails from Chicago and plays what he calls indie pop piano rock. Roughly translated that means he sounds a bit like a mix of Billy Joel, Ben Folds and Elton John. He cites Costello as an influence and you’ll hear elements of that too. He also mentions Leon Russell and Michael Jackson, though you’re more likely to hear Gerard Kenny and Rupert Holmes.

He’s over here promoting the belated UK release of his 2008 album, Uncommon Courtesy (Umm), though the costs of touring mean it’s probably just him and a piano rather than the full band.

Either way, his catchy, often wry, whimsical and ever so slightly cynical songs about the relationships combat zone and Woody Allen-ish self-deprecation are worth catching. Numbers like a jaunty Educational Facility, the poppy A Little Piece, A Little Humiliation with its Benny & The Jets piano chord borrowings, the funky Boss Man and the surely Randy Newman modelled Mudsmilin’ are all sprightly, sharply written melodies perfectly crafted to hold the attention of piano bar crowds. Only when he tunes down on the brooding vocodered Cockroach and the somewhat plodding Choke does the attention likely to wander back to the bar.

I’ve no idea what the earlier two albums are like or whether any new material has veered in other directions, but as I suspect he’s probably better live than he is in the studio, this could be worth checking out. Especially since it’s not going to cost you anything. 8pm. Free. Jam House, Jewellery Quarter

Tuesday September 7

Matthews Southern Comfort

Resurrecting his first post-Fairport band name for the first time in 40 years, albeit with none of the various original members save himself, Iain Matthews returns with a line up that features American singer-songwriter Terri Binion sharing vocals and providing five of the songs.

Given his recent excursions into blues-jazz, it’s little surprise to find things spilling over into the folk fabric here, notably so on the Binion-showcasing These Days, and the keyboard arrangements of the Celtic soul O’Donnell Street and a gospel tinted Kingfish. It’s actually on Binion’s Seven Hours and Perfect Love that the country flavours of the early MSC albums resurface, though, as Dear Richard and Locomotive show, she’s equally adept at getting the bluesy soul groove going too.

There are revisitations of three old past Comfort tunes too, a world weary Southern country blues Road To Ronderlin, trad shanty Blood Red Roses (the only real folk track on the album) and, perhaps inevitably, a new version of their chart topping version of Woodstock, though, delivered with minimal instrumentation and a speak-sing vocal with gospel chant back ups, sounding as it might have had Joni Mitchell written in during her Hissing Of Summer Lawns phase.

It might strike some as touch ironic that, given the band revival, the album closes with Money, channelling Matthews’ bitterness at the music business’ concern with cash rather than creativity, but it’s hardly an accusation to be levelled here.

Support comes from Wolverhampton’s excellent songsmith Dan Whitehouse and Birmingham’s fast -if belatedly - rising folk-rock stars Red Shoes. 8pm. £14. Robin 2, Brierley Hill

Wednesday September 8

The Like

Formed by singer-guitarist (Eli)Z(abeth) Berg and drummer Tennessee Thomas (daughter of Cosetllo sticksman Pete) when they were just 15, augmented by bassist Laena Geronimo and Annie Monroe on retro organ, the LA based quartet clearly have a big thing for the 60s British invasion and girl groups.

Listening to new Mark Ronson produced album Release Me (Downtown), its easy to hear both general and specific influences, from the My Girl bassline intro to Narcissus In A Red Dress, the Lesley Gore meets the Shangri-Las of Wishing He Was Dead and the Spector pop of Don’t Make A Sound to the Monkees-like He’s Not A Boy, the title track’s Twinkle and In The End where Spencer Davis’ Keep on Running meets Cliff’s Don’t Talk To Him sung by Petula Clark. I Can See It In Your Eyes even images a marriage of The Animals and The Supremes.

The immediate comparison would be to tag them as a rebirth of The Go Gos, especially given their 60s Vogue cover wardrobe, but spiced liberally with garage pop, Monroe’s cheesy Farfisa chords, and boy trouble songs, there’s more of a 60s r&b flavour bubbling just below the surface. Others like The Pipettes have been this route in recent years and vanished into limbo, hopefully this lot have the songs to keep the retro wheels spinning for a while yet. 8pm. £7.50. The Rainbow

Thursday September 9

Jonsi

photo Lilja Birgisdottir

Go (Parlophone), the solo debut by the Sigur Ros frontman, isn’t really a huge departure from the day job, other than the fact he’s singing in English rather than his vowel dominated invented Hopelandic. Certainly there’s more of the poppier element of the band’s last album in evidence on the falsetto voiced Go Do, a skittering Around Us and the clattery Animal Arithmetic. But, arranged by Philip Glass protégé Nico Muhly, you still get the big cinematic orchestral vistas and angelic choirboy of Tornado, Sinking Friendships, Grow Till Tall and the cello heavy Hengilas. Not exactly, as the blurb would have you believe, ‘the sound of an artist trying new things.’ Maybe the live set will throw in a few surprises.

Meanwhile, those who already love Sigur Ros will adore this gloriously joyful, bursting with life affair equally. Those who wondered what the lyrics were about will listen to the likes of the naive blissful Boy Lilikoki, where he goes on about being a passion-fruit person, and wish they hadn’t. 7.30pm. £18.50. O2 Academy

Friday September 10

Barenaked Ladies

Photo by David Bergman

Still best known here for ‘novelty’ hit One Week, the Canadians haven’t troubled the UK charts since that and accompanying album Stunt, 11 years ago, despite releasing six further albums (one, just for kids) in the interim.

They have, however, never failed to pull in audiences for their rare visits to these shores and there’s no reason to think ticket sales are going to struggle for their first tour since slimming to a four piece with the departure of founding member and lead singer Steve Page last year.

They also arrive with a new album, All In Good Time (Raisin’), a 14 track collection on which co-founder Ed Robertson handles the bulk of the vocals with Kevin Hearn and Jim Creeggan taking up the slack. Page’s voice and songwriting strength’s obviously missed, but his departure’s pushed his former colleagues into playing to their strengths. As such opener You Run Away is a sterling example of stadium friendly soft rock balladeering, Every Subway Car, Golden Boy and How Long are driving guitar rock while Hearne’s midtempo shuffling 60s handclap pop Jerome is one of the nagging highlights.

On the downside, they try far too hard to retain their reputation for quirkiness with Four Seconds, a camel-dance rhythm that looks to repeat the One Week formula but barely makes it past the first day. How their fanbase takes to the new model could determine whether they’ll be back again anytime soon, but for now they have everything to play for. 7pm. £25. O2 Academy

Sunday September 12

Jane Taylor

Having packed the place out last time, it’s a welcome return for the Bristolian singer-songwriter and another chance to sift through the songs from her two albums to date, Montpelier and Compass.

If you’ve yet to discover the charms of her girlish voice and cut to the heart songs, allow me to point you in the direction of numbers such as the Nick Drake tinged Old Friends, the achingly plaintive Fall On Me, All Things Change’s summery breeze and the jazzy-folk of Cracks. She’s currently working on her third album, so there’s a good chance she’ll be roadtesting a couple of new numbers tonight, too. 8pm. £10, Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Monday September 13

Willy Mason

It’s been three years since the New York rootsy singer-songwriter toured here on the back of then current album If The Ocean Gets Rough’s tales of lives bruised by relationships and politics. Blessed with such songs as The World That I Wanted’s account of his alcoholic, late father, melancholic environmental lament When The Leaves Have A Fallen and the bluesy Simple Town’s observation of small town life, it more than warranted the Guthrie, Cash, and Dylan references that have been thrown his way.

Still, a new album’s well overdue and, having taken a stick to the Bush administration’s domestic policy on Save Myself, it’ll be interesting to see what he’s got to say about Obama. Mason’s starting to assemble the follow-up and is likely to be trying out new material, early throaty acoustic samples of If It’s The End, Pickup Truck and Shadows In The Dark suggesting the mood’s going to be sober, downbeat and reflective. 8pm. £11. Glee Club

Monday September 13

Sennen

The Norwich quartet’s first visit since the release of sophomore album Age Of Denial earlier this year also coincides with new EP, Innocence (Hungry Audio). Lifted from the album, the pristine pop title track bounces along like The Byrds teaming with The LAs and hijacking the circling Virginia Plain riff while fellow album cut SOS keeps the chiming but scuffs things up a little more with a loose-limbed bass.

The album itself offers a balance between its urgent distorted guitar riffing of Age Of Denial itself and the lush, shoegazy melodies of Sleep Heavy Tonight and Fall Down, a mood that spills over into the EP’s dreamy Don’t Put Your Love To Waste and the narcotic Velvets mood of Teenage Fan Club cover, December.

As with album epic Broken Promise, a droning seven minutes of Sennen’s Week Away demonstrates how to be self-indulgent and remain musically interesting, and should go down a storm with those who like hanging out in Glastonbury new-age stores. 8pm. £4. The Flapper

Tuesday September 14

Laura Bowen

The actual headliner is Bath singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin, but I’m afraid her too high, one pitched piercing voice and piano make her sound too much like a bad Kate Bush to warrant serious consideration.

So, having had an upsurge of iTunes interest and now with a disarmingly bubbly promo video shot at the Hare & Hounds and Sezer Antonio's Hair Salon in Bearwood with a bunch of local teens, there’s a new push on 14 year old Brummie Bowen’s catchy debut single The Other Girlfriend’s Club. Having listened further, I’d say it’s probably less Bangles, which was my first impression, and a bit more Go Gos. Either way, it should have been at least a minor hit and bodes well for the coming year.

Sharing the bill are more local teens in the form of Faded Cadence, a four piece comprising singer and pianist, Matt Carter; guitarists Chris Jackson and Kaila Whyte with Victoria Hill on violin. They’ve been likened to Sigur Ros with their multi-harmony vocals and you can hear the reference, but with a mix of classical and folk to the piano and violin and Carter’s catch in the throat voice they’re probably more likely to find Snow Patrol and Fyffe Dangerfield analogies increasingly coming their way.

They don’t suffer by comparison and, while their set includes arrangements of You Me At Six’s Finders Keepers and The Swell Season’s Falling Slowly, their own numbers, Fireworks and The Valediction, are actually stronger songs that suggest a bright future ahead.

Also along for the ride is Alex Moir, a19 year old Birmingham singer-songwriter with a gravel throated gruff voice that sounds like a cross between early Dylan and Justin Currie. He knows his way around hooks and melodies while the Damien Rice strum of Lost At Sea and the potential folk rock classic No Beauty Hid are ample evidence of writing prowess. 8pm. £4. Flapper & Firkin.

Friday September 17

Brute Chorus

Having made their debut with a live album, the Cumbrian, Somerset and Southend spawned folk rock blues quartet make a swift return with a sophomore studio set, How The Caged Bird Sings (Vandal). Trailed by the psychobilly Could This Be Love single, it makes a more forceful argument for their case as one of the more promising new names, even if they’re not, ultimately, adding anything new to the Nick Cave inspired canon of garage rock.

New single, Heaven, makes a strident bid for the chart with its thumping drums pattern and singalong chorus but otherwise this is mostly moody, atmospheric and spooked stuff.

On Wife, James Steele sings in a threatening whisper like some predatory stalker, Lazarus melds a reggae shadow with spaghetti gospel, Banged & Blown is the sound of being slurry drunk and dragging your elbows along the pavement as you crawl home, Lyre Bird, Mocking Bird sounds like a skeletal work song while Starlings and is just downright scary.

There’s clear evidence of spirituals influences on something like Whipping Boy with its moaning backing vocals and that’ll be a demented version of The Cramps and Johnny Kidd thrashing all over the rockabilly Birdman.

Bizarrely, it’s an album that makes them sound a better live proposition than the live album itself did, and if they can harness the dark flames that burn here then they could prove unstoppable. 8pm. £6.50. The Flapper, Kingston Row

Friday September 17

Joanna Newsom

Whether she’s brave, ambitious or just wildly optimistic, Newsom not only released a near three hour three disc box set as her last album but is now taking on the 2226 seater concert hall. Which, given she’s never had mainstream airplay, no hit single and the triple set’s brief flirtation with the bottom end of the Top 20 was her highest UK album chart position, is going to require the fan club to be out in force to avoid disheartening rows of empty seats.

And you do have to be a fan because the American harpist/pianist singer-songwriter is a decidedly love-hate proposition with her shimmeringly winsome melodies, confessional cryptic lyrics and a trilling high pitched puckish voice that frequently sounds like an Appalachian Kate Bush. A comparison only reinforced by the piano backed songs.

However, Have One Me (Drag City) did find her exploring musical areas beyond the psych-folk tag of previous releases, checking out blues and jazz and introducing such exotic instruments as Bulgarian tambura and kaval to her harp, keyboard, strings and horns.

Dividing reviews between awestruck and the more circumspect, dubbed variously formless and monumental, if you acquire a taste for the vocals (and things like the terrific jazzy, echoey drum Soft As Chalk and the cacophony of Good Intentions Paving Co show she can do darker rumbles when need be), then it’s easy to lose yourself in her floating world with the intricately beautiful arrangements of numbers such as Red Ribbons, Kingfisher and Go Long..

With many tracks edging well past the six minute mark (the musically acrobatic title track’s 11), she does have a tendency to overdo things yet never falls of the wrong side of the self-indulgence wire. Somehow, it would be hard to imagine her pastoral folk with its plethora of nature images being neatly wrapped up in three minutes.

There’s no indication of a churchgoing upbringing, but there’s a definite southern folk-gospel hymnal feel underpinning Does Not Suffice, a piano ballad that could well prove a defining moment of what’s likely to prove a fascinating live set. 7.30pm. £25. Symphony Hall

Saturday September 18

Fun Lovin’ Criminals

They’ve not had a sniff of the singles charts in almost a decade, their last album peaked at 57 and the current, self-released Classic Fantastic (Kilohertz) failed to even make the Top 100. Yet, with only singer Huey Morgan remaining from the original line-up, their meld of hip hop, funk, blues, jazz and hip hop still manages to draw sufficient crowds to keep the wheels turning. Dwindling sales doubtless means these comprise of old stoners with fond memories of Scooby Snacks and Loco and stalwart fans who stuck by them when their moment in the spotlight dimmed.

The irony is, of course, that the current album is probably their strongest and sunniest since 100% Columbia, with opening cut Mars a bass throbbing chunk of low slung hip hop, the title track revisiting Philly Soul grooves, She Sings At The Sun a tropical Latin cocktail, Rewind all blissed-out haze with Santana guitar and We, The Three a loping, brass swinging self-tribute. It seems unlikely they’ll ever reclaim past heights, but if they keep turning out music like this they won’t lack for a packed dance floor. 7.30pm. £20. Wulfrun Hall

Saturday September 19

Nell Bryden

It’s possible to be too diverse for your own good. Case in point the Brooklyn born singer songwriter who, looking to demonstrate her range, recently released What Does It Take? (157), an album encompassing a cocktail of bluegrass, soul, country, jazz and gospel. It’s a solid selection that includes the roadhouse boogie title track, jazz swing Late Night Call , Nashville rocker Meridian, country soul ballad Not Like Loving You, and the Latin coloured mellow warmth of new single Goodbye.

The problem is that all this, and the single’s Carole King/Norah Jones piano ballad cover of Stevie Wonder’s All In Love Is Fair, tends to paint her as a cabaret or lounge bar artist whereas you suspect that if she focused her strengths more she could be making a bigger impact than she is. 7.30pm. £8. Slade Rooms

Sunday September 19

Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby

A warm welcome back for the husband and wife duo, she the Pittsburgh born singer-songriter purveyor of 60s influenced indie pop, he the English 70s New Wave underdog of Stiff Records. The gig happily coincides with the release of Two-Way Family Favourites (Southern Domestic), an album of cover versions (largely from those two eras) named for the BBC’s 50s/60s Sunday lunchtime Forces Requests radio show with Jean Metcalfe and Cliff Michelmore.

It’s an undeniably eclectic set of choices, each given the couple’s own distinctive approach, embracing a jangling guitar version of Jackie De Shannon’s Put A Little Love, Eric’s plaintively resigned croaky acoustic strummed reading of Petty’s Walls, a psych-folk chiming take on Roger McGuinn’s Ballad of Easy Rider, a chiming guitar folksy revision of You Tore Me Down by the Flamin; Grooves and a beautifully cracked cover of Brian Wilson’s In Your room with a guitar intro filched from REM’s Everybody Hurts.

There’s a couple of excellent obscurities I trust also make it to the live set; PF Sloan’s 60s folk-pop protest I Get Out Of Breath and Silver Shirt, an anthemic end of the line song penned by Nottingham’s Harry Stephenson, lead singer of the criminally overlooked and long defunct Plummet Airlines. I’m a little unsure of what to make of their distorted, fuzzed out sprawl through Smokie’s Living Next Door To Alice, but both it and Amy’s marvellous version of ABBA’s Fernando are guaranteed to get the crowd singalongs going. 8pm. £12. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

Sunday September 19

Delta Spirit

Their name derived from Delta Spirit Taxidermy Station of North Central Alabama, a company run by founder bassist Jon Jameson's great uncle, the San Diego quintet have released two albums to date. They’ve been called a honky tonk Creedence Clearwater Revival, compared to the early Kinks, tagged with 60s protest folk, and likened to the Violent Femmes while debut offering Ode To Sunshine threw up thoughts of Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance with Tomorrow Goes Away with Phil Ochs and John Prine blowing through the 60s anti-war folk protest People Turn Around.

Sophomore album, History From Below (Rounder), nods to Ochs too on the eight minute Ballad Of Vitaly as lead singer Matt Vasquez recounts the story of Vitaly Kaloyev, a Russian architect who stabbed to death the Danish air-traffic controller who’d been on duty when his family were among the 71 (mostly Russian schoolkids) killed in a mid-air collision over Germany.

It’s an emotionally tough number that should provide plenty of electricty live, but they’ve plenty to fire up the blood too with the jangling cantina shuffle of 911’s attack on the commercialisation of war, driving rocker Bushwick Blues, Strange Vine's surf pop and the horns belting, upbeat waltzing Ode To Sunshine which sounds like the Denny Laine era Moody Blues partying at Big Pink.

Even so, it’s the melancholic side that will linger last, especially if they include the hymnal slow country waltzing Vivian and the beautiful Devil Know’s Your Dead, a harvesting of Irish blessings that’s up there with the year’s finest moments.

Support comes from labelmate Nathaniel Rateliff, a world weray Missouri troubadour whose debut album, In Memory Of Loss, delivers a collection of hushed, introspective songs of despair struck through with striking observations.

A perfect case in point is You Should Have Seen The Other Guy, an account of fist and knife fight sung as a dusty ballad while equally strong introductions to his work would have to include the toe-tapping border-folk tinged A Lamb On The Stone, the spare, soulful speak-sing Oild And Lavender, Beatles-esque piano ballad Happy To Be and the deceptively uptempo Whimper and Wail. The reedy voice may be a bit of an acquired taste but, sounding like he’s survived the hard knocks of someone twice his age, it’s worth getting in early to sample. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Wednesday September 22

Pete Molinari

A musical magpie, Molinari’s last two albums cheerfully paraded the influences of Hank Williams, early Dylan, Lonnie Donegan and the Stones. Recording his third, A Train Bound For Glory (Clarksville), in Nashville, while the title might suggest a sizeable helping of Woody Guthrie, the prevalent mood is the 50s and early 60s.

Having said that, rthe opening track, Streetcard Named Desire, firmly takes its rock n roll cue from the early Beatles, albeit with a country twang and shoo wop backing vocals. With pedal steel keening away, that country flavour permeates the album, Molinari approximating Roy Orbison croon on gentle swaying ballad (To Be Close To) Your Heart’s Desire and slipping into a cross between Buddy and Elvis on Heartache Avenue where, as on the gospel tinged Since You’ve Been Gone, he’s joined by Presley’s own backing singers, The Jordanaires.

Elvis’ spirit is there too on the rockabilly hip shaking Little Less Loneliness while that’s Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde providing the direction of the bluesy Rainy Day Women roll of New York City.

More Dylan inclinations are checked in for the shoulder shrug tempo Willow Weep For Me and the country-blues boogie rolling rhythms of the title number while, making a rare excursion into the 70s, the bluesy loser in love Minus Me wipes the blood from the tracks.

He may not be original, but Molinari is so perfectly in tune with his influences that, whether he’s going TexMex with For Eliza, riding the pedal steel tears of A Place I Know So Well or playing the baroque strings card on the poignantly uplifting What a Day, What a Night, What A Girl it feels part of the fabric rather than an outsider’s attempt to recreate their record collection. 8pm. £8.50. Glee Club

Thursday September 23

MGMT

After finding massive success with the pop friendly Oracular Spectacular and singles like Kids and Time To Pretend, it would be understandable if Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden stuck to the same money-spinning formula. So, it came as a bit of a shock when follow-up album, Congratulations (Columbia), found them liberating their inner Flaming Lips instead.

However, this foray into prog-psychedelia and woozy pastoralism wasn’t entirely a curveball. It was actually their radio friendly singles that were unrepresentative of the band while debut album numbers like 4th Dimensional Transition were more where they were musically at.

The closest they get to something that sounds great blaring from the car stereo is It’s Working, a fabulous slice of the sort of ebullient late 60s psychedelic pop mastered by the Electric Prunes. Otherwise, the references points are, as numbers like I Found A Whistle, Flash Delirium, Lady Dada’s Nightmare and the twelve minute Siberian Breaks suggest, the early Floyd and the experimental Surf’s Up pop of Brian Wilson.

That they have tracks titled Brian Eno and Song For Dan Treacy (the creative force of 80s neo-psychedelic Brit outfit Television Personalities) are a pretty good indication on where their heads are at.

Ironically then, after all the talk of the band shooting themselves in the foot, the album’s enjoyed far greater chart success than its predecessor, peaking at 4 in the UK and 2 in America. Chart groupies going to the gig just wanting to hear the hits might be disappointed, but dream pop stoners should be in heaven. 7.30pm. £18.50. O2 Academy

Thursday September 23

Girlyman

Pic by Stephanie Richardson & Jeff Steinmetz

Formed in Brooklyn back in 2001, the trio of Doris Muramatsu, Tylan Greenstein and Nate Borofsky have been likened to a cocktail of Paul Simon, The Indigo Girls and Peter, Paul and Mary. It’s a hard label to live up to and, to be honest, they don’t quite consistently warrant such high comparisons. However, playing close harmony West Coast folk-pop influenced by such 60s legends as the Mamas and Papas, they do make a very attractive sound on the self-released Everything’s Easy while infusing songs such as the Watergate era referencing childhood memories of Easy Bake Ovens and the bitter broken dreams of Somewhere Different Now with darker streaks.

Many of the songs deal with the trials and tribulations of dented romances and bruised relationships and all three have the sort of catch to their voice that carries you up in the emotional moment, at their very best on the hauntingly beautiful House Song with its doumbek, mandolin and bouzouki and (to show the circles in which they move) backing from Lucy Wainwright Roche.

Other highlights would have to be the liltingly gentle Trees Still Bend and the three part a capella Up To the Sea with melody courtesy of Beethoven, and there’s enough here to suggest that they have a classic in them in the not too distant future. 8pm. £12. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Thursday September 23

Howard Jones

Pic (c) James Cumpsty

Taking time out from the 80s revival tours, Jones sets out to prove he has a present and future as well as a past. The tinny synthpop hits like New Song, What Is Love?, Like To Get To Know You Well and Things Can Only Get Better haven’t aged well but it would be unfair to judge his current music on what he was doing 20 years ago. Doubtless, he’ll be expected to play the game with the set list but there’s plenty of material on his current Ordinary Heroes album that deserves to be heard.

He’s sounding a lot more soulful these days and Straight Ahead comes with the spirit of Motown (Smokey especially) filtered through a cocktail of Phil Collins, Elvis Costello and Paul Carrack with his Mike and the Mechanics hat on while Even If I Don’t Say So plays a nice line in Celtic tinged folk pop.

There’s a touch of Billy Joel to the title track and You Knew Us So Well and Love Never Wasted both recall Neil Sedaka in his 70s comeback days with the likes of I’m A Song and Superbird. A chart revival is unlikely, but he’s certainly got more to offer than the nostalgia bandwagon.

Where this gig to be in America, there’s no doubt the running order would be reversed and the headliner would be support act, Duncan Sheik. A Grammy, Olivier and two-time Tony award winner, he’s the hugely successful theatre composer of the award-winning Broadway and West End musical hit Spring Awakening.

He’s also had a fairly prolific career as a recording artist dating back to his debut album in 1996 and US hit single Barely Breathing. Since then he’s released a further five albums, of which 16 tracks from the four early releases have been gathered on Brighter (Rhino). Superior AOR singer-songwriter pop that emphasises ballads and mid-tempo numbers, Sheik has a warm attractive vocal and clearly knows his way around Brill Building influences, evident on such numbers as Mr Chess, Lost On The Moon, and She Runs Away, while his cover of Joni Mitchell’s Court & Spark basks in Celtic twilight, Bite Your Tongue hints at Rupert Holmes and That Says It All (which namechecks Lennon, Hendrix, Nick Drake, and Brian Wilson among others) and Mouth On Fire underline his musical theatre chops.

If any of these whet your appetite in the live set, there’s also a double disc version, (Brighter/Later, spot the Drake pun), featuring a further 13 numbers, including the moody Chimera and the eight minute Foreshadowing.

As well as dipping into selections from the back catalogue, there’ll be a couple of numbers from last year’s Whisper House, which features songs from the new musical of the same name, and Cover 80s, a forthcoming mini album of, well 80s covers. Chances are he won’t pre-empt Jones with his acoustic guitar version of What Is Love? but it’ll be well worth ensuring he does either his occidental flavoured arrangement of Depeche Mode’s Stripped or the lovely breathy, late night with stars reading of Blue Nile’s Stay. 8pm. £16. The Robin 2, Brierley Hill

Friday September 24

Michelle Lawrence and The Equators

A new name on the local music scene, Lawrence cites Aretha, James Brown, Luther Vandross, Norah Jones and, er, early Guns n Roses among her influences and has just finished recording her debut album. There’s no deal or release sorted, but she and the band will be previewing material tonight. There’s only been a couple of clips on her website on which to form an opinion, but if the tasters of the soulful And They Say It’s Not Love and Without You are representative, then she could well prove Birmingham’s answer to Beverley Knight. 6.30pm. Free. Urban Coffee, Church Street, Bham City Centre.

Saturday September 25

Goldblade

They played in Algeria a few months back, but this is John Robb’s pop punk outfit’s first appearance hereabouts since supporting Ian Brown last December, since which time, guitarist Johnny Skullnuckles has left to be replaced by new boy Andy Taylor. The new flurry of dates coincides with the imminent release of compilation album Beyond God & Elvis and the repackaging and repromotion of last year’s Mutiny (Captain Oi!) album.

Their most successful release to date, if it didn’t cross your horizon then it’s worth seeking out and wrapping ears around mosh friendly punk shanties and terrace crowd shouters like Jukebox Generation, Riot! Riot!, Everybody’s On Drugs, America Destroys All Its Heroes and Kids Of Today where early Clash party with The Pogues.

They do a sea shanty jig version of the title track, but otherwise it’s fair to say there’s not a huge musical variation from one head down charge to the next. But cranked up loud and well lubricated, it makes for a sweat till you drown live show. 6.30pm. £14.50. O2 Academy 2

Saturday September 25

Fyfe Dangerfield

Having recently wowed Moseley Folk Festival, the Guillemots leader takes some extra time out from recording the band’s third album to repromote his solo debut Fly Yellow Moon on the back of the chart success of his You’re Always A Woman To Me cover.

While having a hit single’s not to be sneezed at, it must till slightly gall that it took an old Billy Joel song and a Lewis’s TV commercial to get there while his own exuberant Mika-ish crunchy pop When You Walk In The Room, the McCartney meets ELO She Needs Me and Faster Than The Setting Sun’s cocktail of Stereophonics and Coldplay failed to dent the Top 100.

With the cover’s success widening his appeal and expanding awareness of the name there’s chance to make amends with the reissue of She Needs Me twinned with a new recording of the Lennon-like piano ballad Barricades, but even if it proves a one hit wonder, his live shows remain things of musical wonder.

He’s supported by Stornoway singer-songwriter The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, but for all the music business hype it’s hard to get too excited about the husky nu-folk material on debut album Fireplace with its titbits of Buckley, Badly Drawn Boy, Neil Young, and King Creosote. The waltzing Dreaming Like A Fool and jaunty strum Katy might briefly distract your attention from the bar, but he’s unlikely to light up your life. 7.30pm. £12.50. HMV Institute, Digbeth

Saturday September 25

Kelly Joe Phelps & Corinne West

Getting together when he was playing on the tour to promote her last solo album, The Promise, things obviously clicked, each realising they’d found their true musical partner and deciding to fuse the solo careers into a single duo.

They’re together now to promote the first fruits of the union, Magnetic Skyline (Tin Angel), and while I don’t wish to create discord in the musical household, it would seem to be West who’s the dominant partner here. Phelps is best known as a blues singer whose work encompasses shades of jazz and folk, whereas West’s background as been in country-bluegrass and this acoustic collaboration is firmly grounded in the folkier roots and Appalachian influences she’s favoured. They sing in harmony, but her voice is generally more prominent and aside from two covers (the folk blues Horseback In My Dreams and the gently rolling Amelia), she also provides all the songs.

With a strong 60s folk flavour to the sound, they remind more of Ian & Sylvia (listen to the masterful Road To No Compromise) rather than, say Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and material like Mother To Child or Lily Ann wouldn’t sound out of place nestling among recordings by the likes of the Kingston Trio.

There’s some excellent guitar work, notably the bluesy strums of Whisky Poet, the complex cross-pollinating acoustic blues patterns of the trad-folk influenced Lady Luck and the arpeggios of the early Paul Simon-esque River’s Fool. But everything bristles with an assured mastery of their craft and the electricity that comes when two talents chime in perfect harmony. This is a great setting to bring out the best and it’ll be interesting to see if the set also features numbers from their respective past solo releases. 7.30pm. £12. St John’s Church, Coventry

Sunday September 26

Paul Heaton

There was always a hint of country to The Beautiful South and it was there mingling with the folk pop and blues on the former frontman’s previous solo album, But for his third, Acid Country (Proper), he’s put his Americana affections front and centre, even if he did write the lyrics in Holland, the music in Tenerife and recorded it in Lancashire.

And if the dustbowl housed The Old Radio mentions JFK, MLK, the KKK, Ginger Rogers, the Ink Spots and Jailhouse Rock, there remains something quintessentially English about things with his Northern accent, the acerbic lyrics and the generally polite musical tone. As if to balance the opening number, the eight minute title track even mentions cider, the Bay City Rollers, Cornish pasties, bombay mix, Birmingham and the Mendips in its revolutionary ode to the working class.

Musically he may be largely away to the land of Hank and honky tonks, but there’s not a pedal steel or fiddle in sight and the lyrics are filled with nostalgic, wistful references to pound shops, Brummies, cold baked beans and, as epitomised by the punchy horn driven The Ladder’s Bottom Rung, a sentimental rose tinted view of the “strange moral fibre” of society’s poorest members.

Inevitably old Heaton themes of alcoholism and domestic strife put in appearances on A Cold One In The Fridge, Even A Palm Tree and This House while his provincial anti-romanticism rears its head on the Dylanesque House Party where “ugly’s in the kitchen drinking, beauty’s gone to bed”.

There’s nothing here to match the glory days of yore and some of the songs go on long past their due date while Heaton often recycles his curmudgeonly attitudes with less wit, but there’s enough here to keep the faithful in tow for a while longer. 8pm. £16.50. Glee Club

Sunday September 26

3Oh!3

It says much that of the three singles to date from current album Streets Of Gold (Photo Finish), the two that made the Top 10, Starstrukk and My First Kiss, were the ones featuring Katy Perry and Ke$Ha respectively while the first one with just the guys, Don’t Trust Me, failed to break into the 20. Not that it was a lesser number, just that, perhaps, two skinny white guys from Boulder, Colorado, didn't have quite the same attraction without a hot pop babe on their musical arm.

This is their first UK tour since making an impression on the hip hop and electro club scene and the singles should ensure a decent crowd, and they certainly have plenty of strong tunes to serve up with such tracks as We Are Young (a sort of emo Glee Club), Touchin On My, the bubbling R.I.P., Double Vision (like Hot Chip with knobs on) and Streets Of Gold all potential hits.

Unfortunately, much of this is tied to the usual rap cliches of bad attitude and macho sexism and when they revert to the generic hip hop slope shoulder swagger they becomes indistinguishable from hundreds of others doing the same dance. If they can lose the juvenile mentality while holding on to their ability to write catchy chorus hooks and surging pop melodies, then they might not have to send out the invitations when they need a hit. 7pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2

Sunday September 26

Bombdog

With Becky Cresswell (vocals, cornet, melodica), Andy Bird (guitars, bouzouki), and Phil Truslove (bass) now joined by drummer Sara Turner, the Birmingham quartet follow up last year’s self-titled debut with Chalcedon, a new four track meld of post rock, Balkan, French and Mexican influences, named after the ancient Turkish underdog maritime town on the shore opposite Byzantium.

Although Fabrik works up a bit of a sweat with its fractured time signatures, Turner’s stop start drumming and the descending melodic snake sway scales, generally the mood’s again sober, though, as evidenced by the sparse, accordion wheezing Yann with its hints of Eastern European nomads in a Leone desert, not without a certain airy breeze.

Initially sounding like an orchestra tuning up, Emigre slowly unfolds into a hypnotic slow walking drone that again conjures images of swaying camel trains, snake charmers and parched travellers, slowly gathering speed as it reaches its climax and the destination looms into view.

Reflecting the title, the remaining number’s Constantinople (the renamed Byzantium before becoming modern day Instanbul), the only number to feature Cressell singing (again vocalising rather than actual lyrics), chopped bouzouki notes and repetitive simple drum pattern accompanied by swaying cornet.

Live they cut loose a little more than the record’s diet of heady, narcotic atmospherics might suggest, but there’s no arguing about their status as Birmingham’s own Hawk & A Hacksaw. 8pm. Free. Sound Bar, Corporation St

Tuesday September 28

Jim Moray

Although he played both the 2008 and 2009 Moseley folk fests, it’s been three years since he headlined a gig hereabouts. Since which time his sound’s toughened up considerably, adding further electronic and rock weight to his folk. He’s here on the release, earlier this year, of fourth album, In Modern History (Niblick-Is-A Giraffe), where he takes on trad chestnuts such as The Lowlands Of Holland (taken at stately pace lushly coated with strings and brass), Silver Dagger (a full orchestra job), Jenny Of The Moor (a bristling edgy mood with Hannah Peel sharing vocals) and William Taylor (a crunchy heavy riff a la Led Span with Eliza Carthy’s scraping fiddle and orchestral surges).

His own Bristol Harbour finds him trying on prog rock colours with what sounds like a treated xylophone and swathes of snarling electric guitar and while Hard (where sister Jackie Oates provides backing vocals) is all plinky mandolin sway, the closing self-penned Home Upon The Hill sounds as though it might be a much fiercer beast live than the folksy strum on the disc.

That Spencer The Rover here becomes Spencer The Writer, a spoken piece by Art Brut singer Eddie Argos, is an indication that even the more liberal of folk purists aren’t going to easily embrace Moray into their arms, but for the more open minded and progressive ears he’s a fine example of a living tradition. 7.30pm. £14. B’ham Town Hall

Tuesday September 28

Shrag

Once a three girl/two boy now a two girl/three boy outfit from Brighton, they’re squeezing on to the stage in service of new album Life! Death! Prizes! (WIAIWYA), a collection of bass throbbing, spine-bending riffs and sugary tinkles that reveal them to be distinctly in thrall to such 80s names as the B52s, Au Pairs, Talulah Gosh, Girls At Their Best and Sleeper.

Although the Tights In August single is of the shimmery synth girl/boy pop variety, they’re much better when they get into the funky garage clothes for the likes of A Certain Violence with its twangy guitar riff and slight echoes of Fuzzbox, Their Stats and Faux Coda or put the spotlight on their C86 acid bubblegum punk pop side with Rabbit Kids and (sounding like a ragged Primitives) When We Go Courting.

More Than Mornings is a thrashy mess but Furnishings and the spoken vocal The Habit Creep show them capable of getting into moodier bluesy territory that, at least in the guitar and basslines, suggest they might have heard a couple of Velvets albums too. 8pm. £5. The Victoria, John Bright St

Tuesday September 28

Oceansize

Having had 2007’s Frames named as one of the 10 essential progrock albums of the decade, they’ve gone a whole lot heavier for follow up Self Preserved While The Bodies Float Up (Superball). Opener Part Cardiac is a thunderously crushing leviathan of chugging metal riffage and vocal wailing, a mood reinforced with the machine gun attack and bass flailing of Superimposer and the crashing guitars that pummel Build Us A Rocket Then.

However, it’s not all welter. The delicacy that was woven into something like Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt is here too on the nine minute Oscar Acceptance Speech, Ransoms, the cosmic surfing Silent/Transparent and the bizarrely jazz lounge stylings of A Penny’s Weight. The hushed closer Superimposter even has a vague hint of country loping to it before the psych freak out sets in. With only a couple of numbers venturing past the four minute mark, there’s a good chance they’ll be able to squeeze in a fair number to showcase the album and still have time left over for a couple of past glories too.

Support comes from Irish alt rockers Mojo Fury whose current single, The Mann (Graphite), is a fierce, torn throat assault of white noise hardcore and tortured guitars. It serves as prelude to debut album Visiting Hours Of A Travelling Circus which they’ll be showcasing tonight, though hopefully not featuring the meanderingly laborious five minute acoustic blues Run Away. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

Tuesday September 28

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl

Still the UK’s biggest ‘go to’ producer, Ronson returns to his own spotlight with a new band and a new album. Following Versions, the covers set which earned him a Best Male Solo Brit award, he’s launching Record Collection (Sony), another dance friendly pop offering with original material and a cast of collaborators that includes Simon Le Bon (Record Collection), Ghostface Killa (Lose It), Q Tip (Bang Bang Bang), the London Gay Men’s Choir (Introducing The Business) and, on current single The Bike Song’s extolling of the joys of pedal power, Kyle Falconer and Spank Rock. A confection of hip hop, disco, ’80s pop and Gallic electro, it’ll be interesting to see how it sounds live without the guest vocal assists, but at least he’ll be able to rope in at least one of them in the shape of Rose Elinor Dougall.

Aside from featuring on four of the tracks, including the Blondie bounce of You Gave Me Nothing and the 60s flavoured girl pop ballad The Night Last Night, the former Pipette’s also the opening act, promoting much delayed synth pop solo debut album Without Why (Scarlett Music).

As well as past singles Another Version of Pop Song, the harpsichord driven Start/Stop/Synchro, Fallen Over, and Find Me Out’s languid heat hazy sunshine, there’s a further seven illustrations of her love of 60s girl pop and 80s ethereal dreaminess, highlights of which include Paris cafe chanteuse sway Come Away With Me, Carry On (where Blondie meets The Smiths), the hypnotic Kate Bush mood of Watching and the lovely arpeggio tinkling closer May Holiday which might have stepped out an ABBA songbook.

The fact none of her singles have touched the Top 40, rather bleakly suggests this isn’t going to be the one that elevates her to household name awareness, but if she holds it together for a second then her time must surely come. 7.30pm. £20. HMV Institute

Thursday September 30

Mayday Parade

Released in America a year ago but only just surfacing here, opening the tour in Birmingham, the Florida five piece are over to promote Anywhere But Here (Atlantic), their second release and first since the departure of front man Jason Lancaster leaving Derek Sanders to handle the vocals on his own.

It’s pretty much by the book pop-punk designed to appeal to anyone whose collection also includes All Time Low, Boys Like Girls, Blink-182 or early Wheatus. There’s nothing original here, but they can put together catchy melodies with their eyes closed and know just where to pitch songs of teenage romantic travails and feelings of awkwardness like Still Breathing, Bruised And Scarred, Save Your Heart and the title track. The opening number’s even called Kids In Love

Chewy fizzing guitar riffs, emotional angst vocals and anthemic choruses are all present and correct on the blueprint as is the obligatory smart ass title (If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?) and heartfelt acoustic ballad (I Swear This Time I Mean It).

They may yet mean as much here as some of their contemporaries, but if they get the breakout hit then everything else should fall into place.

Support comes from Arizona teen pop punk outfit The Maine, a not entirely dissimilar proposition although their Black & White (Warner) album has a little more of the sort of chugging indie pop and stadium aspiring big guitar numbers represented by Saving Grace, Right Girl and Fuel To The Fire while Don’t Stop Now, Give It To Me, and Growing Up summon thoughts of Springsteen, Petty and Bryan Adams respectively. 7pm. £10.50. O2 Academy 2