BATTLES Concorde 2 Fri 3rd
Their genre-smashing math rock monolith ‘Atlas’ may have floored anyone with ears back in 2007 but it took Muse to actually make some money out of it with their comeback single ‘Uprising’. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, apparently, but it seems Tyondai Braxton, perhaps the most recognisable member of the Warp-signed US experimental rock collective, didn’t quite see it that way. He quit the band last summer, ahead of the equally bold new album, ‘Gloss Drop’. Expect to hear it being ripped off on a TV ad soon. (BG)
See Club Previews for Battles’ after party details featuring Clark and Bibio.

HERMAN DUNE Coalition 5th
They seldom stay away from Brighton for too long but since the Neil Young-loving anti-folk duo last brought their band over from Paris lots has changed. They’ve set up their own record label, Strange Moosic, released a album of the same name and got Mad Men’s John Hamm to drive a cute blue yeti to one of their gigs in one of the loveliest videos of the year (find it on hermandune.com). Live they’re a similar delight, personifying the charm of their timeless records. (JK)

JAMIE WOON Concorde 2 Weds 8th
Can the artistry of pop music be taught? Not in a classical sense but via the rather more prosaic confines of a classroom? Given the recent chart success of the likes of Adele, Jessie J and Katy B, we have to conclude that the BRIT School is onto something. Jamie Woon is another graduate, who recently co-opted the production skills of dubstep godhead Burial to sculpt his well-received debut album ‘Mirrorwriting’. No wonder fellow former alumni Amy Winehouse is going back to resit her GCSEs. (BG)

LITTLE BARRIE
Prince Albert Sun 12th
Taking a well-earned day off from his duties as Primal Scream’s lead guitarist, Barrie Cadogan reassembles his power trio Little Barrie for a string of gigs. Setting aside their impressive list of collaborations, which include Morrissey, Edwyn Collins and Paul Weller, they’ll be brandishing their usual mash-up of dirty garage rock and laidback blues delivered with a soulful touch. A perfect intimate setting for their raw and unrefined rock’n’roll, just how it should be. (LL)

JAMES BLAKE
Komedia Mon 13th
Edged out of first place in the BBC’s Sound Of 2011 survey, James Blake is hardly aligning himself with the same territory as winner Jessie J. While a startling cover of Feist’s ‘Limit To Your Love’ turned many heads, much of his self-titled debut album was bereft of any such anthemic intent, taking even that song’s sparse wonder and digging further into the flickering sonic twilight. A masterclass in finding soul power in empty spaces, tonight might well sound like the best coma you’ve ever had. (BG)

FRANK FAIRFIELD
Prince Albert Weds 15th
Last seen on these shores in September last year as touring partner to Charlie Parr, Frank Fairfield looks and plays as if he’s crawled straight out of the Virginia mountains in a previous century, armed with only a guitar, fiddle, banjo and a whole bunch of soaring hillbilly stompers and murder ballads. With a new album just released on the esteemed Tompkins Square label, expect to be hearing a lot more of Frank Fairfield in the coming months. (IC)

LAS ROBERTAS
Green Door Store Thurs 16th
Costa Rica is so politically stable that they’ve disbanded the army! Amazing! Also amazing, and also Costa Rican, are Las Robertas – a gang of four garage girls from San Jose who make like a duel in the South American sun between the 5,6,7,8s and the Vivian Girls over who likes the Ronettes more. So that’s two amazing things you know about Costa Rica. Support tonight is from Brighton’s even more wonderfully lo-fi La La Vasquez. (MB)

TOM VEK Concorde 2 Sat 18th
He’s been away from the pop’n’roll bearpit for a common sense and career-threatening five years, and boy, has Tom Vek changed. The video to his comeback single ‘A Chore’ suggested he’d spunked the winnings from his debut album on a pair of boobs and a nice blonde hairdo. Happily, SOURCE can confirm model stand-in Abigail Rose is just the front for a bash’n’bleep tour de force, confirming you don’t have to be playing dubstep to make a refreshing one-man noise in 2011. Yes, we have sound. (BG)

MAC • Prince Albert Mon 20th
If you haven’t caught one of MAC’s brash post-rock sets yet, you probably need to get out more. Tight as a fat man’s belt and with the energy of 20 drunk teenagers, the Brighton three-piece bust out energetic instrumentals with a gleeful ire and just a little bit of shouting. In a line-up alongside Chicago grunge rockers All Eyes West, psych rockers Bears, and live looping from Rebecca Dyer, this could well be the best £3 you ever spent. (DC)

TUNE-YARDS
The Haunt Tues 21st
An untameable musical talent, New England-born, Oakland-based artist Merrill Garbus recently issued her second album, ‘Whokill’. Merging splintered, polymath skills into a jagged-edge whole, the old school lo-fi power of the tribal collides with the fresh, digitised hi-fi sound of the street that’s at once furiously challenging and thrilling. Quite how this will be replicated live is anyone’s guess but SOURCE can only conclude she must be the result of a peculiar tryst between Pro Tools and the contents of Captain Beefheart’s mind. (BG)

RYAN ADAMS Dome Weds 22nd
Despite sustaining a very decent career for some years now, Ryan Adams hasn’t really seeped into general public consciousness with a signature song or big crossover hit. This might leave the casual observer unsure of what to shout out for in the encore, so we suggest ‘Summer Of ’69’ or ‘Run To You’, largely because we know for an actual fact that it really pisses him off and is likely to lead to your forced ejection. If you’re not up for that challenge though, you might just dig this acoustic traversing through his catalogue of alt.countryisms. (NC)

DAVID FORD Komedia Weds 22nd
Following the early noughties chart success of his band Easyworld, Eastbourne singer-songwriter David Ford revealed his mild, self-deprecating streak by calling his first solo album ‘I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I’ve Caused’. Heavy bouts of touring have established Ford’s sensitive, politicised songs and loop-assisted performances as a cult act on both sides of the Atlantic. Ford looks like he’s writing himself off with tonight’s mix of music and anecdotes, but at 33 he’s not yet a has-been. (SH)

MICHAEL BALL
Brighton Centre Sun 26th
Those for whom sanitary hygiene products are a distant memory will find unthreatening comfort in the showtune stylings of Michael Ball this evening. Immortalising the works of his musical heroes from past and present, this show is unlikely to take in much of the Steve Albini canon, or overly indulge the legacy of Einstürzende Neubauten. More likely, it’ll be a predictable, button-busting bellow through the sort of stodge that the hard-of-thinking lap up on TV talent shows. Basically, it’s Elaine Paige with a slightly deeper voice. (NC)

CYNDI LAUPER
Dome Sat 28th
Girls just want to have fun. But so do 57-year-old women, judging by the recent antics of Cyndi Lauper, who seems in no mood to put her most famous moment to bed. She’s still taking every opportunity to tear through the landmark anthem for non-stop, all-girl tomfoolery, recently playing it with Arcade Fire at a US festival, shortly after a rather more bizarre performance over an Argentinian airport tannoy. When’s she gonna live her life right? Not tonight in Brighton, that’s for sure. (BG)

CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA
Concorde 2 Thurs 30th
If you ever find yourself talking to someone who thinks jazz is irrelevant, “Cinematic Orchestra!” is what you should shout, before flouncing away to speak to someone with better music taste. Over their considerable history this band have reinvented the genre into something hauntingly beautiful, undeniably hook-laden and inexpressibly relevant. This event will showcase the full live band, so expect to spend the evening in slack-jawed awe. Kutmah, our favourite LA import, is supporting with a set of wonky, futuristic beats. (JMM)

WORDS BY MATT BARKER, IAN CHAMBERS, DANI COLYER,
NICK COQUET, BEN GILBERT, STUART HUGGETT, LIAM LIDBETTER, JESSICA MARSHALL MCHATTIE, JAMES KENDALL