Live Music Highlights - January, 2009

Emotastic up-and-coming Reading lads Kill the Arcade kick off the new year with a gig at Glasgow King Tut's on 8 Jan. Great innovators they are not, but if anyone is up to the task of blowing away the January blues and putting a spring in your step, it's this lot. Expect a passionate, energetic stage presence and some serious riffing.

Something a little bit different will be going down at Aberdeen's The Tunnels on 9 Jan and Glasgow's ABC2 on 10 Jan, as Hayseed Dixie frontman John Wheeler (AKA Barley Scotch) rolls into town for a one-man show of spoken word and storytelling, featuring rye (arf) observations and uncensored tales of life on the road with the world's heaviest hillbilly ensemble. Oh, and you can expect some songs and all.

With Merriweather Post Pavilion poised to be one of 2009's most talked about releases, Animal Collective will play Glasgow School of Art on 13 Jan having unleashed their new opus the previous day – so expect this one to go off big time! This band is renowned for reinventing themselves in the live setting, so second guess them at your peril. The only thing we can be sure of is that it'll be worth seeing.

Making a play for must-see event of the month, The Gutter Twins (aka Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan) play a unique 'stripped-down' set at Glasgow's Oran Mor on 15 Jan. Promising an even more raw and direct sound than on record, Dulli has promised that the set "will include many songs neither of us have performed in quite some time, or ever". We readily admit that the idea of an 'intimate evening' with Mark Lanegan scares us – but in a good way. This sounds like a hell of a night out.

Hotly tipped metalcore mentalists Bury Tomorrow will get lairy at Edinburgh's Studio 24 on 17 Jan and Glasgow's Classic Grand on 18 Jan. For those who can't decide if they prefer anthemic emo vocals or old-school Cookie Monster growling, well, these guys can do both! Throw in some unusually smooth riffing and you've got an enticing metal proposition.

They dropped one of the most polarising albums of 08 in the form of Skeletal Lamping, but most critics can agree that Of Montreal know how to put on a helluva show. Lead by the supremely charismatic Kevin Barnes, they'll be sure to deliver an eclectic set of energising, confusing and fascinating experimental pop. Glasgow's Oran Mor on 26 Jan is the place to be to witness one of the most dynamic and surprising bands of recent times.

Descartes: he may have been instrumental in shaping modern Western thought, but could he write a decent three-minute alt-rock song? Could he fuck! Dundee's Descartes, on the other hand, certainly can, and you can gather the empirical sense data to verify our claim by getting your arse down to Dundee University Union on 28 Jan. The usual influences are present and correct (Bloc Party, Interpol, erm, Tears for Fears...) but Descartes' songs have a unique swagger that mark them out as lads who might actually be going places.

Rounding out the month are fecking-phenomenal psych-rockers Crystal Antlers who, if there's any justice, will explode in 2009. If you've not already done so, you should go buy their debut EP, meditate for a while on how right we were about them being awesome, then go see them play at Glasgow Nice n Sleazy on 30 Jan and get your face melted off. It's a three-step plan for happiness, seriously. Also, their percussion player is called Sexual Chocolate. How much more convincing do you people need?