Live Music Highlights - November, 2009

Although the media has come very close to fetishising his mental illness on numerous occasions, there's no denying the honesty and passion of Daniel Johnston's musical output. Each public performance is a kind of catharsis for this perennial outsider - his gig at Edinburgh Queen's Hall on 4 Nov should be memorable indeed.

The world can be a scary and uncertain place but one thing I can tell you for sure is that no one does progressive Danish indie as well as Mew. Delicate, complex and beautiful, these guys make a big, magical sound that will make everything seem all right. Assemble in an orderly fashion at Glasgow ABC on 5 Nov for a dose of heavenly medicine.

Amazing tunes and total fucking chaos seem to follow Jay Reatard wherever he goes, and I'm afraid that death is the only acceptable excuse for non-attendance of his upcoming sweat festival at Glasgow King Tut's on 11 Nov. His band may have just quit, but don't let that put you off: rabid monkeys could play this brutal caveman pop - and they probably will. We fully expect It Ain't Gonna Save Me to cause multiple fatalities.

A Place to Bury Strangers' new LP redefines the aesthetics of heavy music even as it saturates your consciousness with seductive dream-pop hooks - their live show takes it one step further and adds physical assualt with sound waves to the rap sheet. Their frontman makes a living from designing small metal boxes that turn electrical current into pure evil so you know this is going to be serious. Captain's Rest, 12 Nov, with support from Canadian garage wreckers Japandroids (who also hit Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh the following night) - hell yes.

What comes to mind when I say the words 'Australian music scene'? If it's Rolf Harris huffing into a Didgeridoo then I feel sorry for you, you daft racist. In 2009 it's The Drones that are cutting the serious tunes down under - brutal emotionality and vicious guitar dynamics that will kill you. The badass sounds occur at Glasgow Nice n Sleazy on 13 Nov and Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's on 14 Nov.

Fans of modern psychedelic folk (yes, you at the back!) take note, for November sees one of the hottest triple-bills we can remember heading your way. The wonderful Cave Singers are joined by the otherworldly Espers and the charmingly ramshackle Woods for an evening of gratuitous fingerpicking and tuneless porch-rocker style wailing (that's a joke dear reader, this shit is going to blow your mind). Glasgow Stereo on 13 Nov (as part of Shred Yr Face 3) and Edinburgh Electric Circus on 14 Nov. Essential.

Wavves' frontman Nathan Williams knows that deep down people don't want to believe that their rock stars secretly long for big hugs and giant mugs of hot chocolate just like everyone else. On-stage breakdowns, alcoholism and inter-band punch-ups may get this guy the headlines, but Wavves can write some pretty supersonic fuzz-pop when they put their minds to it. Rubbernecking commences at Glasgow Captain's Rest on 22 Nov.

We must have totally been looking the other way when he did it, but somewhere between his hilarious mid-'90s dalliance with industrial metal and his recently lauded on-stage karaoke session with Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan became cool again [it's that Scottish Government ad what did it! - ed]. He's looking good for his age, but then androids are less susceptible to turkey neck. Go and see him perform Cars and some other songs at Edinburgh HMV Picture House on 26 Nov and Glasgow ABC on 27 Nov.

Consistently underrated Mancunians Oceansize light up the Scottish gigging calendar with shows at Dundee Fat Sam's on 29 Nov, Aberdeen Tunnels on 30 Dec and Glasgow King Tut's on 1 Dec. They move between lilting post-rockisms and heavy Deftones-esque walls of noise with ease: fans of intelligent heavy music should check it.

Ok, so combining punk rock and hardcore may not be the trick of the century (David Blaine going mental in a box ftw) but there's certainly something about Gallows' fusion of black and blacker that adds an element of accesibility to their heavy, indignant sound. Expect nothing less than a riot at Aberdeen Moshulu on 29 Nov and Dundee Fat Sam's on 30 Nov.