And what’s a birthday without a party? Eclectic Finnish French duo The Dø will be playing on the night, and I’m sure they’ll be properly celebratory.

The Dø released their second album Both Ways, Open Jaws last year, the follow-up to 2008′s wildly diverse Open Mouth, a surprise chart topper in France. Sometime-actress and chanteuse Olivia Merilahti and film composer Dan Levy are whizzes at radically jumping genres, with styling and music ranging from Björk to blues to experimental jazz, rock, hip-hop and folk. I saw them last year at Komplex 457 where, if I recall correctly, their live set-up included a veritable kitchen sink of miscellaneous instrumentation (which might come in useful for birthday cake eating).

Watch ‘Too Insistent’, one of my favourite tracks from Both Ways, Open Jaws:

Here’s to another 8 years of brilliant live music from Mascotte. Thanks for all the good times!

The Dø play at Mascotte, ZH, on 12.02.12. Tix here.

Both Ways, Open Jaws is out now on Get Down!/Cinq 7/Wagram Music

Having survived their brush with teenage obsession (the band were featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack and got their fair share of ‘Team Edward‘ T-shirts appearing at gigs for a time), the trio have stayed true to their roots, with Sweet Sour bringing more of the band’s signature bass-heavy, moody rock, tempered with some tracks of almost folk-like sweetness and melody.

Live, Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals) does wonderful things with his Fender guitars and Matthew Hayward does a sterling job on drums, but I’d be remiss in my fanly duties if I didn’t make special mention of my girl crush, bass player/singer Emma Richardson, who is spectacularly at ease on stage, languidly playing bass and looking like the coolest girl you ever wanted to meet behind the bike shed at school, the kind of rock chick who wears her studded belt like she really means it.

So you know I’m really looking forward to the trio’s special pre-tour gig at Mascotte, ZH, Saturday 28.01.12. I’ll be there with belts on…

‘Bruises’, from Sweet Sour:

Band of Skulls play @ Mascotte, ZH, 28.01.12. Tickets here.

Sweet Sour is released in Europe on 20.02.12 on Electric Blues.

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I’ve got a soft spot for accordions. To me, there is something very old-worlde and nostalgic about them. Perhaps it’s my history of playing Beirut on high rotation for many, many months. And my penchant for wandering the streets of Eastern European towns.

So my attraction to Canadian folk noir singer Wendy McNeill’s fifth album For The Wolf, A Good Meal, replete with accordions, piano, slow waltzing tempos and McNeill’s strong and melancholy vocals, isn’t such a surprise. I love to see this kind of music played live in front of me, because the artistry and spectacle involved in playing the instruments is something you don’t get to see too often. A delicious treat.

McNeill is currently playing around Switzerland (see below for dates), ably accompanied by 24-year-old Belgian singer-songwriter Bram Vanparys, aka The Bony King Of Nowhere (such a sad, descriptive name – is that self-referential, I wonder…), who released his second album of subdued and beautiful indie folk, Eleonore, in late 2011.

Wendy McNeill + Bony King of Nowhere play @ Grabenhalle, St Gallen, Friday 20.01.12, Sud, Basel, Saturday 21.01.12, and El Lokal, ZH, Sunday 22.01.12.

For The Wolf, A Good Meal is out now on Six Shooter/Haldern Pop.

Eleonore is out now on PIAS/Cargo Records.

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• The Bony King of Nowhere (dickthespic.org)

After the heydays of the 80s and 90s, The Cure hovered stealthily but steadily at the edges of the popular music conscience for a couple of decades. But not for much longer – I guess it’s now The Cure’s turn to be at the frontline of influence for the current generation of up-and-coming bands. I’m seeing their names pop up on press releases in the field marked ‘seminal influences while growing up’ a lot more lately – well, they did win the NME ‘Godlike Genius’ award in 2009. Looks like 2012 is going be a Cure revival on a rather epic scale.

So in the wake of the (glorious) news of Smith and co.’s return to the concert arena in 212, I’m revisiting The Cure’s increasingly-referenced back catalogue. For instance, the track ‘Lullaby’, from 1989′s brilliant Disintegration, which, along with Twin Peak’s Bob, used to scare the crap out of me in high school:

The Cure are playing at numerous festivals during the European summer, including Pinkpop (NL), Les Eurockeennes (FR), Southside (DE), Hurricane (DE), Hultsfred (SE), Roskilde (DK), Heinekin Jammin’ (IT), and Rock In Roma (IT). Fingers crossed for a Swiss festival! See the full list here.

Despite being supposedly inspired by the winter climes and long, dark nights of their homeland, Imaginary Future is bright and resplendent with jangly pop harmonies and The Cure-esque melodies (‘This Dead Town’), as well as definite New Wave tendencies.

Sounds like the perfect antidote to the winter blues to me. And just looking at the gig poster has me wistfully staring off into its wide blue yonder, longing for the sun…

French Films play @ Mascotte, ZH, 17.01.12. Tickets here.

Imaginary Future is out now on GAEA Records.

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If you don't have tix yet to The Black Keys gig...too late.

Hi, my name is High Rotation and I’m a gig junkie…It’s been 36 whole days, THIRTY SIX DAYS! since my last gig. I confess that I’m starting to get a little jumpy – I’ve got my earplugs at the ready, and elbows sharpened in preparation for defending my carefully-chosen position at that long-awaited first gig of the year…

Needless to say I’ve been hard at work scouring the gig calendars for my concert fixes for January, February and March. And, yay, there are some great gigs and festivals coming up. I’ll be doing my damnedest to get to each and every one of them.

Here are my picks of what’s coming up in Zurich in the next couple of months:

• French Films @ Mascotte, ZH 17.01.12
• Sounds Nordic, Sounds Good w/ The Figurines, Caligola, Kaizers Orchestra, plus Gustaf and Björn from Mando Diao, @ X-Tra, ZH, 22.01.12
• Band of Skulls @ Mascotte, ZH, 28.01.12
• The Black Keys @ Maaghalle, ZH, 31.01.12 – SOLD OUT
• One Of A Million Festival, w/ Nils Frahm, Isbells, The Mondrians, Dirty Beaches, Grouplove, The Legendary Lightness, and more TBA, Baden, 04 – 11.02.12
• Kejnu @ Mehrspur Club, ZH, 11.02.12
• The Sounds @ Abart, ZH, 14.02.12
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ Plaza, ZH, 17.02.12
• First Aid Kit @ Mascotte, ZH, 20.02.12
• Firefox AK @ Papiersaal, ZH, 24.02.12
• Kasabian @ Maaghalle, ZH, 27.02.12
• Morning Parade @ Mascotte, ZH, 29.02.12
• Feist @ Volkshaus, ZH, 11.03.12 – SOLD OUT
• Big Deal @ Papiersaal, ZH, 07.03.12
• Lambchop @ Kaufleuten, ZH, 13.03.12
• Helmet @ Plaza, ZH, 14.03.12
• Tindersticks @ Kaufleuten, ZH, 16.03.12
• m4music festival @ various venues (website NSFW, apparently, lol), w/ Mark Lanegan, Jamie Woon, Boy, The bianca Story, and more TBA, 22-24.03.12
• Deer Tick @ Hafenkneipe, ZH, 26.03.12
• Dillon @ Mascotte, ZH, 27.03.12
• The Civil Wars @ Abart, ZH, 01.04.12
• Veronica Falls @ Mascotte, ZH, 02.04.12
• Ben Howard @ Kaufleuten, ZH 30.04.12
• The Lemonheads (performing ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’) @ Abart, ZH, 16.05.12

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• Live review: Tom McRae + string quartet @ Papiersaal, ZH, 27.09.11 (highrotation.ch)
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‘Control’ is the first track from Autoheart’s forthcoming album, which was supposedly recorded in semi-Arctic conditions in Greater Manchester during a freak spell of cold weather (talk about suffering for your art. If you listen closely you can almost hear their teeth chattering – just kidding). It might account for the doomed tenor of the lyrics (relationship breakdown, despair, etc etc), though:

Why don’t you grab a free download of the track while you are listening?

 Autoheart’s forthcoming album, produced by Danton Supple, is due for release in 2012.

Autoheart play at The Bar Fly in Camden, London, 01.02.2012.

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While a long drive recently I came across French musician and director Yoann Lemoine, aka Woodkid, whose track ‘Iron’ is used in the trailer for the Ubisoft game Assassin’s Creed: Revelations:

Very reminiscent of These New Puritans‘ ‘We Want War’, and featuring the type of big Japanese-monk drum I’ve seen in about 80% of live shows this year. But still a rather good and compelling track, nice vocals from Mr Lemoine and a suitably mysterious and foreboding atmosphere.

Also, earlier in 2011 The National contributed ’Exile Vilify’ to the Portal 2 video game (this video is the winner of a competition held by the band):

I admit to being rather taken aback at the time by the release of this track in support of a video game. I don’t know why I was so surprised, perhaps it was because The National don’t seem to be a) the type of band to do commercial endorsements, and b) don’t appear to be the type of people to be gamers. And here I admit that I fell completely into a useless and outdated stereotype. I have no idea what Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner et al get up to in the tour bus/in their spare time. In fact, odds are that they ARE big time gamers, at least as evinced by their release of ‘Exile Vilify’ for Portal 2. It all goes to show that I know nothing, nothing at all about gamers and their world. Guess I should get out more.

But the tracks I’ve mentioned above are good, great even, and from interesting musicians, not just manufactured pop/rock/hip-hop/R&B artists who’ve been roped into promoting the latest gaming release of their record label’s parent company. It’s not surprising that the fields of gaming, music, and cinema are merging and cross-pollinating. Wondering now which gaming franchise will be next up for a music/cinema treatment…World of Warcraft, perhaps?

The Woodkid Iron EP is out now on Green United Music. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations by Ubisoft is out now. 

‘Exile Vilify’ by The National is out now on Clear Vinyl as the B-side of the ‘Think You can Wait’ single. Portal 2 by Valve Corporation is available now.

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In the meantime, feast your eyes on the awesomeness that is Bruce Lee in the first fight sequence from 1973′s ‘Enter the Dragon‘, clad in a fetching pair of black budgie smugglers, gloves, slippers, and naught else except a smoking hot set of abs. Enter the dragon, indeed!

Guess you’ve heard the 230 000 000 cosmic messages I’ve recently sent out into the universe, asking you to bring your goth-pop awesomeness to Zürich, because you are coming to my little town next week! You’ll like it here – after all, Zurich has just been voted the second best place in the world to live, just in time for your arrival.

If I had bought your second album Stridulum II on vinyl or cassette I would have worn it out by now; as it is, I only have a small RSI problem in my right hand from my iTunes clickfest. A small price to pay for so much aural pleasure, really. I’m just getting to know your latest album Conatus, but, wow, yeah, I like it (words fail me).

Plus, I really like the sparkly sea/sand/cake batter/cosmic avalanche thingy you’ve got going on in your latest video, ‘Vessel’:

See you on Monday!

Cheers,

Cherie

PS. If anyone would like to join me, I have 2×2 tix to give away – just mail me and they are yours!

Zola Jesus plays @ the gorgeous Papiersaal, ZH, Monday 05.12.11. Tickets here.

Conatus is out now on Souterrain Transmissions.