The September offering keeps you up to date with all the gigs going on throughout the month with our new look gig guide, while we get the lowdown on the hottest spots in Birmingham in our exclusive photoshoot with cover stars Calories ahead of the release of their second album Basic Nature.

Not to be outdone, Black Country boys The Lines take us on a tour of Wolverhampton, while we also delve deeper into the weird and wonderful world of Modified Toy Orchestra.

You can also feast your eyes on interviews with one of the coolest men in music, Huey from Fun Lovin’ Criminals as well as the enigma that is Jonsi, Sigur Ros frontman and solo star in his own right.

We also get the inside track on next month’s Supersonic Festival and give you the chance to win tickets to Birmingham Comedy Festival – and some cases of beer courtesy of Purity Brewing Co.

And if all that has worked up a hunger and a thirst then we’ll show you the best things to do with rum, how to make deep fried ladyfingers and tell you how to bag 2-for-1 cocktails at The Victoria.

Satisfied? Good.

Read the September issue here.

Check out every back issue online here.

It’s the official video for Paranoid, the debut offering from Dansette Junior, brainchild of ex-pat Brummie producer and songwriter Will Hunt, with the single due to be released on August 30 on Columbia Records.

Will upped sticks from his native Birmingham in the summer of 2005, so the story goes, setting up home above a Wetherspoon’s pub in Bethnal Green, pulling pints part-time and gigging across the capital as an acoustic singer-songwriter before beginning to dabble in clubbing music after moving to Kentish Town a year later and buying a load of DJ equipment and synths, inspired by places such as Fabric and The Cross.

He later met  Graham Gaffney in a local Kentish Town pub when the pair bonded over a shared love of Godspeed You! Black Emporer and decided to make music together, with Graham on drums and Will on guitar and synths, before adding Johnny McDermott on synths and bass in September 2008.

Two years later and they are hoping for chart success with Paranoid, produced by drum n bass men Drumsound & Bassline Smith, with a heavy, throbbing bassline, electronic synths and radio-friendly melodic vocals, not to mention the inspired video, following the antics of flocks of bass-loving pigeons.

It’s also worth watching it on YouTube just to read the comments underneath. “Who Wants To Have Sex With Those Pigeons????” is a personal favourite.

The band, led by Chris Cain and Keith Murray, will embark on ‘The American Barbarians Tour’ throughout November, taking in Digbeth’s new HMV Institute on November 16.

In true We Are Scientists style, Chris Cain boldly insisted: “The American Barbarians Tour is, in my estimate, going to be the sexiest, bloodiest, down-and-dirtiest carnival of ecstasy since, at the latest, Roman times – and who can be sure those stories are even true?”

Tickets are £13.50 or £16 London and go on sale from 10am on Friday. Check back here on Friday to buy.

Full tour dates:

15 Nov – Portsmouth – Pyramids

16 Nov – Birmingham – HMV Institute

17 Nov – Bristol – O2 Academy

19 Nov – Norwich – UEA

20 Nov – Manchester – Academy 2

21 Nov – London – O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

22 Nov – Liverpool – O2 Academy

24 Nov – Leeds – Metropolitan University

25 Nov – Glasgow – O2 ABC

26 Nov – Newcastle – O2 Academy

27 Nov – Nottingham – Rock City

www.wearescientists.com

The R n B star, behind hits including Milkshake and the recent remix-friendly smash Acapella, will appear at the as-yet-unopened HMV Institute in Digbeth on October 5.

The date has been added to just a handful of UK appearances, which so far include London’s Shepherds Bush Empire on October 1, the Warehouse Project in Manchester on October 2 and Glasgow’s ABC on October 4.

The tour follows on from a successful Glastonbury appearance in the packed out dance tent and will include hits from latest album Flesh Tone along with other favourites.

The 30-year-old New Yorker first shot to prominence in 1999 with the top five single Caught Out There, going on to win BRIT, NME and Q awards and later winning a Grammy-nomination for Milkshake.

Tickets for the Birmingham show are £20 and on sale now from here.

Buy Kelis music at Amazon

The New York indie sensations will bring their distinctive blend of accessible melodies and worldly rhythms to the North Street venue on November 26, as part of only a handful of shows in this country.

The band, whose second album Contra reached number three in the UK charts on its release in January and topped the indie charts, are currently facing a reported $2 billion dollar lawsuit from the cover star of the record.

The  full tour dates are:

25th November – Blackpool Empress Ballroom Arena

26th November – Wolverhampton Civic Hall

28th November – Edinburgh Corn Exchange

29th November – Sheffield O2 Academy

1st December  – Brighton Centre

2nd December -  London Alexandra Palace

Tickets go on general sale Friday 23rd July at 9am and can be found here.

Meanwhile, Vampire Weekend, who last night closed the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, will release a new single White Sky on August 16, taken from Contra.

The show at the 1,100 capacity venue on October 8 will mark the release of their debut album on October 11 on Amboy Road Records.

The guitar-wielding indie-rockers, virtual unknowns outside their own fanbase, will join star names such as Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Crystal Castles, Feeder and The Magic Numbers who will all be headlining the same venue this year, following in the footsteps of the likes of We Are Scientists, Mumford & Sons and Band of Horses who have graced the stage in recent months.

For those of you thinking “who am ya?”, The Lines have been creating quite a stir themselves in their native Midlands away from the limelight, earning praise from the likes of Black Country rock legend Robert Plant and radio mogul Steve Lamacq, while racking up support slots with The Charlatans, Supergrass and even Ian Brown in Amsterdam.

With hints of the groove-based rock of The Verve and The Rapture, the epic tendancies of Doves and the energy of Arctic Monkeys, they have been tipped by many onlookers to catapult themselves into national acclaim over the coming months.

The band are offering a free download of Circles as a taster of their new album at www.wearethelines.com.

Tickets priced £12.50 for the October  show are available here.

Watch an acoustic performance of Rivers, backstage at The Slade Rooms:

Photo of The Lines by Andy Hughes

The London-born rapper, famed for smash hit Pass Out, will take to the stage at the revamped HMV Institute in Digbeth on October 19, just over a month after the multi-million iconic venue reopens.

His number one debut single is the biggest-selling single this year by any British artist, and its follow up Frisky has seen his single sales top 750,000 copies in the UK alone.

Third single Written In The Stars is due for release in September, closely followed by his eagerly-awaited debut album Disc-Overy on Parlophone Records.

Support on the tour comes from label-mates, indie sampling American hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang, whose own debut album, The Swelly Life, is released on September 13 alongside the single All Things Go.

Tickets for the tour go on general sale from Friday, July 16.

Full tour dates as follows:

OCTOBER 2010

THURSDAY 14 02 ACADEMY NEWCASTLE

FRIDAY 15 EDINBURGH POTTEROW

SUNDAY 17 CARDIFF SOLUS

MONDAY 18 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2

TUESDAY 19 BIRMINGHAM INSTITUTE

WEDNESDAY 20 02 ACADEMY OXFORD

THURSDAY 21 LINCOLN ENGINE ROOMS

SATURDAY 23 02 ACADEMY LIVERPOOL

SUNDAY 24 SHEFFIELD THE PLUG

MONDAY 25 NORWICH UEA

TUESDAY 26 BRIGHTON CONCORDE 2

WEDNESDAY 27 LONDON KOKO

THURSDAY 28 BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY FIRE STATION

FRIDAY 29 02 ACADEMY BRISTOL

Tickets: £12/£14 London available here.

The dates will include two appearances in their native Midlands, at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on October 26 followed by a show at Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall the next day on October 27.

They will perform their debut album in its entirety as part of the special run of shows.

Taking its name from the unemployment form, Signing Off was heralded as a landmark album when it was released in late August 1980, being well received by music lovers, reggae fans and followers of punk and 2Tone.

Mixing reggae and dub, Signing Off chronicled the times, and wider social and political issues, as well as the plight of communities throughout the country during the early Thatcher years.

It went on to attain Platinum status after spending 71 weeks in charts, peaking at number two, featuring hit singles King, Food For Thought and I Think It’s Going to Rain Today.

The album artwork also famously depicted a replica of the bright yellow unemployment card from which the Birmingham-based band took its name: Unemployment Benefit, Form 40.

UB40 saxophonist Brian Travers said: “2010 marks UB40’s 30th anniversary, three decades since we started this incredible journey. We had to ask ourselves ‘How can we celebrate? How can we say thanks to the fans for their unconditional support?’

“We decided to go back to where we started, downtown to the heart of the cities and the venues where we played our first gigs, then perform our first album Signing Off in its entirety, something we have never done before. Of course, there will also be some surprises, but we’ll save them for the night.”

UB40 will perform a second set on the evening featuring some of the band’s most loved tracks.

The band rank as one of the biggest selling reggae acts of all time, selling more than 80 million records worldwide.

Original frontman Ali Campbell left the group in 2008 to pursue his solo career, but the band now includes his older brother Duncan Campbell.

Tickets go on sale from Friday 16th July 2010 and are available from here.

To celebrate Signing Off’s 30th anniversary, EMI will release a special, remastered double-CD together with a bonus DVD.

He has just completed work on his first solo album and will appear at the Broad Street venue on October 25 as part of a UK tour.

Barat, who will be reunited with Pete Doherty for The Libertines comeback shows at the Reading and Leeds festivals, will release details of his own debut album shortly.

Tickets for the Wolverhampton gig are £12.50 will be available from Friday (June 18) at Midland Box Office: 0870 320 7000 or online at www.wolvescivic.co.uk.

Fresh from a headline slot on the second stage at the Download festival, the band, led by Hollywood star Jared Leto, will play to more than 50,000 people as part of a string of dates, with support to be provided by Enter Shikari.

Their appearance in Birmingham will be at the NIA on December 1.

Full dates as follows:

29th – The Brighton Centre

30th – London, The O2 Arena

December

1st – Birmingham, NIA

3rd – Aberdeen, AECC

4th – Manchester, Central

Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 18th June at a price of £23.50 for London and £22 for all other dates, for details visit here.

Thirty Seconds To Mars will follow their triumphant Download set with the July 19 release of the new single Closer To The Edge, co-produced by Flood (U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails), Steve Lillywhite (The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel) and Thirty Seconds To Mars.

Taken from the global hit album ‘This is War’, ‘Close to The Edge’ features backing vocals courtesy of the band’s fan community The Echelon, who contributed to the album’s recording during sessions in nine different countries stretching from America to Australia.