Knower | Mon 19 Mar | Hare & Hounds | £13.75
Knower do whatever they damn well please, all the time, and they mostly do it with the intensity cranked up to eleven. A case in point: the hyper-jazz, Scott Pilgrim sugar-rush of ‘The Government Knows’ (“…when you masturbate”) complete with a thoroughly WTF, Tim-and-Eric overload of a video that, honestly, words fail to describe. See our full preview here.

Young Fathers | Tue 20 Mar | O2 Institute2 | SOLD OUT
Glasgow’s Young Fathers have never shown signs of dancing to anyone’s tune but their own: from their startling debut EPs to their Mercury Music prize win – and subsequent shrug-off – they invented a sonic world that only they can inhabit. Their effortless blend of hushed rap, ghostly chants, and murky, leftfield production is a genre unto itself. See our full preview here.

Vök | Tue 20 Mar | Sunflower Lounge | £7
A Scandinavian, electro dream-pop band doing what Scandinavian electro dream-pop bands do best: alluring, atmospheric and downright sexy jams that condense the low-key energy of the Knife or Little Dragon into solid pop gems. The evidence: last year’s debut LP, ‘Figure’. seetickets.com

Milk Teeth | Tue 20 Mar | Mama Roux’s | £9
Nothing can sap Milk Teeth’s freewheeling momentum right now: the caustic, visceral punk of their debut ‘Vile Child’ has a life of its own, defying trends, opinions or feelings. Hell, the band kissed off their own frontman and founding member three weeks before the album dropped. Milk Teeth have got guts to spare, and they’re sharing them around. seetickets.com

Flight of the Conchords | Thu 22 Mar | Genting Arena | *Postponed*
New Zealand’s “fourth most popular folk duo” spent a long time playing it as straight as it gets: as earnest, naïve, so-so musicians wanting to ‘make it’. Beneath the deadpan comedy is the dirty secret: McKenzie and Clement’s music is actually killer, able to pastiche and lampoon pretty much any style, subject or scenario through hilariously constructed lyrics and a watertight delivery. See our full preview here.

Swampmeat Family Band (Album Launch) | Fri 23 Mar | The Night Owl | £5.50
Those Fazeley hillbillies have been legends in these parts for several years, bringing the noise of the Southern United States to the discerning ears of their Birmingham kin and beyond. The Family mean business: primed to unleash a wall of dirty rockabilly swamp noise on new album ‘Too Many Things to Hide’. Come join your cousins and rock out at the launch party. See our full preview here.

Jessie Ware | Sat 24 Mar | O2 Academy | £32.20
Jessie Ware has charted a patient but damn near faultless path from 2013’s ‘Devotion’ to her latest, ‘Glasshouse’ – never straying from an unabashed take on pop that eschews trends and drama for an earnest belief in the majesty of a polished soul hook. Ware is the proof you need that it’s not just twenty-somethings making unmissable pop today. See our full preview here.