Ok so it’s New Years Eve, just about the right time to start planning which gigs you’re going to spend your hard earned moola on. This isn’t going to be a comprehensive guide by any means but instead I’m just going to pick a few which I think are unmissable in January and February.

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Crawdaddy on the 18th of January. There’s just no stopping this duo, they’ve gone from strength to strength since the release of their first single ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’. Ok so they didn’t quite make it on X Factor but they haven’t given up yet and are back in 2008 to wow us with even more of their combined word wizardry and electro blips & beeps. www.myspace.com/lesacvspip 

Explosions in the Sky play the Village on the 26th of January. These guys have been busy curating ATP 2008 for the last few months but now they begin another world tour and stop off number 3 is Dublin so happy days. What to expect: multi guitar lined build ups and many a noisy outburst.  www.myspace.com/explosionsinthesky  

Le Loup take over Crawdaddy on the 21st of February. An experimental indie folk  group from Washington, Le Loup was formed by Sam Simkoff after he posted an ad on craigslist to find musicians to play the music he had written and recorded on his laptop at home in late 2006.  Their debut album ‘The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly’ is a beautiful blend of instruments and  gentle electronic texturization. Somewhere like Crawdaddy is the perfect small intimate venue to hear them for the first time. It also means there’s a pretty good chance of them playing at Electric Picnic. www.myspace.com/leloupmusic 

Menomena at the Sugarclub on the 29th of February (yep that’s right, 2008 is a leap year). As 2007 came to a close, promoters were battling it out to see who would come out on top and book these guys. And rightly so. Menomena haling from indiecentric Portland released their third full length album ‘Friend and Foe’ in Europe at the end of August on City Slang. It’s definitely one of the stand out albums of 2007 so don’t miss your chance to see them in 2008.  www.myspace.com/menomena    

Brendan McGuirk is the editor of Analogue, and former Chair of Trinity FM.
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