Greetings comrades! As another typically schizoid British summer sends us torrential rain and cascades of glorious sunshine with no apparent pattern or logic, it’s impossible to know what sort of mood to be in. Last time we spoke, Clash was pretty glum following the closure of several of Liverpool’s best-loved venues (most notably Static Gallery and The Masque) – albeit the sort of glum that gets washed away pretty quickly when something good happens. Sound City was that ‘something good’ this time round, friends, and once again it was rather awesome. Highlights for this hack included Forest Swords’ post-dubstep atmospherics, the murky indie rock of Kestrels and another sterling showing from Salam Rages, whose blood-curdlin’ good fun just keeps lighting up this column. We also joined the rest of the press in ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Manchester’s PINS, who are surely on the verge of doing something Very Special Indeed. Keep an eye out.

This time round we’re feeling somewhat cheery thanks to the reopening of the Royal Court; one of the city’s most prestigious venues over several decades, sadly unused for live music since being briefly ignored during the Capital Of Culture years. It’s unlikely (if not entirely clear) at present whether the refurbished building will continue its latent policy of hosting – ahem – ‘local flavour theatre’ rather than live music, but it’s good to see the old place in use again.

Anyway! Let’s see what’s going on over the summer months. It’s festival season, so as usual there’ll be less in the way of gigs. No-one seems to have told EVOL, however – their relentlessly excellent schedule brings visits from pacy NYC types Cerebral Ballzy (Kazimier, 12/7), the tipster’s hipsters Savages (Leaf, 25/7) and the rubbishly-named Ram’s Pocket Radio, who sound like they’re aiming to be covered on the next season of Glee. Lovely stuff if you’re into that sort of thing, anyway, and they hit the Shipping Forecast on July 10th. EVOL also team up with the city’s second most prolific promoters Harvest Sun to host country-inflected rockers Dawes on that very same date (Kazimier).

It’s a rare quiet month for the HS chaps, most likely indicative of the summer schedule, but they’ve still managed to put together a show for The Low Anthem, whose gentle Americana rocks The Kazimier extremely gently on July 19th. Thereafter things go relatively quiet until Damien Jurado nips over to Leaf on August 18th, a newfound sense of grace hopefully meshing well with the more raucous material of his Sub Pop years. Fun.

Behind The Wall Of Sleep are also busy folk, and they present and album launch show for synth-laden doomy types Gigantes on July 1st (Mello Mello), as well as an incredible-looking all-dayer starring a reunion set from much-missed hardcore heroes Walk The Plank (Wolstenholme Creative Space, 28/7). Doubling up as an album launch for streetpunk faves the Down & Outs, and also featuring sets from the phenomenal Eagulls and the aforementioned Salem Rages, this should NOT be missed. There’s also the small matter of intense prog types Anta at Mello Mello (28/8), by which time gig season should be getting ready to restart in earnest.

Amongst the miscellany of other shows, it’s worth mentioning the Brazilica Fringe Carnival Ball, which promises a plethora of samba rhythms, Afrobeat, reggae and more (Kazimier, 7/7). You might also wanna check out Orca Team’s shimmering surf-pop (Mello Mello, 11/7), or possibly even ex-Insipiral Carpet Tom Hingley (Lomax, 19/7). There’s also a choice between bleepy post-rockers Fonetiks (Lomax) and fraggle survivors Midway Still (Format) on July 27th. Failing that, head to The Bear Social at Elevator on July 28th for some fun with Vasco de Gama and Married To The Sea. Rain, schmain – there’s still plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

Words by Will Fitzpatrick