Chilly evenings are a great time to squeeze into a dark, warm club and shake off the winter doldrums to some seriously invigorating music. February is a great month for music in Barcelona, with three great little festivals and several stellar concerts. Both In-somni Festival at the Sala Bikini and Emergencia! at the CCCB offer an exciting look at what's happening in independent music, both locally and abroad, whereas MicroMUTEK brings us an amalgamation of electronic music and digital art. As for concerts, my top picks for the month are The Sounds, CW Stoneking and Megafaun...

Sizzling electro-rock antics

Swedish electro-rock band The Sounds is definitely the kind of act that'll blast the cold straight out of your bones. High-energy is an understatement when describing this band, fronted by Maja Ivarsson, not only one of the hottest women in rock, but also one of the most flexible. Her penchant for onstage acrobatics led to a by now infamous incident in which the King of Sweden got to see her underpants. Their music has an undeniable 80s feel to it, and critics like to point to Blondie or The Cars as influences. Apparently Quentin Tarantino and Dave Grohl are fans of the band.

The band is touring with California indietronica band The Limousines and are playing the Apolo on February 9 at 8pm. 24 EUR.

Hobo blues in the Gothic Quarter

If The Sounds take us back a couple of decades, CW Stoneking takes us back almost a century. The Australian bluesman is true anachronism; so genuine in his dedication to 1920s and 30s acoustic blues that you'll start believing in time travel. It's like he fell asleep sometime prior to 1945, woke up in the 2000s, picked up his banjo and simply continued playing. Perhaps growing up in an Aboriginal village of about 300 people in the Outback gives you a different sense of time. Add to that an almost obsessive love of a certain kind of music (Stoneking once travelled to Trinidad with the sole purpose of hunting down an almost extinct type of calypso guitar player), and you get a singular musician who manages to avoid all semblance of parody, and transports the audience to another era.

On February 18, he'll transform Sidecar into a Prohibition-era speakeasy. At 10:30pm. 18 EUR.

Psychedelic Appalachian fauna

From the sounds of the Dust Bowl banjo to what Houston Party Music describes as “the most psychedelic banjo imaginable”. The influences of Appalachian music are deeply imbedded in the folk-rock of Megafaun. Songs that wind up long mountain roads in curious twists and turns, with occasional trippy detours, but always coming back to solid, melodic ground. As guitarist Brad Cook told Rolling Stone, “the element of weirdness is more integrated and more subtle”. When Justin Vernon left DeYarmond Edison to start Bon Iver, the three other members – Phil Cook, Brad Cook and Joe Westerlund – decided to become Megafaun. Bon Iver might be getting most of the big media love, but Megafaun is crafting an interesting and original spot for itself in the music world.

At the Apolo's [2] on February 21 at 9pm. 12 EUR / 15 EUR.

Other concerts this month:

February 8: Belgian rock band dEUS present their new album Keep You Close at Sala Bikini. 9pm. 18 EUR / 22 EUR.

February 24: YouTube pop sensation and queen of cutesy videos (I've gotta admit, the jellybean mosaics for In Your Arms are fun in a kid's book kind of way) Kina Grannis at Music Hall. 8:15pm. 12 EUR / 15 EUR.

Festivals:

February 8-11: MicroMUTEK at various venues (Apolo, Moog, even the Convent de Sant Agusti). Concerts, live performances, conferences about music with electronic elements and digital art. With artists like Catalan musician Guillamino, jazz pianist and saxophonist Santiago Latorre, techno and house producer Theo Parrish and others.

February 17-18: In-somni Festival at Sala Bikini. Catalunya's travelling independent music festival presents The Crookes, Los Pilotos, Chinese Christmas Cards, Evripides & his Tragedies and other bands. Friday: 18 EUR / 22 EUR. Saturday: 20 EUR / 24 EUR.

February 18: Emergencia! 2012 festival at CCCB. Barcelona's Centre for Contemporary Culture presents 8 truly independent bands. 7 EUR.

Looking ahead to March: God is an Astronaut (March 2 at Music Hall), Pulled Apart by Horses (March 4 at Apolo), The Sadies (March 13 at Sidecar), Tindersticks (March 20 at Casino de l'Aliança del Poblenou), Xiu Xiu (March 24 at Be Cool), Lambchop (March 30 at Apolo).

Photos: CW Stoneking, The Sounds