The Juan Maclean (The Loft)
Stonedranger thought I wouldn't be too familiar with The Juan Maclean and took it upon himself to give me this little primer:
1. they are touring as a four piece
2. Front man John MacLean used to be in Six Finger Satellite
3. He was one of the original members of the DFA crew, and anticipated a return of Chicago house and disco as early as 2002, when he started working with James Murphy in NY
4. Album due out later this year, new single "Happy house" has become a huge club hit over the summer, and it is pretty much straight-up Chicago house, complete with a pounding straight piano loop... you can listen to it on the myspace page if you want to hear for yourself... wait until about 2:30 into the song in order to get a feel for it.
Coolz?"
I would just like to add that I have been a fan of Maclean's music for over a decade, though I think his straight-faced foray into straight-up house music has moments that are better than others, which I suspect is precisely why SR sent me the informative e-mail. I've seen some live videos that have definitely sold me on seeing the group perform this music. Six Finger Satellite's recorded output from 1993 to 1998 is so ahead of its time, that I'm hard-pressed to think of a 90's band that sounds less dated, especially for a group on
Sub Pop. Murphy's weirdly distorted beat production on the last SFS album Maclean was featured on, "Law Of Ruins" is still a fascinating listen over two LP's. I am still kicking myself for choosing not to see the group at Rubber Gloves, so many years ago. I hate teenage Defensive Listening.
UPDATE: I should also mention that
Keith P is opening this show.
Thee Oh Sees | Sic Alps | Dogme 95 | Ty Sengall (The Lounge)
Though San Francisco's
Pink And Brown were quite respected and respectable, the duo, consisting of
John Dwyer and
Jeff Rosenberg, maintained that respect largely by involving themselves in such a diverse list of projects:
Coachwhips,
The Hospitals,
Young People, and of course,
Thee Oh Sees. Thee Oh Sees aren't necessarily my favorite out of this list of noteworthy groups, they sound about what you'd expect from a band that uses "Thee" in their name: energetic, reverbed out, garage rock, with some psych passages. Thee Oh Sees have an excellent live reputation and this sounds like a show worth catching overall. The Sic Alps released a record on
Siltbreeze over the summer, and have a sound that is as anachronistically inspired as Thee Oh Sees, but is dirtier, druggier, and more sprawling. Local act Dogme 95 has done everything from solo folk stuff, to remixes of other artists' music, to revisionist
Nirvana covers.
PS-No hard feelings, SR. You big jerk.