Tag: the juan maclean

PLAYLIST: The Best Shows You Haven’t Missed This Summer

summer

It’s already August, and if you’re like me, a certain kind of panic is starting to set in: Summer is almost over! The descent into crippling cold weather will begin soon! Well, the first day of Fall is September 23rd, which means there’s still over a month left for rooftop parties, iced coffee, and frolicking outdoors. If you haven’t gotten your music fix this summer, here are some of your best bets for concerts in the next few weeks.

Palehound

8/17 at Gramercy Theatre

Ellen Kempner is the creative force behind the MA band Palehound. Though her band often gets compared to Speedy Ortiz and the two groups both have strong 90’s alt-rock influences, Kempner’s guitar-heavy sounds and lyrics full of casual heartbreak are very much her own.

Krill

8/21 at Palisades

Another of Exploding In Sound’s breakthrough bands, Krill gained fans and alt-rock cred after their last release, A Distant Fist Unclenching.

Frankie Cosmos

8/22 at Shea Stadium

Frankie Cosmos, the daughter of Kevin Kline and a former member of Porches, is inspired by the poetry of Frank O’Hara and the NYC anti-folk scene. Though her real name is Greta, the project is the singer/songwriter’s indie alter-ego.

Zula 

8/24 at Silent Barn

The local psych-rock band will be playing at Bushwick’s DIY space, the Silent Barn as part of Exploding In Sound’s Extended Weekend series.

Cuddle Magic

8/31 at Baby’s All Right

Cuddle Magic is one of Brooklyn’s most unique bands, who specialize in unexpected wordplay and rhythms. The clarinet, saxophone and trumpet they occasionally include sometimes gives them a baroque-like sound.

The Juan Maclean

9/10 at Bowery Ballroom

We’ve seen Juan Maclean, so we can vouch for their live performance. Nancy of LCD Soundsystem handles the vocals over the band’s mixture of electro/techno/house. Get ready to dance.

Dengue Fever

9/11 at (le) Poisson Rogue

Nothing says summer like going to see a band named after a debilitating disease caused by mosquitoes. (I promise, this concert will be a much, much more pleasant experience). The L.A. band sings in Khmer, mixing their native language and brand of pop music with dancey, psychedelic grooves.

St Paul & The Broken Bones 

9/15 at Webster Hall

Looking for something a little more soulful? Check out the Alabama natives St. Paul & The Broken Bones, who have gained notoriety after releasing Half The City last year.

LIVE REVIEW: The Juan MacLean @ Union Pool

juanmac

I’ll be honest: when I hear the genres “house,” “techno,” or “dance” being used to describe a band, I picture a couple of dudes posturing behind laptops. But when The Juan MacLean took the stage at Union Pool on Thursday, I knew this show would be different. John MacLean, the core of the project, immediately put to use a theremin attached to his keyboard stand. Nancy Whang, of LCD Soundsystem, gripped the mic and sang brooding vocals, over endless synths and a beat by a drummer, who, though seriously overworked, never seemed to tire.

Apparently, MacLean decided after the first song that we weren’t dancing enough. “It’s very Thursday night in here,” he taunted the crowd, who countered with whistles and shouts. “It’s a very thirsty night in here,” Whang shot back, chugging a water bottle. The group had recently played three nights at the Cameo gallery, and on their first of three shows at Union Pool, they weren’t satisfied with just easing into their set, or letting the audience do so either.

Whang played percussion with a serious, stony look on her face. It never wavered, even when hitting a springy, rattling instrument earned her cheers. “That was a vibraslap,” she deadpanned, to more cheers. When she and Maclean began to trade vocal lines on “One Day,” it felt like at any minute the band was going to break into “Don’t You Want Me Baby”– they had all of the epic synths and a tense, emotional performance that had the whole room dancing as hard as they could, but none of the song’s cheesiness. And, no laptops.

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LIVE REVIEW: Museum of Love @ The Wick

Museum of Love

Museum of Love

Even as it evolved from dance-punk singles played in hip clubs to the extravagant, sold-out MSG finale show with a multitude of guest performances, LCD Soundsystem was always James Murphy’s thing. Though Murphy enlisted a host of musicians to fill out his production and tour lineup, he remained its front-and-center icon, down to the project’s last 48 hours of existence in front of Shut Up And Play The Hits filmmakers. Co-founding DFA Records, the label that would become synonymous not only with LCD’s output but with the disco-infused punk movement the band inspired, only solidified Murphy’s prominence as the purveyor of those sounds. Longtime collaborator Nancy Whang found outlets as a DJ and producer in her own right, particularly in working with DFA cohort The Juan MacLean. In one way or another, the musicians who became fixtures on LCD releases either remained affiliated with other DFA-related projects or produced solo endeavors for the label, whose curatorial scope felt just as focused on sonic similarities as it was in fostering those familial connections.

Now, it seems, it’s Pat Mahoney’s turn to make a name for himself beyond the title of LCD Soundsystem drummer. His newest project, Museum of Love, has been releasing teaser singles since dropping “Monotronic” in October, and officially announced a nine-track self-titled EP slated for release this month. With Dennis “Jee Day” McNany (who’s also worked with The Juan MacLean) writing most of the songs and Mahoney penning the lyrics, sultry jams like “Down South” and the sunny, expansive pop of “In Infancy” promise that Museum of Love’s debut will be packed with expertly-constructed explorations in a variety of moods.

At DFA Records’ Summer Soiree last Saturday at The Wick in Brooklyn, the whole gang was in attendance; recent signee Sinkane opened with a DJ set as the sold-out crowd rolled in, followed by Whang, who spun records that melded almost seamlessly with the first blushes of Museum of Love’s live NYC debut. Mahoney and Whang hugged before he took his place in front of the mic, front and center this time instead of behind a drum kit. McNany sat beside him, walled in by various synths, and a guitarist and drummer rounded out the set-up as well, which was a pleasant surprise; one never knows how much of a band you’ll get when production duos go live. On two tracks, the addition of a couple brass players warmed things up as well – Museum of Love are not fucking around.

Mahoney, for his part, sounds a little like David Byrne, and that’s certainly not a bad thing. He’s a humble frontman, and seemed grateful for the opportunity to perform for such an enthusiastic crowd with musicians he respects and admires. They played what has to amount to the entirety of the record, and the songs are at once introspective and dance-worthy, unfolding beautifully and organically, as though they weren’t so much written and perfected over several months, but instead sprang into existence fully formed and ready for the exact moment in time you’re hearing them. Fans of LCD Soundsystem (and DFA in general) will of course embrace what Museum of Love has to offer, but there’s also a real possibility that MoL’s appeal could reach well beyond DFA’s immediate circle of devotees.

Though DFA has courted many acts outside its circle, there’s still the feeling that its roster exists inside a bit of a bubble, which can be seen as either shopworn nepotism or comforting familiarity. It’s not that Museum of Love bucks this trend per say, but what Mahoney and McNany do offer are a refreshing set of tracks that are fun and easily approachable. They aren’t taking DFA’s catalogue in a new direction, but they could bring a lot of new fans back into the fold.

TRACK OF THE WEEK: Museum of Love “In Infancy”

MUSEUMOFLOVESPLASH

Decade-defying, dance-inducing electronic music has always been LCD Soundsystem’s signature calling card and it’s an ethos that obviously extends to the latest collaborative project from founding member Pat Mahoney and The Juan MacLean’s Dennis McNany.

Dubbed Museum of Love, the duo channels a glimmering discotheque groove with a brand of electro-punk funk that’ll be familiar to any diehard DFA fan. Case and point is the latest offering from their upcoming self-titled LP called “In Infancy,” which combines the best of signature DFA-esque distortions with a dash of whimsical wonk and transcendental swoop.  Filled with scuzzy synths, croon-embracing choir vocals and an unstoppable drum machine, it’s a shimmering, funk-loving spin on the duo’s past musical endeavors as groove-inducing, avant-electro staples.

Relaxing in its hazy dance floor drift, “In Infancy” coddles your ears. Swaddled by sweeping angelic harmonics gradually melting into an ethereal polyphony of sound, it invokes a series of blissful ideas content in their otherworldly leanings. But that’s not to say it lacks direction, as the entire track is driven by an incessant beat that could make even the sourest of four-on-the-floor adherents sway back and forth a bit. And it should, as it’s a gentle disco-influenced lullaby for the glamorous, cowbell-obsessed embryo within you.

The heir apparent to the Human League’s brand of decade-straddling balladry, it’s as if Mahoney and McNany squeezed all of the disco-embracing essence lingering within MTV’s New Wave playlists from between 1977 and 1983 and put it all into one genre-spanning track. And while some purists may argue otherwise, in all honesty, what better time in musical dance history is there to distill? After all, tracks that glide through time, space and external dimensions are the backbone of pop music. And in my opinion, it’s all for the better if this post-modern dance-punk can turn into something as fun and surprising as “In Infancy.”