Having too many options can prove paralyzing, but sometimes it can be the reason you end up shaking that ass for days on end. This week, much like the wind, I found myself swirling in four different directions — musically that is. Not able to focus on just one artist or event (and in a city like San Francisco, why should you have to?) I decided to map out all of my fancies this week. Here are four appealing acts traveling to and performing in The City this weekend — suck on a Red Bull and see you at the show.
THURSDAY
Fedde Le Grande
Dutch house superstar Fedde Le Grande is slated to set anchor at Vessel for a spin around the decks. Known for his hard-hitting, dance-floor seizure inducing electro house sound, the DJ and producer hit a high mark in his career when he was asked to remix Madonna’s anthemic “Give It 2 Me.”
Fedde is expected to play some iteration of his massive 2006 single “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit.” The timing is perfect as Movement: Detroit Electronic Music Festival is rolling out this weekend. Bringing at bit of the Motor City madness to those left on the Left Coast, Fedde will have the crowd throwing ’em up and tossing ’em back.
10pm, $30
Vessel
85 Campton Place, SF
FRIDAY
Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs’ voice doesn’t so much sing as it smooth sails across terrains of simple yet lush harmonies and warm guitars. His music is sparse and quiet with hints of loneliness and despair peeking through almost whimsical sounding melodies. The dichotomy is interesting and McCombs makes it work. At his core, the singer-songwriter is a skilled storyteller – and his stories are bewitching.
Most people probably won’t consider this show as pregame material, but I like to mix it up. Especially before a long night of oonce oonce, it’s kind of nice to get your folk on before getting your freak on.
8pm, $16
Great American Music Hall
859 O’Farrell, SF
Secret Circuit
Secret Circuit may not be a secret much longer. Finishing up a full-length LP for Tim Sweeney’s label Beats in Space, Secret Circuit’s Eddie Ruscha Jr. says he’s hoping for a summer release. “It’s all recorded, it’s just about fine tuning it really,” he reveals, “but all the tracks are there.”
The cosmically experimental musician divulges that the new album will sound much like the 12″ single — “Nebulon Sphynx” — BIS released earlier this year. “It’s analog, synth heavy and there are more song-oriented things that appear as the music goes on,” he says. “The 12″ was part of the larger picture of the record, for sure.”
Using the moniker The Laughing Light of Plenty, Ruscha is also working on an album with Rub N Tug‘s DJ Thomas “It’s coming out killer,” he laughs. “We used an old ARP 2600 and so there’s this kind of random, looping, synth blob happening throughout the whole thing. It sounds like old techno.”
Performing a DJ set on Friday at Monarch, Ruscha says he’ll play “freaky dance music” as well as some of his own beats and tunes. See, I told you there would be some freakin’ going on.
9pm, $5 before 12am, $10 after.
Monarch
101 Sixth, SF
SUNDAY
Lazer Sword
The two halves of Lazer Sword, Low Limit and Lando Kal, are coming back to San Francisco — if only for the night. Hitting up Icee Hot at Public Works on a Sunday (don’t forget it’s an extended Memorial Day weekend for most folks), the boys are crowd-rocking veterans.
The duo is guaranteed to play booming and sexy bass tunes, alongside tracks from sophomore effort, Memory, which will infused the mix with an ’80s-electro musicality. I’d recommend a stretch at home before twerking it full-speed at the club.
10pm, $5 before 11pm, $10 after.
Public Works
161 Erie, SF
Julia B. Chan is a writer and hosts “Play for Today,” a program on Radio Valencia — www.radiovalencia.fm — every Friday from 6 to 8pm. Follow her on Twitter @onTheBeat.