It List: Tuesday

Justice/DJ Mehdi/Fancy (Palladium): I've seen several remarks in our comments sections in the past few weeks indicating people's frustrations with Justice for one reason or another. Some don't dig what they do. That's fine, and after all, most of their material doesn't seem to do a whole lot musically that is either new or particularly revolutionary, even within the narrow genre parameters of French electronic dance music. Other commenters seemed to be sick of the year long assault of Justice hype, and I can see their point too. I'm pretty sure I never need to hear "D.A.N.C.E." at one more hipster party ever again for the rest of my life, and I can't say that I feel particularly "cutting edge" when I arrive at any event sponsored by Tom An I mean Rupert Murdoch's Myspace.

But despite these complaints, what everyone probably has to concede is that Justice released one of the most important dance records of the decade last year, at least as far as crossover appeal and cultural impact. Their tracks took a choppy, distorted, imbalanced and rock focused sound and blended it with classic disco, new jack R&B, and a healthy dose of Chicago acid and fidget house to create a virtual bomb that seemed to be dropped on just about every discerning dancefloor in the world at one point or another in 2007. What resulted was a healthy push towards dance music for many "indie rock" consumers that seemed to draw a line in the sand: I think a lot of 90's indie scene leftovers look at groups like Justice, Spank Rock, Simian Mobile Disco and M.I.A. as the personifaction of the day the music died, the day they realized they didn't "get it" anymore and decided to move on to their grumpy anti-hipster period. And no matter what you think of Justice, that shit is pretty funny.

The live show is supposedly phenomenal too, and with Ed Bangers Mehdi and Fancy opening, I'm guessing this will be a very fun evening.


The Party/Keith P (The Loft): This a free after-party for the Justice show and it runs from 11:30 to 1:00 am. There will be complimentary Colt 45. Good Gawd.

Blitzen Trapper/Fleet Foxes (Hailey's): At their best, Blitzen Trapper sounds like mid-period Kinks. At their worst, they sound like late period Sloan. They were once remixed by Best Fwends. I don't even know how to begin to comment on that. Fleet Foxes claim to play "baroque pop," and theirs is a lazy, dreary take on that oft attempted genre.

They Might Be Giants/Oppenheimerr (House Of Blues): Thirty something dollars is a lot , even if they play "They'll Need a Crane." Don't know much about Oppenheimer, but they sound every bit as ready to write TV show themes as TMBG.