Onetime SF band brings psych grooves to the Chapel
SAN FRANCISCO -- While originally started as a side project for Wooden Shjips guitarist Ripley Johnson, pulsating psych band Moon Duo has gradually risen to match the popularity of Johnson's other outfit. First coming to prominence as a member of the droning SF psych quartet that helped foster a local resurgence in mind-expanding sounds during the mid-2000s, Johnson founded Moon Duo with his wife, singer/keyboard player Sanae Yamada, in 2009.
The pair explored a similarly minimalist sound -- frequently using just a drum machine for rhythmic support -- on it's early EPs Killing Time and Escape. However, the songs featured a driving beat and fractured pop sensibility that echoed the proto-electronic experiments of Silver Apples and NYC synth punk duo Suicide. Moon Duo has since released a string of acclaimed full-length albums through the Sacred Bones Records imprint that have continued to refine Johnson and Yamada's unique mix of dreamy atmospheres and propulsive krautrock grooves.
The two musicians long ago decamped from San Francisco (they initially moved to Colorado before finally settling in Portland, Oregon), but have maintained a steady output of tuneful, hypnotic efforts. While their 2015 recording Shadow of the Sun received glowing praise from online outlets like NPR and The Quietus for it's introduction of an almost industrial grit to their synth-driven sound, two years later the tandem collections Occult Architecture Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 ventured into even darker, more gothic territory.
Moon Duo took a break while Wooden Shjips returned to the scene in 2018 with an new studio album V and the lysergic live document Shijps in the Night that was recorded during a performance at now-shuttered San Francisco club Slim's that year, but the group returned the following year with the release of Stars are the Light. Recorded at a studio in Portugal's Serra de Sintra with Spacemen 3 and Spectrum principal Sonic Boom behind the controls, the new album embraces elements of pulsating disco and '90s electronic dance music for a brighter, more pop-minded sound.
Last year, the band was one of many past participants at Austin, TX-based Levitation Festival featured on live recording produced by the festival's affiliated imprint, the Reverberation Appreciation Society. The Live at Levitation volume featuring Moon Duo includes recordings from the group's 2012 and 2014 performances. Returning to stages for the first time in over two years, the band recently paid a return visit to Austin for this year's edition of the Levitation Fest and will head to Mexico City for the Hipnosis Festival this weekend. Moon Duo brings it's current immersive and deeply psychedelic multi-media show "The Lightship" to the Chapel in San Francisco on Thursday as part of the club's 10-year anniversary series of concerts. Midnight Artist (aka Caleb Pate) spins an extended DJ set to kick off the proceedings.
Moon Duo
Thursday, Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. $22-$25
The Chapel