When John Maus (not to be confused with the John Maus of Walker Brothers fame) wasn’t playing keyboards for Animal Collective, Panda Bear, and Haunted Graffiti, he was writing and recording his own hermetic, experimental, and oftentimes misunderstood compositions. Drawing on artists like David Bowie, Scott Walker, and Joy Division, Maus’ swollen, distorted, and unabashedly strange debut, 2006’s Songs, was more or less reviled by any and all music critics within earshot.
A 2012 review of a London performance in The Guardian noted him to be a “ferocious theoretician” in particular given his quoting of Alain Badiou in the title of his album We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. The review also remarked on the physical nature of his live shows, “Prowling the stage alone like a patient who has given his care nurse the slip, Maus pogos, head-bangs and gives vent to a succession of feral howls as he jack-knifes at the waist, singing over pre-recorded tapes in what he self-effacingly describes as his “karaoke show”.”
His second album, Love Is Real, was released on Upset the Rhythm in 2007. Four years later, he returned with We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, which featured some of his most dynamic and nuanced music to date. 2012 saw the release of A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material, a compilation of b-sides and unheard recordings made between 1999 and 2010.
John Maus LIVE
Wednesday, 15.11.2017 / Doors 19:00 CET | Starts 20:00 CET
Festsaal Kreuzberg | Am Flutgraben 2 | 12435 Berlin
http://www.festsaal-kreuzberg.de/ | Facebook Event
