Smart Bar


Smart Bar

10 Questions: The Juan Maclean Interview

The Juan Maclean (DFA) joins us on February 15th for a DJ set alongside Queen! Sundays resident, Garrett David. Juan was kind enough to remit answers for our 10 Questions series. Like Juan’s music, the responses are interesting, bright and uniquely his.…

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Monday February 11th


10 Questions: Shaun J. Wright

Perhaps Shaun J. Wright made first his mark through his vocal work with Hercules and Love Affair, but Shaun’s solo efforts are fast proving to be his ultimately defining material. What other way is there to say it? Shaun sounds, plays and looks like no one else—that is to say that there is just something incredibly special about him that is immediately apparent when you encounter his solo work.…

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Tuesday February 5th


SmartBlog talks to The Advent

Starting as a sound engineer for Jack Trax in London almost 20 years ago, Cisco Ferreira has recorded under a slew of different monikers with different collaborators, but he’s best known for his techno releases as The Advent. Ahead of his appearance at SmartBar this weekend, he answered a few random questions about the past, the present, and the pizza…

What are you listening to right now?

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Friday July 6th


Smart Bar Talks To Bok Bok

A risk-taker and a room shaker, Bok Bok is the man behind the infamously-hard-to-characterize Night Slugs label, and one of the London scene’s leading lights in evolving the bass music sound. Influenced by house, juke, grime and yes, even the dreaded “d” word, Night Slugs is responsible for many dancefloor mainstays of the last two years, with Girl Unit’s “Wut” topping many best-of lists of 2011.…

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Wednesday May 30th


Smart Bar talks to Lazaro Casanova

Miami producer and DJ Lazaro Casanova has smoothly bridged a transition between the worlds of electro and house, from a background touring with MSTRKRFT and The Juan Maclean to his current label, petFood, and his Revolver parties. He sends us a groovy recent live mix and answers a few questions in advance of his upcoming set at SmartBar.…

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Sunday April 8th


Smart Bar Talks to Gene Farris

With an early start on Chicago’s south side, his label Farris Wheel Recordings, a Boom Boom Room residency, and appearances everywhere from Ibiza to China, Gene Farris has kept himself strongly rooted in Chicago house while branching out internationally. SmartBlog gets a few questions in with him in advance of his appearance at monthly Acid Test on Wednesday, February 22.…

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Friday April 6th


For The Records: Gramaphone, Smart Bar, & Michael Serafini

Chicago DJ and producer The Black Madonna debuts a new SmartBlog series with a deep look into legendary record shop Gramaphone and the man behind it: Smart Bar resident DJ Michael Serafini. Our new series will follow Smart Bar’s guest DJs on a trip to the store and a peek into the bags (and sometimes boxes) that they carry out.

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Monday April 2nd


Smart Bar Talks to Dave Clarke

John Peel called him the Baron of Techno, but Dave Clarke is so much more than techno. With a discography that reaches back to the early ’90s, Clarke has dipped into whatever style catches his fancy, be it hip-hop, punk, or electro.…

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Thursday March 15th