There's little doubting the pop sensibilities of Dallas native Luis Dubuc and his electro-pop project The Secret Handshake. Already a longtime Alternative Press darling, Dubuc's most recent, third full-length release, 2009's My Name Up In Lights, showed the artist proving himself even more adept at penning catchy little pop ditties. And, sure, while the disc was something of a commercial disappointment for Dubuc, it was a placement boon; tracks from the disc popped up as the background tunes on a variety of MTV programs.
So maybe it's a little surprising that for his next record, Dubuc's changing up the formula: Goodbye, electro-pop; hello Motown revival. He's certainly not the first to embrace the long-revered Detroit sound—Raphael Saadiq and, more recently, newcomers Mayer Hawthorne and Janelle Monae have already beaten him to the punch—but Dubuc seems quite capable of similarly pulling off the sound: Certain My Name Up In Lights tracks unashamedly showed Dubuc's bubbling-under affinity for '70s and '80s R&B.
In August, his new disc (entitled Night and Day) will officially see the light of day. Early listens reveal the album as a loving tribute—and with just enough brattiness to retain his mall-punk listenership. This tour, which finds Dubuc and his band sharing the stage with a variety of teen-targeting rock acts, should serve as a good litmus test of the new sound's marketability, as Dubuc plans on performing his new material and little else.
