Ladies and gentlemen, the dancefloor is open. After more than a year of weekends inside and social interactions over Zoom, Continental Bar & Lounge in downtown San Jose pulls back the velvet rope this Saturday and once again invites you to lose yourself in the music. To help get you there, they’ve got a slew of DJs dropping deep grooves, rare beats, and whole moods all night, including local Chale Brown, neodisco producer Julius Papp, and NY house master Mr. V. The flyer announces “vibes commence at 8.” Here’s hoping they never stop again.

The Grand Reopening
Sat, 8pm, Free
The Continental, San Jose

Boston electro duo Sonnymoon generated a lot of buzz when they played San Jose in June, and left a lot of people who missed their show at the Pagoda chomping at the bit to see them. That explains why tickets are already being snapped up for the group’s return on Friday, Aug. 10.

The announcement of Sonnymoon’s show comes as a surprise for a couple of reasons. First, the East Coast band seemed to getting to the South Bay about once a year, with more excitement around their arrival each time. But Anna Wise, one half of the founding duo along with Dane Orr, is from NorCal, and the group has been spending more time in California. Secondly, the show, which brings them back to the Pagoda, is actually part of San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest this weekend, and is being billed as “Jazz Beyond.” The show is free with festival admission, but even the separate, non-festival tickets are going fast.

After the Sonnymoon show (which begins at 8:30pm), the Pagoda will host a second Summer Fest-related event, “After Hours at the Pagoda.” Julius Papp and The Selector DJ Kirk will perform from 10pm-1:30pm. Tickets are also free with Summer Fest admission, $10 without. On Saturday, the Pagoda will host another “After Hours” show, this time featuring top San Francisco DJ J Boogie.

For hardcore soul music fans, hearing the same old Curtis Mayfield tunes or Al Green songs can get a little tiresome. Nothing against them, James Brown, Marvin Gaye or any of the other well-established geniuses from the soul era, but for a lot of DJs, that’s about the extent of their soul music catalog. Not so for Julius Papp and The Selector DJ Kirk, whose knowledge of soul music is vast.
Papp and Kirk have made Luxury Soul a regular thing at Chambers in San Francisco every Thursday night, and here in San Jose at the Pagoda every second Friday night of the month. Their soul catalog extends all the way back to the heyday in the ’70s, up to the hot new neo-soul tracks of 2012, and through everything in between.

They’ve got lesser known B-sides and remixes from the legends, lost tracks from underappreciated, forgotten masters. And if you think the ’80s and ’90s were an unfortunate dip in soul music brilliance, Papp and Kirk will prove you wrong. They’ve got lots of crazy, funky jams. We’re talking acid jazz, disco, boogie and every weird sub-genre of soul that ever existed.

Julius Papp’s tenure as a DJ started way back in 1987. He always had a particular interest in collecting weird disco and dance records, so you can bet he’s sitting on gems you never knew existed.

Luxury Soul will be held Fri, Jun 8 at Pagoda in San Jose, 10pm; $5.