The summer months can grind down a big-name DJ. The traveling is constant, the sets start at ridiculous hours (in some cities, 4AM is considered "peak time"), and there is something kind of lonely about shuttling around the globe with only your records to keep you company.

But Juan Maclean doesn't mind. "When I'm on at 4AM in Barcelona," he explains, "it's [feels like] only 10PM." The producer, band leader, remixer and DJ is booked solid these next few months, doing DJ tours in support of his pumping, throbbing entry in the DJ Kicks compilation series. He's doing a set this Friday at Webster Hall, so we met up at a hotel in Chelsea to discuss this new release, his transition from post-punk to dance music, and why DJ mixes are great for doing the dishes.

Kieran Hebden doesn't like repeating himself artistically. Of course, all artists will tell you this. And now that electronic musicians like Hebden can flit from dubstep to ambient, or from folk to funk just by downloading extra plug-ins, it's not exactly a bold stance to take on the issue of craftsmanship.

Ever since Hot Chip got home from its seemingly never-ending world tours in support of Made in the Dark, the English quintet has been laying groundwork for their next five years. Guitarist Al Doyle and synth player Felix Martin built their own recording studio. Vocalist and synth player Joe Goddard co-founded his own record label, Greco Roman. Co-vocalist and piano player Alexis Taylor got married and became a father.

As pop stars go, Annie is about as star-crossed as they get. Ever since the Norwegian electro-pop artist released her debut single, "The Greatest Hit," back in 1999, Anne Lilia Berge-Strand has had to deal with tragedy after tragedy. The first was both business and personal: in 2001, Berge-Strand and her producer boyfriend, Tore Andreas Kroknes (Erot), were at work on a debut album back when Kroknes died of a heart condition at just 23. It took the heartbroken songwriter another three years to finish her critically lauded debut, Anniemal, and its success netted her a deal at Island Records in 2006. But just one year later, the troubles resumed. Rumors bubbled up about tensions between Annie and her major label; a preliminary copy of her sophomore album, Don't Stop, leaked. More than a year after Don't Stop was supposed to be released, word had Berge-Strand trying to get out of her contract and head to another label to start the process all over again.

But this week, Annie can finally put all that behind her. A reworked version of Don't Stop, featuring contributions from Richard X, Paul Epworth, Brian Higgins (of songwriting team Xenomania), Alex Kapranos, and Girls Aloud came out Tuesday, drawing rave reviews all across England. She's DJing at Tribeca Grand this Saturday, so we called her up to talk about what really happened at Island, the death of pop superstardom, and DJing with vinyl in the 21st century.

Marianne Williams

That's a lot of people.

Bands that list too many influences tend to sound like a mess. So what does Fool's Gold, a band that's a goulash of Ethiopian soul music, Touareg music from Mali, Congolese secousse music, Eritrean soul music, tropicalia, and '80s dance hits (and with Hebrew singing thrown in for good measure) sound like? Basically, they sound like a wide-open dance party. The Los Angeles-based octet, led by guitarist Lewis Pesacov and lead singer Luke Top, is playing the Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight, and so we got the frontman on the phone to talk about the musician's day job, the lost art of improvisation, and singing in Hebrew.

Felix Buxton, on the right. We think.

Basement Jaxx don't come to the States very often. The London-based duo of Felix Buxton and Simon Radcliffe has always had trouble booking shows at American venues, and so a lot tends to happen between their U.S. gigs; the last time they made it to our shores, in 2006, dance music was still lurking on pop culture's fringes and Buxton and Radcliffe were belatedly touring behind the Grammy-winning Kish Kash with a stage-stuffing, 18-person-deep clusterfuck of a live show. This November, when they finally return, they will have far less. The Balkan brass band will stay home, as will the emcees and the singers and the percussionists and the flag-bearers and the the acrobats and the fire-eaters (kidding!). Instead, Buxton and Radcliffe will be DJing at Santos Party House this Saturday, November 7, and that ought to be insane enough.

To honor the occasion, the Voice recently spoke with Buxton on the phone about his obsession with pre-Giuliani New York, the rumors that his group might be done, and their much-discussed disc of ambient music.

Photo courtesy of Plexi PR

James Murphy and Pat Mahoney aren't Mike Bindra and Laura de Palma, but we couldn't resist this photo.

The United States is most definitely at a different point in the electronic music festival life cycle than Europe. Without getting into Europe's stage (dirty 30s?), it's fair to say that Electric Zoo, a weekend-long electronic music festival created by long-time events organizers Mike Bindra and his long-time business partner, Laura de Palma, is the event ushering America into its young adulthood. Over Labor Day weekend, Electric Zoo will pair old-school legends (Frankie Knuckles, Richie Hawtin, Francois K) beside hipster favorites (James Murphy and Pat Mahoney, Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, Busy P) and guido gods (ATB, Armin Van Buuren, Deadmau5) on four different stages, all hidden away in the (relative) wilds of Randall's Island.

To get the lowdown on this momentous occasion, we recently spoke with Bindra and de Palma by phone about the appeal of techno outside, territorial dance-music genre geeks, and Port-o-Potties.

"I'd love to get Prince into the studio one time before he dies."

Jas is the one not drinking.

For the last five years, Simian Mobile Disco, the British production powerhouse of James Ford and Jas Shaw, have been reshaping people's musical expectations by turning EDM into pop music and back again. They've cut acid house with bratty rap, dosed nu-disco with heartbreaking vocals, and built epic storms out of static-y, frayed drum programming. Production values aside, however, their songs are distinguished by their melodies and hooks. Ford and Shaw are songwriters first, technology nerds second.

With the duo scheduled to perform at the Jelly Pool Party this Sunday and their highly anticipated sophomore album, Temporary Pleasure, dropping in two weeks, we got Jas, the duo's taller, blonder member, on the phone. He was racing to the Tokyo airport at the time, frantically trying to catch his flight back to England, but we still managed to discuss Temporary Pleasure, his background in "proper bands," the tactile pleasure of synthesizers, and guest vocalists.

Kim-Ann Foxman and Andy Butler

You'd never know it from his press photos, but Andy Butler is a big softy. The world knows him as the head and heart of DFA giants Hercules and Love Affair, but he's also recognizable for his penetrating stare and imposing physique--and you'd imagine him to be a curt, monosyllabic beast.

He'd have reason to be less than friendly these days. Butler recently cancelled Hercules and Love Affair's Coachella appearance, and with its members splintering off into separate groups, there are whispers, growing louder by the day, that this band is no more. But Hercules and Love Affair was never really a band in the first place, and Butler is a DJ first and foremost--which brings him to Hammerstein Ballroom this Friday, July 3 for Firecracker with Victor Calderone and Steve Lawler. Reason enough to get him on the phone from San Francisco, where he's recently relocated and happily, effusively spoke with us about writing the new Hercules & Love Affair album, his forthcoming mix CD Sidetracked for super-serious techno label Renaissance Records, and disco edits.