After the jump is what'll run in Friday's Ticket section should you chose to experience The Seattle Times physically, a list of upcoming concerts by The Offspring, The Field, The Juan MacLean, and Handsome Furs.

Furs looks and sounds like this:

Click To Play

Canadian duo Handsome Furs brings its bracing, catchy electro-rock to Neumo's Friday.

It's Seattle's first chance to see performances of songs from "Face Control," the band's new album (also one of 2009's early best). "Face Control" is the term for turning away "ugly" people from businesses in Moscow, Russia.

Composed of Dan Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry (probably one of the hottest couples in rock music, if The Seattle Times stooped to such tacky gossip), the group was initially judged by its brooding 2007 album "Plague Park," and known as Boeckner's synthesizer/drum machine side project; he still plays with famous indie-rock band Wolf Parade. The Furs re-introduced itself last March with "Face Control," an in-your-face blast of eight potential singles in 12 songs, all of which connect Boeckner's earnestly destroyed-sounding guitar rock to Perry's "punishing beats."

Boeckner spoke on the phone from the beach at English Bay in Vancouver, B.C.

Q: What inspired the change in drum sounds from Plague Park to Face Control? There's some real deep bass and pretty crackin' claps says a lot about hiphop to me, but I don't know...where do you think it came from?

A: The main thing is, when we started touring "Plague Park," we had a drum machine stolen, and we re-programmed all the songs for that tour, and we kind of ramped the tempos up. That just worked itself into the songwriting.

And we were also listening to a lot of dancehall in the year leading up to "Face Control." Alexei's dad lives in the Caribbean, and she's got a pretty good background in dancehall music, like early digital dancehall, with that clap sound.

Q: I understand the "Face Control" title, but is there any special significance to the line that references it from ["Face Control" standout] "Hotel Arbat Blues"? "There was a guy who came in from the cold, but he's never gonna make it past face control"?

A: Yeah, it's kinda dorky, but, we were in Moscow and we had been face controlled at a buffet.

Q: You were not handsome enough to eat at a buffet?

A: No. And it was in the middle of the day. And I just thought, "This is a culture where the capitalism has gone haywire. Totally out of control. This is hypercapitalism, the idea that there's a status involved in being able to scoop some greasy perogis out of a steam table."

But the "there was a guy who came in from the cold" line is because, before we went over, we watched this movie "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold," which is kind of about Russia and the Eastern Bloc, and we thought it was funny.

Q: Are you making new songs in the same uptempo vein as "Face Control"?

A: Yes, definitely. We're playing two new ones in the set, so I'm excited to see what U.S. audiences think. We just got back from Europe. We were playing some new stuff over there and it went over really well.

Q: I guess European audiences, a lot of them speak English well enough to get by, but even if they don't, your band is so much sound, the lyrics are important, but so much sound, you think that helps you go over better in Europe?

A: Oh, definitely. If it was just me on acoustic guitar and Alexei on piano, and like really verse-based, I think it wouldn't go over as well as it does. Especially in Eastern Europe, they seem to really respond to, uh, punishing beats.

Handsome Furs plays with Cinnamon Band and Feral Children, 8 tonight Friday, at Neumo's, 925 E. Pike Street; $15, 21 and up (206-709-9467).

Two more upcoming concerts:

The Juan Maclean and The Field is a bill such that, if you attend, you'll be able to catch up on what's "now" in electronic music: bouncy pop songs and repetitive texture-trance. Concert time is 9 p.m. Monday at Nectar, 412 N. 36th Street; $15, 21 and up (206-632-2020).

The Offspring represents aggro-bratty Californian pop-punk that, like cockroaches and God's love, will never die. It plays with Alkaline Trio and Street Dogs, 8 p.m. Tuesday, at WaMu Theater, 800 Occidental Avenue South; $39.75-$45.00 (206-628-0888).

Photo: Liam Maloney