Monday Nights Opens This Saturday, Plus More Happening in L.A., 7/31-8/06/25

A wee bit of Sean Carnage's photo collection from Monday Nights: L.A.'s Scene of the Century 2005-2016. Show opens at Leiminspace in Chinatown on Saturday, August 2, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
A wee bit of Sean Carnage’s photo collection from Monday Nights: L.A.’s Scene of the Century 2005-2016. Show opens at Leiminspace in Chinatown on Saturday, August 2, 2025 (Photo of installation by Liz O.)

I spent a decent chunk of Tuesday afternoon at Leiminspace with Sean Carnage and Miguel Rodriguez listening to Cold War Kids, CSS and Bloc Party while hanging Monday Nights: L.A.’s Scene of the Century, 2005 -2016. The top photo is actually a before pic from Tuesday. We added a lot more to the wall and there are more walls and more photos and I’m getting pretty excited for people to have the chance to see it. The show opens on Saturday, August 2, with the festivities happening between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Do join us in Chinatown’s Central Plaze at Leiminspace (443 Lei Min Way) for the opening. If you can’t make it, the show is running through August 23 and regular gallery hours are Saturdays from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. We also made a 120-page mook/exhibition catalog that will be sold at the gallery. Stay tuned for more programming announcements too. 

Continue reading Monday Nights Opens This Saturday, Plus More Happening in L.A., 7/31-8/06/25

Nuovo Testamento, Mark Stewart and More New Music for July, 2025

Press photo of Mark Stewart by Chiara Meatelli and Dominic Lee
Mark Stewart, founder of the Pop Group, finished work on The Fateful Symmetry before his death in 2023. The album was released earlier this month. (Photo: Chiara Meatelli and Dominic Lee)

Sometimes, it feels like there’s just too much awful news in the world to pay attention to new music. This is one of those times. But, if I’ve learned anything after IDK how many years of music obsession, it’s that turning up the stereo/laptop/earbuds/whatever and tuning into something different can help. Sometimes the songs make you dance, sometimes they make you chuckle, sometimes they even give you some new insight into the news on our screens. 

Here’s a small sample of what I’ve been listening to in July of 2025. At the end of the post, you’ll find links to a few other recent releases that I’ve already reviewed. 

Continue reading Nuovo Testamento, Mark Stewart and More New Music for July, 2025

Brenton Wood, Thee Midniters and More Featured in Museum Exhibition “A Great Day in East L.A.”

Concert posters from Los Mirlos, Mazzy Star, Ozomatli and more on view at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes for exhibition "A Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound" (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Concert posters on view at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes for exhibition “A Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound” (Pic: Liz O.)

The first thing I saw inside La Plaza de Cultura y Artes on Saturday afternoon was Brenton Wood’s zoot suit, a gray number paired with a black-and- white tie and wide-brimmed fedora. The dapper mannequin gave me some kind of sign (sorry, couldn’t resist) of what was to come. Stage outfits like Little Willie G.’s suit from Thee Midniters, flyers for shows like The Brat at The Vex in 1980, t-shirts repping Quetzal and Slowrider and a vinyl wall with everyone from The Premiers to Tierra to Alice Bag to Thee Sinseers. A Great Day in East L.A.: Celebrando the Eastside Sound is a multi-media exhibition that pulls together various tangents related to more than half a century of East Los Angeles music. It’s a thorough show that’s absolutely essential to see if you’re interested in L.A. music. The exhibition opened in late June at La Plaza de Cultures y Artes, across from Olvera Street, and is on view until August of 2026.

Continue reading Brenton Wood, Thee Midniters and More Featured in Museum Exhibition “A Great Day in East L.A.”

Fever Ray Refreshes Classics and More on The Year of the Radical Romantics

Fever Ray The Year of the Radical Romantics

The only time I’ve seen Fever Ray live was at Coachella in 2010 and, even then, I only caught part of their set sometime on the first night of the festival after I had already decided that I was over Coachella and the only thing that might ever get me back is The Smiths reunion that I estimated would be announced the day after hell freezes over. All that said, I don’t really have a true concert experience to compare to The Year of the Radical Romantics, the new, live-ish album from Fever Ray, but that’s probably for the best. 

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Swimming Bell Live, Deltron 3030, Camp Classics and More Happening in L.A. July 24 – July 30

Swimming Bell live at Oblivion in Highland Park, Los Angeles on Friday, May 23, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Swimming Bell live at Oblivion in Highland Park on May 23, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

Maybe you recall reading about Swimming Bell here on Beatique back in May. That’s when L.A.-based singer/songwriter Katie Schottland and her band of musicians celebrated the release of the latest Swimming Bell EP, Somnia, with a very intimate show at Oblivion in Highland Park. If you missed the story, go back and read it because Swimming Bell is fantastic and you can catch them on Thursday, July 25, at The Goldfish in Highland Park, where they’ll be playing alongside The GDR and Love Pig for a very low cover. Tickets are available now on Dice for this 21+ show. Check out Swimming Bell’s video for “95 at Night” too. 

Continue reading Swimming Bell Live, Deltron 3030, Camp Classics and More Happening in L.A. July 24 – July 30

Disco, Italo and House at Gloria Molina Grand Park’s Sunday Sessions, 7/20/25

View from the stage at Gloria Molina Grand Park's Sunday Sessions on July 20, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
View from the stage at Gloria Molina Grand Park’s Sunday Sessions on July 20, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

Gloria Molina Grand Park’s Sunday Sessions is a highlight of summer in L.A. It’s a series of free, all ages, dance party picnics right in the middle of downtown, inside the park that sits between the Music Center and City Hall. At the event on July 20, my friend, Maurice de la Falaise curated a lineup of DJs to celebrate the roots of house music, and I got to DJ alongside Loopdropkid and Clifton Weaver, with KG Superstar MCing the afternoon. It was a ton of fun.

For my own set, I played mostly disco and Italo, with a lot of edits to kind of stress that connection between disco and house. In the first set, which started at about 3 p.m., I dropped Horse Meat Disco and Phenomenal Handclap Band’s track “Sanctuary,” which you probably heard a lot if you went to my nights back at The Lash right after the pandemic, because the lyrics are relevant to the moment. The second set, which was from 5:15 – 6 p.m., took a house turn towards the end because the crowd seemed up for it, so I dropped in two of my favorite tracks from the past handful of years “Cissy” from Natasha Kitty Katt, which pulls vocals from the Cissy Houston song “Think It Over,” and Kerri Chandler’s remix of Gabriels “Love and Hate in a Different Time.”  Set list is below.

Continue reading Disco, Italo and House at Gloria Molina Grand Park’s Sunday Sessions, 7/20/25

More New Sextile and Everything Else You Heard Upstairs at Club Underground, 7/18/25

More. Pulp notebook and pen. Pulp swag from Club Underground in Los Angeles, July 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
More. Pulp swag. And it’s a notebook and pen. Things I actually use a lot. (Pic: Liz O.)

Last night was Club Underground’s Pulp Party, but I played in the not-Pulp room, which is why you heard a mix of ‘80s, ‘00s and new indie, darkwave, etc. upstairs at the Grand Star all night. “Women Respond to Bass” by Sextile is this summer’s banger, but I wanted to get “Rearrange,” from the duo’s latest album, into the set as well because it has a very DFA thing going on it.  Also, the lyrics are extremely right now. Teddybears (featuring Iggy Pop) made a comeback with “Punkrocker” thanks to the Superman movie that I haven’t seen. There was also new music from Ships in the Night and Mareux in the set. If you want to see what was played, keep scrolling. Oh, and shout out to the small group of Fontaines D.C. fans who happened to be upstairs for both “Here’s the Thing” and “Starburster.” 

Continue reading More New Sextile and Everything Else You Heard Upstairs at Club Underground, 7/18/25

Olya Sonica, Izzy Outerspace and Lots of Britpop at Hotel Ziggy, 7/17/25

Olya Sonica live at Hotel Ziggy in Los Angeles on July 17, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Olya Sonica live at Hotel Ziggy on July 17, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

Olya Sonica has a new single, “You Only Live Forever (YOLF)” out now and shows in the U.K. next week, so, to celebrate, she put together a special Britpop-themed show last night at Hotel Ziggy. Izzy Outerspace opened. Olya played a full set with her new single and then brought together a group of friends for a set of Britpop covers with various vocalists, including Blur “Song 2,” Pulp “Disco 2000,” The Verve “Bittersweet” and multiple Oasis songs. They finished with a singalong of “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” of course. 

Oh, yeah, and I DJed too. Dug through my Britpop stash and managed to pull out some tunes that I haven’t played in a long time. Some I haven’t played in a really long time, like maybe not since the Bang! days. Check out the set list below and maybe I’ll see you tonight at Club Underground’s Pulp Party

Continue reading Olya Sonica, Izzy Outerspace and Lots of Britpop at Hotel Ziggy, 7/17/25

As Ships in the Night, Alethea Leventhal Casts Protections Spells

Ships in the Night Alethea Leventhal press photo Protection Spells
Protection Spells by Ships in the Night is out now on Metropolis Records (photo courtesy of Ships in the Night)

Last May, Alethea Leventhal released her third full-length album as Ships in the Night , Protection Spells, with two Black Lodge Balls in Virginia. The David Lynch-themed events were planned before the director’s death and were a “labor of love” for the singer and her team. “Emphasis on labor,” says Leventhal on a recent phone call. There were costumes and cover songs. Leventhal herself performed “I’m Deranged,” the David Bowie song that appeared in Lost Highway. The show’s lighting designer projected a Black Lodge floor. “I wish I could have seen the show,” she says on a recent phone call. “I was on stage so I couldn’t see it in quite the same way.”

In case it weren’t already clear, Leventhal is a David Lynch fan. In particular, the soundtracks from his work has been an inspiration for Ships in the Night. So has David Bowie, Kate Bush, Motown and Depeche Mode, whose 1990 hit, “Enjoy the Silence” she covers on Protection Spells. Leventhal recalls hearing the song for the first time, via a mix CD, when she was 13. “I heard that song and remember thinking what is this? How do they do that? What are those sounds?” she recalls. 

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See You on the Dance Floor This Weekend

Crowd shot from Depeche Mode x New Order Night at Club Underground at Grand Star Jazz Club in Los Angeles on April 18, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
On the dance floor at Club Underground (Pic: Liz O.)

I have three DJ gigs coming up this weekend. Thursday, July 17, is the premiere party for Olya Sonica’s new single “You Only Live Forever (YOLF)” at Hotel Ziggy. Friday, July 18, is Club Underground’s Pulp Party at Grand Star Jazz Club and Sunday, July 20, is Gloria Molina Grand Park’s Sunday Sessions. Keep reading for details for all three gigs. Hope to see you on the dance floor this weekend. 

Continue reading See You on the Dance Floor This Weekend

Indie music and alt culture blog from Los Angeles. By Liz O.