But, there’s a lot more music that came out in February, so much that I’ve probably heard a fraction of one percent of it, which includes the handful of releases that I’ve recommended below. Give them a listen when you have the chance.
Is there an album title better suited for 2025 than City of Clowns, the latest from Marie Davidson? Just this week, Meta dropped some Instagram users into a new level of doomscroll hell, Jeff Bezos decided that WaPo’s opinion page would push “personal liberties and free markets,” and I can’t even keep up with the New Adventures of Trump and Musk. These dudes are a bunch of fucking clowns with far too much power over our daily lives.
But, enough about politics, let’s get the music, right? Sorry, that’s not going to happen with City of Clowns. Influenced by Shoshana Zuboff’s book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, the not-so-subtle theme throughout Marie Davidson’s new album is the control that Big Tech wields over us. Take “Demolition” as an example, when Davidson whispers, “I want your data” in a flirtatious voice, like the platform that’s going to seduce you into handing over the details of your life that you don’t even share with your closest confidantes.
On Sunday night, when I was DJing at The Mermaid for Splash! I mixed together “Cherry” from Chromatics with “Drums of Death,” from FKA Twigs’ latest album, and Mareux’s songs “DTLA.” It was one of those impromptu things that I really liked and I made a mental note to keep that in mind for future sets.
The following morning, I woke up with the Dinner In America song still stuck in my head. I had to do something to get it out, so I pulled those three songs and built a set around it, opening and closing the set with two other frequent earworms. It did the trick, at least for now, and I liked it enough to post it for this month’s Beatique Mix. Also included in this set are Taleen Kali’s cover of My Bloody Valentine’s song “Cupid Come,” from her new EP, and “Bon Voyage,” from Optometry’s new album, Lemuria. Track list is below. Enjoy!
Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animated feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed screens at PRS on Saturday, March 1 with live score by Elf Freedom
Love zines? This weekend, L.A. Zine fest takes over The Broad. You can learn how to DIY print media or just see what’s available to read in the super-indie press at the afternoon-long event, which is free to attend on both Saturday and Sunday.
At the cusp of the ‘00s and ‘10s, Mr. Black was the place to be on Tuesday nights. The soiree returns for one night only on Saturday, March 1 at Bardot in Hollywood. Also on Saturday night, Lotte Reiniger’s nearly century-old animated feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed screens at Philosophical Research Society with a live score from Elf Freedom.
While I don’t typically post about the stadium concerts, it seemed worthwhile to note that, at the time of writing this, there were still a few tickets left for Deftones and The Mars Volta at the Forum on Wednesday, March 5.
Scroll down for details on these and more events happening in L.A. between Thursday, February 27 through Wednesday March 5.
Patty (Emily Skeggs) singing “Watermelon” in Dinner in America
I had “Watermelon,” the song that Patty sings in Dinner in America, stuck in my head for nearly a week, so I decided to watch the movie again. Of course, the earworm burrowed deeper into my brain.
Heart and skulls at The Mermaid 2/23/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
Fontaines D.C. dropped a new track last week, “It’s Amazing to Be Young” and the song was one of two from the Irish band to turn up in my set for Splash! at the Mermaid last night. Another new-ish tune worth mentioning is “The Silence That Remains” by The Horrors, which is from their forthcoming album, Night Life. It’s out on March 21 and I’m really looking forward to it.
Recent releases from Optometry, Mogwai, Dustbowl Champion and FKA Twigs also made it into the Splash! set, but since there are no genre limitations for this night, I tend to play whatever is stuck in my head in the days leading up to the gig. Tracey Ullman’s cover of “They Don’t Know” was that song earlier last week until it was dislodged by the most persistent earworm I’ve had in a while. I’ll reveal what that song is tomorrow, but it is somewhere on this five-hour set list, so maybe you’ll figure it out before then.
Lemuria, the sophomore album from Optometry, has the best closer I’ve heard in a long time, so we’re going to start this review at the end. “Never Coming Back” is in the vein of what’s considered post-punk right now. It has a running-for-your-life tempo (over 160 bpm for those of you who keep track of these things), a gloomy synth and a “Ceremony” sad guitar. It’s dark— really, it sounds like the cliff-hanger ending of a TV show— but also danceable and it’s become my favorite track on the album, which is out today on Palette Recordings.
Last Sunday, at the same record fair booth where I found Marc Almond’s fantastic “Melancholy Rose” 12” single, I came across an Italian copy of Quando Quango’s 12” “Two From Quando,” featuring the song “Atom Rock,” released on a Bologna label called Base Record, although it’s still marked with the Factory Records catalog number FAC 102. Sweet! There was no way I was leaving the record fair without this record, even if I *technically* already have the song on vinyl.
Quando Quango first came into my orbit thanks to a compilation called Cool As Ice: The Be Music Productions. Released in 2003, it’s a collection of music produced by members of New Order as Be Music between 1983 and 1985. There are two tracks from Quando Quango on there, “Love Tempo” and “Atom Rock,” both of which were produced by the dream team of Bernard Sumner, using the name Be Music, and A Certain Ratio’s Donald Johnson, under the name DoJo. At the time that copies of Cool As Ice landed in the bins at Amoeba, I was promoting and DJing a Wednesday night party at a now long-gone West Hollywood bar called The Parlour called Transmission. If the name weren’t a total giveaway, I was pretty obsessed with everything related to Joy Division and New Order, as were a lot of the regulars, so I played both those songs often. And, since one of the few constants in this world is that I’m still a little on the Joy Division/New Order obsessive side and still play for people who are riding the same wave, “Love Tempo” and “Atom Rock” still turn up in my sets. All of this a super tl;dr way of justifying my purchase, btw.
This Sunday, February 23, I’m back at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo for Splash! Catch me in the DJ booth from 8 p.m. until close, playing a little bit of everything. Seriously. Check out my previous playlists to see what has made it into my sets for this night without genres. The Mermaid is located at 428 E. 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. There’s street and lot parking, plus the venue is just a block or so away from Metro’s A/E station in Little Tokyo. There’s no cover, but The Mermaid is 21+.
As for the rest of this week, and early next week, some highlights include Kool Keith at The Paramount on Thursday, David Longstreth and Dirty Projectors on Friday and Saturday, DIIV in Ventura on Monday and Bon Entendeur at The Fonda next Wednesday.
Not surprisingly, there are loads of great movies back in the theaters this week, including screenings of Chungking Express at multiple theaters, The Juniper Tree at Philosophical Research Society on Saturday night and much more, so keep scrolling to get the list.
The Juniper Tree is one of those movies that’s been kicking around on my “To Watch” list for ages, but it wasn’t until last weekend that I finally saw it on Kanopy. The film, made in Iceland by American director Nietzchka Keene, was released in 1990 and is probably best known as “Björk’s first movie.” Several years ago, The Juniper Tree was restored and re-released. Since then, it’s been making the rounds on the repertory cinema circuit. In fact, if you’re in L.A. and want to see it in a theater, you can catch it at Philosophical Research Society on Saturday, February 22.
While Björk is clearly the movie’s selling point now, she’s not the only reason you should check out The Juniper Tree. It’s a stunning movie that makes good use of the landscape to tell a modern-medieval fairy tale with a Seventh Seal feel.
