The New Wave. vs Darkwave Room at Nocturno during “Blue Monday” (Pic: Liz O.)
Saturday was another amazing night Klub Nocturno at Catch One. I played in the new wave vs. darkwave room, which definitely leaned more darkwave. The one super-new release that made it into the set was “Make Me Feel” by Night Ritualz, whose self-titled album came out on Friday, and there’s a good amount of Molchat Doma in the set because they played on Friday night. Going to keep this update short because there is not enough coffee to wake up my brain on this daylight savings Sunday and I keep writing Molchat Doma as Molchat Dolma, so maybe I need to eat or something. So, thanks to Nocturno for having me play and thanks to everyone who came out and danced. Set list is below.
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.
FKA Twigs dropped a new album, Eusexua, on Friday. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet, but, I really like the song “Drums of Death,” so I tried it out to open last night’s set at The Mermaid and you’re probably going to be hearing it more in my sets. Splash! Sundays is genre-free, so the set ranges from ‘60s rock and soul to new darkwave and indie.
I woke up Sunday morning with “Silver Rings” from Matt Berry’s new album, Heard Noises, stuck in my head, so that made it into last night’s set, sandwiched in between Shocking Blue and Los Bravos. Other new-ish songs in the set include “No Longer Mine,” from South Bay soul group Thee Heart Tones, and Male Tears’ latest synthpop jam, “Little Doll.” Keep scrolling for the rest of the set list.
Book release party cake with cover of House of Hearts. (Pic: Liz O.)
When I was a teenager, I read Francesca Lia Block’s L.A. punk fairy tale Weetzie Bat for the first of many times. The book left a monumental impression on me— which is wild considering that it’s just a bit over 100 pages long— that it remains one of my favorites. In fact, every one of her books that I’ve read has left me in awe, including House of Hearts, which was just released on paperback last week.
In an appropriately magical turn of events, I got to DJ the House of Hearts release party at Gold Digger’s last night. It was great fun, with live music from The Zero Collective and Movie Club, plus a VJ set from Crunch-ø-Matic. I played a 90 minute set at the end of the night with mainly indie and new wave jams. The set list is below.
Time Masters, Rene Laloux’s collab with Moebius, screens at Brain Dead in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 17
My next DJ gig isn’t until November 23, when I’ll be playing with Vanish and Filthy Rich at Club Retro Boom’s first anniversary party, but I have a bunch of recommendations for you for events happening in L.A. between Thursday, November 14 and Wednesday, November 20. These include live music, DJ events and movie screenings and they’re all budget-friendly.
[Update: Turns out that I will be DJing this weekend. Catch me on Sunday, November 17, at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo (428 E. 2nd St., in the mini-mall on the corner of 2nd and Alameda) for Splash! This is a 21+ night and there’s no cover. I’ll be playing first, roughly from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. It’s not genre specific. Check out this playlist to see what I dropped at Splash last month.)
On Thursday, seminal goth band The March Violets are playing at The Echo. Their latest album,Crocodile Promises, came out last summer and it’s a good one, so listen when you have the chance. If you’re into shoegaze and psychedelic sounds, I highly recommend Family of Light’s residency at Harvard & Stone on Friday night. I DJed the band’s show at the same venue earlier this year and they’re fantastic. Plus, Izzy Outerspace (who I also played with previously at Harvard & Stone) is on the bill as well. If classic Jamaican tunes are your jam, don’t miss Riddim ’n Brews 3rd Anniversary on Sunday at Creature Comforts.
For friends in the South Bay, Friday night at Gardena Cinema looks like it’s going to be a time. I had never heard of Psycho Ape! before, let alone its sequel, but the trailer looks amazing, especially if you’re into Troma-style films. On Saturday afternoon, Heavy Trip, a really fun Finnish black metal road trip comedy, is playing at Alamo Drafthouse. For those who love Fantastic Planet, head to Brain Dead on Sunday to see René Laloux’s collab with Moebius. Time Masters is visually very different from Fantastic Planet, but it’s beautiful and the story is fantastic. Also, it’s one of those movies that isn’t usually streaming, so catch it while you can. Monday night at Alamo Drafthouse is a screening of the new documentary on the late songwriter Allee Willis, who is best known for writing “September,” but also co-wrote with the Pet Shop Boys, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” When I put together this post, tickets were nearly all gone, so it might be sold out when you read this. Check out the full list below.
Olya Sonica live at Hotel Ziggy, 10/24/24. (Pic: Liz O.)
Earlier this week, Olya Sonica released her debut full-length, Alchemy. It’s a terrific album— I’m listening to it as I write this— and you can pick it up for yourself on Bandcamp or stream it on Spotify now. Last night was the album release show at Hotel Ziggy, with live sets from Olya Sonica, as well as The Dirty Shirts and Veronica Bianqui. I DJed before and after the bands played.
The directive for the gig was rock ’n’ roll and Britpop, so I thought about when I was in college, in the late ‘90s, and getting started as a DJ. At that point in time, if you went to the equivalent of today’s indie nights, you would likely hear Britpop (“Rocks” by Primal Scream and Sleeper’s cover of “Atomic” had banger status) with a lot of ‘60s— “Lucifer Sam” and “Steppin’ Stone” were throwback faves then— and some ‘70s glam, particularly Bowie, T. Rex, Roxy Music and The Runaways. That became the basis of the set, even if some of the songs didn’t exist until the ‘00s. Check out the set list below.
Tonight, I’ll be in Long Beach, playing darkwave, new wave and synth pop with Klub Nocturno. There’s no cover, but it is 21+ and you probably should arrive early. Party starts at 9 p.m. at Alex’s Bar, 2913 E. Anaheim St. in Long Beach. RSVP on Dice.
On Friday night, I’m back at the Grand Star for Club Underground’s Pulp Nite. Both rooms of the venue will be open at 9:30 p.m. Get your advance tickets now. The Grand Star is located at 943 N. Broadway, inside Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. This is a 21+ party.
At Underground on Friday night, it dawned on me that the most requested song of my DJ career, which, by the way, began before today’s 21-year-olds were alive, is “Blue Monday.” No question about it, the New Order dance floor classic, which I also want to mention was already an oldie by the time I started DJing, has been requested at just about every club night where I’ve regularly played, sometimes multiple times in the course of one night. I get it. “Blue Monday” is the best dance song ever. I’ll write more about that later, but the tl;dr is that it’s over seven minutes long, mixes well with multiple styles of music and never clears the dance floor. It’s perfect.
But, the weird thing about “Blue Monday” requests is that they’re unnecessary. If it’s a dance club where some variation of indie, ‘80s and/or synthpop are played, there’s a 99% chance that “Blue Monday” will be in the mix. Often, I’ll get the requests at 10:30 p.m. and I’m like, “wait until midnight,” because one does not play “Blue Monday” until the floor is at it’s peak. Other times, I’ll get the request after 1 a.m, at which point, the song was already played.
Last night, I got the post-1 a.m. “Blue Monday” request. Malvada had already played the and I said that. However, the requester had spent a good chunk of time on the dance floor upstairs, so I wanted to do something nice. “But,” I said, “I have the ‘Blue Monday’ mix of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head.’” The requester looked excited. I played the song. Everyone in the room seemed happy. Compromises can be a good thing.
This Friday, August 9, is the Joy Division x The Smiths dance party at Club Underground. Both floors will be open at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown, where Larry G., Malvada and I will be dropping jams from 9:30 p.m. until 2 a.m.
As for the rest of the weekend, there’s a lot to do, including plenty of shows, parties and screenings that are budget-friendly, from Mohama Saz at the Lodge Room to classic Jamaican ska party Riddim ’n’ Brews to a screening of Caligula: The Ultimate Cut at USC. Everything listed here is under $30 before service fees and quite a few of the events have no cover. Check out the list below to see what’s happening in L.A. this week.
Disco Matinee, the day party that I do with Jus’ B, is now on third Sundays at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown, so join us on August 18, 2024 from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. for an afternoon of disco, funk, dance punk, Italo and HiNRG. Discount advance tickets are available now on Restless Nites.
The Grand Star is located at 943 N. Broadway in Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. There is both street and lot parking in the neighborhood, plus, the dance club is located across Broadway from Metro’s Chinatown stop on the A Line.
