Category Archives: The Playlist

Here’s What I Played at Underground on March 8, 2024

Club Underground Grand Star Jazz Club March 8, 2024 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
When everyone is vibing to Animal Collective and they realize I’ve turned my camera on the crowd.

It was so good to be back at Underground last night. Both floors of the Grand Star were open on Friday night, with Larry playing Depeche Mode and New Order jams upstairs and Scarlett Casanova and I playing everything else downstairs. The crowd was a lot of fun. I was happy to see “Loneliness,” the latest Pet Shop Boys single, do well on the dancer floor. What did even better though was TR/ST’s cover of the PSB classic “Being Boring,” which is one of my current favorites. The most successful of the new tunes, though, was “Sangre de Oro,” from Twin Tribes’ latest album, Pendulum. The song also did extremely well at Nocturno’s party in Phoenix last month. Anyhow, thank you for dancing. Here’s the set list. 

Set 1:

ABC “Be Near Me” 

Kylie Minogue “Cupid Boy”

Saint Etienne “We’re in the City”

Royksopp “Ice Machine (Ewan Pearson Remix)”

Sally Shapiro “Rent”

Human League “Seconds”

Echo and the Bunnymen “In Bluer Skies”

Chromatics “Ceremony”

Chameleons “Reptile” 

The Cure “Primary”

Set 2: 

Ladytron “Playgirl”

Gorillaz “Dare (DFA Remix)”

Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”

TR/ST, Jake Shears “Being Boring”

Boy Harsher, Ms. Boan “Machina”

Yaz “Situation”

Talking Heads “Girlfriend Is Better” (request)

Sophie Ellis Bextor “Murder on the Dancefloor” (request)

The Bucketheads “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind) (Armand Van Helden Re-edit)”

The Rapture “House of Jealous Lovers”

Confidence Man “Angry Girl”

Le Tigre “Deceptacon”

Wet Leg “Chaise Longue”

Set 3: 

Donna Summer “Our Love”

New Order “Blue Monday”

Trans X “Living on Video”

Vitalic “La Rock 01”

Crystal Castles, Robert Smith “Not in Love”

Soft Cell “Tainted Love”

Bloc Party “Banquet”

Molchat Doma “sudno (Boris Ryzhy)”

Twin Tribes “Sangre de Oro”

Los Prisioneros “Tren al Sur (Basic Remix)”

Nine Inch Nails “Closer”

Tom Tom Club “Genius of Love”

Daft Punk “Da Funk”

Chumbawamba “Tubthumping”

Set 4: 

Pet Shop Boys “Loneliness”

Hercules & Love Affair “Blind”

Animal Collective “My Girls”

Tame Impala “Is It True”

Mr. Flagio “Take a Chance”

My Mine “Hypnotic Tango”

Righeira “Vamos a la Playa” 

Desireless “Voyage Voyage”

Q Lazarus “Goodbye Horses”

Depeche Mode “Nodisco”

New Order “Sub-Culture”

If you’re around Cypress Park today, catch me playing records at Footsie’s for Razorcake’s party, which is from 5-10 p.m. and keep checking back here or follow me on Instagram because I have a bunch of stuff to announce in the next day or so. 

Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs.

Related: 

FUTURE ISLANDS, TR/ST AND MORE JANUARY 2024 MUSIC

HERE ARE MY TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2023

Here’s What I Played for Night Shift at Bar Franca on March 7, 2024

Bar Franca DTLA Exterior March 7, 2024 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)

Thank you to everyone who came out to Bar Franca for Night Shift last night. It was so much fun to play post-punk, synthpop, darkwave and shoegaze for you all night. Plus, as always, it was great to catch up with some pals and meeting some lovely new people. Anyhow, I’ve posted the set list below. See you tonight at Underground’s Depeche Mode x New Order party. 

Continue reading Here’s What I Played for Night Shift at Bar Franca on March 7, 2024

Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita on March 5, 2024

Jalapeño and pineapple wontons at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo Los Angeles (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Jalapeño and pineapple wontons at The Mermaid. (Pic: Liz O.)

It was a little unexpected, but I did turn up at The Mermaid on Tuesday night to provide the music for the first half of Dolce Vita. I also didn’t have a chance to eat dinner beforehand, which led to another unexpected delight. The jalapeño and pineapple wontons at The Mermaid are amazing. I hadn’t had them before last night and loved them. Even with the chili sauce, they won’t set your mouth on fire. It’s more of a subtle sweet-and-spicy hybrid. Plus, they are shaped like starfish, which I find endearing. 

Anyhow, here’s what you may have heard if you were at The Mermaid between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night. 

Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita on March 5, 2024

Here’s What I Played at Disco Matinee on March 3, 2024

Intro "Lost Without Your Love" vinyl 12" single (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Intro “Lost Without Your Love” isn’t on Spotify, but it is in my record collection, so you’ll hear it in my vinyl sets.

Thank you to everyone who came out to Disco Matinee at Grand Star Jazz Club on Sunday, March 3 for our freestyle and hi-NRG party. Jus’ B and Gustavisimo played some jams for the crowd. I think I did too. At least, I got to play the Intro 12” for “Lost Without Your Love,” which I posted about on Instagram the other day. 

The next Disco Matinee is Sunday, April 7. Check back here or follow me on Instagram for details, including our guest DJ and theme, because we’ll be announcing all that later this week. In the meantime, here’s my set list. 

Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Disco Matinee on March 3, 2024

Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita at The Mermaid on February 27, 2024

Valentine's Day display at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo Los Angeles with skulls, hearts and candles.
Hearts and skulls on display at The Mermaid, February 2024

I popped into The Mermaid on Tuesday night to play the opening set for Dolce Vita. The party starts at 8 p.m. now and there was already a good crowd at the bar by then, so I dropped more familiar tunes than I normally would for the early portion of the night. Also got to work in some themed portions of the set. I won’t disclose the themes right now, but if you look through the playlist below, you might be able to figure out what they are. 

Next up is Disco Matinee on Sunday, March 3, at Grand Star Jazz Club. The theme is freestyle and hi-NRG and I’ll be playing it all on vinyl. Anyhow, keep reading to see what I played at Dolce Vita on February 27, between (roughly) 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. 

Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita at The Mermaid on February 27, 2024

Why I Keep Living in a Magazine By Zoot Woman in My DJ Crate

Cover of Zoot Woman Living in a Magazine released in 2001 on Wall of Sound Records, U.K. import vinyl (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Here’s the cover of my copy of Zoot Woman’s debut full length Living in a Magazine

For all-vinyl gigs, I often bring my copy of Living in a Magazine, the 2001 debut full-length from Zoot Woman, with me. The reason why is simple. No matter which song I play off this album, at least one person will come up to the booth and ask about it. In fact, that happened last Friday night, when I played the band’s cover of “The Model” at Club Synth. More than 20 years later, this album is still a vibe. 

Living in a Magazine is one of my favorite records of the early ‘00s. In fact, I would argue that it’s one of the finest, and certainly most under-appreciated, albums of the era. The brand of soft funk-meets-indie disco that Zoot Woman cultivated on this album helped solidify a sound that persists this day, whether or not the bands who land Spotify playlists like Pollen and Indie Chillout realize it. At the turn of the 21st century, few outside of Zoot Woman and Phoenix were riding such a mellow groove. This was a handful of years before bands like Hot Chip and Holy Ghost hit the scene, before the fascination with “yacht rock” and definitely before the vinyl resurgence sent a new generation of crate diggers on the hunt for the smoothest sounds of the 1970s and 1980s. 

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Here’s What I Played: Klub Nocturno’s Rockero Night (New Wave v. Darkwave Room) at Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix on February 24, 2024

Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, Arizona on February 24, 2024 Klub Nocturno Rockero Night (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
The backside of Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, taken while we were loading out at the end of the night. (Pic: Liz O.)

I’ve been DJing for a very long time, but had never played a gig outside of Southern California until last weekend. I headed out to Phoenix with Klub Nocturno last weekend to play their Rockero Night at Crescent Ballroom. It was so much fun and I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to play for such a wonderful crowd and meet some of the people who came out to the party on Saturday night. Thanks so much to Klub Nocturno and to everyone in Phoenix for making the experience so awesome. 

There is definitely a challenge that come with playing in a different city, but it’s a fun one. I’ve been going to L.A. clubs since I was 18 and DJing at them almost as long, so I have a really good understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to my hometown. But, playing a city that I’ve only visited once previously, and where I’ve never been to a dance club, means that I’m trying to figure all that out as I’m playing. So, I was paying attention to all these small cues in the crowd, like what band t-shirts people were wearing (Depeche Mode, The Faint), while I was scrolling through my collection. Anyhow, here’s what I played. 

Continue reading Here’s What I Played: Klub Nocturno’s Rockero Night (New Wave v. Darkwave Room) at Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix on February 24, 2024

Here’s What I Played at Club Synth on Friday, February 23, 2024

Rio Room at Stowaway in downtown Los Angeles on February 23, 2024 for Club Synth with DJ Drayk DJ Liz O. DJ Jen Rock
Image: Rio Room neon sign and mermaid statue in background.
The Rio Room at the Stowaway on Friday, February 23, 2024 before the party started. (Pic: Liz O.)

Fun Times were had at Club Synth on Friday night. I was delighted to have the chance to drop vinyl on the turntables alongside Drayk and Jen Rock. Plus, some old friends stopped by the Rio Room at the Stowaway to join in the fun. 

Tonight, I’ll be in Phoenix to play with Klub Nocturno on Saturday night at Crescent Ballroom. That said, this is a quick update and there is more info on some of the specific records played in this set coming next week. And, for those reading in L.A. (most of you), my next gig is another all-vinyl set on Sunday, March 3 for Disco Matinee: Freestyle Hi-NRG Edition at the Grand Star in Chinatown. RSVP on Instagram, Facebook or Partiful for $5 entry before 4 p.m. 

Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Club Synth on Friday, February 23, 2024

“Me and My Music”: The Candi Staton Song That Reminds Me Why I DJ

Cover of Chance, 1979 album by Candi Staton featuring "Me and My Music" (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
The cover of Chance

I think I’ve encountered nearly every album Candi Staton released on vinyl while sifting through L.A. record store bins these past few years. Sometimes, I’ll find multiple copies of the same album in one dig. There’s one, though, that has eluded me. It’s called Chance and it was high up on my wish list since the pandemic. I wanted this album for one reason, a song called “Me and My Music,” which became a welcome earworm back when Los Angeles’ nightclubs were closed. 

Candi Staton is best known in the U.S. for the 1976 disco jam “Young Hearts  Run Free.” People in the U.K., and househeads here, are probably also quite familiar with “You Got the Love,” an early ‘90s dance hit that was famously covered by Florence and the Machine in the late ‘00s. But, Staton has been singing since the 1950s and is still active (she played Glastonbury last year), so there’s a significant amount of her music out in the world. Some releases are harder to track down than others, which is the case with Chance. Not only did it take me far-too-long to find the actual vinyl, but, from what I’ve seen, it’s not available to download and streaming options are limited to Deezer and a few YouTube clips.

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Future Islands, TR/ST and More January 2024 Music

Album covers for Future Islands People Who Aren't There Anymore and TR/ST EP
Album covers for Future Islands People Who Aren’t There Anymore and TR/ST EP

It’s Saturday morning on the last weekend of January and I’m listening to the new Future Islands album, People Who Aren’t There Anymore, for at least the third time since it dropped the previous day. I’m thinking about which songs might turn up in my DJ sets soon. I’ve yet to make up my mind. 

Sometimes, I listen to a new release and know immediately which song I’ll claim for my sets. That was the case when I heard TR/ST’s new EP the previous day. I wasn’t even fully awake when I pulled it up on Bandcamp, but was somehow cognizant enough to have very clear opinions on the songs. “Robrash,” which actually came out in December, was an obvious banger, but too stompy for my tastes. “Run,” featuring Cecile Believe, would probably do well on the dance floor, but the vocals give me Electric Daisy Carnival flashbacks, so I’ll pass. That cover of “Being Boring,” though, is gorgeous and exactly what I would play.

Continue reading Future Islands, TR/ST and More January 2024 Music