Albert Reyes’ haunted house for October, 2023 (Pic: Liz O.)
Back in 2009, I was standing in at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo for a massive Giant Robot exhibition and ended up chatting with one of the artist’s in the show, Albert Reyes. I had just started working full-time at L.A. Weekly, so I hit him up for an interview and then he invited me to his Halloween house party/art maze. Considering how many stories of mine have been lost within the black hole of the Internet over the years, I’m surprised that short interview is still online. Over the years, I interviewed Albert a few times, the most recent for Los Angeles Magazine in 2019, when he had a solo exhibition at Eastern Projects in Chinatown, and have seen a number of his haunted houses. This year, for the second year in a row, I got to DJ at Albert’s haunted house.
Dancing to Blue Monday at Club Underground’s Halloween party 10/27/23 (Pic: Liz O. )
Sometime before 11 p.m. I had to take off the blazer. I had tried to hang longer in the Battle Royale costume, but the dance floor upstairs at Grand Star Jazz Club was already full and it gets pretty warm behind the DJ gear. Advanced tickets for Club Underground’s Halloween party had sold out and, from what I could tell, people showed up early and ready to party. I don’t even know what to say about last night except that the energy was high and people were down to dance to anything, as you can probably see from the set list below. See you back at Underground on Friday, November 3. Happy Halloween!
October might have been stressing me out this year, but I felt an instant sense of relief inside The Mermaid last night. I was there to DJ another week of Dolce Vita’s Italo Horror Disco, this time with DJ Alex Arias. The first thing I noticed is that the Halloween display in the bar has grown larger and more detailed since I last played there earlier this month. The centerpiece is a mermaid skeleton, who is surrounded by a bounty of odds and ends, from crystal balls to eyeballs to skeleton hands. The glow-in-the-dark paints and swaths of fabric help give the impression that you stumbled upon this altar while underwater. It’s super cool. Stop by The Mermaid and check it out this week if you have a chance.
Other than that, it was great to play with Alex for the first time. I loved his set. Plus, some friends stopped by, which made the night all the better. Here’s what I played in my sets last night. Also, a reminder that I’ll be playing Underground’s Halloween party on Friday, October 27 and there’s a low ticket alert for the party, so get yours as soon as possible.
Here are some of the records I played at Vidéothèque’s opening party (I actually bought that ?tella record at Vidéothèque last year) and the Groovie Goolies box set I rented.
On Saturday morning, I finally finished watching the entire original Dark Shadows series. After IDK how many months of binging through storylines about vampires, witches (RIP Lara Parker, who played the best daytime villain ever), werewolves, portals into parallel universes, a creepy kid who keeps getting possessed by ghosts, a doctor who prescribes sleeping pills and seances, etc., I’m not really sure what to do with myself. Or, at least I wasn’t until last night’s gig at Vidéothèque, when I spotted aGroovie Goolies box set in the Halloween section. Now I have a week to power through this early 1970s cartoon series in between work and Halloween DJ gigs.
It’s zombie boyfriend season! There are a lot of Halloween-friendly songs I love, but my absolute favorite (or, at least, my favorite that isn’t part of a horror more score) is “Mi Novio Es Un Zombi” from Alaska y Dinarama. It has one of the best music videos ever. You think it’s just a concert clip, with Alaska bouncing around stage in a very fierce outfit singing about her boyfriend’s bad teeth and yellow eyes and then— all of a sudden— Freddy freakin’ Krueger pops out of the crowd, mingles with the band and starts caressing Alaska with this slasher movie hands. Just watch the video. And check out my playlist from No Controles! at The Offbeat, the first of what will probably be a handful of times I’ll play “Mi Novio Es Un Zombi” in the next week or so.
Oasus live at Harvard and Stone, October 13, 2023 (Pic: Liz O.)
On Friday the 13th, I DJed at Harvard and Stone in East Hollywood for a night that included live sets from Asi Fui and Oasis tribute band Oasus, plus a couple burlesque performances. Long Beach-based Asi Fui is a terrific band with a ‘90s alternative vibe. I wish I knew the name of the dubby song with the melodica that they played early in the set. They closed with a cover of Blur’s hit “Song 2,” which was a perfect good-natured troll for anyone who remembers the Blur vs. Oasis battles of the 1990s.
Jus’ B, Liz O. and Mr. Michel at Grand Star Jazz Club for Disco Matinee, October 8, 2023 (Pic: Sara)
Since this past summer, my pal Jus’ B and I have been throwing a monthly day party called Disco Matinee at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown. We’ve been lucky to be able to bring in some amazing locals to guest DJ, like Mr. Michel, who played with us on October. We’ve also been lucky to have a good crew of regulars who have been sticking around on the dance floor until the house lights brighten and the dinner cravings get stronger.
On Thursday, I bought a pair of Sambas and then I broke them in that night on the dance floor at 96 Tears and, let me tell you, that was the best decision I’ve made in months. It meant that I could DJ from 9:30 until 1:30 upstairs at the Grand Star for Club Underground without my back killing me well before midnight. And I could actually dance while I was DJing too, which probably looks stupid, but it’s how I keep time, so whatever.
Every Tuesday night at The Mermaid this October is Italo Horror Disco, the Halloween-friendly edition of L.A. Industrial’s Italo disco party Dolce Vita. DJ Manuelito and I had the chance to kick off the spooky festivities last night to a killer crowd at the Little Tokyo bar.
I wasn’t planning to DJ this week, but a last minute opportunity came up to play at The Mermaid for Dolce Vita on Tuesday night. I really enjoy playing at The Mermaid, especially for Dolce Vita, so I dropped whatever Italo disco and Italo-adjacent folders I had on my hard drive into Rekordbox and played from 9 p.m. until around 11:15 or so. Here’s what you heard. I used the file names for artist and song title, just so you can find the tracks if you want. In the case of some of the edits, it’s definitely not the actual name of the artist or title, but you can probably figure that out.
