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.
Big Star – September Gurls
Lush – Ciao!
Suede – Electricity
Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama
David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things
T. Rex – Cosmic Dancer
Oasis – Live Forever
Primal Scream – Come Together
Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog
Pink Floyd – Lucifer Sam
Brian Eno – Baby’s on Fire
Shocking Blue – Love Buzz
Roxy Music – Virginia Plain
ELO – Livin’ Thing
The Beatles- It’s All Too Much
(Veronica Bianqui live)
David Bowie – Young Americans
Blur – For Tomorrow
Elastica – Da Da Da
(The Dirty Shirts live)
The Strokes – 12:51
The Monkees – (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone
The Yardbirds – For Your Love
The Cramps – Psychotic Reaction
White Stripes – Blue Orchid
Oasis – Supersonic
(Olya Sonica live)
T. Rex – Bang a Gong
David Bowie – Rebel Rebel
The Runaways – Cherry Bomb
Primal Scream – Rocks
Sleeper – Atomic
Cheap Trick – Surrender
Slade – Cum on Feel the Noize
Them – Gloria
Rolling Stones – Paint It Black
David Bowie – Life on Mars
I’ll write more about the show after I get through this weekend’s DJ gigs.
Tonight is Club Underground’s Halloween Party at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown. I’ll be on the decks alongside Larry G., Jesse B. and Malvada. Hope to see you there!
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs.
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