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  • Director Christopher Bickel on Pater Noster and the Mission of Light

    Pater Noster and the Mission of Light directed by Christopher Bickel movie still
    Pater Noster and the Mission of Light (2024) directed by Christopher Bickel

    Earlier this year, while scrolling through Night Flight (the only streamer worth a paid subscription), I stumbled across a movie called Pater Noster and the Mission of Light. A horror movie about the hunt for a possibly cursed record made by a cult in the ‘70s, it was full of vinyl nerd in-jokes, references to the Source Family, the Merry Pranksters and Whipped Cream and Other Delights. I was smitten with it. 

    Directed by Christopher Bickel, Pater Noster is a wild ride through dusty record bins and into the strange, terrifying world of a fictional psychedelic cult. The film, made with a budget of just $21,000, is also an exercise in resourcefulness. “We do these movies on such a low budget, so when I go to write it, I have to write to things that I have access to,” says Bickel on a recent video call, “things that I think would elevate the production value, to make it look like we spent money on this thing or that thing.”

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  • Vinyl DJ Set at Bigfoot Lodge + Jean Cocteau Films and More Happening in L.A. July 3 – July 9

    Vinyl DJ sets Bigfoot Lodge Los Feliz Malvada, Lee, Liz O. Saturday July 5, 2025

    This Saturday, July 5, I’ll be at Bigfoot Lodge in Los Feliz, playing records alongside DJs Malvada and Lee from 10 p.m. until close. It’s 21+ and there’s no cover. This isn’t a genre-specific night, but you’ll probably hear a few tracks from Douglas McCarthy, the frontman of Nitzer Ebb, who died in June.

    Earlier that evening, just up Los Feliz Blvd. from Bigfoot Lodge, there will be Jean Cocteau birthday celebration at Philosophical Research Society. The event is a fundraiser for PRS organized by Sacred Monster, Surrealist Study Group and 7th House Screenings and will include a screening of Testament of Orpheus the final film in Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy, which stars the director and features Pablo Picasso, Charles Aznavour and other luminaries. If you’re going, stop by Bigfoot Lodge after the event and tell me all about it. 

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  • Black Moth Super Rainbow and More New Music for June, 2025

    Black Moth Super Rainbow Soft New Magic Dream album cover
    Black Moth Super Rainbow, Soft New Magic Dream

    There is no shortage of killer new music out this month and handful of those have already appeared here on Beatique, but I’m just one person and there aren’t enough hours in the day to listen to everything that’s out now, let alone write about it. I didn’t want to shout out a few more new releases, like Soft New Magic Dream from Black Moth Super Rainbow, plus an impressive goth/industrial club-friendly new album and two lovely full-lengths out now via long-running indie label Slumberland. 

    Before we get to the reviews, though, I just want to say thank you reading. I started updating Beatique with reviews and original reporting in January because it looked like the situation for music, arts and culture journalism, my day job for well over a decade, in the U.S. would grow even more dismal and it has. But, at the same time, Beatique has had its highest amount of traffic this month and a lot of it is repeat visitors (from outside the U.S. too!) who are checking out multiple stories. Maybe I’m correct in thinking that people actually want to read things written by actual human beings who actually go out into the world and do the reporting themselves. Maybe I’m deluding myself. Either way, thanks for joining me on the ride. There’s more to come, so if you’re interested, check out the ways you can stay up-to-date on Beatique (and my DJ gigs) at the bottom of this post. 

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  • New Music from Mareux and Ultra Sunn + More of What You Heard in the New Wave vs. Darkwave Room at Nocturno on June 28, 2025

    Klub Nocturno new wave vs. darkwave room at Catch One in Los Angeles on June 28, 2025
    View from the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno on June 28, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

    At maybe a quarter after 2 a.m., when I was waiting for my ride home from Nocturno, I heard “Afuera” coming from somewhere outside of Catch One and looked up to see someone sitting on the bus stop across the street from the venue, playing a conga drum along with the Caifanes classic while a couple danced. It was a good vibe for the end of the night. 

    And the vibes inside were good too. I was in the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave room all night. It was Boy Harsher night, although there were quite a few requests for Ultra Sunn. Shout out to whoever asked for “Wrong Floor,” which came out about a week ago and is fire. The response on the dance floor was great, so that will probably be sticking around in my sets. 

    I did get to play “Nonstop Romance” from Mareux’s new album of the same name and the response was good, so I think you will hear more of that too. I also played “Blackmail,” a cool instrumental from Nonstop Romance around the time we opened. “Reason to Stay” by Pixel Grip seemed to do better than it did when I first played it in May and Sextile’s “Women Respond to Bass,” which you also heard in May’s Nocturno set, is probably in the running for this summer’s banger. 

    Set list is below. As always, thanks for dancing!

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  • Mareux Forges a New Sound on Nonstop Romance

    Mareux Nonstop Romance album cover

    At DJ gigs, I always say that I don’t know what I’ll play until I play it and that’s absolutely true. I may have my heart set on playing one specific song, but, if it doesn’t sound like it’s going to vibe with the crowd, then I can’t play it. So, while I really don’t know which songs from Nonstop Romance, the latest album from Mareux, will end up in my sets, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it’s the title track. 

    “Nonstop Romance” has quickly become my favorite song on the album and I hope that its yours too. If you went to a club where the DJ played “Join in the Chant” and “Crazy Over You,” then came home and put that vibe into a song and gave it a 2020s spin, it might sound like this. (And, if this sounds like a plausible scenario to you, I’m going to guess you also live in L.A.) The juxtaposition of an EBM stomp and a very cheery synth melody is my idea of dance floor gold and I’ve listened to “Nonstop Romance” at least three times in a row while writing this.

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  • Former Members of The Mae Shi Reconvene at HLLLYH For New Album URUBURU

    Photo of HLLLYH by Ezra Buchla
    HLLLYH (Photo by Ezra Buchla)

    Tim Byron wanted to get The Mae Shi back together. It had been about 20 years since the synthpunk band formed in Los Angeles and a decade since the original members reunited for a one-off show at Pehrspace. “It was the cliche of we’re getting the band back together,” he says on a recent video call. And, despite the fact that three of the members— Byron, as well as his brother Jeff Byron and Ezra Buchla— now live in the Bay Area while Brad Breeck and Corey Fogel are in L.A., he was able to do that. They recorded what was intended to be a new album from their old band. “But, at the end of the day,” Byron says, “it was different enough where we decided to give it a different name and have a separate identity from The Mae Shi.” The band morphed into HLLLYH and includes new members Dan Chao, James Baker and Burt Hashiguchi. Debut album  Uruburuis out on June 27. 

    HLLLYH played their first show, opening for Brainiac at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, last January. Throughout this past spring, they’ve released three singles, “Dead Clade,” “Uru Buru” and “Flex It, Tagger,” with a cover song B-side included with each release. Byron is right, the music is different enough from what they did in the ‘00s to warrant a different band name. But, the energy of The Mae Shi is still there. 

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  • Klub Nocturno Is Back at Catch One on June 28 + More Happening in L.A.

    Flyer for Klub Nocturno at Catch One in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 28, 2025

    On Saturday, June 28, I’ll be DJing in the New Wave vs. Darkwave room for Klub Nocturno at Catch One (4067 Pico Blvd., Arlington Heights 90019). This is a full venue takeover, so there are five rooms for dancing, including Rock en Español vs. Cumbia, Deftones Night, Reggaeton and Banda vs. Quebraditas. Half of the profits will benefit families who have been impacted by ICE and tickets are going fast, so click this Dice link and get yours asap if you want to attend. This is a 21+ event and the party starts at 9:30 p.m. 

    Earlier on Saturday, Analog Outlaw Book and Record Fair is happening at 2220 Arts + Archives (2220 Beverly Blvd., Historic Filipinotown 90057) from noon until 5 p.m. I went to the first event last year and it was fantastic. Click on the story linked below to find out more about this counterculture physical media marketplace. 

    GET YOUR PHYSICAL MEDIA FIX AT ANALOG OUTLAW THIS WEEKEND

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  • Get Your Physical Media Fix at Analog Outlaw This Weekend

    Paper flyer for Analog Outlaw at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 28
    Don’t you miss paper flyers? Here’s one for Analog Outlaw happening on Saturday, June 28 at 2220 Arts + Archives in L.A.

    The first thing I heard while roaming the stalls at Analog Outlaw Book and Record Fair last September was “Wicked,” a Psychic TV track that came out at the cusp of the 1980s and 1990s. It’s this seemingly endless, loopy acid house number— I hesitate to call it a song— that appeals to a very specific kind of weirdo who collects the fruits of the Throbbing Gristle family tree and spends their free time reading about cults and psychedelics and psychedelic cults. So, if you’re that type of weirdo and you hear “Wicked” out in the wild, you know you’ve found your people. 

    And, yes, dear reader, I did find my people that day. Organized by Bibliomancers and Nooners Books, Analog Outlaw is a counterculture physical media marketplace. At the inaugural event, held at Zebulon last year, vendors from vintage issues of Rolling Stone to Goblin on vinyl and Frankenhooker on VHS to paperback porn. Mark Webber from Pulp was on hand to sign copies of his book, I’m With Pulp, Are You? I can’t even remember how many club pals I ran into that day. It was one of those events where you spend half the time hunting for treasure and the other half showing your friends what you found. 

    For their second fair, on June 28, Analog Outlaw is moving to a larger venue, 2220 Arts + Archives. The roster includes mix of vintage media vendors and indie publishers, amongst them Hat & Beard Press, horror zine Midnight Companions and Neither Neither Books, as well as the first West Coast appearance of Japanese Avant Garde Books.

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  • Heaven 17 Was Right, ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’

    Heaven 17 "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" 45 RPM vinyl single (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Heaven 17 “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”

    The right record will always find you at the right time. Take last Saturday afternoon as an example. I was in Little Tokyo, flipping through 45s at Salt Box and just happened to come across “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang,” the 1981 single from Heaven 17. Did I have this? Did it matter? Even if I did have a copy, I could use another one because this nearly 45-year-old song is the jam for right now. Or, rather, it should be the jam for right now. 

    I didn’t even have to listen to the song for the earworm to bury itself in my brain. “Have you heard it on the news?” it goes,  “About this fascist groove thang.” 

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  • Mark Your Calendars: ‘Monday Nights: L.A.’s Scene of the Century, 2005–2016″ is Coming to Leiminspace This August

    Sean Carnage Monday Nights photo exhibition at Leiminspace in Chinatown August 2, 2025

    Between 2005 and 2016, anything could happen on Monday Nights. The weekly series of DIY shows presented by Sean Carnage brought together synthpunk, metal, noise, hip-hop, unexpected cover bands and so much more. Locals like Health and Captain Ahab played Monday Nights, as did touring artists like Dan Deacon and Future Islands. The shows were influential on a wave of L.A. musicians coming up in the ’00s. They were influential for myself as well, as I covered the shows often early in my journalism career. So I’m excited to tell you now that I’m co-curating, “Monday Nights: L.A.’s Scene of the Century 2005=2016,” an exhibition set to open at Leiminspace in Chinatown on Saturday, August 2. Check out the press release below, mark your calendars , tell your friends and join us for the opening party.

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