Jonathan Bates is Big Black Delta (credit: Josh Giroux)
“Honestly, nowadays, making an album is not a healthy thing,” says Jonathan Bates. “Spending a year and a half making a collection of music and then putting it out and people literally giving it 30 minutes is not good for the soul.”
Bates, though, released his fifth album as Big Black Delta, Adonai, last February. It’s a fantastic mix of synthpop and rock. Since the album landed in my inbox earlier this year, I’ve spent much more than a half-hour listening to it.
Sextile kicks off Yes, Please with one hell of an “Intro.” It’s all alarms, distorted vocals and squelching electronics that make you think the L.A.-based duo have plans to drop you back into a 1992 Prodigy jam. They don’t. Instead, Sextile diverts you to the sweat-drenched warehouse of right now with “Women Respond to Bass,” a banger for the afters where the subs send the low-end pulsing through the soles of your Docs, and the previously released single “Freak Eyes.”
Son of the White Mare (1981) screens at Philosophical Research Society on Sunday, May 4, 2025
Since my Premium magazine feature on L.A.-area repertory cinema is out now, I wanted to highlight a few movie theaters for this week’s recommendations. And since I love animation, that will be the focus of this week’s picks. All of the screenings are happening on Sunday and there is some geographic diversity, so hopefully, you can fit one of these into your schedule. They’re (nearly) all movies that I have seen previously and 10/10 recommend.
Just wanted to give you a quick update about some stories that I’ve recently written for other magazines and newspapers.
Now is a good time to watch a movie. At least it is if you’re in the greater Los Angeles area, where repertory and arthouse cinemas are experiencing a revival. I wrote about the resurgence of in-person movie screenings, focusing mainly on Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz and The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana for Premium, which is the magazine Southern California News Group newspaper subscribers. Click here for a gift link to read the story.
It’s pretty difficult to find coverage of Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie that’s not riddled with old weed puns. I guess that’s to be expected. Still, the wink-wink-nudge-nudge stoner references in headlines are a little trite when recreational marijuana is legal in nearly half the country and firmly embedded in the pop culture of all 50 states. As for the latter, much of that is because of Cheech and Chong. Without Up in Smoke, there would be no Half Baked or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle or Evil Bong. Cheech & Chong essentially invented the stoner comedy, but that’s only part of the story.
Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie is a documentary framed as a road trip movie. The premise is that the influential comedy duo, who released a string of hit records and then movies, between the 1970s and 1980s, are on a road trip in the desert. As they head to a place called The Joint, they recount their life stories through interviews, archival footage and a few interjections from others who were there. Directed by David L. Bushell, who previously produced movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dallas Buyers Club, the movie uses a few different devices to blur fact and fiction. This is all done to drive home one universal truth: No two people see the same situation the same way.
Even I’m surprised that I got through a two-hour DJ set without playing New Order. I came pretty close to dropping “Bizarre Love Triangle” into the set at La Cuevita on Friday night, but then I thought, “Liz, you’re at a bar, not a dance club, no one has requested ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and you played a New Order and Depeche Mode night last week. Give yourself a break.” So, I did. Also, I forgot to take photos
Anyhow, here’s the set. Thanks to Malvada for having me play Ex-Cetera at La Cuevita.
Claire Molek and Jason Savsani didn’t intend to record Desire!, their latest album as Friend of a Friend, in a haunted house. In fact, they didn’t know that the Illinois abode, once a home for spiritualists and said to be a site of demonic possession, had that reputation until a few days into their stay.
“I think when we share this tale, people might assume that we’re obsessed with this sort of stuff and we watch Ghost Hunters and we’re all about that lifestyle,” says Savsani. “We are not. We are not seeking that out.”
My tiny collection of Style Council vinyl (Pic: Liz O.)
I was holed up in a hard-to-find shady corner of Grand Park, watching the crowd and taking nearly illegible notes during the Fighting Oligarchy rally when the familiar opening notes of a song caught my attention. Style Council? It was “Shout to the Top,” I knew that for certain before Paul Weller’s voice came in with the first verse. But, here? At a political rally in the U.S.?
That’s weird, I thought, but whoever added the song to the playlist deserves some props. “Shout to the Top” was a good choice, thematically appropriate with the lyrics, “and when you’re down on the bottom/there’s nothing else/but to shout to top.” Still, your average American has little-to-no-idea who Paul Weller is. They might have heard “A Town Called Malice” or “My Ever Changing Moods” somewhere in their lifetime, but they probably do not know that both come from the same guitar hero/fashion icon— the Modfather, as he’s often called— and that he also has a treasure trove of songs about class politics.
This Friday, I’ll be joining my friend Malvada at La Cuevita in Highland Park for Ex-Cetera. Anything goes when we DJ from 10 p.m. until last call, so stop by and join us. La Cuevita is at 5922 N. Figueroa Ave. and there’s no cover, but it is a 21+ night.
