You won’t see much more than a few lights inside “Party/After Party,” but you’ll hear, and feel, a lot.
On April 16, “Party/After Party,” the sound installation from esteemed DJ/producer Carl Craig, opened at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo. I interviewed Craig for Southern California News Group prior to the opening, which you can read online. (If you don’t have a subscription, but do have a Los Angeles Public Library card, log in through the LAPL portal to read it.) However, I didn’t get to walk through “Party/After Party” until this past week. It was both an incredibly familiar and unusual experience.
Disco Heat is back at Songbird on Thursday, April 20. This week, our guest DJ is Maurice de la Falaise. It’s been IDK how long since Maurice and I have played together and I can’t wait to hear what he has in store for his international disco set. The party starts at 9 p.m. and there’s no cover, but I recommend that you RSVP on Eventbrite, Facebook or Instagram.
I hate to break it to you in the midst of this “indie sleaze” moment, but the late ‘00s weren’t that cool. It was the era when poseurs and paparazzi flocked to Hollywood and West Hollywood to catch a glimpse of the misadventures of Lindsay Lohan. Bottle service was on the rise, as were the profiles of well-connected, but barely competent DJs. People started dressing up for Coachella, a baffling development to anyone who ever stepped near a porta potty on the final evening of the festival. This was also the time when it was obvious that we were in an endless war and the divide between the haves and have-nots was just going to get bigger. The late ‘00s foreshadowed all of today’s bullshit, but people were too entranced by gossip blogs to notice.
Lest I ruin your enjoyment of early 21st century nostalgia, I’ll let you in on one really cool thing that happened in the midst of ‘00s L.A. That was Sean Carnage’s Monday Nights. Between the mid-’00s and mid-’10s, Sean put together weekly showcases of local and touring underground artists first at Il Corral in East Hollywood and then at Pehrspace in Historic Filipinotown. Over 1100 bands played the events. Some became well-known, at least in indie circles. Most were just really cool.
Wow, thanks so much to everyone who came out to Disco Heat at Songbird last night. We had such a fun crowd. Special thanks to everyone who has taken the time to stop by the party since it went weekly in March and, especially, to those of you have helped spread the word. You’re awesome.
Jus’ B and I will be back next week with more Disco Heat for you from 9 p.m. until close. There’s no cover, but feel free to let us know you’re going on Eventbrite, Facebook or Instagram.
Nostalgia drives culture in such bizarre, consumerist ways. Buy this limited edition throwback to an era you hardly remember. Spend your rent money on tickets to this reunion show. Watch this reboot of a show that sucked the first time around. Click on this story, like this Instagram post and, maybe for a moment, you’ll forget that the 21st century is trash.
“Tech-No-Logical World,” the Patrick Cowley song from his album Mind Warp, has been crawling in and out of my brain for weeks now and the earworm burrowed itself even deeper into my my mind and life after Don French played it at Disco Heat two Thursdays ago.
I didn’t get why “Tech-No-Logical World” was relentless in its pursuit of my attention until April Fool’s Day, after a bout of scrolling through fake news and fake products. (If only the Morrissey pinball machine were real, I thought to the tune of “Please, Please Please Let Me Get What I Want,” before “Tech-No-Logical World” made its return.) Eventually, I retreated to my desk and tried to work on stories to pitch next week while listening to the song that won’t leave me alone and it hit me.
On April 6, you can catch me, Liz O., with Jus’ B at Songbird in Chinatown for Disco Heat.
Jus’ B and I have known each other for many, many, many years and recently started playing together in late 2022, when I launched Disco Heat at Songbird, and the vibe has been amazing. That said, if you haven’t been to Disco Heat yet, you really should check it out this week. And, if you have stopped by the party before, make sure you join us again this Thursday night.
Falco: Verdammt, wir leben noch! is a 2008 Austrian biopic of the late pop singer Falco, released in the U.S. under the title, Falco: The Rise and Fall of an ‘80s Pop Icon. Now, you might be scratching your head and thinking, “There’s a Falco biopic? Why?” In fact, that’s exactly what went through my dumb American brain when I recently learned of the existence of this film.
