I don’t have any club gigs this week, but you can catch me on Sunday, December 17 in “The Conversation” with Mike Regalado at 8 p.m. on Boyle Heights radio station KQBH. It’s a talk show about music, so tune into 101.5 FM if you’re in Boyle Heights or listen online outside of the neighborhood to find out what we discuss. As for actual L.A. music events, I have some suggestions for those of you who aren’t heading to Crypto.com Arena (ugh, can they change that stupid name soon?) to see Depeche Mode this weekend. Keep reading for more info.
Dave Gahan and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode with Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez at Los Angeles City Hall for Depeche Mode Day on December 13, 2023 (Pic: Liz O. )
“This is incredible,” Martin Gore said from the steps of Los Angeles City Hall before thanking Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez for declaring December 13 Depeche Mode Day and the crowd for showing up on the occasion. Over the roar of cheers, he spoke of Depeche Mode’s connection to L.A., how the band played their first stadium show here and about “the Wherehouse fiasco.”
“Sorry we didn’t sign the records, but thank you,” he added. “It helped our career a lot because we made nationwide news.”
With only a handful of gigs left for this year, I figured that now is a good time to post my top 10 jams for 2023. Technically, these aren’t all songs that came out this year, and my top pick I actually started playing in 2022, but they all made an impact on my DJ set in 2023. Check out the list below and I hope to see you on the dance floor soon.
I forgot to take pics last night, save for this one of a sign in the stairwell.
I don’t know what I’m most grateful for tonight. Was it the people at Club Underground who danced to the brand new Confidence Man tune? Was it the person who admitted listening to Confidence Man, who released one of my favorite albums of 2022, because of my sets? (BTW, Confidence Man is at the Echoplex on December 2.) Or, was it the trio who listened to my rant about how Chumbawamba were the working class heroes we needed, but we didn’t deserve them and now we’re stuck with capitalist icon Taylor Swift? Maybe it’s all that.
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.
The marimba from Señor Coconut’s cover of “Trans Europe Express” reverberates down Elmyra Street, about half a block away from Homage Brewing. I recognize the song instantly because there’s a copy of the 12” single that’s been in my collection for more than 20 years. It was something that I loved on a conceptual level— German producer moves to Chile and releases Kraftwerk covers in various Latin American music styles— but also turned out to be a useful record to own if you like people asking “What is this?” when playing all-vinyl bar DJ gigs.
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 finally had some time to make a new Beatique Mix. This one is shorter than usual, but the tunes cross genre from Italo disco to dub, so it’s a fun one. At least, it was a fun one to make. Listen here or head over to Mixcloud, where you can check out any of the 80 (!!!) sets that I’ve posted over the past few years.
