Update: I will be DJing at Club Underground on Friday, August 7. Tickets are available on Eventbrite and Dice.
This weekend in Los Angeles, we have an all-star tribute to Yoko Ono at The Broad and a Deadhead film festival at Philosophical Research Society. Plus, Iceage is in town for two nights, Edgar Wright makes a stop at Gardena Cinema and more. Keep reading for my weekend recommendations, plus a few events happening early next week.
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The August installment of Beatique is now live on Mixcloud. You can also listen to it via the embed below. With the sad news last week that both Glen Hansard and Kavinsky died, this month’s set begins with The Swell Season and ends with Kavinsky. In between is some rock, some rave, and lots in between. Some of the artists included in this months mix are Arctic Monkeys, The Divine Comedy, Boys Noize, I-F, horsegiirL, The Strokes, Caifanes and Turnstile. Full tracklist with notes and links is below. Thanks for listening!
We’re walking along Figueroa Street’s Highland Park hipster drag at 9 p.m. on a Thursday night, looking for something to eat. Within a span of a few blocks, though, we’re greeted by one closed sign after the next. How is it possible that both bar-adjacent pizza joints are already done for the night?
We’ve been here before, maybe a year ago, when we walked two miles (no exaggeration) before stumbling upon a cramped, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that serves to what is now considered Los Angeles’ late night crowd. Maybe we could have gone back to that spot, but we decided to catch the Metro to Chinatown, where there are still a small handful of restaurants open until at least 10 p.m.
I shouldn’t have to explain to readers that 9 p.m. is a perfectly reasonable time to eat dinner. People around the world know this as a fact. An actual late night meal is after midnight. I used to indulge in those too, but gave up the habit post-pandemic, not because I have grown sensible in my old age, but because reliable late night spots in Los Angeles are now so few and far between that trying to find food at 2:30 a.m. has become a hassle I don’t need after a DJ gig.
It wasn’t always like this. Los Angeles used to be a proper city. It wasn’t a 24/7 city, but we didn’t operate on farm time either. If you got off work late, you could still get take out or make a grocery store pit stop on the way home. You could meet up with friends for coffee at night or grab a bite to eat after the concert/club/bar. Now, good luck finding food beyond 8 p.m. You should have done your meal prep on Sunday so that you could be safe at home by sunset and ready to settle into a 10-step nighttime routine for optimal sleep hygiene so that you’ll wake up refreshed at 4 a.m. and ready to take on your morning ritual of making content about the life you want people to think you have. Don’t forget to have your friendly, neighborhood delivery bot bring by that breakfast smoothie you love.
These are, truly, the lamest of times.
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I’m not DJing this weekend, but do want to give you a heads up that I will be back in at Nocturno in the new wave vs. darkwave room on August 14. Full venue takeover at Catch One and it’s always a lot of fun, so head over to Dice and get your tickets.
This weekend is the Surf Guitar 101 festival down in Garden Grove. I wrote about the weekender earlier this week, so check out the story if you haven’t already. Surf Guitar 101 goes from Friday through Sunday and includes performances from Los Straitjackets, The Bomboras, Boss Martians, Slacktone and a whole lot more.
As for the rest of the weekend and early next week, here are my recommendations.
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Thirty years ago, Jeff “Big Tiki Dude” Hanson stumbled across surf music via an Insect Surfers show at the Doll Hut in Anaheim. He had heard 1960s groups like the Surfaris and the Pyramids via his dad’s 45 collection, but he didn’t dive into the genre until he noticed how Insect Surfers, a surf revival band who have been active since 1979, incorporated sounds inspired by spaghetti western film scores into their music. “They’re mixing the chocolate and the peanut butter, surf and spaghetti western,” says Hanson. That led him to regular surf shows at the Doll Hut and Huntington Beach’s Surfing Museum and on CD shopping trips through the South Bay. Today, Hanson has amassed an ample collection of CDs and vinyl across the genre. He also founded the Surf Guitar 101 festival, which celebrates its 17th annual event at Garden Grove Elks Lodge from Friday, July 31, through Sunday, August 2, with a lineup that includes Los Straitjackets, The Bomboras, Boss Martians, Slacktone and many more.
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Taylor Bickett didn’t initially set out to make an album. She was just writing more songs. But, with two EPs and some singles under her belt, plus a TikTok hit to her credit, the Nashville-based singer was up for the challenge. She sifted through her work looking for songs that she might want to release together. In the process, Bickett saw two themes emerge. “One, this idea of being afraid of commitment, wanting to run away from things,” she says on a recent video call. “Then this contrasting idea of craving intimacy and safety and love.”
Those ideas became a push-and-pull on Bickett’s debut full-length album, Nothing I Can’t Undo. Released in mid-July, the album drops listeners into this conflict with opening song “The Arsonist,” where Bickett sings, “nothing is permanent/if you’re brave enough/to burn it down,” the tension continuing through the collection of soft pop songs that flit between electronic and folk production.
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Reality Awaits, the new album from The Strokes, comes out this Friday, July 24, and you can listen to the whole album with us at Club Underground that night. It’s time for another Strokes Nite at Underground and, this time, it’s a Reality Awaits listening party too. Doors are at 9:30 p.m. and album play starts at 9:45 p.m. Both rooms of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, with Larry G. and I on the decks. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and Dice.
As for the rest of this weekend, and early next week, here are my recommendations.
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In 1970, just a few short years after Barnabas Collins took Dark Shadows from struggling soap opera to pop culture phenomenon, the vampire’s journey began anew. This time, though, it played out on the big screen. House of Dark Shadows was the first of two films based on show and made by the team behind the television series. Unlike the much more recognizable 2012 film, this one is actually worth watching. At the time of writing this, House of Dark Shadows is streaming on YouTube. If you want to see it in a theater, and live in Los Angeles, it’s screening at the NoHo 7 on Monday, July 27.
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The ice blended cappuccino at Placita Cafe is the best brainfreeze-inducing drink I have ever sipped. It’s a caffeinated dessert, with a rolled wafer cookie popping out of the mountain of cinnamon-dusted whipped cream that tops it. Crucially, it’s properly blended, so you get the appropriate balance of textures and flavors all the way down to the bottom of the plastic cup.
I’ve tried a lot of ice blendeds, including the made-for-the-algorithm variety that influencers and self-proclaimed foodies seem to love. What I’ve learned, though, is that the prettier an ice blended is, the worse it tastes. In fact, a few of those more photogenic ice blendeds have given me COVID anosmia flashbacks. Why is this so blah? I’ve wondered before realizing that all the flavor was in the first slurp, y’know, the one that influencers take as they mug for the camera, right before they push the drink aside and reach for the next freebie. With the Placita Cafe ice blended, though, the cinnamon hits my nose before I put the straw up to my mouth. In each sip, I feel the icy, creamy and liquid textures intermingle and taste the milk and espresso base.
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Someone requested “Battle Flag” by Lo Fidelity Allstars at Underground last night, which is not a request I normally hear. In fact, I didn’t even think I had the song on my laptop, but, lo and behold, there it was. If you aren’t familiar with the song, it has a big hip-hop beat and getting out of it is a little tricky unless you want to stay at 100 beats per minute (in other words, slow by my personal standards), which I didn’t. So I started scrolling through Rekordbox and came across this Fcukers song, “Shake It Up,” that I hadn’t thought of playing before last night. It worked. Might play it again sometime.
Next week at Club Underground is The Strokes Reality Awaits listening party. Want to listen to the new album with us? Arrive early. Both floors of the Grand Star will be open and tickets are available now on Dice and Eventbrite.
Last night’s set list is below. “Secret track IYKYK” is exactly that. If you were there, you can try to figure out what it is. Otherwise, it’s a secret. Songs from the past year or so link to other mentions on the blog.
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