Wild at Heart Movie Screenings and More Happening in L.A., 2/13/25 – 2/19/25

Sheryl Lee in Wild at Heart Screenshot
Sheryl Lee in Wild at Heart

If you’ve been making your way through David Lynch’s oeuvre these past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that Wild at Heart isn’t streaming. And that might be bugging you because perhaps you (like me) haven’t seen it in so long that you practically forgot half of the killer cast. Or, maybe you haven’t seen it at all and you want to know what’s so special about the 1990 film. Regardless, your best bet is to catch a screening in an actual movie theater this week in the L.A. area. At the time of writing this, there were still tickets available for showings at the Academy Museum, The Frida and NoHo 7.

If you need more Lynch this weekend, Fire Walk with Me is also playing at The Frida, which, btw, is a great theater and totally worth the trip from L.A. to Santa Ana if you can bypass traffic. (It’s almost exactly one hour from downtown if you ride Metrolink.) And, on Saturday, Vidiots is screening David Lynch’s short films. 

In case you were wondering, I’m not DJing this weekend, but there’s a ton happening in L.A. Like, too much happening, actually. This list just scratches the surface. I intentionally left out some of the weekend’s biggest events because if it’s a concert at Crypto where the resale tix for nosebleed seats are nearly $300 or a festival, you probably already know about it. I also made an effort to include shows at various price points, so some of these are definitely a Valentine’s Day splurge, but there are also a good amount of low cover shows and DJ events listed, as well as some free events. As of the time I wrote this (Tuesday night), everything listed here had tickets available. 

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Whammy! Analog Media Celebrates Third Anniversary with Day of Live Music

Chaki performs live at Whammy! Analog Media's third anniversary party in Echo Park on Sunday, February 9, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Chaki reppin’ Zankou Chicken on stage at Whammy! Analog Media’s third anniversary party. (Photo: Liz O.)

Whammy! Analog Media, the VHS shop and microcinema in Echo Park, celebrated its third anniversary on Sunday, February 10, with a day of live music.  While bands were scheduled to play from noon until 8 p.m., I was only able to check out the 4 – 7 p.m. stretch, which included performances from Chaki, Major Entertainer and Pride Month Barbie

A theme running throughout the afternoon was how special Whammy! is and that’s true. It’s actually one of the few places in L.A. that legit lives up to the overused descriptive “hidden gem.” Although the shop’s address is on Sunset Blvd., you won’t notice it from the street, you have to walk down Rampart and enter through the alley. Once you step inside, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to another past that’s cooler than the one that actually existed. Trust me, you would not be able to find many of the movies here at the corporate video stores that now stoke nostalgia in people. And you certainly wouldn’t be bobbing your head to “Mesopotamia,” the funkiest of the B-52s’ jams, while you browse. 

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Taleen Kali Covers Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine at EP Release Show in L.A.

(left to right) Genevieve, Taleen Kali and Josephine playing Covered EP release party at Love Song Bar DTLA on February 8, 2025
(left to right) Genevieve, Miles (back of pic on drums) Taleen Kali and Josephine playing Covered EP release party at Love Song Bar DTLA on February 8, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

Taleen Kali has a new EP out on Valentine’s Day. Covered features the band’s versions of songs by Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, The Supremes, Garbage and Depeche Mode. Last night, at the appropriately-named Love Song in downtown Los Angeles, was the listening party, which included a live performance. This isn’t a review, which would be unfair on account of the fact that I was the DJ for the event. It’s more of a recap. 

The Love Song is a tiny bar— like, really tiny— at the front of The Regent, a 110-year-old former movie theater-turned-concert venue. Bands typically play in a patch of open space right next to the bar’s entrance, in front a window that faces Main Street and that was the setup last night. All this makes for a very intimate performance. If you’re up at the front, which I was on account of the CDJs being set up right next to the band, you’re really face-to-face with the performers. 

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Drop Nineteens’ New-Old Album, 1991, Is Essential Shoegaze

Drop Nineteens 1991 album cover
Cover of 1991 by Drop Nineteens

As the story goes, in the early years of the 1990s, the buzz on Drop Nineteens began with two demo sessions that landed them gigs, ink in the U.K. press and, ultimately, a record deal with Caroline. The songs on the demo, though, weren’t what made it onto the band’s debut album, Delaware. In fact they hadn’t been officially released until now. Called 1991, the remastered collection of songs recorded mostly in a dorm room on an 8-track reel-to-reel is out now via Wharf Cat Records. 

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French Police Has a New EP, Espera, Out Now

French Police Espera EP cover
Cover of French Police’s new EP, Espera

French Police released a new EP, Espera, last week. If you haven’t already added the four-song release to your listening queue, get on that asap because this is a good one. 

Based in Chicago, French Police is a trio on the post-punk/darkwave tip who have been steadily gaining popularity over the past few years. Anecdotally, I can tell you that their songs were requested at virtually every party I played with Klub Nocturno this past year. Frequently, their songs were requested more than once during the course of one night. Outside of the clubs, you have probably heard them in the ether somewhere in L.A. Recently, when I was at Alamo Drafthouse to see Pump Up the Volume, there was a French Police playlist on in the bar. 

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Taleen Kali Album Release Party and More Happening in L.A. February 6 – February 12

Taleen Kali Covered album release party at Love Song Bar in DTLA DJ Liz O.

This Saturday night, February 8, Taleen Kali celebrates the release of new EP, Covered, at The Love Song Bar, right under the Regent Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Taleen Kali will play an unplugged set with cover songs, rarities and more. Plus, I’ll be DJing throughout the night. Tickets are available now, so click this link to pick up yours as soon as possible. Covered is out on Valentine’s Day and features covers of songs by Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, The Supremes, Garbage and Depeche Mode. You can pre-order a copy of Covered now on Bandcamp. 

As for the rest of the week, here’s what’s happening in L.A., including David Lynch movie screenings, Whammy! Analog’s third anniversary, Stuart Murdoch’s Nobody’s Empire book tour and more. 

Continue reading Taleen Kali Album Release Party and More Happening in L.A. February 6 – February 12

Pump Up the Volume Is the ’90s Teen Movie That’s Relevant Right Now

Pump up the Volume Christian Slater

There is no needle drop quite like the one that kickstarts Pump Up the Volume. We are less than five minutes into the movie. Credits are still popping up on screen in neon, graffiti script, but we’ve already seen that the kids are not alright in this completely ordinary town. The camera leads us into a bland suburban home, into a room stocked with cassettes and audio equipment. Someone— we’ve heard his voice, but have yet to see his face— literally drops the needle on a Leonard Cohen record.

“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded/Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed,” he sings. 

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My Top 10 Belle & Sebastian Songs

Belle & Sebastian "Legal Man" 12" vinyl single and signed vinyl copy of Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance plus hardcover copy of Nobody's Empire by Stuart Murdoch (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Belle & Sebastian “Legal Man” single, Belle & Sebastian Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance and Nobody’s Empire by Stuart Murdoch

Stuart Murdoch just released his first novel. Called Nobody’s Empire, it’s inspired by the Belle & Sebastian singer’s own experiences. In the novel, a young, Scottish man develops chronic fatigue syndrome, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which changes his life and brings him together with a new group of friends and leads him on a path towards songwriting.

Nobody’s Empire is a beautifully written story about finding your people under difficult circumstances. It’s also filled with vivid details about the music and fashion of late 1980s and early 1990s indie/alternative subcultures. Recently, I was able to meet up with Murdoch on Zoom for an interview that is now out in the Books section of Southern California News Group papers. (Here’s a gift link to read the story.) You can catch Murdoch at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre for his L.A. stop on the book tour. 

I’ve been a Belle & Sebastian fan for a long time, so I wanted to list my favorite songs from the band here as well. Keep reading to see the picks. 

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Marianne Faithfull and Everything Else You Heard at Underground on January 31, 2025

Cover of Marianne Faithfull's self-titled 1965 debut album
Cover of Marianne Faithfull’s self-titled 1965 debut album

A couple people asked about the last song at Underground last night. It was “As Tears Go By,” the 1964 single from Marianne Faithfull, who died on Thursday at the age of 78. Since none of us have the same timeline, I’m not going to assume that anyone reading this saw the same glut of posts about her that I did, or is immediately familiar with the singer at all. So, for background, read this obituary from the BBC

Marianne Faithfull had a rough ride through pop stardom (here’s a gift link to an NYT story that explains more), but she persevered over and over again. She was legit cool. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote “As Tears Go By,” her first hit, but she also wrote with them and is said to have influenced multiple Rolling Stones songs. Her career revival album, Broken English, was post-punk and post-disco and influential on subsequent generations of musicians, as well as club DJs. Later on, she would collaborate with the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Blur, Nick Cave and others. She’s part of a generation of nonconformist musicians who really set the stage for what we now know as alternative or indie music and it’s no exaggeration to say that there are loads of musicians (especially women, especially women who resist stereotypically feminine branding) whose names you wouldn’t know if it weren’t for her.

Anyhow, here’s last night’s set list, which begins and ends with Marianne Faithfull. 

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