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Author: Liz O.

  • Museums Are the Antidote to Slop. Go Visit One This Weekend.

    Defenders of Mother Earth altar by Ofelia Esparza at Vincent Price Art Museum Photo: Liz Ohanesian
    Defenders of Mother Earth altar by Ofelia Esparza at Vincent Price Art Museum (Pic: Liz O.)

    I’ve been on a museum kick lately. Museums are the antidote to the slop that poisons our daily lives. These institutions present art and history with the information and context necessary to understand what we see and hear. They’re curated – the actual definition of the word, not the watered-down marketing department version of it – by people who have done real research to present the materials in the most accurate way possible. I can trust what I see in a museum and that’s comforting when I can’t get through a single scroll without asking truly absurd questions like, “Is that Golden Trump for real?”

    My favorite thing about museums, though, is that the exhibitions are designed to be seen in person. You can take as many photos as you want, but none of them are going to do justice to the art or exhibits. That’s why, instead of my regular recommendations this week, I wanted to encourage people to go out and see what is in your local museums. If you’re reading this in Los Angeles, which I am assuming you are, then I have two specific institutions to shout out. Both are in locations that are easy to visit whether you have a car or use public transit and admission for both is free. 

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  • Minoru “Hoodoo” Fushimi, XL Middleton and Milk Talk Appear on Tokyo Love Song’s First 7″ Release

    "In Praise of Mitochondria" "Funkin' Me Up" 7" on display at Salt Box Records
    Tokyo Love Song’s first 7″ release features Minoru”Hoodoo” Fushimi on the A-Side and a collab between XL Middleton and Milk Talk on the B-Side. Seen here at Salt Box Records. (Pic: Liz O.)

    Tokyo Love Song, the L.A.-based party that focuses on Japanese funk and city pop, dropped their first vinyl release earlier this month and it’s a good one. The 7” split single features “In Praise of Mitochondria,” the cult classic cut from Minoru “Hoodoo” Fushimi, on the A-side. For the B-side, modern funk musician and producer XL Middleton joins forces with Japan-based duo Milk Talk for their take on Fushimi’s song, which they’ve titled “Funkin’ Me Up.” I bought a copy of the single last time I stopped by Salt Box Records, Middleton’s shop in Little Tokyo, and was instantly smitten with it. 

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  • Slayyyter “I’m Actually Kinda Famous” + Underground Set List 5/08/26

    Slayyyter Worst Girl in America album cover
    Cover for Wor$t Girl in America by Slayyyter

    I’ve been trying out songs from Wor$t Girl in America since the new album from Slayyyter came out a handful of weeks ago. So far, the songs have done pretty well, but last night, “I’m Actually Kinda Famous” kinda popped on the dance floor. TBH, it was a song that I had been thinking about playing since the album came out, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it work. But, hey, you gotta take some chances in life and your DJ sets.

    Anyhow, last night I was DJing at Club Underground. (I know I said I wasn’t DJing this weekend. Surprise!) It was somewhere after midnight. Sextile “S Is For” (also on this month’s mix) was playing and people were getting really into it, especially a group near the DJ booth. I mixed in Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Heads Will Roll,” the A-Trak remix, and that group by me screamed and danced even harder. I thought, okay, if they’re down with Sextile *and* Yeah Yeah Yeahs remixed by A-Trak, they’re my people and probably already into Slayyyter. So, I slowed down “Heads Will Roll” a pinch, sped up “I’m Actually Kinda Famous” a lot and mixed them thinking, this is either going to suck or it’s going to slayyy. I guess the latter happened because the group I had been eyeing was now all over the dance floor and other group at the back of the dance floor started jumping up and down and screaming for the song.

    Anyhow, kids, the moral of the day is to go with your gut and make it work. Here’s the set list from last night. Songs from the past year or so are in bold and link back to other other mentions on this here blog.

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  • How Making a Documentary on Scottish Girl Bands Influenced Carla J. Easton on Her New Album

    Press photo of Carla J. Easton by Craig McIntosh
    Carla J. Easton’s new album, I Think That I Might Love You, is out now. (Photo: Craig McIntosh)

    Throughout her career, Carla J. Easton wrote and played with piano and synthesizers. That changed, though, after spending eight years working on the documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands. “I would just interview and spend time with these incredible, powerful, independent women,” says Glasgow-based Easton on a recent video call. “None of them ever waited for an invitation. A lot of them are just like, I’ll pick up a guitar, fuck it.”

    So Easton, too, picked up a guitar too. The result is her latest solo album, I Think That I Might Love You, out on May 8.

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  • Listen to the May 2026 Edition of Beatique

    Beatique May 2024 mix cover


    The May, 2026 edition of Beatique is up on Mixcloud right now and I hope you’ll give it a listen. This month’s set includes a few current club hits from the likes of Sextile, Fcukers and Alice Glass, an electroclash throwback and a big ol’ ‘90s club banger. There are also a couple 1960s/early ‘70s jams and new tunes from Tomora, Kneecap, Fontaines D.C. and more.

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  • The D Line Extension Opens This Weekend + More Happening in L.A.

    Inside David Geffen Galleries at LACMA (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Psst! I heard the D Line extension opens this weekend! (Pic: Liz O.)

    This Friday, the first section of Metro’s D Line extension opens, which means we’ll finally have subway access to Miracle Mile. The Wilshire/La Brea is El Rey adjacent. Wilshire/Fairfax will take you to Museum Row and the timing couldn’t be better now that LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries are open. You can also ride the D to the Academy Museum for a super cool screening listed in this week’s Movies section. And, maybe that Wilshire/La Cienega stop will lead to a Beverly Center resurgence. Who knows?  

    Metro news aside, here are my recommendations for concerts, clubs, movie screenings and a few art events that are happening this weekend and early next week. 

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  • Mignon Looks Towards Utopias in Dystopian Times

    Mignon Fist in a Honeypot video selfie
    (Photo courtesy of Mignon)

    In her video for “Fist in a Honeypot,” Mignon cuts a regal figure, decked out like a Marie Antoinette for late stage capitalism. With Benjamins dripping from her cage skirt, and more bills doubling as a fan, she sips tea and spits out lines like, “money to cheat for/they rob you.” Both the costume, made by the singer herself, and the song are a commentary on today’s “let them eat cake” elite. 

    “It’s about people having too much money,” Mignon says with a laugh about what she describes as the most anti-capitalist of her new batch of songs. 

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  • Album Review: Kneecap Fenian

    Kneecap Fenian Album Cover

    The first time I heard Fenian, the new album from Kneecap, was at a listening party in January. It was a private thing- mainly press and industry, I think- in the back room of an LA pub where the album played once and I spent the bus ride home scribbling notes about the album’s clubby flow, its nods to ‘90s hip-hop- there’s definitely a Wu-Tang energy in there – and the killer drum ’n’ bass track in the middle of Fenian. This isn’t an overstatement or the result of a hype-buzz, but I was genuinely excited for the new album. 

    The second time I heard Fenian was roughly three months later, on the album’s May 1 release date. In between, I had amassed the digital singles- the album’s title track is now one of my current favorites to play when I DJ at Underground– and scrolled through enough posts that half my Instagram timeline would have me convinced that this is the most anticipated album of the year. TBH, I’m not sure if that’s the case for anyone but myself. But, whatever. Fenian is top-tier album.

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  • Klub Nocturno Joy Division Night + More Happening This Weekend

    Klub Nocturno May 2026 Los Angeles flyer

    This Friday, May 1, Klub Nocturno is back at Catch One with five rooms for dancing. I’ll be in the new wave vs. darkwave room this time around, which is also where you’ll find Joy Division Night. So, you’ll be getting a heavy dose of Joy Division (and New Order) in addition to the usual mix of darkwave, new wave and post-punk bangers. Tickets are available now on Dice for this 21+ bash. 

    As for the rest of this weekend and early next week, keep reading for my recommendations. 

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  • Poppers Isn’t the Movie You Think It Is. You Should Still Watch It.

    Poppers Spanish film 1984 screenshot
    Spanish new wave revenge tale Poppers is available now on streaming and physical release.

    Poppers isn’t what you think. Or, at least, it isn’t what I thought, when I noticed the movie on Night Flight’s homepage recently. I figured it would be an Italo disco-fueled sex romp trimmed in leather. The film’s opening scene, where a chiseled, dark-eyed hunk lathers himself in the shower, gave false confirmation of my suspicions. All too quickly, the scene, and the tone shifted. That would happen multiple times in the first handful of minutes into the film, until it becomes clear that what we actually have here is a Spanish new wave revenge romp clad in leather, but with no actual poppers in sight. To be honest, the title still leaves me scratching my head. Do poppers mean something else in 1980s Spain? No sé. 

    Released in 1984, Poppers, from what I read, languished in obscurity until relatively recently. Last year, the film was released in the U.S. as part of Severin’s box set Exorcismo: Defying a Dictator & Raising Hell in Post-Franco Spain and it’s now streaming on multiple platforms. If you’re into post-punk cinema oddities- think Liquid Sky, Decoder or Der Fan– you should check out Poppers. It’s more a thriller than a horror film, albeit one with some nods to giallo. 

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