All posts by Liz O.

I'm a longtime, cross-genre DJ and writer living in Los Angeles.
New Music

Ultra Sunn Unleashes The Beast in You

Ultra Sunn The Beast in You album cover

Last week, Ultra Sunn released The Beast in You. While the Belgian duo’s sophomore album isn’t quite a departure from previous club hits like “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” and “Broken Monsters,” or last year’s debut full-length, US, it shows some welcome growth from the EBM outfit. 

Heavily influenced by European dance music of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ultra Sunn excels at songs that bridge the old and the new. It’s no wonder that they’ve been one of the most requested artists I’ve seen while DJing. Most of their songs are around 124 or 125 BPM, which is solidly mid-tempo when you’re DJing a darkwave night, and they fit perfectly in between Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb classics and more recent bangers from Boy Harsher and Sextile. This kind of consistency makes Ultra Sunn songs ideal for club play, but it’s also what makes them less interesting for at home listening. That’s very common amongst artists who work in hyper-specific niches of dance music, but, nonetheless, I can’t help wondering what it would sound like if Ultra Sunn stepped outside of the comfort zone. 

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New Music

The New Molly Nilsson Album Will Make You Embrace Your Inner Amateur

Molly Nilsson Amateur album cover

On her latest album, Amateur, Molly Nilsson considers how a word that is derived from the Latin for “lover” or “admirer” came to mean a lack of experience or professionalism. “I see ‘amateurism’ as a delighted, even foolish, protest,” says Nilsson in a statement on the album’s Bandcamp page. “Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that?”

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The Playlist

Amyl and the Sniffers, Lambrini Girls and More of What You Heard at Harvard & Stone on 10/02/25

Amyl and the Sniffers Cartoon Darkness cover

Played a rock set at Harvard and Stone on Thursday night. It was a mix of music from, basically, the 1960s to today. Got everyone from The Stooges to Lambrini Girls in it. No, I didn’t get to see Lambrini Girls on Wednesday night, unfortunately. The videos I saw were pretty wild. I’m a little jealous of everyone who did go. Anyhow, here’s the set list.

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Happening in L.A.

Legendary Pink Dots Live + More Happening in L.A. 10/02-10/08/25

Legendary Pink Dots promo photo
Legendary Pink Dots (photo courtesy of the band)

Legendary Pink Dots head back to L.A. this Friday, October 3. At the time of writing this, it looks like there are still some tickets available on Dice to catch the band live at Zebulon. I’ve seen LPD live a number of times over the years and each show has been magical, so I would definitely recommend catching them in concert.

Read: IT’S SO LONELY IN HEAVEN ON LEGENDARY PINK DOTS’ NEW ALBUM

Read: EDWARD KA-SPEL ON HOW AI INSPIRED NEW LEGENDARY PINK DOTS ALBUM, SO LONELY IN HEAVEN

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New Music

Goths for Palestine Vol. II and More New Music

Goths for Palestine Vol II album cover
Goths for Palestine, Vol. II includes music from Nuovo Testamento, Leæther Strip, A Place to Bury Strangers and More curated by Suzi Sabotage

Late last year, Finnish singer Suzi Sabotage curated the first Goths for Palestine compilation, a 30-track collection featuring contributions from an international group of artists, including Belgrado, Zanias, Dancing Plague and Taleen Kali, and with proceeds benefiting long-running relief group Anera. Earlier this month, Goths for Palestine, Volume II hit Bandcamp. 

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Books, Interview

Jeff Copeland on His Memoir Love You Madly Holly Woodlawn

Jeff Copeland author of Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn press photo
Jeff Copeland tells his Hollywood story in Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn (photo courtesy of Jeff Copeland)

Jeff Copeland was, maybe, 12 drafts deep into Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn when he took a step back and reflected on one particularly awkward dinner scene. There is no shortage of awkward meals in Copeland’s memoir. After all, it’s Hollywood at the turn-of-the-‘90s and the writer is a broke twenty-something with big screen ambitions who befriends a middle-aged former Warhol star. On this particular night, though, Copeland and Woodlawn meet up with a neighbor, Maila Nurmi, you might know her better as Vampira, and her friends. An elderly theater director hijacks the conversation, steering it into dark, and, tbh, hysterical, terrain. Copeland’s younger self is mortified. His present self, though, has an altogether different take.

“Fame was fleeting! Money dwindled! And so what if their youth and beauty was gone forever. It was their ebullience that remained, and it was as bold and incandescent…and as bright and vivid as any theatre marquee on Hollywood Boulevard,” he writes.

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Interview

The Cords Channel Classic Indie Pop and Shoegaze Sound on Debut Album

The Cords press photo
Photo of The Cords by Marc Tedeschi

It’s not every band whose first gig is opening for the Vaselines. The Cords, though, did just that at Glasgow venue Mono two years ago, not long after sisters Grace and Eva Tedeschi had formed their duo. 

“We had just made social media, so I think someone there might have seen us on Instagram or something, a video,” recalls Eva. 

“It was busier than I expected it to be,” adds Grace, the elder sister by two years. “It was scary. It was like, oh my god, there’s like a million people here. I was just nervous.”

The two banter back and forth about how many people might have been in the venue when they played. “It was full,” says Eva, who plays guitar. “I don’t remember. I was so nervous I think I just stared down at my drum kit,” says Grace.

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New Music

Suede Goes Goth on New Album Antidepressants

Suede Antidepressants album cover

It’s all about the title track on Antidepressants, the latest album from Suede. The tension is thick and the song vacillates between death rock verses and the boisterous punk chorus. Brett Anderson’s voice takes on a ominous as he digs into bourgeoisie paranoia. “I look in my house, it’s a luxury design, but there’s shit on the walls that I’m hiding behind,” he sings. “There’s a room at the back in case you get scared. Prisoner.” 

Antidepressants is the 10th album from the English band and touted as their “post-punk” collection. After my first listen, I took that to mean that Richard Oakes leaned harder into the John McGeoch influence and Simon Gilbert lays into the drums with more of a doomy, tribal, Budgie feel. So, you could also maybe say that this is Suede’s Siouxsie and the Banshees album. Since this review is written by someone whose teenage bedroom boasted both Suede and Siouxsie and the Banshees posters in it, you should consider that a recommendation. 

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Happening in L.A., Upcoming Gigs

Klub Nocturno Is On 9/26 + More Happening in L.A. 9/25-10/02

Flyer for Klub Nocturno at Catch One in Los Angeles on Friday, September 26, 2025

Klub Nocturno is coming up again this Friday, September 26, at Catch One. It’s four rooms this time around, plus, just to mix things up a bit, I’ll be in Room 1 playing rock en Español and cumbia. I’ve got the bangers on deck for you so, get your tickets on Dice before it sells out.  

As for the rest of your weekend, and early next week, here are my recommendations. 

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Interview

Moviola Captures the Difficulty and Absurdity of American Life on ‘Earthbound’

Moviola press photo by Carrie Klein
Credit: Carrie Klein

In the video for “Slage Wave,” the first single off Moviola’s recently-released eleventh album, Earthbound, the employees of Don’s Tiny Weenies toil over the grill as they dish out Doge Dogs and Pigs on a Golf Course.  “You’re a wage slave, from the cradle to the grave,” the song goes, “you don’t work, you don’t get paid, you don’t get nothin’.”

Fate- or, rather,  the labor movement- intervenes in the form of a customer in a Johnny Paycheck, who hands over a “Take This Job and Shove It” sticker. A Pete Seeger-like musician follows, sliding a union handbook across the counter. It’s a video that almost has a happy ending, until the hot dog vending machine arrives.

“We debated on how to end it,” says Jake Housh, who plays guitar and piano/keys in Moviola and also shot and edited the video, “but it seemed kind of realistic maybe that the machines will win.”

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