Even I’m surprised that I got through a two-hour DJ set without playing New Order. I came pretty close to dropping “Bizarre Love Triangle” into the set at La Cuevita on Friday night, but then I thought, “Liz, you’re at a bar, not a dance club, no one has requested ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and you played a New Order and Depeche Mode night last week. Give yourself a break.” So, I did. Also, I forgot to take photos
Anyhow, here’s the set. Thanks to Malvada for having me play Ex-Cetera at La Cuevita.
My tiny collection of Style Council vinyl (Pic: Liz O.)
I was holed up in a hard-to-find shady corner of Grand Park, watching the crowd and taking nearly illegible notes during the Fighting Oligarchy rally when the familiar opening notes of a song caught my attention. Style Council? It was “Shout to the Top,” I knew that for certain before Paul Weller’s voice came in with the first verse. But, here? At a political rally in the U.S.?
That’s weird, I thought, but whoever added the song to the playlist deserves some props. “Shout to the Top” was a good choice, thematically appropriate with the lyrics, “and when you’re down on the bottom/there’s nothing else/but to shout to top.” Still, your average American has little-to-no-idea who Paul Weller is. They might have heard “A Town Called Malice” or “My Ever Changing Moods” somewhere in their lifetime, but they probably do not know that both come from the same guitar hero/fashion icon— the Modfather, as he’s often called— and that he also has a treasure trove of songs about class politics.
One of the first things I learned as a baby DJ was that genres aren’t all that useful. On a very basic level, they can refer to stylistic conventions (dub) or specific movements (punk) or both (hip-hop), but then the terms get overused (post-punk) and are totally watered down (psychedelic) until they become a meme (goth) and, ultimately, meaningless (indie).
Genres define music for marketing or search engine purposes, but they don’t mean much for human ears. Whether or not songs fit together has less to do with metadata and more to do with qualities that are objective, subjective and pretty hard to describe. That’s all just a long way of saying that I really like when there’s no genre tagged to a gig, which is the case for Splash at The Mermaid, where I played last night. Here’s the set list, which includes new music from Wet Leg, Marie Davidson, Model/Actriz and clipping., classics from Max Romeo (RIP), The Smiths and The Delfonics, a holiday tune from I-F and more.
View from the DJ both at Club Underground on Depeche Mode x New Order Night (Pic: Liz O.)
Depeche Mode x New Order Night at Club Underground was a blast. I played the opening and closing sets last night. Rose Knows and Larry G. played in the middle. The dance floor got going early, like before 10 p.m., and it just seemed to keep going, even after the house lights rose at the end of the night.
I’ve posted my own set lists below. Underground is every Friday night at the Grand Star in Chinatown with DJ Larry G.. I’ll be playing there again in May, so stay tune for details. My next gig is Sunday, April 20, at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo for Splash. It’s an open format night and I’ll be playing from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is a new video game from French developer Don’t Nod. Since I’m not much of a gamer, I can’t tell you anything about that, aside from that it’s narrative-driven and about grown women in 2022 reconnecting with a secret from their 1990s teenage past. What I can tell you about, though, is the soundtrack, which, like the game was released in two parts, the second of which dropped this week. And, really, the reason I’m telling you about the soundtrack is because 3/4 of Chromatics— Ruth Radelet, Nat Walker and Adam Miller— reunited to contribute five songs to the Lost Records soundtrack album.
View from the DJ booth in the New Wave vs. Darkwave room at Klub Nocturno on April 11, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)
Last night was Klub Nocturno at Catch One, where I was the DJ in the new wave vs. darkwave room from open to close. The theme was Boy Harsher Night and a lot of their songs made it into the set alongside bands like Lebanon Hanover, Twin Tribes, French Police, Glass Spells, plus the new wave bangers and lots, lots more. Thanks to Nocturno for having me play and to everyone who made it out to the club last night. Set list is below.
L.A. Witch is back with their first full-length since the pandemic. For Doggod, released on April 4 via Suicide Squeeze Records, the local three-piece headed to Paris, where they recorded at Motorbass, the studio founded by late producer Philippe Zdar (Cassius) where Phoenix recorded Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
Even though the album was made in a studio with a French indie pop pedigree, the sound of Doggod is very L.A. Specifically, the album makes me think of the city’s 1980s post-punk scenes. At that time, you had deathrock, which became goth, and included bands like Kommunity FK, Christian Death and 45 Grave. There was a scene known as the Paisley Underground, which was ‘80s psyche and spawned bands like The Bangles and Opal, who evolved into Mazzy Star. Then, you had a band like the Gun Club, that was really its own vibe, playing dark Americana. Doggod sounds like the point where those three tangents intersect. My point being, you can take the band out of L.A., but you can’t take L.A. out of the band, especially when the city is in their name.
Last year, I saw Miki Berenyi Trio live at the Fonda in Hollywood and, since then, have been waiting for the British indie group’s debut full-length. Tripla came out on Friday, April 4, and was well worth the wait. The tl;dr version is it’s fantastic. Get it, but don’t expect a rehash of the 1990s. Keep reading if you want more details.
MB3 is named for Miki Berenyi, former guitarist and singer for Lush and author of the must-read memoir Fingers Crossed, but it isn’t a solo project. The trio is rounded out by KJ “Moose” McKillop, and Oliver Cherer. All three musicians share songwriting duties and that’s reflected in the album’s title, which is Hungarian for triple. Still, Berenyi is the most recognizable member of MB3.
About two-thirds of the way into Music Can Hear Us, DJ Koze drops a secret weapon on listeners in the form of an exceptionally short and spooky cover of “Vamos a la Playa.” With German artist Soap&Skin on vocals, Koze strips away everything that makes the 1983 song from Righeira an Italo disco classic. The beat is gone. The “oh-oh-oh-oh-oh“ is replaced with a faint breath in the background. What remains are the lyrics, a story about going to a radioactive beach. It’s creepy af. I love it.
The problem with the 21st century’s persistent ‘80s nostalgia is that most people miss the point of a whole decade’s worth of pop culture. They’re like, “the music was so much better.” But, the music was good because people were making perfect pop songs about nuclear annihilation and the evils of capitalism. It’s protest music for the Reagan-Thatcher era that, tbh, probably went over people’s heads back in the day too. (There’s a similar argument to be made about movies here too, but we’ll save that for another day.) Koze and Soap&Skin bring the point to the forefront of this cover version.
Amongst the new releases for March of 2025 were Night Life, the first new full-length album from The Horrors since 2017, as well as clipping.’s new latest album, Dead Channel Sky, both of which were previously covered here. Plus, earlier this month, Agender dropped Berserk, an album I liked so much that I interviewed singer Romy Hoffman for Beatique.
But, wait, there’s more. This month also brought new albums from CocoRosie, girlpuppy and Takuro Okada, plus a smashing debut album from Texas’ Night Ritualz, as well as reissues of worthwhile albums from electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack and ambient composer Hiroshi Yoshimura. Check out the reviews below and get yourself some new music.
