With only a handful of gigs left for this year, I figured that now is a good time to post my top 10 jams for 2023. Technically, these aren’t all songs that came out this year, and my top pick I actually started playing in 2022, but they all made an impact on my DJ set in 2023. Check out the list below and I hope to see you on the dance floor soon.
Continue reading Here are My Top 10 Jams for 2023
I don’t know what I’m most grateful for tonight. Was it the people at Club Underground who danced to the brand new Confidence Man tune? Was it the person who admitted listening to Confidence Man, who released one of my favorite albums of 2022, because of my sets? (BTW, Confidence Man is at the Echoplex on December 2.) Or, was it the trio who listened to my rant about how Chumbawamba were the working class heroes we needed, but we didn’t deserve them and now we’re stuck with capitalist icon Taylor Swift? Maybe it’s all that.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Club Underground on November 10, 2023
Last night was the first time I played Gold Diggers, which is a small music venue/hotel/recording studio on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood that’s filled with disco balls and good vibes. It was Dum Dum Records Second Anniversary party and Taleen Kali had asked me to DJ alongside Ann Eliza for the night. So, this was also the third event with Taleen that I’ve played this year. (I DJed for shoegaze night at the band’s Harvard and Stone residency and at the Flowers of Life album release afterparty back in April. However, it was, Taleen noted late in the night, the first where we both ended up on the dance floor at the same time. It was also initially going to be the first time Ann Eliza and I DJed together, but we both ended up playing Vidéothèque’s reopening party last month.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Dum Dum Records 2 Year Anniversary Party at Gold Diggers
Thanks to everyone who joined Jus’ B, Jen Rock and me at Grand Star Jazz Club on Sunday afternoon for Disco Matinee. It was great to see everyone on the dance floor for a mix of disco classics, freestyle jams and more. I played all-vinyl sets this time. Keep reading to see what was in them.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Disco Matinee on November 5One of the first things I learned in the DJ booth— and this might actually be a life lesson— is that you never know where the night will take you. Planning a set is futile because what you play is always dependent on what will make people dance. You won’t know what will make a specific crowd on a specific night dance until you see it for yourself. So, I never plan sets. I usually have songs floating through my brain, but plenty of times, like at Underground last night, those aren’t the ones I end up playing. So, maybe I’ll play those next week . You should stop by and find out for yourself.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Club Underground on November 3, 2023
Back in 2009, I was standing in at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo for a massive Giant Robot exhibition and ended up chatting with one of the artist’s in the show, Albert Reyes. I had just started working full-time at L.A. Weekly, so I hit him up for an interview and then he invited me to his Halloween house party/art maze. Considering how many stories of mine have been lost within the black hole of the Internet over the years, I’m surprised that short interview is still online. Over the years, I interviewed Albert a few times, the most recent for Los Angeles Magazine in 2019, when he had a solo exhibition at Eastern Projects in Chinatown, and have seen a number of his haunted houses. This year, for the second year in a row, I got to DJ at Albert’s haunted house.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Albert Reyes’ Haunted House
Sometime before 11 p.m. I had to take off the blazer. I had tried to hang longer in the Battle Royale costume, but the dance floor upstairs at Grand Star Jazz Club was already full and it gets pretty warm behind the DJ gear. Advanced tickets for Club Underground’s Halloween party had sold out and, from what I could tell, people showed up early and ready to party. I don’t even know what to say about last night except that the energy was high and people were down to dance to anything, as you can probably see from the set list below. See you back at Underground on Friday, November 3. Happy Halloween!
Continue reading Here’s What I Played for Club Underground’s Halloween Party on October 27, 2023
October might have been stressing me out this year, but I felt an instant sense of relief inside The Mermaid last night. I was there to DJ another week of Dolce Vita’s Italo Horror Disco, this time with DJ Alex Arias. The first thing I noticed is that the Halloween display in the bar has grown larger and more detailed since I last played there earlier this month. The centerpiece is a mermaid skeleton, who is surrounded by a bounty of odds and ends, from crystal balls to eyeballs to skeleton hands. The glow-in-the-dark paints and swaths of fabric help give the impression that you stumbled upon this altar while underwater. It’s super cool. Stop by The Mermaid and check it out this week if you have a chance.
Other than that, it was great to play with Alex for the first time. I loved his set. Plus, some friends stopped by, which made the night all the better. Here’s what I played in my sets last night. Also, a reminder that I’ll be playing Underground’s Halloween party on Friday, October 27 and there’s a low ticket alert for the party, so get yours as soon as possible.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at The Mermaid for Italo Horror Disco on October 24, 2023
On Saturday morning, I finally finished watching the entire original Dark Shadows series. After IDK how many months of binging through storylines about vampires, witches (RIP Lara Parker, who played the best daytime villain ever), werewolves, portals into parallel universes, a creepy kid who keeps getting possessed by ghosts, a doctor who prescribes sleeping pills and seances, etc., I’m not really sure what to do with myself. Or, at least I wasn’t until last night’s gig at Vidéothèque, when I spotted a Groovie Goolies box set in the Halloween section. Now I have a week to power through this early 1970s cartoon series in between work and Halloween DJ gigs.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Vidéothèque on October 21, 2023
It’s zombie boyfriend season! There are a lot of Halloween-friendly songs I love, but my absolute favorite (or, at least, my favorite that isn’t part of a horror more score) is “Mi Novio Es Un Zombi” from Alaska y Dinarama. It has one of the best music videos ever. You think it’s just a concert clip, with Alaska bouncing around stage in a very fierce outfit singing about her boyfriend’s bad teeth and yellow eyes and then— all of a sudden— Freddy freakin’ Krueger pops out of the crowd, mingles with the band and starts caressing Alaska with this slasher movie hands. Just watch the video. And check out my playlist from No Controles! at The Offbeat, the first of what will probably be a handful of times I’ll play “Mi Novio Es Un Zombi” in the next week or so.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at No Controles! on October 19, 2023