Category Archives: The Playlist

Molly Nilsson’s Un-American Activities Is More Relevant a Year After Its Release

Molly Nilsson Un-American Activities 2024 album on vinyl

Last year, Molly Nilsson released Un-American Activities, which you could say is her L.A. album. The Berlin-based synthpop artist made it as part of a residency at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades and it’s inspired by a few specific moments where global events and local history come together. Moreover, the album, which is one of my favorites from 2024, really fits the mood in Los Angeles right now. It’s dark and, lyrically, she makes connections between European fascism of the 1930s, the Red Scare in the mid-20th century U.S. and contemporary politics. So, when I was pulling records to play at Bigfoot Lodge on Saturday, I immediately grabbed my copy of Un-American Activities and thought of the song “Jackboots Return.” 

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Molly Nilsson, The Clash and More of What You Heard at Bigfoot Lodge on July 5, 2025

Bigfoot Lodge Los Angeles California July 5, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Inside Bigfoot Lodge

For anyone who hasn’t been there before, Bigfoot Lodge is this bar on Los Feliz Blvd. that’s designed to look like a cabin in the woods. There are animatronic critters near the entrance and taxidermy hiding out in the corners. It’s a trippy bar that’s been around for some 25 years. Every once in a while, I pop in to guest DJ on Malvada’s nights there, which is why I packed a bag of vinyl and headed to Bigfoot Lodge last night. I brought some recent releases (Pulp, Optometry, Sextile) and some oldies that I picked up on recent digs (Freda Payne, Heaven 17). There were songs I haven’t played out in public before, but felt needed to be heard (Molly Nilsson “Jackboots Return) and songs that I’ve played many, many times, but should be heard again (The Clash “Police On My Back”), but there wasn’t a real theme or anything. There were three of us DJ last night, so we swapped off throughout the night. My set lists are below. 

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Fontaines D.C. and More of What You Heard at Underground on Friday, July 4, 2025

Fontaines D.C. Romance Album cover
Spoiler alert: Romance by Fontaines D.C. is the album of the year.

Here’s a quick set list from Underground last night. I played open-to-close and forgot to take pics, so I’m posting the cover of Romance at the top of this post because Fontaines D.C. are the best rock band around right now and it saddens me that people don’t come up to the booth and bug me to play them all night at Underground. So, that’s your reminder. When I’m back at Underground on July 18, come up to me and say, “Liz, please play some Fontaines D.C. for us.”  

Set list is below.

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Black Moth Super Rainbow and More New Music for June, 2025

Black Moth Super Rainbow Soft New Magic Dream album cover
Black Moth Super Rainbow, Soft New Magic Dream

There is no shortage of killer new music out this month and handful of those have already appeared here on Beatique, but I’m just one person and there aren’t enough hours in the day to listen to everything that’s out now, let alone write about it. I didn’t want to shout out a few more new releases, like Soft New Magic Dream from Black Moth Super Rainbow, plus an impressive goth/industrial club-friendly new album and two lovely full-lengths out now via long-running indie label Slumberland. 

Before we get to the reviews, though, I just want to say thank you reading. I started updating Beatique with reviews and original reporting in January because it looked like the situation for music, arts and culture journalism, my day job for well over a decade, in the U.S. would grow even more dismal and it has. But, at the same time, Beatique has had its highest amount of traffic this month and a lot of it is repeat visitors (from outside the U.S. too!) who are checking out multiple stories. Maybe I’m correct in thinking that people actually want to read things written by actual human beings who actually go out into the world and do the reporting themselves. Maybe I’m deluding myself. Either way, thanks for joining me on the ride. There’s more to come, so if you’re interested, check out the ways you can stay up-to-date on Beatique (and my DJ gigs) at the bottom of this post. 

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New Music from Mareux and Ultra Sunn + More of What You Heard in the New Wave vs. Darkwave Room at Nocturno on June 28, 2025

Klub Nocturno new wave vs. darkwave room at Catch One in Los Angeles on June 28, 2025
View from the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno on June 28, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

At maybe a quarter after 2 a.m., when I was waiting for my ride home from Nocturno, I heard “Afuera” coming from somewhere outside of Catch One and looked up to see someone sitting on the bus stop across the street from the venue, playing a conga drum along with the Caifanes classic while a couple danced. It was a good vibe for the end of the night. 

And the vibes inside were good too. I was in the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave room all night. It was Boy Harsher night, although there were quite a few requests for Ultra Sunn. Shout out to whoever asked for “Wrong Floor,” which came out about a week ago and is fire. The response on the dance floor was great, so that will probably be sticking around in my sets. 

I did get to play “Nonstop Romance” from Mareux’s new album of the same name and the response was good, so I think you will hear more of that too. I also played “Blackmail,” a cool instrumental from Nonstop Romance around the time we opened. “Reason to Stay” by Pixel Grip seemed to do better than it did when I first played it in May and Sextile’s “Women Respond to Bass,” which you also heard in May’s Nocturno set, is probably in the running for this summer’s banger. 

Set list is below. As always, thanks for dancing!

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Mareux Forges a New Sound on Nonstop Romance

Mareux Nonstop Romance album cover

At DJ gigs, I always say that I don’t know what I’ll play until I play it and that’s absolutely true. I may have my heart set on playing one specific song, but, if it doesn’t sound like it’s going to vibe with the crowd, then I can’t play it. So, while I really don’t know which songs from Nonstop Romance, the latest album from Mareux, will end up in my sets, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it’s the title track. 

“Nonstop Romance” has quickly become my favorite song on the album and I hope that its yours too. If you went to a club where the DJ played “Join in the Chant” and “Crazy Over You,” then came home and put that vibe into a song and gave it a 2020s spin, it might sound like this. (And, if this sounds like a plausible scenario to you, I’m going to guess you also live in L.A.) The juxtaposition of an EBM stomp and a very cheery synth melody is my idea of dance floor gold and I’ve listened to “Nonstop Romance” at least three times in a row while writing this.

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Heaven 17 Was Right, ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’

Heaven 17 "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" 45 RPM vinyl single (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Heaven 17 “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”

The right record will always find you at the right time. Take last Saturday afternoon as an example. I was in Little Tokyo, flipping through 45s at Salt Box and just happened to come across “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang,” the 1981 single from Heaven 17. Did I have this? Did it matter? Even if I did have a copy, I could use another one because this nearly 45-year-old song is the jam for right now. Or, rather, it should be the jam for right now. 

I didn’t even have to listen to the song for the earworm to bury itself in my brain. “Have you heard it on the news?” it goes,  “About this fascist groove thang.” 

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Classic Pulp and Northern Soul Meet on “Got to Have Love” + More. on New Album

Pulp More. vinyl photo by Liz Ohanesian taken at Moldy Toes Records in San Clemente, CA
Found Pulp’s new album, More., on vinyl at Moldy Toes Records in San Clemente

Every time I hear “Got to Have Love,” I have to stop what I’m doing and dance. The second single from More., the first new full-length Pulp album in 24 years, is a northern soul-style stomper. Like the Four Seasons songs “The Night,” which Pulp covered many years ago, and “Beggin’” it has a beat that pushes you to dance harder and faster, to kick and spin and drop to the ground. And if the song itself doesn’t quite compel you to do all these things, the video, comprised of footage from the legendary U.K. club Wigan Casino, will. By the song’s end, you should feel some kind of relief. Maybe the weight of the world has lifted. Maybe you’re just overjoyed that you got through the song without pulling a muscle. 

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Pixel Grip Explores the Dark Side of Club Pop on Percepticide: The Death of Reality

Pixel Grip album cover of Percepticide: The Death of Reality
Pixel Grip’s third album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality is out now.

Chicago-based trio Pixel Grip released their third album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality on June 12. Three years in the making, Percepticide is also the band’s first fully independent release and the end result is a collection of a dozen songs that are rooted in the clubs, but defy expectations of what one might consider club music. It’s as punk as it is pop, as raw as it is slick and as menacing as it is euphoric. 

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Anoraak, Pachyman, Stereolab and More New Music

Cover of Another Place by Pachyman
Cover of Another Place by Pachyman

Do you ever get the feeling that your friends can read your mind? 

The other day, out of nowhere, I thought of Anoraak, the French musician/producer, whose tunes have turned up a bunch in my sets over the years. (Most frequently, “Gang,” a Disco Not Disco-style jam that I played often at The Lash coming out of lockdown.) I wondered if he had anything new out, but I was also in the middle of doing something else, so I didn’t look it up. An hour later, I get a text from my friend with a Spotify link, which just happens to be a song from Anoraak, “Magnifique (Italo Edit),” that was released a few months ago. It’s fire. His new album, Golden Hour, is a fun mix of disco, funk and synthpop, but my friend’s pick is the keeper. You’ll probably be hearing it in my sets soon. 

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