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Category: The Playlist

  • 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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  • Swedish Duo Sally Shapiro Returns with New Album Ready to Live a Lie

    Sally Shapiro Ready to Live a Lie album cover

    In 2023, Sally Shapiro released a gorgeous cover of the Pet Shop Boys song “Rent.” I came across the song a few months after its release and it quickly became a favorite. It turned up in a lot of my DJ sets beginning in early ’24 and people would often ask, “Who does this cover?” I’m mentioning this now because Sally Shapiro just released their fifth full-length album, Ready to Live a Lie. Yes, “Rent” is on it, but so are ten equally compelling songs. 

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  • Maria Somerville Brings Luster to Los Angeles on Saturday Night

    Maria Somerville press photo 2025 photo credit Cait Fahey
    Maria Somerville (Photo: Cait Fahey)

    Bird songs open Luster, the sophomore album from Maria Somerville and her debut full-length with venerable indie label 4AD. Their chirps, taken from a field recording at the singer/producer’s home in Connemara, Ireland, slowly give away to a kind of ethereal ambience with Róisín Berkeley on harp and Henry Earnest on guitar. 

    Somerville, who also hosts “The Early Bird Show” on NTS, self-released her debut album, All My People. In between the two albums, she moved from Dublin back to her hometown. “It’s grounding and expansive there, and gives me spaciousness, which maybe subconsciously shapes how I make music,” she says of the move in an email interview. 

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  • “Don’t Forget the Songs That Made You Smile”: Liz O.’s Smiths Nite Setlist for Underground, 5/16/25

    Smiths Nite at Club Underground at Grand Star Jazz Club on May 16, 2025
    View from the DJ booth Smiths Nite at Club Underground 5/16/25

    For the record, The Smiths are my favorite band and have been since I was 12. And, yet, I’ve never played an all-Smiths-related set before last night. It was Club Underground’s Smiths Nite and Rose Knows and I DJed in the theme room for the two-room event at the Grand Star. It was hard! Seriously, I *still* have The Smiths catalog committed to memory and this was easily the hardest set I’ve ever played. It’s one of those things where, at 10 p.m., you think there aren’t enough songs to fill a whole night and at 12 p.m., you realize you might get to half of what you wanted to play. 

    “Don’t forget the songs that made you smile/And the songs that made you cry.” (Rubber Ring)

    At least “Rubber Ring” made it into the set. And “What She Said.” 

    Anyhow, thanks to everyone who hit the dance floor last night. You can catch Rose Knows for her Smiths Night at Cha Cha Cha Lounge this Thursday, May 22. Larry G. is at Grand Star Jazz Club for Club Underground every Friday night. IDK when I’m playing next, so just follow me on Instagram or check here on Wednesdays. My set list is below. 

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  • Tropa Magica Cover The Doors “People Are Strange” on New Album

    Tropa Magica Para Bailar y Tripiar album cover

    There is no shortage of “People Are Strange” covers in the world, but “Todos Son Raros,” a Spanish rendition by Tropa Magica, is 100% worth your attention. The L.A.-based band reimagines the Doors classic as a groovy cumbia with some surfy reverb and an expanded guitar solo that ventures into Middle Eastern psychedelia. It’s wild and lives up to the title of Tropa Magica’s latest album, Para Bailar y Tripiar. 

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  • Model/Actriz Brings the Noise Back to Dance Rock on Pirouette

    Cover of Pirouette by Model/Actriz, released on May 2, 2025

    On Pirouette, the latest album from New York-based Model/Actriz, there’s a lineage that runs from the funkier, Gang of Four side of post-punk to the noisy, late 1990s aftermath of hardcore that led to indie dance bands like The Rapture, The Faint and !!! to the L.A. DIY scene of the ‘00s and early ‘10s that spawned bands like Health and clipping. It’s noisy, driven by an urgent energy and will probably scare off those who like nice pop songs. It’s music for people who like to keep things weird, but still need structured songs and a good dance beat. 

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