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Category: The Playlist

  • 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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  • New Music From Mareux, Pixel Grip and Sextile + More of What You Heard at Nocturno on May 9, 2025

    Nocturno New wave vs darkwave room at Catch One in Los Angeles May 9, 2025 (photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    View from the DJ booth in the New Wave vs. Darkwave room at Nocturno on May 9, 2025 (Pic: Liz O.)

    There’s a lot of new music that came out in the past few weeks and a three of those songs made it into last night’s set in the new wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno. “Laugh Now Cry Later” from Mareux, which turned up really early in the set, is the lead single from his sophomore album, Nonstop Romance,  which is out in late June. Pixel Grip also has a new album, Percepticide: The Death of Reality, out in June. “Reason to Stay” is the new single from that album and it popped up  in the set somewhere in the 10 o’clock hour. I’m really into this song and the response was good, so you’ll probably be hearing it more often in my sets. 

    Last night’s big, new hit though was “Women Respond to Bass,” from Sextile, which came into the set shortly after midnight, mixed between Boy Harsher “Come Closer” and Vitalic’s electroclash-era jam “La Rock 01.” It did really well on the dance floor Friday night. Sextile’s latest album, Yes, Please, came out last week and it’s packed with bangers, so you’ll probably be hearing more from it in my sets this summer. 

    Set list is below. My next gig is The Smiths Nite at Club Underground on Friday, May 16, where I’ll be playing alongside Larry G. and Rose Knows. 

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  • Breton Singer and Producer Quinquis Channels Mermaid Lore on eor

    Quinquis eor album cover Mute Records

    Breton singer, musician and producer Quinquis just released her latest album, eor, on Mute Records and it’s exquisite. Inspired by mermaid lore and made with modular synthesizers, eor will have you imagining tales filled with fantastic beings, set against against gray skies and cold, tumultuous seas. This isn’t TikTok-friendly mermaidcore, this is something darker, richer and altogether more interesting. 

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  • Sextile Drops Rave-Punk Bangers on Yes, Please

    Sextile Yes, Please album cover

    Sextile kicks off Yes, Please with one hell of an “Intro.” It’s all alarms, distorted vocals and squelching electronics that make you think the L.A.-based duo have plans to drop you back into a 1992 Prodigy jam. They don’t. Instead, Sextile diverts you to the sweat-drenched warehouse of right now with “Women Respond to Bass,” a banger for the afters where the subs send the low-end pulsing through the soles of your Docs, and the previously released single “Freak Eyes.” 

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  • The DJ Set Where I Didn’t Play New Order

    Excetera La Cuevita flyer April 25, 2025 DJ Malvada, DJ Liz O.

    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. 

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