A big shout out to my friend Clifton Weaver for inviting me to play with him at Apotheke in Chinatown last night. I had never DJed there before and it was so much fun with a great crowd in a really beautiful venue.
Check out the set list below to see what I played for this all-vinyl set. If these are the tunes that make you groove, click this link for tickets to the next Disco Matinee, which is May 5 at Grand Star Jazz Club.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Apotheke on April 26, 2024
I’m home on a Thursday night trying to finish a story that I need to turn in tomorrow. Since it’s already tomorrow in the U.K., the new Pet Shop Boys album, Nonetheless, is up on Spotify. So, I listen as I write and I listen again after I decide that 700 words is enough words for now and I can finish that article in the morning, when my eyelids aren’t quite as heavy and the chocolate mini Easter eggs I popped into my mouth one after the other aren’t weighing me down.
To recap: I flipped over “Loneliness,” the first single and opening track from Nonetheless, when it was released earlier this year. It’s been doing really well in my sets too. It’s a classic Pet Shop Boys club track, the kind of that reminds you that life is sad, but you’re happy on the dance floor. They followed up “Loneliness” with the single “Dancing Star,” which I haven’t played yet, but I do quite like. It’s slightly reminiscent of “Domino Dancing,” which is probably why I picked up that vintage 12” at Rubycon last weekend.
Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, A Certain Ratio, Brainstory and More April 2024 Music
Thanks to Larry G. for having me back at Underground on Friday night and for everyone who showed up and hit the dance floor. Some notes on last night’s set: I played the newest additions to my virtual crates really early, so you probably didn’t hear them. Mostly, I wanted to see what “Cadenas de la Infancia” and “I Forget” sounded like in a club. I might stick with them. I might not, but both Mueran Humano’s album, Reemplazante, and Jaako Eino Kalevi’s album, Chaos Magic, have been playing on repeat at home and I absolutely recommend getting both.
I’m so happy to see people digging Pet Shop Boys’ recent single “Loneliness.” It’s a jam. The lyrics are poignant in a way that only PSB songs are. Plus, we’re only two weeks away from the new album and I, for one, can’t wait to hear Nonetheless. And— omg!— Neil Tennant sang “Rebel Rebel” with Johnny Marr in London last night. (And they did “Getting Away With It” too!) Anyhow, here’s the set list.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Underground on April 12, 2024
Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Grand Star on Sunday for Disco Matinee. It was so much fun to dig through my vinyl crates for this one and even more fun to play alongside Jus’ B and Televandalist.
Details for the next Disco Matinee are coming soon. In the meantime, get your tickets for The Strokes Nite at Club Underground, which is happening at Grand Star Jazz Club this Friday, April 12.
Here are my set lists from Disco Matinee on April 7, 2024.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Disco Matinee on April 7, 2024
Here’s most of the set list from Night Shift at Bar Franca on on Thursday, April 4. I was using flashdrives and wrote everything down because it just takes too long to wait around for the history to load into Rekordbox on my laptop and I have no patience for that. I definitely forgot to write down a couple songs and can’t remember what they were. There’s at least one instance where I couldn’t read my own handwriting, which is generally terrible and always gets worse the more I write. The important thing, though, is that the new tunes in last night’s set include Taleen Kali “Flower of Life” remixed by Dildox, “Monaco” by Ride, Optometry’s cover of “Into the Groove” and Pedal Steel Noah’s cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” They’re all keepers.
Next gig is Disco Matinee on Sunday at 3 p.m. With Jus’ B, Televandalist and I digging for our punkiest, funkiest jams, I have a feeling this will be a good one. Click here to get discount advance tickets now on Restless Nites.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played for Night Shift at Bar Franca on April 4, 2024
Klub Nocturno is the be exception to the “nobody in L.A. goes out in the rain” rule. Saturday night was the second time I played a Nocturno event at Catch One and, just like the first time, a storm hit. Yet, the crowd was still massive. And so much fun. Shout out to Kill for Kickz and Color Void, both of whom played fantastic live sets in the New Wave vs. Darkwave room.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Klub Nocturno (New Wave vs. Darkwave Room) on March 30, 2024
It sounds like we’re on the verge of another Pet Shop Boys moment. Or, at least, that’s how I hope 2024 will sound and, judging from the response on the dance floor, the L.A. crowds seem to agree. But, then again, L.A.’s affinity for the British duo has endured since the 1980s.
In January, I fell for the cover of “Being Boring” by TR/ST, with guest vocals from Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters. Shortly after that dropped, Pet Shop Boys themselves released “Loneliness,” the first single from their forthcoming album, Nonetheless. It’s a gorgeous dance song that reflects the strange isolation of 2020s life. (The Guardian has a good interview with the band, if you’re interested in reading more about Pet Shop Boys’ new music.) Around the same time, I stumbled across a cover of “Rent” that Sally Shapiro released last fall. I wondered how I missed this release last year, then snapped it up on Bandcamp.
Continue reading Pet Shop Boys, Optometry, Ride and More New Music
I popped into The Mermaid at the last minute on Tuesday to play about 90 minutes of music for Dolce Vita. I knew that there was a screening of Dave Attell’s Netflix special happening beforehand. What I didn’t know, however, was that Dave Attell was actually going to make an appearance. We didn’t meet, but it was wild to be in the same room as him because I loved Insomniac.
Continue reading Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita on March 26, 2024
Sometimes, I buy a record because it contains a mystery that may or may not ever be solved. Like, who is Bobby Velvet and how did he end up doing “The Martian” in a North Hollywood recording studio for a 12” single released on a label based out of a Pasadena building that’s now a law office?
Continue reading Who Is Bobby Velvet and How Did He End Up Doing “The Martian”?On a Sunday afternoon, I flipped through a bin of new wave records at Sonido del Valle in Boyle Heights. At this point in the dig, I had already found a 12” of Bananarama’s cover of “He Was Really Saying Something” for 99 cents that was dusty, but definitely playable. I was starting to feel lucky. Not lottery ticket lucky, but lucky enough to take a chance on a Toto Coelo 12” single called “Milk from the Coconut.”
Continue reading The Extended Mix of Toto Coelo “Milk from the Coconut” Is New Wave Heat