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  • Digging for Fire at Penny Lane Records in Upland

    A bin of vintage 45 vinyl with a Gene Pitney single in front at Penny Lane Records in Upland, California (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    45s at Penny Lane in Upland (Pic: Liz O.)

    I’m sitting on the floor of Penny Lane Records digging through bins of 45s while eavesdropping on the other shoppers. It’s busy at around noon on a Saturday and the names dropped are varied. Clairo. Phoebe Bridgers. Crystal Castles.  “Have you heard Slowdive?” one person asks. “They’re shoe— there’s a name for it.” A mom, who is probably right around my own age, is hyping up Korn and System of a Down to a disinterested kid. Trust me, this is not a conversation you would have overheard anywhere in 1999. I’m trying not to laugh. Need to concentrate on the old soul records in front of me. Ooh, Ann Peebles!

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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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  • Edward Ka-Spel on How AI Inspired New Legendary Pink Dots Album, So Lonely in Heaven

    Illustration of Legendary Pink Dots by Simon Paul
    Illustration of Legendary Pink Dots by Simon Paul


    On So Lonely in Heaven, the latest album from Legendary Pink Dots, the long-running psychedelic band leads listeners deeper into a tech dystopian landscape that doesn’t quite feel like fiction. A deleted file leads to disaster where all you can do is “pray to the server, pray to the cloud” on “The Sound of the Bell.”  A persona lives on after the body dies and the organs have been donated in “Pass the Accident.” It’s all very much within the universe that singer and lyricist Edward Ka-Spel has been building across the band’s vast catalog for the past 45 years, where scenarios that blur the line between sci-fi, fantasy and reality are told with a good dose of dark humor. 

    Where the band’s 2022 album, The Museum of Human Happiness, essentially documented the COVID-19 pandemic, this time around, Ka-Spel drew inspiration from AI. “My experience of artificial intelligence isn’t all that great,” he admits on a recent call from his home outside of London. 

    However, Ka-Spel had caught wind of AI-generated lyrics produced in the style of his own. “It was passable in that it was eloquent,” he says. “It was, I guess, coherent.”

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  • The Smiths Nite at Club Underground + More Happening in L.A. This Weekend

    The Smiths Nite at Club Underground in Los Angeles at Grand Star Jazz Club on May 16, 2025 with DJs Larry G., Liz O. and Rose Knows

    This Friday, May 16, is The Smiths Nite at Club Underground. Larry G., Rose Knows and I will be playing a mix of The Smiths, Morrissey and Johnny Marr, plus the indie, Britpop and post-punk bands they inspired over at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown. Advance tickets are available now, so click this link to get yours. Party starts at 9:30 p.m. and it’s 21+. 

    Grand Star Jazz Club is located at 943 N. Broadway, inside Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. 

    As for the rest of the weekend/early next week, here’s what I recommend. 

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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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  • Anja Huwe on New Xmal Deutschland Box Set and Returning to the Live Stage

    German goth band Xmal Deutschland, Hamburg, 1987 (Photo Kevin Cummins)
    Xmal Deutschland box set, Gift: The 4AD Years is out on May 9, 2025 (Photo: Kevin Cummins)

    Last February, Anja Huwe took to the stage at the Grauzone Festival in The Hague for a set that included songs from Xmal Deutschland, the post-punk outfit she fronted throughout the 1980s. Huwe hadn’t performed these songs live since the band’s demise some 35 years earlier. In fact, after Xmal Deutschland, Huwe stepped away from the stage to focus on her career as a visual artist. Meanwhile, songs like “Mondlicht,”  “Incubus Succubus” and “Qual” have become classics of the era. Out in the crowd were multiple generations of fans. 

    “I had to go out there and I saw these people, so many people, so I just tried to concentrate,” Huwe says, adding with a laugh, “I’ve got to get it right.”

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  • Klub Nocturno Is May 9 + More Happening in L.A. This Weekend

    Klub Nocturno Catch One Los Angeles May 9, 2025 flyer

    This Friday, May 9, Klub Nocturno takes over Catch One for five parties in one. I’ll be back in the New Wave vs. Darkwave room playing a mix of flashbacks and new bangers all night. There’s also the rock en Español vs. cumbia room, System of a Down night, the old school vs. new school reggaeton room and a disco room. Tickets are available on Dice for this 18+ event. Click here to get yours asap because Klub Nocturno does sell out. 

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