Interview

Swimming Bell Dives Into Oceanic Vibes on Somnia

Swimming Bell promo photo for Somnia by Lisa Bolden
Swimming Bell’s new EP, Somnia, is out now. (Photo: Lisa Bolden)

Swimming Bell squeezes onto a makeshift stage inside Oblivion, a Highland Park shop with a rack of surfboards propped up against a wall painted beach shack white and a cascade of houseplants falling over the front entrance. It’s a tiny space, where the crowd is gathered between racks of clothing and tables of accessories, while the sound board is set up behind a changing room curtain. Still, Katie Schottland has assembled six other musicians to join her for this Friday night gig, where they play shoehorned between drums, congas, keyboard, pedal steel and a bounty of pedals and cables. 

“Of course, after making the EP, I was like, I need someone to play percussion. I need keyboard. I need pedal steel. Harmony. I need it all,” Schottland says on a video call the day before the show. It was a tight fit, but the band played well, reflecting the breezy, oceanic sound of Swimming Bell’s latest EP, Somnia, in songs like “Found at the Bottom of the Ocean” and “I’m Always Down.”

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Happening in L.A.

Leather Strip Live, Bleak Week Movies, Tarot Festival and More Happening in L.A. 5/29/25 – 6/04/25

Leather Strip live at Slipper Clutch in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 31, 2025

I’m not DJing this week, but there are a few special events happening that I think you should know about. 

Leather Strip is playing Los Angeles on Saturday night *and* it’s a vintage Zoth Ommog set. I Speak Machine and Damascus Knives are opening, plus there will be DJ sets from Joe Virus (The Church, Dallas) and Industrial Nova (Oakland/SF). This is an L.A. Industrial show that’s happening at Slipper Clutch, which is pretty small, so, don’t snooze on getting tickets. There’s a good discount for advance tickets, while they’re available, over at Resident Advisor. This is a 21+ show. 

Sunday is the beginning of Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, the American Cinematheque festival of movies that will make you feel really bad. Screenings are happening between June 1 and June 7 at the Egyptian, Los Feliz 3 and The Aero. I highlighted some of the movies in next week’s Discover Los Angeles listings, but there are more worthy films in this year’s lineup. I regret to inform you, though, that the screening of Christiane F.  At Los Feliz 3 on Tuesday, June 3, is already sold out. (If you’ve never seen Christiane F., you must and I know for sure that you can rent it at Videotheque because that’s where I found it.) But, there are still tickets to see Dogtooth at the Aero in Santa Monica on June 1, Melancholia at the Egyptian on Wednesday, June 4and so much more. What a lineup of movies! The film fest comes to a close the following weekend with screenings of Watership Down and Grave of the Fireflies. Check American Cinematheque’s website for the full, depressing schedule. 

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Beatique Mix

Beatique Mix May 2025 Feat. Ora the Molecule, Sally Shapiro, Sextile, Confidence Man and More

Ora the Molecule live at El Cid in Silver Lake on May 15, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Ora the Molecule live at El Cid in Silver Lake on May 15, 2025 was an inspiration for the first half of this set. (Pic: Liz O.)

Earlier this month, I caught Ora the Molecule play at El Cid in Silver Lake. It was such a fun show. The crowd grooved throughout the duration of her set and, by the end, had formed a conga line that snaked around the small dance floor. Ora the Molecule is Norwegian DJ Nora Schielderup’s Italo disco alter, a theremin-playing intergalactic Raffaella Carrà whose songs are simultaneously cheeky and sincere. My favorite off her latest album, Dance Therapy, is “Nobody Cares,” a sentiment I find more liberating than depressing. 

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Adventures in L.A., Live Music

Maria Somerville Plays an Extraordinary Shoegaze Set at Zebulon

Maria Somerville live at Zebulon in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 24, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Maria Somerville concluded her five-week tour, which included the singer’s first U.S. jaunt, on Saturday, May 24 at Zebulon in L.A. (Pic: Liz O.)

On Saturday, May 24, Maria Somerville closed out a five week tour, which included her first U.S. jaunt, at Zebulon in Los Angeles. Playing with a full band, the Irish musician transformed the sublime, often atmospheric, sound of her two albums into a shoegaze blowout. It was loud and cathartic and I’m really glad that Zebulon keeps a bowl of earplugs near its entrance. 

I grabbed a spot right in front of the bassist’s zone on stage, next to some dudes who were investigating the pedals. (I told you this was a shoegaze show!) A hodgepodge of tunes played as the small, Frogtown venue filled with people. Hearing “French Disko,” the Stereolab song, was an appropriate way to prepare for the show that was about to start. I noticed a My Bloody Valentine t-shirt in the crowd too, which was both completely expected and probably a bit of foreshadowing.

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Interview, New Music

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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Interview, Music

Cyrnai Embraces “Found Experience” and Future Sound on Calamity of Beauty

Cyrnai (Carolyn Fok) press photo 2025
Cyrnai, aka Carolyn Fok

Carolyn Fok was in Los Angeles, cleaning out her late father’s house, when she discovered the statue of a woman, reclining in a seductive pose amidst the odds and ends stored in a dark room. She shined a flashlight through nearby glass and snapped a photo for what would become the cover of Calamity of Beauty, her latest album as Cyrnai. 

Fok, who is also a visual artist and writer, refers to these kind of moments as “found experience.” As a child,  she found a drum machine that her father made and began playing around with it. “He didn’t give it to me, I just found it and I found a lot of things,” Fok says on a recent video call. “He would leave secondhand instruments in the living room and I started putting things together as a teen, so finding this statue was like, oh, did he want me to find this too?”

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Happening in L.A.

Scarface Italo Disco, Carrie Movie Screenings and More for Memorial Day Weekend

Flyer for Dolce Vita Italo disco tribute to Scarface at The Grayson in Los Angeles on May 24, 2025

I’m not DJing this weekend, but my friends are Saturday night, May 24, at the Grayson (351 S. Broadway DTLA 90013) for Dolce Vita’s Tribute to Scarface. David Christian and Mando Italo will be on the decks playing Italo disco and Giorgio Moroder faves. Dolce Vita’s Scarface parties are always a vibe and guests are encouraged to dress in theme, so don’t miss out on this. There’s no cover. Party starts at 9 p.m. and goes until last call. This is a 21+ event. 

If you’re planning on going to the Scarface party you might as well make it a Brian De Palma kind of weekend at head to Gardena Cinema (14948 Crenshaw Blvd., Gardena 90249) on Sunday, May 25, where Carrie is screening. This is the real deal 1976 De Palma film, not an unnecessary remake, starring creepy Sissy Spacek and creepier Piper Laurie. It is, quite possibly, the best horror film ever made. There are three screenings, so check the times and get tickets. 

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Adventures in L.A., Books

Subverting the Algorithm at Printed Matter’s L.A. Art Book Fair

Printed Matter L.A. Art Book Fair at ArtCenter on Sunday, May 18, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
Inside ArtCenter for Printed Matter’s L.A. Art Book Fair (Pic: Liz O.)

In a world ruled by tech bros and geriatric shitposters, going to a book fair is subversive af. Think about it. You have to actually stop scrolling and go to an IRL location. When you’re there, you’ll flip through print publications that weren’t recommended by an algorithm. You might purchase some of them too. You may even read them, an act that would require you to divert your eyes from screens teeming with slop and rage posts and ads— so many ads!— and all the other garbage that makes rich dudes richer and the rest of us broke and miserable. 

Certainly, I’m not the only person who thinks reading paper > reading screens because Printed Matter’s L.A. Art Book Fair was slammed on Sunday afternoon. Now, this is a long-running, well-attended event. In fact, I wrote about the size of the crowd on this very blog two years ago. But, the weekend-long indie and DIY book extravaganza has since moved from MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary to ArtCenter’s South Campus in Pasadena. It appeared to be a bigger venue, given all the rooms at the art school that were in use, but it was still overflowing with people. There were corners of some exhibit halls where crowds were so thick that they were virtually impassible, but that might have had more to do with the layout than the amount of people.

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Record Stores

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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The Playlist

“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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