Curating Culture: Bradford Nordeen, Kimberly Kim, and the Two Year Anniversary of Day Goth
Direct from the archives, this article was originally published by Lethal Amounts Magazine on 06 March 2020 and is republished here with consent by the author featuring additional content.
Day Goth founders Kimberly Kim and Bradford Noreen photographed inside Akbar. Image: Levan TK.
“A place to listen to the music we love played loud during daytime hours with loads of fog juice, Palo Santo, and tarot. I turn into a pumpkin by 9pm.”
For nearly ten years, Bradford Nordeen has curated Dirty Looks, a screening series for queer film, video and performance. Since its inception, Dirty Looks has focused on celebrating and creating space for voices in the LGBTQ community. Also an avid music lover, Bradford and co-founder Kimberly Kim started Day Goth in 2018, a monthly event held at Akbar in Silverlake featuring a rotating cast of guest DJ’s with Bradford at the helm as resident DJ and Kimberly Kim as the event’s resident bartender. As Day Goth celebrates its two year anniversary, we spoke with Bradford and Kimberly Kim about their collaboration and passion for the arts and alternative culture.
Bradford Nordeen. Image: Levan TK.
Kimberly Kim. Image: Levan TK.
“For me, this club is part of my personal fight to reclaim and create something beautiful for us all to enjoy and be a part of. Music and love is the greatest medicine of all.”
Tell us about your event, Day Goth.
Bradford Nordeen : Day Goth is the sweet lovechild of me and Kimberly Kim. I have a pretty specific day job and we were brainstorming something totally different that we could do together during Kimberly Kim’s Sunday shifts [at Akbar] and it all came together pretty quickly. It was goth music on vinyl during the daytime. ‘Day’ plus ‘goth’—done! And it coincidentally started on Daylight Savings.
Kimberly Kim : I created this club with Bradford when we were talking about making something special together. For me, this has been a very personal and beautiful seed we planted. I have Cushings Disease, a “rare” illness that I battle. When we started Day Goth I was at a crossroads in my health journey and I felt the disease taking so much of my life away from me-- it was always in the driver’s seat. This was my way of kicking that bitch out of the car and taking my power back. This is what I do, I make music, drinks, clubs, love. This is what I’ve always done. For me, this club is part of my personal fight to reclaim and create something beautiful for us all to enjoy and be a part of. Music and love is the greatest medicine of all.
What is the impact you hope Day Goth has on the LA community?
BN : Day Goth has built a tight little community already. It was founded on the intense love for a certain kind of music with very few designs for much else; we wanted to do a party for the fun of it. But doing it at Akbar, I think people were really happy with a queer space, because goth clubs can sometimes be hetero-oriented and maybe even a little lurkey. But Day Goth is a dimly lit, low key afternoon where queer people can come together and share a love for this music and feel safe in being themselves. People stop me in the grocery store saying things like, “There’s nowhere else I can go to hear my music in clubs.” I mean, that’s already more impact than I envisioned going in! For me, Day Goth is about its immediacy and intimacy.
KK : As far as impact, I hope it houses as a safe, loving, inclusive community space at Akbar for us all to inhabit and be who we are, as we are. A place to listen to the music we love played loud during daytime hours with loads of fog juice, Palo Santo, and tarot. I turn into a pumpkin by 9pm.
Bradford Nordeen DJing at Akbar for Day Goth. Image: Courtesy of Bradford Nordeen.
“Playing to that diversity has been something I’ve really enjoyed, calling our club “goth,” but then being intuitive about it and not just servicing a dance floor, throwing on Nina Simone then Holy Other and being expansive or playful with what goth music is.”
How did you become involved in alternative music as a listener, DJ, and beyond?
KK : I’ve always been a musician. As a child, I was always drawn to sounds and making them on my own with the things around me. My first drum set was a PAC-MAN kit and as a kid I was really into backward masking and subliminal suggestions hidden in visuals. I would be spinning the [original soundtrack of] Disney’s Jungle Book (1967) vinyl backwards for hours finding hidden love letters from Satan as I tried to find vaginas and penises hidden subliminally in cocktail ads. It was only natural that my career path led me to work in music, performance, and night clubs, not a “Nine to five for service and devotion.” I taught myself to DJ when I worked at the Parlour Club. I would bring my records and CDs to play after I closed the bar and I would play in the booth until sunrise and stumble home blurry-eyed and full.
BN : I’m just a fucking nerd, so I love to find new things and deep dive. But I think, too, it’s about having friends and influences that are super encyclopedic and dynamic: some of our guests, like Hedi El Kholti, runs Semiotext(e) but also has a crazy collection of like 4,000 records running the gamut from Jazz to New Age to French New Wave. He’ll just pull things all night as we talk. Playing to that diversity has been something I’ve really enjoyed, calling our club “goth,” but then being intuitive about it and not just servicing a dance floor, throwing on Nina Simone then Holy Other and being expansive or playful with what goth music is. I played Tricky’s “Broken Homes” when we had PJ Harvey on the flyer and Divinity P. Fudge, who does Dirty Dirty House Club said, “Thank you for playing Tricky!” And I was like, “Divinity!? Tricky is gother than any of us!”
I was a weird mix growing up, like a goth raver in Missouri. I was seeing The Creatures and Tricky and Lords of Acid before I could drive myself to the shows. I made mix tapes and stuff but I didn’t really DJ until I fell in with the Bushwick drag scene in New York and I would do pop-centric iPad sets mostly at Colin Self and Macy Rodman’s parties like Clump and Bathsalts.
Kimberly Kim at Day Goth, Image: Courtesy of Bradford Nordeen.
Kimberly Kim has an extensive history working in dark alternative venues. Tell us more about that.
KK : I started my bartending career at The Parlour Club. My friend Lenny Young bought it & Andrew Gould managed. Together we all built The Parlour Club together from the Victorian decor thrift store finds, red painted walls, velvet curtains and creepy paintings. We wanted to create a club environment that embraced everybody with open arms and no dichotomies. Having that philosophy as the heartbeat of the space the rest magically and organically fell into place. We had so many beautiful parties and performances grace our venue. Vaginal Davis held court every Friday night for her roaring 1920s speakeasy called Bricktops inspired by Ada “Bricktop” Smith. I was the head bartendress and every night Ms. Davis would introduce me to the crowd as “Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Kim from North Korea, she has nuclear missiles and knows how to use them.” I can’t tell you how many people asked me what it was like living in North Korea. She played 1920s porn and we had taxi dancers and performers. It was the most magickal club I’ve ever been a part of. My heart will eternally belong to beloved Ms. Davis.
Lydia Lunch and Andrew Gould hosted “The Unhappy Hour” at The Parlour Club [a spoken word event]. Pleasant Gehman also performed spoken word and belly dancing. Michelle Carr’s “The Velvet Hammer Burlesque” had performances, Liz Ohanesian’s club called “Transmission”, Job Leatherette’s “MRX”, Divinity and Tony Powell’s “Dirty Dirty House” were all born there. I would DJ for Squeaky Blonde’s “Uncle Stinky's Parlour” night. Don Bolles, Howie Pyro, and Darcy Leonard hosted “Screwball”. Clint Catalyst had his performance art night “Touché”. Rudy Bleu hosted “Club Spunk”. The Boulet Brothers started “Miss Kitty’s Parlour”, and so much more! When The Parlour Club closed the broken hearts were many and the magick exploded like a supernova and the stardust and abandoned particles bittersweetly dispersed itself across the land.
I was then out of work until I was brought to the Gauntlet II now Eagle LA and hired to work the Lesbian night “Shot Gun”. I was initially hired to only work ladies night but as Vince, Charlie and Hunter got to know me they gave me my own shifts. I was and still am the only female to ever work at an Eagle and it has been beautiful to be a part of and witness this growing evolution of unity and acceptance that brings our communities closer and stronger together. Currently I’m working “Cruise LA” hosted by Pony Lee and Elliot Musgrave. It is absolutely beautiful to be a part of and see this new generation emerge and evolve and inhabit this space! I found a spot at Scott Craig and Peter Alexander’s club house Akbar as another family. I started “Mixtape Queer Bust” with Rudy Bleu. I’ve also worked at the Monte Cristo for Xian Vox’s LADEAD parties for many years.
Tell us about the other projects you are currently involved in.
KK : I’m currently working on my solo music. My experimental opera called “The Silence That is Deafening” inspired by the Milgrim Experiments was recently published in the anthology book of scores Propositional Attitudes: What Do We Do Now? (2018). I’m working on another opera I’m writing with Coloratura In-Exilio Juliana Snapper. I did some writing and vocals on the song “Monster” for Violent Vickie’s new broken hearted witch house album Divsion that will be released around fall 2020.
BN : I’m programming On Location, the 31-day summer festival for Dirty Looks that spans the month of July and I’m also in a slow-burn production for this podcast called Analog Tendencies that I’ve been working on for a while. I really don’t know the podcast world so I’ve been a bit daunted to get it off the ground. But there’s demos, I just need to get it out there.
What drew you to visual arts, especially film?
BN : I grew up in the Midwest to New Yorkers, so I needed an out. I was always a video and record store kid. That’s how I learned a lot about the world. It’s funny, because in the same way that Day Goth works, it established a kind of kinship and community for me when that was still a viable social space: the video store. I was lucky there was this gay couple who dressed like Ben and Tracy from Everything But The Girl. They had a little video shop for a hot minute called Whiz Bam! It was across town and filled with weird titles, like they had Vaginal Davis VHS tapes in St. Louis. I didn’t rent that tape when I was 14 but the fact that that tape was even in the periphery of my consciousness made all the difference.
What is Dirty Looks and how did it get started?
BN : Dirty Looks is the nonprofit film organization I founded in 2011. It screens queer film in historically queer Los Angeles spaces. Or it uses film as a tool to understand different ways of being queer in the city, teaching tactics of resistance in a fun, communal way. We do screenings across town in a roaming model and I moved it here from NYC in 2015. Since then, we’ve worked with people like Spotlight’s Chris Cruse, Ooga Booga’s Wendy Yao, PonyLee, Tall Paul Gellman, Nao Bustamante, Dorian Wood, Kembra Pfahler, Dark Entries Records, Dennis Cooper, the Marjorie Cameron Estate and the late Nacho Nava, whose impact on Los Angeles is immeasurable.
How relevant is it to categorize film such as “commercial”, “art film”, or “pornography”? Are we beyond these labels or do these help protect or support the so-named genres?
BN : My impulse is to wave my hand away at all that, but I am a genre queen. I love action movies and horror films and Dirty Looks has screened a lot of pre-VHS gay pornography. I mean, hell, we run a goth party, so I guess genres are helpful as a rubric to bring people to one another so long as you’re not dogmatic about them. Like playing Nina or Brigitte Fontaine. You’re not gonna find their records in the Goth section, but they’re the mothers, right?
Bradford Noreen at the Dirty Looks’ eight year anniversary screening at The Cock NYC with designer Scott Ewalt.
What do you believe is the purpose of art? Why do we need the arts?
KK : I see art and music like a body part. We are made up of organs, hormones, blood, etc. Each part plays a vital role in our existence and each part needs one another to function and sustain life. We need the arts and music, just as we need our heart to circulate our blood throughout our body and our lungs to breathe oxygen in and exhale carbon monoxide out. It is a vital unquantifiable organ in our body and soul. The magick of its existence can inspire an awakening of emotions and collective consciousness into whatever form it may take shape.
What importance do the arts have in shaping as well as reflecting current culture?
BN : Art, to me, is everything. Like Kimberly Kim said, it’s how we breathe and how we articulate or understand ourselves. But also, it is culturally a scary moment right now and sometimes I get shook, but mostly I just keep my head down and make sure the work I do, whether it’s in the parameters of Dirty Looks or the outlet of Day Goth, is consistent and constant so that it’s there for people. And myself.
What art and artists are currently inspiring you and why?
KK : Any Earth album. Right now Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I (2011) is my soundtrack and sonic brain and soul masseur. I’m loving the two-piece bass drum duo Sumo Princess album When an Electric Storm (2019). Abby Travis shreds on the bass with deep spacey pedal effects and fuzz as well as multiple octave vocals that are real and raw. Films: Häxan (1929, Benjamin Christensen), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, Hayao Miyazaki), Our Forbidden Country: An Animated History of Queer Cruising (TBD, Clyde Petersen).
BN : I fell down the rabbit hole of Coil only a couple years back, knowing full well just how obsessive I can get and how prolific they were. That song “Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)” got me hooked. And their entire output is so incredible on so many levels. I’m still wading through it. I’m also always inspired by Kylie Minogue so I’m a really mixed bag. I’m currently listening to Caroline Polachek, Kamaiyah, Macy Rodman’s Endless Kindness, Alec Empire’s Low On Ice: The Iceland Sessions (1995), Timothy J. Fairplay, Jenny Hval’s new record and I’m excited to hear the new Bottoms EP, Parasite (2020).
Day Goth’s two-year anniversary flyer featuring Ron Athey and Lydia Lunch.
Tell us about the two year anniversary of Day Goth and what you see as the legacy of this event so far.
BN : Once or twice a year we have these big pile-ups where we ask DJs we worked with in the past that we love to come back and all play together. In a way that’s about camaraderie and family. I’m really big on bringing people together. So for this one, we’ve got Ron Athey doing an official DJ set, as well as a special surprise guest set by Lydia Lunch! And returning we have 11 of our beloved friends–like you, Liz! And we open up the back for dancing.
I work really intuitively and sometimes I don’t think too hard about what I do, I just go with what feels right. When people really started crowding into the party at first, the Akbar management offered to clear the floor in the front bar for dancing and Kimberly Kim was adamantly against this. I was surprised but then she was like, “This is a lounge. A salon” and she’s totally right. But we still have a dance floor moment a couple of times a year. There was a moment when we had the “All Cocteau Twins” Day Goth when Bobby McCole from Pyramid Records in San Francisco dropped the needle on “Iceblink Luck,” and the ecstasy on the faces of all the sweeties crowding that floor, that’s something that I’ll never forget. In terms of legacy, I think Kimberly Kim and I hope to keep Silverlake freaky. I remember when you would walk into Akbar and it would be Squeaky Blonde DJing, like randomly. So we’re just doing our part to keep the world weird and also make it more open for our queer babes who come from all across the city for this.
Los Angeles punk icon, performer, and writer Pleasant Gehman at Day Goth. Image: Courtesy of Bradford Nordeen.
What new projects are coming up for you or what aside from the projects covered so far would you like readers to know about?
KK : I’m starting another monthly at Akbar called club Fun Fun/Benefit Bingo with my friend JP Parr. I’ve always wanted to use the space at Akbar for community fundraising and educational outreaches. We will work with different community based charities and have them set up a table for donations and information about their organizations. Last month our special guest was ProjectQ. We will raffle off prizes during bingo and I’ll be playing some Italo Disco and 80s synth. It will be the last Sunday of every month from 4:00-9:00pm starting in April.
You’ve traditionally ended each installment of Day Goth with a This Mortal Coil song. What is it about This Mortal Coil that inspired you to do this?
BN : Well, I got to work with Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk who sings “Kangaroo” when I was curating music shows for The Broad and that’s someone who has inspired me since forever. There is such a beauty to those This Mortal Coil songs and the way that she sings them, so I bought her Cindytalk CDs off eBay a million years ago, before everything was on YouTube and was startled by what I heard. That work is abrasive and the voice is a howl. I guess at first I was probably disappointed because it wasn’t the same thing, but I kept them. I didn’t get rid of them because I knew there was something important about them. Then, years later, these are some of my most treasured albums. I guess that became an important lesson about art, for me. The importance of trusting and valuing the evolution of an artist’s practice.
With This Mortal Coil, too, it’s simply that this is the meeting point for so many amazing artists, who all came together to make these albums happen. And kind of like our little club, it all came out of Ivo Watts Russell really loving a song, or this mashup version of two songs that Modern English were doing as their encore, and building this whole supergroup/universe around that love. Playing them at the close of each set is like our little ritual, acknowledgement or offering. I lost my virginity to It’ll End In Tears (1984), also. How goth is that?
Gordon Sharp in "Kangaroo" from This Mortal Coil's ‘It'll End In Tears’ (1984).
Day Goth is now among the many cherished events of Los Angeles’ past, so keep an eye out for what Bradford Noreen and Kimberly Kim are up to currently, and better yet, start your own event like they did!
