Past Blast Musique: Pop Levi Brings “Dita Dimoné” Back 18 Years Later
Past Blast Musique takes us back 18 years with some rare, restored footage of Pop Levi performing “Dita Dimoné” on The Daily Habit. Another indie rock classic from a character who was a regular in the nightlife scene here in LA during that era. Musician through and through.
And if you didn’t know Pop Levi back then, that was kind of the point. He was never some giant mainstream name being pushed at you from every direction. He was one of those musicians you knew because you were around — in the clubs, at the shows, digging through indie records and paying attention to the characters orbiting Los Angeles nightlife.
Before going solo, Levi had already come through the wonderfully left-of-center Super Numeri and then played bass with Ladytron, including touring with them in the early 2000s. By the time “Dita Dimoné” arrived in 2008, he had built his own strange little lane out of glam, psych, funk and freak-pop. It never sounded like he was trying to meet the mainstream halfway — which is probably why it still feels so much like him 18 years later.
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Pop Levi — Dita Dimoné
Revisit Pop Levi’s 2008 single and the album era that brought his glam-soaked indie rock into sharper focus.
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A 2008 Pop Levi Cut With Plenty of Attitude
Counter Records released “Dita Dimoné” on June 23, 2008, just weeks before Never Never Love followed in July. The track was one of the clearest snapshots of Pop Levi’s singular lane at the time — polished enough to stick, strange enough to still feel like him.
And The Daily Habit was exactly the kind of cable show that could make something like this happen. Airing on FUEL TV, the half-hour series lived in the action-sports world — surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX and motocross — but it also folded in celebrity interviews and live performances from cutting-edge musicians. It was part sports show, part culture show, and just left-of-center enough for somebody like Pop Levi to walk in and make perfect sense.
That is also what makes this footage worth saving. It captured a not-often-recorded part of indie rock history — the kind that happened in small clubs, on late-night cable, around fashion people and scene regulars, and then disappeared before anybody thought to properly archive it. This wasn’t the giant festival-headliner version of indie rock. It was the weirder, smaller, more lived-in side of the era. By the time MTV caught on, it was over. Footage like this is one of the few ways you can still see what that world actually felt like.
For anyone who remembers that stretch of Los Angeles nightlife, Pop Levi was one of those artists who simply seemed to belong to the era — not because he chased a scene, but because he had enough personality to become part of its texture. Eighteen years later, that is exactly the kind of record Past Blast Musique was made to drag back into the light.
Rare Restored Footage: Pop Levi Performs “Dita Dimoné” on The Daily Habit
Watch the rare restored footage of Pop Levi performing the 2008 single “Dita Dimoné” on FUEL TV’s half-hour action-sports and culture show The Daily Habit.
Source: The Daily Habit / FUEL TV; Counter Records / Ninja Tune. Rare archival performance footage restored and presented by INYIM Media.
