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  • Best of 2025: Top 10 Albums

    Sextile Yes, Please album cover
    Want to guess where Sextile’s album, Yes, Please, landed on this best of 2025 list?

    To be honest, the album I listened to the most in 2025 was actually my top pick from last year, Romance by Fontaines D.C. I also spent far too much time listening to two 2024 albums that I didn’t hear until this year, Fine Art by Kneecap and Humble As the Sun by Bob Vylan. We spend a lot of time putting together our year-end lists, but the truth is that time is irrelevant. The right album will hit you when you need to hear it and that could be on the day it’s released or five years later. 

    Still, I think we should shout out stellar new albums, lest we collectively fall deeper into an algorithmically-induced nostalgia hole. And there was a lot of fantastic music released this year, much more than what’s included on this list. I doubt I heard more than the smallest fraction of good shit released in 2025. So, consider this just the start of a list that will never really be complete. 

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  • The 1999 WTO Seattle Protests Revisited in New Archival Documentary

    I used to think that the 21st century didn’t really begin until 9/11, that this was the one event that set the course for the years to follow. Now, I’m willing to admit that I was wrong. Maybe, the 21st century actually began at the end of 1999 with the WTO protests. In late November of the final year of the ‘90s, some 40,000 people hit the streets of Seattle to shut down the World Trade Organization’s conference in the city. They were people from varying backgrounds, including environmental activists, union members and farmers. Those of us who remember the protests only from watching the news may hazily recall reports of “blah blah blah anarchists, blah blah blah Starbucks.” However, a new documentary, WTO/99, drops viewers in the middle of the scene for four days of protests and, in the process, tells a very different story. 

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  • The Cure Hits Movie Theaters + More Happening in L.A. 12/11-12/17/25

    For the Cure fans reading this, The Show of the Lost World opens in multiple theaters in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 11. If news of this has escaped your timeline, The Show of the Lost World is the concert film based on the band’s 2024 performance in London, which is the only time they played their fantastic latest album, Songs of a Lost World, in full. It’s only in theaters for a few days, so get tickets while you can. 

    My other top recommendation for this weekend is the Depeche Mode Convention, which is happening at Avalon on Sunday, December 14. It’s really the most fun Depeche Mode fan party I’ve attended. There are two rooms with DJs, plus karaoke and giveaways throughout the night. This year Devotional: The Depeche Mode Experience and Faith and Devotion will be playing live and, of course, Richard Blade is the night’s host. A bonus: It’s an all ages event and runs from 6 p.m. until midnight. Tickets are available online, at various L.A.-area stores or at the box office on the day of the event. 

    As for the rest of the weekend and early next week, keep reading for more recommendations. 

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  • Ultravox Brings Together New Remixes, Minimal Synth B-Sides and More on The Collection Deluxe Edition

    Ultravox The Collection deluxe edition cover

    Back in 1984, Ultravox released The Collection, a best of compilation that brought together 14 singles released over the course of four years. If you’re new to the band, The Collection is a good place to start because it contains the jams of the band’s Midge Ure era, like “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes,” “Reap the Wild Wind” and, of course, “Vienna.” It was my first Ultravox record, pulled from a used bin in a San Fernando Valley record store for $2.99 back in the late 1990s. Last week, a deluxe edition of The Collection was released and, if you’re already a fan, you probably will want this in your collection. 

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  • Best of 2025: Top 10 Bangers

    New wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno, Catch One Los Angeles Saturday March 8 (Photo: DJ Liz O.)
    You may have danced to some of these songs in the new wave vs. darkwave room at Klub Nocturno (Pic: Liz O.)

    After writing this list of the top 10 bangers for 2025, it’s clearer to me that the sound of the dance floor is changing. The songs that have been working well at the clubs are the ones that don’t follow the strict vibe code of Spotify playlists. Instead, we have “northern soul, but make it Britpop,” “post-punk by way of Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and “Irish grime for the moshpit.” None of those songs would make sense together on an algorithmically-generated playlist, but they all made it into the DJ sets I played at Underground just this past Friday. 

    At least amongst those who regularly leave the house, there are still people who want to dance to music that they don’t already know, that doesn’t hold nostalgic value and doesn’t quite fit into the narrow parameters of genre. That gives me a bit of hope in the midst of the new AI era of music that has been thrust upon us. 

    All of the songs here are ranked by how I’ve seen crowds respond to them at my own gigs, primarily at Underground, where I’m DJing on New Year’s Eve, and/or in the darkwave room at Nocturno, where I’ll be playing on December 20. The only “metrics” I’ve used here are eyeballing the size of the crowd and the enthusiasm of their dancing. TBH, enthusiasm is more important than size, so if there are fewer people dancing, but they’re screaming out every word of the song, that matters. Anyhow, what I’m getting at is that I trust my ears and eyes more than any music or social media platform that is designed to be gamed.

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  • Kneecap, Pulp, Confidence Man and More of What You Heard at Underground on 12/05/25

    Kneecap "H.O.O.D." (2025 Remix) cover
    Frankly, I’m impressed by how many of you know all the words to “H.O.O.D.”

    Thank you to everyone who made it out to Underground last night and for all the birthday wishes. I’ve always been pretty low maintenance about birthdays just because mine competes with Christmas parties (and competed with finals back when I was in school). So, I learned the best thing to do is book a DJ gig the weekend of my birthday and say, “I’m playing here, if you want to come by and say hi.” I’m always pleasantly surprised by who I see. Anyhow, outside of this playlist and one really short and shaky video for the ‘gram, I don’t have much documentation, so you’ll just have to trust me when I saw it was a vibe. 

    As usual, the set list is below. Songs released in 2025 are in bold and link back to other references to the band on Beatique. And, before I sign off, tickets for New Year’s Eve at Club Underground are already available on Dice and Eventbrite. Two floors of indie, Britpop, darkwave, post-punk dancing all night. Get your tickets asap. 

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  • Bibliomancers: Curation Through Divination

    High Crimes Cult Minds Bibliomancers 2025
    High Crimes Cult Minds is the latest release from L.A. publisher Bibliomancers

    Bibliomancers books aren’t your typical collections of retro ephemera. What began as a way for Astraleyes, aka James Weigel, co-founder of the physical media fest Analog Outlaw, to archive his voluminous collection of books. In the process, though, the L.A.-based publisher, whose recent titles include High Crimes, Cult Minds and New Age Grave, has become a conceptual, community art project where the collections of artists, mainly book covers and other ephemera, are bound in a tangible form, their pages revealing stories that go much deeper than aesthetics. 

    “It’s not a straight, this is a book about 1970s paperbacks,” says Weigel of Bibliomancers on a recent video call. “There are publishers that do that perfectly and it’s great. They’re very inspiring to me, but my hope is that what we’re doing is interjecting a piece of our creative selves into it. If you look, there are elements there that go beyond just archiving a genre and I think that is really us as artists wanting to be more creatively involved in the process of making books.”

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  • Club Underground, Analog Outlaw and More Happening in L.A. 12/05 -12/10

    Crowd shot from Depeche Mode x New Order Night at Club Underground at Grand Star Jazz Club in Los Angeles on April 18, 2025 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    See you at Club Underground on Friday, December 5 (Pic: Liz O.)

    I’m back at Club Underground this Friday, December 5, and we’re going to be celebrating my birthday. Advance tickets are available now, but you can also get them at the door on Friday night at Grand Star Jazz Club inside Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. Party starts at 9:30 p.m. and is 21+. 

    So, what’s in store for Friday? IDK, but it’s my birthday (sort of, my actual date of birth is on a weeknight this year), so I’ll probably make you dance to Fontaines D.C. And Sextile and Confidence Man and The New Eves. We’ll see what happens. 

    Anyhow, that’s not all that’s happening this weekend in Los Angeles, so keep reading for some of my recommendations. 

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  • Best of 2025: The Year in Political Songs

    Utility box in Los Angeles with graffiti that reads "Free Palestine" on top and "Fuck ICE" in the center (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    The vibe in downtown Los Angeles for 2025. (Pic: Liz O.)

    For the first of Beatique’s Best of 2025 lists, I wanted to highlight political songs for a very specific reason. Politics aren’t brand safe. You’ll risk alienating the people who disagree with you. You might scare off the companies who would otherwise want to work with you. Blah blah blah. But, at a certain point, if you’re someone with a platform, be it music, art, film or writing, you will need to ask yourself, “Am I a brand? Or am I a human being who actually gives a shit about what’s happening in the world?” Hopefully, the latter is the answer. 

    Particularly in this moment, we need artists who are willing to be outspoken. For every semi-anonymous person (or bot) chiding you to “stick to the music,” there will be many more motivated to say, I’m against this too. Some might go to a protest, or write their local representatives or get involved with activist group. Maybe music can’t change minds, but it can prompt the quieter people to raise their voice. And, maybe, years from now, kids listening to the 2025 throwbacks will hear that there were people against genocide and fascism and exploiting workers and everything else that’s coming to a head right now. That said, much respect to the eleven artists on this list. They are by no means the only people making political music in 2025, but they made the songs that have been in my personal rotation. In keeping with an egalitarian theme, this list is not ranked. 

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  • Klub Nocturno at Catch One and More Happening in L.A., 11/27-12/03/25

    Klub Nocturno November 28, 2025 flyer Catch One Los Angeles

    This Friday, November 28, is Nocturno over at Catch One with five rooms of dancing. I’ll be in the Rock en Español vs. cumbia room all night and hope to see you on the dance floor. 

    Click here for Klub Nocturno tickets 

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