Mariachi El Bronx on stage at La Cita, 11/08/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
Matt Caughthran didn’t need to remind the crowd inside La Cita to show their enthusiasm. even if Mariachi El Bronx were filming for a new music video inside the sold out, Saturday night show. This crowd, packed close to the narrow stage inside the downtown Los Angeles bar, was already hyped. And “Bandoleros,” from the forthcoming album, Mariachi El Bronx IV, is a jam with a cumbia rhythm that automatically gets people dancing.
Mercy Land “Kid A” cover photo. Photos: Mia Teresa @howboutmia
Creative Direction: Virginia Walcott @virg________
Laura Jinn and Tatum Gale were set on making music as solo artists. The catch, though, was that the music they made together was really good. “It was obvious to our close friends much earlier and we were really rejecting it,” says Gale on a recent video call.
For a handful of years, though, the two New Orleans-based musicians would play as solo artists who collaborated with each other. “It was a little bit confusing for the audience,” acknowledges Jinn. The performances, though, helped shape would become their new project, Mercy Land, whose debut EP, Termites, dropped on Halloween. “I think the process of playing together also built a lot of trust between us, in the sense that, together, we were something different and better than we were individually and the music that we had made together was our best music and all that stuff,” says Jinn. “So, it emerged from that process.”
Taleen Kali, seen here at The Love Song, plays Substance on Friday, November 7 (Pic: Liz O.)
On Tuesday night, I went to seeOne Battle After Another, the new Paul Thomas Anderson film. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a middle-aged former revolutionary living incognito with his teenage daughter in a sanctuary city, where Benicio del Toro is a martial arts instructor running an Underground Railroad for migrants. It’s a movie that hits hard given this year’s ICE raids and, y’know, fascism, but there’s enough humor in it to keep the movie from feeling too heavy. The pacing is also fantastic, which is more or less to be expected from the director of Boogie Nights. I hadn’t realized that nearly three hours passed when the lights in the theater rose and I pulled out my phone to see messages that Prop 50 passed and Zohran Mamdani is New York’s new mayor. One Battle After Another is playing at a bunch of theaters in Los Angeles right now and that’s my one movie recommendation of this week because there are loads of concerts happening in the next few days.
David J and Shepard Fairey seen here with copies of the “Ice Too Cold to Thaw” vinyl and print. (Photo: Angel Enciso)
David J was in Asheville, North Carolina for a gig when a protest erupted right under his hotel window. “I was woken up early in the morning with the sound of it,” the L.A.-based musician says on a recent video call. “I just went down to the street and joined in.”
The event provided a spark of inspiration for J, who was already troubled by what he had been seeing in the United States. “Just being amongst that community there, just really good decent people speaking out against this authoritarian horror that’s being visited upon us, that was the galvanizing moment,” he says. Lyrics for what would become “ICE to Cold to Thaw,” the recently released single from David J and the Resistance, began to take shape.
Patrik Mata of Kommunity FK (Photo: Kevin Estrada)
It’s been six years since Kommunity FK has played Los Angeles. To be specific, they haven’t played live at all since 2019. This week, though, you’ll have two chances to see the seminal goth band, who came up in post-punk L.A., this week. Kommunity FK is set to perform live on both nights of Independent Project Records 45th anniversary— Wednesday, November 5 and Thursday, November 6— at Gold-Diggers in East Hollywood. The concerts foreshadow an exciting 2026 for the 47-year-old outfit, helmed by singer Patrik Mata,. Kommunity FK’s 1983 debut album, The Vision and Voice, is planned for a reissue next year via IPR.
“We get so many requests for it,” says Mata on a recent video call from Albuquerque, where he has lived since 2005.
View from the DJ booth in the new wave/darkwave room at Klub Nocturno, 11/01/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
It’s Halloween weekend and the Dodgers won the World Series a handful of minutes before the club opened. Needless to say that the vibe was strong at Klub Nocturno on Saturday night. I was in the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave all night and, even when the room was at its most densely packed, people seemed to be in a really good mood. Ex Lover played live and I enjoyed their set.
There wasn’t anything extremely new in my DJ sets last night, but I was happy to see more people out on the dance floor for the new-ish songs from Ultra Sunn, French Police, N8NOFACE and Alice Glass. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous mentions on Beatique.
I’ve had Cerrone’s new version of “Supernature,” with Christine and the Queens on vocals, on my laptop since it came out last summer, but I’ve only played it out once before tonight. IDK why as it’s a really good, fresh version of a disco classic. Anyhow, I played it for the second time tonight because it was Halloween and Underground was packed and it seemed like the best opportunity to give it another spin. It did really well.
Anyhow, I’m writing this at three in the morning because, even though I’m exhausted, I can’t get to sleep yet. Halloween was a vibe, even if I was too lazy to get together a costume and grabbed my husband’s old mask and army jacket and went as a human fly. The mask lasted about an hour before I started sweating and came to the realization that I do actually need to wear my glasses. None of that matters. What matters was that the crowd was good and there are more people dancing to “Highway Man” from The New Eves and Confidence Man’s collab with Jade, “Gossip,” is a legit dance floor hit now. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous posts where they appear.
Still don’t have plans for Halloween weekend? On Friday, October 31, Club Underground is happening at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown. Both floors of the club will open with Larry G. and I DJing open-to-close. Dress your best because there will be a costume contest as well. Underground’s Halloween party always sells out and tickets are going fast on Dice right now, so get yours as soon as possible. This is a 21+ event.
Somewhere in the middle of Depeche Mode: M there’s a quote about technology and how, despite the access to advanced tech today, it’s the old school gear that feels more authentic. I’m paraphrasing, obviously, but that’s the gist of a statement that stuck with me through the rest of the film, partially because I agree with it, but mostly because I think that there’s more to it. Not only does vintage tech feel more authentic, but so does vintage content, y’know, the stuff we used to call art. I say that because the immediacy watching clip after clip of Depeche Mode’s concerts in your Instagram stories while the Momento Mori tour was happening does not compare to seeing M in the theater. Depeche Mode: M is a stellar concert film, one that I will confidently say is essential viewing for fans of the band.
It’s nearly dusk on a chilly-for-L.A. Saturday when synths and sax float through the breeze in a small nook of Elysian Park. A handful of people, and a few dogs, are crowded on blankets spread across the leaf-strewn ground. Pets, the East Coast trio, are in town for a weekend of gigs celebrating their debut album Spiral Question Mark, one of which is here, under a tree, where dark green leaves hang above them like the valance of a stage curtain. Their sound is smooth and rhythmic and more than a little melancholic. It’s a good fit for a day like this one.
“It’s not really about wallowing in that feeling,” says Jonny Campolo of the sad song-heavy debut. “It’s about a solitary kind of confidence that you can have when you’re alone or when you’re sad or emotional or melancholic.”
He adds, “Melancholic music, raw, emotional music is absolutely my favorite kind of music, the kind of records that you can just fall into and live in.”
