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  • Surf Guitar 101 Is Happening This Weekend with Los Straightjackets, The Bomboras, Boss Martians and More

    Surf Guitar 101 2026 festival poster with art by Shag
    Surf Guitar 101 2026 festival poster with art by Shag

    Thirty years ago, Jeff “Big Tiki Dude” Hanson stumbled across surf music via an Insect Surfers show at the Doll Hut in Anaheim. He had heard 1960s groups like the Surfaris and the Pyramids via his dad’s 45 collection, but he didn’t dive into the genre until he noticed how Insect Surfers, a surf revival band who have been active since 1979, incorporated sounds inspired by spaghetti western film scores into their music. “They’re mixing the chocolate and the peanut butter, surf and spaghetti western,” says Hanson. That led him to regular surf shows at the Doll Hut and Huntington Beach’s Surfing Museum and on CD shopping trips through the South Bay. Today, Hanson has amassed an ample collection of CDs and vinyl across the genre. He also founded the Surf Guitar 101 festival, which celebrates its 17th annual event at Garden Grove Elks Lodge from Friday, July 31,  through Sunday, August 2, with a lineup that includes Los Straightjackets, The Bomboras, Boss Martians, Slacktone and many more. 

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  • Taylor Bickett: From TikTok Hit to Debut Album

    Taylor Bickett promo photo by Cooper Smith
    Taylor Bickett (Photo: Cooper Smith)

    Taylor Bickett didn’t initially set out to make an album. She was just writing more songs. But, with two EPs and some singles under her belt, plus a TikTok hit to her credit, the Nashville-based singer was up for the challenge. She sifted through her work looking for songs that she might want to release together. In the process, Bickett saw two themes emerge. “One, this idea of being afraid of commitment, wanting to run away from things,” she says on a recent video call. “Then this contrasting idea of craving intimacy and safety and love.”

    Those ideas became a push-and-pull on Bickett’s debut full-length album, Nothing I Can’t Undo. Released in mid-July, the album drops listeners into this conflict with opening song “The Arsonist,” where Bickett sings, “nothing is permanent/if you’re brave enough/to burn it down,” the tension continuing through the collection of soft pop songs that flit between electronic and folk production. 

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  • The Strokes Reality Awaits Listening Party + More Happening in LA This Weekend

    The Strokes Reality Awaits listening party Los Angeles

    Reality Awaits, the new album from The Strokes, comes out this Friday, July 24, and you can listen to the whole album with us at Club Underground that night. It’s time for another Strokes Nite at Underground and, this time, it’s a Reality Awaits listening party too. Doors are at 9:30 p.m. and album play starts at 9:45 p.m. Both rooms of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, with Larry G. and I on the decks. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and Dice. 

    As for the rest of this weekend, and early next week, here are my recommendations. 

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  • This Is the Dark Shadows Movie You Should See

    Barnabas Collins in House of Dark Shadows (1970)
    Barnabas Collins in House of Dark Shadows (1970)

    In 1970, just a few short years after Barnabas Collins took Dark Shadows from struggling soap opera to pop culture phenomenon, the vampire’s journey began anew. This time, though, it played out on the big screen. House of Dark Shadows was the first of two films based on show and made by the team behind the television series. Unlike the much more recognizable 2012 film, this one is actually worth watching. At the time of writing this, House of Dark Shadows is streaming on YouTube. If you want to see it in a theater, and live in Los Angeles, it’s screening at the NoHo 7 on Monday, July 27. 

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  • The Best Ice Blended in L.A.

    The best ice blended capuccino in Los Angeles at Placita Cafe (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    The ice blended cappuccino at Placita Cafe in L.A. (Pic: Liz O.)

    The ice blended cappuccino at Placita Cafe is the best brainfreeze-inducing drink I have ever sipped. It’s a caffeinated dessert, with a rolled wafer cookie popping out of the mountain of cinnamon-dusted whipped cream that tops it. Crucially, it’s properly blended, so you get the appropriate balance of textures and flavors all the way down to the bottom of the plastic cup. 

    I’ve tried a lot of ice blendeds, including the made-for-the-algorithm variety that influencers and self-proclaimed foodies seem to love. What I’ve learned, though, is that the prettier an ice blended is, the worse it tastes. In fact, a few of those more photogenic ice blendeds have given me COVID anosmia flashbacks. Why is this so blah? I’ve wondered before realizing that all the flavor was in the first slurp, y’know,  the one that influencers take as they mug for the camera, right before they push the drink aside and reach for the next freebie. With the Placita Cafe ice blended, though, the cinnamon hits my nose before I put the straw up to my mouth. In each sip, I feel the icy, creamy and liquid textures intermingle and taste the milk and espresso base.

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  • Fcukers “Shake It Up” + More of What You Heard Upstairs at Club Underground 7/17/26

    Fcukers Ö album cover
    Cover for Ö by Fcukers

    Someone requested “Battle Flag” by Lo Fidelity Allstars at Underground last night, which is not a request I normally hear. In fact, I didn’t even think I had the song on my laptop, but, lo and behold, there it was. If you aren’t familiar with the song, it has a big hip-hop beat and getting out of it is a little tricky unless you want to stay at 100 beats per minute (in other words, slow by my personal standards), which I didn’t. So I started scrolling through Rekordbox and came across this Fcukers song, “Shake It Up,” that I hadn’t thought of playing before last night. It worked. Might play it again sometime.

    Next week at Club Underground is The Strokes Reality Awaits listening party. Want to listen to the new album with us? Arrive early. Both floors of the Grand Star will be open and tickets are available now on Dice and Eventbrite.

    Last night’s set list is below. “Secret track IYKYK” is exactly that. If you were there, you can try to figure out what it is. Otherwise, it’s a secret. Songs from the past year or so link to other mentions on the blog.

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  • The Killers vs. Arctic Monkeys at Club Underground + More Happening in L.A. This Weekend

    The Killers vs. Arctic Monkeys Night at Club Underground Friday, July 17, 2026

    This Friday is The Killers vs. Arctic Monkeys Night at Club Underground. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open with Larry G. and I in the DJ booths all night. Party starts at 9:30 p.m. and it’s 21+. Get your tickets now on Eventbrite or Dice. 

    Been bogged down with work for the past few weeks and am exciting to get out into the real world and away from my laptop (maybe) this weekend. Fortunately, there’s a lot of really cool concerts, DJ nights and movie screenings happening in Los Angeles this weekend and early next week. Keep reading for my recommendations. 

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  • Parts & Labor Turn Up the Noise Rock on First New Album in 15 Years

    Parts & Labor by Tod Seelie Press Photo
    Photo: Tod Seelie

    Parts & Labor went all out for their first album in 15 years. Set of All Sets, released on July 10, is a one hour and 21 minute ride through 17 tracks that begins with a proggy overture and builds into rollicking noise rock augmented by two drummers and tempered with synth flourishes and interludes. That the band, who emerged from early 2000s Brooklyn, reconvened at all is no small feat considering that the members are now spread from coast to coast. That they managed to make such an ambitious album is all the more rare. 

    “The kind of maximalist approach really makes this stand out to us,” says Christopher Weingarten, drummer for Parts & Labor. “The hooks are so giant. The noise is so noisy. There are two drummers on it. It feels bigger. There are two discs. It’s huge.”

    Active between 2002 and 2012, the band formed around the songwriting core of Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw. Weingarten joined the fold in 2004. After his departure a few years later, Joe Wong stepped in on the drums. The four make up this current incarnation of Parts & Labor. 

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  • The Smiths x Joy Division Night and Klub Nocturno

    Flyer for Joy Division x The Smiths Nite at Club Underground in Los Angeles on Friday, August 9, 2024 at Grand Star Jazz Club with DJ Larry G. and DJ Liz O.

    The Smiths x Joy Division Night is back at Club Underground on Friday, July 10. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, with Larry G. and I DJing from open until close. Advance tickets are available now. Doors are at 9:30 p.m. and it’s a 21+ party. 

    On Saturday, July 11, I’ll be back at Klub Nocturno for another full-venue takeover at Catch One. You can find me on the decks in the new wave vs. darkwave room all night. Tickets are available on Dice for this 21+ party and doors are at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night. 

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  • Beatique Mix July 2026

    Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of nods to 1990s dance music in contemporary productions, which is why I dug up some tunes from the era for the July edition of the Beatique mix. It has nothing to do with nostalgia- a word that gets thrown around online so often that no one even knows what it means anymore- I’m just drawing connections between the past and the present. The full breakdown of the set is below, but this month’s mix includes new music from Mouse and Mars and Lee “Scratch” Perry, Tomora, Olof Dreijer and Matias Aguayo, throwbacks from De la Soul and The Prodigy and lots more. Oh, and there’s a new Madonna song, way at the end of the mix. 

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