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  • Bob Vylan Rages About Our “Sick, Sad World” on New Single

    Bob Vylan Sick Sad World single cover

    I’m trying to tell my friends about Bob Vylan. 

    It’s late. The club has ended and I’ve been in the DJ booth all night, so I’m both exhausted and loquacious. We’re talking music and the conversation jumps from Fontaines D.C. to Kneecap to Bob Vylan with a hundred different asides. My mind is a jumbled reflection of my Instagram feed, which is how the English duo came up in conversation. My friends don’t know too much about Bob Vylan, but they’ve been high on my timeline for months, so I get into the whole story about the Glastonbury incident and how they don’t have a tour visa for the U.S. now. It’s all documented in this story from The Guardian, but the details sound particularly absurd when you’re recounting them aloud. Then again, just about everything in the news sounds more absurd out loud these days. 

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  • Beatique Mix, Sept. 2025 with Music from Gorillaz, Bob Vylan, Heaven 17 and more

    Heaven 17 "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" 45 RPM vinyl single (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Heaven 17 “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”

    Over the weekend, I realized that it’s been a few months since I made a mix, so this is a quick set with some dance tunes and some rock tunes. It’s mostly new music, but I threw in a couple oldies that fit my mood. There’s no real adherence to genre because that’s not how I listen to music at home. All of the artist names on the set list below link to where they’ve been previously mentioned on Beatique. 

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  • Album Review: Kneecap Fenian

    Kneecap Fenian Album Cover

    The first time I heard Fenian, the new album from Kneecap, was at a listening party in January. It was a private thing- mainly press and industry, I think- in the back room of an LA pub where the album played once and I spent the bus ride home scribbling notes about the album’s clubby flow, its nods to ‘90s hip-hop- there’s definitely a Wu-Tang energy in there – and the killer drum ’n’ bass track in the middle of Fenian. This isn’t an overstatement or the result of a hype-buzz, but I was genuinely excited for the new album. 

    The second time I heard Fenian was roughly three months later, on the album’s May 1 release date. In between, I had amassed the digital singles- the album’s title track is now one of my current favorites to play when I DJ at Underground– and scrolled through enough posts that half my Instagram timeline would have me convinced that this is the most anticipated album of the year. TBH, I’m not sure if that’s the case for anyone but myself. But, whatever. Fenian is top-tier album.

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  • Everything You Heard Upstairs at Club Underground’s New Year’s Eve Party

    View from the stage upstairs at Grand Star Jazz Club for Club Underground's New Year's Eve Party 2025/26 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    View from the stage upstairs at Grand Star Jazz Club for Club Underground’s New Year’s Eve Party 2025/26 (Pic: Liz O.)

    Last night, my friend asked if I had a song for the new year. I didn’t. I thought about it, though, and answered Kneecap “H.O.O.D.,” more for the band than for the specific song. They’re the group I would consider the MVP of 2025, one that has had a lot of bullshit thrown their way just for speaking out against the genocide that so much of the world has watched transpire on their phones. Yet, they’ve stuck to their principles and refuse to be silenced. They’re the real deal in a time of fakers and I appreciate that so much. That’s the kind of energy we need this year. 

    Anyhow, I played upstairs at the Grand Star for Underground’s New Year’s Eve party. Super cool crowd. Thank you all for being there, especially on a rainy L.A. night. It was great to overhear someone in the crowd saying, “I love this song…it’s Confidence Man” when “Gossip” came on. Even better to hear from people who came up to the booth because you were excited to hear “Juicebox” or “¿Porqué te vas?” or some other song that I can’t recall right now. Hope to see more of all of you in 2026. Set list is below. The 2025 songs link to other mentions on this blog. 

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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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