Beatique

Category: Music

  • Haircut 100 Turns Up the Funk on First New Album in 40+ Years

    Haircut 100 Press photo by Andrew Cotterill
    (Photo: Andrew Cotterill)

    Back in June, Haircut 100 released Boxing the Compass, their first album in over 40 years. That decades-long gap between releases, though, wasn’t for a lack of trying. 

    “We played various festivals and a couple of gigs here and there and we always said, wouldn’t it be a shame if this didn’t lead to other things?” says bassist Les Nemes. “And it didn’t. It never did because we didn’t have any manager to get the momentum going and organize stuff.”

    Then, around the 40th anniversary of debut album Pelican West, Haircut 100 played London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Following the show, they linked up with manager Melvyn Taub. “He basically took over and everything that happened, even what’s happening now, I guess, in a way, is all down to Melvyn,” says Nemes. Sadly, Taub died in 2024. “He never really got to take it all the way through. So, everything we do, we do with Melvyn in mind. This is what Melvyn would have wanted.”

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  • Lia Braswell: The Drummer Takes Center Stage

    Lia Braswell promo photo
    Lia Braswell (photo: James Duran)

    Lia Braswell is center stage at Slipper Clutch, a barrage of multi-colored, psychedelic lights washing over her white outfit. Flanked by a guitarist and a bassist, the L.A.-based drummer and singer plays with all the energy of the lunar eclipse that passed shortly before her set began. By the time she bursts into new single, “If Not for the Chaos,” Braswell is both banging out the rhythm and belting the lyrics with full force. It’s intense. 

    Braswell plays live often, but, typically, not for her own project. Just days earlier, she returned to L.A. from a whirlwind trip to England, where she drummed for two Chelsea Wolfe shows. Later this month, she’ll head out on Wolfe’s U.S. tour before joining up with She Wants Revenge to drum on their European jaunt. 

    “I haven’t been playing a lot of solo shows recently,” Braswell said when we connected for a video call earlier that week. “Just getting my bearings around these songs that I’ve written live has been really fun, but also intimidating because I’m in charge of all of it, as opposed to working for somebody else.”

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  • Meta Is Making Me Sick of the Stuff I Like

    Screencap of Instagram For You feed with Madonna clips
    Remnants of the Madonna loop on my For You page, June 2026

    Fontaines D.C. dropped a new song last week. “Marianne” is the lead single off the Irish band’s forthcoming album, Dopamine Chamber, and it’s a good one with a sinewy groove that’s similar to ‘90s Depeche Mode. The band, whose last album, Romance, is one of my favorites in recent years, only dominated my Instagram feed for a couple days. It was just long enough to convince me to sign up for the Hollywood Forever ticket pre-sale, which I don’t even know if I’m going to do because I’m not in the mood to fight with bots over tickets that probably cost more than I should spend. I guess I was supposed to pre-order Dopamine Chamber, which is out in October, too. I could take my pick between the $47.58 deluxe gatefold, the $28.03 blue vinyl and the $25.48 regular vinyl on Bandcamp, but, nah, I would rather wait until the record is out and support my local brick-and-mortar indie record store. 

    In the lifespan of today’s clip loops, this Fontaines D.C. one was pretty short. It was quickly supplanted by Slayyyter’s cover of Hole’s song “Violet,” which popped up on my feed through most of the weekend. I don’t think I’ve heard the whole song yet, but the chorus is good, I guess. I don’t know. I had the sound off most of the times it appeared.  All I can tell you is that MTV was never this bad about repetition. Instagram, though, has no chill. Like one song and, all of a sudden, the artist usurps your timeline.

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  • Lisa Molinaro Turns an Impasse Into Art on Blind Trust

    Lisa Molinaro photo by Mary Luczycki
    Lisa Molinaro (photo by Mary Luczycki)

    Lisa Molinaro knows how to turn an impasse into art. “We All Get Stuck,” from the singer and musician’s debut full-length album, Blind Trust, uses a propulsive, yet repetitive rhythm that mimics pushing through the frustration. Strings build and then the drums release near the song’s conclusion, like a breakthrough for both the musician and the listener. 

    “It’s cathartic, but it’s mildly cathartic,” says Portland-based Molinaro during a recent video call. “You don’t get a full release.”

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  • How I Finally Came Around to the Strokes

    The Strokes Reality Awaits album cover

    I’ve never been big on The Strokes. Now, that might sound like a surprise given that I’ve been playing the band in my sets, literally, since the Is This It era, but part of being a DJ is playing music that works in the room even if it’s not your favorite. I never really hated the band either. (If I did, I wouldn’t play them at all.) It’s just one of those things, where I guess I like some songs, but the hype kind of annoyed me and there were other bands coming out at the time that I preferred. It’s not a big deal. You don’t have to love everything that’s been deemed important or popular. Pre-social media, people understood that. 

    Anyhow, there was this moment a few months ago when it hit me that The Strokes were cool af. Or, at least, Julian Casablancas is. It was when the band played Coachella and bits and pieces of the set turned up on my Instagram feed as a clip loop. That performance of “Oblivius,” with the images on the screen pointing to the U.S.’ history of messing around with other people’s countries, bringing us up to present-day Iran and followed by the destruction of Gaza’s last university, hit me hard. That was a bold move for a Coachella set, especially after what happened to Kneecap in the aftermath of last year’s festival.

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  • Los Mirlos Brings Cumbia Amazónica to L.A.’s Music Center

    Los Mirlos live at Jerry Moss Plaza at L.A. Music Center (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Los Mirlos live at Jerry Moss Plaza at Los Angeles’ Music Center on Saturday, 8/15/26 (Pic: Liz O.)

    On Saturday night, Los Mirlos wasted no time transporting the downtown Los Angeles crowd to the jungles of Peru. Dressed in green track pants and matching print shirts, the long-running band brought cumbia Amazonica to the Music Center’s Jerry Moss Plaza for a free show that kept the large, multi-ethnic and cross-generational crowd dancing for more than an hour-and-a-half to rhythms that evoke rolling rivers and rain patter.  

    Founded in 1973, Los Mirlos is one of the best known cumbia outfits to emerge from Peru onto the world stage. They’re the subject of the 2022 documentary, La Danza de los Mirlos. Last year, they became the first Peruvian band to play Coachella. Earlier this year, they released The World Meets Los Mirlos, a collection of collaborations with artists that include Colombian pop star Juanes, London-based psych cumbia band Los Bitchos, Puerto Rican rapper Guaynaa and American rock outfit 311. Saturday night’s concert came in the midst of a U.S. tour that runs through early September. 

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  • Review: Brendan Angelides Can You Feel the End Begin?

    Cover art Brendan Angelides Can You Feel the End Begin?

    Over the years, Brendan Angelides has scored TV shows like Billions and 13 Reasons Why, as well as the video game Assassin’s Creed Mirage. On his new solo album, Can You Feel the End Begin?, the composer and producer scores the American dystopia. The big tell that this is where the album is heading is Angelides’ choice of cover songs, “I’m Afraid of Americans,” David Bowie’s 1997 jam, co-written with Brian Eno and famously remixed by Trent Reznor for added industrial oomph. 

    Angelides’ version of “I’m Afraid of Americans,” released as a single in late July, plays off the Reznor remix, but with a much-needed dose of bottom-heavy funk. The vocal delivery from Angelides and Serj Tankian gets darker, more twisted and urgent, as the song veers towards its conclusion. It’s a song that has only grown more disturbing with time – at this point, we might all be afraid of Americans – and that’s something Angelides and at Tankian tease out of this cover. In fact, in the video’s YouTube description, Angelides writes, “I keep thinking about what happens to creative communities during authoritarian times. It’s half of what this upcoming album is about.” 

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  • Shonen Knife Brings Back The Classics with Let’s Knife Re-Cut

    Shonen Knife Press Photo by Kai Taylor
    (Photo: Kai Taylor)

    Let’s Knife wasn’t Shonen Knife’s first album. It wasn’t even the Japanese punk band’s first album in the U.S. Still, the 1992 release became a pivotal one for the trio, who had already been together for about a decade by that point. Songs from the album, like “Riding on the Rocket,” have remained fan favorites, and part of the band’s live sets, some 30+ years later. “It’s our core of Shonen Knife,” says singer/guitarist Naoko on a recent video call from Osaka. 

    There was a problem, though, in that Let’s Knife had fallen out of print and wasn’t available for streaming. Since Let’s Knife’s absence from streamers was beyond the band’s control, Shonen Knife’s U.S. producer Robby Takac (who is also bassist of Goo Goo Dolls and head of Good Charamel Records) suggested that they re-record it. “I thought it was a very good idea,” says Naoko. Not only would the songs be available again, but they would be recorded by the current lineup. Atsuko, Naoko’s sister, played drums for the band in the early 1990s. Now, she’s the bassist. Drummer Risa has been part of the fold for a little more than a decade.

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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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  • Julez and the Rollerz Channel Glam Power Pop on Dirty Little Rock N Roller

    Julez and the Rollerz press photo by Zach Adams
    Photo: Zach Adams

    Jules Batterman recalls driving along a dark desert highway with her now-husband on a cross-country move to California. “It felt like it was going on forever,” she says on a recent video call. 

    Years later, Batterman, who fronts the L.A. band Julez and the Rollerz, referenced that drive in “Time,” the opening track on debut album Dirty Little Rock N Roller. It’s a song about the passage of time and disconnecting from the world, including our phones. “We don’t need these distractions,” says Batterman. “Experience life for what it is because there is so much going on.”

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