Tag Archives: Franz Ferdinand

Music

Top 5 Beatique Stories of 2025 (So Far)

Mike Meyers So I Married an Axe Murderer coffee House screenshot
Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer ordering a ’90s coffee house cappuccino

For a good while, Beatique was just a personal blog where I would post my playlists, updates on gigs and the occasional story. In January, I figured I should turn it into a regularly updated music and culture blog that’s still very personal. Now that we’re near the middle of the year, I’m happy to say that the project is going well. There are new posts most weekdays. Interviews are a regular feature, with at least one running every week. There are also album and live reviews, event recaps, record store spotlights and the occasional rant. 

Not to brag, but even I’m a little shocked that I’ve been able to post that much in between working two jobs, one of which involves a lot of writing, without using AI. It’s actually because journalism is my day job that I started putting some actual effort into the blog. Music, arts and culture journalism— which has been my beat for my entire career— is in a dismal place. It’s not just that I missed getting the music and alt culture assignments that never really came back after lockdown, but I missed reading stories that aren’t about the World’s Most Boring pop star and TikTok hits. Basically, I’m writing what I want to read, so thanks for joining me on the ride. If you want to stay up-to-date, sign up for the new mailing list. Newsletters will go out on Thursdays beginning this week and it’s free. The only thing I’m adamant about with this project is that there will be no subscriptions or paywalls.

Please share what you like, whether it’s on socials or just directly with your friends. I’m not interested in the quantity of readers so much as the quality of them, so if you know someone who is all like, “I’m really tired of paywalls on stories about social media posts,” then send them this way. 

I debated whether or not I should post the Top 5 stories of the past six months because I don’t want to judge a story by how much traffic it gets, but I think these five stories are also reflective of what you’ll find here and what I have in store for the future.

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Happening in L.A.

Franz Ferdinand Live, Mulholland Drive Screenings and More Happening in L.A. 3/27-4/02/25

Photo of Agender by Lindsey Byrnes
Agender (Photo: Lindsey Byrnes) plays a free show to celebrate new album, Berserk, at Zebulon on 3/28/25

I made an executive decision to scale back on the event listings here, just to save myself some time. Going forward, I’ll post these on Thursdays and the list will include my top five recommendations for events happening in L.A. through Wednesday of the following week. 

The top 5 will be in addition to my DJ gigs. (I’m not playing anywhere this week.) If an event is going on multiple days, like a week-long movie run, it will be listed at the top. After that, everything is listed chronologically. 

This week’s recommendations include David Lynch movies screening in L.A. and Orange County. Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire or David Lynch: The Art Life? Take your pick. There’s also animation studio Titmouse’s annual 5 Second Day shorts fest over Vidiots on Friday night. For shows, Agender’s free, album release gig at Zebulon will be a blast on Friday. On Saturday, consider Franz Ferdinand at The Wiltern or Vague Lanes and Darkswoon at The Goldfish. All the details are listed below. 

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Beatique Mix

Beatique Mix: January 2025

Screenshot

Like colds, earworms spread pretty easily. And it was an earworm that I caught from my husband— “El Rey y Yo” by Los Angeles Negros— that inspired this mix. It’s more of an old school college radio-style set than a club set and that’s by design. If you want to hear my club sets, you can go to the clubs. This is for listening when you’re at work or in the car or doing dishes or whatever. 

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New Music

Greek Jam “Black Eyelashes” Stands Out On Franz Ferdinand’s The Human Fear

Franz Ferdinand The Human Fear album cover

In the four or five times that I’ve listened to The Human Fear, the latest album from Franz Ferdinand, since it was released on January 10, I keep going back to one song. “Black Eyelashes” is the band’s take on rembetiko (also spelled rebetiko), a style of Greek music that was particularly popular in the first half of the 20th century, and I’m hooked on it. 

It’s sounds like there have been a Greek influence on Franz Ferdinand’s music from the get-go. I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is, but something in the guitar tones and the rhythms they use has struck me as very eastern Mediterranean since I first heard “Take Me Out” 20+ years ago. On, “Black Eyelashes,” though, the influence is so blatant that you might start imagining that final dance scene in Zorba the Greek. I did. 

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