Cover of International, the final album from Saint Etienne
Had been meaning to get “Save It for a Rainy Day,” from the latest Saint Etienne album, into my club sets for a good minute. It was sort of appropriate that the first time I played it out was at Underground last night, on account of the rain and all. The whole album, International, is fantastic. It’s also Saint Etienne’s final album, so do pick it up when you have a chance.
I forgot to take pics. It’s okay, we can use our imagination. Shout out to the handful of people who were on the dance floor for nearly the entire night and to the Kneecap fans who know all the words to “H.O.O.D.” I was impressed. Set list is below. The new-ish stuff is in bold and links to other mentions of the artists on this site.
The last song at Underground last night was “Favourite” by Fontaines D.C. and, when I saw people singing along, I thought finally. Romance has been out for over a year now. It was my favorite album of 2024. It was a lot of people’s favorite album of last year. Both Larry and I have been playing multiple tracks off the album since it came out, and we were both playing Fontaines D.C. before Romance, but it wasn’t until this past summer that I really started to see the band hit with the indie club crowd here in L.A. Back in the pre-algorithm days, that would have been really unusual, but now it’s kind of normal. A band can meet all the metrics by which it would be considered successful, like award nominations and sold-out shows, and people still don’t know who they are because their “personalized” feeds are really just regurgitating nostalgia content based on basic demographic info and passive likes, served with a dollop of hot takes on Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter to make you feel like you know what’s happening in the world.
What I’m saying is that the internet is making us sad and uncool, so go out to a real club and dance to the music that real people put together into sets that would baffle Spotify. Dance to the new stuff. If you don’t know it this week, you’ll know it next week.
Anyhow, here’s last night’s set list, which includes new music The New Eves, Gorillaz (with Sparks), Alice Glass and more, plus a few oldies that I haven’t played in a really long time, like “Cupid Boy” from Kylie Minogue’s best album, the Scissor Sisters/Mylo mashup and probably some other tunes. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to other references here on the blog.
Oh, before we get to the set list, be sure to pick up tickets for Halloween at Club Underground. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open on Friday, October 31, and there will be a costume contest.
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.
This Friday, October 11, is Gorillaz x Daft Punk night at Underground. Both floors of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open with Larry G. and I DJing all night. The last time we did a Gorillaz x Daft Punk night was back in the summer of 2023 and it was amazing, so don’t miss out on this one. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and Dice.
Grand Star Jazz Club is located at 943 N. Broadway in Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. Underground is Friday nights from 9:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. and it’s 21+. If you’re going to see French Police on Friday, come by after the show, the Grand Star is a pretty short drive from Belasco.
(In other Underground-related news, tickets are running low for the October 25 Halloween party, so get yours ASAP. I’ll be DJing alongside Larry G., Malvada and Jesse B.)
Added a handful of other events happening this weekend and early next week. I’m particularly excited about EXP TV’s Kung Fu Halloween going on at Philosophical Research Society on Saturday night.
It took a while to get this recording on to Mixcloud, but you can now hear the first hour of my set from Club Underground for Gorillaz x Daft Punk night, recorded live at Grand Star Jazz Club on August 11, 2023.
It’s probably pointless to write about Cracker Island, the latest album from Gorillaz, almost a month after it was released. It’s already been heavily reviewed. It’s a Billboard chart hit. If you’re into the long-running collaboration between Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett and a revolving cast of star musicians and producers, you probably already have Cracker Island.
Still, I’m going to write a couple paragraphs about Cracker Island here just in case you missed it. After all, it is very easy for the albums you want to hear to get lost in the algorithms.
