Tag: Sextile

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 (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.
(more…)

January 1, 2026
The Smell Anniversary, L.A. Fights Back and More Happening in L.A. This Weekend

HLLLYH plays The Smell’s 28th Anniversary party on Friday, January 2, 2026. (Photo: Liz O.)

If your New Year’s Resolution is to get out of the house more often, you might as well start now because there are some very cool events happening in Los Angeles for this first weekend of 2026, including The Smell’s weekend-long anniversary bash, the L.A. Fights Back benefit show with Sextile, Automatic and Choir Boy, a David Bowie-themed skate party, film tributes to Bowie, David Lynch, Rob Reiner and Udo Kier, plus lots more. Keep reading for the breakdown.
(more…)

December 31, 2025
Best of 2025 + More of What You Heard at Klub Nocturno 12/20/25

View from the DJ booth in the new wave/darkwave room at Klub Nocturno on 12/20/25

I’m writing this on Sunday morning and the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, so IDK what to say except that last night at Klub Nocturno was a vibe. I DJed alongside Milagro in new wave/darkwave room. Played a few of my favorite tunes from this year, like “Women Respond to Bass” by Sextile, “Catch and Release” from Alice Glass, Pixel Grip’s “Reason to Stay” and “Everything We Thought We Knew” by N8NOFACE. People danced. Good times were had. Anyhow, set list is below. The newer songs (past year or so) are in bold and link to other mentions here on the blog. Wishing you all happy holidays!
(more…)

December 21, 2025
Best of 2025: Top 10 Albums

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.
(more…)

December 15, 2025
Best of 2025: Top 10 Bangers

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.
(more…)

December 8, 2025
Kneecap, Pulp, Confidence Man and More of What You Heard at Underground on 12/05/25

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.
(more…)

December 6, 2025
Best of 2025: The Year in Political Songs

The vibe in downtown Los Angeles for 2025. (Pic: Liz O.)

For the first of Beatique’s Best of 2025 lists, I wanted to highlight political songs for a very specific reason. Politics aren’t brand safe. You’ll risk alienating the people who disagree with you. You might scare off the companies who would otherwise want to work with you. Blah blah blah. But, at a certain point, if you’re someone with a platform, be it music, art, film or writing, you will need to ask yourself, “Am I a brand? Or am I a human being who actually gives a shit about what’s happening in the world?” Hopefully, the latter is the answer.

Particularly in this moment, we need artists who are willing to be outspoken. For every semi-anonymous person (or bot) chiding you to “stick to the music,” there will be many more motivated to say, I’m against this too. Some might go to a protest, or write their local representatives or get involved with activist group. Maybe music can’t change minds, but it can prompt the quieter people to raise their voice. And, maybe, years from now, kids listening to the 2025 throwbacks will hear that there were people against genocide and fascism and exploiting workers and everything else that’s coming to a head right now. That said, much respect to the eleven artists on this list. They are by no means the only people making political music in 2025, but they made the songs that have been in my personal rotation. In keeping with an egalitarian theme, this list is not ranked.
(more…)

December 1, 2025
New Saint Etienne and Everything Else You Heard at Underground on 11/14/25

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.
(more…)

November 15, 2025
Ultra Sunn, French Police, N8NOFACE and Everything Else You Heard in the New Wave/Darkwave Room at Nocturno 11/01/25

View from the DJ booth in the new wave/darkwave room at Klub Nocturno, 11/01/25 (Pic: Liz O.)

It’s Halloween weekend and the Dodgers won the World Series a handful of minutes before the club opened. Needless to say that the vibe was strong at Klub Nocturno on Saturday night. I was in the DJ booth in the new wave vs. darkwave all night and, even when the room was at its most densely packed, people seemed to be in a really good mood. Ex Lover played live and I enjoyed their set.

There wasn’t anything extremely new in my DJ sets last night, but I was happy to see more people out on the dance floor for the new-ish songs from Ultra Sunn, French Police, N8NOFACE and Alice Glass. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous mentions on Beatique.
(more…)

November 2, 2025
Cerrone, Christine and the Queens and More of What You Heard at Club Underground on Halloween

View from the DJ booth (Pic: Liz O.)

I’ve had Cerrone’s new version of “Supernature,” with Christine and the Queens on vocals, on my laptop since it came out last summer, but I’ve only played it out once before tonight. IDK why as it’s a really good, fresh version of a disco classic. Anyhow, I played it for the second time tonight because it was Halloween and Underground was packed and it seemed like the best opportunity to give it another spin. It did really well.

Anyhow, I’m writing this at three in the morning because, even though I’m exhausted, I can’t get to sleep yet. Halloween was a vibe, even if I was too lazy to get together a costume and grabbed my husband’s old mask and army jacket and went as a human fly. The mask lasted about an hour before I started sweating and came to the realization that I do actually need to wear my glasses. None of that matters. What matters was that the crowd was good and there are more people dancing to “Highway Man” from The New Eves and Confidence Man’s collab with Jade, “Gossip,” is a legit dance floor hit now. Set list is below. All 2025 releases are in bold and link back to previous posts where they appear.
(more…)

November 1, 2025