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.

5. FINALLY, THERE’S A HORROR MOVIE FOR THE VINYL NERDS

I’m still trying to figure out how to incorporate movies on Beatique because there are still a lot of active film sites, plus Letterboxd. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people read my quick review of Pater Noster and the Mission of Light, which is still on Night Flight (a streamer that’s actually worth the subscription) and is now available on Blu-Ray. If you’re reading this post, I’m going to be that you also love vinyl and horror films, so do yourself a favor and watch this movie asap. 

4. FLASHBACK TO 1980S L.A. WITH GREY FACTOR ON LIVE ALBUM, A PEAK IN THE SIGNAL

This is my second Grey Factor interview (the first was for the L.A. Daily News) and it goes a little deeper into the band’s story. For the uninitiated, Grey Factor was making synth music in L.A. before it was cool and, for the past few years, they’ve been releasing the available material from their brief first incarnation. If you love analog synth music and/or L.A. music history, check out this story and get some Grey Factor into your collection. 

3. THE DEATH OF THE 1990S COFFEE HOUSE AND THE THIRD PLACE

This story made the rounds on social and I like to think it’s because I had the good sense to use a still from So I Married an Axe Murderer  for the top photo. But, maybe it’s because other people miss old school coffee houses or they wish they had been able to go to one or they want to protect the one that still exists in their neighborhood. IDK. It’s probably all of those things. 

2. THIS 12-YEAR-OLD SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS SONG STILL HITS LIKE IT’S NEW

This is a 2024 post about a School of Seven Bells song that I love and still does really well in my DJ sets. Somebody clicks on this story via Google (I think) virtually every day. I’m not sure how surprising that is. School of Seven Bells were a fantastic band and “Low Times” is still a low-key banger. 

1. GREEK JAM “BLACK EYELASHES” STANDS OUT ON FRANZ FERDINAND’S THE HUMAN FEAR

This review of Franz Ferdinand’s latest album, The Human Fear, is by far the most read post on Beatique this year. It’s really the only story on the site right now that I can say gets hits from multiple countries every single day and I’m pretty sure I have to thank Google for that gift that keeps on giving. Hopefully, some people have stuck around and read other posts here.

Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram  or Bluesky for more updates. Subscribe to the weekly Beatique newsletter.

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