-
Nov
29th10 Questions With Yang Haisong- PK 14 is a Spicy Dish
I can’t claim I’ve been the biggest PK 14 fan over the years but they have definitely grown on me lately.. Much of it might be attributed to reading Dave O’Dell’s Inseparable and learning all about the band’s background. They’ve been pretty much in hibernation over the past 12 months and are coming out to play Friday night at Yugong Yishan along with Rustic and others. I got a chance to ask their frontman, Yang Haisong, a few questions about the band and the new record.. Here is what he had to say: 1- Who is Yang Haisong and what are you up to? this is your chance to plug your stuff –It’s me, singer of the band. 2- PK 14 has been around since 1997. What’s the difference between the band then and the band now other than you being the original member? –Yes, we had new line-up since 2001, that’s biggest difference. 3- Your new album was recorded both in the US and Sweden if i remember correctly, was there a particular reason to do it in two different places? –We recorded it in Chicago with Steve Albini and mixed in Umea, Sweden with our long-time producer Henrik Oja. Albini is one of our favorite engineer and musician, the sound he recorded and created are always amazing. We’re so exciting to work with him in his studio. And Henrik, of course, we had 3 albums together already. For us, he is the best producer. 4- The band was [...]
-
Nov
28th12 Questions with Dan Shapiro: The Fever Machine is all the lube you’ll ever need, but for those dryer times…
well, this one was kinda supposed to go up a little while back if y’all couldn’t tell but airports, cheese, wine and a chance to catch Motorhead in Paris kinda got in the way.. The Fever Machine were in Beijing this past weekend and played one hell of a show from what i hear along with Devils at the Crossroad and Never Before. I figured we were overdue for a good 10 Questions on this damn site and since I had the opportunity to get Dan Shapiro – formerly the best ‘mo in the business- on here, I threw in 2 extra ones for fun So, here’s what you get… read up, cuz the man got things to say!! 1. Who is Dan Shapiro and what are you up to? this is your chance to plug your stuff I’m Dan Shapiro; 1/3 of The Fever Machine from Shanghai, along with Fabien Barbet and Miggs Bustamante. I handle lead vocals and guitars. These weeks have been all about La Chupacabra our vinyl release on Genjing Records. If you haven’t heard La Chupacabra yet, get on that shit. The songs are available for free download on Bandcamp – http://thefevermachine.bandcamp.com/ There’s also a sweet music video made by Miggs on YouTube and Youku La Chupacabra is our first vinyl release, with official launch shows at Temple Bar in Beijing on November 24 and Yuyintang in Shanghai on December 1. 2. Last time we saw each other, it was 6 in the morning after [...]
-
Sep
7thLucky 8 questions with IndieChina’s Road: 8 year anniversary shows, melancholy post rock & china music industry insightHere at Beijingdaze we try to do what we can to promote local Beijing, and Chinese music to an English speaking audience, and there’s also some great sites out there doing the same in Chinese. One of the earliest formed ones, IndieChina, is turning 8 this year and having a two night anniversary show at Mako tonight and tomorrow to celebrate, bring in some great indie bands such as Low Wormwood, Onmipotent Youth Society and Glow Curve. Indie China’s owner Road, took some time out of his busy week to answer a few questions about their site and his views on the local music industry. 1- Who is Road and what are you up to? This is your chance to plug your stuff. Road is NiuLei (牛磊)’s online name, his nickname is DaRou (大肉) or DaRouRen (大肉人) because he’s tall and used to like to eating meat, but he’s been vegetarian for 2 years already. A Beijinger, 35 years old, male, likes rock music and football. Recently I’m focused on preparing IndieChina’s 8th year anniversary show. 2- Your website IndieChina http://www.indiechina.com/ has it’s 8th anniversary celebration this weekend, congratulations! I think some of our English readers maybe aren’t familiar with the website, can you tell us about IndieChina what can we find there? IndieChina website started in September 2004. I started to post information about rock music (news, interviews, comments, reviews, as well as authorized downloads.) also organized shows (locally in Beijing and nationwide tours) and we also offered services [...]
-
Mar
16thDo-Over with Jon Campbell: Red Rock, Worthy Perspectives or How Yaogun Can Save Rock n RollLike I warned yesterday, you’re not done reading the name “Jon Campbell” on this blog, at least not for this week. I believe I’ve already interviewed Jon before before, albeit more for gigs he was playing in. This time around, it’s different! He’s in Beijing as part of Jue Festival and the Bookworm Literary Festival promoting his book, Red Rock::The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll. I read the book a while back and I’ve also been following Jon for quite sometime.. this was an opportunity to catch up and get some extra details out of him. 1- How is post Beijing life treating you and what’s been keeping you busy now that Red Rock is out? Post-bj life is great. Mellow. Very not rock and roll, really. But nice. My wife and I own a house and a dog and a backyard and it’s great. I work as a publicist for Harbourfront Centre, a cultural organization and venue on Toronto’s waterfront that hosts all kinds of festivals, events, exhibitions, dance/thatre performances, concerts, etc, most of which is free. 2- I’m curious.. What made you decide to write the book? Was there a sort of Eureka moment or was it a long process? The short answer is that Earnshaw Books put out a call for writers. I answered it. The longer answer is related to that feeling I think many expats have, which is, I have a perspective that is worthy of getting out into the world. I [...]
-
Feb
26thPains of Being Pure At Heart: An interview and opinionThe upcoming Jue Festival (March 9-25) was primed last night by Brooklynites Pains of Being Pure At Heart at Yugong Yishan, their relatively short set finally giving some context to the hype and many reviews. Fortunately they don’t care about either of those things, and frontman Kip Berman provided a thoughtful interview on getting reviewed, songwriting in the internet age and how the big city affects small bands. Q: From afar, the NY scene seems like a paradox: It’s both extremely inspired and jaded, an easy place to find inspiration and get burned out. What do you think NY did for you guys, for better or worse? Kip: I think you’ve hit on something very true – it’s easy to get inspired or jaded in New York because there are probably 100 great bands and you can either be inspired to create great art or feel that there is no point, that your voice will just get lost. I guess for us, we found the other bands around us that we admired really inspiring. Bands like Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Frankie Rose, My Teenage Stride and caUSE co-MOTION. Seeing them make great records and tour forced us to focus and spend our time wisely. We all had full time jobs, so it wasn’t like we could rehearse whenever we wanted and play music full time. I spent a lot of time on my own writing the songs and, when we did get the opportunity to come together, we concentrated on [...]
-
Dec
16th10 Questions with Jurat: Rock and Roll is a Spirit…. with Psychedelic Characteristics.Jurat is one of those guys you’ve seen around Beijing over the past few years sitting at the table next to you at the restaurant in Gulou or sipping tea somewhere down a hutong hole-in-a-wall. He’s been playing around the city for a few years already persevering through a number of setbacks with too many ex-ban members departing. In a city where everyone is trying to find a gimmick, this is a guy that walks down his own path! I like that! Let’s not forget that the guy is one hell of a talented multi-instrumentalist…. let’s discover more, shall we? 1- Who is Jurat and what are you up to? This is your chance to plug your stuff. My name is Jurat. Jurat T.T. is my stage name. My Chinese name is Julaiti. I grew up in Karamay. For as long as I can remember, I’ve liked music, listened to music, sang along to music. When I was in primary school, I liked to sing popular songs from films, Western songs and songs from HK pop singers. In 1989 I heard the HK band Beyond, and after that I was hooked on rock and roll. The way they changed their style was very attractive. I started to learn to play guitar. In 1994 I started to write some simple songs. In 1996, I joined some folk rock bands. After that I started my own band, playing locally changing and copying the popular songs at that time. In 2002 I came [...]
-
Oct
31stBloody Halloween and no polka dots: 10 Questions with Pet ConspiracyIt’s been quite a while since the last batch of 10 questions on ‘daze so it’s about time we get back to those. First up, Pet Conspiracy. This is a strange interview for me to have up there considering my general lack of appreciation of electronic music and how much I cared for the previous incarnation. I’ve actually only caught Pet Conspiracy in this lineup once, much before the CD release so i have no idea what kind of energy they bring to the stage now. Still, here might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. 1- What’s been going on with Pet Conspiracy since the CD release almost a year ago? This is your chance to plug your stuff. We actually released our first album 4 months ago, at the beginning of last June. Since then, we have been first playing in a few clubs and festivals in China to promote the album, then left a month for our “Summer Tour”, including Switzerland (two gigs at Zurich Street Parade side event “Lethargy Festival – China Drifting”, promoted by Micheal Vonplon), Malaysia, Singapore, and back to Hangzhou and Shanghai. We took a break between September and October, with Edo and Mary going back to Italy, and we just came back to studio to produce new stuff. We now plan to have a new EP out by the end of this year. 2- How did the tour go? was it different playing Europe versus Asia? In europe promoters [...]
-
Jun
17thCandid 10 Questions with Alan Paul: Setting the Record Straight, Big in China, Controversy, Jianbing and moreWhen Ruby sat down to write a review and comments on Alan Paul’s appearance at the bookworm on Tuesday, I don’t think she realized what can of worms she would be opening. I didn’t either! Truth be said, I never met the gentleman but I had good dealing with him last year via email and enjoyed reading some of his back columns. Still, when news of the book and potential movie deal came about, he started being a bit of a controversial topic amongst some of Beijing’s expats…. Well, here is Alan Paul, answering the critics, in his own words…. 1- What’s going on in your world? This is your chance to plug your stuff My book Big in China came out March 1 and I’ve been out there plugging it and mostly having fun doing so. Ivan Reitman and Montecito Pictures optioned the book’s movie rights and that seems to be moving forward. I’m really happy to be back in Beijing with my pengyou. After two brief acoustic performances backing book readings at the Bookworm and the Orchard, I am playing at Jianghu tonight with Lu Wei and Zhang Yong from Woodie Alan and very much looking forward to it. 2- Congrats on the book! I read a few extract but not the whole thing yet. Still, I was surprised at how much you sound surprised at the events that happened to you. how was that? Well, I truly was surprised by a lot of it, particularly the band. [...]
-
Apr
22ndTalent, Dreams and Fighting Darkness: 10 Questions with Rustic’s Lucifer LiExtremely charismatic frontman, never out of sunglasses, looking all rock n roll with a style. Meet the voice of Rustic, Lucifer Li. Ruby had done an interview with Lucifer last year ahead of one of their shows. Now, I get to catchup with him before the album launch and see what’s he’s been up to. 1- What’s going on in your world? This is your chance to plug your stuff. *** 2- Congratulations on finishing the record. What do you think of it? Thank you!I think its great!I love it,that’s our first record! it is diary of our life in these few years,what we think about the socity in these years too. 3- How did you pick the title “City of Heartbreak and Horror” ? By the real things happened in our life,I think we are living in a city of heartbreak and horror,where terrible things happening all the time,junkie business,sad storys,love relationships breaking,broken family and Earthquake,this is really horrorable. But when you listening the album,I think you can feel the positive energy inside,coz the people who are living there they have dreams,they are fighting in the darkness,they are putting on beautifull storys,they are wondering to make everything better and better,that’s what are we doing,coz we love each other and sharing things together. 4- Who wrote the songs one the album? all 3 members? you? rikki? I wrote most of the songs,I also worked on some songs with Ricky. 5- Talking about the band members, can you describe each member [...]
-
Apr
20thRock n Roll Livewire: 10 Questions with Rustic’s Ricky SixxBleached out-of-control hair, crotchless pants, wild antics and an obsession for all things Motley Crue amongst others. Those are just some of the descriptive that can be used when referring to Rustic‘s bass player, Ricky Sixx. I relate to him more than other musicians because we do have that Nikki Sixx obsession and liking for 80s rock. Ahead of Rustic’s album release Friday at Yugong Yishan, Ricky took the time to answer a few questions for BeijingDaze. (note: I’m leaving the answers unedited because they just sound like him) 1- What’s going on in your world? this is your chance to plug your stuff it’s another beginning for me !! i started confused with my life to being a big boy or a man !! i’d like to play rock and roll till my lasy minute forever like a big boy !! but otherwise ,for many reasons, sometimes i thought i need to be a man ,that’s makes me really sucks !!it’s been quiet long time for me no passion for make music and be a professional musician !i don’t know what’s going on !!actually !!i’m waitting ….and i don’t know what am waitting for also !!! 2- Congratulations on finishing the album, what do you think of it? it’s ok !!!rustic is not my own idea band,the album is fine but not my favourite !it should be better ,but u know things going are not with your personal control !and even out of your control ! [...]
- ‹ Older Posts
The Mini Skinny
What once started as my personal ramblings has morphed into the number one collective resource about underground live music in Beijing and China. All bands, all music, all Rock n Roll, all the time with a little side of eclectic topics.. best of all, it's still as BIASED as ever
Ganbei!!!!
'dazeFEAST 2012 - June 23rd at 2 Kolegas.
17 Bands, Roast Lamb & All FREEWhat’s on Offer?
- 10 Questions (31)
- Album Reviews (22)
- Beijing 人 (44)
- Belly Ties (52)
- blabbers (326)
- Book Review (1)
- Chinese Through Lyrics (2)
- Freeloading (34)
- Geek matter (17)
- Gig Reviews (58)
- Need'em liquids (9)
- On The Road (3)
- Outsourced Blabbers (21)
- Provincial Restaurants (15)
- Quickslants (64)
- Roaming Around (11)
- Tunes under the moon (524)
looking for something?
Ingredients
2 kolegas Amazing insurance salesmen Bad Mamasan Beijing 人 black cat bone Brain Failure buyi Chunqiu DH & the hellcats Dude Ember Swift Flying Mantas free the birds GAWTMY Hanggai Hedgehog iz Jacky Danny Kaiser Kuo Kick Ass Lidong live music mademoiselle Maggie Who Mamer Mao Livehouse MIDI Miserable Faith Nanwu Nucleus Omnipotent youth society provincial restaurant randy abel stable Residence A rustic skarving Steely Heart SUBS Suffocated The Redbucks voodoo kungfu whai wu & side effects xiao he yugong yishanFresh Pills
- Quickslants: Tambours du Bronx, New Shanren, Painkiller Fest and more
- Mamer & Song Yuzhe: opposites attract at Jianghu
- Dreamer Festival 2013 – Azure Ray, Shan Ren, Omnipotent Youth Society and More
- PS: You Rocked Me – Abaji, One Drop, Devils, Yungiema etc..
- Quickslants: No Dong, Some Punk, a Little Ordnance and more
Can of Worms?
- Joann on Quickslants: Jurat, PiL, XTX, Yangjima for a Loaded End of Week
- On The Scene: 2013 Strawberry Festival Day 1 | Live Beijing Music on MIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll
- ex virility pill on Quickslants: Jurat, PiL, XTX, Yangjima for a Loaded End of Week
- ruby on MIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll
- Beijing Daze on MIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll