newz to ooze: new venues, web mags & movies

Lot’s on new stuff popping up in the ‘jing recently, if you’ve been away over the holiday like me, check out what’s been going on …

New Venue – 3098 (or 3098Live or 3098 Music Bar or…)

I popped in here on friday to catch my buddies Perpetual Motion Machine. Chilled little cafe/bar type place on that uber touristy hutong that runs from Di’anmenwai through to Houhai. Nice little crowd of mainly walkby’s there for the show, that cleared out pretty much as soon as it finished. Probably due to the pricey drinks – RMB25 for a tonic water is a little OTT. But they’re obviously catering to the tourist crowd and will hopefully give them something better than the cover bands on the waterfront. Sound was on par with Hot Cat, but the show was free & the bands are being paid, so might be a nice little ‘paid rehearsal space’ for some local bands? You can find their listings on douban here.

Also open are Boosanova, the new jazz bar in SLT, and CD Blues’s new Ritan location, which I’m planning to check out this weekend.

New Website – Smart Shanghai Beijing

Welcome to hood guys! You’ve probably seen Morgan lurking around the city’s venues over the summer and wondered what he was up to, well here it is, the baby brother to the Shanghai site was launched last week. Yeah, ok, it’s not like we need more expat sites up here, but what’s cool about this one is it’s written by people who don’t take themselves (or anything really) too seriously – when was the last time you saw one of the other mags call a band ‘shitwave’? They also have kept one of my much loved features from the SH site – MP3 Monday. Anyway, they need some help filling up the site, so venue owners, event peeps, jump this link to add your stuff and keep Morgan busy, I see him enjoying himself at shows way too often.

New Movie – Iceberg

If you’re in any way connected to the music scene here you’ve probably already heard about or possibly even been an extra in this little flick. Longtime Beijinger & music lover Maya Rudolph has pulled together a crew of Beijing music peeps for her film about a Beijing band heading to the US of A. Well, now they need your help to take the movie (& it’s great local soundtrack) to the world! Check out more about the film and how you can chuck in a few kuai to help here.