
stop me if you have heard this before: here comes a crazy few days of too many decent/wonderful musical choices for us to deal with. The onslaught began monday with no hype on that Mamer/Song Yun Zhe gig that ruby covered and there is plenty more headed to old smoggy. Let’s figure out what we’re up to over the next couple of days. Thursday May 16th Le Tambours du Bronx @ Poly Theatre If you’re into percussions, there is no other place you’d rather be the next few days: Les Tambours du Bronx is a French industrial percussion band created in 1987. Les Tambours du Bronx has 17 musicians on stage surrounded by synthetic sounds, samples, and singing, all in time with the powerful rhythm…. in other words, for once, get out of the smoky slums and get thy rear end to the Poly Theatre Bob Log III @ Temple I don’t think he needs this plug but according to everything i read, this fella is quite the show. expect weird outfits, singing through microphones, girls on lap and god know what other kinds of weirdness taking place throughout the evening. It’s supposedly psychedelic experimental weird costumed rock.. Opening duties courtesy of Low Bow and the Intrepid Adventurers. Friday May 17th Painkiller Fest with Caliban @ Mao our good friends from Painkiller Magazine are celebrating and they have invited some German friends to come along! Caliban, in the midst of their “we are the many” tour is landing in Beijing [...]

A bit of a late quickslants edition but as they say, better late than never. A whole lotta things going on for the weekend and even early next week so let’s get right into it starting with all the women’s day festivities around town: Fri March 8 Women’s Day @ 2 KOlegas Residence A, Wu and the Side Effects allong with some ROlling Bowling rockabilly will be providing the entertainment over at the drive in. I believe women get in for free and the gig is very much worth it. It might actually be quite hopping and crowded but in 2 KOlegas Fashion, it’s all good. Not a bad start to a Friday Ember Swift @ Temple Well Well Well… my favourite Rock n roll mama hits up temple and who better to lead Women’s Day festivities than her? I’m not sure if it’s her solo or with the full band but it will be good either ways. Guo Jian, LSD frontman, will be DJing afterwards. Sat March 9th Mars En Folie @ Yugong Yishan a celebration of all things francophone over at Yugong brings together an eclectic mix of musicians and lot of French folks if you’re into that sort of things. They usually party hard and you’re gonna be in it for a good time. so, why not “Laisser les bon temps rouler”. Some of the acts include Kl Pelgag, Benjamin Schoos & Sophie Galet, Les Mauvaises Langues and Junior Tshaka… who?? yeah.. Nostalgia @ School Two of [...]
here’s a toast to post titles that don’t mean jack shit.. because that’s really the case here. I couldn’t think of anything better that would encompass all the musical goodness that lies ahead over the next 5 days or so… yeah, this is a long edition of the quickslants due to a busy weekday set of great shows.. let’s kick it! Friday Oct. 26 Whai @ 2 Kolegas The ever evolving WHAI is turning 1… man the band has changed so much since i first spotted them. The sound is more complex, they have added a DJ and are now internationally travelled: they just came back from playing a festival in Korea. I still can’t quite define what they play other than experimental progressive folk fusion.. how is that for a mouthful? The lads have pushed hard on this gig and the weibo promotions are through the roof. I expect a lot of fun, drinking and playing around. Tuleger @ Jianghu Gangzi has changed his stage name to Tuleger, but his Inner Mongolian stylings are still the same. Tonight, he’s letting loose a new release: “I Am Mongol”… i haven’t had a chance to listen to the new record yet but I have no reason to think it won’t be good. He’s slowly but steadily following in the footsteps of Hanggai and Ajinai while retaining his own style. Saturday Oct. 27 hardest night for me to pick a gig.. really! so much good stuff out there: Rolling Stones Tribute @ [...]
There’s a lingering feeling that most of us are suffering from post-festival apathy.. too much music, too little time and tons of other obligations. Still, no rest for the wicked and things are moving on for the weekend. Let’s see what’s kicking, shortslants style Thursday May 10: The Stanleys, another Your Town Touring band, hits Mao live with help from 16mn, Perpetual motion Machine and Summer Sunshine. It’s an interesting little combo of power pop punk that might work out as a good transition for the weekend. Flau Night at 2 Kolegas: This Japanese experimental label has been earning rave praise day in day out with their artists. It could be an interesting evening. Flau’s owner, aus (Yasuhiko Fukuzono) will perform, together with two other Flau artists, Cokiyu and Cuushe. It shhould be good but then again, remember, I have no understanding of electronic experimental stuff. Friday May 11 Jungle Mico celebrates their one year anniversary at 2 Kolegas. They’ve steadily built up one hell of a reputation in Beijing combining instruments and beats for some interesting sounds. They have impressed a lot of people and i want to be next! Juratt & Mamer come to Zajia Labs for a little up-close acoustic session. They used to hold these as a background to folks sipping on a single malt at Amilal. Zajia is intimate enough for them to pull off something interesting and magical. Expect more melodies and folk than industrial rock. Hot Cat is putting on a Bob Marley [...]
Well, who’d have thunk it… I’ve been completely missing out on the fact that there is a rock radio, much less that there’s a weekly chart on its 103rd week of existence over at Sina: http://ent.sina.com.cn/f/y/rockchart/ It’s just come to my attention and I’m extremely surprised to see some very familiar names on there like The Unsafe, Rustic, Queen Sea Big Shark, The Fuzz and…. Ember Swift. Now, not only am i surprised to see that there is this particular avenue for bands to get some recognition, I’m even more surprised to see that a foreigner is clocking in at NUMBER 2 for this week… Ember 子玉 is almost at the top with her song “Laowai – The Expat Anthem” How about that? Perusing through previous lists, you can even see bands like Long Shen Dao and Proximity butterfly listed. Ohhhh yeahhh Big big congratulations to Ember Swift for breaking through this chart with a band of made up of Laowais singing about a Laowai. Voting is open for next week’s edition of Rock Charts with Wang Bao 王宝和正午阳光 far ahead of the curve but you could still vote for the others and help them get higher up on there.
This is one of the few albums I know off/have heard where the financial side was pretty much crowdsourced! I though Ember Swift was being extremely innovative when she annouced the project months ago… and by golly, here we are staring at a release tonight at 2 Kolegas. so, what’s the deal? here are our respective (albeit rushed in my case) opinions! BD on 11:11 I think of Ember Swift and her music as a guilty pleasure, really! It’s fun, fresh, not too superficial and in some cases, quite emotional and socially relevant. I mean you don’t release 11 albums just for the heck of it, you better have something to say. How do you say it? that’s another story! 11:11 , her new release, is pretty intriguing: it’s actually 2 different records that are the same… yeah, that’s what i thought. The songs are pretty much the same with a few quirks that make me smile.. Oh so Sweet is a lovely English Cover of Theresa Teng’s Tian Mi Mi. Jia You is a rocking number that falls short on the record but sounds better live. The Laowai song, which I’ve written about before, is fun in a primal scream kind of way. One of my favorite songs on the record is the understated ” I could Stay Here” which feels like the only song she is not trying too hard on! It’s simple and touching in an honest way.. Over on the Chinese Edition, the opening number, Admiration/Jealousy/Hate, [...]
Hiya Hiya Moving over at ‘daze HQ so we might be able to resume normal blogging operations as of this week. A lot of pics, reviews and news coming your way but we’re gonna start with an early edition of the quickslants because of a potentially VERY good show on Wednesday at Yugong Yishan…. so here goes folks Wed October 31: Ken Stringfellow + Sonja Van Hamel @ Yugong: I’ve been keeping my eyes on this one for a while due to strong recommendations from a friend whose opinion I do respect. Stringfellow is one of those modern day poet/troubadours with tons of talent. He had his hands in the last Hanggai album among other things like playing with REM and the Posies. Sonja is also multifaceted and multi-talented. This one should be pretty darn good folks… pretty rarn good. Read an interview with Strangefellow over at City Weekend Thursday Sept 1: Pierre Brahin Trio @ Jianghu: Been a while since Jianghu made an appearance on here. This trio, regulars on the Beijing scene, have mastered their craft and deliver smoothing Jazz sounds. I haven’t been able to catch them in a very long time so it’ll be quite fun to see how they changed. I remember thinking that Pradat’s stuff was hit or miss a few years back… I’m overdue for a do over. Friday Sept 2: Ember Swift CD Launch @ 2 Kolegas: I like Ember.. She smiles and entertains all while delivering songs that are not all [...]
Seriously, as the title says, where were you? Heck, did you even hear about it? That’s what I found myself wondering as i was standing in the middle of a pretty darn empty Tango on sunday night watching some pretty darn good musicians play for a good cause. Was it the rain? nope, Sunday night was the better night for attendance as far as I knew. What was it then? How about god old fashioned lack of promotion??? The event was pretty much not listed anywhere at all and that sucks… How the hell do you go about putting a 3 day charity concert at Tango and not promote it properly? sad sad… anyways, those of us that came and were there on day 3, we were treated to some pretty special performances… let’s recap the action: Longjin, whom I never heard off before, opened up the festivities. They’re listed as a funk rock band…they didn’t sound like it. Heck, they didn’t sound like much but we’ll be nice on this one and just say: Don’t go out of your way to see them. Exit A was up next and that was not a good surprise as I expected Residence A to play.. my bad! It gave me an opportunity to check out the band after almost a year and a half of avoiding them. I had some hope for the band while Wang Yuqi 王钰琪 was with them but since his departure, they just started swimming along the shores [...]
Interesting weekend ahead as usual folks with a variety of sounds available to those seeking musical entertainment. Rockaid is going on pretty much all weekend. Shanren return to 2K and host of other goodies happening left and right. The Tiger beer battle of the band continues with sessions at Mako Livehouse and Mao Livehouse. Kamila returns at Jianghu and more…. Without further due, let’s get rolling folks! Here’s where i’m most likely to show up for good tunes. Thursday August 11 Xiao He & Jeffrey Lewis @ Yugong: No, I’m not going there but it does have the potential to be amazing if both of these guys do things right. Here’s always hoping Xiao He forgets his laptop at home but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. I heard some good stuff about Jeffrey Lewis so go for it. I’ll be at Capoeira instead! Old Folk @ jiangjinjiu: Two relatively unknowns Ma Di and Dong Ye play a free show in gulou. This might actually be a cool opportunity to discover something cool and new. The guys at Jiangjinjiu are pretty cool about spotting talent. Friday August 12: Shanren @ 2Kolegas: I’ve never seen the wild ones play 2 K so it should be cool. I’d like to see how their sound has changed since last time when they started sounding increasingly more metal. This one is undeniably gig of the evening, bar none! Undistinguished Youth , whom i never heard, start things off. Rock Aid 1 @ Tango: first [...]
Hope you got some rest last weekend folks cause this upcoming one will require some serious stamina from all of you considering all the fun stuff taking place in Beijing over the next few days! so, what we got? Wednesday June 22nd: Misandao @ Mao: Misandao is tons of fun! I love these guys because they’re genuinely punk to the bone, skinhead bootboys that bring on the Oi punk like no one else. I just saw them last week at Mao and they have not lost a beat. Newcomers, The Rudeness, open things with their brand of ska/reggae/punk. Not a bad humpday gig Thursday June 23: Paper Tigre & RE-TROS @ Yugong Yishan: I couldn’t care less about papier tigre but any opportunity to watch the RE-TROS should be cherished.. these cats perform with such amazing passion. Label them whatever you want, they put on a show each and everytime that cannot leave you indifferent. Ember & Jess @ 2Kolegas: Take Ember Swift with her folk pop and the Laowai Song, Jess Meider’s Heavenly Stems and you got yourself a lovely night of lilith fair type music to sooth you soul by. Friday June 24th: Beijing Prom @ The Bookworm: This one is so bizarre that it deserves a mention. Our good friend the Prom Queen has decided to go back in time and party like it was 1990 for those that remember the era. You’re expected to dress for Prom, with heavy emphasis on sequins, then mingle with likeminded [...]