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Mar
1stFreeloading & New Releases: Pairs, Stegosaurus, Jacky Danny and more
starting the snake ride with some new tunes: some are old favourites, some are new ones and one is even from out of the country. Let’s see what February is bringing us: Pairs: They’re at it again and they might get the award for most releases in the last 12 months. A new album, available online for free download/streaming and completely different from anything else they have done. I would try to describe it myself but i think they do a better job than i did on it: We’re pretty happy and slightly embarrassed to announce the release of our new album, Eltham Join. The album is a bit of a change as it features absolutely no drums and no guitars and is just piano and vocals. You can both listen to it and download it for free by going to pairs.bandcamp.com We warn you, it may have the most out of tune, most awful vocals ever put to tape. Sorry. I’m tone deaf. It’s to be expected. It was recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered towards the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 by Adam McRae of Reykjavictim (reykjavictim.bandcamp.com) fame. Adam was awesome to record with. Everyone should do it and should give him heaps of cold hard cash. Do what you will with this info. It’s a digital release only. Who can be bothered pressing CD’s for this trash? But here it is. Something different and something that we found pretty fun to do. Thanks. Love always, [...]
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Jan
6th2011 in review: Best Live Music Performances in Beijing (and the worst)it started with a bang at 2 Kolegas as Buyi, Nucleus, Rustic and Subs rocked the hell out of the drive-in. That was one hell of a good show to start the year and remains in the top ten of best shows in Beijing for 2011. Many bands came, some vanished, others just took a break and some just lost any guidance… how did they fare IMHO? Let’s check it out! Here are some random musings about the best, the worst and the mediocre from my BIASED perspective! AK47 @ MIDI: Never been a huge AK47 fan but this past MIDI, they put on the performance of a lifetime! The crowd was all in it at the side stage, moshing, screaming, jumping, singing…. IT was a trance-like state for almost everyone there! The music was heavy, loud, sharp like a razor blade and was the perfect accompaniment for dust storms. The Black Snakes @ ‘dazeFEAST: Holly mother of god were these cats impressive! I had no idea what to expect when i added them to the bill other than they were friends of Kang Mao. Boy am i glad! Their energy was out of this world, stage antics second to none, sweating it out and getting the audience in a frenzy! That was just beautiful! Thank you again guys! SUBS @ King of the Road: When all was going to hell with drunk people in the audience, douchebags and 2 Kolegas filled to the brim, Kang Mao and her gang [...]
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Nov
9thCatalonia and Mongolia Collide when La Pegatina meets Hanggai for a fun showI must admit it’s refreshing to see non-Chinese bands every so often because it puts things back in perspective. Now, maybe it’s the wrong way to put it but no matter how many good solid Chinese bands there are out there, the number of mediocre ones is just staggering high and i do find myself looking at the silver linings every so often trying to find positives!!! Friday night at Mako Livehouse was not one of those nights! There were plenty of good shows in town mind you but i had this one marked and was not about to miss it even though it pained me to skip a ChunQiu show next to my house. Still, it was gonna be all about Barcelona’s La Pegatina with their upbeat rumba/reggae/fun matched up with Hanggai’s grassland rock. I picked well! Mako was filled quite early actually with a decent crowd of at least 200 by 8:30. All of us early comers were treated to a little 30mn performance by Nine Theaters ( Jiu Bao), one of the newest up and coming Mongolian bands in Beijing. They played during day one of the Mongolian Festival, also at Mako, a few weeks ago where they stood out. The band has a charismatic frontman/guitar player and an interesting mix of throat singing with Metal… They might be a bit young and green but there’s something in there! I’ll be curious to see what they sound like in one year if they stay under Hanggai’s protective [...]
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Nov
4thQuickslants: Grassland Rumba, Autumn Descends, Ido Balance and Book SwapIs it already late thursday/early friday? goodness this week has flown by! They say that’s what happens when you’re busy having fun so here is hoping i had tons of fun because it did freaking fly by. So, another weekend looming with some pretty sweet and diverse choices to pick from. Let’s kick it! Friday Nov 4th: La Pegatina & Hanggai @ Mako: If you haven’t heard of “la Pegatina”, do yourself a favor and look them up. This Spanish motley crew has been heating up stages all over the world and they’re about to give Beijing a little taste of what the rest of China has seen over the past week that they been touring here with Hanggai. It’s a little rumba, some meringue, a side of Ska, a dash of reggae and a sprinkle of Cumbia just to name a few. Buddies Hanggai, who don’t really need an introduction anymore, are also on the bill and word is they’ve collaborated on a special version of Jiu Ge ( drinking song) just for tomorrow night’s shindig. Well worth the trek to shuanjing. See this Global Times writeup or check out this video from their performance at West Lake festival in Hangzhou Chun Qiu @ Temple: Kaiser and the boys are taking this thing seriously now after just floating around for a few years. The band is hungry and has new songs, picking up where they left off with their album. This show has been fairly on the radar over [...]
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
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'dazeFEAST 2012 - June 23rd at 2 Kolegas.
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