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  • May
    15th
    Mamer & Song Yuzhe: opposites attract at Jianghu

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    Let me set the scene. In one corner you have a guy sitting on a stool, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, shoulder wavy length hair sticking out of a black cap pulled down to hide his eyes, emotionless face looking down at the black bass sitting on his lap. In the other, another guy, sitting cross-legged on the floor, in comfy baggy pants, white shirt, long hair pulled up in high ninja bun, large toothy smile and glistening eyes, surrounded by a plethora of traditional instruments. Walking into Jianghu on Monday night, this is the scene that confronted me. For anyone who doesn’t know the two guys I’ve just described, this vision would have been enough to make you walk straight back out the door again, but I knew what I was getting myself into and was excited to hear what was going to come out of this strange but beautiful combination. The ‘rock’ guy, was Mamer, known for his unusual combinations of experimental bass, industrial music and traditional Kazakh songs with his band IZ. But he also does solo work, last year he put out 5, yes 5, solo records, each completely different, self-recorded experimental compositions and traditional Kazakh songs using various instruments. I found a copy of Elim, with features dombra, guitar and violin, in C Rock last year, but hadn’t managed to track down any of the others around town. The ‘folk” guy, was Song Yuzhe, veteran of many experimental folk projects, including most recently Dawanggang, [...]

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  • Jul
    5th
    Quickslants: Snakes, Mohanik, 3 Weddings, Mamer, Heavy Birthday and Music Galore

    Summer is officially music season here y’all.. we’re looking at another busy weekend in old smoggy ( and boy is she smoggy this week) to try and distract us from all our weekly grind. It’s a rich and diverse one with tribute shows, metal galore ( and lulu galore) not to mention a whole bunch of ‘daze favorites stopping by… let’s get to it, shall we? Thursday July 5th Lulu Galore & Sweet Leaf @ Temple Lulu rocked the grass at 2 Kolegas 10 days ago with her suave voice, charming smile and soothing ukulele sounds. I’m assuming she will do more of the same to the Temple goers tonight and have no reason to believe it won’t be fun. Friday July 6th Omnipotent Youth Society @ Yugong I get a feeling I have not been to Yugong Yishan forever and that might be true. Granted, they’ve been putting on a few high profile shows lately and I’m seriously overdue for a return there. Friday would be interesting and packed most likely with Shijiazhuang’s Omnipotent Youth Society doing a rare stop in the capital. Last time these cats played a paying show, there were 200 people stuck outside Mao Livehouse that couldn’t get in. Even with ticket prices at 150 rmb, I expect a full house here. 3 Weddings & 1 Farewell @ 2kolegas DH & The Hellcats as we know them will be no more. One member is moving overseas while 3 are getting married. They’re marking the occasion [...]

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  • May
    10th
    Live Music Quickslants: Juratt, Mico Anniversary, Beijing Beatles, Flau Experimental, The Stanleys and more.

    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 [...]

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  • May
    3rd
    Live Music Quickslants: Hanggai Festival, IZ, Book Swap & Board Games and an On Fire Bday

    I’m not sure I’ve entirely recovered from last weekend’s musical onslaught.. really folks! MIDI rocked the shit out of me, especially with an awesome Miserable Faith performance. Ningxia Night on Monday was special as usual and so were the other days.. Still, It’s thursday and time to see what else is happening over the next few days.. This one is not about quantity, it’s about quality so I’ll make it short and sweet: Thursday May 3rd Bad Apples @ Temple: Them bad apples are back again after a few months hiatus.. why do i feel like i wrote this before? They’re a good band that is fun to watch but extremely frustrating to me because they can’t seem to get to the next level despite all the talent they have. Here’s hoping this time around, the troops are ready for a good battle and they can get over the hurdle. Temple is not a bad place to get started. I expect Kris to be shredding his new baby for it’s first field test. Friday May 4th Iz @ Mao Live One more chance to watch the masters of modern progressive dark folk at work. I’ve heard some pretty good things about the shows these guys have done over the past week and I’m quite excited to see them in a place like Mao Live where the sound will resonate nicely. I might even be tempted to grab the new Mamer records but i’ll have to get over that freaking price [...]

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  • Apr
    26th
    Quickslants: The Busiest Music Weekend in the World I think

    seriously, I’ve lived in 4 continents, countless cities and seen my share of shows but nothing compares to the musical onslaught that is about to be unleashed on Beijing over the next 5 days. It’s actually mind blowing and busy enough to make a music fan go insane trying to decide where/what to do. This set of quickslants is just for the regular shows in the clubs/venues. Here is the my guide and list of picks for the May Mayhem of Festival that i’ve done separately . Shall we get started? (pic shamelessly ripped from http://www.zazzle.com/ Thursday April 26th La Souris Deglinguee @ Yugong Talk about a blast from the past. This band was a crowd favorite in France and I never thought i’d catch them in Beijing of all places. These French punks have been around since 1976 and they’re still rocking their ass off with some cool live shows. If you can’t catch them at MIDI, this is your chance to see them on their own. I expect a heavy French presence tonight. Friday April 27th Acoustic Brain Failure @ Jianghu: Last time these cats got together to do this, i missed it. Thankfully, they recorded the whole gig and put it online as a proof that they got the chops and can play their instruments. I like what they do and I love how they’ve been doing it lately so I would expect Jianghu to be extremely packed for this one. Nova Heart EP Release @Yugong Somehow, [...]

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  • Apr
    24th
    Cui Jian added to MIDI, New Records from Hedgehog, Nova Heart, Mamer, LiDong, Bad Mamasan and more

    Some random news coming around today.. The reclusive Zhang Chu,originally scheduled to headline MIDI day 1 on April 29, has some emergency. None other than Cui Jian, the godfather of Chinese rock, is replacing him on the bill! That’s a pretty good deal in my book! Granted, it might increase the security concerns in Shunyi. On the new release front, there is a shitload coming up: Hedgehog has a new one out already but the official Beijing release will be in June. Sun Fun Gun is hailed so far as a return to the source for the trio… I’m still taking it for a spin so expect a review sometime soon on the site. Nova Heart, fresh from touring around the world, is putting out their first EP this Friday at Yugong Yishan. I’m gonna see if i can actually get my hands on it beforehand because i’m really curious! I’ve heard them plenty of times and it’s always been different! How will the recording fare without the captivating presence of Helen? I’ve covered Mamer in a post not too long ago and I hear from Ruby that at least one of his new records is already available at C Rock. We’ve covered Lidong for years on the blog and been hoping that they’d get those demos packaged for a final release… it’s done baby! Li Xia and the gang have put the final touches on it and we’re looking at May 19th as the date this baby will be [...]

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  • Apr
    18th
    Inspired Mamer to Release 5 solo CDs in 2012

    There are bands that make 1 CD in 15 years and then there is Mamer.. The Kazakh eagle is kicking off 2012 with a bang by releasing 5 solo records in one go. I’m a huge fan of his album from last year which has made it into my top albums from China in 2012. Here’s what he’s got coming: “Star”: a collection of 12 inspired and beautiful the Tamboura solo song, 8 of which are traditional Kazakh folk songs, 4 Mamer originals “Loop”: a collection of eight experimental Tamboura songs, completely different from the traditional playing style and techniques. “Wrinkles”: a collection of unique demos, mixing Tamboura, guitar and violin among others “Soil”: originally recorded in 2009 recording, using a variety of traditional and modern instruments, this is a collection of sonic mood swings, raw and powerful “Alika”: bass album,mostly live improvised recording done in 2009. For those that managed to catch the prince of darkness last year, you’ve heard most of it played as a soundtrack to photos by Xinjiang photographer. Mamer will tour Beijing over the next month playing songs from all 5 albums along with his IZ band members. There’ll be plenty of opportunities to catch him at 2 Kolegas, Jianghu, Mako and more…. http://site.douban.com/mamer/ April 27, 2012 @ Mako Livehouse with IZ April 28, 2012 @ 2 Kolegas with IZ April 30 @ Jianghu – Solo release party May 4th @ Mao Livehouse with IZ May 5th @ Blue Stream with Friends I’m looking forward [...]

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  • Jan
    18th
    IZ ( Mamer) at Temple: If a Steel Mill Could Sing…

    Since they came back from their world tour, IZ has been keeping a very low profile. A few things bearing mention was that they got a weibo for the band as opposed to having Mamer be the mouthpiece all the time. They’re also just using the name IZ instead of Mamer & IZ… I like that! Their show at Temple, on the first week of the year, will probably go down as one of the best ones for 2012 potentially: When they were underwhelming at Jianghu for the CD release, they sounded great at Temple.. no doubt that the cavernous nature of the room provided better acoustics to match their dark, industrial, metallic rumbling sounds. There was actually quite a turnout for the occasion, most of which were faces i hadn’t seen at Temple before so you could tell that they came specifically for IZ.. An audience that was very much well behaved and in a trance-like state during most of the performance. They barely broke the silence from time to time to clap but otherwise kept the conversation to a minimum. Much like the band one could argue. An interesting change in dynamics was with 努尔太 Nuertai singing a bit more than usual, almost more so than Mamer himself (if we can call his mumbling singing). I still struggle to describe these guys but I think i might be settling for this sentence coined by my friend Beagleboss: If a steel mill could sing, that’s what it would sound [...]

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  • Jan
    11th
    Quickslants: Folk for the People, Bad Mamasan, Wan Xiaoli, Tea Quintet, Ma Tiao’s New Album, D-22′s last show and more

    I’ve been trying to get the quickslants in early this week mostly for tonight’s show at Mako in support of the young Hasetie’er. Friday is gonna be one of those “it’s fucking hard to pick” which show to go to day with solid ass lineups all around town. Let’s get this baby started with my recommendations Wednesday Jan 11th: Hasetie’er : You’re Not Alone @ Mako Mamer, Dawanggang, Wu Tun, Dongzi, Zhang Weiwei, Liu Kun, the Jam Band, Mural, Yerboli (the younger) and more join their musical talents to support a night of giving. The folk community in Beijing/China is amazing in terms of pulling their resources together and helping out those in need! Be there, it’s gonna be amazing! Thursday Jan 12th: Liu Kun @ Jianghu: Low Wormwood’s frontman, Liu Kun, seems to be hanging around Beijing a lot lately. I oughta ask him about his favorite lanzhou mian place in this town when i get a chance. His brand of folk is quite interesting, earthy with western influences. Quite appropriate for a venue like Jianghu. Judging by how popular the gig was at Mako a while back, Jianghu might be packed. Ma Tiao Album Launch @ Tango: Well, the album is out. Ma Tiao has literally been around every show played in Beijing this past month. He popped up at Yugong Yishan during Muma’s performance. He was there at Tango during Su Yang’s show and he’s been promoting his new release. The New album is called “Master” or [...]

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  • Jan
    5th
    Quickslants: IZ returns, Book Swap, Olympic Rock, Simple Plan, Folks of the World and more

    Welcome to 2012 darlings… let’s make sure it rocks! For this first edition of the quick slants, we find ourselves all over the spectrum with choices. Some of them definitely rocking! It might seem deceivingly underwhelming but there are some real gems hidden out there. Let’s kick it! Thursday Jan 5th IZ @ Temple As you might have noticed, Temple is making more and more noise out here! This week, they’re scoring huge points by getting IZ to make an rare appearance in Beijing. The band is fresh off their world tour in support of the album Kolengke that I’ve shortlisted as one of my favorite albums of 2011. Temple will be an interesting space for them to do their space/kazakh/improv rock. Potentially the best gig of the week. Friday Jan 6th Folks of the World @ 2 Kolegas: Appalachia, Ningxia and Mongolia come together on this night at the drive in in the forms of The Randy Abel Stable, Lidong and Ajinai…. I’ve been keeping an eye on this date for quite some time now and I’m definitely looking forward to it, mostly because I have not seen Ajinai in a while. Lidong are sure to light up the crowd with their folksy tunes (becoming ear-worms to some extent) and the Stable speaks to my inner redneck. Simple Plan @ Yugong Yishan: I’m not a big fan of pop-punk but I must admit these kids are intriguing: Been together for almost 15 years, getting a worldwide following and staying [...]

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