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Mar
20thDragon in the Rear View: Memorable Performances of 2012
Note: Better late than never: I started writing this in January 2013… finally getting it out. I’ve finally got a bit of time to sit down and try to look back at 2012.. gigs, festivals, craps and mishaps. It’s been a long year really and probably the one with the lowest output on ‘daze as I changed jobs, opened a bar and saw my free time reduced to zero. Still, rock n roll was there and there in numbers. I made the gigs, listened to the songs and spent my evenings/nights with my underground brothers. How did it all pan out? It was a strange year really with a lot of bands reuniting and or coming out with long overdue records. Here’s looking at you Zhang Wei Wei and Brain Failure just to name a few. Still, more so than many years before, this one belonged to the young guns. But we’ll get to the records at some other points. Let’s first look at the most memorable performances of the Dragon year: NOTE: This is in NO particular order!!! – Miserable Faith @ MIDI I never got around to writing a review about this particular one but i’ll probably never ever ever forget it. Picture yourself in an outdoor festival, 10000 people standing in front of the main stage for the final performance of a 3 day musical onslaught and they’re singing in unison all of the band’s songs before the band even came onstage. for 30 good minutes, the [...]
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Dec
14thQuickslants: Apocalypse Saturday with Suyang, Cui Jian, DaBang and More….
Beijing, i love you! Beijing, I fucking hate your guts for weekends like this one: couldn’t you spread these gigs over the month instead of putting them all in one freaking day? I want to see them all damn it! If you don’t get my rant, read on and see why i’m ticked off that there is so much on offer over the next 3 days: Friday Dec 14 Friend or Foe @ 2Kolegas The Shanghai trio is back in town promoting a remixed version of last year’s album and they’re calling it appropriately: “what have you done with my claw”.. To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of the remix but i do love the band’s live stage and had tons of fun with them last time they played the drive-in. Joining them tonight you’ll find Devils at the Crossroad, Residence A along with Thruoutin. I predict fun fun fun fun. Tookoo & The Reason @ School what? school has live music? yep, since last week, the bar has been reborn as a live music venue and that’s long overdue. They’re set for their musical onslaught with a double album release night from two pretty good bands. It’s bound to get interesting over at wudaoying hutong. Saturday Dec 15 Cui Jian @ Wukesong The godfother is back and he’s ticked off according to his latest interview on timeout. He’s still cursing with the best of them and still pissed off enough at society. Can we get a new [...]
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Sep
4thRandom Tidbits: New CMCB, Duck Fight New MV and The Day I Saw Rock n RollRandom little midweek tidbits that i came across recently! Looks like we’re due for a slew of new music soon judging by the noise on weibo and douban! CMCB, Beijing’s outspoken Rap-Metal luminaries are busy in the studio getting stuff recorded. They’ve been saying this for quite some time now but it seems to be happening! A Video of them in the studio doing the new song 我说的就是我想干的 (What I Said is Exactly what I want to do) is out. I like these guys and I’ve liked them for a long time but the new song is really more of the same. I’m hoping that things will be a bit different once they get the whole thing worked out. In the meantime, Here is 我说的就是我想干的 Shanghai’s Duck Fight Goose has also given the video treatment to one of their songs, Glass Wall… it’s..ahem.. different and strangely reminiscent of like 80s videos. I like it is a weird way! Good to see a band put out a video, strange or not. It’s the best way next to merch to get exposure IMHO Check it out here: Remember MIDI from 3 years ago and that unplugged finale from Miserable Faith? Well MIDI apparently had some tape rolling and here is really the clearest video I’ve ever seen. It’s also got a great little narrative of how things went that night looking for flash lights and having barely enough power to feed one microphone. Just watching it sends chills down my spine folks!! [...]
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Aug
5thGrooving in the Grasslands: Behind the scenes at Zhangbei InMusic FestivalZhangbei, around 4 hours drive from the capital, close to Inner Mongolia, has been referred to as China’s Woodstock, but it commonly known as one of the more chaotic, gritty local festivals on the calendar. I went out there for the first time on the last day of last year’s festival and had so much fun I wanted to head back again this year. This I was planning on heading out again on the bus and camping, but the offer of joining friends who were performing was too good to turn down, so at 7am on the Sunday morning I headed out on the musicians bus with a bunch of sleepy bands due to play on the last day of the 3 day festival. 4 hours later, after passing wide open grasslands, wind-power turbines, and leaving the grey skies of Beijing far behind we arrived at band central, a holiday park full of chinese tourists staying in permanent yurt-style rooms just across the fields from the stages. If we were still in Hebei, it didn’t feel like it, during lunch we were serenaded by three horsehead fiddles – with a backing track of drum & bass and flashing lights and dancers! After last year’s experience, and the drama I had heard about, but not been affected by myself, this year seemed a lot more organized. Sure the acts were running late, starting the day about an hour behind, and ending up over 2 hours late, but I can say behind [...]
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Jul
27thQuickslants: Festivalitus, Ningxia Force, Miserable Faith and MoreAnother weekend, another set of quickslants and a whole lotta music going on but who’s watching? Seriously, I think poor Zhangbei is having the distinction of being the festival with the least coverage this year, at least in the Anglophone blogosphere.. Maybe just an excessive case of festivalitus, a weird China-born disease stemming from excessive amounts of festivals using the same bands and sub-standard setups? oh well!! To be fair though, this year’s lineup is not bad but they really have not learned their lesson as far as sundays go: Everyone of the past two years, Sunday headliners played to an almost non-existent audience as folks rushed to get back to Beijing. Anyways, let’s see what’s taking place: Friday July 27th Buyi & Lidong @ 2Kolegas This is the party spot for the evening with two of the most talented bands out of Ningxia. Buyi has delivered on their performances for years and there is no doubting their chops. Since the release of their album, Lidong has moved up a few notches and can now claim the spot left vacant by Wu & the Side Effects while they regroup and re-record. 2 good bands, 2 Kolegas, all the buddies will be there and it’s gonna be a swell time. Red Pirates @ Hot Cat I like these cats and they always manage to show us a good time with their brand oh Hard Rock. Dave rocks the vox, the Drummer has one of the biggest smiles ever and the guitarist [...]
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Apr
19thBeijing MIDI Festival 2012 – Final Lineup and Venue RevealedWell folks, in the nick of time, MIDI has somehow managed to get their act together and release the final lineup for the festival along with a confirmation that we will have a change of location: The event will now be held at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park also known as Shunyi Olympic Water Park… I’ll post some details on how to get there at a later time! http://www.midischool.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=54937&extra=page%3D1 As far as the bands go, it’s slightly underwhelming to say the least with day 2 being the best lineup: Yasiin Bey ( Mos Def), Muma & Third Party, Backyard Surgeons etc… Miserable Faith will be on hand to close the festival on May, which was pretty much expected! Click image for the full lineup: I’m gonna try not to give them too much mafan because god knows what kind of problems they managed to run into while planning this thing but I’m sure that their lack of professionalism also had something to do with it. More on this very soon…
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Jan
5thQuickslants: IZ returns, Book Swap, Olympic Rock, Simple Plan, Folks of the World and moreWelcome 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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Dec
13thMidi Awards 2011: Do you agree with the winners?As much as I wanted to hangout with the Santas on Saturday and make the most of a rare not so cold, blue sky day in the Jing, I also wanted even more to head into the big warm dark cave that is Tango 3rd Floor and spend the entire day watching bands, drinking beer and seeing who got to take home a Midi brick or 2 (or 3 in the case of one lucky person!) So with BD on a plane downunder, Alex & I headed to Yonghegong to party with our favourite bands! If you’re not sure who was nominated this year, check out this cool clip from Midi introducing the awards and the nominees: And, drumroll please, here are your winners: Best New Band: Steely Heart Best Album Artwork Design Award: Pet Conspiracy 宠物同谋 “Pet Conspiracy” Best Instrumental Performance: Jì Yuán 纪元 (Air Carnival 空中狂欢节乐队- Guitar) Best Hard Rock Band: Ordnance 巨蟹座 Best Metal Band: Yaksa 夜叉 Best Female Vocalist: Jiāng Xīn 姜昕 Best Folk Musician: Hao Yun 郝云 (presented by Alex from Beijing Gig Guide!) Best Rock Song: Gala “The Purest Dream Chasing Heart” Best Rock Album Year: Long Shen Dao 龙神道 “Hug” Best Live Performance: Miserable Faith 痛仰 Best Rock Band: Long Shen Dao 龙神道 Best Male Vocalist: Zuoxiao Zuzhou 左小祖咒 Contribution to Rock: Modern Sky 摩登天空 Big congrats to all the winners, especially the busiest guy of the day, guitarist Gao Xu, who took home 3 awards (2 with Long Shen Dao, 1 with [...]
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Sep
13thVery CD strikes deal for total Cooperation with Miserable Faith: Whole Catalog FreeI don’t usually bother much with industry news but this seems like a big one folks. Last week, one of my favorite bands, Miserable Faith, announced that from now on, their music, pictures, videos and news will all be presented on Very CD for free (at least ATM). If you’re not familiar with Very CD, you should. They’re a p2p sharing site using the emule/edonkey to distribute files… they’ve built a decent library of links by now after close sourcing their client. Considering how big Miserable Faith is, this is an interesting direction for them and for VeryCD to go… Download the files here: http://www.verycd.com/topics/2903372/ http://www.verycd.com/entries/528111/ Oh and yeah, the whole Miserable Faith catalog for free… that ain’t bad!
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Sep
8thQuickslants: Mongolian Festival, Intercity Festival, Hell’Bone Night, Lulu Galore and moreThis is the kind of weekend that hurts my head in terms of picking where to go… so many good shows, so little time and I wanna see them all.. yes my precious, I want them all! Mongolian Music Festival at Mako, Pilot Records Intercity Festival in Chaoyang Park, Black Cat Bone w/ DH & The Hellcats ( aka Hell’Bone) just to name a few! Let’s snap to it! Thursday Sept 8 Gou Mao @ Jianghu I’ve never heard of the guy but he’s got a couple of CDs to his name and the stuff on Douban sounds pretty darn good. Acoustic rock with earthy vibes and a slight heavy edge. Plus, I’m thinking I ain’t been to Jianghu in a little while. Definitely an interesting option Friday Sept 9 Mongolian Festival day 1 @ Mako Yes folks, this is taking place at Mako Livehouse in Shuangjing who is making a strong comeback over the past few weeks as a premier live music venue. Headlining Day 1 of the festival is old Friends Hanggai along with rockers Thin Man whose lead singer, Dai Qin is also Mongolian. Shaman Humai, one of the first bands on, seems quite interesting. it should be fun! Miss Lulu Galore @ Alanting Yes, Lulu Galore, of the Burlesque Group fame, is launching her solo dance and music project with this debut performance at Alanting in Sanlitun South.. to put it in her own words: ” Miss Lulu Galore and Sweet Leaf is her latest music [...]
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- HEATWOLVES热狼 on Full MIDI 2013 Information: Camping, Travelling, Hotels and More
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- 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