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Oct
26thQuickslants: Monsters, Queens, Ghools, Fairies and more Creature Musichere’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 @ [...]
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Jun
14thQuickslants: New Albums by Hedgehog, Namo, Wutiaren – 3 Years of Hot Cat and moreI was wondering the other day whether the quickslants were still needed considering we’ve got the wonderful Beijing Gig Guide doing a great job with recommendations and LBM delivering some consistent content albeit with a gigantic rose colored glasses, not to mention the expat rags. Coverage is big enough I thought that the reasons I started the quickslants were no longer valid. Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the lame and it’s up to the bloggers to provide exposure on the bands… otherwise, you’ll miss out on bands like Namo and Wutiaoren releasing their albums and end up watching some third tier Dio-wannabe Metal cover band. I’m grumpy… anyways, let’s get to it! Thursday June 14 Le Comptoir des Fous @ Temple This actually sounds like one hell of a party: fusion of hip hop, reggae, jazz and little Cajun flair seems like the right thing to do on a thursday night to get some energy. They’ve been touring China for a little while now and should be ready for a big party with potentially a lot of people that speak their language. Friday June 15th Namo @ Mako One of the best bands to come out of China over the past few years has a new record out, “I’m your KingKong”. I’ve heard the title track and it is a much heaver louder sound that they had before, at least on this one track. I’m curious about the rest of the record! They’re fun, they’re good [...]
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Jan
10thTop 5 Best Chinese Albums of 2011: IZ, Ordnance, Hedgehog, Proximity Butterfly and LongshendaoMan it sounds so pretentious to say this… but it’s a title that gets headlines and scores high in search engines so deal with it. There are many reasons why this is not a traditional “best of”, main one being I can’t claim that i heard every album released in 2011 all around the country. From those I did hear though, and there were quite a few, there are a number of standouts.. let’s see how they go: IZ [ Kolengke ] If a steel mill could sing, that’s what it would sound like (thanks Sharon)! This has been one of the better records of the year and that for many reasons. It’s pretty darn different from anything available in China that I managed to get my hands on. If you know of something similar, let me know. Mamer and his crew just put together a beautiful cacophony of sounds and made it work. It’s dark without being too gloomy. The album is actually beautifully simple despite what seems like elaborate compositions with thundering bass lines and percussions. Back in the days, Kazakhs used to write songs about grasslands and plains where they roamed free. Nowadays, Mamer and IZ are city dwellers, it makes sense that they songs reflect their new lifestyle.This is an album that stands on its own in and outside of China as far as I’m concerned! It doesn’t need nor does it ask for excuses! Hedgehog [2011 DEstroy meMOries] yup, Hedgehog! The trio has been extremely [...]
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Nov
23rdMusic Makes the Difference: Charity Concert for Dada’s Leukemia TreatmentSo often, Charity is an abstract concept! You’re organizing an event for a cause of to benefits namesless victims of some disaster. Not tonight! Li ChengDa aka Little Dada, only in the Sixth grade, has been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic Leukemia! The poor kid in in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant and Beijing’s musicians have heeded the call to help with the following names scheduled to appear: THE FACE, LUO QI & LENG KONG QI, XIONG RULIN, FROG, DU HAO, XIA YUETUAN, SHI XIAOPENG, NAN WU, RUI WANG FEN, HONG SE GUO JIANG, TANG REN JIE， 4U The event is being dubbed: Love Action Charity for Dada’s treatment They’re getting started tonight, November 23rd, at 8:30 at Yugong Yishan! Tickets are RMB 80…. Event Link: http://www.yugongyishan.com/2011/11/love-actioncharity-concert-for-dada/?lang=en With Thanksgiving around the corner, what a golden opportunity to make a difference.
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Aug
19thQuickslants: Mo’s Last Stand, CMCB, Suffocated, Namo and MoreThe quickslants are coming in a bit late this week folks but trust me, it’s been freaking busy as hell on this side of ‘daze HQ. Plenty of goodies happening around town with some of them in places we’re not used to writing about much anymore! Friday August 19 Growl 4 @ Mao: CMCB, Suffocated, ZuoYou and The Face, 4 really old school bands are set to rock the shit out of Mao Live. Last time I saw suffocated, they unleashed a storm of metal of MIDI. One of the better sets of the year and I’m looking forward to more. The Face, since they added Diao Lei ( ChunQiu, Honeygun) have gotten even better. The real band I’m looking forward to though is CMCB: I have fond memories of seeing them in Chaoyang Park last year where they impressed the hell out of me with their brand of rapcore. I’m looking forward to more. Nanwu/Namo @ Jianghu: You better get there early for this one folks. These kids are the new darlings of the scene so everyone and their mama will be there to watch them play. I’m not sure Jianghu can handle the onslaught but it should be fun! The stage has got to be too small for them but I’m sure they’ll find a way. Unique brand of crosstalk rock and loads of laughs. Back To School @ Hot Cat: Not There, funk/intrumental/rock , is throwing a party at Hot Cat Club, free of charge and you’re [...]
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Aug
3rdFestival’d out? No way! Long Live Rock in the Grasslands!There’s been a lot of talk about the over abundance of festivals in China this year. Jon Campbell and China Daily, both have interesting posts on this. I agree 4 festivals competing in one weekend in Beijing is just stupid, but this my year of seeing more of China, and taking advantage of festivals and shows outside the city is a great way to see a little more of this country. BD went to the West Lake Festival to see his beloved Concrete Blonde last month and last weekend’s In Music festival in Zhangbei was my perfect excuse to escape the oppressive heat in Beijing and chill out under the blue skies in Hebei. My at first eager friends were all put off by reports of last year’s mud fest, trash & transport problems and bailed on a three day camping trip, but I managed to find one metal-head buddy willing to go for one day, so we planned to make our way out on the direct bus put on by the festival on Sunday morning. We arrived at the long distance bus station 5 mins too late and watched the first bus pull out as we walked in, meaning we had to wait for enough people to arrive to fill the next bus. By the 2 hour mark there was a group of angry festival goers arguing loudly with the organizers to let us on the bus, finally they caved in and the bus took off at 12noon. We [...]
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Jun
30thQuickslants: Gangzi, Proximity Butterfly, Metal Mania and moreWell folks, last weekend was fun but this week ain’t looking too shabby if you ask me! Quite a decent variety of pretty darn good music will be available all around town for your listening pleasure from punk to bluegrass, going through psychedelic rock…. it’s all there! so let’s get started with it! Thursday June 30th: Gangzi @jiangjinjiu: Well, Jiangjinjiu somehow survived that chai-ing announcement and it pretty rocking. Gangzi, the inner-mongolian wonder kid, is on the hook thursday night for a jolly folky grassland themed night. I dig Dongzi’s shows even though he hasn’t done anything different over the past 3 or 4 months playing the same set over and over. A good option if you’re in the area! Zhou YunPeng @ Jianghu: Lao Zhou is one of the nicer, more talented folksters around Beijing. akin to the Chinese Stevie Wonder if he were Chinese and played guitar. The guy is a true legend around Beijing and has been playing the capital with a lesser frequency over the past year. His shows are actually quite remarkable and deserve more recognition. Friday July 1st: Wu & Side Effects + Steely Heart @ 2Kolegas: Fresh from their amazing performance at ‘dazeFEAST, Wu comes back to the drive in with a vengeance. My favorite bored rockers, Steely Heart, are there to lend a hand. Kick Ass, who haven’t been around since 2010, are back in Beijing as well that night. I’m curious as to how the band will present itself after a [...]
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Jun
18thNanwu wins out at Mao Live’s Summersonic CompetitionI was a bit of a crazy night yesterday at Mao Live with the Summersonic Finals… some really good bands and performances throughout the night and huge surprises. I’ll have a semi-full recap later on next week. The most important thing is that Nanwu, with 206 votes, took the crown and thus won the rights to represent China in Japan at the Summersonic festival. Here are the final results of the voting, which was weird to say the least… Voodoo Kungfu, which i expected to win, ended up dead last in the voting…. Army of Jade Kirin was freaking awesome!
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Jun
16thSummersonic Competition at Mao under the radarapologies, yours truly has been a little busy lately with grad school applications and the such and this one almost flew by! Mao Live has started holding the summersonic elimination rounds earlier this week to determine which bands will be sent over to Japan and bear the Zhongguo YaoGun (Chinese Rock) flag high and proud! Things kicked off Tuesday night with Joker, Nanwu, Twisted Machine amongst others competing in the first round. Tonight, thursday June 16th, see the next round of battles with some pretty darn good names on the bill starting at 8:30 • The Falling • Birdstriking • King Statue • DF & Skyscraper • Voodoo Kungfu • Strange July Friday night, June 17th, it all comes to a close with the final elimination round that will have, amongst others, one hell of rare rare rare appearance by Muma & Third Party. I have not seen Muma on any listing in over a year as they just retreated to deal with various businesses and write new songs. Muma is one of the most intense performers I’ve seen in the mainland, channeling a mix of Jim Morrisson meets Joe Cocker… definitely worth a stop folks!
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Apr
1stShortslants: Bookswap, Board Games, Bad Mamasan, Miserable Faith, Rikki Sixx, Dongzi and moreone hell of a hectic week means i almost forgot my quickslants… so this week, it’s shortslants just to keep up. I can’t recall seeing this much Rock / Metal on offer ever in Beijing. Friday April 1: Motley Crue tribute @ 2 Kolegas with Rikki Sixx, Jacky Danny and more. One hell of a reason to come out for them Girls Girls Girls while Shouting at the Devil that you need Dr. Feelgood to Kickstart your Heat. 13 Club and Mao are also featuring full fledged Metal nights… holly cow! Who let the freaks out? Saturday April 2: April Book Swap & Board Games at Sequoia in Jianguomen Diplomatic Compound. 2-6 pm Bad Mamasan unleashes Jeanine the Wolverine, their new CD with help from ChunQiu, Nucleus and more at Yugong Yishan. I saw them in Tianjin last friday for the warmup gig… it was one hella good folks. Come and party!! Miserable Faith Rocks up Tango for a very low key affair. This one is not getting a lot of attention but it’s one hell of an opportunity to catch them. I know Ruby is trying to figure out how to split herself in 3 to catch every gig on saturday. Sunday April 3: Rock for Orphans @ Yugong Yishan: Help save the kids. Music courtesy of the incredible Jess Meider amongst others. Cobain Tribute @ Mao: some really obsucre bands are featured in this one but every tribute show they’ve had at MAo has been fun so far. [...]
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