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Mar
13thQuickslants: Americana, MATZKA, 3 Years of AIS, Jeff Lang and more
I had to try and get in an early quickslants this week folks because there are just way too many good things happening in town with Jue Festival action as well as a stronger than usual lineup that might get lost around. I mean, i’m kinda pissed off that i’m probably missing all of it due to bar commitments but that doesn’t mean you can’t go, right? Wed Mar.13 // Americana Workshop – Jianghu Randy Abel and Liu Yusi combine forces tonight to answer all your American Folk Music questions and play a whole bunch of tunes for you all. Audiences are also encouraged to bring your own instruments, and participate in a folk jam at the end of the night. Free if you bring in an instrument. Thur Mar.14 // Mongolian Bling – YUgong Yishan Forget about nomads and monks! It’s hip-hop that’s making Mongolia move in the 21st century. Join JUE | Music + Art and the film’s director/producer, Benj Binks, for the China Premiere of insightful yet exciting new documentary, Mongolian Bling… Screening at 7:00ish followed by Q&A then performances from film stars Gennie and Quiza, Beijing MC Nasty Ray and members of Hanggai. Fri Mar.15 // MATZKA – Mako Livehouse This is one hell of a cool band from Taiwan. Reggae with aboriginal characteristics! I’ve been aware of them for a while now and they freaking rock!! Do yourself a favour and block out this date. I might have to close the bar for this one! [...]
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Sep
27thLao What Turns 11- And You’re All Invitedhappily tucked around the corner from the forbidden city, Lao What is and remains the place where tons of bands go to cut their teeth and get somewhat ready for bigger stage. The place has rabbid following amongst musicians and for good reasons. Funny thing is, despite their location, they are probably the only music venue that’s never had a problem or been shut down despite the various crackdowns this city sees… and they’ve been at it for 11 years folks! this is pre-olympics, pressers, pre-swine flu era…. how about them ‘bones? to celebrate, Gao Bo is throwing a bunch of cool little events throughout the holiday week so if you’re a music lover, no excuse not to make it there at some point, have a drink and a dose of music. Here’s the schedule: September 29, 9:30 pm no problem “reggae party” one drop band – free September 30, 9:30 pm candy monster, Zao Ban Che, dj green monkey – 40 October 1, 9:30 pm Pangbianr Night- 40 includes a beer October 2 the Beijing punk night- 60 includes a beer October 3, skarving & discord – Free October 4, 9:30 pm ballad tribal Ryoko – 30 more info on their douban: http://www.douban.com/event/17162558/ see u there
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Sep
25thQuickslants: Capitan Tifus, Indie Attack, Hardcore Lands and Ningxia Night RetrunsEarly quickslants this week folks after last week that saw no quickslants due to a busier than expected schedule. There’s a good reason for this, namely an Argentinian Ska band, Capitan Tifus, stopping by Yugong Yishan this wednesday.. It’s also a good day to get start planning your gigs for the beginning of the holiday weekend. Shall we get started? Wednesday Sept. 26 Capitan Tifus @ Yugong Yishan “The most promising band from Argentina” has been making noise online checking out the sites and making sure they let everyone know they will be here. I like a hard working band, especially one that sounds good at what they do. The band has been touring the word behind their latest album and promises a high energy show with dancing galore. Thursday Sept. 27 Randy Able Stable@ Temple The rambling americana trouble makers head over to Temple for another evening full of classic ditties and a few originals. These guys are ‘daze favorites for good reasons and always worth checking out when you have a chance. The Temple gigs go on for two sets so definitely worth the trip and… guess what… it’s free! Friday Sept. 28 Indie Night @ 2 Kolegas interesting mix of bands hitting the drive-in friday night: Steely Heart, Wu & The Side Effects, Residence A & Perpetual Motion Machine. I’m not sure why they called it “indie” night as these bands are just good dancing bands. If Ruby wasn’t out of town, she’d be drooling all over [...]
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Apr
19thQuickslants: Abaji is Back, Marky Ramone Returns,Borbetomagusand Swan Punch more Music FunYou’re in it for a treat Beijingers… this is a good weekend with some substantial goodies in store for you all. I’m just pissed off I’m gonna miss a lot of it due to out-of-town Capoeira commitments. Let’s get started: Thursday April 19th: Swan Punch @ Tango Metalheads from Denmark hit Beijing tonight as part of their China tour. I just heard a few samples of the two bands scheduled to play tonight and these kids are not bad! Cool little show to get for a heavy hitting start to the weekend. The Kandidate are relatively new whereas Scarred by Beauty are hardened veterans of the scene and fuse a few different types of metal together. Me thinks it could be worth it. Borbetomagus @ 2 Kolegas Art Noise from New York City… really ‘daze? art noise? well, I’ve only ever been exposed to the local variety of noise so it might be enlightening/refreshing to see what other people do with this kind of music elsewhere. I have absolutely no clue as to what they do and therein lies my interest. just got word that this was canceled folks.. sorry. Friday April 20th Abaji @ Temple Last year, Abaji brought Jianghu to its knees! This guy is so freaking talented that just thinking about the prospects of watching him play sends shivers down my spine. It’s bedoin blues, world music, incredible musicianship and much more! I’m not sure how Temple is gonna handle this but i might just get to [...]
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Apr
11thMiao oh Miao: The Next Wave of Amazing Yinchuan Bands Has LandedAs April got started, SX Media took over pretty much most of Beijing’s live music venues with their Sex in the Xity series and put on some interesting shows covering all genres. One of these shows took place at 2 Kolegas with Whai, Skarving and new comers Miao 妙乐队 ( also known as Bio in English) opening the festivities (unannounced). I got to the drive-in just in time to catch Miao come up onstage and get started with what will most likely be one of the most interesting sets i’ve witnessed from a band in a long time. They launched into a ferociously melodic frenzied song driven by thundering beats, blistering guitars and fantastic harmonies from both vocals and a flute.. and boy did it sound good! I can’t quite label it nor do i care to but if you can take the bastard child of progressive rock and Ningxia folk, you might have an idea. As far as unique sounds, that was it. Miao went on to play a few other songs, mostly reggae flavored, but none of them could cut it when compared to the opening numbers.. until they got to the last song which saw them get back to that unique style. The band has been practicing for the past half year in Yinchuan with Wu Rui, who you might remember from stints with Buyi and Xie Tian Xiao, fresh from his long stay in France. For the Beijing gig, they had to recruit two local musicians [...]
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Dec
21stQuickslants: Second Hand Rose, Muma, Subs, Voodoo Kungfu and More (updated)Hellooo Beijing.. miss me? I didn’t think so either. Ruby did an amazing job keeping the show on the road while I was out on an ear-cleaning mission. Many posts/comments coming up once I catch up but let’s first get started with some quick slants as tonight (wednesday) has some pretty darn solid offerings. Wednesday Dec 21st Muma & 3rd Party @ Yugong Yishan One of the most intense performers I’ve seen this side of the big silly is back with a heavy hard hitting record. We’ve been waiting and talking about this one at ‘daze central for a few months already and the results will be heard tonight. I did get to sample a few of the new cuts and it’s very dark and industrial sounding (think NIN). I’m not sure how that’s gonna come of live, especially at Yugong Yishan. Still, Muma & 3rd Party are veterans coming off a national tour and this should be pretty darn solid. Second Hand Rose @ Tango: Good old funny veterans are back in Beijing playing a venue they have learned to control.. Their last gig over there was pretty darn amazing for the band’s 10th and I wouldn’t expect any less from the gang. They’ve also been out touring quite extensively this year so it should be quite tight. Cross-talk rock at its finest with a hint of drag and a whole lotta attitude. Thursday Dec 22nd Take a break and save yourself for the weekend…. It’s gonna be massive [...]
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Nov
29thSkarving Rocks, The Birds are Free and The Hellcats SleepSwingSaturday November 19th at 2 Kolegas was the second of two 4 am nights which hasn’t happened in a long time. It was busy musically and for good reasons! Ruby headed over to D-22 for Shanghai’s Friend or Foe but yours truly was more intrigued by the prospects of seeing Free The Birds come out for an increasingly rare appearance… It was freaking cold man.. one of the coldest days of the year so far but the Drive In was packed nicely. It’s becoming a habit nowadays whenever DH & The Hellcats come out to play. Skarving got things started nicely with their uptempo SKA beats.. I’ve never been a fan of SKA but they are now one of the most fun bands in town. They just get a crowd jumping up and down in a contagious fashion. They’re adding new wrinkles now to their show with a few more reggae songs and also guest appearances by little Hai Xia who turns out has a pretty darn good voice especially on classic Chinese songs. Crowd ate it up and kept bugging here for more songs which was cooool. Good going guys, just a little more work on the Bob Marley covers. It looks like they were sporting yet another new bass player making it #3 this year if i’m not mistaken. Free The Birds came up next and I’m not sure what to say about this one. The band was rusty and out of sync big time but they were [...]
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Oct
11thGreat Ningxia Night, Superb Summer GroupThere was a whole lotta music this past week as i mentioned before with some pretty darn mesmerizing stuff starting with Super Ningxia Night at 2 Kolegas. For this October holiday edition, the gang pulled out all the stops and brought over a banging lineup with 7 bands: Nucleus, Zhao “lao da” yiran, Summer Group, Lidong, Buyi, Skarving and WHAI… how about that to get your socks off? Unfortunately, I missed Nucleus and Lao Da due to other commitments but got there for everyone else. The place was not packed and that made things quite a bit nicer: A good crowd but not elbows to elbows… The bands did their usual performances with all the good and bad that comes with it… I’m not really gonna review all of them but a few things did standout: Lidong: Good friends Lidong, with a new album almost ready, were missing the talented Wu Kejia on guitar so the songs sounded a bit different. The ever amicable Tofu tried making up for that absence replacing Wu’s guitar parts with interesting visual antics on stage. I really did the fact that Marie-Claude ( Mademoiselle) has rejoined the band. The accordion adds a lovely dimension to those songs. WHAI: So this is the unnamed project i referred to a few months ago with Liu Miao (2 Kolegas, Lidong), Zhang Wei(buyi / Longshendao) and Chen Zhong. The lineup might be new but the band has actually been around for a while with Ubuli on skins. I [...]
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Oct
3rdNational Holiday Quickslants: Modern Sky, Super Ningxia, Old What fun, Charity and moreIt’s been a beautiful beginning for october in Beijing with blue skies, mild temperatures and freaking empty roads… oh yeah! For those of us fortunate enough to be in Beijing and enjoying the quiet, it’s pretty cool. That said though, nightlife and music events are plentiful for the next few days… heck, there are so many that they get their own quickslants. Of special not is the charity show on October 8th at Mako Livehouse with Zhou Yunpeng raising money to benefit kids with haemophilia Modern Sky: October 3-5 I’m not even contemplating heading over to this one but it is happening over in huairou and the usual suspects will all be there. If you can brave the transportation issues and the disaster that modern sky run events are, then you should be fine. Head over to the Beijinggigguide for updated schedule of events. Monday Oct 3: Pairs @ Mao: More Shanghai bands doing the trip up north. They’re slapped with a bunch of indie bands but these kids are actually a lot heavier, noiser and more interesting. I’m really tempted to check them out tonight at Mao. They play along with Cassette, Me Too and Next Year’s Love. Buyi @ Jianghu: Haven’t seen my ningxia boys in a little while and I’ve actually never seen them at jianghu come to think about it. Heck, I haven’t been to Jianhu in a few weeks and this sounds like a nicer evening than the potential crapout at Mao. I hear they [...]
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Sep
28thQuickslants: Bone Rock, Free Kolegas, Lao Da’s Revenge, Old What Turn 9 and moreOctober holidays are straight ahead folks with tons and i mean TONS of music opportunities in Beijing including festivals and what not…. Basically you gotta really try hard to not find anything interesting. I’ll do an October Holiday Quickslants later to deal with the flurry of shows next week. For now, here’s what the end of the week looks like: Wednesday Sept. 28 Bone @ Mao Live: Admittedly, I never heard of these guys before Ruby mentioned they were playing and I’m not sure what they are like. That said, they’re playing along with Residence A whom I have not seen in quite some time and same goes for Me Too. Yang Tiao is one that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while. Should be a good mid-week rocker Tha Knutz @ jianghu: Ok I admit it. I’m superficial enough to go check out a band based on their name sometimes! This would be one of those cases if I didn’t remember the band’s name popping out all over the city’s Jazz venues. Tia’s voice works really well for that lounge/jazz/soul mix even though she sounds like she might be having a few issues with really high notes. Still, Definitely worth a look IMHO. The songs repeating on myspace started giving me a headache! Thursday Sept 29: Marianne Dissard @ D22: I saw her two weeks ago at yugong yishan.. a prelude to her appearance at Black Rabbit festival. I enjoyed her performance despite the lack of a [...]
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