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May
9thMIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll
Ah.. so, despite the temptations of XTX at Strawberry, yours truly couldn’t resist the call of rock n roll! I just had to get me my MIDI May Day fix, no matter how far I had to go. And to be honest with you, 60km is actually not that far. The biggest problem with it was dealing with shitty ass traffic as all license plate restrictions are lifter during official holidays. but.. let’s not get ahead of ourselves.. and start from the beginning! The location: China Music Valley was impressive! As much as I enjoyed the Shunyi Olympic Park, this place was 10 times better! The festival was set in a valley surrounded by mountains with beautiful blue skies prevailing for the days I was there. I’m glad I went because I’m now thinking of heading back there sooner or later for a little break and even maybe some ski action. Getting there was relatively smooth using MIDI shuttles but it did take a looooooooonnnnng freaking time. On Monday, for day 1, it took slightly over 3,5 hours to make the trek with traffic backed up beyond belief. Tuesday was a bit better at 2,5 hours but still a long journey. Getting back was a heck of a lot faster as we were back in town within the hour. The Facilities: True to form, MIDI was a good old party: plenty of grass, lots of vendors peddling their wares, cheapish drinks and water, short lines and good times. The official [...]
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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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Mar
10thDown: New Black Snakes Single Tribute to SUBS
I think I mentioned this before a while back and I even posted a video of Norway’s Black Snakes covering Down (by SUBS) at 2 Kolegas during their last tour. Well, guess what folks, the full blown video is out and it’s a treat with tons of probably unknown cameos by some Beijingers and ex-Beijingers. If the video doesn’t load automatically, go see it here: http://vimeo.com/57092393 As I mentioned before, something like this is really one hell of a step ahead for the Chinese music industry and a testament to the genius of SUBS, especially the songwriting team of Kang Mao and Wu Hao.. Now if people could buy their songs online, things would be different. What do you think? Get more Black Snakes here http://blacksnakes.no
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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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Aug
28thThe Beijinger Showcase Delivers on Good Times, Beer and some MusicSo last year at some point, the Beijinger managing editor promised a New Music Showcase and the team set out to deliver. The result was called “The Beijinger New Music Showcase” that took place last week over at 2 Kolegas… The promise was for the audience to discover new music, drink a lot of beer ( free flow from 4:00 to 11:00pm included Slow Boat, Vedett, Tiger and Budweiser) and have one hell of a party. I got there a little late on the day so I missed the first few bands that went on, namely Not There and Pacololo but I did manage to catch Residence A, Stiletto, Elephant Fresh,Ronnie’s Will, Bad Mamasan, the new SUBS and the Amazing Insurance Salesmen.. That is a decent lineup worth the admission price , especially at RMB100 ( btw, full disclosure, I didn’t pay to get into this gig). I was excited to actually catch some band I hadn’t seen before along with some sure values. Granted, the only really new band in the fold was Stiletto but we’ll deal with that later. Residence A was on as i got there putting on a performance like only they can do. The played most of their usual songs but also had some new material that sounds a bit different, mellower than their early efforts. They had the crowd jumping throughout most of their set and the excitement boiled up with some moron pouring his beer over Zhao Zhao whom managed to not miss [...]
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Aug
16thQuickslants: Punks Rule, The Beijinger Showcase And More Weekend MusicMan did the week fly by. I was planning to throwing in a couple of overdue album reviews that have been on the backburner for some time then next thing i see, it’s Thursday and the Quickslants are due.. Ouch! Tough slants this week with some big ass events going head to head and a lot of people split as to which one to go for. Let’s check them out Thursday August 16th Knucklebone Oscar @ Mao He’s labelled as Scandinavia’s best kept secret. A dynamo that’s half man and half ape but all power and mischief. It’s a whole lotta rockabilly and blues as far as I’m concerned. really old school and punchy. Actually I might just have to ditch my plans and go check it out. Powerman 5000 @Yugong Rob Zombie’s little brother and his crew are in town for some cleaned up power metal or whatever they call it these days. I would have preferred to get big brother in town but this could be an opportunity for the younger bands to get a little lesson in showmanship. Friday August 17 Rock for Eve @ 2 Kolegas Who am I to say no to this? Wu & the Side effects, Beijing Beatles along with Wu and the Side Effects will be on hand to bring the fun at 2 Kolegas. I think it might be the first time all 3 of these bands are on one bill and at least two of them have not played in [...]
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Aug
10thPunks, 16min, Dialects, Releases and other tidbitsIt’s nice to have time to ramble on again… been way too busy around here for the last few weeks. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that tomorrow, Saturday August 11th, is the mother of Punk Reunion/Charity shows at 2 kolegas. Everyone has been pitching in and helping out, online and offilne, to make this particular gig a success. Check out this interview of Dave O’Dell over at Shanghai 24/7, this little feature on The World of Chinese by Liz Tung on some of the original Punks of Beijing and let’s not forget Pangbianr sitting down with Jerry Chan. I’m hoping the event rocks and rain doesn’t fuck things up. Our favorite boot boys are heading overseas!! Misandao is booked to play Germany plenty of European dates folks so if you’re a Germany based blog reader, please try and catch them. This is really the year of China in Germany as their dates pretty much comes on the heels of Chinese bands at Wacken. check full schedule here: http://misandao.blogspot.com Sticking with Punks, there’s a lot of chatter about some interesting lineup changes coming up for one of our favorite bands here over at ‘daze. Keep your eyes peeled on this space or make it to the Beijinger’s music showcase next week for a taste of SUBS v.2012 Things might get interesting. I’d love to say more but I’d rather tease, it’s just more fun that way. I managed to catch 16 min yesterday at Temple and came [...]
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Jul
31stNews To Ooze: No Megadeth, Welcome Apocalyptica, Beijinger Showcase, Punk & Hardcore FestivalsWell well well… Megadeth’s show on August 3rd has been “postponed” until further notice. This doesn’t really come as a surprise. 2 weeks to the show, no prices were announced, no advertising was printing etc.. I’m not sure the folks from Guitar China have any credibility left outside of a few hardcore fan who believe their “we’re the victim” cries. They had a major fuck up with Dream Theatre not too long ago and now they pulled off this one. The consensus since day one was that it was impossible that Megadeth would be playing Tango: Too small, they’re too expensive and somethings just didn’t add up. On the other hand, Apocalyptica is confirmed to play at Yugong Yishan this September. Originally, rumors had them playing Beijing earlier this summer at the workers’ gym but nothing came out of that. They are reportedly confirmed for September 7th at Yugong Yishan which has the potential for being a madhouse considering the legions of Metallica fans in China and how this is the closest they’ll get to it for a little while. They’re also playing Mao Live in Shanghai. The Beijinger has announced the lineup for their New Music Showcase at 2 Kolegas. Looking good with Subs, Bad Mamasan, Residence A, Amazing Insurance Salesmen, Not There etc…. I can’t complain: half the bands on the lineup were there for ‘dazeFEAST. Hoever, I’m kinda bummed a little bit though because I really was hoping they’d go out and help discover new bands, bring [...]
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Jul
11thcool news and happening: Chinese Metal at Wacken, Lidong on the charts and Black Snakes Substhere’s been quite a bit of things happening around the Chinese music scene as of late and some of them are particularly exciting for yours truly, especially in terms of developing the scene overseas: Suffocated, Yaksa and The Falling will be featured in this year’s Wacken open air metal festival. How about that folks? 3 Chinese bands playing the biggest Metal festival in the world.. I’m stoked! This is a huge feat with many parties involved to make it happen including MIDI, Painkiller Magazine’s Yu Yang and the Chinese Ministry of Culture. I hope this works out for all parties concerned. A few years back, Voodoo Kungfu made it to Wacken but there never seemed to be any follow up. Here’s hoping this is different and the bands make the most of their opportunity. For those going to Wacken ( lucky bastards), the show times are scheduled as follows ( h/t Rock in China) The Falling on W:E:T Stage 02-08-2012 at 16:40 Yaksa on Headbangers Stage 03-08-2012 at 11:30 Suffocated on Party Stage 04-08-2012 at 11:00 Congrats to the bands going and good luck! I think Suffocated will do just fine. Yaksa really needs to have a good day to impress but The Falling will get swallowed live. A band like SAW, Tomahawk or Ordnance would have done a much better job in terms of appealing to a Metal audience that knows their shit. On a lighter fokier note, looks like the lidong masterplan is picking up: Their song Xiao [...]
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May
10thRock Coming of Age? Muma on Gap, SUBS on Adidas…..I’ve been noticing a trend over the past few months where more mainstream brands are reaching out to the “underground” rock scene and using them openly in commercials. Sure, pop stars have graced the sides of buses nationwide for decades… underground rock stars? not so much. Are we headed into an era where Rock n Roll is slowly becoming more mainstream in the motherland? I don’t really have tons of thoughts on this yet but I have noticed the trend happening more and more: Zippo sponsored a whole series of events a few years back. Tiger beer went out and organized their own battle of the bands. Converse reached out to Da Bang/Bigger Bang last year. Adidas made a splash by getting the extremely independent SUBS to be featured in their line of Adidas Originals. ( ht/ Neocha) and now, just this week, I noticed Gap has picked Muma alongside starlett Juliet Simms sure, I hate to see rock n roll’s image compromised and tainted with commercialism but when it’s done properly, I like it and think it fits.
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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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- Mamer & Song Yuzhe: opposites attract at Jianghu
- Dreamer Festival 2013 – Azure Ray, Shan Ren, Omnipotent Youth Society and More
- PS: You Rocked Me – Abaji, One Drop, Devils, Yungiema etc..
- Quickslants: No Dong, Some Punk, a Little Ordnance and more
Can of Worms?
- karen millen dresses How Can you Use Myspace Layouts on Quickslants: Jurat, PiL, XTX, Yangjima for a Loaded End of Week
- HEATWOLVES热狼 on Full MIDI 2013 Information: Camping, Travelling, Hotels and More
- Joann on Quickslants: Jurat, PiL, XTX, Yangjima for a Loaded End of Week
- On The Scene: 2013 Strawberry Festival Day 1 | Live Beijing Music on MIDI 2013: Anywhere, Anytime, Thanks for the Rock n Roll
- ex virility pill on Quickslants: Jurat, PiL, XTX, Yangjima for a Loaded End of Week