chaile 拆了 - underground music from china

MIA, Back to Beijing

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:37:44 -0400

Summer has been fairly good to me, but not so much to the blog. I wanted everyone to know that I'm heading back to Beijing for a short trip in early September. The first half will be all work, but I'll have free time from around September 6th through the 13th. If anyone's around during that time, let me know. Maybe we can get together for a beer or three.

I'm hoping to do some CD shopping while I'm there, at FMusic and the Sugar Jar, and hopefully I'll be able to catch a show or two.

Subs in Europe

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 04:31:44 -0400

Once again, Beijing's premier punk rock band is in Scandinavia. And once again, Jon Campbell is touring with them, and blogging about their exploits.

"Wasted Orient"

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 20:49:12 -0400

One of the regular jokes among laowai music fans in Beijing is the prevalence of well-meaning but naive young western students that are terribly fascinated with the Chinese punk scene and ready to write a thesis, make a film, or (ahem) start a blog. "It represents the changing face of China!" With that in mind, I didn't have high hopes when Kevin Fritz sent me a review copy of his film about Beijing punks Joyside. Wasted Orient was a pleasant surprise, though; it's a very enjoyable trip following the gang of drunks on their first tour.

The first portion of the film doesn't stray far from the hutong where singer Bian Yuan and bassist Liu Hao live. Each of the four members gets some time to talk about their daily lives, their homes, and their family, while they buy beer, drink beer, head to the public toilets, and buy more beer. The shots of unglamorous old Beijing neighborhoods surrounded by construction are charming, and enough to make me miss Beijing.

Once the tour itself begins, The band and their manager hop on hard-seat trains, annoy their neighbors, and drink lots of beer. The band members can be quite charismatic. Yang Yang, a Japanese guitarist who joins the band for the tour, provides plenty of laughs, and Liu Hao drinks an amazing quantity of beer. As the tour stretches on, it begins to wear on the band. Bian Yuan withdraws, and the new cities seem indistinguishable.

For a movie about a band it's a shame, but the music is the most disappointing part of Wasted Orient. Joyside's performances have always been hit-and-miss, but there are few shots of the band performing for any length of time and Fritz unfortunately clutters up one of the longer sections with needless effects. Scenes with music have music, but not the band's. Don't get me started on the introduction—the music is grating and annoying. That's something that could have easily been left out.

The film is at its strongest in the conversations with the band members. Near the beginning, Liu Hao discusses what his family thinks of his life. "They think it's strange.... They don't have a clear idea of what I'm doing. They just know I drink everyday and play in a band. They don't know what I am thinking," he says. "I'm also not so clear." Wasted Orient is particularly good at showing the difference between the reality on the ground and the conceits of western reporters who claim that punk rock shows the new face of China. These kids (and they really are kids) don't have their own lives or places figured out, and it's foolish to place any leadership, cultural or otherwise, on their shoulders.

Fritz's work exceeded my expectations completely. Anyone with an interest in Chinese music, or hell, even just China should seek this out. If you're in Beijing, Wasted Orient is showing at Cherry Lane movies this Friday and Saturday. It can also be ordered directly from Fritz for $10.

Wasted Orient official website

Update: Here's the trailer:

Reflector on PBS's Foreign Exchange

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 23:42:36 -0400

Fareed Zakaria's new show, Foreign Exchange on PBS in the US, is, from what I understand, a well made, serious news program on foreign policy and world news. Last week, they also took a little side trip to a punk show in Beijing.

In Focus: Anarchy in the PRC

They are part of China’s first generation to grow up with both prosperity and exposure to Western pop culture. Members of Reflector, a Chinese punk rock band, have adopted expressions of dissent that not long ago would have cost musicians their lives. But today, punk rock is Beijing chic

Jesus. It's like every single reporter's first "article" about China. Oh my! Chinese people like rock music and some fans in one of the richest cities have mohawks! CHINA IS CHANGING!!1!

Bullshit story aside, they follow Reflector to their underground practice space, have a chat with Tian Jianhua (in English), and spy on some people waiting for a show outside of 13 Club. The whole show can be streamed from that link, or check the sidebar for just the "Anarchy in the PRC" clip.

Chaile Podcast #2

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:53:51 -0400

It took long enough, didn't it? Sometimes life gets in the way of my other plans. But today I had a spare half an hour, so you get a half hour of music.

Featured on today's podcast:

SUBS - "Red Hair" (unreleased demo)
美好药店 (Glorious Pharmacy) - "苍老虫" (请给我放大一张表妹的照片 [Please Enlarge My Cousin's Photograph])
B6 - "Little Absurdity" (Little 9 EP)
Double Fish - "Machine Man" (Hackers EP2)
U235 - "姥姥" (地下成都 [Underground Chengdu])
Cold Blooded Animal - "窗外 (Outside the Window)" (s/t)
718 - "执一 (One/The Funeral Song of Cosmos)" (非攻 [Nowise Assault])

Some of the links to thew new Chaile Wiki are empty at the moment. The others have content thanks to Azchael from Rock in China, who has been doing great work adding in information from his own database.

Please let me know what you think, either in the comments or by email at adam at chaile.org. And please look past the fact that I sound like a complete dork.

Pictures from Friday's show

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:08:22 -0500

My super-secret spy, aka Red Heart, sent me some great photos from Yang Fan's set with Funny Noise last week. Dig the glasses. It's a shame they only had the two weeks to play together before they had to return to Japan. Yang Fan sent me a recording the did for fun, and it sounds great. Here's hoping she finds a new band to play with. Thanks to April, too, for telling me about the show.

Upcoming shows

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 04:10:46 -0500

Some friends have passed along information about shows coming up soon, and I thought I'd pass them on:

Saturday in Beijing: Modern Sky showcase, with Joyside, Re-TROS, and New Pants (Xin Kuzi), and special guests. My super-secret spy friend has told me that Yang Fan, former guitarist from Hang on the Box and frontwoman for the late, lamented Ourself Beside Me will be performing. I don't know in what context, though. Tonight at Namless Highlands.
Saturday in Shanghai: Shanghai Streets presents Beijing's finest, SUBS, along with Living Thin and Slit. Awesome.
Starting on March 24th, Microfabrique will be held every Friday. Both the 24th and the 31st feature one of my favorites, B6.
On March 25th in Hong Kong FM3 will play an in-store show at White Noise Records.

My back hurts.

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:39:03 -0500

That's what I get for moving apartments. Sorry for the lack of updates—work, school, and moving to the best apartment ever have exhausted my fragile body. I'll be back soon. Thanks to Tom and Azchael for their updates to the Wiki, and to everyone who's commented on the idea. In a couple or three days I'll have some new additions. And next week? Maybe another podcast?

Introducing the Chaile Wiki

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:25:02 -0500

As I've mentioned before, I'm no expert on... well, on anything. I'm just a fan who tries to learn what he can and pass it on to anyone else that's interested. But since I'm not in Beijing any more, I can't keep up on what clubs are actively having shows, and I only know about band activity via the Internet and through friends.

So instead of letting the venue information grow staler and staler, I've decided to drop it into a wiki, and hope others will come by and help each other. I remember trying to find Nameless Highlands and Loup Chante the first couple times—some good directions would have been handy. And I don't have a clue about venues in Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, or elsewhere.

Welcome to the ChaileWiki.

In addition to venues, I'm also keeping a list of artists/bands and later, labels and shops. I'm certainly not the first to do this: Azchael has a very detailed list at Rock in China, the Chinese Rock Database is more comprehensive than I could ever hope to be (but in Japanese), and Chinese New Ear has a list as well. I think there's room for more than one. My intention with ChaileWiki is to keep information up to date, especially for links to bands' websites and activity, especially for those we've been discussing here on Chaile most. While being utterly comprehensive is great, I think I'll focus on what I like, and hopefully others will add to it and edit as they see fit.

You'll notice right off that there's not much content on it. I plan to add a couple of entries each day until I can remove the venue information from the main chaile.org site, and then go into the artists more. If any of you want to help the effort, create a user account and edit away. If there are major differences in style/structure, we can discuss it on the forum (or in the wiki discussion pages). If you need help using the system, there are docs at mediawiki.org (also in Chinese).

I hope it's useful to someone.

Reconfiguration Records looking for T-shirt designer

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 19:52:30 -0500

If anyone out there is a designer or aspiring designer, Reconfiguration Records is looking for someone to help out creating t-shirts for the label. If you can help or have some ideas, send an email to gzzjh8 at yahoo.com.cn.

P.K. 14 Documentary at Cherry Lane

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 18:12:14 -0500

What a surprise: On Saturday you can head out to Cherry Lane Movies in Beijing to see a showing of a documentary about P.K. 14, A Tour of the Public Kingdom.

This chronicle of Chinese rock band PK14's 2004 nationwide tour is a window into China today. Their music: a new voice in an ancient country. 'In Oct./Nov. 2004 Chinese band PK 14 embarked on their first nation wide tour of China. A Tour of the Public Kingdom is a chronicle of that tour. The music of PK 14's carries us through the Chinese countryside, through band-member's hometowns, crossing paths with friends and other bands also on tour, finally returning to Beijing.

The film was directed by David Harris. I wonder if we can dig up a copy for those of us outside of China. Thanks, Red Heart.

Chaile Podcast #1

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 01:38:22 -0500

This is something I've planned for quite some time. I'm happy to present the first edition of the Chaile Podcast, an Internet radio show featuring underground and independent music from China.

On the first edition, music from my former home, Beijing:

P.K. 14 - 故事 [Gushi] (白皮书 [White Paper])
Re-TROS [重塑雕像的权利] - TV Show (Hang the Police) (Cut Off!)
超级市场 [Supermarket] - 家 [Jia] (繁荣的 [Prosperous])
Panda Twin - Consecution Dream (WEVA Compilation)
Joyside - Hey Bitch (Eat Me Demo)
Dead J - Skyscape (Mental Imagery)

It's been a few years since I've done any radio work, and I was pretty nervous doing this. I also need to invest in a better microphone; there's lots of noise. But still, I'm pretty happy with it as a start. Please let me know what you think.

I don't know what the schedule will be for further podcasts, but check back here for more. You can also drop this URL into iTunes or another podcast/rss reader, and let it check for you.

This is just one of the big changes I talked about two weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get a few spare minutes to finish up the second.

Thanks all

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 23:27:27 -0500

I want to thank everyone who has emailed at commented in the last couple weeks. I've got more reviews coming down the line, and I have a couple major changes to the site coming soon; possibly this weekend. Keep an eye out.

Hey!!! Let's Break - NetWav Records Back Online

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 05:25:28 -0500

After a short hiatus due to legal/hosting issues, Double Fish's Netwav Records, the netlabel counterpart to Reconfiguration Records, has its files back online. Each of the releases deserve a full review, but I suggest starting with Hey!!! Let's Break section one, a compilation of breakcore from around the world. China is represented by iLoop, Double Fish himself, and Panda Twin, who contribute an awesome track called "Jazz Princess and Spirit." Also on the release is Jason Forrest, aka "Donna Summer," and Municiple.

If that's not enough free music for you, check out Beats Gratis, Municiple's fantastic blog about netlabels from around the world. There's enough great free music there to last quite a while.

Update: Oh, and because I'm obsessive-compulsive about my music metadata, I've entered all the track info on MusicBrainz for this album. You can grab one of their tools to set the metadata for you, which I recommend if you're anal or if you're using Last.fm/Audioscrobbler.

Re-TROS - Cut Off! (Badhead)

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 00:00:19 -0500

The first time I saw Re-TROS (a.k.a. Re-establishing the Rights of Statues and Rebuilding the Rights of Statues) was March of 2004, opening for Subs. No one I was with at B52 seemed to know who this trio was; everyone called them neige post-punk yuedui. As much as I loved Subs' performance, I couldn't get these guys out of my mind.

Fast-forward past two years and dozens of shows at every rock club in Beijing and you get Re-TROS' debut EP, Cut Off! It's hard to be unbiased about a record I've anticipated for so long; it's hard to listen to these songs and not think about how many evenings I spent rocking out to them at Wuming Gaodi. So if I can't be unbiased, at least I can be honest.

Cut Off! opens ominously with "Die in 1977," a dark mid-tempo rocker that sets up much of the EP's successful aspects, as well as those slightly less inspired. Like singer/guitarist Hua Dong's old band, P.K. 14, Re-TROS has absorbed the lessons of early-80s post-punk well; spiky guitars, bouncing basslines, and complex but unfussy drumming form the core of their sound. Unfortunately, the killer combination is muted by overproduction again and again. It does feel like the producer doesn't quite have an ear for what was being recorded.

"A Death-Bed Song" is where their groove really sets in; Liu Min's bassline starts the song alone, building a foundation for the burst of guitar and drums that follow. Subtle keyboards from Brian Eno add to the atmosphere. Although well layered, "A Death-Bed Song" does reveal another one of the EP's shortcomings, one that also affects every Chinese act that sings in English—somewhat mangled grammar and word choice that can be distracting. While it's by no means overwhelming, the emphasis Hua Dong puts into each line of the next track, "Boys in Cage" [sic] can be distracting. But at the same time, it's hard to care too much, because "Boys" rocks so much. Propulsive drumming from Ma Hui forms the perfect backing to the Gang of Four inspired guitar lines,

The unnecessary panning that opens "The Monkey Who Becomes (to be) the King" is a shame; it softens the impact of one of their great live openings. This, their most intricate song, provides Hua Dong an opportunity for some vocal gymnastics; one can imagine the sneer on his face when he snarls out the lines— "If the monkey becomes to be the king, is it so funny?"

But it's not until "TV Show (Hang the Police)" that Cut Off! peaks. Tight lines from all three circle around until a short breakdown, where distortion on Liu Min's bass kicks in, and the their most overtly political vocals start. "Hang the police under his shotgun/ Hang the police before we all are murdered," he warns, continuing with "I'm watching TV/ it shows the distance between you and me" while Liu Min belts out the refrain. This illuminates the one truly serious issue I have with the recording, besides the production—there's just not enough of Liu Min's vocals. One of the highlights of their life show is seeing the diminutive bassist issue a stream of yelps and Oh!s and Ah!s.

"Laugh from the Time" ends the EP on a positive note. Not a positive note, lyrically, I suppose—"You try to stop the time but it never works/ It's hard to choose the right way/ Oh, it's OK, you'll be dead anyway"—but the upbeat tempo and wonderful La-La-La finale produce the EP's most uplifting effect.

As I said, it's hard for me to treat this like any other CD I come across. But even as I'm critical about the overproduction, I can't help but be even more excited about the future for the band. If this is what they can produce on their first try, I can imagine what we're in store for when they prepare an LP. And if they can round up an experienced producer that can bring out their strengths, they could inspire quite a following.

I'm already anticipating it.