chaile 拆了 - Links

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jon Campbell on the Top Floor Circus

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:48:36 -0500

I missed this last week. Jon's latest Foreign Devil column for PopMatters is on Shanghai's Top Floor Circus, reveling in what he calls Post (Modern) Punk:

The set began ominously, with barely a minute of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". The song was cut off by an angry Lu Chen (vocals), but with his overly large smirk not far below the angry façade, we knew that this was part of the plan. Next, a brutal death-metal track, cut off, once again, before the real Top Floor Circus gig began.

Over the top? Perhaps. But it was a perfect start to a perfect night of amazingly sub-par music. The drummer could barely keep up. The playing was sloppy; each musician was obviously trying very hard to play at a mediocre level.

But it was glorious.

I'm disappointed; I've never seen the 顶楼的马戏团 (Top Floor Circus). In fact, I've only heard the collaboration with 另外两位同志 (The Other Two Comrades) and 颜峻 (Yan Jun), 上海现场 (Improvisation in Shanghai).

Buddha Machine Roundup

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 07:28:37 -0500

FM3's wondrous little box has gotten lots of attention over the past few months. As I listen to track 4, "b1", you can take a look at what music nerds worldwide have had to say.

Last week übernerds Pitchfork gave a raving review to the Buddha Machine, saying:

But I don't want to get hung up on its artistry, because most important of all, it's also an object. The minute I opened the box, I wanted to hold it in my hand, and play with the switches, and carry it around with me. It has an output jack, but it's much more fun to listen to its cheap built-in speaker: at low volumes, the loops are placid, fitting into the corner of your ear, but turn up the dial or press it to your ear and you hear hundreds of nuances and crackles of static. And best of all, the music never stops. Sure, you can listen to a minimalist CD and imagine how it would feel to hear it for days on end, but the Buddha Machine lets you try it: There's no 80-minute limit, and the batteries will go for hours. Psychologically, it makes a big difference when you aren't waiting for the music to fade out.

Jon Whitney from Brainwashed seems to miss the point, focusing on the cheapness of the construction (I have a newer one that doesn't have these flaws) and on some sort of strange tangent about authenticity:

And finally, there's absolutely nothing authentic about this unit: this is -not- music captured in a Buddhist temple and boxed up for western consumption. In fact, that mere idea flies in the face of buddhism to even take such a sacred element and profit off it. It is a very neat little toy for the easily amused music über-nerd.

I thought the reuse of the factory's standard packaging was a nice touch, myself.

But before we go thinking that this press attention is limited to blogs, in November the grey lady herself, the New York Times, sung its praises:

Who says a boxed set has to include CD's? ''Buddha Machine'' is, literally, a small plastic box with a built-in speaker, a headphone jack and a little switch you use to toggle between nine different and quite lovely ambient electronic compositions. It's the product of FM3 (www.fm3.com.cn), the Beijing-based duo of Christiaan Virant (who compiled the recent Sublime Frequencies CD ''Radio Pyongyang'') and Zhang Jian. The members say their device is a modified version of a popular Chinese gadget that intones Buddhist prayers; this new model is a weird, mesmerizing, beautifully useless thing. Available in the United States through forcedexposure.com.

For more information, check out interviews with Christiaan Virant at Rare Frequency and Disquiet. The Disquiet interview has a long explanation of what went into the construction and creation. Also take a gander at this video: FM3 playing chess with Buddha Machines, uploaded to YouTube by Lawrence from Global Noise Online. Christiaan replied with an explanation of this sound art game, which they call "Buddha Boxing."

Notes from around the web

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 22:12:51 -0500

Global Noise Online is an excellent blog about sound art and new media art, "with an emphasis on China and other developing areas in the world." They have regularly covered noise and electronic music from China, including translations of blog posts by artists, reviews, and news. If you have the slightest interest in what's going on in those scenes, consider GNO essential. (Until recently their site was at globalnoiseonline.wordpress.com, but they've since moved to Chinese New Ear).

Azchael from Rock in China has posted several times on the forums here, and I don't hesitate to label his site essential, as well. Covering all aspects of rock (loosely defined here to include electronic music as well), with a special emphasis on metal. And while I've been remiss in linking to his site before, I am forever in his debt for his post about B6's new EP, My Post-Rock Yard (with a link to B6's original post on his blog). The download link is bad at B6's place, but Azchael rehosted the four MP3s.

Mothers Against Noise vol. 1 is a free online compilation created as a response to the Mothers Against Noise "anti-noise" organization (which has since been outed as a marketing gimmick. Never mind the gimmick, just grab the free comp, which features Crno Klank (a Belgian collective featuring cdrk) and B6, who submitted a three minute wall of noise, "Chill Out Muzik [POP mix]", under the name Bizix.

Token White Guy

Thu, 26 May 2005 03:38:38 -0400

Jon Campbell sent along a notice of his recent column in Pop Matters, Token White Guy, on working as a musician in Beijing.

Enlightenment comes with little regard to time or space. I learned this in a hidden corner of a central Beijing shopping mall last Christmas. If it hadn't hit me before then, I certainly came to a satori of sorts as I was pounding on a conga to the fourth round of 'Girl from Ipanema' in as many days. It's not that I don't like the song (there's a time and a place for everything, after all), or that the conga is completely unnecessary for a live version of this tune, to say nothing of the dozen other jazz standards that I played over the course of four afternoons. It wasn't even that our audience was composed of uninterested shoppers, mall employees and the staff of the Adidas shop not six feet from the 'stage'. It was the fact that my face was more important to the gig than either my drum or my abilities thereupon: I was there not in the capacity of conga player. I was there in the capacity of Foreigner.

Pictures from the Chinapunx show

Thu, 05 May 2005 01:54:18 -0400

Kathy took some pictures of last night's Chinapunx birthday show, including pictures of Hang on the Box, Joyside, End of the World, and Reflector.

"FM3 do not consist of 3 people."

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 21:26:09 -0400

In the new City Weekend, Paul Kendall writes about Beijing based laptop duo FM3.

FM3's music begs an interesting question: which is harder, bludgeoning an audience into submission at 100 decibels, or overwhelming them into stillness through sheer musical will?

Spot on.

I had a chance to see a prototype of the mentioned "FM3 Buddha Machine." It's a neat little device, and an interesting idea.

Old School

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 05:59:29 -0400

This month's That's Beijing features a trio of articles about the history and future of Beijing's music scene.

Kaiser Kuo and editor Jerry Chan start with Old School: "The people and players who helped launch a scene."

Once upon a time (and not so long ago) there was no live music scene in Beijing: no smoky live houses, no leather-clad metal boys, no blue-haired punks, not so much as one Filipino cover band. It was Peking Opera, the Yellow River Concerto, the guy in the park with the erhu, or nothing.

Next is an interesting roundtable discussion with musicians, managers, and others involved in the business. Most of the discussion centers on what's wrong with the scene; fingers are pointed at the bands' creativity, fans' unwillingness to pay, and record companies. Wang Yuqi, guitarist for Second Hand Rose, Muma, and Zhang Chu gets it right, I think:

On the difficulties of performing:

I find that there is a lot of live music in Beijing, but there are few good live music events. It's a mess. People who go to watch live music have high hopes for the event, and if it isn't organized well, people will give up watching. Bands shouldn't play music at random. Both bands and their companies should have a plan for the performance - but nobody has a clear idea of what a really good stage performance is. I believe that if you play music well, you'll have a large audience.

I agree. I don't have a stake in the shows here, in any sense; I'm just a fan. But it's hard to evangelize when shows are cancelled or changed without notice (I'm looking at you, Get Lucky), there's little to no promotion, and the lineups are haphazard.

The recurring theme of the conversation is numbers: how can we (those of us that care about the music) get more people interested? Is there any way we can get those kids at the University show to come out to Wuming Gaodi?

Last, Jon Campbell (an awfully nice guy, by the way) writes a follow-up to their selection of 2003's best bands, looking at what Ruins, Second Hand Rose, Long Kuan, and others are up to these days.

All are excellent reads, and the print version has some great photography.

Will the real Kang Mao please stand up

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 01:31:45 -0500

I'm thrilled that City Weekend is talking about SUBS; they're on of Beijing's best bands, and they have an explosive live show. A huge factor in that is Kang Mao, their ferocious singer.

But come on, couldn't at least one person look at the article first and say, "That's not Kang Mao, that's a Beijing Opera singer"?

For future reference, here's the real Kang Mao:

Cui Jian on flash

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:16:00 -0500

Jeremy posted this on Danwei some time ago, but I never linked to it. Cui Jian has an animated video (using flash) for his new song, Mr. Red. It's quite fun. Sort of a cross between South Park and Super Mario.

CDRK/C-drík

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 22:02:48 -0500

Thanks to a helpful pointer from FM3, my Google-fu has improved, and I can tell you a bit more about the tonight's headlining artist:

CDRK has many recordings.
CDRK has one mp3/ogg for download from an upcoming album.
CDRK has a livejournal.

Around the web

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:34:55 -0500

Something to read on a Thursday night or Friday morning:

Live Music Lowdown: Paul Kendall writes about the Beijing band Ziyo.
Gangstalean: That's Beijing editor Jerry Chan's blog about music, iPods, and everything else.
The Four Represents: Beijing-based Jon Campbell writes about music in Beijing for PopMatters. (via the absolutely essential Danwei)