chaile 拆了 - Pictures

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.

Sonic Beijing #1 Pictures

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:24:24 -0400

Monday's show was excellent, if sparsely attended. Congrats to Jian Cui and Shanshui Records for putting on a great show, and here's hoping there will be many more after this.

Sulumi's music is like a sunshine overdose. Crystal clear game boy melodies high high high in the mix, with all the beats and rumbling noise just below the surface.

Dead J was all over the place stylistically, veering from downtempo to techno with deep deep basslines. Check out the August 4th show - it's a cd release for his new record.

Municiple - from the US; steady steady techno + twisted reggae vocals. Very, very nice.

iLoop was noisy as hell, and that boy can jump. Every one of you should go get his EP Don't Break My Core, part of the Shanshui.zip box.

HardOff - UK via Japan. The picture doesn't show it, but this guy dances more than any laptop musician I've ever seen. I know that's not saying much, but still. And getting an audience here out of their seat and dancing? That's hard work. The music? Absolutely fucking destroys. Somehow he seemed to squeeze every kind of music ever made into 10 seconds.

Double Fish - Awesome. A fine way to end out the electronic music. Now, I swear there was some video game music samples in there - Ninja Gaiden, maybe.

Godot, from Shanghai, were the last act. They play instrumental post-rock in the vein of Explosions in the Sky. Highly recommended, especially for all of you that live down there. They've got a new album out, but it's a shame they didn't have any on them at the time.

Rebuilding news, Subs on fire

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:49:11 -0400

Sometimes the 6-7 band shows can be a little tiring; seeing two bands that completely destroy can be very refreshing. Saturday's show was like that. Rebuilding the Rights of Statues were absolutely fantastic - possibly the best they've ever been. Hua Dong had sweat pouring off him halfway through the first song, and Ma Hui and Liu Min were tight tight tight.

Halfway through the show Benjamen leaned over to me and asked if I had their CD; he couldn't believe that a band this good hadn't released one yet. But the wait's almost over! Hua Dong told me that in September 重塑雕像的权利 will finally release an EP. I'll be gone then, but you better believe that disc will get express mailed somehow.

Subs were a little off their game, but still great and as volatile as ever. I didn't see them at MIDI, so I'm curious as to how their sound will translate to the big stage in Inner Mongolia.

Goodbye, Lenin. Hello, Yaogun.

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 21:26:06 -0400

I posted this last week, but I accidentally forgot to put it on the front page.

From Sunday's show at 13Club:

I didn't catch this guy's name, but the half a set I caught was good.

This was my first time seeing Car Sick Cars. Hua Dong told me they were a bit like Explosions in the Sky, but I think more of a Sonic Youth/Velvet Underground split. They're still a bit rough, but it's definitely a band to watch out for.

This is a bad picture, but I like it anyways.

It's very hard to get a picture of Kang Mao standing still. She doesn't seem to do it very much.

This was my first time seeing Wan Xiaoli. I'm impressed.

幸福大街 (Happy Avenue).

I didn't get any good pictures of Rebuilding the Rights of Statues this time.

Two Tigers: Bedzoo Showcase

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 01:20:22 -0400

Congratulations to the folks at Bedzoo for putting on an excellent show.

Me:mo - who I was excited to see live, since I liked his album and his tracks on the various comps, started out strong. Despite a nagging ground hum, his sound–pleasant, chime-like synths with slight glitches here and there–was captivating. "Fireworks," the most recognizable track from his self-titled CD, was featured in a distinct form, with extra flourishes.

Next up was Jeven; smooth synth lines and endless breaks. Nice.

The oddest entry of the night was 十口几点 (Shikoujidian), with his miniature Casio tweaked to sound like a toy piano paired with a melodica. Is there such a thing as melodica-core?

I might be wrong, but I believe the next act was PNF. Tecno with great beats and wave combinations - very melodic. I could listen to this all day.

I missed this guy's name. He looked a bit bored. Fun music though; not often you hear samples from Lou Reed interviews at shows.

Last night was Yang Tao's first show, according to his friend. Dribble dribble drip drop. Off to a good start.

Yang Tao was joined later by Jian Cui. His was a very minimal style. It's interesting how after tonal washes and drones beats can feel so refreshing. He did answer his phone once, but he hung up right away. Perhaps it was a wrong number.

Last act of the night was label boss ZaOYiN (Liu Wei).

Fantastic. Lots of variety, and the sets were generally short and sweet. I'm looking forward to the next one.

SUBS, Ourself Beside Me, and Another Idea

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 14:26:10 -0400

From Friday's show at 13 Club:

We'll miss you.

What an amazing show SUBS put on. This tour has really been good for them. They fleshed out their set with some new songs, and - if it's possible - even more energy. Even the appearance by the Laowai Asshole Contingent couldn't screw this up.

And there's more good news; SUBS will be playing their first shows outside the country in August, when they will travel to Norway! Congratulations are in order.

Joy Division Tribute show

Mon, 30 May 2005 02:20:36 -0400

Saturday was the Nameless Highland's Joy Division/Ian Curtis tribute show. The club was packed from the beginning, and it didn't let up. There were quite a few people that I haven't seen before, which was nice. I only caught a bit of openers Re-Nirvana and Bad FM.

Joyside was, well, Joyside. These guys are all right, and their Stooges inspired drunken punk has some good parts, but I just can't get into them that much. Saturday's show was one of their better ones, though.

After that was an interesting new act, Xanadu (仙都); this four piece mixed live bass, drums, and guitar with samples. Most of the samples were from Twenty-Four Hour Party People keeping the Ian Curtis theme going. It's a shame that they had only limited success - it definitely sounded like their first time out, especially the guitarist and the unfortunately off key warbling of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by the woman working the sampler. I hope they stick with it, though, and find their direction.

新裤子 (New Pants) used to be a pop-punk outfit. There songs were catchy, and their audiences were always full of college girls bopping their heads. But sometime in the last few months they've morphed into a disco band, of all things. Their drummer has been replaced by a Bono-style sunglass-wearing synth/sampler player and hype man. In between bouts of looking detached he'd grab the mic and yell "Let's go!" while throwing his free hand up in the air. The rest of the band didn't seem to know what to do with this new style; they're not going into all out dancepunk or mutant disco mode, and they seem to be half ironic and half sincere. I can only hope that future shows will include less finger pointing into the audience. Or more.

Finishing off the night were my favorites, 重塑雕像的权利 (Rebuilding the Rights of Statues). While the other bands nobly gave Joy Division covers a try, Hua Dong & Co. were the only ones that could even come close. After four impassioned covers, they went into a set of their own songs. And Saturday might have been the only time I've seen a local band with not even an EP to their name get such a response from the crowd that they played an encore song. Good job, guys.

Ourself Beside Me call it quits

Mon, 23 May 2005 21:27:40 -0400

I got some bad news last week, and confirmed it this week. One of Beijing's best live bands has broken up, before recording anything but a demo.

They'll have one more show in June, they say, and that's it. drummer Liu Bao will continue playing in　新裤子 (Xin Kuzi, New Pants), and bassist Liu Min will stay in 重塑雕像的权利 (Rebuilding the Rights of Statues).

Here are pictures from Saturday's show at Nameless Highland.

More pictures from Beijing New Sound

Mon, 23 May 2005 05:43:35 -0400

Jackson was nice enough to send along these pictures from the last part of the show.

Beijing New Sound Pictures

Sun, 22 May 2005 01:13:48 -0400

Eugene Martynec is frowning.

Marqido has finished.

Wang Fan is twiddling knobs.

The Lanzhou Noise Society is living up to their name.

Li Jianhong is working with a contact mic on a television as a sound source.

718 is almost completely motionless.

C-Drik would like the PA to be louder.

I enjoyed the show quite a bit. I'm sorry I had to leave early, though.

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.

A damn good show

Sat, 09 Apr 2005 01:02:43 -0400

You know, I feel sorry for everyone that missed it.

And that's it - I'm off for Thailand. I'll be back in May!

Ourself Beside Me at Beijing University of Post & Telecommunications

Sun, 03 Apr 2005 22:42:58 -0400

The show was strange, to say the least. The student center at 北京邮电大学 had nice old wooden stage, and the crowd was respectful to the point of immobility. It's strange to see a band like 3+X, who I last saw on the tiny stage of Loup Chante, play on such a large space. Perhaps they can add horizontal jumps in addition to the vertical ones.

Ourself Beside Me played a great set, including a rousing cover of the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer." I unfortunately came late, and missed the start of Rebuilding the Rights of Statues' set, but I did hear an incredible new song. The title was something along the lines of "The Monkey Who Wants to be King."

Kudos to the guitar club of Youdian Daxue - you guys put on a great show. Reminds me of my days in college radio. Ah, good times.

Here are a few pictures from the show. I'll be back soon with some shows from this week, and maybe even some reviews.

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:

非鱼 (No Fish) and No Colour

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 06:19:27 -0500

Last night's show wasn't bad. No Colour were a bit too Cure for me. The highlight was a surprising cover of Air's "Surfing on a Rocket." No Fish played surprisingly good Brit-pop. They did break a few unspoken rules, such as "don't play two covers by the same band in the same set,"—they should have stopped after "Wonderwall"—but they had a lot of energy, even though the crowd was small and most weren't paying much attention.

I just picked up a new camera, and I'm still getting used to it, but here are a couple pictures of No Fish frontman Liu Yang and guitarist Wu Lei.