chaile 拆了 - Beijing

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

Rebuilding the Rights of Statues prep EP, visit with Eno

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 22:39:29 -0500

I've been waiting for this for a long time.

This Friday 重塑雕像的权利 (Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, or Re-TROS, as they seem to be using now) are releasing their debut EP, Cut Off! on Modern Sky records. Hua Dong, Liu Min, and Ma Hui have been turning heads for about two years now, and after every show I'd overhear people asking about CDs to buy. It's about time, I think. While recording Cut Off! Modern Sky had a unusual visitor—Brain Eno himself. Eno stopped in on the recording session and lent a hand.

The release party is at Nameless Highland, with Dirty One and 后海大鲨鱼 (Queen Sea Big Shark) opening. Now, the rumor is that Eno will play a set, as well, but this is unconfirmed. I'm trying to find out the truth.

Now kids, since I can't be there, I'm expecting all of you to take some pictures and send them to me, at adam at chaile.org.

Update: Looks like it was a faulty rumor, started by Xianzai Beijing. Eno left Beijing a while ago, and Modern Sky and Nameless Highland don't mention it.

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.

Sonic Beijing

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 05:16:38 -0400

Are you ready? Tonight's show is going to be great. I can feel it. And I'm sure they'll have copies of Dead J's newest release, Mental Imagery, which just came out on Modern Sky.

It looks like Modern Sky has some big news out now, as well - I'll post more after I finish reading it (I'm very, very slow).

In other news, this is the last show that I personally am going to promote. It's been a great run, and I don't see Beijing musicians slowing down any time soon. So keep searching, and keep supporting these artists.

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.

This weekend

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 02:07:41 -0400

Two shows of note, both on Friday: One is Carsick Cars at the Old What? Bar. This is a good chance to see this indie rock trio at a small place. I'd suggest not being late; you never know how many bands will actually play at these shows, and if it's only them, they might start early.

I can't make heads or tails of the other: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, at 13Club. It appears to be a collection of musicians from lots of Beijing bands, but I don't know what exactly they'll be doing - it seems to be some sort of party, or perhaps a discussion. Here's the announcement, from the 13Club blog:

07月15日(周五) 摇滚乐畅谈会~~~“昨天  今天  和明天”

这是一次朋友聚会，来自摇滚乐各阵营的代表们将齐聚一堂，以喝酒为主，交流为辅，畅谈的主题是“昨天  今天  明天”本活动的宗旨是“不吐不快，不醉不归”，欢迎各位朋友踊跃参加。

艺人：高虎（痛仰）叶景滢（反光镜）胡松（夜叉）老猫（AK47）应鹏（军械所）赵宇（导言）王乐（挂在盒子上）IMITATION乐队等十余支乐队代表

唱片公司：徐凯鹏

乐评：赤潮

媒体：崔忠鹏/《口袋音乐》，《重型音乐》  郑长宇/《团结》，祁又一/ 精品/  郭小寒

网络：高地音乐网站： Pas  中国地下音乐网：尸体再现

演出策划: 刘浩  老杨（白糖罐）张惠/糖果文化  刘立新

铁托们：欢迎你们提出宝贵意见和建议~！

Time时间： PM09:00 Ticket门票：免门票 /free

To make it interesting, I ran it through Babelfish:

On July 15 (Friday) rock and roll will speak freely about can ~~~ "yesterday today and tomorrow" This is a friend gets together, comes from the rock and roll various camps' representative an oligomerization hall, drinks primarily, exchanges for auxiliary, spoke freely about the subject will be "yesterday today tomorrow" this active objective is "has to speak out, was not drunk does not turn over to", welcome fellow friends to participate enthusiastically. Entertainer: The high tiger (pain supine) Ye Jingying (reflector) the Hu pine (demon) the old cat (AK47) should the huge mythical bird (weapon) the Zhao space (introduction) the king be happy (hangs on box) the IMITATION orchestra and so on ten orchestras represents the record company: Xu Kaipeng le Ping: Red tide media: Cui Zhongpeng/"Pocket Music", "Heavy Music" Zheng Changyu/"Unity", Qi an/high-quality goods/Guo Slight Cold network: High ground music website: Pas China underground music network: The corpse reappearance performance plans: Liu Haolao Yang (sugar bowl) benefit/candy culture Liu Lixin Tito: Welcome you to propose the valued suggestion and suggests ~! Time time: PM09:00 Ticket admission ticket: Exempts admission ticket /free

So there you go. Participate enthusiastically, and remember, "Has to speak out, was not drunk does not turn over to!"

Weekly events

Mon, 11 Jul 2005 04:48:58 -0400

A short while ago, I got an email asking why I wasn't listing the regular shows by Dou Wei and Buyiding. The answer was because they're every week, and I was too lazy to put them in. So I thought I'd take a look at some of the weekly shows in Beijing.

Wednesdays at Nameless Highland: Beijing New Folk

小河 (Xiao He), 周云蓬 (Zhou Yunpeng), 王娟 (Wang Juan), and 冬子 (Dongzi), Beijing's folk mainstays, play every Wednesday.

Wednesdays at Yugong Yishan, Thursdays at Nameless Highland: 窦唯和不一定 (Dou Wei and Buyiding)

Free improvisation, space rock, free jazz, etc. Often with guest bands and jam sessions.

There was also talk of a weekly Sub Jam event on Tuesdays at 2 Kolegas, but I missed the first one, and I haven't seen any mention of it on Yan Jun's blog.