Wednesday Feb 8th:

Hot Cat Club of Beijing @ Modernista:
I’ve covered these guys multiple times before and they remain one of the more talented acts roaming the cafes of Beijing. 1920s flavored Jazz well played and well done in a cool little environment! I’m not sold on Modernista as a venue for live music but it’s been full pretty much every time i’ve gone there. Should be a cool party!

Thursday Feb 9th:

Nathaniel Gao & Liu Yue @ Jianghu:
Some more good jazz in store with two recognized names in the industry. Liu Yue cut his chops as part of Cui Jian’s band whereas Gao has been around the scene for a while playing with just about every Jazz musician. There’s gonna be some undeniable talent in here folks!

Friday Feb 10th

Wu Hongfei @ Yugong Yishan
She’s pretty, she’s got a mean voice, she’s talented and known for causing trouble. Wu Hongfei‘s last gig at Yugong Yishan was stop ahem.. censor ..ahem… didn’t take place. Her friendship with a notorious bearded artist was blamed! Here she’s at it again along with a bunch of other musicians starting the Valentine’s Day onslaught a full 4 days early. GAngzi, Zhao Lei and a few others will be there to show you a romantic time cough cough..

Pangbianr Night @ Old What?
D22 might have closed but that doesn’t mean the end of pangbianr. Josh is moving along and it looks like the Old What bar is the chosen destination. I can’t pretend I like or understand any of the noise rock stuff they’re doing but i have this uncanny curiosity to learn more about it.

Immanu El & Glowcurve @ Mao Live:
Yeah, I know. I’m writing about a post rock show! But these Swedish post-rockers are kickstarting their China tour friday at Mao Live! I’m not gonna be here for it but it should be a good event for those that like that type of music. Beijing postrock darlings, Glow Curve, open for them. Interesting choice for Mao’s return.. here’s hoping they get back to Rocking soon

Saturday Feb 11th

Opeth @ Tango:
Swedish Metal monsters, Opeth, visit Beijing. They’re one of the few progressive metal bands around that makes an effort to explore other genres and sounds, even incorporating the melodies in the songs. I haven’t heard their most recent stuff but I’m sure this will be a blast! Expect the Royalty of Beijing Metal to all answer the call. It’s teh one show this week that might have more musicians than non-musos in it.

Jorma Kaukonen @ Yugong Yishan:
Quick.. Who’s the only that’s played woodstock, altamont and the monterey jazz festival, also a rock n roll hall of famer, that played yugong yishan? No one yet! but this saturday, this will change when Jorma Kaukonen ( Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) plays there Saturday with good friends, The Randy Abel Stable, opening for him. We don’t get many of these guys visiting Beijing, especially not the ones that are not all washed up and living off their mediocrity. This will be a good show for those with a blues bone.

a bunch of other shows are taking place all over town so you’re pretty much be able to get your fix anywhere!

Wednesday Feb 1st:

Hot Club of Beijing @ Modernista
a little minouche Jazz is a comfortable – albeit cold- hutong setting. It’s not a bad midweek option to get you over the hump! The band plays good old Jazz classics and Modernista is perfect for this type of event. It’s been pretty full the last few weeks but I must report that it’s a little cold in there! Don’t expect to roll around in a jacket.

Friday Feb 3rd

Dimefest 10 @ 13Club:
Metal mania re-awakes in Beijing as 13 Club is the first to get a huge show going. They have a nice lineup of metalheads geared up for headbanging and mosh-pitting with Never Before, Beyond Redemption, Forced Pose and a few more. Now that D-22 is gone, this is pretty much the only reliable music venue in wudaokou.

Devils at the Crossroads @ Temple
The devils are back from their road trip to Shanxi and they will be waiting for you at the altar. there will be rock, there will be roll, there will be antics and there will be fun! I’m really getting into these guys nowadays.

Saturday Feb 4th:

February Book Swap & Board Games @ Sequoia:
The monthly meeting and swap takes place from 2 to 6 pm inside the jianguomen diplomatic compound. Good people, good coffee, chilled atmosphere and good times usually prevail. It’s a nice way to cozy up on a Saturday afternoon.

Bob Marley Tribute at Yugong Yishan
The yearly reggae reunion is one hell of a good way to kickstart the Dragon for YGYS. This year, we have ABIJAH (jamaica) and Beijing’s MITABE. Expect dreadlocks, smoke, cool chilaxed people and a whole bunch of DJ around the place. This one has kinda become a yearly tradition in the jing so folks are gonna show up in numbers.

Bob Marley Day @ Temple
Considering the dreadlock credentials of the establishment, you can’t expect them not to try and pay tribute to the ultimate rastaman. They got Shaddai, a roots reggae band, playing that night and i have never heard them before. They’re fun though and pretty much everyone is at temple these days.. so why aren’t you?

http://www.lifeweek.com.cn/2012/0130/36358.shtml

It’s a long read and my limited Chinese is getting in the way of a full understanding but from the bit I’ve understood, this is a well constructed critique of the industry and all the players. From revenue sharing to artist responsibility, it seems to cover it all. Highly recommended if you read Chinese and are interested in the Chinese music industry.

This foursome has been around for a little while now but finally settled on this line-up of the band just about a year ago if I’m not mistaken… since then, they basically blew the roof wide open and have exploded unto the scene. I’ve had the pleasure of watching them at 2 Kolegas, Temple, jianghu, Salud and a few other places around town but somehow I never get around to writing about them… well, here I am!

Temple goers in Unison for Hey Jude

I made it to temple saturday night around 9:30 to find the place pretty hopping with a crowd that obviously came there to see them, much like the previous time. The band did what you’d expect them to do, going through The Beatles diverse catalogue without skipping a beat. They had showmanship, quality, charisma and a commitment to entertainment judging by how they zoned those outfits and wigs despite it feeling like 45 degrees on stage.

What made the show at Temple special is that the crowd would not let the band off stage! They had a 7 song encore much to the delight of everyone present, including yours truly! Honestly folks, having these lads play is becoming a fun fun event and in many cases a more reliable and enjoyable musical adventure than many of the crappy concerts we’re subjected to in this town. Did I mention the show was free? and the place full of Beijing based musicians singing along like any other fans.

I mentioned before how chunjie was a slim affair in terms of shows around Beijing with the usual suspects all off bringing in the year of the dragon with their families… all except the cray dedicated fuckers at TEmpel who kept the candle high (more on that some other time). Still, there were shows just about every night and The Beijing Beatles had the show of the week.

(i forgot my camera that day so some pictures from http://thebeijingbeatles.com/ )

The CORE IN CHINA compilation project is a non-commercial promotional compilation record scheduled for release in May 2012. Artists and bands of the genres screamo, deathcore, nintendocore, metalcore, post hardcore and various other ‘core-styles are being approached from January to March 2012.

Up to 20 bands from Mainland China, Hongkong and Macau are being show casted as the fresh and dynamic heavy underground from China. For each band, Chinese and English biography and song lyrics are being included in the booklet to enable international accessibility of the music.

If you are interested in the project, either to participate or to hear more about the compilation contact Rock in China:

AZCHAEL@ROCKINCHINA.COM
YANG@ROCKINCHINA.COM

The Project now has its on page on the Rock in China wiki with more extensive description, requirements etc.. :
http://wiki.rockinchina.com/w/CORE_IN_CHINA_(VA)

I’m curious to see what comes out of this as I’m one of those old school guys who’s never bothered spending my time figuring out the various ‘Cores… it used to be a core was something you’d talk about in connection with nuclear reactors, wasn’t it?

image from LEmonGraphics

Wednesday Jan 25th

Bluewolf @ Temple:
They’re described in the following words: “Bluewolf music style is a blend of flamenco and gipsy mixed with some touches of reggae & Xinjiangese folk music”.. sounds intriguing enough for me to check them out. Thanks to T, I’m getting into more minority music, especially Uighur and Kazakh.

Blackwater @ Modernista
Up on Baochao hutong, Modernista is starting to make some noise with their mix of style, drinks and personality. They’ve also been getting a steady diet of chilled mellow music! Tonight, they got the Irish flavored melodies of Blackwater. I haven’t seen Desmond and his gang play in quite some time so this could be a good day for that.

Thursday Jan 26th:

Saudade e Alegria @ Modernista
How about some Brazilian bossa nova? Again, I don’t know much about these kids but they’ve been the resident Thursday band over at Modernista and they can’t be that bad if they’ve played a few weeks in a row.. right? That’s what they tell me. Maybe a good opportunity to be open minded and check something else out.

Djan San @ Temple
Ze Frenchie is at it again with his mix of electro folk weirdness. I’m not the biggest fan of his experimentation but then again, I’m not a fan of sampling in general. Some people do like it so it’s worth a listen at least once. I know, it’s a resounding endorsement!

Friday Jan 27th:

Toy Head @ Temple:
From what I hear, it’s SKA flavored tunes by some folks who’ve been around the music industry for a while… again, sorry but not much to go on! slim pickings baby

Saturday Jan 28th:

Beijing Beatles @ Temple
Alright.. finally a band we actually know and can guarantee. These cats have taken Beijing by storm and their act works… everyone knows the songs and tends to sing along so what’s not to like? Get a few drinks, a few laughs, a few sing alongs and a lot of good times.

As you can see folks, it’s Temple, Temple and more Temple with a little Modernista thrown in there. The Electro Disco crowd is in much better shape with a few parties at Haze, Spark etc… but we don’t get into those, do we?

In-conjunction with Pangbianr and Subjam, Japan’s Makoto Kawabata, France’s DJ Urine and China’s The Tea Rockers Quintet brought us Miji concert No. 7. That’s a lot of names, and some you may not have heard of, but you can find a very detailed writeup of who everyone is and how this show all came together over here at Pangbianr.

I arrived around 8.30 to find the drive-in nicely full, without being crowded, quietly listening to the opening act, The Tea Rockers Quintet. On the main stage were Wu Na with her guzheng and guqin and YanJun with his table of dials and assorted sound making goodies. At the back of the room another small stage was set up beside the sound desk with Xiao He, his guitar and laptop, and Li Daiguo with a double bass and various other stringed instruments. I didn’t actually see Lao Gu and his tea ceremony though, possibly he was out the back?

They played for an hour and had the audience completely under their spell, each instrument blending in with the others and taking it’s turn to lead. Li Daiguo and Xia He provided some vocals, although it was more using their voices as another instrument adding to rather than singing over the music. I could have listened to this for much longer, and will be looking forward to the group’s first album being released later this year.

The back stage was quickly packed up and everyone’s attention moved to the front stage where Makoto Kawabata was setting up his pedals. Unfortunately DJ Urine wasn’t able to join him on stage as planned, but he first played solo and then was joined by friends, Mafeisan. He was playing what looked like an electric guitar with the tuning at the top cut off, something I’d never seen before, and was playing it first with a metal pipe and then a violin bow and a lot of pedals to create an amazing psychedelic, experimental soundscape. I was standing up front beside Mamer, someone who also uses these kind of objects when playing his bass, and he too was also watching intently.

When Makoto finished the stage was quickly packed up and in the blink of an eye the scene at 2 Kolegas changed. Musicians and audience disappeared and at the same time were replaced with a whole different crowd. I was planning to head out at that point too, but the sound of a post rock guitar tuning on stage enticed me to stay on for Sparrow.

Well, one of these people is leaving us and it’s quite a sad thing in my book… a big loss: Michelle Dai, who has brilliantly held the post of Live Music Editor at The Beijinger, is leaving the job and the city in pursuit of other adventures!

I still remember when Michelle first made an impression on yours truly, with her live music roundup that covered the reunion of giants (he yong, cui jian, etc…)

Earlier this week, while I was having dinner in a restaurant in Gui Jie, He Yong walked in and sat at the table right next to ours. All of a sudden I felt my heartbeat accelerating. In order to explain my feelings to my friend – a financial journalist who has close to zero interest in rock music – I said: “Imagine if the ex-managing director of China Citic Bank just randomly walked in and sat down next to you.”

More than 15 years ago, in the spring of 1994, three men – He Yong, Dou Wei, Zhang Chu (aka “The Three Heroes of Mo Yan” 魔岩三杰 ) – released hugely significant albums at the same time. Later that year, they went on tour to Hong Kong along with Tang Dynasty. That concert is still considered a milestone of Chinese rock music. In the same year, Cui Jian released his third album, Balls Under The Red Flags. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call that year the climax of rock music in China. Too bad that the milestone probably marked the end of a highway. There have been many long discussions about whether the rockers walked further and further away from Chinese people’s impression of rock music or the struggle against “the powers that be” sealed the fate of rock & roll in China. It didn’t take much time for rock music to go back underground.

Why am I repeating all these clichés? Because all the abovementioned rock stars (except Dou Wei) and nine other bands and musicians are likely to set another milestone tonight at Workers’ Stadium at the Rock Heroes’ Concert. The roster also includes names like Xu Wei, Wang Feng, Black Panther, Pu Shu, Zheng Jun, Shuang Zi from the mainland; Qi Qin and Xin from Taiwan; and Huang Jiaqiang (Beyond) from Hong Kong. If Dou Wei were to show up (as some rumors insist he will) along with Luo Dayou from Taiwan, and if Huang Jiaju, the former lead vocalist of Beyond, were to be resurrected for a single evening, tonight’s stage would feature practically everybody who has had an impact on Chinese rock music in the past 20 years.

In any case, you will be able to see Luo at the Greatwall Tanglewood Music Festival. And I was so curious about the rumor of Dou Wei (and Faye Wong?!) presence at the Rock Heroes’ Concert that I screwed up my courage, turned to He Yong at the next table, and asked him if it was true. He denied it.

This is still one of my favorite pieces of hers… it’s got personality, personal story and good/solid background knowledge!As the year went, Michelle’s coverage of the music scene got better with each article, each post and each interview and I’ve learned to seek and respect her opinions…. now, I’ll miss them. I’ve also enjoyed the brief conversations we’ve had about music, tattoos and other random blabbers.

Thank you Michelle! Here’s wishing you the best of luck and success for your future endeavors…

Keep on Rocking!

Their show at Temple, on the first week of the year, will probably go down as one of the best ones for 2012 potentially: When they were underwhelming at Jianghu for the CD release, they sounded great at Temple.. no doubt that the cavernous nature of the room provided better acoustics to match their dark, industrial, metallic rumbling sounds.

There was actually quite a turnout for the occasion, most of which were faces i hadn’t seen at Temple before so you could tell that they came specifically for IZ.. An audience that was very much well behaved and in a trance-like state during most of the performance. They barely broke the silence from time to time to clap but otherwise kept the conversation to a minimum. Much like the band one could argue. An interesting change in dynamics was with 努尔太 Nuertai singing a bit more than usual, almost more so than Mamer himself (if we can call his mumbling singing).

I still struggle to describe these guys but I think i might be settling for this sentence coined by my friend Beagleboss: If a steel mill could sing, that’s what it would sound like. It’s growing on me! It’s quite fitting, especially with the dark images they tend to use as a backdrop.

As much as I like to call it Industrial Kazakh Folk, I see the steel mill analogy as more accurate. How else would you describe a band that has two bass players and a drummer? and no, Drum n Bass, however semantically correct, just doesn’t cut it.

Either way, this band is amazing and there’s a reason why their latest album made it in my TOP 5 Chinese Albums of 2011. It’s that freaking good!

I had been waiting a long time for this gig where Muma & Third Party, latest incarnation, come up to Beijing and give us the goods they’ve been working on for a few years. It’s pretty much a whole new band with new dynamics, even between the only two remaining members who are Muma himself and Mico ( I stand corrected on the original members). Yugong was decently full for the occasion despite it being a cold december wednesday evening. The place was decked out with floating banners that reflected a matrix-esque random pattern of numbers.

The band is all grown up, wiser and quite dark… The voice still sets the tone for everything else around but now, the music follows and matches. it tiptoeing a line between industrial and gothic sounds, very much along the lines of NIN and Joy Division… heck, i might be able to argue if i cared enough that that particular wednesday, MTP did Joy Division better than Joy Division on some songs.

The concert lasted almost 2 hours with the band going through some classics. I especially liked the reworked, more organic version of “feifei run” that had the audience singing aloud along. It worked amazingly well with Muma on vocals and Guan Wei (who’s not bad) on acoustic guitar, I mean that’s the Muma I love, making use of his most powerful instrument: his voice! and make no mistake, that voice is freaking good! Not to mention his style is just as intense as ever…

The new stuff got a bit of a humho reception with the audience just not expecting the extra effects and all that industrial noise added. Neither did I… One exception was the song 纳迪 (Nadi) which had that slow grind groove going for it and had Miserable Faith’s Gao Hu helping out on vocals.
As an example, 无可救药 (Hopeless) sounds much better on the record than live: Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy’s voice and I’m a big fan of the music on the new record but they’re not always on sync… he’s pretty much singing at the same tempo no matter how fast or how slow the song is and that just doesn’t work. On another note,Gao Yufeng, of Brain Failure fame, is really proving to be one of the better Bass players in China right now… I’m digging him onstage.

Evolution ( THe new record) is definitely a big departure from the previous release, Velvet Highway, which i still consider the band’s better work… a beautiful dark, fascinating and powerful record. While Muma himself is still the main creative source of the band, you can’t help but notice that the other players have also made some marks on the music, especially Mico, as evidenced by some of the live stuff. I expected better out of the record but I liked the live show!

Here is the live version of feifeirun from that evening… good for chills down a spine:

This version of Third Party has some really good growth potential IMHO and Muma himself has grown wiser by the sounds of things. The Evolution is underway (pun intended)… It really feels like this is a band playing and doing things as opposed to one lead singer and his hired guns… and that’s not bad!

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait almost 4 years for the next CD.