The Beijing festival news/ongoing thing has become relevant to me this week. In case you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, you can follow the whole thing on China Music Radar. Basically Modern Sky is on and there's going to be a preview show in Shanghai. What that means is that the three bands going up from Shanghai will play Yuyintang on Thursday before they go.
They are: Cold Fairlyland, Top Floor Circus and No. 33 Island.
I'm going specifically to see Top Floor Circus, a punk act. I'm a little bit wary though. Top Floor Circus have been on a semi-permanent break for ages. When members have had the time to perform, they have done so solo or in side projects - Lu Chen solo and Zhong Ke in Muscle Snog, for example. No. 33 island are new to me. They list Syd Barret among their influences and it shows:
No. 33 Island - myspace
A few posts back I did a round up of my Youtube Channel (available via the side bar). I got to this from selecting see all and then ordering them by views, just for fun. I have low views there compared to major channels or Youtube celebrities but they represent a more discerning readership of people who care about our scene. Reading of the top row gives a top five but I went for six in the post, seemed better for some reason.
Anyhow, looking at it today we have a new entry into the top six. It's post-rock group 21 Grams. Who is reading my blog and checking out all the post-rock/noise? Ben Houge, do you read this? Curses! Micah, you too.
By the way, since there are obviously fans of this kind of music lurking here, you should check out Ben's stuff too: Ben Houge.
Another fast mover is the Boys Climbing Ropes vid from the Control show. In fact, they are only one view behind 21 Grams at time of writing and could break the top six anytime. It is also worth noting that they have double the views of show headliner PK-14. Come on everyone, let's turn this into a reality-show fiasco. We need new IPs checking out your favourite vids.
I blogged of a potential adventure to Bar 288 on the weekend. I'd love to tell you how it went ... really. But, I want to keep the focus of the blog on the weekly reviews and vids of shows. I'm keen to avoid a total breakdown into slagging off and complaining. Needless to say I was praying for Yetis. Come back Mummy Three, all is forgiven.
33 Island have been around for a while, but are pretty low profile. Singer/guitarist Jiang Zhendong was a founding member of Amplifier, but left a few years back to form 33 Island.
Last year they released a debut album on Modern Sky Records, the first Shanghai group to do so (and the second to recod with any Beijing label). That has made Shanghai bands reopen to the Beijing option; they were wary of it after Crystal Butterfly got so badly burned by New Bees. IGO followed suit with Modern Sky later in 2007, and later this fall B6, one half of that group, has another album out with them.
33 Island has been really quiet for the past year, so it's nice to see them revving back up, they have a really unique sound. They'll also have some new tracks included on the Soma Indie Vox compilation out in November. Unfortunately I'll be out of town for the preview concert; I'm curious how they and Dinglou are sounding after the long sabbaticals.
288 is hit or miss depending on who's playing, but it is a Shanghainese-friendly, long-running and profitable live house, which counts for a lot.
It's funny goodluck
I love this site
Very funny pictures
Cool site goodluck :)
this is be cool 8)
Punk not dead
Jonny was here
Gloomy tales