I'm a bit late on this, this month. As well as passing the 100 posts mark, the Youtube channel has passed 50 videos. I'll have to start this with the usual preface. For all those new to the blog, there is a Youtube channel full of clips of the bands.
Why not start with a visit - here.
Once a month I do a round up post on this. None of the vids have really taken off in the way that Youtube vids can. Obviously the rest of the world is blissfully unaware of the joys of being into obscure bands and the hipster currency it carries. I hold out hope though. The music shorts done by Danwei TV get several thousand views. This is probably down to Danwei's professional excellence and mass appeal ... curses. Schokora!
A video cross posted at the popular Shanghaiist site only saw it garner an extra 100 views. While that was a bit of a let down, it did push that video to the number one spot. So, let's have it then. Here are the top six:
1) Rogue Transmission live @ Dream Factory: 270 views watch
2) Self Party play the Miniless showcase at Yuyintang: 212 views watch
2) Self Party play the Miniless showcase at Yuyintang: 212 views watch
3) Bang Bang Tang live @ Yuyintang: 199 views watch
4) Boys Climbing Ropes live @ Dream factory: 185 views watch
5) Hard Queen live @ Yuyintang: 151 views watch
6) Modern Cheese live @ Yuyintang: 135 views watch
In other blog news. I don't always catch other blog posts on the scene at first but posts at sites with high traffic crop up on Google from time to time. Today I came across a new one at Fool's Mountain: Blogging for China. So before I start blathering on:
Read the original article here
The post is just letting the readers know that there's a music scene in China and introducing them to some indie bands such as Hedgehog, Cold Fairyland and ... err ... Faye Wong. Anyway, I have a bee in my bonnet about that blog so just read the article for yourselves. The rest of the blog is shot through with Victorian notions on race and country and might as well be called Blogging for Nationalism. Anyway, lots of people like that blog so don't listen to me.
Andy, I told you I'd bookmark your blog. :)
Thanks for the two bands you mentioned in your comment on FM. Since I no longer live in Shanghai, my purpose was to get commentators to add links to good new indie bands in China. What I got was mostly cantopop but everyone seemed to like most of the bands and were willing to listen to new stuff. Hopefully a few of them visited Neocha.
Hey, nice cheap shot about Wang Fei, ha ha. I threw her in there at the end for two reasons. One, to catch the attention of the readers who then might try listening to a few bands they never heard before and two, it wasn't a song from her but from the Cocteau Twins, to let everyone know not everything she ever sang was pop. Since the Cocteau Twins were indie, that was my sneaky way to push them along.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for commenting. The cheap shot :) It's my policy here, apart from my own opinions and style, to always link the site i'm talking about and to always mention for people to go there and make their own mind up etc.
It's pretty good that a massively popular and read site like FM makes a post drawing attention to the indie scene - thanks.
It brings up an interesting point about what it means to be indie. In the large American market, in film too, to be indie just means to be outside of a certain group of large studios that also have certain self imposed practices. An indie film, for example, can be massive and have a huge budget. Also, 'indie' can mean a musical style.
Here we like to call it the underground scene. This is because there is simply no national industry of any meaningful kind for certain types of music/culture - for reasons that I don't cover in this blog. So all activity here is independent in the DIY sense. Indie made stuff back home (UK for me) can still take their self made product through established systems of distribution and royalty collection. Here the local bands have nothing at all to work with. This is why the Faye Wong choice seemed way out to me.
A.
Hi Andy~
I'm relatively new to FM but the admin asked me if I wanted to become an editor so I took him up on it. The "Indie" article which from now on will be the "underground scene" was my second thread and very well received by the group. I'll continue to check your site and hope to post something new in a few months, once I have enough new links. I prefer keeping my topics lighter than the usual fare.
Thanks for letting me blatantly steal your hard work, ha ha. I'll post your link on my next entry since I'm not sure if everyone caught that they can click on your name.
"Underground scene" is a better term. Indie in the States covers a certain style, but in China you really need to cover all styles that are not formula pop. You're correct; there are no independent labels.
Since you're friends with Hard Queen, you might suggest to them to create a site on MySpace. That should get them a lot more recognition. I thought Cold Fairyland's idea of putting songs for sale below the ones you can listen to was a good marketing idea, including two songs for free.
In fact, since you have my email address let me know once the new Hard Queen CD is out with any extra information you might have and I'll write it up under its own heading. They definitely deserve a push and I'd be happy to help them out.
Hey, thanks for sticking up for Aric on Shanghaiist. He's a friend of mine.
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