Results tagged “dan shapiro” from Andy Best

City Weekend revamp leaves music blog looking good

By
Andy Best
on August 5, 2010 2:18 AM |
Dan Shapiro
Outside of Kungfuology here, there are few mainstays in the music blogging world of Shanghai. This is especially true of Chinese language sites too. Get it together, someone.

One of the other regulars is Dan Shapiro (pictured) who has been writing City Weekend's music column for ages now. He's usually pegged back by CW's bad formatting and general reputation but check it out - a site revamp has left his page looking pretty good.


A scroll down the page shows a lot of quality posts. Check out this mini-interview with Duck Fight Goose's Han Han:


With more interviews and previews and less reviews, it seems to compliment us just fine, so add in the feed. Do it.

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Boojii, DFG, Pairs, The Fever Machine @ Mao

By
Andy Best
on July 3, 2010 1:43 AM |
pairs live
First up. 8 Eye Spy dropped out of the show and Pairs stepped in. So here was the line up:


Next up an explanation. I had a busy week and had resigned myself to a night on the sofa. I'm knackered. However, I know people involved with all the bands and they are all great and do wonders for the scene, without exception. So I dragged myself along hoping to get through most of the bands.

Of course, the first band got on a full hour after the advertised start time so I only got to see the first two acts before bailing.

I dunno, it's a huge venue for the scene, it's summer, it's a hot stormy night, there are other big shows and the World Cup. And yet what looked like eighty or so people still came out to support ... and the venue can't even get within an hour of the advertised time for them.

I know it wasn't the band's fault but what I'm thinking now is that scene venues have to admit that, for whatever the reason, they generally can not start on time if there are more than two bands. They cannot organize it and should pare down the line ups.

So, the bands made me happy again. The Fever Machine play well executed desert/psychedelic rock with great riffs and muscianship. The drumming was especially tight and frontman Dan Shapiro has definitely found his niche. This was my first time to see them and fans of Rock should not miss their shows.

Pairs are not really suited to cavernous venues like Mao, well, so you'd think, but this band have spirit and they are good where-ever they play. After a brief intro track, Xiao Zhong got things started in true Pairs style. Their opening track is I spent my birthday with a bunch of cunts but he announced it as "this song is called, my girlfriend had to pay to get in" and then, "I spent my soundcheck with a bunch of cunts."

With the ice broken and smiles on the fans faces, they played their four most recognizable tracks, finishing with Yang Pu Qu. After Xiao Zhong joked about the smoke machine, the mischievous tech lads got joke revenge by disappearing guitarist F two or three times. However those guys have a band of their own, one that could learn a thing or two from Pairs.

Back home on my couch, Holland knocked Brazil out the world cup. I really wish I'd had the energy to catch Boojii too. Lately I've been listening to their excellent CD Reserved at home a lot. It's great and you need to have it.

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Fever Machine and friends @ Yuyintang

By
Andy Best
on May 30, 2010 11:44 PM |
fevermachine flyer
Saturday night and I popped over to Yuyintang to catch a night of rock. As Dan of The Fever Machine pointed out, usually I'd be over at the show put on by the younger local crowd. But tonight I had two good reasons to hit this show. One, yes, about time I caught up with the latest projects from the very talented guys behind both The Fever Machine and X is Y. Two, Pairs ... Pairs, my favorite new act.

No disrespect to RDC by the way, they're great.


So. Show didn't get started till just gone ten with four bands to go. Good start with X is Y though. Technically adept atmospheric rock with a laid back feel. I was especially impressed with the guitar sound. It was achieved by something you don't see often at YYT. The band brought in their own amp which looked like an old school valve amp. May have just been the look though. At any rate, the band went to lengths to create the sound they wanted - and it worked. 

Pairs. I had caught one of their earlier appearances and loved the lo-fi grunge sound done with just guitar and drums. You could see their creativity and energy and, well, cool. I had a feeling that tonight's show might be a break through performance for them. And it was. The crowd really loved the energy of Xiao Zhong (Rhys) on drums/vocals and local guitarist "F" was the perfect laid-back, almost disinterested, cool indie chick. I think only a very slightly too quiet guitar stopped the place from kicking off. 

At that point time was getting on and I became painfully aware of my horrifically early date with work the next morning. I thought I was going to miss out on The Fever Machine again. Then, for reasons I didn't inquire in to, The Fever Machine went on third instead of fourth as billed. So I got to check out a couple of tracks. As you'd expect from those guys, it was tight classic rock. This time (following on from Rogue Transmission) they have added more technical chops and a streak of psychedelia. 

I went home early, but very very happy. Great crowd, great atmosphere, all the bands brought it. Nice.

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Dan Shapiro asks the right questions

By
Andy Best
on April 27, 2010 5:02 PM |
andy dan xiao punk
Amid all the Expo hype on one side and Expo smack downs on the other, Dan Shapiro has manged to bring the basic principles of journalism to bear on a much quoted myth.

But first a reminder. Dan is a Shanghai scene veteran and plays a mean guitar himself his latest band is The Fever Machine - so check them out here.

In his latest print column Dan does what no one else has thought to do yet. He moves away from the effect on the existing local scene and looks at the claim that the Expo will benefit culture because it showcases the best from around the world - and he follows through and questions it.


The results are not surprising, the claim is rubbish. His observations are acute. He contacted as many pavilion reps as he could from countries with great music scenes and asked them for their line ups at the Expo. Here's a quote:

Rather than inviting the likes of Them Crooked Vultures, The Raveonettes, The Hives, HIM, Turbonegro and Rush to Shanghai, pavilion organizers have settled for a rather dull program of events, ignoring their obvious political guanxi and ability to book cutting-edge artists, instead blandly appeasing local censors.

Beginning with the country that invented rock 'n roll, punk and country, the U.S. has decided to abandon its musical roots, opting for a number of choirs and orchestras to represent the land of Chuck Berry, CBGB and the Grand Ole Opry. The U.S. State Department is hosting Herbie Hancock on May 13 and Ozomatli on May 20, but it's still unclear whether Herbie will play "Rockit" or if Ozo will take it to the streets.
Exactly. In fact, as many people are now pointing out, there has been a recent influx of great international acts - playing local venues by themselves or as offshoots of domestic festival dates. Many of them are still to play. The fact of the matter is that the Expo is an annoying business and PR event and that organizers on the local scenes are already doing a much better job at putting on cultural events without any funding or extra motivation.

Scene 1 Expo 0

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We're back and what's on

By
Andy Best
on February 22, 2010 11:15 AM |
Dan Shapiro
The holidays are over and it's the new (lunar) year. Things get going again this week.

There's a bunch of non indie-rock stuff going on. I'm not interested in writing about it but you can always find that stuff out at layabozi. So off you go.

Thursday is Forget and Forgive and Candy Shop at Yuyintang for free. We've already written about that quite a bit as, you know, we organised it.

The big gig of the weekend is the next Maybe Mars showcase at Mao Livehouse. You can read all about that in detail here courtesy of Dan Shapiro (pictured). The headliner is Carsick Cars.

Talking of Dan, he has just penned a piece for CNNGo's Shanghai page introducing Han Han of Duck Fight Goose. If you're over at Jake's Blog and/or read things he put's in mags then you might be on DFG/Han Han overload. However, that's not a bad thing. Han Han is great, his music is great and we can't get enough of him.


As an end note, you may well often read the posts like this and be wondering why I've not reported your own blog post/article on local music. The reason will certainly be that I just haven't come across it. So if you're going to shows or doing some writing about the scene. Link it in the comments and our readers can surf on over. Use the a tag in html to create the link.

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Douban Dou-book & around the blogs

By
Andy Best
on February 6, 2010 12:12 AM |
douban.jpg
Huanyin, Andybest. Indeed.

So. Poor Jake has no life right now for various reasons and I'm going to start up some extra posts like I used to do. This is the reporting on other music writing around the Shanghai scene blogs type thing.

Firstly Douban. We've been talking a lot about Douban lately and how it's like Facebook or Kaixin but with no annoying apps and has feeds for your bands and books and movies etc. 

So logged in just now to see it has adopted a Facebook style combined feed frontpage. That's it on the picture. It's good. It will always be good because all the items are related to music, bands, books and films. They have added something new though, a kind of status update like on regular social sites. The new look is fine - but I hope it's not a precursor to it adding happy lobotomy Happy Farm games and stuff like that.

Elsewhere.

Dan Shapiro is still flying the flag at City Weekend, trying to keep some kind of interest going there. Lately on his blog we've had an informative post on the city's recording studios, a review of the BCR CD and a preview of the upcoming Jue Festival.


Zack Smith is still plugging away in a lonely room at Layabozi. Lately he's written something about us, thanks. Check his weekend picks too. 

China Music Radar are still wound up about festival organizers just plain lying about their line ups at official press conferences. I would be too, read it, it's outrageous. Now the CMR people are aware of this they find it happening all over the shop. Check out the latest installment. 

Finally, Adam over at Luwan Rock notes that post-rockers Hualun are in town to do some recording. Read about that here. 

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Around the blogosphere: October 2009

By
Andy Best
on October 21, 2009 1:19 AM |
Tim Anderson
Via China Music Radar I see that the Beijing scene still crops up in the U.S. mags from time to time. This time it's The Propagandist The Economist. The article appears at their Intelligent Life blog and it's because of a new photo book featuring D22 called Sound Kapital.


It's done with the usual tone/perspective but it's defo worth a read. The page name is even nary zither nor lute. Please.

Over at City Weekend, Dan Shapiro keeps his focus up with two posts. First he reviews Cui Jian at the JZ Festival and then he provides us with a preview of the week ahead.

He also mentions the sad news of the week. I saw Tim today, and yeah, he's amicably parting ways with Mortal Fools. So, there's a badass picture of him to go with this post. Tim helped me out a lot with the first Expendable demos (drums) and he's an all round ruling guy. You'll still be able to catch him with Resist! Resist! in the future.

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Factory closed for 'strategic review'

By
Andy Best
on October 16, 2009 8:38 AM |
Bill_Hicks
Not so long ago I read a post by Dan Shapiro about The Factory's proposed model for signing bands and producing music. I then wrote this post about it.

The basic idea is that they are underwritten by an ad agency and create in-house solely to pitch material for use in jingles etc. I'm not down with that. Well, it's OK if you want to be a professional jingle writer/corporate shill. Just be honest about it.

So today over at Shanghaiist, Elaine Chow reports that they will close shop for a while. She's references this post at their own house blog. They say:

Factory is temporarily suspending its activities while undertaking a strategic review to refocus and further develop its creative core.

I'd love to speculate on stuff like evil and karma but to be fair Factory does all kinds of stuff in a large complex and I'm pretty sure that their hiccup has little to do with their music making model. 

Well at least it gave us that pretentious quote. Made me smile this morning.

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Surfing the scene

By
Andy Best
on September 30, 2009 1:12 PM |
andy at jue
Well, Jake's away and it's an eight day holiday for me too. I thought I'd share some surfing with you. It's a familiar recent genre: Mainstream English language journos on the emerging China music scene. It did throw up a good quote though.

Firstly, I noticed that a Google search of Shanghai rock scene throws up my blog as the first result. Yay. So then I changed to Beijing rock scene and surfed into this 2008 Guardian article:


It's ... errr ... true to the norms of the genre, but I was interested in one particular observation. Lately there has been a lot of blog discussion and local Douban discussion on ad agencys and corporate sponsorship and the related issues. 

Dan Shapiro has been throwing up both sides of the coin at his blog lately.

Here's the paragraph from Petridis that interested me:

If you really want to splash out, you can hire a table and play dice using a Chivas Regal-branded cup. In fact, it's hard to find anything in the club that isn't Chivas Regal-branded, evidence of Chinese youth's attitude to corporate sponsorship. Almost everywhere else in the world, it's seen as (at best) a necessary evil, a pollutant of artistic integrity; here it is actively welcomed, and not just by superclubs.
Exactly. At best, evil and a pollutant of integrity. He is wrong in attributing it to the Chinese youth at large though. But what worries me is it's general acceptance here among the foreign contingent who are supposedly more aware of this. Of course, as I've pointed out before, a lot of 'ex-pat' writers and players on the scene here willfully and happily work in PR, Advertising and probably think there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, they are being paid to actively promote it.

Also, did you catch this review in the same paper that mentions Boys Climbing Ropes?

Anyway, got time on your hands this week? Comments are free and available without registering. What do you think about that article?

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Bill Hicks vs Shanghai's The Factory

By
Andy Best
on June 17, 2009 7:25 PM |
Bill_Hicks
Update: A lot of people get turned right off by the pop-vox style or 'quote' approach. So here's David Cox writing for the Guardian about the movie 'Somers Town'. 

Recently Dan Shapiro reported on The Factory project that recently opened in Hongkou's 1933 development. Dan knows what's what and this post is in no way attacking his post per se. Dan's blog has been ruling lately. Ha. 


The Factory aim to sign and develop bands strictly for use in the ad industry:

"The main idea is basically this whole factory is being underwritten by [local advertising agency] Profero. It's all about content, content, content," explains Sean Dinsmore, The Factory's Creative Director. "Looking at it from this angle it makes it a lot more manageable. Looking at it [ just] from a music label point, it's fiscal suicide.

"It's totally transparent for musicians," says local singer / guitarist Dave Zhao, whose interest was piqued by The Factory's unique approach. "They can record the songs here and then bring the songs to the advertising company to see if they're interested in them."

That's right.

I'm sure most of my readers are familiar with Bill Hicks. Maybe not. He was an American comedian who was tragicaly struck down by cancer at just 32 years old. Anyway, Bill was big on music, especially rock and independent music. He paraphrased this many ways during his shows but we can get the basic gist here:

Rock stars doing Pepsi commercials? Are we living in Reagan's wet dream? Let me say this, just once so we can set it in stone. Anyone who advertises a product on TV should be struck off the artistic register for ever. I don't care if you are shitting Mona Lisa's in your sleep, you have made your fucking choice. You are sucking satan's cock. You can't be trusted anymore.

If there is no existing structure, industry or community for music in your city. Build one. People are doing it. Accept that there's no chance to 'make big money' from it at this time and just make your music.

Just stay away from that big scaly member.

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Lava/Ox/Sea on Neocha and more

By
Andy Best
on June 5, 2009 5:26 PM |
los
With the Miniless showcase coming up this month it's time to check out some the bands. Lava/Ox/Sea have just uploaded a new track to their Neocha page called Catty Cat and it rules.


Also playing that show are Shanghai's Boojii who have just been up in Beijing recording for Modern Sky. Was speaking to Brad Ferguson lately, he was up there for the sessions. Advance word is that the tracks are going to be great.

Meanwhile, over at CW, Dan Shapiro writes about ex-pat/mixed/foreign legion acts on the scene. Actually there a lot of overspill going on between the two worlds lately. I don't mean foreign vs Chinese either. Let's clear something up for people who are not really immersed, so to speak. 

A band like Rogue Transmission have all foreign members but they formed here, play true rock venues, practice at 0093 and make original rock music. They are a Shanghai band and part of the local scene 100%. The true dividing lines are between cover acts/light music playing bars for cabaret entertainment and people on the underground/indie scene who are making new music and taking part in that culture. Anyway back to the cross over. 

On Sunday we have two local rock bands playing by Jing An Temple for the That's Shanghai Magazine's Best of Shanghai weekend. Yes. That's Shanghai, the magazine whose tongue is so far up luxury brand and yuppie arse that their response to the global financial crisis -

- where thieving bankers near crashed the economy, putting millions out of work or onto the streets, created whole ghost towns around China and who robbed billions of public money to keep doing it ... causing riots and demos around the globe - 

- takes breath -

- was to run a front page jokey feature about downsize work, supersize lunch, go eat a 100 RMB gourmet burger.

So anyway, Candy Shop and Monroe Stahr are both playing on the Sunday. Also Monroe Stahr and Black Luna will play a Music Matters show. That's not the internationally known Asia music conference in Hong Kong but the Shanghai pub night run by Tony Caw. He's now branching out into larger events putting on a Longest Day show at Red Town for the night of the eclipse. Don't want to sound shallow but there'll be a bouncy castle that will stay up for adults later into the night. 

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Muscle Snog, bits and pieces

By
Andy Best
on May 5, 2009 7:22 PM |
school party
Before we get into the The Mushrooms and their theme party antics again, lets go to the music:

Muscle Snog are Shanghai's premier experimental rock act, along with Booji, and they have put two amazing high quality tracks up at their Douban page, Think and Shit and Fuzz Rabbit.


Next up. I was non-plussed by the Silk Stockings Party put on at the end of March by The Mushrooms and Banana Monkey. I usually associate ladies nights with sad clubs, but as a certain someone said, never bet against the discount. This time it's a school uniform night. Are they pushing it this time? We'll have to wait and see. People went for it last time, even if it does amount to offering girls cash bonuses for pandering to male sexual desires. 

Finally. Dan Shapiro has put up a blog at CW talking a bit about SOMA Live and their upcoming shows at the Dream Factory. I don't want to go there again but those not familiar with the story can link through Dan's excellent post.

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Retros live @ Yuyintang

By
Andy Best
on April 19, 2009 9:57 PM |
retros promo
The title of this post is slightly misleading. I went to the show. well in time for the usual headliner's starting time ... alas ... Yuyintang was packed beyond any inkling of safety and/or half the people there being able to even see the band. 

What's more, Retros went on quite early. So, I can tell you, they sounded great and people were into them, but I was standing out in the park with Brad Ferguson, Jake Newby and Archie Hamilton having a natter for most of my time there. Shout out to Michael too.

We all had a chat about recent events and at how packed the past few weekends had been at all venues. By coincidence, the basic thread of the discussion is summed up quite nicely in an earlier post over at CW by Dan Shapiro. It also quotes three out of four of the above mentioned people. 

Go there now and read Dan's superbly laid out summary:


While you're at it, here's another Dan post on Queen Sea Big Shark: read it

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Magazines: more Midi, Hard Queen and other releases

By
Andy Best
on March 24, 2009 4:07 PM |
hard queen
Haven't done a magazine round up for a bit and want to start with a belated link to Jake Newby's Hard Queen article in That's Shanghai.

It's a full feature with some good backstory and you can read it online here:


Next up some material from Dan Shapiro over at City Weekend. First Dan reveals that there has in fact been an official release from the Beijing Midi Music School pertaining to the festival being held in Shanghai. Here are the two previous posts and here is Dan's blog:


Also, in the print edition Dan draws attention to four CD releases happening in April. We have Hard Queen, Hedgehog, Retros and The Gar. Let's throw some attention back at Dan too, the recent Rogue Transmission gig was kick-ass and they have a CD of their own you might want to inquire about.

I have been gearing up for the Hedgehog show by listening to tracks from their upcoming third CD, Blue Daydreaming. And you can too: right here.

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The Rogue Transmission live @ Yuyintang (Mar 2009)

By
Andy Best
on March 15, 2009 10:06 AM |
The Return of Rogue Transmission
It seems that a lot of Shanghai bands are getting what they deserve lately. The Rogue Transmission have had a small break during which they lost a guitarist, replaced him and wrote new material. Tonight was the return, Jedi style (check the flyer). Here was the original line up:

The Dropkicks
Monroe Stahr

I'd seen Monroe Stahr briefly on Thursday night and was impressed with the catchy songs and style. They were added to the bill late only to cancel on the night due to illness. Pity that, as there was a great turn out and singer/songwriter Nicky was keen to play to a regular weekend night crowd.

The Dropkicks went on early and proceeded to play for almost one hour, which I personally feel is a faux pas for a support act in a smaller club gig. They played well enough although the sound over the PA was middling. Then, there was a huge break between them and the band everyone was waiting for. But when Dan Shapiro took the stage it was all worth the wait.

I was worried by the high percentage of party scene ex-pats in the crowd and there were bad shirts and shiny bags everywhere. Luckily there were some cheeky instigators at the front, including yours truly, who were determined to get some action. Rogue Transmission returned tighter, louder and improved. The sound was clear and the material rocked. With a case of the flu creeping in, I had to retire from the front four songs in but it was worth it. Chalk up one more Shanghai band who can headline a Saturday night and rock it.

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Magazine special: head to head

By
Andy Best
on February 7, 2009 12:36 AM |
xiao youUpdate: the MP3 player for Pinkberry is now 'after the jump' so click into the post to hear the song.

Following the demise of SH Magazine, the up and down form of newly revamped That's Shanghai and well the usual from CW and Talk, the Shanghai mags have been a bit sparse on new information or interesting stories about the music scene. But lucky for us, February has thrown up the first true head-to-head since I've been doing this.

Here's the low down: Two professional writers have covered the same band around the same time with completely opposite takes. And now it's time for you to decide. The band in question is Pinkberry, so before we get going you should check out their music yourselves on the player below and have a gander at singer Xiao You (right).

Personally, I like them. I'm a fan of three cord power pop or punk and their DIY attitude. They are a new band, barely together six months and singer Xiao You is one of the few Shanghainese new artists with true ambition and the potential to realise it. But that's just me. I made a DIY video with them too.

So, ahead of their appearance at the New Year show recently, Dan Shapiro of Rogue Transmission and City Weekend magazine wrote about them at his CW blog:

This show is a great way start to the Chinese New Year Holiday, although, unfortunately, you'll be forced to endure yet another Pink Berry set (seriously, this band has already played like 42 gigs in 2009), but atleast it gives you 30 minutes to run to Kedi for some cheap beer.

Also, in the title of the blog he calls Pinkberry Shanghai's worst band. Ouch. You can read the full post here: Tonight @ Yuyintang: Shanghai's best (and worst).

Over at That's Shanghai meanwhile: Jake Newby filed a feature on Pinkberry titled "The best unsigned band in Shanghai". In the article he documents their success in high profile competitions, their endorsement from The Queers after their show together and Xiao You's voice and quality. Not only did Joe Queer dedicate "She's a firecracker" to Xiao You but also invited them to record at his studio in the states. 

The band themselves are modest about their brief career so far. Time to make your own minds up. Hint: like them or not, they're obviously not the worst band in Shanghai.

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Continue reading Magazine special: head to head.

January Magazines, more Jue Festival

By
Andy Best
on January 3, 2009 12:18 AM |
urbanatomy maybemars
A quick word to the uninitiated. I'm here in Shanghai. Sure loads of people can speak some English and they make most of the signs and services in English too but there's no obligation to go beyond that. Hence, the only English language magazines we have are the ex-pat listings type. That's just in case anyone was wondering why I never seem to review actual music magazines. We have the net anyway, so it's no big deal.

So, SH Magazine and their intrepid reporter Jake Newby were really picking up the slack with scene coverage ... and then the publisher decided to axe the whole operation. The soon to be legendary final edition - The Funeral Edition - was also vetoed at the last minute. Shame that because I popped up in a great feature. That's another Andy Best bit done but then consigned to limbo ... hello, Layabozi.

Speaking of Layabozi, they have a review up of the Xmas Day show that I missed: Luke Leighfield. Also, before I get stuck into the features for this month, despite what looks like a drop off in coverage at City Weekend their website is much more active. Be sure to check into Dan Shapiro's blog there as he often posts up show previews that you won't see in the print edition.

After a change of editor and a documented shift away from the live scene, That's Shanghai are back with two features this month. The first one is about the Jue Festival and confirms the line-up for the Maybe Mars showcase. Maybe Mars are a Beijing based indie label and the showcase will feature Ourself Beside Me, Carsick Cars and Snapline. Nice first feature on the scene from writer Berwin Song ... but Berwin couldn't quite hold back on the patronising asides: 

why-oh-why do so many bands have to go for a Chinglish moniker? QueenSeaBigShark, I'm pointing the finger at you, too
Queen Sea Big Shark are actually called 后海大鲨鱼Houhai Dashayu and their English name sounds pretty cool to me. You can read the whole feature online here: Beijing bands attack Shanghai.

The second feature is an article introducing Shanghai indie group Kongzhong Huayuan written by regular Lisa Movius. You can find that online here. If you want a quick pick of the bunch go to the Ourself Beside Me Myspace page and listen to Sunday Girl ... then go and get a ticket for the showcase.

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That's Shanghai consigns Movius to the memory hole?

By
Andy Best
on December 3, 2008 5:35 PM |
old thats cover
It's around this time that I get a hold of the latest monthly ex-pat rags and check for any music news. I previously wrote about how That's had a well developed music section that included Lisa Movius' long running Rockpile column and then several supporting features and new writers. I then got a little concerned when a refit and redesign seemed to back on this and dropped the Rockpile column in favour of individual features. I got a bigger surprise this week.

So, this month it was all gone. No Rockpile column and nothing by Lisa in there at all, and nothing to replace the missing column inches. Not only that - I went to the also refitted online version of the mag and found that searches for 'Rockpile', 'Rock Pile" and 'Movius' return no results at all. To be fair, the old That's site is archived via a link at the bottom of their new page, but does this mean the regular column is really gone for good?

How much of an effect the English language mags actually have on the scene is another point for debate but we can also add to this the now public news that SH Magazine will close it's doors in two issues time. That leaves only City Weekend who make any kind of regular nod to the indie/underground scene and that's down to Abe Deyo and Dan Shapiro's personal efforts.

Talking of City Weekend, did anyone catch this blog post?

It caught my attention by opening with the following broadside that could only be talking about 3 or 4 people, two of which are his colleagues at CW, and another which is me:

OK you're a pseudojourno writing about Shanghai's underground (in quotes dripping with cynicism) scene

Then it kind of meanders through several 'types' simultaneously attacking and defending them before ending with a plug for a show at The Shelter. I had to read it six times to try and understand exactly what the through-line/point was. I still don't know. Anyone care to hazard a guess in the comments? Does anyone have inside knowledge as to what the post is referring to?

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More peak season, interviews and photographs

By
Andy Best
on November 26, 2008 4:50 PM |
maya dingjia xiaobai
At the beginning of the month I wrote this blog post that was reporting on Dan Shapiro's City Weekend article. The gist of it was that November was shaping up to be the peak month in the Shanghai music year. Dan was dead right, it has been great. What's more, this boom seems to be breaking right through December too. Over the next four weekends you can see the following bands/events all on different days, that is, you can see all of them:

Hua Lun (post rock)
0093 showcase featuring Moongazer, Bang Bang Tang and more
Banana Monkey's new line up
Muscle Snog, Booji and The Los (post rock/experimental)

And that's just my schedule. There are same day choices and other venues too.

Today I took part in a round-table type interview/discussion for an upcoming magazine feature on local bands. It is being put together by Jake Newby at SH magazine. After talking at recent shows about some newer bands and some bands on my blog, Jake saw a possibility for a feature on girl bands and female singers. He quite graciously had me along for the sessions too and it was a good time. Today was Momo and Bang Bang Tang, later in the week we'll see Torturing Nurse's Jia Die, Pinkberry's Xiao You and possibly Candy Shop also. Obviously I can't undercut the interview before it comes out but I can mention that in a light hearted part of the talk Xiao Bai from Bang Bang Tang let out that she had, in fact, had a semi-stalker at one point. Nothing serious, thankfully, but creepy all the same, especially if you're not a big star with security and lawyers. That's Momo guitarist Maya, singer Ding Jia and Xiao Bai in the photo above.

Finally, Lin Lin from Yuyintang has been busy with more photography down at 0093 this week. here are two great portraits of Vivian and David from Moongazer (Wang Yue Zhe).


moongazer vivian
moongazer david

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Arrows Made of Desire live @ Yuyintang

By
Andy Best
on November 24, 2008 11:12 AM |
arrows made of desire
This was the third night of a three night show marathon of which I cried off the middle date. So, yeah, no write up for V-day and Hard Queen, sorry. I did hear that Yuyintang got well over 200 people in for that show despite going head-to-head with New Pants. Nice.

Also the title of this post is a bit misleading as this was a Moses Hazy show. Moses are touring from Finland and I only blog local bands. Needless to say that Moses were good and thanks for coming to Shanghai and all that. They are based in Finland and not China so fall outside of the blog. 

And so, the main contender: Arrows Made Of Desire (Beijing)

Three shows in a weekend and the last one on a Sunday following two big shows. History tells us that the turn out was not going to be spectacular. But. Times they are a changing. It seems that Yuyintang is now known enough to pull in a hundred or so people on any given event without marketing. By the end of the night it was a half decent turn out and a full room. Not bad. Also,  a few musician types were lurking around as they normally are when bands come down from the Beijing scene. Dan Shapiro was down again as he's often in Beijing scoping out the best bands and rightly championed the whole weekend. Yuyintang's Sun Lu was also hanging with his pal from Crystal Butterfly at the bar all night and plying all comers with rocket fuel bai jiu among other things. 

Just as Arrows Made of Desire took to the stage there was a single bizarre moment. Two or three high tables with bar stools had been left in the main room, over by the sound desk, from the previous night and a bunch of people had sat at them. The staff were too nice to evict them and remove the offending objects. Tables stuck in the middle of a live house floor just seem to attract table people. After Arrows frontman Joewi (originally Dutch) welcomed the crowd in Mandarin, one middle aged sweater wearing type blurted out that he needn't speak Chinese just use English - accompanied by a smug guffaw. He seemed totally unaware that the rest of the crowd were fine with the intro and there was a deserved beat down an embarrassed silence for a moment there. So let's not leave the a*shole magnets floor tables out next time. 

The band played a tight set. The songs were punchy indie rock, not unlike the Friday night acts, but with more complex arrangements. It was a treat for muso fans as Joewi covered the whole range of guitar technique during the set without compromising the appeal of the songs. I picked up their CD and also put a video on the youtube channel. I have to say that I'm impressed over all with the Beijing post-Strokes group of bands, represented this weekend by three acts. But I'm still focused on the prize - the Indie Top showcase at Dream Factory where we get to see what Shanghai can really pull together. Not to forget Pinkberry playing with the Subs at what will be the mosh-fest of the year.

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Casino Demon live @ Yuyintang

By
Andy Best
on November 22, 2008 9:15 AM |
casino demon
I have to start by apologizing for the photo for this post. It is a classic in the genre of nondescript afterthought pictures that Andy puts on his blog. Believe me, I'm actually very into photography but my main priority at shows is ... shock ... watching them. We're coming back to that later. Besides, don't the pictures and bootleg style vids add to the underground atmosphere? 

So. Tonight's headliners were being talked up big time by scene people who are up in Beijing a lot (Dan). They did not disappoint so fair play. Let's start with the line up:

Casino Demon (Beijing): myspace - music video (like, a real one)
The Rogue Transmission: myspace
Fire Balloon (Beijing): myspace

This show was another S.T.D. production which meant a later start. But that also means a good opportunity for me to chat and find out what's going on. Not much to be honest, although I did witness a funny scene where by someone related to one of the bands just decided to take advantage of the free guest entry and bring about twenty people in unannounced. Certain managers were obviously a bit miffed at having the p*ss taken out of them and must have asked for a list to be made. Someone in the back must have then found that request a slight on their grandeur amusing as the list came back with names like Jesus, Barack Obama and Mao Zedong on it. It was funny. Really though, free guests, at a (poor and small) YYT show? Where's the Brad-inator when you need him?

So, on came Fire Balloon. Fire Balloon are a modern rock three piece in the mold of The Libertines. Well, you know, the style that the Libertines made popular again. They had some good songs and the singer/guitarist had a definite artist feel about him as he rambled off into some excellent guitar work and often seemed to be in another place (in the good sense). That got them through a clear but very support act sound and a broken bass string. There was another excellent turn out and the crowd seemed pleased. Behind me, Sam the sound guy was constantly face down on his lap top due to illness, but this didn't seem to cause any major problems either. 

Next up are local favourites The Rogue Transmission. Since the summer break this band have played a lot of shows and put out their first CD. They have been working hard and the result is clear to see. People know the songs and come ready to have a good time. Prior to the show I was reading over at Layabozi that A.B.T. had become the anthem track for the Rogues. They were right. By the time they played the song, second from last in the set, people were dancing and going for it and there was a definite reaction there. The only drawback was the curse of the photographer who has no respect for the audience. I have moaned about this so many times before. This time, some girl who I haven't really seen there with a camera before was taking it to the next level. For the second and third track of The Rogue's Set she got up behind them on stage, pointed her powerful pro-flash at the crowd and proceeded to blind me over and over again.

When Casino Demon took the stage I wasn't entirely convinced. It's not like when The Subs take the stage and there's an air of expectation. They don't have a strong image and are very humble, unassuming guys. However, this doesn't matter when you have excellent tight, punchy songs with great hooks and a room chock full of people who are up for it. The dancing, jumping and moshing got under full swing and the band were very good at keeping the energy up and getting into next tracks without delay. Again, this band lists The Libertines among their influences and it shows. Zhang Haisheng tells me that this is very popular in the Beijing scene at the moment. 

People who are not physically in the scene here might wonder why I have to make special mention every time a show has a lot of people and goes of well. That's because in this small scene, a show could equally be twenty people loitering in a near empty room. Good shows here are the result of hard work from everyone involved and are to be celebrated. The band were called out for an encore but had played all their material. They left us with a Joyside cover - always a popular move in China. Err ... should I say this? Despite the star factor of the real Joyside I felt that Casino Demon performed this much better than the real guys (who are always completely wasted).

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Tianping Dian demo and a nuts weekend

By
Andy Best
on November 20, 2008 2:59 PM |
tianping dian promo.jpg
Upcoming Shanghai band Tianping Dian are getting it together lately. I've been catching them at gigs for a while now and was really happy to see them rip out a great show in front of a decent crowd at YYT recently. 

I first saw them here. Then I saw them again at Gua'er here. Finally they rocked the house at YYT. 

Video of Tianping Dian at YYT: watch

So now I'm happy to see that Tianping Dian have now recorded a quality demo track and opened up a Neocha page. The song Wo Men (we) is their show stopper right now and I have to admit a soft spot for the style. Although I must admit, if you come to this track knowing they are called Candy Shop, you're in for a shock when you hear it. 

Here is the demo at neocha and here are some pictures.

In other news, this is the so-called peak weekend of the peak month this year. Over at his City Weekend blog, Dan Shapiro has posted up a summary. Read it. I just want to add to that though. Those three shows are the three big shows. At the same time as New Pants there is an indie night at Yuyintang that features Nanjing's V-day and Hard Queen. There's always stuff going on in the 'old' music district at places like Live Bar and 021. So yeah, this is a super packed weekend with choices. Talking of big shows we have The Subs and the Indie Top showcase to come at Dream factory.

As an end note, there may be yet another addition to the hipster paradise. It's too early to make any map edits yet, but the bar on Fahuazhen Road to the east of Dingxi Road has been bought out and is going to put bands on. They have installed J-rockers Slappie Toy as their house band. And since there is a lot of confusion about this in the Shanghai mags I want to say: good venues put on original music. No one with half a brain would count a pub that puts on a cover band on Tuesdays as part of a scene. So lets wait and see.

Update: I just noticed that this is music scene post number 108 (hugely significant in Chinese numerology). Did Tianping Dian just get heaven's mandate to become the ruling band on the scene? You know, if you're into that sort of thing. Er mi tuo fo.

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The Beat - November peak season

By
Andy Best
on November 2, 2008 1:40 AM |
dan shapiro
I want to start with a small preface. This is not a post of me tellin' it how it is about The Scene. This is me linking a great post by Dan and discussing it a little. See what I'm doing with this preface thing? Go on, use this meme yourself. Preface.

Dan Shapiro of The Rogue Transmission (pictured centre) writes the column The Beat for City Weekend. I was just checking his latest post at their online site and found something worth bringing up.

So, first up: here it is.

So it's all about how Yuyintang has an amazing line up this month. Here's the quote that got me.

Yuyintang, which has basically become Shanghai's only real (and consistent) livehouse, had just announced its November line-up and rock fans are in for a seriously awesome month.

I have to agree here. I have joked before that the reason I am always at YYT is that it's near my house. That's part of it but the main reason is that it's the only place that's like a true rock /indie venue. That is, it has a separate black-box style room with a stage and rear sound desk. The rest of the club is also done out in the dive style. If it's not clear what I mean, go to a show there and then go to shows at other places the same month and compare. Also, since getting the new place they have gradually added to and improved it week by week and now it's the real deal. Now for what follows this observation - other places need to get their sh*t together. 

Talking of other places. The Subs will be making another Shanghai appearance on the 29th at the Dream Factory. So now you have your chance to see them if you missed last night. Not in Shanghai? Fancy a holiday? Come to Shanghai and watch the Subs gig. Seriously. 

And finally. The scene needn't drop off after November as Dan worries. Check out any one of the five bands mentioned in the last post. They will all be playing somewhere across each month. In short, when it's not laid out on a plate for us it's time to go searching. 

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Neocha.com release latest compilation

By
Andy Best
on October 25, 2008 3:09 PM |
neocha netlabel release
Neocha.com is a net portal for Chinese musicians and artists but they wear many hats. Regulars to the blog will have seen footage from the recent Notch festival that they organised. Neocha also pioneered their own embeddable media player Next that gives you access to their entire online database.

They have just put out their latest compilation Tomorrow's Afternoon Tea. This is a free net release showcasing female indie/folk artists from the Neocha community. It features some bands previously covered on this blog, for example Bang Bang Tang. 

Without further ado ... please go straight ---> here <--- and DL the complete album.

I have and it's good. On a completely unrelated note: last night's 0093 show was a really good night but several people I met there were completely new to most of the bands. If they read this, and other blogs, it wouldn't be a problem. So, if you are reading this, why not spread the word. If you like this blog, promote it ... just a simple link or mention on your own site would help greatly. The same goes for all related sites. Neocha, for example, is a great site to explore whether you are in China or not. 

See this old blog of Dan's for details: spread the word. Oh, for some reason I can't find that post over at City Weekend now. Help! Well, you know, it was Dan Shapiro urging you to do anything to promote the scene.

I leave you with the track listing for the Neocha release:

Tomorrow's_Afternoon_Tea-B.jpg


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Little Nature & Momo live @ Gua'er

By
Andy Best
on September 12, 2008 12:30 AM |
momo
I am loving it - living in my hipster's paradise. Well, so says me: check it out. Lisa calls it the F-visa Ghetto. I like that. Also, when I say 'paradise', it's relative to the city i'm in. Dan Shapiro put out a tip on a Little Nature show at Gua'er Music Bar over at his CW blog. Gua'er just happens to be opposite the end of my lane, two minutes walk from my door.

Little Nature are on the up at the moment and I really wanted to see them (for the fourth time). The support for the night came from Momo. These two bands are Bar 288 regulars and they'd brought a lot of their crowd over to Gua'er. There was a good turnout of genuine music fans and I didn't recognise many people from Yuyintang gigs. I did see Little Punk, singer with Boys Climbing Ropes up at the front. Momo got things started as soon as I stepped in.

I first saw Momo as Happy Strings in the old Yuyintang down in Longhua. I was really impressed and have seen them a few times over the past couple of years. They play garage rock mixed with their own brand of playful melodies. I always like their shows but they haven't really done much in all this time, just maintained a respectable level. I would like to see them take it up a level with a full set of new originals. I did get something new. Since changing their name, Momo now open the shows with an unplugged style sing-a-long intro track. I thought it was strange at first, but the audience were really into it. It'll be up in the video channel soon.

Little Nature ripped straight into their melodic punk set that reminds me a bit of Green Day prior to the Dookie era. They are brimming with energy and confidence at the moment and it makes for a good high energy live show. This was the first time I saw them playing their own show and not buried down in a multi-band night. They were certainly up to the task. Alas, I often moan about their 'Happy Birthday' song being out of place in an otherwise great set and now I see it's a real fan favourite. People were singing along and, to be fair, there was more than a hint of irony from the band as they belted it out. They don't have a myspace style page at the moment so you'll have to make do with my video, which is a bit raw sorry. Check the channel or the next post.

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Gossip Week: Brad's back (again), who is Emma?

By
Andy Best
on September 9, 2008 11:33 PM |
anar bar
I saw a couple of posts on the City Weekend blogs just today that constitute a post. Surprisingly though, they came not from 'Punknotjunk' or Dan Shapiro but from their general nightlife editor, Jessy.

The first post is about Emma and China West. They are both large scale ticketers and promoters that put on shows in Shanghai and all over the country. The article is about one poaching management staff from the other.

Original post here.

Jessy is reporting on an article first published at China Music Radar here. I must explain something to fans of the rock-indie scene in Shanghai. Emma and China West are the companies responsible for bringing Celine Dion here, and soon Avril Lavigne. So here's a question: what does a Celine Dion stadium gig have to do with the underground rock scene? Nothing ... and so on to the next item.

Brad Ferguson's latest comeback is actually a show he had booked while at Windows Underground. There was no plan beyond the one show -which is this weekend. However, stop the press, here comes a real comeback. CW blogs reveal that Brad is getting back to together with former boss Zooma. Brad and Zooma worked together putting on shows at the ill-fated venue 4-live. Now they will be reunited at Anar Bar. Anar Bar used to be Shuffle bar a while ago, where Brad also worked putting on shows. I myself saw a Subs gig that he put on there.

This makes me crack a smile as the latest venue to join the scene is in fact in my newly defined area for hipsters ... i.e. where I live. Check it out. If things go well, i'll add it in to the Google map soon.

Lets finish with a listen to PK-14, the biggest show coming up this weekend. Here they are.

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Magazines: Aug-Sep City Weekend

By
Andy Best
on August 29, 2008 4:50 PM |

city weekend onlineThey are not keeping up with That's Shanghai's amount of scene coverage from last month, but the latest issue of City Weekend features three columns on the music scene.

First up, all these articles should now be available in the magazine section of CW's website: here

The Shanghaiology Small Talk feature is an interview with Brad Ferguson that mainly covers this old news. Having it in print will definitely help stick it to his old boss more, which is actually causing some regrets as a new overseas manager has been brought in who is innocent in all this. Then again, the new guy is doing dance music. The interview throws in the usual scene analysis questions to which Brad remains calm and measured:

The scene will develop at it's own pace.

Next up is a small feature in the nightlife section called Size Matters. In it, Abe Deyo goes over some issues with venues, or lack of them, in the city. This one is definitely up at the website now if you follow the link. And why not leave a comment? There's some good columnists hanging around the site and a bit of love will surely encourage them to write more posts on top of the print versions.

Finally, following Aric Queen's departure, The Beat column has been taken over by Dan Shapiro. Here's Dan's band The Rogue Transmission. When the column was first started with DJ Michael Ozone of Antidote writing, it was clearly a music scene column. When Aric took over it shifted away from electronic music and DJs and focused more on rock and indie. By the time Aric left it was mainly about bars in general. Dan had been presenting Aric's The Beat vidcasts and doing some writing at the site so in someways there's continuity. I hope that Dan's direct involvement in the scene as an artist as well as an organiser and commenter will turn the column back into a true music scene column. Of course, we just had August and something needs to happen again before anyone can write about it. 

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Joyside live @ Windows Underground

By
Andy Best
on June 8, 2008 9:26 PM |

rogue transmission warm upI went down to the recently moved Windows Underground bar last night to see the famous Beijing punk band, Joyside. This was part of a special event called Get in the Van and features a three band bill then a free minibus over to another bar for dancing and DJs. This was the second van event, both organised by Dan Shapiro who fronts the band, Rogue Transmission. As well as Joyside and Rogue Transmission the line up featured folk-punk act Boys Climbing Ropes.

Joyside are huge here and the venue filled up. However, my night was basically ruined by the curse of the 'bar gig'. It's a strange affliction that affects normal 'venue' gigs in the underground scene too. They seem to operate by different rules that may suit some people but just not me.

Why can't shows start on time? Coming late to a show and missing some of the support act is normal and not a big deal. This one was door at 9 then start at 10, but they waited until 10.45 presumably until it filled up more. So, i'm fine with multi act bills, especially in a smaller local scene - but - it drives me nuts when they become triple headliners or sometimes quadruple and more. Have a bunch of support acts but don't hold back the whole show for them to get more people in and, for god's sake, don't let them play full sets.

So Rogue Transmission plays a solid traditional rock set but it was basically 12.00 midnight, Euro 2008 about to start on TV and me starving to death. Yes, 12.00 at a show where the door opened at 9 and the second support act was just warming up. So I missed half of Boys Climbing Ropes getting something to eat then came back in time for Joyside.

And ... the sound was awful, I couldn't hear the lead vocals or the guitar, and Joyside were wasted and all over the place. Let down. Not to mention that half the people there were from the 'party crowd' who looked ready to hit the bund clubs after the show. Joyside are huge, like I said, and their real fans still loved every minute of the show.

 

andy dan xiao punk

Me, Dan Shapiro and Little Punk of Boys Climbing Ropes.

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