Results tagged “ding jia” from Andy Best

Before I write this I should make something very clear:

I like Momo and fans of indie pop/cutesy should catch their show which is excellent. 

Despite the big change of direction with Soma, I followed them since they were the Happy Strings and they put on a very professional live show these days. Not my usual music taste but in the old days they were very DIY and an integral part of the struggling scene so I'm happy to support.

So first the point of the post: 

There are two new demo tracks up at their Douban page. That'll be the two at the bottom of the player marked demo.

While we're at it why not see a recent video of them performing one of those tracks:

Or look back at their Soma debut as Momo. Or check out their Gua'er mini show. Or read a feature on Shanghai girls in rock by Jake Newby that includes singer Ding Jia.

Alas, one of the two demos has disappointed me a bit. At a recent show Momo played two of their older tracks and they rocked. It was a reminder of something. In the Happy Strings days I was always impressed by Ding Jia's voice. During the chorus of Start you could hear depth and colour in the singing. If only we could have Momo's original style but with the new professionalism live. When you listen to the vocals at the start of the new demo of Qingtian Wawa 晴天娃娃 the producer has destroyed her voice and turned it into a helium cartoon voice. 

Momo are now a band with experience, style and a good live show. I hope the producers can keep their soul too.

I'm back in action. Tonight at Yuyintang, Jiao Ban night part two. First of all, if you haven't already, read all about the significance of this night right here. And secondly, here are the bands involved:

I was looking forward to this a lot and, as I thought, it turned out to be a rerun of the Indietop show except with good sound. And, err, not as many bands. 

First on the stage was Tianpin Dian (Candy Shop). Regular readers of the blog will know all about this band and have listened to their great demo track Wo Men. I also reported on their great new track that they debuted at the Winter Madness show here. The track is called Wo Shi Chao Liu (I Set The Trend) and I got it on video this time. Candy Shop played a good set here despite being the first of four bands and hence with the lower volume. The new song was received well at the end. Must point out though, it's kind of the semi-serious/playful song that they do at the end and is a departure from their other, heavier, material.

Talking of Tianping Dian, we'd been having a right laugh on Douban and had arranged to meet at the show. They are a great bunch and so laid back and friendly. Also, YKE shares my appreciation of MC Hotdog's first CD and the track 1030. Fair play to that. So next on stage were Momo. Their new material is very cute but I'm still impressed with how they've tightened up the live act. They had a loud and clear sound tonight and the audience really liked them. Ex-Mushroom's guitarist Jerry was also playing up there filling in the layered parts from the new CD. He appears to be the SOMA session guy lately. Jerry Lee does have a new project in the works called Triple Smash, more on that in the future.

So yeah, Momo were tight and professional and went down really well. They came back to the small club setting but brought the best aspects of their Indietop show with them. There was one funny moment in the set. At one point, singer Ding Jia called out her number and offered a free Indietop CD to the first person to text her. The girl who won got up on stage and Ding invited her to say something into the mike. She said "I love Tianping Dian." It was taken in good humour.

Little Nature were up next. They had their original three piece line up and flat hair. The only sign of the Indietop show extras was the intro tape they played before coming on stage. They pulled out a good but not great (by their own standards) set that was a little bit sabotaged by a weak drum sound that ate up the snare completely. Last on were the Mushrooms. Their new line up still isn't quite there but this time it was enough to get the crowd moving and to make the old hits ring true. A good turn out and a solid night for Jiao Ban part two. 

I previously blogged about a feature I was helping Jake Newby with for SH magazine. Read the original posts here and here. The article is not online just yet so links are going to be added in later.

So the magazine is out, along with the news that the magazine only has one more issue after this before folding. That's shame as Jake was really fighting the good fight there and putting in a bunch of music writing and other good stuff that appealed to people who don't live in gated communities in Jin Qiao.

So the article asks six female artists in the music scene about their experiences. They are:

Melody Li from Tianping Dian (Candy Shop)

Xiao You from Pinkberry

Ding Jia from Momo

Xiao Bai from Bang Bang Tang

Vivian Chiang from Moongazer

Jia Die from Torturing Nurse

There's a bunch of insightful and intelligent stuff in the feature but I'll quote Vivian who seems to have a similar life experience to me:

At the back of the magazine is a First Person interview with Jiang Shaoqing, the co-founder of 0093 rehearsal studios. After wailing on bands for leaving his studio a mess and for being mediocre he leaves us with this nugget:

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:

The Rogue Transmission and The Molds
The Subs, The Molds and Pinkberry

The Indie Top Showcase

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).