Results tagged “indie folk” from Andy Best

Christmas Day and it's off to Yuyintang to catch a Leonard Cohen-esque miserable band. Yes!

On the bill for Cigarette Butt's EP release tour:

Cigarette Butt 烟头 

Yu Guo 羽果 

Yu Guo were also performing as Cigarette Butt's backing band as they are essentially a duo. Both bands hail from Nan Chang City in Jiangxi. It is worth pointing out that Yu Guo currently have their entire Live In Shanghai 2009 Album on that page for free download.

Now. Cigarette Butt are an excellent deadpan, miserable folk-indie duo. They are best sampled when looking dead ahead and miserably singing This is the sunniest song. Go there now and listen to it, it's this one 最阳光的歌 Also note the hit count and and fans. The kids love this act.

Yu Guo opened with excellent sound that showcased Xie Hui's virtuoso vocal performance. They are a super professional band who rehearse full time and are managed by Zhang Haisheng of Yuyintang. They have recently been to Spain too, check out the nice photos. Tonight they played a shorter set of tracks from their first album Lost Paradise. The youngish, local audience were suitably entranced by Chun Xiao. Everyone's fave.

Cigarette Butt lived up to their sound live. Vocalist/guitarist Ah Bu 阿布  is a tall and formidable guy with real presence. He took centre stage and never smiled or betrayed any emotion other than annoyance and subtle misery. Fellow performer Wang Ranran 王冉冉 is petite and quirky, contrasting Ah Bu. Yuguo are a tight band and the music sounded good. I went away lamenting the lack of an industry (as usual). Yu Guo and Cigarette Butt are not exactly my style of music but listen to the songs at their pages - if there was a halfway functioning national music industry, like in Taiwan, both these bands would be massive and well loved.

0093 Studio is the premier rehearsal studio for local bands in Shanghai. It's affordable, has plenty of rooms (all equipped) and it also happens to be in an underground bomb shelter and look very rock.

I've been down there a bit lately, working on some songs and it really is one of the coolest places. I also intro'd a few people to the place after meeting via the blog. I was once down there with a certain retired rock singer and the first thing he blurted out when we saw a room was "Wow, they should put on shows here."

Fast forward a few weeks and I'm surprised to see that there will be a show there. They even have a separate logo O3空间 (on the right). It will be on Sunday 29th of this month and run from 2.00 in the afternoon. 

The music will be indie folk but I'm not sure about the artists. As well as Sylvia we have two acts named after dishes, Tomato & Egg and Glazed Char Siu respectively. Anyhow, it could be the start of something good so if you fancy sitting in a grungy underground room shooting the shit with local musicians then give it a go.

0093 is at 93 Lingling Road and the entrance is right by the Line 4 metro station Da Mu Qiao Lu.

Following up from this weekend's gig by A_Z band, here's a few links.

Adam Schokora has posted up five China indie folk tracks at his 56minus1 blog. Glorious Pharmacy are not really in the same sub-scene but they are great so listen anyway.

Not so long back, Neocha.com released a free compilation of female singers that is mainly indie folk in style with some indie pop. Read about it and DL the whole release here:

Finally, Shanghai indie folk artist Mogu Hong (Red Mushroom) has got a well developed Neocha page with several tracks. Although, from general feedback and from some of the comments at the 56minus1 post, I see that people need reminding that the scene here is fully underground and amateur.