Andy Best: Search Results

Alright, that's enough now

By

Andy Best

on November 10, 2009 5:20 PM | Permalink

I was going to leave this as an aside for the pod, and since the last time(s) I had decided to drop this and leave for the venues/other punters/bands to sort out, if they cared.

If you've ever been to a gig in Shanghai you'll have noticed that event photographers and overenthusiastic hobbyists with expensive toys often use them as their personal studios. They generally break several rules that are accepted, and even enforced everywhere else. For example:

* No flash photography at shows.

* No taking pictures of bands or punters without permission first.

* Don't annoy or block people who paid money to see the show.

The Pet Conspiracy show was particularly bad for this. It pretty much killed my enjoyment of the first two bands as I was constantly looking at them as they buzzed around in front of me and tried to directly take my picture continuously. Despite my best attempts to keep out of their shots and concentrate on the show - there I f*cking am, in a gallery posted at Shanghaiist.

The douchey photog in the black Antidote shirt was on fine form, boogie-ing away as he worked and running around like hyperactive kindergarten kid. At one point free t-shirts were thrown into the crowd and as Jake bent down to pick one up, that guy literally ran across to jump in front and whip it out of his reach, before throwing it back to the DJs to be thrown out to someone else. It's like he had a one man mission against the paying audience. I see from this gallery that the guy strutting around the crowd using a flash next to people's faces must have been Kosuke Sato.

Perhaps I'm getting everyone mixed up. I know, why don't you all post your headshots and resumes at one site so we can all know who the top party photographers are.

But really, that's enough guys, please. I saw photographer web2asia of Flickr at the show with his camera and he somehow managed to not get in the way at all. It can be done.

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Factory closed for 'strategic review'

By

Andy Best

on October 16, 2009 8:38 AM | Permalink

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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Pepsi comp blog ... oh dear.

By

Andy Best

on July 28, 2009 11:13 PM | Permalink

So, there is an English blog at the site for the Pepsi contest. And for some reason it has decided to accuse me of jumping on a bandwagon.

Here is the post

It is written by an anonymous writer and extensively quotes Abe Deyo, who is apparently a stage manager on the show now. The writer may or may not be either Jay or X from the about page, I suppose.

No quotes from Abe or the mystery blogger about a certain incident that is missing from the blog ... but not missing from CMR here.

So here's the quote that links my post:

So a couple of "prominent scene figures" organized a boycott, and a lot of bands dropped out and started talking smack online. A few English language bloggers chimed in, jumping on the indie integrity bandwagon and charging that Pepsi doesn't respect rock.

The link was originally on 'chimed in' to the post I linked at the top here. What can I say ... jumping on a bandwagon. People who know me and who follow the blogging world a bit more closely know that I posted my thoughts on the thing right at the beginning before anyone else who would later get involved.

Right here at Shanghaiist.

It's the first comment, the one where I say fuck you Pepsi co. What the bands who joined or not had to say later is their own thing. Jumping on a bandwagon implies changing my mind to be 'in' with a certain group. It is simply not the case, I have thought and stated that the show is balls right from the start and have consistently followed through with that sentiment.

So check your facts before linking me along with a baseless insult and add your real name. As Abe implies in his quotes, the show is what it is and it's always been clear to see. So the blogger there needn't attack my integrity while writing for a Pepsi sponsored pop show's blog. And what's more, if the upshot of this is that people who work directly for Pepsi read this post then might I add that you market junk food to kids ... how do you fucking sleep at night, assholes?

Can I add ... WTF ... this whole thing had been put to bed. The mini controversy was all over, no one was posting about it any more and the show was going on doing its thing. Why bring this up now? Is it one of those marketing ploys or something?

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Continue reading Pepsi comp blog ... oh dear..

Jake Newby interviews Miniless Records

By

Andy Best

on June 24, 2009 4:28 PM | Permalink

Not so long ago in a galaxy not very far away, I linked some of LOS's stuff on Neocha and mentioned the upcoming Miniless showcase at Yuyintang.

here

With the gig almost upon us, Jake Newby has done an amazing interview with label founder Han Han over at Shanghaiist.

The interview is long and in-depth and provides an excellent insight into a more DIY philosophy. The interview and the show are the perfect antidote to all that horrible ideology and jargon being thrown around at certain recent conferences (and cropping up mercilessly in my Facebook feeds).

Here's the full interview

And here's an excerpt:

There seems to be quite a commitment to the music and the artist side of things - is that more important than being a successful business?

Actually in today's society or music industry, the power of promotion are far beyond music itself, and I think every people with a healthy-normal brain should understand that. But, well, maybe we all had a failed-brain so we think, at least at this period of miniless, we'll focus more on music. And if the music could inspire the others and ourselves, that's a successful business to us.

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Pinkberry video shoot photos

By

Andy Best

on June 19, 2009 1:25 AM | Permalink

Busted!

Pinkberry have been recording music and making videos up at Soma recently. And when I was checking out some of the photos on Douban I spotted Shanghaiist music writer Jake Newby. That's him in the blue T-shirt.

Actually that sounds a bit different to the reality. I knew Jake was going to be there, in fact we were going to go together but I had la duzi. I didn't know the idea was to be actually in the video though. So ... anyway ... Pinkberry are not really on Soma's label so what's up with all this free studio time and development? Sonnet drummer and Soma employee Lezi tells me that he will start his own label to promote Sonnet, Pinkberry and 21G. It's all early days now but the resources are there for him to use.

here's the full gallery from the shoot

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Douban: Pinkberry and Loudspeaker

By

Andy Best

on April 22, 2009 12:56 PM | Permalink

Things have been afoot in the land of Pinkberry since their triumphant best show with Reflector at Yuyintang.

The douban page has now got two new demo tracks and a gallery of their latest photo shoot. The tracks are Live In Live and 片. Also, more importantly, Pinkberry have replaced their bass player, hoping to add experience and build on their recent progress.

Pinkberry's douban page

Direct link to new photo gallery

Also around the world of Douban. I have been checking out long term Shanghai punk band Loudspeaker. Loudspeaker have gradually shifted from skatepunk with a twist of hardcore punk to hardcore punk with a hint of "metalcore". We've noticed it at the shows and now they have three good quality tracks available on their page that showcase the sound.

Have a listen here

In other news. If you have been following the Soma thing, Li Pang made a lengthy stream of BS reply at Shanghaiist here. I'm not posting on it anymore so have a look.

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Midi rumours: if you can't beat 'em ...

By

Andy Best

on March 25, 2009 3:16 PM | Permalink

The Midi festival rumours are still flying around. Not 24 hours after an official release saying the Shanghai Midi is on there has been a new message tweeting about saying it's canceled again. This time because of 'permit issues'.

To catch up on the story read the Shanghaiist write up: here

Now we all know the ins and outs, the ups and downs of putting on big shows in China, and about the reliability of various groups too. So this is simply a case where the desire to microblog at the speed of light or be the first to break the inside track has overtaken the speed of real life.

And ...despite saying that, i'm feeling lonely/left out so I'm now going to join in. Why not.

You see ... I have a source too! More than one in fact and sources who have also spoke to organizers on telephones. So lets stir the pot one more time:

a-p-p-a-r-e-n-t-l-y Midi officially sanctioned both the Shanghai and Zhenjiang shows separately without consulting either parties. The Shanghai festival was in fact good to go but then immediately found out that a bigger better one with access to the same acts was now scheduled close by on the same days. Then they canceled. The permit issue "reeks of BS", says my source.

So, if the Shanghai one doesn't happen and the Zhenjiang one goes ahead, and is confirmed by Midi school to be sanctioned by them. Then you know. But anyway, I still think a 'festival' in Redtown wouldn't be so good. It's too small and sanitized. There would be no festival atmosphere. It would just be about seeing the bands. I've seen up to 15 bands a month, including the cream of Beijing acts, without leaving my district except to go 8 or so bus stops to Dream Factory.

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Sick again: some tunes and news

By

Andy Best

on March 18, 2009 9:05 PM | Permalink

I'm proper sick. Boo hoo. It's tonsillitis and I can barely speak. Hey, stop cheering.

That means that this weekend is shaky for me and I'm not sure which gigs i'll make, let alone review. Check out the flyer there. Friday night at Yuyintang is the AK47 tour and CD release.

Have a listen to their demos at Douban here.

Also, the Midi festival rumours are flying again. This time we have Shanghaiist linking China.org.net. They report that the festival will not be in Beijing at all ...wait for it ... but in Zhenjiang. That's a city on the banks of the Yangtze between Shanghai and Nanjing. Surreal. I'd take all these reports with a pinch of salt. By the way, you will never ever catch me trying to break these Midi stories or post them first or whatever. I agree with Dan.

Shanghaiist write up

Their source at Zhongguo Wang

Finally, have any clue what I'm listening to while sick at home? Care? No? Well, Hedgehog are coming back to Shanghai to promote their new CD Blue Daydreaming in early April. There is a preview track up at their Neocha page.

Here it is

Cough, splutter, cough. Moan ...

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Midi Festival rumours and a video

By

Andy Best

on March 10, 2009 7:13 PM | Permalink

There's currently a bunch of info flying around about the Midi Festival that includes a possible date in Shanghai. Some of it is public and some of it is private (sorry, can't publish that).

First of all, for non-China readers: Midi is a music college in Beijing. They started a festival and put it on in their own campus. Then it grew and grew and moved into Beijing's Haidan Park, eventually looking like a real festival with international acts and multiple stages. Alas, it came a cropper of the Ol*mp*cs and tried to reschedule into a different holiday, clashing with the Modern Sky festival.

Before I link up the rumours, better point out that previous attempts at a 'Shanghai Midi' were just local promoters bringing the bands down who were also playing Midi before it was canceled. New rumours talk about people directly involved in the Beijing Midi - starting with the fact that they are having difficulty getting permission for this year.

So first of all we have the post at China Music Radar saying it will definitely happen in Shanghai Sculpture Space (Redtown) on May 1st & 2nd.

Read it here

Then we have the Jake Newby (pictured with me) write up for Shanghaiist which is a bit more skeptical.

Read that here

Personally I'm with the skeptical side ... read the blurb, multiple stages at Redtown? Has anyone reading this actually stepped onto the lawn there recently? I have, I lived opposite for 18 months. Multiple stages and big festival stuff? I don't think so. If it does happen there, it will be minimal. Well, lets wait and see. I leave you with Subs footage from a previous Midi. It's rough as fuck buts that's the best way to hear the Subs.

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Talk time: political punk?

By

Andy Best

on February 28, 2009 7:11 PM | Permalink

In a recent post, Elaine Chow at Shanghaiist linked an AFP story that called out Chinese rock as being toothless because it wasn't political.

Shanghaiist calls out fake punks
Original AFP article

I felt the article was shallow and had a number of conceits and dodgy premises. It held China to standards not present in The West and falsely imagined a past where China had an independent scene that was political motivated.

My post is buried now but there have been some thoughtful comments which I would like to re-present here. Thanks to those who contributed.

The discussion comes after the jump ... enjoy.

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Continue reading Talk time: political punk?.

Shanghaiist call out fake punks

By

Andy Best

on February 17, 2009 4:11 PM | Permalink

You see, it's really easy to write a title or post that is sensational.

So, when it comes to diversity alt-media site Shanghaiist had all but died an un-PC slasher movie death. But recently they've got a new editor, Elaine Chow, who is writing about local music.

Before we go on, I'm blogging this article by Elaine Modern Chinese rockers staying far away from politics. And, Elaine herself is blogging this piece from AFP Chinese rockers enjoy revival - without the politics. As always, read the originals before taking my word for things.

The main thrust of the articles is that Chinese rock and punk bands are not overtly political and the implication is that they are therefor missing something. This is one of the big two double standards in scene reporting. The first one is that Chinese bands are better if they are more Chinese, whatever that means. This one is that Chinese punk bands should all be complaining about the government.

I'd love to give some commentary on the AFP article but I can't really detect any sort of real through point to it. The only interesting thing is that Elaine Chow throws in the line:

So much for actually being punk, eh?

Of course, it's a complete myth that all punk and rock bands in 'The West' are political - that is, singing overtly about about activism and government policy. For every Propagandhi (my faves) there's a Ramones. And how political are the Rolling Stones? What do these writers think political actually means anyway?

The Subs sing about resisting authority and songs like Ha from We Haven't Entered The 21st Century talk about failed development policy and environmental damage. The music scene in Shanghai is full of bands whose lifestyles, visual styles and music are completely unacceptable by the Xinhua standard for national TV and distribution. The problem here is the AFP source article which is just writing to fulfill a common shallow type or double standard that crops up all the time. Not to mention writing up a commentary basically writing off all Chinese rock and punk bands as being shallow.

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See ya, Abe.

By

Andy Best

on February 13, 2009 3:20 PM | Permalink

Sad to say that I recently spoke to Abe Deyo, one of Shanghai's main independent music promoters, and found out that he's leaving Shanghai next week.

Abe has worn many hats in the scene and as well as promoting shows, he is a photographer and writer. He was the music editor at Shanghaiist when I was there posting a bit on Yuyintang shows. He has also written many articles for City Weekend Magazine and he blogs at their website as punknotjunk.

Check the blog here.

As a regular promoter of shows in Shanghai, he also featured heavily in this blog. Check out articles tagged Abe Deyo here

He also gave us one of the hottest gossip stories of 2008 when he complained in print about Beijing band New Pants and their attitude. Revisit the story here: Handbags

Following a boom in general attendances once the Ol*mp*cs were done, Abe got more ambitious and tried to put on larger and/or better quality shows. We had the The Subs at Dream Factory and then The Queers and DOA at Yuyintang. Abe also took the latter two acts on China tours. Unfortunately the attendances were not there this time. Abe will now move on to Wuhan with work. Wuhan has its own scene which is a lot more punk than Shanghai. Perhaps the spark will be ignited one more time.

See ya, Abe.

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Jue Festival Photos and bonus throwdown

By

Andy Best

on January 21, 2009 1:08 AM | Permalink

New Shanghaiist writer Elaine Chow has just posted up a photo gallery of the two Jue Festival shows I blogged here. There's a lot of pics and you should go there and check them out

Photos: Jue Festival Last Weekend

I notice there's a bunch of gig/blog regulars cropping up in the pics, perhaps you recognize yourself in my little montage below? No me, I'm afraid, although Abe Deyo posted one of me in the Demerit mosh on Facebook. Good catch, I was only in there for two songs.

Quick comment. That Elaine knows how to tag her blog posts correctly. There are a number of different phrases and word you can choose to describe the scene ... she happens to go with shanghai music scene and shanghai underground. Yup, the blog category name and the Youtube channel name. Is this a Google ranking throw down? Seriously though, it's good to see someone at Sha-iist covering shows again. This blog is watching you, mwa ha ha.

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Predictable Melting Pot Bar horror story at China Music Radar

By

Andy Best

on January 7, 2009 2:13 PM | Permalink

The story I'm about to comment on was first broke at China Music Radar here and then reported at Shanghaiist here.

University radio presenter Louis Yu decided to spend part of his China trip seeing a local band and chose the Melting Pot. How unfortunate. His review of the terrible experience is now posted at the CMR link above. That's the Taikang Road branch pictured, this story is about the newer Hengshan Road branch. But, believe me, the story goes for both.

I definitely do don't want to come across as all I told you so but let's also revisit some blog posts on the same subject first:

Barfly goes to Melting Pot

Adventures in Cabaret

No 1 Korean live @ Bar 288

Here's a quote from the last of my three posts. Does it sound familiar (to anyone who's been there)?

The warm up act was in fact a crooning KTV guy singing pop hits to a backing track. Why? Whhyyyyy!!?? Because it was someone's birthday party. Yes, they let someone have their birthday do at the bar on a gig night and put they show back to 11.45 to accomodate a round of KTV crooning and some announcements etc. This is totally normal in the local stylee bar environment and dice shakers continued unabated.

So, here's a quote from when Louis went to see Cold Fairyland on New Year's Eve:

I went into the melting pot and asked the waiter" is cold fairyland playing?" "uh?" "band, is there a band?" "yeah, yeah band..." "what band is playing" "I don't know, new, new band" "do I have to pay for a ticket?" "no, no free". I sat down and it took me a while to clue in that cold fairyland was just some bar band that night ...

...Then he tried to continuously participate in the band's game, until Lin Di (the Pipa player and the leader of the band) said "no you had enough", and he proceeded to tell his friends to go on stage and participate in the game.For one of the games he was asked to give his fav number, in which he said "oh my fav number, beside cold fairyland's promotional number (WTF) is the number 69″, and then he looked around the room and laughed proudly. At that point I wanted to throw my glass at him. Another game he was asked what his fav animal was by which he said "pussy...", and another one, he finally won the game, and the band member gave him a gift, in which he pulled out a condom from his pocket and gave it back to the band member...

What more can one say? There are places like Live Bar and Yuyintang that get it. There are people like 0093 who live in windowless basement rooms in order to push new local bands. There are people like Frank from Mortal Fools and Splitworks pushing for larger events. There are even Indie Labels popping up. Louis adds that some famous bands he has spoken with lately said that they started out in places like that. The debate is, is mismanaged bad exposure better than none? I say - with places like YYT to play at and an established community of locals who know how to present their music, it will hurt you. This is because the choice is not between bad and nothing, it's between bad and something.

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Exit Songs: Shanghaiist publishes lost SH issue

By

Andy Best

on January 6, 2009 12:02 AM | Permalink

I previously mentioned that SH Magazine folded and how it was a shame because the staff there were really improving it. Jake Newby was really leading the music coverage there too. I also mentioned that I had contributed to the final issue, a death themed satire of the mag itself - which was then pulled.

Well, Shanghaiist have got hold of the pre-print PDFs and published them at their site. I have to say, it's well funny, even in it's slightly edited form.

Read the story at Shanghaiist here.

I contributed a song to the music feature Exit Songs along with a group of music scene people. They include Archie Hamilton of Splitworks, Sean Leow of Neocha, promoter Abe Deyo and even Yuyintang owner Zhang Haisheng.

Click into the full post below for the whole issue if you didn't already at Shanghaiist. The feature is on page 20.

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Continue reading Exit Songs: Shanghaiist publishes lost SH issue.

Youtube channel top views for December

By

Andy Best

on December 9, 2008 3:29 PM | Permalink

It's that time of the month again where I round up the blog's Youtube channel. So, for all those who just check the featured posts and have not surfed the back catalogue, I now have 63 videos there to look at.

Check it out

Now, the top six has been a little bit skewed because of this: douchebag scandal and video. In the name of science it's safe to discard it as it's clearly not one of the band's live vids. However, the Sunday Morning video does give us some more interesting insights into the world of blogs and Shanghai.

Youtube views count only individual IPs and thus give us a direct figure on how many different people watched it. So, the Douchegate scandal was a big blog story here and then my video on it got featured posts on Shanghaiist and I Love China. We must be wary of the link at Danwei as it was a small link added to the main post when the article had long been buried on the page. Moving on, all that attention and posting translated into around 1 500 views. So there you have it.

And now - the current top six at my channel:

1) The Rogue Transmission live @ Dream Factory: 302 views watch

2) Bang Bang Tang (Lollipop): 222 views watch

3) Boys Climbing Ropes live @ Dream Factory: 220 views watch

4) Self Party live @ Yuyintang: 218 views watch

5) Hard Queen live @ Yuyintang: 182 views watch

6) Crazy Mushroom Brigade live @ Yuyintang: 168 views watch

Self Party are still holding out for post-rock and experimental while the Mushrooms bump Modern Cheese out for the first time. Watch the Mushroom's vid and sigh - the altered line up I saw at the Indietop showcase has a long way to go in recapturing the level you see in the vid.

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It's a Wee Ling

By

Andy Best

on December 7, 2008 4:46 PM | Permalink

I met Shanghaiist blogger Wee Ling Soh at Indietop One on Saturday and there was one thing on my mind from the get go. Wee Ling posted some event photos there a while back and everyone's eyes were closed. I was told it was a "Wee Ling thing" and thought it very cool. So now I'm proud to present, just for fun ... from the Indietop show on Saturday night ... Andy Best (hood) and Jake Newby (blue) by Wee Ling Soh:

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Magazines: New Pants continued

By

Andy Best

on November 21, 2008 3:30 PM | Permalink

So. This month's top hot off the press gossip story featuring New Pants gets one more round. The show is tomorrow and two magazines have run interviews with them.

Here's the first installment: snub

And here's the follow up: handbags

And, before I go on, the interviews in full.

Jake Newby at SH magazine: read

Punknotjunk at City Weekend: read

Jake's interview is fairly sober and I can reveal that the questions were sent off and done before the scandal broke. By the way, I'm never, ever, going to use the phrase "I can reveal that" again. I just wrote several posts on gossip stuff lately and wanted to throw it in there once. Here's a sample from the interview:

SH: You used to be called The Structural Metal Workshop Master. Why the change of name?

PL: That's true. We changed it because we felt it was too obscure. It was like a name from a student band at the Bauhaus School or something. With New Pants, we wanted a name that made a clean break and set us apart from the previous two decades of rock music in China. So we chose a jokey, modern name instead.

Punknotjunk happens to be the same guy who started off the whole scandal, getting his article pulled from Shanghaiist, where he is the music editor. He starts off by immediately bringing this up and then asking them about it. If you've been following this then you'll note the irony when you read the intro. I still want to know where the 'heat' came from. Shanghaiist are near immune to complaints and last time they altered a post that was already up was when it contained snuff pictures. Just who did Abe piss off?

Here's a sample from the interview:

New Pants seems to be gaining in popularity.......any chance you might soon be breaking into the world of Mando Pop? Maybe a duet with Joey Yung?

A: In China, today, our music still isn't accepted by mainstream audiences, but we have a great fan base in the relatively small underground scene. Fortunately the scene is expanding. Given the chance we would love to work with Joey Yung.

So, after the show tomorrow, this will be put to bed. Must say it's been refreshing to have someone speak their mind regardless of social relationships etc. It hasn't exactly been bad for the blog either.

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Youtube channel top views and a Fool's Mountain

By

Andy Best

on November 16, 2008 10:49 AM | Permalink

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

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.

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Youtube channel: Shanghaiist vs Douban

By

Andy Best

on October 29, 2008 2:59 AM | Permalink

Newer readers to the blog may have noticed that I post videos here but may not have been to the channel and checked out the back log. So, before we get going:

Here it is

Now, a happy coincidence last week has led to an interesting experiment. This involves two sites. I give you ...

Shanghaiist

...and

Douban (Chinese)

So, a bit of background. My Youtube channel's most popular video last month was at around 150 views and my poor little blog has about 2000 individual IPs (individual readers) across a month. Oh, writing that has made me realise that most of my readers don't pay much attention to the vids. Poor me, I know they are bootlegged vids but isn't that part of the romance of the underground? Ahem ... anyway.

When I was posting at Shanghaiist around March of this year, they got 200 000 IPs in a bad month and as much as 800 000 when Kenneth Tan ran the Edison Chen photo scandal stories. Their readership is English speaking Shanghai ex-pats and then overseas readers looking for Shanghai info via the Gothamist network. It's thousands of readers every day. Douban is a Chinese community site for people reviewing and sharing info on movies, music and books. It's very popular and hosts the net groups of choice for Shanghai music fans. A popular site in China like Douban has sky high traffic. Douban has over two million registered members for a start (so it says here). Also, Douban is the site of choice of the local music scene.

So. After getting a reasonable video of Tianping Dian's great show last Friday, I decided to try something out. I joined Douban and posted the video there in a couple of relevant groups. At the same time on Saturday afternoon, Abe Deyo posted up a preview of The Rogue Transmission's Saturday show on Shanghaiist. He used my video of their Control show in the post. What a nice coincidence, now I could use the viewing figures at the Youtube channel to track how many people at those sites watched the video.

So, at the time of the videos being cross posted, TRS had 121 views and Tianping Dian had 6 views.

Then time passed until now. So there was Saturday night then all day Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Of course, not everyone who reads a post at those sites is a rock fan. I'm sure there are all kinds of factors at play but it's certainly interesting to see what kind of traffic gets generated. At least, just for fun.

As I write it has gone midnight on Tuesday and I'm checking the stats right now.

The Rogue Transmission video: 248 views (up 127)
Tianping Dian video: 28 views (up 22 and no significant difference to a regular video)

A certain net meme comes to mind here: Fail!

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The Rogue Transmission EP release party

By

Andy Best

on October 26, 2008 3:46 PM | Permalink

It was another sold out night in Yuyintang. Shanghai band The Rogue Transmission were following up their breakthrough show at Dream Factory with the timely release of their first CD.

Check out their page here.

The full line up was altered at the last minute when Nanjing psychobilly act Angry Jerks had to cancel. Luckily, goth-metal-ish new band Wang Yuezhe were on hand to fill in. I also found out that they have an official English name, Moongazer. Rounding out the bill were Mortal Fools and the headliners.

I did plan to get a bunch of videos for the Youtube channel but I was thwarted by the curse of the random flashing lights at YYT again. I uploaded one track from Mortal Fools and if you check it out you may agree with me that better bands playing there should not settle for the default flash setting. Talking of videos, Abe Deyo used one of the blog's videos in a post over at Shanghaiist - thanks Abe - which should highlight the difference in the lighting area.

Onto the bands. Wang Yuezhe have improved their set and have quite distinctive songs. But, like most new bands they lack a defined image. The singer has a hippy/goth look down but the rest of the band are 'at ease'. Tianping Dian had a similar problem. They really rocked last night with hard and heavy crossover metal but, for example, the keyboardist had on a polo shirt that wouldn't have looked out of place on a golf course. But all in good time. It's just great that a bunch of the newer bands are all starting to come through and the turnouts are back up as a result.

This was a great night for Mortal Fools. Despite the singer Frank's voice slipping a little at times, they have never sounded this good or loud. The place was packed out and eager to get moving. They puled out one of their newer ska tracks with Frank using a harmonica to double for a horn section and it worked. They got an encore and went out with a popular Ramones cover. Great set. The Rogue Transmission got on straight after and professionally made sure they got started dead on midnight. Yuyintang was at capacity and people were here to see this band. Makes you think though. With Shanghai underground bands starting to break through to the point where they can fill YYT - 250 people or more makes it bursting - it's a pity that Dream Factory is so upscale and expensive to rent. It really would be an achievement for the scene to start doing regular mid-scale shows: all without any mainstream advertising or ticketing or service structure.

Another main feature of the night was the wide range of people there. I finally met one of the Layabozi people in the flesh. It was the founder, Mache. I have just put together a playlist for their site so keep your eyes peeled over there. I think there might be someone else going on before me so it might not be for a couple of weeks. Also, I met a couple of great guys from Tasmania of all places. One of them John, admittedly very very drunk, was just the funniest guy. His huge sprawling monologue on blogs and the blogosphere convinced me that he himself must get himself one soon and make a kind of anti-blog. Anyway, he really made my night and I just have to stick his photo up. Hi, John.

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Long weekend blather

By

Andy Best

on September 15, 2008 9:27 PM | Permalink

It's the mooncake-tastic mid-autumn festival which means a public holiday long weekend. I'd love to throw in the words wish and happy in there somewhere but it's a miserable grey day with intermittent rain and thunder. I did get a chance to read around the English language sites and mags and find some stuff on the scene. I've recently put up a lot of reviews and vids so why not throw in a chat? Warning: it's inane and uninformative, you might want to bail now.

First, I was reading SH magazine which has a big feature on live shows and festivals this month. The feature is written by Jake Newby whom I met via a brief stint at Shanghaiist. Jake is a good guy. So before I start the blather, who not read it online:

here

So the article is saying how that after a quiet summer, now everything's back with a bang - so to speak. First up - the JZ festival. Oh, wait a minute, Jazz.

... flips ahead ...

Avril ... something happening in Beijing ...

...flips back to correct feature ...

World Music ... Nordic experimental DJs playing in a greenhouse ...

Well, there were a couple of bands in there somewhere that I liked. China Now is not too bad, I suppose. What was the other thing I was looking at today? Ah yes, that new website I mentioned here. Spicy Duck Neck (dot com). Today I saw they posted a review of both TooKoo and Control. Well, they also cover Jazz and anything remotely musical but now I have the first evidence of crossover. This is good - now readers have a chance to see a contrasting viewpoint. And, as usual, read what I'm talking about in full first:

here

Yes! We have a discrepancy. Where I felt that people 'got' BCR by the end of the set and there was a good response from the audience. Layabozi doesn't share my view. So is this an indication that I see the scene through rose-tinted glasses? Will you ever really ... care. I'll tell you who won't care: BCR. I recently bumped into them at shows a bit and have a confession to make. Bassist Morgan's appreciation of Iron Maiden makes me a convert. In fact, if anyone ever wants anything from me in the future, start by mentioning your belief in the far reaching influence of the Dave Murray/Adrian Smith partnership.

Finally something a bit more serious. Yan Shuai, the singer from TooKoo, was interviewed for SH magazine's 60 Seconds feature. I'm sure it will come online shortly. Here's a quick sample featuring his picks for mainland China bands:

Banana Monkey are good. Their style is more indie than us, but I like to listen to indie too. ReTROS are really good live too. They are really professional, on an international level almost, and I like their attitudes towards music and life - they're very low key.

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Windows Underground goes down in spectacular fashion

By

Andy Best

on August 2, 2008 10:47 PM | Permalink

Windows Underground Breaking news over at Shanghaiist that I'm going to rehash here as some of my blog peeps don't go there.

Here's the original article.

So, here's how the story of Friday night went - that's last night. Brad Ferguson, the manager of Windows Underground turned up to work to have his boss tell him that he was now forbidden from booking Chinese bands.

Some background, the Windows family has three popular bars in Shanghai. One of them, Tembo, was not doing much so the boss, a local Shanghai woman, hired Brad to manage in the general sense and to turn it into a live music place. After a great start they moved the whole bar to a bigger location and fitted it out with a good sound system, finally re-naming it Windows Underground.

Here's Brad telling the story from the Sha-ist interview:

My boss forbade me from hiring Chinese bands, saying that Chinese people only want to see foreigners, and that rock is a western thing so westerners do it better. She said she herself would rather see a bad foreigner band than a good Chinese one. We argued about it for a while last night, but didn't make any progress. So, I let Hard Queen, our regular Friday night (Chinese) band, do their final show. The accountant warned me that they wouldn't pay for Chinese bands, but I agreed to pay out of my own pocket. The band are friends of mine, so I also told them why they were being replaced. At the end of their set they said some stuff about the bar and my boss -- all true -- then kicked the drum kit over. The crowd cheered and people seemed to be having a good time. I finished out the night, but when I got home my boss called me from downstairs. She yelled at me for a while, then she called the police. I politely explained the events of the night, and the cops agreed that as there were no damages, no one was injured, and no one broke the law, there was nothing they could do. So, I only got fired.

So, Windows Underground is out of the scene. I'm sorry, but cover bands and cabaret don't count. As Brad says in the article.

Also, this is not that suprising in some aspects. Windows bars are notorious for barring locals from ticketed events for allegedly not drinking enough. And coincidentally, a few years back when Windows Too was still in Jing An Plaza, I popped in on a New Year's eve and saw the very same owner turning away locals herself at the ticket table in the hall. Bar owners. Again, not surprising.

Tags:

Ark live house and photo books

By

Andy Best

on June 30, 2008 5:37 PM | Permalink

sticker Some news that I read on Shanghaiist lately that made me think a bit. It comes from Abe Deyo in this post. There are two main points: Ark Live House is closing and a new photo book called Shanghai Soundbites is being released.

First of all Ark Live House. I didn't metion this in my last post called I Demand A Recount. This is because it hasn't been doing anything for so long that it hardly counts. Also, it is in Xin Tian Di. That's an upscale restaurant area made by Shui On with the highest prices in town. I went to Ark once and got charged 70 RMB for a can of coke (usually 3 RMB in a shop). There is one possible repurcussion though. Zhang Haisheng who runs Yuyintang gets a lot of his income from working at Ark as a DJ.

I haven't seen the photobook yet but it made me think of how useless the scene is at communicating, so much is left to chance. Abe Deyo promotes gigs and meets the bands every week and I go to his Shanghaist post for the gig dates. Yuyingtang has a facebook page and Live Bar have just got a new website. In fact there's more in English than in Chinese. But anyway, I have been to the shows here for a few years and know a bunch of people in the scene and try to keep up with it - but the annoucement on Shanghaiist of the book launch on the same day it was happening was the first I'd heard of it in any way, ever.

As for the book itself. I read the blurb on the website. It suggests that people who have made the scene lately are leaving now. Hmmn, is that a reference to the VISA issues and transient nature of the ex-pat population? There's a lot of that opinion around but I don't think the bands have VISA issues, they are Chinese. If all foreigners were repatriated last week, the only difference to the Gala show on Saturday would have been 6 or 7 less people in the audience of 200+ I'm sure the photos are nice, though.

Results tagged “shanghaiist” from Andy Best

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