Results tagged “sonnet” from Andy Best

One more weekend then hols, hooray! I work weekends you see. 

So, Jake is starting to do more previews at his blog so you should be checking that out. But here is my thing.

On Friday electro superstar Peaches is in town playing Mao. But - I like rock and guitars so I'm going to see the other international act in town that night - L.A.'s Alpine Decline.

The show is at 696 in Hong Kou district and only costs 30 rmb. And they rule. Go to the event page here, even if your Chinese is not up to scratch, and you can see the location via the embedded Google map. Friday night, 9.30. It's just 5 mins walk from the Line 3 station Hongkou Football Stadium, along the same road. Go.

Then on Saturday it's the Pinkberry EP release at Yuyintang. This is essentially a Zhu Lu He Feng event featuring three of the newly formed label's bands. The others are Joker and Sonnet. Indie pop act Man Ban Pai support. This will be a lively busy night with strong local representation.

See you all out there and remember ... agonizing over Friday night? ... disco still sucks!

Well, fair play to Lezi of Sonnet and now label Zhu Lu He Feng.

He formed a label, singed four bands and has got their first release coming out within three months or so of starting. Sign bands - release music. It proves we should all 学韩涵 (learn from Miniless).

So first out of the gate is Pinkberry. They have a CD coming out called Go! Boom! and the release party at Yuyintang has been announced. They have a new track available at their page which is a Chinese language version of their song Live In Live, now titled 我听到天使的声音 (I heard the sound of an angel). The track has big flashy production and a retooled sound. 

Listen to it here at their Douban page. Although all the old demos are gone now and the other track is singer Xiao You guesting on a Tim Wu hip-hop song.

The event is at Yuyintang on Saturday 24th of this month. Check the flyer and details here via Douban. Other bands playing are Sonnet, Joker and Manbanpai so expect a busy night with mostly local fans. And me and Jake.

End note: Blimey we have been following this band since this show. And now they have a CD coming out on a scene label. Good job guys.

A lot to get through tonight. Local King 3 went down at Mao - for free - and featured five bands:

Bomb Shelter

Bomb Shelter are an AC-DC cover band and went on last so I wasn't around for them, sorry guys.

So, free. Yes, the place was full and jumping. Great. Although everyone's patience was tested when the doors didn't open until 20 minutes after the first band was supposed to be playing.

First on was Pinkberry. I wrote about them at the recent Yuyintang show and said they were coming back to their best. They were better again tonight and the song 'Live in Live' is becoming their signature song. They sounded good from down front and Xiao You is performing well, although she was sick tonight.

Candy Shop came on with their usual energy and were well received. Unfortunately, their set was broken up. They had to run an on stage promotion for the drink you see in the flyer there. Basically, couples had to get on stage and play charades to win free drinks. Alas, it all came apart when they brought up a couple and a non-Chinese girl had to guess the word 'Ge Noh Mang' from her friend's mime. That's Shanghainese slang for the people who crowd round accidents and fights. So that's like asking me and Jake to take Lebron James and Kevin Garnett in 2 on 2 b-ball. It dragged on and poor Candy Shop's set suffered. They made a good come back with their track 'Wo Men'.

Sonnet were next. They had complex video intros to their songs and all kinds of bridges and gimmicks. They presented themselves like super stars and even did their latest single We all have a sorry yesterday acapella with all the members up front. They had the bassist back in the line up, which was good and to be fair, the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. Personally, I like Sonnet when they play tight snappy tunes with dance rock beats. They closed out with their old show closer, a cover of YMCA.

At that point I'd been keeping my eye on the crowd. At free gigs that feature bands who attract young locals you see a lot of new people. I felt they were having a good time, but were apprehensive as they maybe didn't know what the standard was or what it was supposed to be like.

And then BCR came on and told them with authority.

This is no disrespect to the other bands, I like them all, but ... from the first strike of the guitar, Boys Climbing Ropes owned that stage and filled up the venue with their sounds and presence. They got everyone's attention and were a true headlining act. They rocked the place. They were loud, fast and tight, everyone knows the songs and those who didn't were all impressed. Little Punk's vocals were properly mic-ed up and crystal clear, it made so much difference. It reminded me of the Pet Conspiracy gig in that here was a band who properly owned that larger space. 

Can we now have a BCR headlining show at Mao please? Properly promoted, full up and on before midnight, preferably.

Friday night at Yuyintang and an evening organised by newly formed label Zhu Lu He Feng. Here's the line up:

Yin

A mix of styles with the label being represented by Pinkberry and Sonnet. The label has been officially running for two months or thereabouts so it still has another twelve to get a CD out and beat it's nearest rivals. Unless you count the Miniless collective as a true label, that is. 

Yin opened the night. They are a student cover-band who play stuff like Greenday. After that was Manbanpai. They are the full line-up version of Hama. Hama is the singer from Second and this is her side project. They played well composed pop numbers with a folk/bluesy vein at a polite volume. They youngish local crowd especially liked the lead guitarist's soloing.

Next up were the more experienced acts from the label. Pinkberry turned it up a bit and ripped into their pop-punk set. It's pretty much the same set as their first run of shows but with backing from Yang Fu and Lezi from Sonnet. They had good energy and singer Xiao You regained some of her old form in the second half of the set. That left Sonnet to close the night. Sonnet play "post-pop" and pride themselves on being playful and clever. However, they have just lost their bass player and replaced him with samples tonight. With Yang Fu tied up with multiple duties they lost some of the movement and verve of the usual live show. 

Yuyintang seem to be struggling with their new sound desk at the moment and a feature of seven bands I saw in the past two days was muddy and overbearing bass. Let's hope they get it sorted in time for a huge run of amazing shows lined up for the next six weeks that includes Hedgehog and Reflector.

Tonight gig was called 谁没有一个SORRY的昨天 which translates on the flyer to We all have a SORRY yesterday. 

The flyer features Edison Chen and some references to his scandal. Have a look.

So, yeah, better get this out of the way. You see "Sorry" the English word used in a Chinese sentence is a new slang word, apparently hot in Beijing now meaning some wild thing you did. It is also the name of Sonnet's new song which they debuted on the night - getting all this?

So, line up:

Venus

Apart from newcomers Venus this gig features all the bands signed to Lezi's new label. So let Jake tell you about that here. 

First on 21 Grams. Smooth and passive instrumental tracks that start quiet and layered, build to a crescendo and then come slowly down again. Textbook post-rock and if you like that sort of thing, you'd have loved their performance tonight. After that came Venus. Venus are an all girl band with attitude, joining Second and Black Luna. They came on all in matching styles, all black, tight and with a tinge of dominatrix. They are brand new but the crowd warmed up to them by the end. Despite the look and the guitar riff based songs, they were very pop. However, with the thought and effort they are putting in to being a band I'm sure they are going to do well down the line.

Next up was Pinkberry, the first band with a kind of air of expectation around them. I love the band and have followed them closely on the blog. But since changing their bassist and drummer they have not got the mojo back. Toni's Gibson Les Paul and ripping power chords should be bouncing you around the hall, but he was barely audible tonight. With a better sound live and with band members that live up to Xiao You's performance, they will be back strong. 

Joker are traditional blues and they stayed true to the tradition of asking the audience to stand through ten minute long jams that don't appear to go anywhere. And then Sonnet. Sonnet are a big band on the scene, the flagship band of Lezi's label and of this show. And this was a show after a smallish break to debut a new song. But it all felt very indifferent. Sonnet at their best are a punchy modern indie-pop band with tight dance beats and wit to match their slicing guitar chops. But the whole show tonight was on the quiet side (as in the actual volume of the PA).

Nothing to be SORRY about tomorrow.

OK, it's the one we've all been waiting for. 

Soma art management, followed up their disastrous and controversial stint at the Dream Factory by signing up to try again. This time they have joined forces with the Japanese investors behind Mao Beijing to open up their own venue. 

It's round two of the fight to perform a great leap forward to the age of middle size music venues.

Ladies and gentlemen, here are the rules. Mid-size venues usually clock in at about 1500-2000 people. Mao makes the minimum requirement at a formidable 800. You need bands who meet the Brad Ferguson Standard, one hour of quality original material with which to headline such a venue. You need a promoter who knows which bands will do that for you. You can no longer rely on hacking a dodgy PA or inadequate acoustics. To counter your visibility you need clear and consistent laws and procedures regarding operations and a g*v*rnm*nt who are happy to let you work within those guidelines. 

And we're into the preliminaries. 

Jake and I were invited to pop our heads into the venue, which was heavily under construction, a week ago. Soma peeps were very nice to us and left us with the genuine impression of wanting to do it right and do it well. The space looked amazing and there was no hint of PR gloss in the after-talks, it was all fully open and friendly. The manager of Mao Beijing and rep for the Japan side of the operation explained to me how they invested and stuck with Mao Beijing for over two years until it became successful on a weekly basis. Good start.

It was however, still very much under construction and it didn't surprise me when the official opening featuring My Little Airport was dropped. So now we had the "low-key soft opening", so it was pitched to me the Sunday before. Saturday night was to be a free show featuring Momo, Sonnet and Life Journey.

When checking to see what was happening on my way over it turned out that "low-key soft opening" meant "actively promoted sponsored event with 1000 pre-bookings taken". Thanks for the heads up guys. So, yeah, it was packed.

OK ... so, the space is amazing. A perfectly sized pit in front of a properly raised stage and the square venue being raised around that so that pretty much every one of the 800 people can get a view of the band. Really good sound. I came in to the middle of Sonnet's set and it was loud and clear from every vantage point. It really is Shanghai's first proper mid-sized venue that meets the standards. So credit where it's due.

But ... that where it ends. The show, as much as it went off fine, was not any indicator on how  it will work in the future. This was a very SOMA night much in the vein of these previous two I was at. This was a free promotion crowd, not a die-hard show going crowd. They shunned the bar and filed out en-masse around their early bed-times/ last train times - despite a tight crowd pleasing performance from Life Journey still being in full swing. As I entered, some non-plussed looking punters walked past me with fingers in their ears. Ooohh, it's so loud at gigs. Also, after Momo and Sonnet did their on-time and short sets, leaving the place warmed up and ready, there was an onstage promotion for Casio before the main band. It went on a bit and involved audience games and Lezi hosting (again) in his panda suit. 

The night was simply not an indicator of how things will go for ticketed rock shows when a particular month has to be held down by local acts. So we'll have to wait and see. 

... and here's something else. The Mushrooms are in the closing stages of negotiating a record deal that might take them off to Ta*wan . So the 3rd October may be the last time they'll play an affordable gig in Shanghai for a long long time. So come down to Mao for that one if you're yet to check the place out.

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.

Following on from March's silk stockings party, The Mushrooms organised another discount ladies night type of thing - a school uniform party. 

I was really sceptical but it turned out to be the usual rock/YYT crowd just having a good laugh. Nothing like a bad night at Zapata's at all. And make no mistake ... despite Sonnet being on the bill and the theme - this was a Mushrooms gig first and foremost.

So to get all the curiosity out of the way here is a link to the full gallery on Douban, the first half is the costume shots and the second half the gig action.

New bands Weedlaw and Lock opened and the punters were streaming in all the time. I met Lezi from Sonnet, who posted the reply to the Soma thread on the blog ... nice guy. Little Punk showed briefly, kicked me and Matt Yeh in the shins, stole Matt's beer, then disappeared again. Good luck on the Changsha show if you made it, LP. 

By the time Sonnet came on the place was packed. After a slow start with a muddy sound, the post-pop outfit really got it together and the last three tracks was the best I've seen them perform. The crowd loved singer Zhu Baixi and he even threw a couple of Zongzi (food) into the crowd for Dragon Boat Festival. But, and no disrespect to Sonnet, I was there to rock out to The Mushrooms, my favourite Shanghai band and a long term feature of the blog. It happily went nuts and Pupu rocked out with his usual high energy performance. A night of madness was capped at the end when Pupu himself surfed the crowd and then dropped in to join the dancing and jumping. What can I say, great night, fun crowd, packed room with crowd action. 

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.

I mainly use Neocha and Myspace Music when linking to band's online music so it's time to give Douban a little exposure.

Douban is a web 2.0 social site for people who like arts, books and music. It has a section where you add groups (for example the groups of bands you like) then you get all their news in one aggregated feed. All the Chinese underground and indie bands use it. And here's a buzzword for you, the last time I talked about Douban with Neocha's Sean Leow he described it as "BBS 2.0". This will mean more to you if you are familiar with the Chinese language net world.

So, they have artist pages for the bands there too and I was just having a look around lately. So ... I give you excellent recent demo tracks from four of Shanghai's upcoming bands:

Sonnet "Stupid Baby"  post-pop, brit-pop - listen

Pinkberry "The Pinkberry Song"  pop-punk - listen

Five Pointed Star "Dui Bai"  nu-metal - listen

Muscle Snog "Female Worker Bee"  experimental, post rock - listen

You'll have to open the links in a new tab and press play on the M3 player there (see picture guide).

The Year of the Ox is almost upon us. For non China residents I should explain that this means a week long public holiday and also half the people you know going back to their home cities for that time. Also, the holiday is only really three days and rather than just give you the rest of the time, you have to make it up by working weekends and overtime right after. It's either dead or nuts or up and down between the two.

So. Tonight is the night before the big one and Yuyintang are putting on a show. heres' the line up:

Pinkberry

Sonnet

Banana Monkey

Cold Fairyland

It starts at 9.00 p.m. Yuyintang is directly next to the Line 3 station Yan'an Xi Lu. This will be the event to be at if you love alternative/DIY culture made by a community for each other. This is where you should be if holiday music makes you want to stick forks in your ears. 

I should also mention that I will be taking a holiday too. I know how bad this sounds, but i'm going to use the time to concentrate on finishing a novel (s). No - really. I have a professional set up for this and have been slack in handing stuff in. There won't be any new blog posts for twelve days, when YYT hold the 8th Rock 0093 showcase. So Happy New Year to all and I'll leave you with my own specially penned line for the Year of the Ox:

牛year，牛B !

Believe me, I still have no plans to start any kind of listings or be a regular website type thing. So, be clear, this is not everything that's going on in Shanghai, it's just what I'm thinking of doing. This is often determined by the distance between my house and Yuyintang, i.e. a short walk. 

I don't think this month is slowing down, but ... the schedules are not filled out as far in advance as they were lately. It's a Yuyintang weekend for me first:

Friday 9th: "Warm songs for a winter's day" showcase featuring seven bands in the folk style. That's the flyer pictured. Mogu Hong (Red Mushroom) is the only familiar name for me. Check her out.

Saturday 10th: A Brit-pop style night featuring Shanghai's own Hanging Gardens and The Way from Ningbo. The Way are really cool, check out an older review. While you're at it, read a magazine feature on Hanging Gardens here.

Sunday 11th: Abe Deyo brings legendary Hardcore Punk act D.O.A. to Shanghai who will be supported by one of the hottest bands in China right now, Demerit. Look ahead in the post to find another show by Demerit and check them out here. 

For all you stalkers out there, do stalk me, no problem. You know, as long as you are the talking type and not the stabbing type. Don't know anyone in the scene? No one else going to the show with you? Drop me a comment or a mail (via the about page) and we'll go together or meet there. It's all good. After just one show you'll be able to dump me for all your new found friends! Or your money back!

Continuing ... 

Friday 16th and Saturday 17th at Dream Factory: Up to the larger venue for the Jue Festival. On Friday is the main Demerit show that also features Pinkberry. Then on Saturday we have the Maybe Mars showcase with Ourself Beside Me, Carsick Cars and Snapline. These shows are being put on by Splitworks who are adamant about splashing out on pro sound set-ups and trained sound engineers. I'm especially looking forward to Ourself Beside Me.

Looking into my crystal ball I see one more show planned in advance. It's at YYT on Saturday 24th and features Sonnet, Banana Monkey and Cold Fairyland. Sonnet have been getting tight again and Banana Monkey are a big deal on the scene ... remember this story? This will be the first time I check them out since they re-formed. 

Ok, that's all for now. Now to figure out my Douban problem. I have a bunch of friends there, mostly local and all of whom I see have been to the same shows. The problem is that 80% of Douban users use nicknames and avatars that are not their own pictures ... and have no indication of who they are in their profiles either. It's like the thing with getting an "it's me" text and not wanting to say "yeah, but who are you?" in case you offend someone you know. Arse.

Well, the event gigs and big shows just don't stop coming lately.

This Friday at Yuyintang sees the return of Banana Monkey and their event brand Five Dollar Shakes. This one is Frankenstein and I'm always banging on about Wolfman at the old YYT to anyone who will listen. It was a truly great underground show and Banana Monkey rocked. So, first of all, why not check out the band's music directly:

BM at Neocha

BM at Myspace

So what's the big deal here? Here's my take. BM are a tight professional act and the Shanghai scene is so small that adding just one tight band makes proportionally big waves. And here's the downside. Sonnet, who also recently reformed and play on Friday, were slack at their comeback. For want of a better expression, they lacked match fitness. I hope that BM have matched the hype with a truck load of practice. 

Morgan of Boys Climbing Ropes wrote about this over at SmartShanghai. Couldn't locate the direct page but here's a lengthy quote:

Well, it finally came around, the Indie Top show. So much to talk about that this may be the first post where I have to split it and have the main body 'after the jump'. Let's get the formalities out of the way first.

This was an important show and you should read why here: A call to arms

Next, here are the bands who played, along with links to their sites:

Quick special mention to my three ticket winners who all came. Thanks guys and I hope you enjoyed it. Lost Mimi at one point but I'm sure I saw you meet up with a friend. 

So, here we go. First of all, this was a well organized pro-event that got a great turnout and a bunch of support. Plenty of CDs and merchandise on the scene and they even had custom made Indie Top ads to play between acts and an MC for the night. Great atmosphere and definitely a success for Indie Top. The buzz at the event lived up to all the hype I was giving it ... phew. So, onto the bands.

Pre-amble. I previously listened to the CD samples and worried that the production had pushed the bands in the pop direction a lot. And here's the thing - I came thinking "Little Nature, Momo and Mushrooms" and left thinking "Zhong Chi and Sonnet". Weird stuff. While the theme for the night appeared to be rock acts getting signed and then lightening up, the lighter acts actually rocked it. Weird weird weird.

Out came Sarah Zhong Chi whose CD is full of dreamy tracks about environmental disaster. The first thing I noticed was the decidedly straight rock backing band that included Jerry Li, formerly of the Mushrooms, and David from Moongazer on guitar and bass respectively. The songs were good and the band gave it some bite live. Zhong Chi doesn't really appear on the regular live circuit in town and I had no idea what to expect but she's cool and the songs worked fine live. Good start. 

Next up were Sonnet. Sonnet are not on the label and were filling out the show. They played a straight set of their regular material and were kind of separate in feel from the rest of the night. They didn't benefit from the sound, which was loud enough to give the show atmosphere but a bit muddy and way short of truly professional. Sonnet have recently reformed and seem to be just about getting it back now. The last two songs they played really came together and seemed to win the approval of the crowd. They play modern indie rock in the vein of post-Strokes stuff like Casino Demon here. 

Little Nature were next. These are a pop punk trio that I have followed from the start at this blog. The sound reminds me of a mid-career Green Day and they were instantly popular with Shanghai rock fans. It's really quite amazing that they were about to come on as a signed act at a big show less than one year later in a small scene like Shanghai. Alas, being signed has changed them a lot it seems. They came out with an extra guitarist and some pop star hair-dos. When I watched these guys at Yuyintang a couple of times they were full of energy with deceptive songs that seemed like three chord rock but had some great hooks and breaks that made them stand out. They were flat here and the label is obviously pushing the pop/idol side of things.

Momo next. Same story, The label has really got these girls to push the cute appeal. But, for Momo, that side has always been a part of them, even when the music was very garage rock still. It's not my thing, but they seemed to suit the new style and performed well. Singer Ding Jia was made to play guitar the whole show too, which is not the norm at their shows. I suppose the label were pushing for a more filled out sound or something. It never seemed to be a problem before. I wonder if these bands are going to keep playing the smaller places now?

Then came the biggest shock of the night. Wang Xiaokun was a mainstream pop star with vids on the telly and everything. I knew he wrote his own stuff and had gone indie, but I was planning to skip him if he went on last. He came on now. And WTF, his backing band were rock and he wasn't half bad. He had a Manchester thing going on. Bowl cut, psychedelic sweater, singing his indie rock vocal upwards into the mike while swaying and breaking into falsetto. He was quite good. It was a total headfuck as his previous incarnation was a talent show idol. He had the good sense to not play any of those 'hits'.

Anyway, on came the Mushrooms one of my favourite bands and an amazing live act. They lost the original guitarist and got two replacements. I don't want to talk about it much. What can I say. This was a kind of coming out party for Momo, Little Nature and the Mushrooms to showcase their new looks and styles. LN lost their punch, Momo's Ding Jia usually has a bit of power and depth behind her voice but it's all cutesy now and the Mushrooms have lost their mojo too (they should get Jerry back). It's part of a planned move by the label to sell these bands. The weird thing is the sudden change, I have seen some of these bands live between getting signed to Indie Top and tonight's show and there was no indication of the change then at all. Who's the Shanghai Mick Jones and when can he start producing? 

Update: Still two free tickets up for grabs, don't be fooled by the number of comments. I should say a free ticket to the first three commenters who explicitly state they want the free ticket. Don't give up without actually reading the comments!

This blog's contents are dictated solely by where I go and what I read/hear about. I'm not in the habit of doing specific previews or listings. However, sometimes you have to break the rules in special cases.

This post is about the upcoming Indie Top showcase gig. Read about it again here. And my message is simple: you must go to this show and force everyone you know to go too.

And here's what I'm going to do: I will buy advance tickets this week and the first three commenters on this blog get a free ticket. Just leave any comment under a nickname. If you fill in the E-mail section I will see that and contact you privately.

Before I explain why, let me list the details again:

Friday 5th December at 19.30

Address: Zhijiang Dream Factory, The New Factories, 28 Yuyao Road, Shanghai

Tickets: 50 rmb, 40 rmb in advance

Ticket Hotline: 021 6227 7332

Bands:

Zhong Chi 钟茌

Momo MOMO乐团

Little Nature 小自然 

Crazy Mushroom Brigade 蘑菇团 

Sonnet 十四行诗

Wang Xiaokun 王啸坤

Now. I think all venues and bands deserve equal support and on principal we should go to as many shows as possible. What we have here though is the possible start of a genuine and regular indie label in Shanghai. Beijing has Modern Sky and Maybe Mars. An amazing turnout at this show along with everyone picking up the CD there, will really make the difference. It will give extra confidence to the newer bands and push them on and will also show the label that they are doing the right thing. We have the power to help make this a turning point.

The Shanghai scene has been booming after the summer break, yes. But the hard truth is that it is still small enough that leaving things to chance can sometimes result in great bands playing to near empty rooms. Another stark fact is that - whatever the reasons and excuses - some promoters and event groups always fill their shows, while others toss the coin. So here's the thing - we the fans should become promoters and plug this show in every way we know how. Create your own events on Facebook or Xiaoneiwang. Mass E-mail. Write about this show for sites and mags. Buy your ticket in advance too. Let's sell this one out.

If this works then do this for every band and venue you like in the future - this scene needs you. 

P.S. See you in the mosh pit during Crazy Mushrooms.

P.P.S. If you are hard-core old school punk/not from Shanghai and sh*t on both indie poseurs and our fine city then The Shy Tall Mighty are back in town that day.

P.P.P.S. But really, go to Indie Top.

Well, Dan Shapiro was not wrong when he said we were hitting peak season at the moment. The shows are stacking up at an alarming rate.

Lisa Movius just sent me a flyer/tip off relating to Soma Record's new stable of bands. Soma are a new indie label in Shanghai and you can read previous posts on them here and here.

So, the label has an all new brand now Indie Top and is having a large showcase to promote it's upcoming first releases. The materials say that they now represent thirteen acts and are committed to young/new talent.

The show is going down at Dream Factory on December 5th and there's even a discount for buying tickets in advance. You may need to do this as they have Wang Xiaokun playing and he's well known in the mainstream.

Here's the line-up in full:

Zhong Chi

Momo

Crazy Mushroom Brigade

Little Nature

Sonnet

Wang Xiaokun

Qing Ma Dao

I have videos at the channel for most of these. Have a look here, here, here and here. If you troll around the blog you can find dedicated posts and links for all of them too. Feed my web stats. 

Friday night at Yuyintang and the latest in the now long line of 0093 showcase gigs, Rocking In The Free World, was going head to head with a weekend of first generation rockers up in Zhabei. I assumed YYT would lose a lot of locals to the bigger events - but I was wrong.

Amazing line up. Amazing turn out. Solid famous acts like Sonnet and Sko were up alongside 0093 studios' better acts. The final line up went like this:

Yuyintang was packed out with a great crowd of the coolest fucking people in town. Each band got a decent crowd and the sound was good all night. This was Yuyintang as it always should be. Rocking bands, cool people and hanging out in the park behind during breaks. I was sick with the flu all week and this was just what I needed to pick me up. Keep in mind that I'm easily excited, mind you.

The surprise of the night for me was Tianping Dian. I had seen them twice before and have reported their potential on the blog a couple of times. Tonight was their time to get it together. Sonnet had played a decent set and the hall was rammed. Tianping Dian got straight on and blasted through their high energy tracks sending the crowd into a mosh. They never missed a beat and the guitar sound was especially good. I have a vid coming, but it doesn't do justice to the sound as usual. With so many bands on the bill, the set was kept short but people wanted an encore so the band swapped instruments and ripped out a well funny closer - a dirty version of a famous Shanghainese kids song that had everyone cracking up. I wish I had a succinct genre name for them. They are a kind of rap-rock crossover with female vocal catchy choruses. I dunno.

The other band that really got the crowd going were Little Nature. The Bar 288 bands kind of come in a three for one pack these days. If Little Nature play than you're going to see members of Momo Tuan and Crazy Mushroom Brigade plus entourage in the crowd. They played a tight set and got everyone moving. They do keep insisting on playing Happy Birthday though. Their fans were loving it and singing along, and it's not 100% serious, but every time they play that track it discredits all their previous good work. Saw Dan and Fabian from Rogue Transmission at the show too. Let's not forget their EP release at YYT tomorrow which also promises to be a wild night. 

This post has been slightly delayed due to whatever it is that goes wrong with Shanghai Online's dns that makes access pop on and off at times. Of course, once this post is no longer the latest one then the previous statement becomes meaningless. And so begins the triple preface. Oh yes.

This second preface is a preface to the third and final preface to the post. Let me say that again ... preface. So, this post's preface mentions 'kung fu'. Kung fu is the only thing in my life that takes up even more time than music, but I almost never mention it in this blog because of the standard responses to mention of kung fu. The most common being a variation on either "I'm a black belt in Karate" or "Let me tell you why martial art X is superior to martial art Y". In the latter, Y is equal to whatever art you said you do. If you're really lucky you might get the bonus response, a lengthy explanation of mystical Qi powers or any standard variation on "I know a really really old weak looking guy who can blow you across the room with two fingers using magic." I've heard them all, if any one puts any of these in the comments on this post then they get the answer to fourth and final standard response to mention of kung fu, "Show me a move." The answer being "no".

And now the preface. This review may not be entirely accurate. Prior to attending the show I had been on a public holiday during which our kung fu class met every day. During the show I felt like I had hot pins stuck between my shoulder blades and also in my knees. I was so tired physically that I found it almost impossible to concentrate long enough to link up simple pairs of events. Like a question and its answer. I spoke to several people there, but have little memory of what it was about and tried to get by with use of the repeating the question in the form of an answer dodge. 

So, Yuyintang was strangely quiet around the advertised starting time of nine. And by that I mean it was the staff ... and me. What could it mean? Yuyintang gigs are usually full of locals who are early birds. As people started to trickle in it became apparent that it was going to be one of those pretty much all ex-pats shows. Party going ex-pats tend to come late, you see. Don't ask why, I have no idea. Anyway, no big problems there. Well done everyone for supporting local music.

First up was Sonnet. This band have been split for a while and have just got back together. They are a choppy guitar sound indie-rock band, not far away in style from TooKoo, who are well good. Here's the link for TooKoo's last show I went too, here. Sonnet do things a little bit differently, during one song they alternated between live drums and a drum machine. They seemed to have some early problems with the sound mix and when I turned around to look at the desk - there was no one there. Here's what happens in a resource-light underground scene with average equipment when someone isn't right there really taking care of the sound ... it sucks incredibly and sabotages the show. 

And on that point, it took Defy three aborted attempts to get their show started. The main vocal mic had either a dodgy cable or socket and was cutting out all show. It had to be continually moved just a little bit to that position where it didn't cut out. And this continued with no moves to try and replace it or anything sensible like that - that would be too easy. When they finally got going, the band weren't half bad. Defy traded in their punk style for rockabilly, with a double bass and everything. However, this was not psychobilly it was just straight up 50s rock. Once they had gotten through a song without tech problems, they got things going with a straight cover of Elvis' Hound Dog. 

It was at this point that I looked around. I was standing in a room full of assorted ex-pats who were mainly non-rock/indie people - and they were dancing to Elvis. I left. I must admit the fatigue played a large part. 

A quick mention. That night was also the first show put on by Brad Ferguson over at Anar Bar. The band was reggae act Wang Lei, who I'll see at Yuyintang in the near future. I'm a bit skeptical about the venue as it's kind of a back room in a restaurant. But, I will endeavor to check it out firsthand as soon as possible. 

It's the end of the month and new magazine time. Well, that sounds like there are some English language music mags to cover. It may also imply that I translate articles from Chinese music mags covering the local scene. They'd all have to exist first. Yes, it's ex-pat mags time. Luckily for us, a lot of these mags employ writers who are trying hard to sneak decent stuff in there, between the ads and listings. 

Obviously though, I'm going to have a crack at Avril and horribly naive/mercenary perceptions of what 'rock' or 'punk' is. That said I'd better preface this:

This post is mainly inspired by City Weekend running a cover story on local rock and the music scene here. So before the Avril related sarcasm begins, good job! I should also point out that this came about due to the good influence of Abe Deyo who is responsible for the 'local' parts of the feature and is obviously excluded from the following jibes.

The feature is called Rock is Back but is unfortunately based around a big advert for Avril Lavigne's upcoming China tour. So the feature is basically saying one of two things. Either, "Hey, we are clueless about music in general" or "we put shallow marketing above any kind of personal standards." Luckily, the inner reaches of the feature showcase three Shanghai bands:

Hard Queen
Sonnet
The Rogue Transmission

Did I mention that featuring and interviewing Avril for a 'rock' feature is dumb? Oh, I did. Then, I'll go on. Hard Queen we know all about at this blog. They now have a new Friday night regular spot at a bar called Bee Dee's on Dagu Lu. Correct me if I'm wrong, Brad, and feel free to post the proper address in the comments. Rogue Transmission have done a CD and are currently touring around doing a bunch of release parties for it. They will eventually swing by Yuyintang so I'll catch them there. The big news in the Sonnet section is that they are reforming. I last saw members of Sonnet moonlighting in Top Floor Circus. So did you, if you watched the TFC vid post I made a couple of days back.

That reminds me, the Rogue Transmission and Boys Climbing Ropes videos have stormed up my Youtube channel and into the top six. if people are linking the blog or the vids on other pages, please let me know. Just because it's interesting and a kind of blogging etiquette. 

So back to Abe Deyo. I felt vindicated when I saw Abe complaining on Facebook about something that was bothering me too. Now, everyone in this day and age takes pics and short vids at local gigs with their camera phones and compact cameras. For example, me. I keep it quick, do it from the back or side and limit it to one song. If for anything, this is because I want to pay attention to the gig. Often though, half the peeps in YYT are holding up their cameras for 50% of the set. This still doesn't bother me that much though. What does bother me is that this one guy is now turning up to 80% of shows at YYT with a large HD pro camera and bulky mono-pod and standing dead centre-front filming for the entire set. He seems utterly oblivious to the fact that some people might want to enjoy the show and that they do not pay to see him. Let's hope the novelty wears of soon. If someone is going to film an entire set with a large rig, then make an agreement with the band and venue then get a special position on stage or something. Blah blah rant rant.