Beijing new wave punk band Guai Li have just posted this video to their Douban page. They are now on Maybe Mars and have a new album coming out soon. This is Devil Rabbit.
Results tagged “video” from Andy Best
Shanghai pop-punk band Pinkberry have just been up at the Zhangbei festival. Here's a video of them there. It's not the most intelligently shot vid I've seen with no crowd or indication they're at a festival but I'll take it.
Two tracks, watch through for Pinkberry Song.
Sorry everyone. Youku user Laohutracy has put up three Pairs videos and this one is full length from the same show. Worth a watch. I dunno exactly how to describe it, low-fi noise-indie? Watch it and give it a go.
So here it is:
Here's a an excellent vid of Fearless playing their new track at Yuyintang last Friday. It's complete with vocals this time and at about 3.10 you can hear some awesome dual guitar work.
I'm a bit annoyed with some comments after the last Fearless vid though. Check them out here. It's a bit much to write off a band completely just because they are not 100% groundbreaking and clearly original. By that logic you'd have to hate on 90% of all bands in the world. People seem to do that more easily with Chinese bands, like it's a superiority thing. Then Erik goes on to name some bands he considers examples of better bands - the implication being that they are strikingly original. But doesn't rejoin to link any of them.
Where's the vid or track to show us what you mean? Watch this vid, Fearless are clearly a great band, their gigs are rocking and this is definitely a side of Chinese cultural activity you won't find on a tour group. I spent my teen years hardcore in metal and, like in Shanghai, it's a solid community with no haters.
Lets kick off the month with some metal.
Shanghai melodic death metal / speed metal band Fearless have just released a video of their latest track in rehearsal. The quality is good and it's worth a watch if you like the style. This version is instrumental.
Death to false metal, of course.
UPDATE: here's the edited version showing only the song we want and with much better quality.
Here's a video someone took of the first two FAF tracks at the Yuyintang show last night. However, they have the long intro and the mic on the camera obviously can't handle the sound during the first song. So follow my instructions please.
After you've watched it, remember these are a young first time band who have not been on the circuit here a year. They can rock a show.
This was a good moment. That's all I have to say. This band are worth the hype. I was there up front, as should you have been.
About time for some general updates.
So where's Jake. Poor Jake works very very hard for the nice people at Time Out magazine, of which he represents 25% But, he still blogs because that's how much he loves us all. Currently he's having a bit of a holiday with his dear old mum. Seriously.
So, once he's back we'll start planning the next series of Podcasts and blog posts will flow again. Just remember we have the two blogs and one will always have something each week.
Also, the stuff we've been doing has made me think a lot. There's the blogs and the pod, there was some events and some music and, as yet behind the scenes, there's long form writing too and even IF games. There was even a video about the 3 Million RMB Douchebag at one point.
I was also re-reading No Media Kings lately.
Why not watch Jim's slideshow Time management For Anarchists
So, I'm often reflecting on being at the edges of the global arts industry which itself is crumbling and being redefined by the net. I moan about how it's becoming a wild west for Ad People and PR but also heap praise on those who build communities and succeed on their own terms.
We've reflected a bit on how much we've been able to do in our spare time with very little effort and funding and how it's based on helping each other and just doing it without expectation and letting momentum build naturally. It would only take a small step up to start putting out some really good stuff. Blah blah blah ...
... jump cut to ...
I'm thinking of adding to Kungfuology with a new blog called Indie Everything where i'll document all projects i'm involved in from blogging to the Pod to music to whatever and just drop all secrecy or whatever and list all the costs or equipment or facilities or methods we use ... or whatever. Then people who read it can have a real and practical stepping off point to do the same themselves. It's sort of our endowment as humans to be aware and express ourselves. The idea that we shouldn't do it if it doesn't lead to financial gain needs to be swept away for a while. Well, forever.
Why am I telling you all about this? I just wanted a chat. And, I think the blog should be open for everyone to share/post.
More to come.
Beijing based pop-punk band Reflector are coming back to Yuyintang on April 3rd. Here's the event page at Douban. Talking of Yuyintang you can see their complete March line up in poster form right here - you'll need to read Chinese to get most bands though.
Now, why am I making a point of posting this?
This is why. Watch this video of the last time they played Yuyintang. They tore the place up and it was rammed. Believe me, stick with the vid and after the one minute point you'll start to see the throng of people going nuts. People love 'em. Great track too.
I find the new year here to be boring. There's no real, decent festival action, traditional kung fu, temple fairs or anything like that. You'd have to be in the exclaves for that. Anyway, I'm bored.
Enter an e-mail, from a newly arrived blog fan looking for noise gigs. I direct him to the Torturing Nurse page and the info for the next NoiShanghai meet. I check the page and think it would make a good post to show some of their highly entertaining live show gallery.
Then I find the real gem. The vids there are mainly recent but right at the back is a classic 2008 gig featuring, in my mind, the classic line up when Jia Die gave them the extra visual/psychological dimension. It's the one with the hot wax SM and the primal screaming.
Really, never mind the obvious stuff like the candle lit SM/nudity (ruined mainly by the flash photographers who would blatantly wet their pants if they saw merely an ankle anyway) - the real high point of this performance is three or so minutes in when Junky smashes the guitar and they go into sustained primal screaming.
I recently posted about the rise of indie-folk artists on the pages of Douban. You can read that here. I featured an artist called Zhang Qianqian.
She has been on the TV in a documentary that features two intercut stories. One person comes to Shanghai from the west of China, the other goes back to Qinghai. That second person is Zhang Qianqian, who popped back to her home area to shoot a music video.
It's all subtitled in English and her MV is shown in full right upfront from just before the three minute mark.
Finally got my Friday footage uploaded. This is from the Playful Warrior show at Yuyintang.
So. Fans of proper heavy music rejoice. OK, the quality is not so good. But, stick with it as it goes through to a second song. I was taken with their new grind sections with slow but punishing beats and a guitar that sounds like it's tuned right down ... right down to hell.
Sorry. When I get into metal, all writing bets are off and out comes the cheese and cliche. By the way, death to false metal, satan's minions await you.
My own footage of Six Shot, and the busiest crowd of the night, won't upload because of the GFW and Shanghai Online's pathetic service some connection problems I'm having.
So here's someone else's footage from the same night. It's Chaos Mind and their song Just Waiting For.
Oh the internet can be a marvelous thing, even when it's limited and erratic in your place of abode.
What started as an innocent Google search for a certain keyword related to the Shanghai scene ended up turning out a surprise video. I can immediately deduce the details but I'm not telling you how or what. All I can say is it looks as if some employees need to be treated with more love by their bosses (joking chaps) and that this vid has made my day, well ... perfect.
This is genius, and believe me, it's all about the finger biting moment at 2.35 onwards. I almost fell out of my chair. But then again, I may have an odd sense of humour.
The Mushrooms played Yuyintang on New Year's Eve. Here was the report. The show was delayed from a police raid but it finally went ahead. As usual at their shows, it was packed, nuts and everyone sang all the words.The video is of varying quality, but as it goes on you can hear all the fans singing and cheering the entire track. So, yeah, this is 为什么你爱他 (weishenme ni ai ta).
Not long back I wrote this post claiming that new Shanghai emo bands Double Control Where and Forget and Forgive were breaking through. I just want to say that this is not like two years ago when watching new bands was twenty people in the room and it felt a bit like hipster band spotting night.
I read a couple of lists and review articles on Shanghai live music in 2009 lately and saw that they reflected what I see at these gigs, almost no ex-pats bar the 5 or so usual suspects. But the thing is, these bands are no longer the prospects or the maybes. They are filling up Yuyintang and bringing new people to the scene. Their gigs, especially the Mushrooms, are the kick-ass shows where it goes off in the crowd. And ... they are really connecting to local fans who come ready to sing along to every word.
I present to you item one, a video of FAF playing their catchy-as-fuck tune Escape in YYT recently. There is an intro medley thing at the start so please note, the song actually starts at 1.43 minutes in. Once the song starts, the sound is great, the local kids are dancing and the singer 丁丁 can even point the mic to the crowd for the chorus ... after barely 8 months since forming fully. Believe me, Youku loads fast, skip to 1.43 and be amazed. Unless you are down on Emo, of course. Ha.
So, I'm a journalist for Time or CNN or whoever and I've heard Carsick Cars ... why aren't Chinese bands political? What? There are other bands? Why wasn't I told about this, it's my job to project my middle class values all over anything I touch, research is for our interns!
Anyway, watch the video, it won't be there for long. PS Misandao state they are an anti-fascist band on their page. The end of the video is them taking the swastika you see at the beginning and burning it - so watch the lot.
So Joyside are done and they've had their last ever show. But, they seem to be as productive as ever since the split. They've posted a bunch of songs up at their Douban page, as well as some videos. And there's even a trailer there, via Tudou, of a documentary film of the last show to be released next year.
For now, here's an animated video for their anthem "Sunday Morning". You may also recognise it from here.
A little over a year ago I saw Beijing band Gala play live at Yuyintang. Revisit the review here. The surprise was how popular they were and that YYT was packed with student fans who you wouldn't normally see at a rock club. After a bit of research I discovered it was because they had the underground equivalent of a hit single with their song Young For You, which you can check out at their page here if you want to know what interests the local kids who are not necessarily actively into indie music.
Well, I was looking them up today and saw a post from the band on their Douban group dated March 2009. They basically apologize to fans for having done basically nothing in the five years since their Young For You CD. You can read it here but it's Chinese langauge only.
Fittingly, there's also this nostalgic sounding video available there:
A little while back I reported on the Rock Shanghai anniversary party at the newly opened Mao Livehouse Shanghai. This show was organised by 0093 rehearsal studios and was basically a re-run of their regular showcase nights at Yuyintang.
Now, before you watch this video we need to add some context. Well, firstly the quality is not good and it seems to have been done on a phone. But ...
Imagine you are back in your home town. Imagine that a local bar or hall is letting completely amateur unsigned bands play that night. The band is made up of mainly younger students and they've barely been playing together six months and part-time. They are playing their first original material. What would that be like? Well, on the Shanghai scene it's like this. This is Second (重结晶乐队) with their song 《如果可以 》 If I Could.
Hint: They were good and the venue is great.
Back in the heady days of September 21st 2009, Jake reviewed the kick ass Bigger Bang show at Yuyintang. Here is the review.
Well Shanghai Soundbites (Tim Franco) have put together a video montage of the show including live action, sound check and incidental. It seems to be set to the CD version of the track and not a live recording. But anyway, it shows some good live footage of a full YYT show and people who know what me, Jake and friends look like can spot us in the jumping section.
So yeah, there has never been clearer vid footage of a decent YYT show. Here it is:
the bigger bang ! 大棒 ！ ／ in shanghai from Tim Franco on Vimeo.
It's the holidays. You have time, you're relaxing with your own computer, with sound. You're on this blog, so you like Chinese indie bands. So watch this.
This is Pinkberry headlining a big show at the Dream Factory that was so disastrously organised that they didn't get on until almost one a.m. and most people had gone home. However, this vid shows Pinkberry ripping away with one of their more simple, rawer tunes. A glimpse into the amazing potential than has been on and off lately due to all kinds of controversies and line up changes.
When this Pinkberry show up, it's worth it.
Warning: yes, this is a look in Mao Shanghai. However, it is a hastily shot vid done on a point and shoot variety digital camera's video mode.
I give a brief intro. But after the "40 seconds" are up and we can clearly see the stage, I change my mind and stay on it for two Momo tracks. So maybe this should be called Momo live @ Mao Shanghai.
Just a month ago, Jake told us of a video shoot for Shanghai indie-pop act Bang Bang Tang (Lollipop). The Yuyintang footage plays a very small part but if you watch carefully you will see Jake's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.
But never mind that. Check out the band and video. This is 我最爱缺陷男 (I Love Flawed Men Best)
Here's the other video I took at the Dream Factory show on Friday. I'd like to say it's some kind of a look at the new lights and sound there since Soma took over the venue. But I don't really think my little Sony DSC stills camera is a good judge of that. Saying that ... here it is.
Soma managed girl group Momo have come a long way. From underground garage rock stylists to slick indie-pop performers. It doesn't seem like yesterday that I first saw them at one of Banana Monkey's five dollar shake parties at the old YYT in Long Hua. They are still around should have a debut album out any day now.
This one is for the cutesy fans.
Hanging Gardens are great guys and they love music. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they always seem plagued by either sound problems/tech problems or indifferent turn outs for the bands they are supporting.
However, at the 0093 return to your dream's start party they were the highlight, playing to a packed house. It was so surprising that guitarist Ryan drops a note in shock at the beginning of an otherwise flawless version of Lullaby. This is a band who fully deserve to do well.
Up From The Underground is a documentary film about Shanghai indie pop band Hard Queen's CD release show. The kind people at Daedalum Films have now made it fully available online via Vimeo. And here it is.
Up from the Underground from Shanghaiist on Vimeo.
We have a had a huge string of packed out, quality gigs by bands who have emerged as finished products lately. We've had labels, festivals and international acts. And what I can't help thinking is: what's going on with Tu Bian (Mutant), the student nu-death-metal band with the cool singer. The girl who went so effortlessly between death-grunting, singing and some rapping.
So, I had a poke around and found exactly what I was looking for. A poor quality video of a sketchy early show by Tu Bian up in Live Bar. Plus, its on Youku so the upload drops so many frames that the song always goes out with the picture. Bonus.
It's that time of the month again. And it's time for the obligatory notice for newbies. Most of the live videos I post here are taken by myself and stored at the blog's Youtube Channel. You can see a link in the sidebar.
Or you can click here to visit.
So, we have a new number one, discounting my Sick Sunday parody vid which is at almost 2000 views. Hard Queen have just opened their new website in anticipation of the CD launch next month. They posted up some vids there and included one of mine. The new views have pushed them all the way.
Here we go then. if these are all old news to you, be sure to check my movers and shakers below that:
1) Hard Queen live @ YYT (August): 444 views watch
2) The Rogue Transmission live @ Dream Factory: 378 views watch3) Bang Bang Tang live @ Yuyintang (Oct): 338 views watch
Hefei rockers Red Banana played Yuyintang on Friday night, opening with their track Hello. I managed to get a vid of the song. I'm also sick right now so that's all the write up my brain can manage. Enjoy.
I wasn't planning on posting a video from last night as we already have the excellent Reflector clip. And ... before we go on, this video is a bit of a piss-take by the band. Tianpin Dian are really good and usually have two vocalists with MC YKE being accompanied by Melody Li - hence their inclusion on a female singers night.
So for their main stuff you could listen to their demo or watch the same track live.
People in Shanghai have Shanghainese as their first language and Mandarin second. People I know tend to associate using Shanghainese with humour, cursing and kicking back. Maybe it's because the standard Mandarin is associated with school, the gov and bland 'ol TV. Whatever the reason, when local bands break out the Sang-hei-e-wu the gloves come off and the air turns blue. Even Momo did it last night, telling a joke in a break where the punchline was old women doing a folk dance while saying 'everyone rub your balls'.
As soon as I realised what was going on, I had to get out the camera. Melody Li joined the audience, the band swapped instruments and out came the filthiest joke version of jingle bells you have ever heard.
Note: the video starts a bit dark and shaky but it clears up and lights up around 58 seconds in. Stick with it.
Somehow I managed to whip the camera out and shoot mid near death experience insane action and get a whole song and shots of the audience. So check it out.
In January 2009 Splitworks put on the Jue Festival. It was an urban festival of art and music held across many venues in Beijing and Shanghai. It ruled and mastermind Archie Hamilton put on two excellent indie rock shows at the Dream Factory. They were Demerit and the Maybe Mars Showcase.
Now Spilt have put up a video looking back at the highlights. Archie really went beyond the commercial promoter role here to put on something diverse and meaningful. That's not surprising to people who know him as he really cares about music. Enjoy.
I must start this off by saying that the visuals on this video are a complete write off. The set was purposefully dimly lit and my little Cybershot bootleg vid could not handle it. The sound however is good and the track is excellent so please treat it as an audio.
I'm wary of putting these posts out too close to the review itself. If you haven't already seen it, just scroll down one post or click here.
This is a great track from experimental rockers Boojii whose iconic singer San San (who you can't see in the video) cites early Syd Barret as an influence. The set was atmospheric and intense and the band will record later this year. It is well deserved.
Got to love that exclamation mark in the title. Here is a two-part documentary on the Chinese rock scene from Indeep Films. It has great footage from Yugong Yishan, the Max festival in Qingdao and interviews with TooKoo and others. Take it all with a pinch of salt though as it's woven together aimlessly and peppered with some typically condescending commentary. It's worth a watch for the band footage.
Well, you know my policy. Watch it and make your own mind up.
It was indie folk night at Yuyintang this weekend although the presence of tables and table people brought it into the mainstream a little. Wu Zhuoling, who also opened for Jose Gonzalez last week, and Asiaeyes have joined forces for a CD and some shows. The name is A_Z band.
So, sit back and watch a track from the show and enter the world of Shanghai indie folk bands. Check out this review for links to their homepage and MP3s.
It's that time of the month again. And it's time for the obligatory notice for newbies. Most of the live videos I post here are taken by myself and stored at the blog's Youtube Channel. You can see a link in the sidebar.
Or you can click here to visit.
The top six is ranked by all time views, not month by month. So, after the regulars, I'll be linking a couple of newer vids that are moving up fast. The major story of this post is indie pop band Bang Bang Tang (singer Xiao Bai pictured) who have taken three of the top six places.
Also, a quick note for those who read the posts as they come out. There's something going on with the net here and it's playing with my ability to access my server at normal speeds, hence the quiet few days.
Right then:
1) The Rogue Transmission live @ Dream Factory: 360 views watch
2) Boys Climbing Ropes live @ Dream factory: 291 views watch
3) Bang Bang Tang live @ Yuyintang (Oct): 287 views watch
2) Boys Climbing Ropes live @ Dream factory: 291 views watch
3) Bang Bang Tang live @ Yuyintang (Oct): 287 views watch
4) Bang Bang Tang (Lollipop) older vid: 280 views watch
5) Bang Bang Tang live @ Yuyintang (Nov 2008): 265 views watch
6) Self Party live @ Yuyintang: 260 views watch
5) Bang Bang Tang live @ Yuyintang (Nov 2008): 265 views watch
6) Self Party live @ Yuyintang: 260 views watch
Qi Ri (Seventh Day) are one of the tightest bands in Shanghai's melodic death metal scene. They played Yuyintang on Friday night opening for Screaming Christ and Tu Bian (Mutate). Qi Ri have their own spin on the genre as their singer often utilizes operatic vocals. So sit back and enjoy the stylings of tight riffs and gothic organs.
Death to false metal! Death to Daft Punk fans!
After some last minute cancellations and shenanigans, Da Fresh were the only band of real note playing Saturday's 0093 showcase.There was a good turn out and the band played a good set. So come on feel the Brit Pop.
I saw six bands across two nights at the Jue Festival and got some footage for the channel. As well as the video i'm posting here you can see Pinkberry and Ourself Beside Me by clicking on the names.
Demerit are a hardcore punk act from Qingdao who live in Beijing to be in the scene. They started to develop the music by adding a guitarist and experimenting with more riffs. Demerit won the Friday night headlining slot on a reputation as excellent live performers and it was well justified. So check it out.
This is all Beijing. I just came across this clip that was posted only a couple of weeks back. Regular readers will recognize it as the music from my recent spoof video. China music fans will just recognize it, it's a classic.
So, sit back and enjoy a quality clip of Joyside performing Sunday Morning at D22. You might also want to read more about the D22 and Maybe Mars Records community here and here at China Music Radar. The Maybe Mars showcase is on this weekend on Saturday night as part of the Jue Festival.
The Way are a Brit-style Indie rock band from Shaoxing, a famous town a couple of hours on the train south of Shanghai. This is their second trip up to Yuyintang since I started the blog. The Rogue Transmission played with them down in Ningbo and a few more people showed up this time around.
So, here is The Way showing that being away from one of the larger cities/scenes has no effect if you happen to have talent and be super cool.
It's about this time in the month where I write up the top six viewed videos on the blog's channel. If you're not familiar then you can check this out, as it's a bit different today.
This time around is the best videos of 2008. Cue fanfare ...
There will be three videos and I will choose them myself, for my own reasons. Usually, it's all decided on views. In keeping with the usual spirit of things, you might want to revisit the most popular video of 2008. Also, since that's a special case, you should also check out the most viewed underground gig video of 2008 here. Right, so let's get going.
In reverse order:
Number Three: Casino Demon (BJ) play Yuyintang. This song is amazing, it's called Wa Ha Ha. Typical blinking lights from short staffed Yuyintang but the song's energy and clarity in my sh*tty video is a reflection of how good they are. Casino Demon - as good as any pro-band back West in this style but with none of the pretension.
Number Two: Pinkberry blast off. The fastest riser on the Shanghai local scene play in the middle of a multi act show to a half empty room, but they don't care. They have no idea how not to play with energy and commitment. Sorry about the lights again, but all the energy and hook writing is in there.
Number One: The Subs finish the year at Dream Factory. Coincidentally also a non-blinking video. The Subs are the best live act in China and what's more their songs are diverse and engaging. What More is one of the best, check it out.
Bonus moment: It was also a good year for newcomers Candy Shop. And for anyone who doubts their abilities with their regular songs check this out first. They rocked the multi act showcases with their short but energetic sets and improved at record speed. What surprised the most, though, was their ability to connect with the local audiences. I was at two shows where after just four songs at a low key show, the fans wouldn't let them go. Both times the band pulled out a previously unheard practice room bonus track to jam on and had the crowd going like old hands rolling out the hits for the faithful. So watch on, Candy Shop joking around an yet ruling over other new band's best efforts:
Here is some better footage of Pinkberry from the show last night. This features their newest track that they were debuting at the show. It was produced by RockSH ... yes, my arch-nemesis Monopod Guy! While he has made an arrangement with YYT to stay at the back, the footage clearly shows he has a sidekick. Curses.
Enjoy.
A quick reminder that despite my often odd picks for the videos you can usually find more at the channel and not everything I upload gets a featured post. However, I'm going to do it again. Tonight was the Jiao Ban collective's second show and first return to YYT since getting signed to Indietop. We had local heroes Crazy Mushroom Brigade, all girl pop-rockers Momo and power trio Little Nature all playing a mix of old favourites and new material from the CD ...
... and so I bring you ... the outro track from warm-up act Tianpin Dian's opening set.
It's called Wo Shi Chao Liu (I Set The Trend). In this track, the band turn down the dial a bit and let MC YKE and singer Melody Li lead the crowd with some vocal sparring and stylings. This was the first time most of the audience heard this but you will hear them frequently burst into cheers and applause. It's also funny if you know the language and showcases both the talent of the front pair and the band's knack for a great hook.
Shanghai pop-punk band Pinkberry have rounded off an amazing fast rise on the scene by winning a place at the national finals of the Yamaha Best Band competition. They just got back from Beijing where, among other things, Toni Yu Zhuoran won best guitarist. You can catch them supporting legendary punk rockers The Queers at YYT on Jan 3rd.
Their first demo track Runaway showcases both their knack for a catchy, energetic tune and also Xiao You's strong vocals. As I blogged here, we recently shot a video to go with the demo MP3. I originally wrote a little bit about the sharpness and look of the video but after Youtube have encoded it, it looks like someone added a blur effect anyway so what's the point. If anyone can give me tips/Youtube hacks on how to avoid that they're very welcome.
So here it is, Pinkberry as moody too cool for school students in the iconic (if you live here) blue tracksuits with a scene in Shanghai's own Yuyintang too:
I have lately been working with Gemnil from Yuyintang and the band Pinkberry to produce a music video. It's a zero budget type thing shot over two two-hour shoots but we wrapped today and I must say the results are quite good.
We had a lot fun with it, shooting a classroom scene and then a 'live' scene at YYT (where we also bumped into singer Wang Xiaokun and promoter Abe Deyo). Gemnil released some of her photos today so I thought I'd throw a couple on the blog. Special note to Micah, we shot the class scene in Zhangjiang Gaoke then ate lunch in the mini mall next to the station. Oh yes, that mall is one happening place at 11.30 on a Sunday morning.
These videos are hosted by a smaller streaming site here in China called "6.cn". I'm wary to embed them because the smaller vid upload sites tend to get shut down fairly often for a variety of reasons. So, watch them while you can.
So, anyway. RockSH have posted up two longer videos. Each one is an interview (all in Mandarin). Don't despair if you can't speak Chinese though, there is an insert panel playing clips from the live shows all the way through. Hmmn, another thought: are RockSH's video team and monopod guy one and the same? Judging from the Subs footage (From Dream Factory this weekend) it's him.That could be painful in the future.
Pinkberry:
The Subs:
A couple of weeks ago or so I wrote about an amazing show at YYT. It was none other than the 0093 Rock party 'rocking in the free world'. Read the original post here.
I was just trolling around Chinese language web pages and vid streaming sites and came across some footage from that show on Tudou Wang. The video seem to be shot by people from the site Rock Shanghai. The huge logo gave it away. So here are two songs from Little Nature. It's rough but fun and captures the Yuyintang atmosphere perfectly.
Updates galore: Due to the popularity of the Douchegate scandal this video has now been reposted on three major Shanghai blogs. I won't link the exact posts because they are just links back here but thanks must go to Shanghaiist, Danwei and I Love China.
Disclaimers
Quality - be nice, it's partly shot on phone-camera and partly on a two year old Cybershot.
Content - if you live here and follow the news as well as blogs like Shanghaiist and Danwei, then watch away. If you don't then you might want to check this out - story.
Content - if you live here and follow the news as well as blogs like Shanghaiist and Danwei, then watch away. If you don't then you might want to check this out - story.
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
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.
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:
Now, a happy coincidence last week has led to an interesting experiment. This involves two sites. I give you ...
...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)
Tianping Dian video: 28 views (up 22 and no significant difference to a regular video)
A certain net meme comes to mind here: Fail!
The main idea of this blog was just to combine articles with links to the band's own pages. After having a think, I decided it was do-able to feature performance videos and post them via youtube. This is only possible with a true underground scene like we have here where such activities are seen as helpful. In the corporate world, bootlegging gigs could be slightly problematic. Ah, nostalgia. I remember when Metallica refused to do promos and even recorded a tribute EP to their favourite bootleg (Garage Days Re-Revisited). Look at the sorry mess now.
So, now my youtube channel is six weeks old - birthday July 6th - and we have 19 videos on there.
Why not have a look now?
Not all the videos there get their own featured post on the blog so you may have missed some. The views aren't massive but they definitely indicate popularity. Having a featured post hasn't always meant much more views than others. Suprisingly for me, Self Party are leading in that respect. It's the blog's most popular video at the moment. With over fifty visitors in a day now, there's no way some vids should only have around five views. So, come on, check out some of the bands you may have missed.
Start with a high quality winner first: my favourite vid on the channel.
I'm adding more videos to my youtube page this weekend. I guess I should dilligently try to get a good video of each act (there's usually 3+ bands at any given event here) in order to get the youtube channel going - but - I really prefer to enjoy the gigs for myself as a priority. Sorry about that. Also, I feel odd taking so many pics as it is because I frequently deride people who seem to be at gigs solely to test out their new digital camera. Bah humbug. Although, recent events show that some of those people may actually be working on their books. Small scene in a big town sometimes means that half the crowd are there for other reasons than pure enjoyment.
So here's the first vid of the weekend. Check back to the page for Car Sick Cars. Without further ado, more Crazy Musrooms.
Over at kungfuology.com I'm making 'pro' videos with Cameron, although compression for online streaming takes a lot of the quality away, boo hoo. I also try to get clips of gigs. These are just done with the video feature of my Sony Cybershot DSC-N2. Half the time I accidentally covered the mic with my finger or something equally idiotic and I upload them to Facebook.
But now, by one off request popular demand, I'm going to put them on a Youtube page and link them here. I'll kick things off with my current favourite Shanghai band The Crazy Mushroom Brigade playing "love you so" at Yuyintang.
