Shanghai Music Scene: April 2011 Archives

Friend or Foe are the latest Shanghai band to get picked up by the MAP project, with their track 'Snortin' Clorox' selected for the April list and beamed across the world through the network of alternative music blogs. Nice. The boys were also up in Beijing this weekend and it seems it went pretty well. There's talk of an album in the works too so keep an eye out for that one. 

Another video, but you have to admit this is worth watching. H/T Shanghai 24/7.

Beijing band Dude release their new EP at Yuyintang. Details

Something to look forward to eh? Find details of where to catch them live and check out their tunes and what not here.

When I posted that video of The Fever Machine the other day, Mr Shapiro stated that there was 'plenty more where that came from'. He wasn't kidding. Here's some more news that I CTRL+C, CTRL+Ved from an e-mail:

For those of you in the Shanghai, China vicinity, this Saturday, April 23rd, we'll be playing the seventh edition of our monthly local showcase, The Fever Machine & Friends, over at Yuyintang, alongside Duck Fight Goose, Stegosaurus? and Androsace. This show will definitely be a banger, so come check it out if you're free. Show starts at 9:30pm. Tickets are 40 RMB.

In other news, we're pleased to announce to unveiling of our official website www.thefevermachine.com . . .

It's still quite basic and crude, but has all the pertinent links you'll ever need to connect with our heavy rock goodness. Whatever your social media preference, chances are we  have a link. But of course, if we're missing something vital, feel free to let us know.

If you hung around in Shanghai last Christmas, you might have caught Next Year's Love's debut performance at LUNE. I missed them unfortunately and the all-girl group decided to take a bit of a hiatus from live shows immediately afterwards and had a bit of a line-up shuffle. They've kept rehearsing though and seem to be gearing up for some gigs again. Two new demos have just gone up on their Douban site and they're sounding great. Check them out right here.

This video has just gone up of The Fever Machine playing YYT last year. Check it.

I had a quiet weekend gigwise. Here's what other people made of it:

Saturday and Sunday after the jump

This video just went up from the Friend or Foe boys, check it out. Beijing, take note.

It's taken me a couple of days to get around to writing this, but then it took Break for Borneo a little while to get around to having a physical release of their CD so I guess we're even. Sort of. If you missed the CD release and haven't downloaded the album yet, you can do it for free right here. The CD release had become part of a 24 hour festival thing at YYT that had kicked off at 3pm and the venue felt pretty festival-ly when I got there in the evening, with people all face-painted up and wearing odd headgear etc. It was the perfect vibe for Break for Borneo's summery feel-good tropical rock and the crowd really got into their performance, which also featured a cameo from Adam Gaensler. 

I didn't make it to this show, so for everyone else who missed it as well, here's SUBS ripping through a classic this weekend in Shanghai.

                

If you missed the CD release for AM444's brilliant new album last weekend, you can give the whole thing a listen right here. Don't forget that SIG releases his album this Friday at The Shelter and remember that you can catch AM444 performing live at the Nanjing (International) Music Festival and Midi Shanghai in the next few weeks.

Actually, I was out of town when this gig took place so I missed Sonnet releasing their new album, but their loyal legions of groupies were there en masse, cameras clutched at the ready. More videos and photos from the night here. More on the album here. 

So after all the drama of last week, I finally got to see someone actually perform at MAO Livehouse last night. World's End Girlfriend and Black Hole Carnival closed out JUE Festival with a spectacular set of electronica mixed with post rock and gave a great show - let's face it, it's hard to argue with someone who has two drummers.

This being a Split Works organised show, it was professional and well-run, but even on a normal night, it's hard not to think that MAO Livehouse has the potential to be a fantastic venue. I think the new space is a big improvement on the old one - the lower ceiling and the mezzanine around the edge makes it feel less cavernous than the old venue did and (though there was a big crowd last night) it feels as if you could get away with smaller turn outs here not feeling empty like they did in Red Town.

The layout, lighting and sound are all really impressive, though at the risk of sounding like an old man, I thought the sound was too loud. If they put the 'force majeure' that is Subs on at that volume, they'll have all of Luwan district complaining about the noise. On the plus side, there's no smoking allowed in the main performance area (unless that was just for last night?) which means non-smokers can enjoy a gig without coming out smelling like an ashtray.

There are some drawbacks - in particular the bar operates a ridiculous drink tickets system whereby you tell the bar person what you want, they direct you to someone selling drinks tickets who asks again, exchanges your money for the same value of tickets and then you pass the tickets to the person stood right next to them to get your drink. Surely that's not necessary?

But overall, it's an excellent space and has the potential to be a great venue as long as it's managed in the right way.

It's not often that The Shelter gets mentioned on this blog. Not because I don't go there, I'm there all the time, but because it usually falls into a different domain and is dealt with by other sites. I'm making an exception here though because AM444 have released a brilliant, made in Shanghai album and it's worthy of recognition. I've had the hooks from the Eye Wonder album echoing in my head all morning and if you missed the show last night, you need to pick up a copy of that CD or cop it on iTunes as soon as you can.