alternative china

IVAN BELCIC – DRUMMER FOR DEATH TO GIANTS It’s not every day you...

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:16:36 +1000

IVAN BELCIC – DRUMMER FOR DEATH TO GIANTS

It’s not every day you experience something like the sound of Death to Giants. Genre hopping, vocal shredding and at times just plain weird, DtoG is a a mashup of styles that is hard to put your finger on but will get you hooked with their unique style. Luckily I got to the bottom of all that as I had the chance to talk with the better half of the group. That’s right, the fucking drummer, Ivan Belcic.

Now to be fair to our readers, the genre of Death to Giants doesn’t technically fit into our scope but then again, I’m not aware of a death-pop specific blog out there. Afterall, we’re a blog about music and drummers; not to mention, Ivan’s got plenty of personality so this won’t be just another boring blog post you breeze through on the shitter at work. This will be one that leaves red marks on your legs because you rest your elbows there and you forget to move them because you become so engrossed reading about the song Girth vs Length that you lose yourself for a few minutes locked back in the nice big handicap stall.

Now, get yourself some fucking Kombuchi, take an Adderall and tune into Death to Giants on Bandcamp and read along. Today is not just about you. And if you have to pick just one song to listen to check out Stegosaurus Rex.

BEIJING MUSIC JOURNAL A photo Journal dedicated to the...

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:42:45 +1000

BEIJING MUSIC JOURNAL

A photo Journal dedicated to the experimental and independent music culture found in Beijing, China.
All photos taken by jeff yiu.
if you have any band suggestions that are based in Beijing.
Please email jeff[at]jefske[dot]com
enjoy!

MP3 Monday: Ben Ben Today we take a look at Ben Ben, one of...

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:44:51 +1000

MP3 Monday: Ben Ben

Today we take a look at Ben Ben, one of Beijing’s more intriguing indie rock ciphers. Originally from Taiwan, Ben Ben represents this persistent phenomenon in which a musician moves to Beijing for its perceived musical manna, its mythical underground community, then quickly gets pretty disillusioned with the whole thing, then comes back because fuck it, it’s really the only solid option. Actually most people who get burnt out on the music grind here just drop out entirely, but Ben Ben’s kept at it. After three years of ping-ponging between Taipei and Beijing, writing songs and finding the right people to play them live and on record, she finally releases her latest, Sacrifice Mountain Hills, on Friday at Mao Livehouse. Here’s a quick look at how she got to this point.

Han Han - No More Sports for Duck Fight Goose? Han Han is the...

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:41:09 +1000

Han Han - No More Sports for Duck Fight Goose?

Han Han is the hairy face of seminal Shanghai band Duck Fight Goose, who have just been confirmed to be supporting Slash when he plays at the Mercedes Benz arena Mixing Room.

People like Duck Fight Goose’s electronic heavy post-rock. Really. A lot.

“I think that album “Sports” is the greatest thing by anyone anywhere in a very long time,” says Enrique Maymi, a veteran of venerated garage rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre on Slink Rat (Xiao Zhong of Shanghai band Pairs’ tumblr).

MP3 Monday: Festival Dark Horses So the big thing on the agenda...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:02:37 +1000

MP3 Monday: Festival Dark Horses

So the big thing on the agenda for this forthcoming long weekend, of course, is the Music Festival. Two music festivals, actually. MIDI (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3) and Strawberry battle it out from April 29-May 1, both sporting lineups heavily emphasizing local rock, punk, metal, folk, and electronic names that, at first glance, seem far too familiar to even the casual Beijing music watcher. But let’s get real for a minute. You’re not at the festival to see Hedgehog orSubs or Nova Heart again. Maybe you are, but that’s secondary to just having a lark outdoors with your friends, smuggling warm Tsingtao’s into a public park and laying on some grass while the sound waves roll over you.

That said, here are a few lesser known entrants to this year’s festival fray. A few dark horses, one of which literally sings about horses. Take the time out to patronize the side stages/early time slots to check out a few of the bands that might be headlining the future MIDIs and Strawberries.

Gang of Four in China Now that it’s over, I thought it might be...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:28:45 +1000

Gang of Four in China

Now that it’s over, I thought it might be good to download the various thoughts that have been bubbling over in my head. Outside of extreme tiredness (this www.juefestival.com has been pretty brutal on our whole team), last night ran the gamut of emotions, from extreme discomfort to outrageous euphoria. I’ll try and outline the reasons why.

Archie Hamilton from Split Works fancies my wife. Probably. Pt...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:26:15 +1000

Archie Hamilton from Split Works fancies my wife. Probably. Pt 1.

Originally, I wanted to sit down with Archie Hamilton from Split Worksand go through a Split Works show of his choosing and look at how they arrive at certain ticket prices as I’m curious as to how promoters arrive at a certain price. But we ended up talking a whole bunch of other shit, that I’ll cut in to two parts because you probably have a whole heap of torrents to start downloading.

We talked quite a bit about the Godspeed You! Black Emperor tour as it was just a few days before and Archie was obviously excited about it. It took me awhile to transcribe this so apologies for the delay.

For Split Works to break even for Godspeed they needed 1,900 tickets across two cities – which means they need around 850 people a city, pre sale.

Split Works generally run landed offers which means the artist pays for their own flights, but for Godspeed they did factor in 15% flight share in to the offer. But once they landed it’s all local costs. Local hotels, local transport, customs, freight, looking after the band, production and venue hire.

Side note here. If Split Works can bring a ten-piece band, each carrying 50kgs of luggage and gear over for two shows and keep tickets to 240RMB pre sale. Why the fuck is Slash playing a Hennessy sponsored event for 980RMB?
Slash seems like one of those guys that Chinese kids love the shit out of and it seems a bit of a shame that they will have to fork out a whole shit tonne of cash just to have to wait until the first encore for him to play a song they’ve actually heard before.

So here’s my chat with Archie.

(you can read part 2 at the link too)

[Culture Bureau]: Nevin Domer When I first moved to Beijing in...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:00:25 +1000

[Culture Bureau]: Nevin Domer

When I first moved to Beijing in 2009, I was eager to get plugged in to the local music scene. It took about thirty seconds for me to be pointed in the direction of Nevin Domer, who was then the booking manager at legendary venue D-22 and COO at local indie label Maybe Mars. Nevin was my spirit guide for my first year in Beijing, when I was working a real job. Afterwards he became sort of my boss, when I took over booking duties for him at D-22. Not long thereafter, he launched Genjing Records, his vinyl-only passion project, which has a ton of events coming up in the next few weeks. I’d write more in this intro but I am literally maxing out the total number of characters I can input into this box. This interview is really, really long. Grab a six pack:

Thruoutin tour diary part II This morning Jia Huizhen, Yao...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:28:33 +1000

Thruoutin tour diary part II

This morning Jia Huizhen, Yao Sichen and I left Wuhan, back in traffic for a couple hours, to the train station where we took a fast train to Zhengzhou, Henan. From Zhengzhou we spent a hound dog total of 7 kuai each to take a little green train to Xinxiang. This small city was just that… a small, dirty city. On the other hand, there was a pretty cool place called ArK Live House that we played at.

SXSW 2013 - Carsick Cars 晕车的车 - Asian Radio Special Report 08

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:25:22 +1100

SXSW 2013 - Carsick Cars 晕车的车 - Asian Radio Special Report 08

Michael Pettis interviews Carsick Cars’ Zhang...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 17:46:33 +1100

Michael Pettis interviews Carsick Cars’ Zhang Shouwang (2009)

Michael Pettis is finance professor at Peking University, China Financial Markets blogger, and owner of live music venue D22 in Wudaokou, Beijing.

As someone who has been watching and promoting the burgeoning live rock music scene in the capital, Pettis is in close contact with many of the performers.

Zhang Shouwang (张守望), lead singer of Beijing rock outfit Carsick Cars and experimental band White (with musician Shenggy), is possibly the most famous musician in the so-called “Beijing underground music scene”, famous for supporting the U.S. band Sonic Youth and penning infamous Beijing rock tunes of recent years.

As part of the “New Youth” feature in the May issue of Esquire, Pettis asks Shouwang, whose name means “to keep watch”, ten questions about composing a very famous song, rock music today compared to the ’80s, traveling and “new Chinese music”.

[The Agenda]: April ‘13 The Agenda takes a sweeping look...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:53:40 +1100

[The Agenda]: April ‘13

The Agenda takes a sweeping look at the next month in Beijing and selects the big events in the respective categories of dining, music, art, and more, more, more. Here’s your socio-culture calendar for the next month in Beijing.

Wooozy Session #10 The Wooozy Sessions is a concert series...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:04:41 +1100

Wooozy Session #10

The Wooozy Sessions is a concert series from Wooozy.cn with the cooperation of Shanghai’s independent livehouses. They promote local bands and give them a platform to perform, and they also bring in bands from other parts of China who have not yet had the opportunity to play in Shanghai.

Saturday was Wooozy Session #10 at Yuyintang as part of the JUE Music + Art festival. I like live music of nearly every kind, but I was particularly excited for this session because it was sort of the local showcase part of JUE and had some good bands playing.

Beijing bands rock NY, backed by film screening A skinny young...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:01:52 +1100

Beijing bands rock NY, backed by film screening

A skinny young Chinese man in a white Silver Apples T-shirt and sunglasses began the night with a drumbeat. Moments later, a fan clad in a black beret in front of the stage was throwing his right arm around as though he hoped to lasso the rocker’s rhythm.

The drummer, Wang Xu, is half of the experimental electronic duo White+, which played at the Ran Tea House in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday night along with two other Chinese bands, the Gar and Carsick Cars.

The Sound Stage - Episode 29: Alpine Decline

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:14:05 +1100

The Sound Stage - Episode 29: Alpine Decline

Independent music in Shanghai: a prologue

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:12:31 +1100

Independent music in Shanghai: a prologue

Shanghai-based Metal Band “Death to Giants” Releases...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:08:34 +1100

Shanghai-based Metal Band “Death to Giants” Releases Debut Album

After “Death to Giants” was formed, the band created its own flavor of music by drawing from thrash metal, Bop, Math Rock, Pop, punk and electronic.

Friday Night Musical Outro: SMZB – Screaming For The Silent...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:36:49 +1100

Friday Night Musical Outro: SMZB – Screaming For The Silent Masses

What you’re watching up there is Wuhan heavyweights SMZB, bar room heroes every last one of them, kicking out one of their most famous jams, “Scream for Life,” to a hometown crowd at something called the Southlake Music Festival back in 2007.

Guangzhou DIY

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:06:00 +1100

Beijing punk band Fanzui Xiangfa (犯罪想法) played an impromptu gig in a Guangzhou, China skateshop with friends on Sat, Mar 9, 2013 to an unassuming public. The results were splendid…

Chui Wan: ”China is a very psychedelic country! Chui Wan is a...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:01:11 +1100

Chui Wan: ”China is a very psychedelic country!

Chui Wan is a four-piece experimental psychedelic rock band from Beijing, China. They got their name from Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi’s ”Qi Wu Lun” (齐物论), a mystical work on the relationship between nature and human life.

We got an honor to have a chat with Liu Xinyu (guitar) and Yan Yulong (guitar, keyboard, violin, vocals) before their Club Niubi tour. See the tour dates below and enjoy the trip!