alternative china

'alternative china' links to articles in english about the new music scenes springing up all over china. composed by australasian diy music specialist shaun/tenzenmen (http://www.tenzenmen.com)

Home
resources
Archive
Subscribe (RSS)
Submit
Random post

Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

Gig Review: D-22 New Year’s Eve Eve This review has been a long time com­ing, but I have a feel­ing that, in addi­tion to the gen­eral excuse of “being busy”, I haven’t wanted to write this review for one sim­ple rea­son: it’s one of the last mem­o­ries many peo­ple are going to have of D-22. I made a few more in Jan­u­ary, but this was the last big show that many peo­ple went to. There were famously lines stream­ing out of the door, peo­ple get­ting turned away by 10:30, and there were so many peo­ple in there it became hard to drink my beer. It was, how­ever, an amaz­ing night.

Gig Review: D-22 New Year’s Eve Eve

This review has been a long time com­ing, but I have a feel­ing that, in addi­tion to the gen­eral excuse of “being busy”, I haven’t wanted to write this review for one sim­ple rea­son: it’s one of the last mem­o­ries many peo­ple are going to have of D-22. I made a few more in Jan­u­ary, but this was the last big show that many peo­ple went to. There were famously lines stream­ing out of the door, peo­ple get­ting turned away by 10:30, and there were so many peo­ple in there it became hard to drink my beer. It was, how­ever, an amaz­ing night.

Tour News: Hedgehog hits the States with Xiu Xiu! I have had the priv­i­lege of see­ing Hedge­hog in small venues — rather than fes­ti­vals — recently, and have been reminded at what a great energy these guys have on stage. This isn’t their first time in the USA, but it’s some pretty good expo­sure. Two-time fes­ti­val head­lin­ers Xiu Xiu will be tak­ing Hedge­hog on a cross-country tour of the USA, so if you’re there — or have friends who are into awe­some music there — let them know! I’m sure Hedge­hog will rock the stages out there. Good luck, guys!

Tour News: Hedgehog hits the States with Xiu Xiu!

I have had the priv­i­lege of see­ing Hedge­hog in small venues — rather than fes­ti­vals — recently, and have been reminded at what a great energy these guys have on stage. This isn’t their first time in the USA, but it’s some pretty good expo­sure. Two-time fes­ti­val head­lin­ers Xiu Xiu will be tak­ing Hedge­hog on a cross-country tour of the USA, so if you’re there — or have friends who are into awe­some music there — let them know! I’m sure Hedge­hog will rock the stages out there. Good luck, guys!

Gig Review: Hot + Cold w/ Hedgehog + Carsick Cars @D22 This gig was orig­i­nally billed as Hot & Cold’s final show in Bei­jing, with some great spe­cial guests from the world of exper­i­men­tal elec­tronic music: Fat City, Soviet Pop, Zhang Shouwang, and The B-Side Lovers. What it turned into was some­thing entirely dif­fer­ent. It was, of course, still Hot & Cold’s final show in Bei­jing, and all of the peo­ple who promised to be there were (though I missed Fat City). I saw Soviet Pop first and set­tled in to believe that every­one in the place was there to catch the expat group’s final show, as they’ve been in the city for a long time and have undoubt­edly amassed enough peo­ple to con­vince to come to a show. How­ever, it slowly dawned on me, as I looked around at all the other peo­ple who didn’t seem com­pletely enrap­tured or even very inter­ested in Soviet Pop’s set, that the lit­tle secret I knew wasn’t really a secret at all.

Gig Review: Hot + Cold w/ Hedgehog + Carsick Cars @D22

This gig was orig­i­nally billed as Hot & Cold’s final show in Bei­jing, with some great spe­cial guests from the world of exper­i­men­tal elec­tronic music: Fat City, Soviet Pop, Zhang Shouwang, and The B-Side Lovers. What it turned into was some­thing entirely dif­fer­ent. It was, of course, still Hot & Cold’s final show in Bei­jing, and all of the peo­ple who promised to be there were (though I missed Fat City). I saw Soviet Pop first and set­tled in to believe that every­one in the place was there to catch the expat group’s final show, as they’ve been in the city for a long time and have undoubt­edly amassed enough peo­ple to con­vince to come to a show. How­ever, it slowly dawned on me, as I looked around at all the other peo­ple who didn’t seem com­pletely enrap­tured or even very inter­ested in Soviet Pop’s set, that the lit­tle secret I knew wasn’t really a secret at all.

Gig Review: Mr Graceless, Residence A + Youxi @ D-22, 2011.08.24 I went to D22 on a ran­dom Wednes­day evening think­ing that I was there for Mr. Grace­less. I’ve seen them before, thought they were alright (the first time I saw them, I com­mented on their cardi­gans…), so I thought I was going to have an aver­age night out drink­ing with my friends. One of whom has been rav­ing about Res­i­dence A for a while. And it’s not that I don’t trust this friend’s point of view, but we don’t always see eye to eye, so I was a lit­tle skep­ti­cal, but hope­ful, that I would like them. Luck­ily, they were absolutely amazing. But I’m get­ting ahead of myself.

Gig Review: Mr Graceless, Residence A + Youxi @ D-22, 2011.08.24

I went to D22 on a ran­dom Wednes­day evening think­ing that I was there for Mr. Grace­less. I’ve seen them before, thought they were alright (the first time I saw them, I com­mented on their cardi­gans…), so I thought I was going to have an aver­age night out drink­ing with my friends. One of whom has been rav­ing about Res­i­dence A for a while. And it’s not that I don’t trust this friend’s point of view, but we don’t always see eye to eye, so I was a lit­tle skep­ti­cal, but hope­ful, that I would like them. Luck­ily, they were absolutely amazing.

But I’m get­ting ahead of myself.

Gig Review: Zoomin’ Night @ D-22, 2011.08.02 Zoomin’ Night is D-22’s weekly exper­i­men­tal night, and while I would never call exper­i­men­tal my favorite genre ever, I can appre­ci­ate it and I love that D-22 does this — now, for free — every Tues­day. 

Gig Review: Zoomin’ Night @ D-22, 2011.08.02

Zoomin’ Night is D-22’s weekly exper­i­men­tal night, and while I would never call exper­i­men­tal my favorite genre ever, I can appre­ci­ate it and I love that D-22 does this — now, for free — every Tues­day. 

Gig Review: pangbianr Night @ Old What? Bar, 2011.07.08 This was prob­a­bly my third time ever at Old What? Bar, and my pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences were in win­ter. The rev­e­la­tion I had this time around was sim­i­lar to what I would imag­ine one would expe­ri­ence if they had only ever vis­ited Dos Kole­gas in the win­ter. This tiny, dingy — though cosy — venue is dor­mant in win­ter, but absolutely blos­soms into a place full of good friends, great music, and peo­ple drink­ing in the streets. There might not be a lawn or a tram­po­line cas­tle, but there’s hutong stools and con­ve­nience stores that have no choice but to stay open through the noise. So if you have never been to Old What? Bar, go now.

Gig Review: pangbianr Night @ Old What? Bar, 2011.07.08

This was prob­a­bly my third time ever at Old What? Bar, and my pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences were in win­ter. The rev­e­la­tion I had this time around was sim­i­lar to what I would imag­ine one would expe­ri­ence if they had only ever vis­ited Dos Kole­gas in the win­ter. This tiny, dingy — though cosy — venue is dor­mant in win­ter, but absolutely blos­soms into a place full of good friends, great music, and peo­ple drink­ing in the streets. There might not be a lawn or a tram­po­line cas­tle, but there’s hutong stools and con­ve­nience stores that have no choice but to stay open through the noise. So if you have never been to Old What? Bar, go now.