Ourselves Beside Me to open for Ex Models

Beijing music mavens, take note (if you haven't already): these three ladies are the next big thing in town. Yes, it’s Ourselves Beside Me, the recently re-emerged all-girl rock band that's been kicking ass all over town (but mostly at D-22). Though Ourselves have already been scouted out by the Bingmasi (Maybe Mars) label (they hope to get them into the studio in time for their spring release batch), D-22 proprietor Michael Pettis realized it was high time to get the word out after a scorching set (click here to see a Youtube clip of the show - but beware, the sound quality is not great) at last week's Cheb Amir and the Black Leviathan show - a set that also happened to blow the French headliners themselves away.

With the Brooklyn-based no wave band the Ex Models coming to town, the Bingmasi crew wasted no time in setting up Ourselves with an opening slot for the show. Those not inclined to venturing out to Wudaokou will be able to see them at the more central location of Yugong Yishan on Saturday, where they'll open the night (before PK14 and the Models; at D-22, two of Jeffray Zhang's projects will open: Carsick Cars and Speak Chinese or Die!).

"I am convinced they are going to be recognized as one of the most important and exciting bands - not just in Beijing, but in the world," says Pettis, adding that the understated trio has even begun to overturn the old hierarchy of Beijing bands. If that's the case, it'll be all the more significant that frontwoman Yang Fan has been engaged in a turbulent on-again, off-again relationship with Joyside singer Bian Yuan – not to mention that the trio has been known to hit the bottle just as hard as their male counterparts. Not to worry, though, for Saturday: "We'll keep them sober," says Pettis. “Just make sure you arrive early.”

Oh, and just in case you're also interested in the main acts, here is Alex Pasternack's interview with Shahin Motia, of Ex Models and Knyfe Hyts:

tbjblog: Can you describe the arc of the band's sound since the first album? And how would you define "fundustrial," which is, according to your website, your genre?

Shahin Motia: Our sound hasn't really arced over the years, its guitar laden core has become really dense and bright, its outer layers expanding and cooling. Fundustrialism is 12% vibration, 80% alienation, and 7% good attitude, with a +- 1% margin of error.

tbjblog: How did your band end up booking shows all the way over in China?

SM: I met [D22 owner] Michael Pettis and one of the dudes from Carsick Cars at a benefit Ex Models played for an organization called Common Ground in Manhattan in mid-July. Some years ago in Vienna, Models played with a Beijing indie band called PK-14, with whom Michael works a lot these days, and I remember getting the impression that they'd heard of us through them. I remember being slightly out of head, but managing a brief dork-out on economics, something I studied in school and in which he has well known expertise. He saw the show and talked to us about his space D-22 and the possibility of coming to China. I didn't think he was serious until I contacted him nearly two months later. I'm glad he left me a business card.

tbjblog: How excited are you to come to China, and do you have any plans on top of the gigs?

SM: Well, my bandmate Zaak vacationed in China last year, and I've heard a lot of great things from both the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and my parents who were all just there recently, though not together. We've scheduled some time off, so we're going to try to take in a mix of the ordinary, the spectacular, and the interstitial, to the extent that any of those categories exist and are accessible to people in our position. Zaak and I are kind of crazy foodies as well, so there will definitely be a bit of culinary street vendor touring going on at night.

Excitement is definitely somewhere in the mess of feelings I'm experiencing right now. My brother and I are first generation Iranian-Americans who got into really heavy music at a young age. Suffice it to say, we grew up in a household that really didn't want us listening to the music we liked, and really, REALLY didn't want us playing it for a living! Being ashamed of the music you like is no way to grow up, and in some ways it's a condition I still wrestle with. So I'm always amazed that playing rock music gets me anywhere, let alone to China. Mostly I feel honored and privileged, and I feel a tremendous responsibility to give everything I have as a performing artist to the indie rock audience there.

tbjblog: We're a bit out of the loop--What's happening musically in New York at this instant?

SM: I really can't speak for the city from my small little homogenous indie corner of it. I definitely have mixed feelings about it. There aren't many indie rock musicians in New York that grew up here, including myself. New York is an international media city--I mean, people even blog from here--and for better or for worse its gravity draws artists of a certain worldly ambition away from every local indie rock scene in the country. At the same time, there are many towns whose local scenes look to New York for inspiration, so there is a feedback loop. Having so many artists means there's a lot of supporting infrastructure here--DIY venues and galleries, side jobs, studio and rehearsal space--but competition for the resources is so fierce, and the cost of living so high, it's a wonder anybody would come here to make art, but they come. I did.

So as far as indie rock is concerned, New York has an unusually large pool of ambitious, mobile artists from all over the country, and the results of their collaborations, and their competitions, make for very deep output across a pretty broad range of genres-- South American death metal, conservatory grad chamber-punk, whatever. But there is very little rock-wise that I experience here as idiomatic New York music, or like, homemade New York folk, you know? It's obviously different when you talk about hip-hop, reggaeton, new music, and even downtown improvisation. I mean, there's a bunch of weirdos in Ypsilanti, Michigan that have been making insane music with their friends for years, releasing it on their own labels-- stuff that New York fetishizes but could not simulate. Some of them have been living here for years, but when I go see Sightings or Awesome Color, I don't think about how great and messed up a place New York is that it produced this, I think about how convenient it is that everybody is here.

tbjblog: I've read about an academic/philosophical/Baudrillardian influence in the lyrics. Is that intended or, dare I say, ahem, "real"?

SM: Insofar as you say it is, it is. It is not important that the influence is intended or not. Worse: my simple confession would not even be enough to make it so. I could be deceiving you or myself, or both. Whether it is vacuous nonsense or artful appropriation is in your hands. If it were me reading, I'd say it's hard to deny the Baudrillard influence when the titles of half the songs are direct quotations.

tbjblog: What's happening with the Ex-Models now?

SM: We're working on a lot of things right now, including a dance 12", a new full-length, a live album, and a feature length live DVD. It's a little slow going because we don't have as much time as we used to, with Zaak playing bass for Pterodactyl and Marnie Stern, and me joining Oneida, and three of us spending a lot of time on KNIFE HITS, a noise punk metal jam band that sounds like Mekons circa 1978 trying to cover Disraeli Gears.

tbjblog: What else is going on in your life (and those of the others) besides the band?

SM: Nothing unusual. We work jobs we'd rather not, take it out on our friends, love and lose, the whole deal. You'd be surprised how little free time you have when you play in four bands and work full time. I used to spend it going out to rock shows and getting crazy, but I'm a little older now and find myself devoting more time to learning, maintaining things already learned, and experiencing non-music related art. You may not have figured this out, but before I started taking music seriously I was a studious nerd for like 20 years. There will always be a part of my brain that songwriting will not satisfy, and I'm happy that way.

tbjblog: Anything I'm missing?

SM: We like presents.

Dec 14
Ex Models, Knyfe Hyts, Carsick Cars, and Speak Chinese or Die!

The Brooklyn-based Models are the product of the brothers Motia, Shahin and Shahyar, whose influences from No Wave to Gabriel Byrne will certainly endear them to fans of Carsick Cars or Snapline. The band have three albums to their name since 2001, though in recent years they've experimented with various shades of noise. For this stop on their China tour, they’ll also present music from one of their side projects, Knyfe Hyts. To round off the night, Jeffray Zhang also shows off two of his many bands. RMB 20-30.
10pm. D-22 (6265 3177)

Dec 15
Ex Models, PK14 and Ourselves Beside Me

A meeting of one of Brooklyn’s and Beijing's finest rock bands, with the recently re-emerged all-girl rock band that’s been kicking ass all over town thrown in for good measure. RMB 50.
9pm. Yugong Yishan (6404 2711)

Links and Sources:
Ex Models Official Site
Ex Models MySpace
D-22
Bingmasi (Maybe Mars) Official Site