It's the third Thursday of November, which means Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive! Originally made to celebrate the harvest in the Beaujolais region north of Lyon, this lightweight red wine is now a genuine globetrotter. A brief fermentation period means very little tannin and a dominance of fresh fruit flavors - think of it as a fading taste of European sunshine to be enjoyed now before the Beijing winter closes in. Here’s where to imbibe:

Do you know the muffin man that lives down Guanghua Lu? It’s Frank Siegel, and he’s just opened a new branch of Sequoia Café in the Kerry Centre next door to Papa John’s Pizza. They’re giving away free muffins from now until the end of November, so pop down for a bite and one of Beijing’s better cups of Joe.

Bang! Bang! It’s a duel of the DJs! There's a clash of techno titans tonight at Lantern as Acupuncture Records’ Chinaboyz (Terry Tu and ELVIS.T) celebrate their crossover project with UK label Mothership’s Italoboyz (Marco Donato and Federico Marton) in a double feature back-to-back set. We sought a few words of wisdom from the visiting Italians to see what they have to say ahead of the party ...

Despite the fact that big international bands keep failing to make it here (by "big" I mean famous, not necessarily good), promoters are still trying their best to bring quality acts to Beijing. Krautrock trio The Secret Machines (see interview here) and singer-songwriter Julie Doiron (see interview here) are playing tonight at Yugong Yishan and 2 Kolegas, while Zuoxiao Zuzhou (see interview here) performs his first solo in eight years at Century Theater. On Saturday, Japanese synth punk band Triple Nipples drive into 2 Kolegas for a night of god-know-what-would-happen. On other sides of the town, French folk duo Vialka and world music group Dawanggang jam at Tiny Salt Coffee Club, whereas Low Wormwood frontman Liu Kun releases his solo debut at D-22 with supports from some of Beijing's best folk musicians. Heavy weekend for live music, so take out your wallet now, you know musicians need money more than faith to keep rocking. 

"My brother Andrew lives in Beijing and I am excited to visit him again!"
- Brandon Curtis

Before conducting this interview with The Secret Machines (www.myspace.com/secretmachines), I went through all their albums – days later, the psychedelic thunderstorm of “First Wave Intact” and the innocent love story in “Alone, Jealous & Stoned” are still living in my head. As the band prepares to tour Beijing (Mar 19) and Shanghai (Mar 20), we talked to Brandon Curtis, vocalist/keyboardist/bassist, about the music that brought them to this point.