Talking Tunes: LCD's James Murphy Coming to Town and We Uncover the Mystery of "No Filler"

Straight to it. We finally found out what the teaser campaign for "No Filler" was all about. Beijing electro rockers Not There had been throwing us scraps of hints for a while before the big unveil earlier this week. The band's Jonathan Heeter explains it better than I could:

"Not There is tired of filler. So we've gotten our friends together to put on a show at Yugong Yishan on September 15. Not There will be joined by psychedelic rockers My September, disco heart-breakers Pacalolo and our favorite band in Beijing, Residence A. In service of the absurd, Not There has challenged our promo partners School Thru Music to an eating contest. While our shows are filler free, the boys are gonna gorge themselves on junk food.

Here's how it works.

Two teams will be given 20 baozi & 10 hot dogs. They will have 20 minutes to gorge themselves on dogs & buns. Why? Because we think it will be hilarious.
Team 1 will be F.A.T (the Foreign Awesome Team). Team 2 will be P.A.N.G (the People's Awesome National Gorgers).

That's great, but where's the contest happening?

School Bar in Wudaoying Hutong. Sunday September 2 at 7.30 pm.

Will there be music?

Of course. Beijing Bluegrass stalwarts the Ring Road Ramblers will be bringing their banjos, mandolins & guitars giving the whole night that traveling medicine show feel.

So great these guys are eating a bunch of garbage, what about me?

We want you involved. First of all, vote (in the comments section below) for the team you think will win. If you're right, you'll be entered to win four free tickets to the September 15 "No Filler" show at Yugong Yishan.

Come to School Bar on Sunday September 2 for a carnie-fueled night of competitive eating and bluegrass. Because there is no better way to spend a Sunday evening than watching people gorge competitively.

So get voting in the comments section below and for more information, check out NotThereBeijing.com."

So there you have it, "No Filler" is a food eating contest in lieu of a pretty nifty sounding music show on September 15. I'd guessed that was exactly what it was the moment I heard about it.

To The Smith Street Band, and their upcoming China tour. The Melbourne folk punks seem to be whipping up a lot of buzz down under after the release of their second album, and recently received a rather generous write up from Rolling Stone magazine. Keep your eye on TheBeijinger.com for news of a ticket giveaway to see them at Temple on October 3.

The preliminary line up for this year's Creators Project has been announced and one name amongst many top names that jumps off the list is that of the incredible James Murphy, former front man of LCD Soundsystem. Murphy is set to spin a DJ set as part of this year's edition which will be held in the 798 Art District on Septemer 8 and 9.

We stumbled across an interesting little interview with Re-TROS singer Hua Dong this week in which he revealed that he went to school with none other than Kanye West as a nipper. It's well known that Mr. West spent some time living in Nanjing as a youngster but apparently they became boyhood buddies. I wonder if they managed to catch up when Kanye played the Workers' Gymnasium here in Beijing a couple of years ago?

Word reaches us today of the ANDA Music festival 2012. The three-day celebration of Mongolian folk music is set to take place between October 2 and 4 at 798 Art District. Here's hoping that doesn't get tugged like a host of other festivals have this year, especially around that sensitive period.

The Fence Collective, a self-described collective of "musicians, artists, craftsfolk, chancers, and slackers" based out of Fife, Scotland, will make their way to China for the very first time in October as part of the UK Now series of concerts which is approaching its climax. The collective consists of singer-songwriter King Creosote, schizo-popsters FOUND, lo-fi balladeer The Pictish Trail and drummer & producer OnTheFly.

The Fence Collective are set to perform the Beijing leg of their tour at MAO Livehouse on Sunday October 7.

Yugong Yishan has been in touch to let us know that the scheduled September 9 "Autumn Harvest Uprising" show has been canceled. Sticking with Yugong Yishan, don't forget about this weekend's Maybe Mars 5th Anniversary show on Saturday. Carsick Cars and Mr. Graceless are among a host of performers who will come together to mark the special occasion for the prominent Beijing label.

Here's a nice little trailer from "SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS", a film about LCD Soundsystem's last ever performance in New York last year. The full production is to be screened as part of this year's Creators Project.

Until we meet again. Have a cracking weekend.