In case you haven’t heard, Usher is playing at Wukesong Stadium this Sunday (July 11). My first Usher song happened to be “Can U Help Me,” which was recorded on a pirated compilation cassette. Other songs on the tape include “I Fought in a War” by Belle & Sebastian and “Sing For the Moment” by Aerosmith, and also Sting’s “Fragile,” I think. It was more than ten years ago, so I started this interview by asking…

Ten years of being in a metal band isn't that easy, think about all the mocking you'd received - "metal is dead, and it's not as hip as the indie kids". Around this time last month, I saw the legendary Finnish band Stratovarius in Shanghai, and I was totally blown away - the songs might be cheesy to today's standards, but man what a loyalty from the fans! Not being one myself, I have the deepest respect for those guys - at least they know what they want. Months earlier at the Strawberry Festival, another metal set from Tang Dynasty caught me into nostalgia, realizing I could still sing along with all the lyrics and guitar solos. Then I thought, Kaiser Kuo was a founding member of that band. Now Ding Wu (lead singer of Tang Dynasty) is having difficulty hitting high notes, whereas Kaiser's other project Spring Autumn are still growing strong, celebrating their ten years' anniversary tonight at Mako Live House. After all, time can't be the excuse for everything.

"I’m not a tolerant guy."

After the critically acclaimed album Sorrow, Lonely China Day is out with This Readily Assimilative People. Now being independent from their former label Tag Team Records, this third studio album from the three-piece indie rock installation has gained mixed reviews - the good, the bad and the ugly. Apparently the Beijinger embraced their genre changes and took them as a positive shift for the better to come, except feeling "the electronic soundscape can be sometimes overused against the vocals" (see review here, p42); Time Out, not so much - some believe there's no such thing as bad publicity, but there probably is for someone like Deng Pei, the brain behind Lonely China Day, who basically feels ashamed when anyone tells him anybody makes better music than he does.

Ever since being ended up with Denmark at an in-office World Cup sweepstake, I've been trying to remember how great the Laudrup brothers were and how Nicklas Bendtner has even come close to their highness. Conclusion is that since Serbia is participating this time, the Danes have zero chance of winning the champion (but they can probably give Netherlands a heart attack in the same way as they did to Brazil in France twelve years ago). Despite still thinking about the World Cup at this moment, I'll try my best to list the music shows going on over this working weekend, plus Dragon Boat holidays.

So it’s nearly time for the World Cup and the four year wait will be over. Before that all kicks off – and we make an effort to blog about it everyday – we’ve got a brief roundup of the sports happenings away from South Africa.

Usher's in town at Wukesong Arena on July 11, but for this weekend we've got Michael Bolton on Saturday ("Why does everyone dislike Michael Bolton? He's a legend," said one of my colleagues yesterday.), enjoy. Sichuanese ska boys The Trouble pay a visit, Bluegrass/country troupe The Redbucks release their debut, Bad Mamasan and Last Chance of Youth show metal pride in Wudaokou, Acid Live move their funky jazz party to Sihui at The One. Plus, new music venue opens in 798 Art District (with support from Zhang Tie, Wang Juan and Zhang Si'an). Considering all art galleries and museums are free of entry this weekend, it's definitely musicians' turn to collect some money.

2 Kolegas celebrates its fifth-year anniversary with a two-night series (Friday & Saturday), headlined by Black Cat Bone, Re-TROS, DH & Chinese Hellcats, Buyi and Wu & The Side Effects (with their debut album releasing in June). However the originally scheduled Free The Birds performance has been canceled as Helen Feng is still not fully recovered from the injury caused by jumping off the stage in May.

Meanwhile, avant-folk guru Xiao He jams with Mongolian chiefs Hanggai at Obiwan on Saturday - find out how the gray-haired 30-something experiments with the sound of horsehead fiddle. On Sunday, the recently re-opened Mao Livehouse sees the arrival of black metal followers Be Persecuted and Hate Ka from the southeastern province of Jiangxi, playing all the darkwave in depressive moods. Of course, if devilish face paint is not your thing, you can always check out the melodic compositions by Swedish singer-songwriter Sofia Jannok at Yugong Yishan. 

Not literally, as his highness remains in a crystal coffin on display. Despite the management of Mao Livehouse claiming to "keep a low profile about the re-opening", the return of this grungy rock house still tops the headlines of Beijing's music scene this weekend (or for some of you it's the electronic beats at INTRO 2010 on Saturday. More here). Scheduled shows are coming back, and we are delighted to keep you posted. What's more fierce than Mao (again, not literally), is a volatile session of electric guitar from Marnie Stern. The Kill Rockstars-signed guitarist plays Yugong Yishan tonight, and you can take a peek at her play list here. Support of the night comes from our local heroes SUBS, who are releasing their new album 操万物女神 (Queen of XXXXing Everything) with a upcoming tour across thirteen Chinese cities. That being said, the album release in Beijing will NOT take place until they return.

Now, with only twenty days left, as a genuine fan of German football I felt disappointed with Michael Ballack's absence. But since we are now playing better football than the Germans (Team China won Bayer Leverkusen by 3-0 last night) without even bothering to qualify the World Cup, let the celebration begin with Afrokoko Roots on Africa Day (May 22) at Yugong Yishan. Bands from other countries are also here to congratulate Team China (or am I delusioning) - four Finnish metal bands bombard The Star Live next Tuesday (May 25), featuring Stratovarius, Turisas, Negative and Before the Dawn - I've never seen so many Finnish people at one location before.

While fans were still mourning the Mao Livehouse closure, the venue scheduled a show this Friday (May 21), featuring Mythomania, Joker, DengeL, Bedstars and The Newtank. Mao's manager Li Tong confirmed the re-opening. "We've got the license sorted," she says. "But we still need time to book bands." Well, that's a good reason to stay tuned for their upcoming shows.

Once described by Venus Zine as the “greatest female guitarist of all time”, American musician, songwriter, and guitarist Marnie Stern is known for her finger-tapping talent and shrill vocal. The 34-year-old New Yorker, who's been growing up listening to The Who, AC/DC and other staples, is now bringing her experimental ecstasy of indie rock groove to our northern capital.

"I never like anything I do," she says. "Maybe for a week, but then I'm like, 'Ooh! Are you crazy?' I'm into this one, though, because it's so palatable and poppy it's hard not to. It's like Rihanna or something, right?" See what she's working on this Friday at Yugong Yishan, or something.

But before the sonic shredder cut your ears, she'd like to share a few tracks on her playlist with us. Well, not exactly, cuz' we sort of asked her to.