The Beijinger Blog - Wang Ge

Weekend Live Music Roundup: St. Vincent at starry night, Elvis’ back from the grave, DJ Vadim spins that sh*t

thebeijinger — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:30:00 +0800

The snow on Monday, I don’t know what’s that all about, it’s March already. Don't know how it's been affecting the festival season (which is spring, in case you haven't seen it's coming), but the Beijing leg of JUE Festival is well under its way. Presented by Split Works, the festival consists of art, cinema and music events across Beijing and Shanghai (see our interview with the organizers here and full event schedule here). On Friday night, JUE sees the appearances of American indie singer/instrumentalist St. Vincent at Yugong Yishan and Danish rockabilly group Dead Elvis & His One Man Grave at D-22. On the local side, things get more hardcore at Mao Livehouse, where TOOKOO, Bigger Bang! and The Reason rock on the northern end of Nanluogu Xiang - maybe you can hear them in YGYS, since St. Vincent's music is relatively quiet, maybe.

Curse Lifted: An Interview with Zuoxiao Zuzhou

thebeijinger — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0800

"I hate optimism out of insensitivity."
- Zuoxiao Zuzhou

For the past five years, this guy has been making headlines for pricing his albums from 30 kuai to 500 kuai. He’s also known for being a contemporary artist/poet/soundtrack composer working with Ai Weiwei and film director Jia Zhangke. Born in 1970, alternative rock singer-songwriter Zuoxiao Zuzhou (literally means “left-little-curse of the ancestors”) founded Beijing East Village with many avant-garde artists in early 90s, and their controversial artwork Adding a Meter to the Nameless Mountain (为无名山增高一米. See photo, below) shocked the Chinese art world in 1995. Meanwhile, ZXZZ's rock band "NO" released Trip to Temple Fair (庙会之旅) and The Missing Master (走失的主人). Both albums are filled with spacious guitar chords, tribal drum beats, sound experiments and volatile vocals, which scared many people for sure, but also gained him a loyal fan base.

Weekend Live Music Roundup: 2 Kolegas re-opens, Maybe Mars sail across the ocean, Uighur eagles fly into Beijing

thebeijinger — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0800

This week we've got some visitors: AV Okubo (www.douban.com/artist/avokubo) are in town on Saturday (Mar 6) at Yugong Yishan. Coming with their debut album The Greed of Man (大时代), these disco punk heads from Wuhan will share the stage with P.K.14, Carsick Cars, Xiao He and White. After that, the gang of hipsters are leaving Beijing for South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, followed by another Maybe Mars US tour. Look at them (pictured above), they are obviously ready for the cold weather and street noise in Beijing.

Talking Balls: Dopers, Dopes and the Dopey Looking

thebeijinger — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:30:00 +0800

Remember Mohamed Kallon? The former Inter Milan star was banned for eight months in 2003 for testing positive for Nandrolone and then ended up setting up his own club back in his native Sierra Leone. Well Mr. Kallon no longer plays for the egotistically named Kallon FC, no, he’s back in the big time … at Shaanxi Neo-China Chanba. Joking aside, Kallon was one of the brightest talents in the world game and at 30 years-old his signing has placed Shaanxi as favourites for the CSL title. Bad luck for Beijing’s hopes of retaining the trophy.

Vancouver 2010 Round-up: Bottles, Bronzes and Bawdiness

thebeijinger — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:20:00 +0800

The Olympics in Winter? How do they do the diving events? Absolute madness if you ask me. It turns out that the Winter Games concentrate on more traditional winter sports like shooting things while out skiing and going headfirst down hills. For those who this is all news to here is what happened in Vancouver.

Weekend Live Music Roundup: Free The Birds, Hit The Garage and Make Some Noise

thebeijinger — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0800

So, we are back from the holiday, and it’s the same old faces on the stage. But that’s why live music in Beijing is exciting - it beats the sound of firecrackers and CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. I watched the entire four-hour show with my family and kept thinking about what would happen if Manchester United played against The Los Angeles Lakers in a curling game - and the winner turned out to be Maria Sharapova. Happy time.

Anyway, the important thing is musicians are back in town. On Friday, Afrokoko (probably the one and only Afrobeat group in Beijing) bring live beats with the DJ crew of funksters at Yugong Yishan. An alternative is available at Mao Livehouse where Acid Live put on their monthly jazz session of dynamite.

Greed Takes Dylan Away From Beijing?

thebeijinger — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:31:36 +0800

Honestly, none of us expect Bob Dylan can actually play in Beijing when Oasis became cool enough to be banned to play here. But sometimes the story is more complicated than raging against the machines, here are the latest updates for the expected Bob Dylan show in Beijing on April 4.

Talking Balls: Winners, Losers and New Starts

wange1002 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:49:08 +0800

The Winter Olympics is well underway. China’s been racking up the medals – providing that racking up suggests no more than five. Zhou Yang and Wang Meng blitzed the ladies short track speed skating in the 1500 and 500 meter categories respectively. Wang was disqualified in the Semi-final of the 500m. China’s other gold (or is that two) came from figure skating pair Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue. The married skaters subsequently retired after reaching their career goal. This will give hope to the pair they beat into silver, Tong Jian and Pang Qing. Finally, third place on the podium was 500m speed skater Wang Beixing.

Weekend Live Music Roundup: Last Parties Before The City Falls Asleep

thebeijinger — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0800

As we all know, the city will be empty during the Spring Festival holiday - bands are leaving Beijing for home, organizers are taking breaks, and groupies will have to wake up with someone else...this would be the last weekend for live music before everything goes wrong. Hard rockers Misandao, Gum Bleed and Hell City make noises at Mao Livehouse on February 5 before firecrackers burn down the city; For Saturday night, Ourself Beside Me and The Molds make their return at Obiwan, Beijing rap group In3'er swear on Bob Marley's Day (hold me...), while Wu Fei plays guzheng and creates her version of the mysterious east with Taiwanese American singer Jen Shyu.

Go out, have fun - you might be married after the holiday, then who knows what's gonna happen...

The Molds Are Back: An Interview with Liu Ge

thebeijinger — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0800

"('A Cowboy Never Saw A Horse') is the sense of embarrassment when Chinese people try to play Western music."

- Liu Ge

The Molds are: Liu Fang (bass), Liu Ge (lead vocal/guitar) and Jia Wei (drum)

They love The Cramps, they draw inspiration from blues, rockabilly and psychedelic rock - The Molds (www.myspace.com/themoldsband) have been keeping away from the spotlight since they released an EP called A Cowboy Never Saw a Horse in 2008. This Saturday (Feb 6) at Club Obiwan, the trio will be performing with fellow rockers Ourself Beside Me (www.myspace.com/ourselfbesideme) as part of the collaboration between Obiwan and Maybe Mars. We had a small chat with The Molds' frontman Liu Ge before the show.