the Beijinger

Jorma Kaukonen, who will make his China debut on February 11 at Yugong Yishan, was a founding member of two legendary rock bands: Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna. When the former debuted in 1965, they were the first San Francisco psychedelic band to make an impact, a few years before their friends in the Grateful Dead. They were also the only band to play at the three major '60s rock festivals: Monterey, Woodstock, and Altamont.

Eventually, the band split into two: the pop-rock Jefferson Airplane and the rootsy, blues-based Hot Tuna, featuring Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady. The pair still tour in both electric and acoustic settings, while the guitarist also enjoys a thriving solo acoustic career. He is also a popular instructor at the Fur Peace Ranch, a guitar camp he founded 15 years ago on his Ohio property.

Writer Alan Paul caught up with Jorma on the phone as he prepared for his short Asian tour of Japan and China.

Swedish heavy metal band Opeth will be taking the stage Saturday, February 11 at Tango. If you are in any doubt as to their metal credentials, consider that their drummer is named Axe. Gosh. They will be exposing Beijingers to their unique sound, which blends metal with softer elements such as folk, blues and jazz. Before that happens, we got guitarist Fredrik Akesson to offer some insight on the band's influences, fake blood and loud fans.

The International Schools Choral Music Society (ISCMS) music festival is coming to Beijing and we've got two pairs of VIP tickets to give away to the Gala Concert on February 18. This year's star guest is Welsh music luminary Karl Jenkins, the most widely performed living composer in the world. If you want to see him and the cream of the world's young musical talent perform at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, just read on and answer one simple question. You should know that this performance will include the world premiere of Qing Zhu ("Celebration"), composed especially for ISCMS and conducted by Jenkins himself.

Gothenburg may be known as the cradle of melodic death metal, but it also nurtured the much gentler indie sound of post-rockers Immanu El, whose atmospheric pluckings have been compared to Sigur Rós and Mogwai. In less than four years, the quintet has played almost 200 shows in over 25 countries. Before finally landing in China, frontman Claes Strängberg had some thoughts to share with us.

JUE Festival has brought us lots of joy and good acts over the past three years. Next month, it's back with Death Cab For Cutie - probably the biggest indie pop band in the world. They will play the opening weekend of the Festival: first in Shanghai on March 9, then in Beijing at Tango 3F on March 10. Ticket information remains unrevealed (like the rest of lineup) but we'll have both for you as soon as we get them.

Aside from the JUE Festival, there are more exciting acts to looking forward to in coming months:

Our estimable cross-town competitors City Weekend announced their Readers’ Choice awards in a blog post last Wednesday. Now that both of us have announced the results of our respective reader surveys (see a full list of ours here), let’s take a look at what these two magazines’ readers agree and disagree on.

It was a huge weekend for music festivals, with Midi returning to the capital and the second Strawberry festival taking place down in Tongzhou. So now that all the action is over, how did the two festivals stack up? Beijing Daze has posted reviews of Strawberry day one and Midi day two – and Strawberry came out second by a long way.

This is what Daze had to say about problems getting into Strawberry:

“There were 2 ticket booths only to access the festival area… I got there with my crew at 1pm, we managed to get in around 4pm! At that time, I would estimate that there were a good 4000 to 6000 people still waiting in line…”

Eight years ago, my band Chunqiu (Spring & Autumn) played at the Snow Mountain Music Festival in Lijiang. The day before the festival kicked off, we sound-checked at the venue, an alpine meadow 45 minutes by car above town. Then we shared a minibus back down to Lijiang with the band Brain Failure, one of China’s best-known Punk bands. At first there was a bit of awkwardness.

Hanggai

They twist those vintage roots into bass riffs and rhythms that would rattle any metal head to bliss. The grassland troupe rocked 2 Kolegas past the rafters Friday night with songs like “Wuji,” which started with rustic horse-head fiddle sawing before turning into a bulldozing treble barrage with dynamite drums at the chorus.