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China news tagged with: rock music (55)

• In New York: Contemporary Heroes from China’s Music Scene

  

  For Danwei, Nick Frisch reviews two recent Chinese music events in New York in recent weeks: A show by indie bands PK14 and Carsick Cars, and a festival celebrating intersections between Chinese and Western musical traditions at Carnegie Hall:

  At the über-hipster Glasslands venue in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, one bearded, bespectacled bouncer looked positively astonished: “I’ve never seen a crowd like this. There’s a line out the door!” Another source of astonishment: “Wow! There are Chinese kids with tight pants and guitars who play music like our music!” Indeed; though Glasslands was certainly the hipsterati’s spot to see and be seen last Friday, it wasn’t immediately apparent that the crowd’s appreciation rose beyond the “Woah! Dude! Novelty! Cachet! China’s hip!” level.

  More’s the pity: following the always-entertaining, always-gruff Xiao He, PK 14 turned in a terrific set. Carsick Cars, darlings and avatars of the Beijing scene, came off a bit lackluster compared to some recent D-22 and Yugong Yishan shows. But you wouldn’t have known it from the chatter in the crowd: scenesters know a hot trend when they see one, and lavished more praise than was really called for. But Jeffray Zhang and his band finished strong: their signature closing anthem “Zhongnanhai” brought forth a shower of unlit cigarettes to the stage, a su

  Meanwhile, in the higher-toned confines of Carnegie Hall (full disclosure, again: this writer was in town working for them), that prestigious institution was wrapping up its “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices” China festival, which concluded Tuesday night. The program represented several generations of artists who learned their craft at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. The legendary “class of 1978,” named for the year they started at the just-reopened school, included big names like Tan Dun, Chen Qigang (of Olympic ceremony fame), Chen Yi, and Zhou Long. Of more recent Central Conservatory vintage was Lang Lang, who played Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto during Tuesday night’s festival finale. And at the youngest extreme, Li Shaosheng – born in 1988 – had a piece premiered in Alice Tully Hall under Carnegie’s aegis. Carnegie’s PR machine worked overtime, scoring several glowing reviews from the New York Times.

  From a review of Ancient Paths, Modern Voices in the New York Times:

  The concerts have had colorful moments, some in performances by traditional ensembles of various kinds, but most in works for Western orchestra drawing on Chinese themes and timbres.

  Another of those hybrids, Chen Qigang’s “Iris Dévoilée” (“Iris Unveiled”), from 2001, brought the festival to a close on Tuesday evening. But the performance, by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, was oddly anticlimactic.

  That may be partly because eight of the nine movements in Mr. Chen’s 45-minute score are slow, gentle-textured meditations that require greater patience than New Yorkers can easily muster, particularly after being rattled by Lang Lang’s splashy, kinetic pianism in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

  Here’s Carsick Cars performing “Zhongnanhai” at the powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn:

  And PK 14 at the same event:
  

  » Read more
  • November 17, 2009 11:47 AM

• Weekly Popcast: P.K. 14 and Carsick Cars

  

  During their visit to New York, members of Carsick Cars and PK14 talked to Ben Sisario of the New York Times for the weekly Popcast. Listen here (the recording first has an interview with Wale; the China interviews start after about five minutes).

  » Read more
  • November 13, 2009 2:16 PM

• Interview with Matthew Niederhauser

  

  China Music Radar interviews Matthew Niederhauser, whose photography book Sound Kapital documents Beijing’s alternative rock scene:

  [AH]: … My issue with the Western media is this idea that they take something, and if it’s hot and exciting, they’ll blow it out of all proportion. People are now expecting Beijing to be this melting pot of dynamicity and creativity. That concerns me, because these bands are still working their asses off to live up to this hype.

  [MN]: That was also one of the things I’ve witnessed firsthand over the past two years. Seeing big sponsors get behind these bands, the international media attention. One of the things that drew me to this music in the first place is a sort of humbleness. They weren’t in a Brooklyn scene in New York that sucks. In some way it’s weird cause it’s a little bit early, especially looking at these younger bands playing college nights at D22 and other places. They still have to cut their chops for the next three or four years – I feel like they’re expecting some hype because they’re in Beijing and they’re in a band. Quite frankly, to sustain the Beijing music scene over the next few years there is going to have to be some new bands that step it up. I don’t think it’s gotten to the point where everything is being recycled, but it’s been reaching a zenith for a while.

  [AH]: For years and years in this tiny scene there was no money, no hype. There was none of this current posturing, “we’re worth this”. For me, it doesn’t seem that the Chinese public has developed a love for the bands as quickly as the bands have developed a love for themselves.

  [MN]: That’s the big thing that we’re going to see in the long run – the potential power in the Chinese scene is unlocking that domestic audience and acceptance.

  » Read more
  • October 27, 2009 9:29 PM

• China’s Underground Punks

  

  The Economist’s More Intelligent Life blog looks at punk rock, Beijing style and a new book of photos of the movement’s major players, Sound Kapital: Beijing’s Music Underground (Powerhouse Books):

  Just as the 100 Club and CBGB fostered punk movements in London and New York City, Beijing’s D-22 nightclub serves as the epicentre for its burgeoning alternative music scene. Michael Pettis, a Peking University professor who was once a fixture in New York’s East Village, founded the dive bar three years ago. Though the idea of an “underground scene” is often associated with punk, D-22’s small stage hosts a variety of acts, from glam rock to experimental electronic, classic rock ‘n’ roll and Mongolian folk music. Many bands have hard-rocking frontwomen in the vein of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; some sing in both Chinese and English. All eschew the country’s mainstream affection for saccharine pop.

  “Sound Kapital: Beijing’s Music Underground” captures the scene in a collection of band portraits culled from thousands of photos taken in D-22’s basement over two years. The style, humour and energy of these subjects are both authentic and familiar. These kids have quite a bit to rebel against.

  » Read more
  • October 20, 2009 2:22 PM

• China’s Rockers too Pampered for Politics

  

  Asia Times reports on the apoliticism of today’s generation of underground rockers:

  With growing discontent over social injustice, young people everywhere in China know they should be rebelling. But the tensions that young urbanites face are simply not great enough to provoke them into that role. So what can they do? They often try to write songs that hint at discontent with China’s political system, but they don’t delve deep enough into real problems facing Chinese society.

  For example, the song Guang Chang (Square) by the popular band Carsick Cars, is based on singer-songwriter and lead guitarist Zhang Shouwang’s experience one morning at Tiananmen Square. On his blog, Shouwang wrote about a dawn trip by him and a friend to the square, where they milled around for a while. The police noticed them, saw them as suspicious-looking characters and placed them in the back of a police van, from where Shouwang looked miserably at the square in the rising morning light. The result was one of the most popular songs on their debut album, in which he sings: “This is a square without hope.” However, it is this kind of introspection that is at the heart of his music, rather than intense political angst of the sort that can affect the fate of a nation.

  Carsick Cars is an indie-rock trio formed in March 2005. It is one of the most prolific and established acts on the Beijing indie-rock scene. Michael Pettis, finance professor at Peking University and founder of one of Beijing’s most influential record labels, Maybe Mars, helped influence a young Shouwang by playing him the 1960s band Velvet Underground. “After I listened to the Velvet Underground I thought I must start a band,” Shouwang said outside Yugong Yishan.

  But is there a political agenda at work? Shouwang’s status in Beijing highlights just how political the “alternative” youth milieu in China is: not very. It’s important to recognize Shouwang’s point of view because, as Pettis said, “Shouwang will be one of the most famous Chinese musicians in the world in 20 years, and not just in China but everywhere.” His cult-like status has inspired many meta-bands to spring up, all of which have a similar sense of drawing inspiration from surroundings rather than from rebellion.

  For more about Carsick Cars, read Michael Pettis’ interview with Zhou Shouwang on Danwei.

  Carsick Cars perform Guangchang at a music festival in Taoyuan, Taiwan:
  

  » Read more
  • October 13, 2009 12:35 PM

• An Iron Bar, Three Chords & the Truth

  

  Global Times (English) reports on the work of the New Worker Art Troupe in Beijing, founded by migrant workers in 2002:

  A few times a year since 2002, Xu Duo, a 32-year-old migrant worker-turned-singer-songwriter, has staged shows with friends at construction sites around Beijing. The troupe released its first album Workers Are in the Same Family in September 2004, including Xu’s “City Life”, in which he sings:

  “Through the finger sliced off by a machine like a falling leaf. Through the miners in the dark pit risking their life at any moment. Let all hypocrisy and injustice get out of the way.

  “Vendors selling us the European lifestyle. Selling us lottery tickets and illusions like Super Girl. Selling us desires in fancy packages. Selling us workers like cheap and durable goods.”

  http://special.globaltimes.cn/2009-09/466090.html
  » Read more
  • September 10, 2009 2:57 PM

• Photo: Scene from the Zebra Music Fest held in Chengdu, May 2009, by hunxue-er

  

  

  Scene from the Zebra Music Fest held in Chengdu, May 2009, by hunxue-er

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  • May 10, 2009 10:15 PM

• Oasis: China Axed Shows over Free Tibet Concert

  

  The British rock band Oasis claims that the Chinese government cancelled its debut concerts in China, originally scheduled for early April, because lead singer Noel Gallagher once participated in a free Tibet concert.  From AP via the Oakland Press:

  HONG KONG (AP) — Oasis says China has blocked what would have been the British band’s debut in the country in April because guitarist-singer Noel Gallagher took part in a free Tibet concert in 1997.

  [...]A growing number of Western musical acts have traveled to China in recent years, including the Rolling Stones and Elton John, but Beijing closely regulates live performances, especially after Icelandic singer Bjork embarrassed authorities last year by shouting “Tibet!” after performing a song called “Declare Independence” in Shanghai.

  [...]Officials at China’s Ministry of Culture “have now deemed that the band [Oasis] are consequently unsuitable to perform to their fans” on April 3 in Beijing and April 5 in Shanghai after discovering that Gallagher performed at a free Tibet concert in New York City in 1997, Oasis said in a statement on its Web site Wednesday.

  » Read more
  • March 6, 2009 7:16 PM

• Oasis ‘Bewildered’ after China Gigs Cancelled

  

  From Reuters:

  Rock band Oasis said on Monday it was “bewildered” by China’s decision to cancel two concerts scheduled to take place on the mainland next month.

  The group had expected to play in Beijing on April 3 and Shanghai on April 5.

  “Representatives from the Chinese government have revoked the performance licenses already issued for the band and ordered their shows in both Beijing and Shanghai to be immediately cancelled,” Oasis said in a statement.

  “The Chinese authorities’ action in cancelling these shows marks a reversal of their decision regarding the band which has left both Oasis and the promoters bewildered.”

  » Read more
  • March 2, 2009 8:28 PM

• Video: Chinese Rock N Roll!

  

  Here is a documentary about the rock scene in China, which interviews with and footage of several bands, including Tookoo, and foreigners working in the industry:
  Part One:
  

  Part Two:
  

  Found via Andy Best’s blog, which follows the music scene in Shanghai.

  » Read more
  • February 26, 2009 11:48 AM

• So Rock Jesus for 2009

  

  From Danwei blog:

  Jesus returns to the cover of So Rock! magazine for the December issue, which arrived on newsstands just last week.

  The rock icon previously appeared as Buddy Christ on the cover of issue 45 in 2005. Here, the message is less vulgar and slightly more positive: “New Year / God Bless Every Fxxking Guy.” A relatively frequent cover model, Jesus also appeared on issues 34 and 36.

  Featured in this issue is an irreverent take on Chinese Democracy, the new Guns N’ Roses album. It’s the group’s first studio album in fifteen years so, like much of the western press, So Rock! mixes an album review with snarky commentary on how long it took to produce. Most of the feature is devoted to a look back at how the music industry has changed in the last decade and a half, from technological changes that brought about the iPod and MySpace, to the wax and wane of various musical trends, departed musicians, and the changing lineup of frontman Axl Rose’s band.

  » Read more
  • January 1, 2009 10:41 PM

• American Rock Band Releases “Chinese Democracy” (Video Added)

  

  Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American rock band Guns N’ Roses. It was released on November 23, 2008, worldwide and in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008. CDT had a previous post on this story here.

  Here is a review in Rolling Stone magazine:

  Let’s get right to it: The first Guns n’ Roses album of new, original songs since the first Bush administration is a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record. In other words, it sounds a lot like the Guns n’ Roses you know. At times, it’s the clenched-fist five that made 1987’s perfect storm, Appetite for Destruction; more often, it’s the one sprawled across the maxed-out CDs of 1991’s Use Your Illusion I and II, but here compressed into a convulsive single disc of supershred guitars, orchestral fanfares, hip-hop electronics, metallic tabernacle choirs and Axl Rose’s still-virile, rusted-siren singing.

  If Rose ever had a moment’s doubt or repentance over what Chinese Democracy has cost him in time (13 years), money (14 studios are listed in the credits) and body count — including the exit of every other founding member of the band — he left no room for it in these 14 songs. “I bet you think I’m doin’ this all for my health,” Rose cracks through the saturation-bombing guitars in “I.R.S.,” one of several glancing references on the album to what he knows a lot of people think of him: that Rose, now 46, has spent the last third of his life running off the rails, in half-light. But when he snaps, “All things are possible/I am unstoppable,” in the thumper “Scraped,” that’s not loony hubris — just a good old rock & roll “fuck you,” the kind that made him and the old band hot and famous in the first place.

  On the official Chinese media, this new album is also being mentioned. The following article is from Beijing-based Global Times, translated by the Foreign Expert blog:

  On the 23rd, American rock band “Guns and Roses” plans to release what should be the band’s first new album in 17 years; this album, called “Chinese Style Democracy,” turns its spear point at China, immediately becoming the object of much Western media publicity. This also aroused much of the Chinese population’s and fan’s indignation. Some Internet users say that those Western stars who are entwined in scandles involving violence, sex, and drugs rarely come to China; moreover they are unable to talk about how to understand Chinese democracy, so their shows like this can only demonstrate that some Westerners say “democracy” but it is only their attempt to control and impress upon the pawns of the world.

  An article from “The Wall Street Journal” online edition on November 22 said, this new “Guns N’ Roses” album has run into China’s wall, its title greatly offended the Chinese government, and also made many Chinese music fans angry. Reportedly, many Chinese people hope to have a larger voice, but many people think too much democracy, too quickly, will create chaos, and are unhappy about foreign influences coming in and getting mixed up. A Chinese singer said, from the album’s title it can be seen that “they do not understand China,” it’s nothing more than for the sake of stirring up a large group of people’s excitement.

  Here are the lyrics from GUNS N’ ROSES:

  Chinese Democracy

  It don’t really matter
  You’ll find out for yourself
  No it don’t really matter
  You’re gonna leave these thing to
  Somebody else

  If they missionaries
  Real time visionaries
  Sitting in a Chinese stew
  To view my dis-infatu-ation
  I know that I’m a classic case
  Watch my disenchanted face
  Blame it on the Falun Gong*
  They’ve seen the end and you can’t hold on now

  Cause it would take a lot more hate than you
  To stop the fascination
  Even with an iron fist
  Our baby got to rule the nation
  But all I got is precious time

  It don’t really matter
  You’re gonna find out for yourself
  No it don’t really matter
  So you can hear now from
  Somebody else

  Cause it would take a lot more time than you
  I’ve got more masturbation
  Even with your iron fist
  Our baby got to rule the nation but all I got is
  Precious time
  Our baby got to rule the nation but all I got is
  Precious time

  It don’t really matter
  Gonna keep it to myself
  No it don’t really matter
  So you can hear it now from
  Somebody else

  You think you got it all locked up inside
  And if you beat them all up they’ll die
  Then you’ll walk them home for the cells
  Then now you’ll dig for your road back to hell
  And with your ? makes you stop
  As if your eyes were their eyes you can tell
  In your lack of time

  Read also here, Chinese Foreign Affair Ministry spokesman Qin Gang answered the following question from a western journalist at press conference:

  Question: An American rock band releases a new album called “Chinese Democracy,” what is the Chinese government response to this event?

  Qin Gang：According to my understanding, many people do not like such music, because it is too noisy. I believe you should be a mature adult, aren’t you?

  “据我了解，很多人不喜欢这类音乐，因为它太嘈杂，噪音太大。我想你应该是一个成熟的成年人了吧？”

  

  And, the following music video has been posted on many Chinese blogs, this one with the title “Be an immature adult”

  » Read more
  • November 27, 2008 2:28 PM

• China Bans Democracy, Declares War on Guns N’ Roses

  
  

  Guns N' Roses Album Cover, Photo Courtesy Flumesday.com

  Guns N’ Roses long-awaited new album, titled “Chinese Democracy” is banned in China, and falls in line with other foreign artists that have come up against the CCP’s censorship. David Flumenbaum from the Huffington Post writes:

  According to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday, Chinese authorities have outlawed sales of the new GN’R release, citing the title of the album, “Chinese Democracy,” as the principal reason. The title, thought up by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose because he “liked the sound of it,” violates rules established by China’s Ministry of Culture that prohibit the word “democracy” to be used in the title of any music, book or film within mainland China. One can only assume that if the word “Chinese” precedes “Democracy” in a title, Chinese censors would become even more frightened.

  The Global Times, a newspaper run by China’s Communist Party, published an article Monday with the headline “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” that labels the album part of a Western plot to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn” and that the album “turns its spear point on China.” Other than the story in the state newspaper, no Ministry of Culture spokesman has commented on the album.

  Stores in China that carry new albums will not be allowed to offer Chinese Democracy and fans expect that they will be forbidden to purchase the album on iTunes. China’s biggest internet portal, Baidu.com has blocked all internet searches for “Chinese Democracy” and access to the website ChineseDemocracy.com has been blocked within mainland China, according to an AFP report Monday. However, Axl’s new album was not completely unobtainable for Chinese GN’R fans. Sunday, Internet users there were able to listen to the album’s 14 tracks on MySpace, which was granted permission to release the songs on the Internet one day before Monday’s wide release. Furthermore, a search for “Chinese Democracy” on both Google and YouTube within Mainland China returned search results for the new album, according to a source in Shanghai.

  Music, particularly rock n’ roll, has a history of subversion within culture. The Wall Street Journal details how Guns N’ Roses have influenced the Chinese rock scene as well as how music fans are getting around the ban:

  For fans, the response is more complicated. GN’R developed a major following in China in the late 1980s, when the young Mr. Rose was recording early hit songs like “Welcome to the Jungle.” China was in the throes of its own rebellious era, and heavy metal was its protest music. GN’R’s popularity soared in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Learning the band’s 1991 ballad “Don’t Cry” was a rite of passage for a generation of Chinese guitarists…GN’R nostalgia remains strong. A program on state-run China Central Television last year ranked “Qiang Hua” (literally, “Guns Flowers”), as the group is known in Chinese, at No. 8 on a list of top rock bands of all time.

  Chinese fans eager for news on the Web about the new album sidestep censors by using coded language. Many deliberately scramble the name, typing “Chinese Democraxy” or “Chi Dem.” They say they fear that typing the Chinese characters for the title will draw government scrutiny. Still, it’s not much challenge to find news about the record on the Web, where even the site www.chinesedemocracy.com is a discussion of GN’R, not politics.

  

  Guns N' Roses Alternate Cover, Art by Liu Zheng, Photo Courtesy Flumesday.com

  Some Chinese artists, loath to be branded as democracy campaigners, declined valuable offers to help illustrate the album. “I listened to their music when I was little,” says Beijing visual artist Chen Zhuo . He was “very glad” when GN’R asked to buy rights to use his picture of Tiananmen Square rendered as an amusement park — with Mao Zedong’s head near a roller coaster. Then, Mr. Chen looked at lyrics of the album’s title song and, after consulting with his lawyer and partner, declined the band’s $18,000 offer. “We have to take political risks into account as artists in China,” says the 30-year-old.

  Album artist Liu Zheng is a contemporary Chinese artist in Beijing. See more of Liu Zheng’s work on Pekin Fine Arts. Cover art shown above is from his series of photographs titled “Peking Opera.”

  Read more about art censorship and Chinese rock music on CDT.

  Update: Read the full translation of the Global Times article titled, “American Rock Band Releases an Album Visciously Attacking China” plus some user comments posted on The Foreign Expert.

  » Read more
  • November 25, 2008 5:22 PM

• Liberated Punks Accelerate China’s Musical Evolution

  

  Wired interviews the maker of a new documentary about the Chinese punk scene:

  From Pigface and Ministry to PiL and Killing Joke, drummer Martin Atkins has pounded the skins for some very loud punks. But he didn’t realize that China’s underground sound would throw him into a time machine and dial it back to the ’70s and ’80s, when bands were pushing the envelope on conventional rock and not really caring how you felt about it.

  Atkins shot 80 hours of video from his 2006 trip into Asia’s 21st century powerhouse, and chopped it down into the recently released documentary Sixteen Days in China. Listening Post caught up with him to talk about China’s greatest bands you’ve never heard and more.

  Watch a trailer for the film:

  » Read more
  • September 14, 2008 9:32 PM

• Chinese Indie Rock Music Scene is Small but Growing

  

  A round up of articles and blog postings from the past year show that both Chinese and western fans are discovering Chinese indie and experimental music.

  From Shanghaiist: Neocha’s NEXT Player

  From Music OMH: Beijing, By Jings!

  From Coolhunting: Five Chinese Indie Bands to Watch
  

  From NPR’s Morning Edition: China’s Latest Export: Anti-Establishment Music

  From NPR’s Fresh Air: Rock from Beijing’s Underground

  From The New York Times: Experimental Underground is Making Noise in China

  From Time: 5 Asian Acts to Watch in 2008

  Previously in CDT: Internet Helps Liberate, Create Music in China, I’m listening to Chinese Rock, She Lost her Faith, by PK-14, New Wave, Indie Rock: Made in China

  » Read more
  • June 30, 2008 7:38 AM

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