Archive for the ‘Mainland China Bands’ Category

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“Fat Mum Rises”?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

In January, some sort of “Golden Melody Awards Committee” – which is not, I believe, actually affiliated with Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards – named their ten best Mandarin (and Cantonese, etc.) albums of 2009. I though this list was particularly worth sharing, largely because a full five of the albums on it were also on my list, and there’s usually not that much overlap.

Ten Outstanding Mandarin Albums (国语十大)：
1. Wang Feng (汪峰) Belief Flies in the Wind (信仰在空中飘扬)
2. Zuoxiao Zuhou (左小祖咒), Big Deal (大事)

Right. So these two were obviously not on my list. I’ve at least heard of Wang Feng, though I never listen to him, but the second one had me stumped. I looked up his website, and look, he’s a Nanjinger! Like P.K.14, and me, in my heart of hearts. But the fact that I didn’t know either of these albums serves as a reminder that I’m neglecting mainland Chinese rock.

3. Cheer Chen (陈绮贞), Immortal (太阳)
4. sodagreen (苏打绿), Daylight of Spring (春·日光)

Kudos to them for being able to pick one of the two sodagreen releases from 2009; I suspect this one really is better – at the very least, the melodies are a lot more original than Fever – but I rarely listen to it on its own.

5. Eason Chan (陈奕迅), 5/F Blissful (上五楼的快活)

I keep saying that I’m going to give Eason Chan a try. Then I don’t.

6. Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), If You See Him (若你碰到他)
7. David Tao (陶喆), Opus 69 (69乐章)
8. Icy (曹方), Hum a Song as the Sun Sets (哼一首歌 等日落)

Erm, Icy? But seriously, how many singers are there from Xishuangbanna? That’s pretty cool.

9. A-mei (张惠妹), Amit (阿密特)

I forgot that came out. I had meant to listen to it….

10. Deserts Chang (张悬), A City (城市)

Now the really cool thing about this particular awards article is that they listed all the albums nominated that didn’t win. Right away, Crowd Lu’s latest album Seven Days popped out at me – I meant to buy that! It was on my list of albums I wanted last year, but since that list is not an actual list but rather something I think to myself every so often when I’m doing odd tasks, I forgot all about it. Hmm, I wonder if it would push an album off my 2009 list, or if it’d be settling for honorable mention?

But then, there’s more: I had not realized that both New Pants (新裤子) and Hedgehog (刺猬) came out with new albums last year. See, I told you I’ve been neglecting mainland Chinese rock. Other than periodically wondering if Fusion still exists, I haven’t been doing much to keep track of the mainland scene, and as a result, I’m missing things. (To be fair, I think it’d be a hell of a lot easier to keep track of the mainland scene if I lived in Beijing or Shanghai. I’m just saying.) For another example, I’ve never heard of Re-TROS (重塑雕像的权利) before, but I admit I’m a little intrigued by the idea of an album called, Watch Out! Climate Has Changed, Fat Mum Rises…. On the Modern Sky label, of course. Couldn’t you just tell?

The Superband and sodagreen also made the nominated list, along with the latest from reality show stars Jam Hsiao (萧敬腾) and Yoga Lin (林宥嘉) (not having been bowled over by the earlier efforts from either of these guys, I did not pay much attention to those albums when they emerged). Karen Mok is back, I see; I’m still bitter that she beat out sodagreen for that best album award two years ago. I’ll let it go when I’m ready to let it go, okay?

Cosmos People (宇宙人) is on the list of nominees; that’s another one I keep meaning to sample to see if I like. On the other hand, I’m having a hard time buying the DNA Live album as a best album nominee. To me, that’s starting to get into the “okay, what WASN’T nominated?” territory. (With my apologies to Mayday.)

Maybe I need a real list this time, not a mental one.

Posted in Cheer Chen, Mainland China Bands, Mayday, Sodagreen | 1 Comment »

Mainland Indie Rock bands touring the US

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Wow, more great music touring news. First, a confession: Hedgehog and several other artists from the largest Chinese indie rock label, Modern Sky, toured the US in September. I saw the news about it, then got all tied up with heading back to China from my summer stateside and completely forgot to post about it. But here’s my big chance at redemption.

The second largest indie rock label on the mainland, Maybe Mars, is sponsoring a tour of five of its leading acts: P.K.14, Carsick Cars, Xiao He, White, and Snapline. The tour locations include DC, New York, Philly, Chapel Hill, and Chicago, among others. The full list, with info on the tour and the bands (and links to legal album downloads, so even if you don’t get to see them, you can hear them) is at this website. They’ve left space up on the list of shows, and my bet is that they’ll probably be confirming some West Coast dates as well after the tour starts in November.

I’ve written about P.K. 14 a few times, most notably here. I have their last three albums and have really enjoyed City Weather Sailing lately (which is on the download list at the site above). These boys are native Nanjingers, which probably endears them to me further, as that’s the city in China I identify with the most. I tease the locals that it’s because I spent so much time in Taipei and can feel the 中华民国 (ROC) influence. Responses to that joke tend to be mixed.

As I recall, Carsick Cars has also had a successful tour in Europe before, so it’s cool that they’re hitting the U.S. I have their self-titled album, which is something I put on when I need something high-energy. The descriptions at the tour site – plus the music samples – can do a much better job introducing them than I can, other than to say that if I was back in the US, I’d be at one of these shows. No question.

Update: This is cool – Carsick Cars, P.K.14, Snapline, Xiao He – their music can all be found on iTunes and Amazon for downloading. I’m sure White can too, but that’s a harder search. I like that they’re making it easier for international audiences to support these artists!

Posted in Mainland China Bands | 4 Comments »

The sappy side of Peng Tan

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

The news broke recently that endlessly adorable mainland singer-songwriter Peng Tan has been dating mainland supermodel Chun Xiao (春晓). After the news came out about their relationship, they went into the studio to record a duet, “Our Little World (我们的小世界).” Filming the video, at first they had a hard time coming up with a way to record the song and capture their out-of-studio chemistry, but then they started dancing and I’ll think we can all agree, the fact that they are not faking the relationship comes through just fine.

When asked if he and his girlfriend would ever performing their song live, Peng Tan acknowledged the possibility, and also noted that he has written another song for her that should be on the new album. Right about now you’re thinking, “wait, whose album? Peng Tan’s or Chun Xiao’s?” (Either that or you’re thinking, “who the heck is Peng Tan, and what happened to the Mayday news?” Well, I have a Peng Tan obsession that is fortunately frequently starved for news, so this doesn’t actually happen all that often. Bear with me.) Well, it seems they’re both putting out albums: she is worryingly turning out to be one of those supermodels who wants to sing. Peng Tan will help produce, which is clearly a sign that he is head over heels in love. But on the bright side, Mr. Peng is also working on a new album this year! Yay!! Okay, celebration over. More bad news: he has some film/television plans in process as well. Why is everyone so unsatisfied with their chosen professions? Models want to sing, singers want to act, actors want to model, and then the whole vicious cycle starts all over again. And worse yet, everyone is so accustomed to stroking their egos they don’t have the heart to break the news that actually, they don’t really have what it takes to do anything but what they set out to do in the first place… and sometimes not even that. It makes me sorta want to wake up tomorrow and declare that I am no longer going to be a historian, but pursue my dreams of playing professional badminton. Except, of course, if you’d ever seen me hit a birdie, you’d know just how unattainable that dream really is.

Whoops, rant over. (That one got away from me, sorry.) But even though I continue to be completely OD’ed on cute, romantic ballads, it is awfully nice to hear Peng Tan putting out new things, and it makes me really excited for the new album.

Posted in Mainland China Bands | 3 Comments »

A Taiwanese “Oasis”?

Friday, October 17th, 2008

So I went to look up Mayday news the other day, and almost everything I came up with was about somebody else. For example, this article has a reference to Mayday in it, but it is actually all about the new S.H.E album (is anyone else completely horrified by the thought of S.H.E doing a cover of “Billie Jean”? I mean, most everything S.H.E does horrifies me, but this seems especially heinous). Then there’s this article, which is introducing sodagreen to the uninitiated and references Mayday in passing. Then there’s this discussion of Mayday from Yu Siyuan and his band B.I.Z, in which they call being compared to Mayday a real honor (especially given how much more established Mayday is), and defend Mayday against charges that they’ve changed, saying that it is natural for a band that has been on the scene as long as they have to have lots of new ideas and want to work with new people. Of course, Yu Siyuan references Mayday’s recent song “Leaving the Moon’s Surface” as an example of this. Heh. (Interestingly, the interviewer suggests that Mayday fans are complaining because they think there aren’t enough good karaoke songs coming from the band these days; I’d suggest the opposite, that if anything, Mayday has been a bit too strong on the Karaoke front.)

This article also has a deeply buried Mayday reference, but is mostly about independent music, introducing two new albums from Taiwan that the author thinks is worth a listen. The first is from Quarterback (四分卫) ［edit: they call themselves “backQuarter,” in spite of the fact that their name comes from a former member flipping through the sports section of the newspaper], whose new album is called World (世界). They do their best campus style singing with “Love is sandwiched inside bread (爱情夹在麵包裡面),” and they have a more reflective song in “I can’t write love songs (我寫不出像样的情歌).” (YouTube has decided not to load this week, so you’ll notice my video links coming from a myriad of alternate Chinese sources.) The second is from Pika 4? (yeah, I totally made that name up – their Chinese name is 痞克四), who has an EP out called Big Dreams are Limitless (大夢無限). The latter band apparently sings in such a mainland standard accent, people here have a hard time believing they’re from Hong Kong.

Anyway, the article references a number of other bands with new music coming out, which I’m a bit too pressed for time to look up right now, but if you’re interested, I direct you to the article. What of this “Taiwanese Oasis” reference? Well, that moniker has been granted to the 13 Band (拾參). This “British-style Taiwanese Rock” is quite satisfying, and the author says that when it comes to lyrics and arrangements, this band is easily on par with Mayday, or perhaps in shining moments a bit more artistic. I’m not coming up with new songs, but here’s an older track I like from 13 Band: “Gray Lantern (灰燈籠).” This article especially praises their new songs “Red Girl I&II (紅姑娘上下)” – as I’ve noted before, Horse-faced Sailor’s Summer (馬臉水手的夏天), is on my list of new albums I want for this year, though I’m not completely sold on that “Oasis” comparison.

As long as we’re talking about assorted bands that aren’t Mayday or sodagreen, I’d like to point out the need for an intervention here in China on the subject of new band names. Seriously, what is with mainland bands and the really randomly common English words as band names? “Fusion Band” is, I think we’ve all agreed, a pretty bad name for a great band. Well, joining them in the “ungoogleable” category is “Today Band,” which has just released their first album Garden Feeling (花园小感). It appears that they do not go by 今日乐队 or 今天乐团, incidentally – you can just call them Today乐团. Now, bad name notwithstanding, I’ll buy this album as soon as I find it solely because the bass player used to be the bassist for Dada (达达乐团), and I have a policy in which my undying love for Dada dictates that I buy anything remotely connected to them as a means of mourning their loss and supporting whatever they do next. The only video clips I can find of them are live performance snippits here and here, but if I find anything else, I’ll let you know. Heh, it’s a very different sound from the Dada, not least of all because they have a female lead singer….

Posted in Mainland China Bands, Mandopop, Mayday | 4 Comments »

Need it, got it, need it…

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

I am pausing to take stock in the new 2008 albums, an exercise sparked by the news that 1976 has a new album coming out shortly. The Taipei band has been on the scene for 12 years already, and their first single off the new album bodes well for the rest of it. It’s called “Knut (努特),” and it’s named after the Berlin Zoo polar bear that captured the hearts of so many around the world after it was abandoned by its mother and reared by a zookeeper. There’s a sad twist to the Knut story, as the zookeeper who raised him in his mother’s absence died very young of a sudden heart attack just over a week ago.

Polar bears have also become a sort of mascot for the fight against global warming, although not without controversy. Picking up on the theme, however, “Knut” addresses the issue of global climate change. You can hear the song and watch the fun video, complete with cartoon bear, here.

1976’s new album is called This Planet (這個星球),* and preorder sales have been so good there’s some talk about them shifting from being an underground band to a more mainstream act, following in the footsteps of the younger sodagreen.

Now, by my count, the albums I’ve been looking for this year that are already out include Jam Hsiao’s eponymous album (have it, but I’ve only listened once), Lu Guangzhong’s 100 Ways for Living 100種生活 (love it), Fusion’s If the Future 如果未来 (didn’t know I needed it ’til I had it, but I adore it…), Khalil Fong’s Wonderland 未來 (haven’t gotten it yet, but it’s easy to find here), PK 14’s City Weather Sailing 城市天气的航行 (on order), and 13 Band’s (erm) Horse-faced sailor’s summer (?) (馬臉水手的夏天) (need it, but I still don’t have the full-length Silver Sun from last year*). Hmm, is that everything? I am uncertain if I should care about Aska Yang or Yoga Lin. On the B’in Music front, there are new albums from Ding Dang, Champion, and Victor Wong, none of which I’ve snapped up yet.

I’m not sure what else is out that I’m missing. I tend to run a few months behind on releases, so a lot of the albums I acquired in the first half of this year were actually 2007 releases (or even earlier…). For example, I have just ordered Tanya Chua’s Hello & Goodbye – I know, I know. I’m terribly remiss on that one.

On the coming soon list, I see: Leehom (November 1, though delays still seem possible), Mayday (who knows when… they have been talking October, but if so, we should be starting to see preorder information), this 1976 album (due out October 24), Cowboy Jay (trying to shed his cowboy image, though I’m not sure he should get off that easy… album due out October 9). We’ve also been hearing that the new Fusion album has been in the recording stage for a while now, so presumably that will come out before the end of the year, and then there’s that whole A-yue superband idea, which may or may not be in the next few months given the fact that A-yue is currently touring; I wouldn’t say no to another album from just him, though. Wasn’t there still a collection of fast songs ready to go that didn’t make it onto the last album?

There are concert albums I sorta want from Cheer Chen and Tizzy Bac; I bought sodagreen’s right away (and now I’m waiting for the China version of the DVD…). I have not yet purchased the 7-Eleven Open Chan CD, though not out of protest so much as apathy. Maybe I’ll still pick it up, though. Cheer and Echo Band both had singles out this year. I’m watching now for news about future albums from Totem and Peng Tan; I’m not sure what is the current status of things for Deserts Chang or Secondhand Rose. But that’s already plenty to keep me busy for a little while, at least.

＊Update: Two corrections. (1) 1976 appears to be calling their new album Asteroid in English. (2) 13 Band’s 2007 album was called Are You the King? (你是王嗎?), not Silver Sun - the latter was the name of their 2006 EP.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Cheer Chen, Fish Leong, Fusion Band, Leehom Wang, Mainland China Bands, Mandopop, Mayday, Sodagreen, Victor Wong | 7 Comments »

Fusion and Mayday, face to face

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

I’m realizing I don’t actually know that much about Fusion’s history as a band (though this problem is partly linked to my ongoing wish that they had picked a more Google-able name). So, Converse had sponsored an event with Jonathan Lee to discuss and play music; I have a sneaking suspicion that this is what was in that other Jonathan Lee article that I never quite got through (but blogged about anyway, naturally). Fusion hightailed it down to Guangzhou to take part, in between promotional concerts for the Mayday concert. (Hmm, I hope they get to be special guests or warm up acts for that concert, for all the work they’re putting in… no, better yet, Mayday should *sign* Fusion under the B’in Music label. Let’s start a petition!!)

In Guangzhou, they met up with Monster and Masa, both also attending the event, and were very excited to see their seniors in the music industry at the event. Here’s the part that has me wondering about the band’s history: they haven’t seen Mayday in person for almost four years, which they borrowed guitars at a performance in Shanghai. Four years? How old were the guys in Fusion in 2004, twelve? (No, at least 18, I think, but still.) So before they were “discovered” by Jonathan Lee, it seems they were already working the performance circuit as a band. Interesting.

They sang two songs, including “If the future (如果未來),” the title track off their first album. They did pretty well, it is reported, though they were visibly nervous. (No matter, Monster and Masa and entertain them with clips of Ashin singing off-key or forgetting the lyrics… that should put them at ease!) They did note that they need to do a lot more “homework” so they can face their increasing numbers of fans without feeling guilty. Apparently Masa and Taotao (Fusion’s bass player/peroxide blond) have some of they same picture-taking habits, which them to joke that it must be a bass player thing. They boys in Fusion come off just the slightest bit starstruck in the story, which is endearing.

In really random Mainland music news, Yu Siyuan (俞思遠) the lead singer of the once-Mayday-covering band B.I.Z, has pulled a Shin – he left BIZ and has gone solo. My overall sense is that Shin’s solo career has met with mixed success; he has an album and a tour, but I don’t get the impression the solo album knocked anyone’s socks off. Interesting.

Posted in Fusion Band, Mainland China Bands, Mayday | No Comments »

Music profits in the age of piracy

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

The BBC had an interesting article this week about music piracy in China and internationally. It explains how Chinese record companies have pretty much thrown in the towel and given up on the idea that they will get profits from selling albums in the face of rampant piracy and illegal downloads. Instead, they rely on things like commercial connections – the inevitable “spokesman for” trend – to make up the difference. Sponsored appearances, then, make up one of the major ways that Chinese bands earn money.

Certainly anyone paying attention has noticed that there is a Benq product in about half of Mayday’s recent videos; it is a rare Leehom video that does not feature some form of Sony product. (I always wonder, too, about the special guests at concerts – to what extent is that just a promotional opportunity, and to what extent is it a moneymaker? It’s been pretty much a guarantee of late that if you see a concert by an artist under the B’in Music flag, you’ll be seeing another affiliated artist. Case in point: special guests for Victor Wong’s concert next month will be Fish Leong and Mayday.)

The story features some comments from Agi of Long Kuan Jiu Duan (龙宽九段) (watch an MV here). I was a little amused by her comment that in Europe, people go see bands for the music, but in China, it’s for the looks or the product or the overall packaging. I’d argue that there are plenty of teenyboppers in the West who also go for looks over substance, and plenty of music fans in Asia who do the reverse, but it’s an interesting observation nonetheless. With corporate sponsorship of events and concerts, she could earn more money in China, but she has decided to perform in Europe. (A few mainland bands have made waves in Europe – offhand, I know Second-hand Rose played at a Swiss music festival at some point in the last few years; P.K. 14 also toured Europe.)

Anyway, it is an interesting story, and I liked that it also included some thoughts from the head of the mainland’s largest independent label, Modern Sky. Just a few of the great acts formerly or currently affiliated with Modern Sky include: Convenience Store (便利商店), Supermarket (超级市场) (erm, don’t get those two mixed up…), New Pants (新裤子), Milk@Coffee (牛奶咖啡), Wan Xiaoli (万晓利) and my much-beloved P.K. 14.

Here’s the thing about P.K. 14: normally I’m not a big fan of punk/post-punk. Actually, I’m not even sure that I know what “post-punk” is, other than that it is 后朋克 in Chinese. I bought their second album, Who who who and who who who (谁谁谁和谁谁谁) because it had a neat cover. Yup, that’s how I roll: I judge CDs by their covers. It took months for the band to grow on me. Months and months. But then last year one of my co-workers went to Beijing on vacation, and I asked him to try to find their third album White Paper (白皮书) if he had a chance. I felt a little guilty about it – even more so when he got back and said he had to go to several shops before he found it – but actually it seems like he felt that asking for P.K. 14 from Chinese shopkeepers trying to sell him the latest from Justin Timberlake earned him some street cred. Anyway, after White Paper I realized the truth that had thus far eluded me: whatever the hell “post-punk” is doesn’t matter. I just love P.K. 14.

Here’s the video for their song, “Them (他们).” Great song, but a fantastic video. They were also named one of the five best Asian bands by Time Magazine. That article puts their next album out in March, which is very exciting. It also makes one start scratching one’s head about how on earth one will manage to get ahold of a copy… but never mind that for a minute. There’s lots more on the band at Chaile, a site everyone should know who is interested in Chinese rock music. (Though I don’t think it’s being updated anymore – it was in 2006, but not since then, and a lot of the links don’t work. But what is still there is great.)

Update: Oohh, I take it back! I think the Chaile content is just getting shifted over to newly reformatted Rock in China, which is getting updated. Oh, there’s a goldmine of information there.

Posted in Mainland China Bands, Mandopop | 3 Comments »

Peng Tan – at last, at last

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

Okay, I have been looking for this forever. Here’s the story. A few years ago I spent a year in China, and while there I bought a random new Chinese music album every week just for fun. Sometimes it was something I’d heard about from someone else (like Second Hand Rose 二手玫瑰), sometimes it was just something with a cool cover (like P.K. 14). Sometimes I tried to buy something someone recommended and something went wrong, like when a friend told me to try to find Convenience Store (便利商店), but then I forgot the name of the band and bought an album by Supermarket (超级市场). Hey, they’re both places where you can buy instant noodles.

One of my random purchases was the second album from The Dadas (达达乐队), The Golden Age (黄金时代), which I noticed nestled among albums I had already purchased by other bands. It was love at first listen. The sound of the Dada was often mellow, occasionally folksy, and squarely within the pop-rock category. It is not for nothing that they were called the “Mayday of China.”

The band broke up a few years back, and I remember the discovery that there would be no third album as a very, very sad day.

*sniff*

(more…)

Posted in Mainland China Bands | 4 Comments »

The news (such as it is) in brief

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

Okay, is it just me, or was there not actually much in the way of Mayday news last week? This makes me happy, of course, because I have a few thousand things to do this week beyond recovering from jet-lag, and because I think the band could use the rest as well.

But anyway, this is what I know:

Ding Dang spent last week in Taiwan doing album promotions, and Ashin showed up to support her on at least one occasion. He presented her with a synthesizer, saying that outside of her promotional appearances, on this trip to Taiwan the company has arranged for her to take dancing classes, and that he hopes she’ll practice the piano and start trying out writing her own compositions. The record company has given her a bit of homework: at the press conference for her next album, she will play and sing her own composition.

Ashin surprised the crowd by doing a little drumming at the meet-up, and Ding Dang surprised them by dancing along. With Ashin requesting that she dance, the media wondered if Ashin would be joining her for “international style dancing” (I think this means ballroom dancing). Ashin said he’s not suited to it, so Ding Dang said that if he’s shy, she could be the guy and lead, and he could dance the girl’s part. At that point, Ashin said that Ding Dang has finally learned the Mayday style of trash talk, so now he can let her address the press alone without worrying about her.

‘Course, this (and so much more) was posted last week in the MaydayAmericas forum – just one more reason to be visiting regularly, right?

Anyway, new Guerlain advertisements here (Ashin + toy plane = ummm, lip gloss???) (or maybe they’re not new, but I hadn’t seen them yet) (or I had and I don’t remember seeing them) (yeah, coherence is highly over-rated anyway).

Fish Leong is refusing to talk about her rumored boyfriends (including both Masa and Victor Wong) in the promotions for her new album, though given her previous statements on the subject, it is easy to understand why the press might think the topic fair game.

…and that’s what I’ve got. There’s lots to say about Sodagreen, but I have roughly 503 things that absolutely *must* be done today, so after that’s all done, I’ll hit the groovy Sodagreen concert reports tonight.

I had a lovely and all-too-short Guangzhou interregnum last week, and although I kept weird hours – if you get up at 4:00 am and are wide awake, you might as well get some work done – I had a good conference, lots of really good Cantonese food (I love conferences with huge banquets), a wacky field-trip to Kaiping to see houses built by returned American overseas Chinese (during which fellow conference attendees and I agreed that one of the major problems with adulthood is the general lack of field trips), and finally, even managed to squeeze in a bit of CD shopping.

I struck out completely on my attempt to find Peng Tan’s Teen Spirit, which means now I’m going to have to get creative (though maybe it’s on Dangdang…) – and not only did I not find the album, I couldn’t find anyone who’d heard of the album (or Peng Tan or even the Dada, which made me shake my head and say, “What exactly do these kids in Guangzhou today listen to? Sadly, the answer might be EO2, whose latest video I saw on the MTV Cantopop hour and which horrified me. I mean, shirtless reasonably muscular men being doused with water = Very Good, same men attempting to sing = Bad, Bad, Bad). BUT, I did come up with Second Hand Rose’s latest album (YAAAAY! Was NOT expecting to find that so far south) and even an album by Taiwan band the Chairman (董事長), which I really did not expect to see on the mainland. I found Khalil Fong’s earlier album (but not This Love, *sigh*), and I made my very first venture into the world of J.J. Lin with Westside – is it just me, or is “Baby, Baby” an incredibly infectious song? One listen and I was singing it all the way home… through 24 hours and two plane changes. It’s one of the very few songs with the Random English Baby that I am willing to exempt from condemnation. Anyway. I also got a few collections of Beyond and Wu Bai – one can never go wrong with the classics – and at least one other album that I can’t remember at the moment (hmmm, that does not bode well for whoever it is… though I haven’t really listened to any of it this new stuff yet). So, to sum up: more later. I have some dissertating to do.

Posted in Fish Leong, Mainland China Bands, Mandopop, Mayday | 8 Comments »

Sodagreen, Peng Tan interregnum

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

It’s like a little intermission from Mayday in North America Week. I found much to amuse me in a pair of stories on light rock from either side of the strait.

Sodagreen frontman Qingfeng is filling in for an absent DJ on Hit FM. From what little I’ve seen of him to date, my guess is he is pretty funny on the show. His only real problem is that by his own admission, his English is pretty bad. Apparently he’s been avoiding mentioning any of the English names or album titles that have come up, either avoiding them or telling the listeners, “I can’t read this, you all know my English is bad, so just listen to the song.” Remember, though, that he majored in Chinese in college, so it is not at all strange or embarrassing that he doesn’t speak English (which would be his second or third language) all that well. One of his stopgap solutions has been to try to sound out the English words using zhuyin fuhao (or “bo po mo fo” – the set of phonetic symbols used in Taiwan to represent the sounds of Chinese words – i.e. ㄅㄆㄇㄈ). This system strikes me as a bit problematic, just like spelling out Chinese in the roman alphabet sometimes leads to bizarre pronunciations by English speakers, but his earnestness is endearing.

In other news, there’s a long article about Peng Tan and his place in the mainland music scene with the Dada and since going solo; I’ve talked about his new solo album before (I had translated the title of 少年故事　as Youth Story, but it seems the actual title is the Nirvana-esque Teen Spirit). There’s a lot more there about the business of the mainland music scene then I’ll go into here, but I was amused by the part that said The Dada wasn’t a true part of the Chinese “rock” scene; their success had nothing to do with that genre of music. Instead, they were more of a “Mainland Mayday (內地五月天).” Hah! I knew I always liked the Dada for a reason… The point is that if the Dada wasn’t really ever going to make waves in the rock scene, it is just as well for Peng Tan to go be a “rock idol.” The article claims that Peng Tan’s album is very reminiscent of the Dada’s Golden Age, which makes me all the more determined to find a copy, by hook or by crook.

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