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Um.

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Do you ever feel like the Mayday/Fahrenheit connections are just far, far too prevalent? This isn’t all that direct (not like last time), but doesn’t this just look like it should be the Fahrenheit guys in this picture, but Mayday was photoshopped in instead?

battle-ready, I guess

There are more pictures here.

The pictures are for Mayday’s promotion of the video game “Twelve Sky,” so they’re wearing video game warrior outfits. Worryingly, the boys LOVED their outfits, and they were jostling for glimpses of themselves all armored up in the mirror. Well, as long as these keep these costumes off the stage, I guess it’s okay… how’s that for grudging acceptance? But seriously, it just looks SO boybandy. I mean, look at this. ‘Nuff said.

On February 18th, Victor Wong held a concert in Hong Kong and his erstwhile singing companion Michael Wong appeared as the special guest. This means that the two have taken the stage together twice in the last few months, increasing speculation that they might be considering getting Wu Yin Liang Pin back together. Hearing this chatter, Victor begged for time, saying that both guys are with different labels, working on different aspects of their careers right now. It’s not yet the moment for considering reforming the group.

Victor was glad to be in Hong Kong, noting that his girlfriend lives there, so every time he has to change planes in the city he strikes out to see her. He did sing one song in Cantonese, noting that there were lots of Cantonese speakers where he grew up in Malaysia – he actually learned Mandarin second, so singing an occasional Cantonese song was not any particular hardship. On the 21st (um, today, I guess), Victor will join label-mates Fish Leong and Mayday for a performance in Macau.

Okay, jumping forward to the next totally unrelated topic: the first song from Superband 纵贯线 is now out, and it clearly demonstrates why the other guys wanted Chang Chen-yue in on it. They’ve just filmed the video, and they’ve got concerts scheduled for Taipei and Hong Kong next month and Beijing in April. The album should be out in early summer, or so go the rumors. [Edited to add: I'm going on record now that I love this. I think the album will be fantastic, and I hope they'll come down to the central regions on their tour. My spring schedule is just too tight for Beijing, but Shanghai/Nanjing is wide open....]

Finally, I have two random Mandopop Movie observations to make. First, I watched Butterfly Lovers on one of my many recent long-haul flights. Yes, I voluntarily watched a movie staring Wu Chun of Fahrenheit and one of the girls from TWINS (I forget their names, but it is the one who did NOT get into Edison Chen’s pictures), though I think we’ve established that I’ll watch anything at 35,000 feet (*coughhannahmontanacough*). It was showing, and I thought it would be diverting. Mostly, I was right. Neither pop star has much going for them in the acting department, but the first half at least was sorta cute. The cutest thing, though, was when the seventy-year-old Filipina woman in the seat next to me leaned over to tell me that she went out to see Wu Chun when he visited the Philippines to promote one of his dramas. “He’s SO handsome!” she sighed.

The second one is that Cape No. 7 has finally been released on the big screen here in China. It’s about about a half an hour shorter than the Taiwan version, so I might still go find that one eventually, but at least it’s out. I loved the movie so much – it was much funnier than I expected, and by the end I was really cheering for Old Mao to get his moment in the sun – that I stopped on the way home for the soundtrack. Highly recommended, and (note for American readers) available on Netflix. :P

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Fish Leong, Mayday, Victor Wong | 13 Comments »

Mandopop History

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

I flitted away all weekend in Brussels drinking beer and visiting museums and historic sites… okay, mostly drinking beer… hey, there’s really good beer in Belgium… and now I’m off again to head back to my current home base in China, but I’ll spend the next week stopping off in Harbin and Beijing, so I don’t expect to be doing much in the way of posting. Which is really not unlike last week. Ah well, we all take vacations, right?

Well, there’s a lot of vacationing going on in the Mandopop world at the moment as well. The B’in Music crew sans Ding Dang (who is maybe just back home for the holidays?) play the big lantern festival concert in Kaohsiung tonight.

Meh, not so exciting. But today I stumbled upon something I find really interesting: the top twenty Mandopop albums (from Taiwan and Hong Kong) in the last twenty years… according to one critic, anyway, but still an interesting read (part two is here). I’m always joking with my friends and family that one day I’m going to put my history Ph.D. to good use and write the definitive history of Mandopop… it doesn’t *quite* fit in with my current research agenda, but someday. In the meantime, I’m a bit of a sucker for articles like this, which then make me want to go track down all the albums. :)

Without further ado, the most influential albums of the last twenty years, 1989-2009, in chronological order, with paraphrased notes half from the article, half from other sources:

1：Blacklist Studio 黑名單工作室, Songs of Madness〈抓狂歌〉- 1989
They voiced the true feelings of many people in Taiwan, Taiwanese rock, with a heavy dose of the taste of alcohol and smoke.

2：Lim Giong 林強, Marching Forward〈向前走〉- 1990
Mayday fans will remember the title track of this album from the reunion concert in 2003; in the beginning, he was at the heart of the Taiwanese folk-pop-rock genre.

3：Sarah Chen 陳淑樺, Talk to You, Listen to You〈跟你說，聽你說〉- 1990
First album to go platinum in Taiwan, and contains classics that pretty much the whole island of Taiwan can sing (including “Dream to Awakening (夢醒時分)”).

4：Delphine Chin 娃娃金智娟, Heavy Rain〈大雨〉- 1991
Once a part of a group, she went solo and met Jonathan Lee of Rock Records, who wrote the title track of this album for her.

5：Stella 張清芳, Light〈光芒〉- 1992
All of her albums sold so well it is hard to pick the most important, but this one really established her, and everyone learned the songs contained on this album.

6：Jacky Cheung 張學友, Kiss Goodbye《吻別》- 1993
An absolute classic, one of the best-selling albums of all time, and Jacky’s successful introduction into Mandopop (from Cantopop). Though I may never forgive Danish easy-listening band Michael Learns to Rock (MLTR) for their English version of the title track (“Take Me to Your Heart”), which was the absolute bane of my existence when living in China in late 2004 and into 2005.

7：Jeff Chang 張信哲, Vexed〈心事〉- 1993
Jeff Chang was the first male singer in Taiwan to break free of the “military service curse” – returning to top the charts with this album after his stint with the ROC army. One of the kings of the pop world in the 1990s.

8：Jody Chiang 江蕙, Post-Drinking Desires《酒後的心聲》- 1993
After years with untraditional Taiwanese language labels, she fled for a better opportunity and won the best female signer award at the Golden Melody Awards the first year it was not separated out between Mandarin and Taiwanese singers. This was her follow-up album to that, and apparently everyone over a certain age in Taiwan can sing the infamous “I’m not drunk, I’m not drunk, not drunk (我沒醉我沒醉沒醉).”

9：Shirley Wong (Faye Wong) 王靖雯 (王菲), Sky《天空》- 1994
Every song better than the last, a rarity for mainstream pop. Such is the place of Faye Wong in modern Mandopop that pretty much everything she’s released is important, so it is a bit hard to name a single album.

10：Chang Yu-sheng 張雨生, Karaoke Live. Taipei. Me《卡拉ok 台北 我》- 1994
He turned to writing all his own music after his military service with this album; it might actually be his worst selling, but it has turned into a model album over time.

11：Sandy Lam 林憶蓮, Scars〈傷痕〉- 1995
Another important (and best-selling) collaboration with Jonathan Lee, though Sandy took it one step further and married him (they divorced in 2004).

12：Faye Wong 王菲, Restless〈浮躁〉- 1996
See, I told you it was hard to pick only one. Written by Faye herself, it takes new risks and remains a fan favorite, while proving to be something more true to who she really was than her past efforts.

13：David Tao 陶喆, David Tao〈陶喆〉- 1997
One of the earliest artists to bring western-style R&B to Taiwan. With simple, melodic songs, good beats, and meticulous production done by Tao himself in his house in LA, he was well established as one of the leaders of the trends of R&B and self-production in Taiwan music.

14：Cheer Chen 陳綺貞, Still Lonely〈還是會寂寞〉- 1997
I doubt anyone needs to read a justification for the inclusion of this album, but the folk singer’s second studio release introduces electric guitar to the mix, but maintains her indie cred and simple, straightforward vocals.

15：A-mei (Chang Hui-mei) 張惠妹, Bad Boy – 1997
Another million-plus selling album, A-mei’s powerful voice (combined with producer Chang Yu-sheng’s brilliance) sent her soaring to the top of the music world.

16：Faith Yang 楊乃文, One – 1997
A rare female voice singing rock. Interestingly, back then she was working with producer Will Lin, who would go on to form his own company, then sign and produce for sodagreen.

17：Chang Chen-yue 張震嶽, This Afternoon Is Very Boring〈這個下午很無聊〉- 1997
That gravelly voice on those very direct lyrics. But then, all of his albums are this direct and straightforward, even now; they just add new ideas and innovations.

18：Jin Men-wang and Li Bin-hui 金門王‧李炳輝, Wandering to Tamshui〈流浪到淡水〉- 1997
An incredibly unusual group: both blind, Jin lost his hand as a child on Jinmen, but he learned the guitar and teamed up with the accordion-playing Li nonetheless, for a bright career playing Taiwanese folk.

19：Wu Bai 伍佰, Lonely Tree, Lonely Bird〈樹枝孤鳥〉- 1998
A Golden Melody Award winner for best album, it combined Wu Bai’s personal style with the conventions of Taiwanese rock. A leader in bringing guitar-based rock music into the forefront in Taiwan.

20：Jay Chou 周杰倫, Fantasy〈范特西〉- 2001
Wow, remember when Jay was still really good? Back when he was focused on his music, he was almost untouchable on the pop scene. (Side note: an interesting choice, to make this the only post 2000 album.)

So, who should be added if we work forward into the 2000s? (Maybe: sodagreen; Stanley Huang, MC Hotdog, or Tripoets for rap?) Fun things to think about, anyway.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Cheer Chen, Cowboy Jay, Mandopop | 5 Comments »

Rockin’ Christmas Eve

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Yeah, so much for that whole “Silent Night” thing.

So about a month a go, I noticed that Fish Leong would be holding a Christmas Eve concert in Nanjing. I’ve never seen her live before, though I feel like I’ve gotten to know Fish better than I have many other Mandopop songstresses because of the Masa/B’in Music connection. Still, I thought, that’s not very Christmasy. I mean, she might sing a Christmas song or something, but what an odd way to spend Christmas Eve. (I was working on Wednesday and Friday this week – and to be honest, all weekend – so given the fact that it takes three days to make the round-trip to see my family, I was not home for Christmas this year.) (*sob*) I put off making the decision, knowing that she was playing the biggest stadium in town and even the day of there were bound to be tickets available.

Then two weeks ago I got the news that another Mandopop artist was also coming to Nanjing on Christmas Eve for a concert: Chang Chen-yue. Okay, if Fish’s concert wasn’t going to be Christmasy enough, this one really wouldn’t be, but I jumped on it anyway and bought a ticket. Now on a side note, I’ve been to three concerts this fall already, and I *still* do not understand concert ticketing in China. If you buy through one of the big agencies, you might get a crappy seat no matter what you pay for it and no matter how many good seats are left completely unsold in the same price range, so you inevitably end up switching seats in the long run anyway; meanwhile, everyone around you bought their tickets from scalpers outside the day of the show and got a better seat for half the money. If you can get past your very American assumption that the scalpers will be charging more for the tickets, not less, and go for the same day system, you still have to contend with the increasing numbers of fake tickets that get sold same-day in front of concert venues. This makes the whole thing – whether you buy through a legitimate outlet or from a guy on the street – something of a crapshoot. In his case, I discovered when I got to the venue that my mid-range ticket left me sitting where I was close to the stage, but so close to parallel to it I could not actually see anything on stage, and therefore was left envying all the people in the cheap seats with the distant but unobstructed view, which would have been infuriating if the concert had sold out. Since it hadn’t, though, a couple of friendly guys sitting in front of me decided to change seats for a better view and brought me along with them. In the end, we actually had pretty good seats.

Now, A-yue. Live in concert. I’d seen him perform once before, when he was a bright, if somewhat off-key, spot in the otherwise mostly disastrous “Fusion” concert in Las Vegas. (Ooh, tricky. February 2007 Fusion Concert: not so hot. January 2008 discovery of Fusion Band: very good.) (Side note: whenever I link to that Fusion Concert post, I am reminded of two things: that I mortally offended a few fans of the acts I didn’t like, and that that was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a psychic moment, having noted that Shin by himself was the Shin Band and could fly off without them – he flew off and left the band weeks later.) Aaaaanyway, where were we? Ah yes: A-yue starts off a bit off-key. He did it in Vegas, and he did it in Nanjing. Seriously, I’m half convinced it’s just stage fright, which is pretty amusing for the badass rocker persona that he sometimes projects. The important thing was that by the third song, he was back on track and only hit the occasional bad note for the rest of the night, even through ballads like “Intersection (路口)” or “It’s Hard (很難).”

I can’t do a whole playlist because there were a few songs that I didn’t know (one of which he introduced as new, but also a few older songs I just never quite got. I assembled most of my early A-yue discography on the mainland, which means I have different versions of all the records than he released in Taiwan). From his latest album, OK, other than “Intersection” and “It’s Hard,” he played, “Yearning Is a Kind of Sickness (思念是一種病),” “OK,” “Goodbye (再見),” “It’s Hard (很難),” and “Little Universe (小宇).” Other songs I remember for sure that he played include, “Pretty Girl (乾妹妹),” “Admit Defeat (認輸),” “Let’s Break Up (分手吧),” “Change (改變)” (I think, anyway), “Marathon (馬拉桑),” “I want money (我要錢),” “Love’s first experiment (愛的初體驗),” “Love me don’t go (愛我別走)” and more, though I once again did not take notes and can’t resurrect the playlist from memory. What I did notice is that he obediently sang the clean versions of “Marathon” and “Intersection,” and he did NOT sing “I love Taiwanese Girls (我愛台妹),” in spite of the fact that pretty much the whole audience was yelling for it.

There was no special guest, though Free 9/Freenight guitarist Tony (?) took the microphone (and A-yue his guitar) for two songs early in the show; later on, after introducing the band, we got our one nod to the holiday when the keyboard player sang Eason Chan’s “Merry, Merry Christmas” (yeah, I didn’t know that one, but I at least could recognize the “Merry Christmas” in the chorus…). What was interesting, though, was that there were no costume changes at all – A-yue came out in his jeans and plaid (dare I guess flannel?) shirt and baseball cap right on time, and then he and his band just performed for two and a quarter hours straight – no pauses, no breaks, no gaps, and very limited talking. That was impressive, I must say. A-yue might not have talked that much, but he knew how to entertain a crowd, and he hammed it up a bit, like on “乾妹妹” which he sang very conversationally while wandering around the stage, scratching behind his years, and shrugging his shoulders, as if it was not a song so much as a confession. The only real disappointment, though, was that we didn’t get a chance to see A-yue all stripped down in his aboriginal garb (or hear him sing Totem Band’s “Over There I Sing”). Ah well, there’s always next time. (Why yes, I *do* have a massive crush on A-yue. Don’t you?)

In all, two thumbs up: it was a fun way to spend the evening, and a pretty rockin’ concert, even though A-yue dutifully admits that he’s never been anything but a pop star. This was clearly not the pull-out-all-the-stops shows that he’s brought to other locations on this tour, but I was glad to have an evening enjoying his music, with its simple but honest lyrics and its relaxed, informal atmosphere.

[Edited for a million dumb little mistakes; sometimes I let them go, this time I did not.]

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue) | 2 Comments »

Mayday and friends

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Here I have just a few odds and ends about recent news items (it doesn’t actually get interesting until the end, just fair warning).

Last week Mayday sang at a university in Hualian, Taiwan, performing 18 songs for about a thousand students, including about a hundred who followed the band down from Taipei. This was apparently not one of the free concerts, as tickets cost TWD400 (US$12) and came with a free Mayday DVD. 　

This is a story about where all the stars are going for New Year’s Eve and how much they’ll be paid for it. The story implies the second picture is Leehom, but I’m having some trouble believing it. Squint at it and hold your computer sideways, then tell me what you think.) Leehom is apparently doing the shows in both Shenzhen and Shanghai, which is impressive given the fact that these two locations have to be about a two-hour flight apart. Mayday will be at Taoyuan and Taipei, a reasonably quiet night for them all told. Pretty much everyone (including Leehom and Mayday) will be on the Hunan Satellite TV New Year’s show, which implies that it is either pre-taped or collecting broadcasts from around greater China.

In other news, Mayday is promising not to break up again; sometimes they say they won’t ever break up, sometimes they just promise us the next ten years. Well, either way.

Okay, how about something completely random next? What male stars would netizens in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong most like to live with? (What, is this question not keeping you up nights?) Well, number one in all three locations was Show Luo, which I find astounding. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, number two was Fahrenheit (what, all four of them?), three was Leehom (finally, something that makes sense…), and number four was Mayday (no word on whether wives and children would be moving in as well). In China, Leehom was number two, but Fahrenheit was still there at number three. Cowboy Jay came in at number four – apparently the gloss is wearing off? There was a poll for the girls as well, but as it features Jolin and S.H.E there’s really no point in discussing it. Now, if you were waiting for this to get more interesting, you are about to be sorely disappointed.

Erm, let’s shift gears. Deserts Chang is planning on putting out a new album early in 2009, but in the meantime, she’s joined forces with members of the band Algae to put out a single called “Love, New Year.” They’re packaging it with a holiday card and giving all the proceeds to charity. Deserts explained that at some point in the past, she, the people from Algae, sodagreen’s Qingfeng and Mayday’s Ashin had agreed to go to Tokyo to see Shiina Ringo (椎名林擒) and learn from her concerts. The contents of the card came from that idea. The single will be limited to 5000 copies.

Finally, speaking of Mayday and sodagreen, this is adorable: Ashin says that with Western Line (i.e. the Jonathan Lee/A-yue/Emil Chau/Lo Ta-yu “superband”) claiming they’re going to take down the existing Taiwanese bands, Mayday will have to get together with sodagreen to do some planning on how to deal with these upstarts. Mayday has seen a lot of Jonathan Lee lately with all the guitar making, but the latter has been pretty tight-lipped about their plans. Ashin added that Mayday is as excited as anyone for their album, because competition is good for everyone. When asked if there is anyone in particular that Mayday hopes to cooperate with, they noted that in school they were all interested in mainland acts like Panther or Zhang Chu; they’d really love to work with Xu Wei. Now that sounds like a good idea to me.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Leehom Wang, Mandopop, Mayday, Sodagreen | 2 Comments »

A-yue cracks the whip

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Last weekend was the “Simple Life 2008″ concert in Taipei, and some of my favorite Taiwan artists were in attendance: Chang Chen-yue, Cheer Chen, and sodagreen. Khalil Fong also came in from Hong Kong for the event, and he asked A-yue to be a special guest for his portion of the concert. The two guys sang “Intersection (路口)” and “Love me don’t leave (愛我別走)” together, and in between rehearsals even managed to sneak in some bike riding:

a-yue and khalil on wheels

Khalil called himself a huge fan of A-yue, but had his own take on the songs; generous A-yue in return told him that any way he wanted to sing or arrange them was fine by him. Yeah, he just seems so easy-going.

Anyway, speaking of A-yue biking news, he was called out by Genie Zhuo to act as her “trainer” when she was on a get-in-shape bicycle outing. He tried and failed to teach her how to do jumps and tricks on her bicycle, but the really bizarre twist to the story is that when she biked to slowly or otherwise misbehaved, he gave her a spanking. He also used a whip to push her along, and praised her lovely legs as looking “good enough to eat.” Genie teased him that she’s even more “open” during outdoor concerts. The whole thing sounds a bit Goodness, how… naughty.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Cheer Chen, Sodagreen | 2 Comments »

The Lee Guitars All-Star Concert

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Okay, now that it is a week and a half later, anything I type here is going to be seriously anticlimactic, but might as well type it anyway. I’m slowly discovering that if I wait to do things until work slows down, then I’ll just never do them. :)

Anyway, the Lee Guitars All-Star concert was held in Singapore on November 29. Five big composing artists were in attendance: Wakin Chau, Tanya Chua, Mayday, Chang Chen-yue and Cheer Chen. In other words, some of my absolute favorite people.

Actually, two days before the concert A-yue came down with a viral infection, and there was some concern about whether he’d be able to go on, but I’m happy to report that he rested up and was recovered enough to perform. Whew.

The centerpieces of the concert were the music and the guitars; there were no fancy costumes, pyrotechnics, no chorus girls in scant, sequined costumes (but for the voters on that last poll: I’ll dig up some girly photos soon. I’ve got to try to find something relevant that doesn’t involve Jolin, though…). When you look at this list of performers plus Jonathan Lee, I think that shouldn’t come as a big shock – in general, these are pretty “jeans and guitars” kinda people. And I love them for it.

just jeans and guitars

Love the shades on A-yue.

The five artists are all spokespeople for Lee Guitars (not to mention all connected to the Rock Records label), and when “Big brother Lee” calls, they jump to. They sang, and each artist told a few stories of growing up learning to play the guitar.

Cheer Chen worked at McDonalds when she was in college; she once made Jonathan Lee a hamburger. Although he didn’t know her yet, years later he presented her with a guitar made especially for her. This “hamburger for a guitar” shows they had a kind of intertwined destiny.

Wakin Chau told of how he asked Lee for a black guitar to go with his black clothing, so to meet his rigorous demands Lee thought and thought, and finally came up with the idea, stolen from the lives of coal miners, to paint the guitar with ground coal. In honor of this, Wakin named the it “truly underground.”

‘Kay, these are pretty random. I’m just saying.

Jonathan Lee and Cheer Chen sang together on stage, leading Wakin to express his opposition to the two of them dating. Um. (See what I mean? This is seriously anticlimactic. It might have seemed cute ten days ago…) Lee explained that although he is the first Chinese guitar maker, he doesn’t think of himself as selling instruments so much as encouraging more people to compose, which would benefit the entire Chinese music industry. Well there – that’s something I can get behind. Hear, hear!

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Cheer Chen, Mandopop, Mayday | 4 Comments »

Random Mayday outings and events

Friday, November 14th, 2008

Part of the band got together to promote Lee Guitars, learning how to make guitars from the man himself, Mr. Jonathan Lee. Hmm, Mr. Lee seems to be a bit flighty, doesn’t he? First he’s all “we’ve formed a superband and we’re going to take down Mayday!” and then what do you know, just because there’s some sort of Lee Guitars all-star concert in Singapore next week, he’s making nice. Heh, I love all the intramural smack-talk between the Rock Records-affiliated artists.

Oh, and speaking of that superband – the four are composing songs for the album which should be out early next year, with the tour to follow. In the meantime, A-yue continues his adventures on the mainland, with a concert scheduled in Beijing on New Year’s Eve. I’m still waiting for news about his concert here, which has been on Ticketmaster but without a date attached to it forever.

Okay, that concludes the superband update interregnum. We now return to our Mayday schedule news.

There will be a B’in Music night in Wenzhou on November 21st, but it’s not called “B’in Music Night,” it’s actually a night of music sponsored by Kobron brand clothes that brings together their spokesmen, which features Mayday, Ding Dang, and Champion. Are Fish Leong and Victor Wong free? Can they at least stop by?

Then on the 25th, Mayday stops in Xiamen for a university mini-concert (and BenQ promotion), though the proposed song list doesn’t seem to include new material, seeing as how those alleged mainland Chinese pre-orders have not actually started yet. That’s what we could use some news about, actually… Anyway, the band has a dozen concerts on Taiwan campuses in December, in addition to the two big concerts with the free tickets, so they’ll be resuming mainland stops after the New Year.

On November 23, the band heads to Wuhan for another BenQ performance and fan meet and greet. Yeah, that story is pretty much copied and pasted over and over again without much change in the content, so you’ll forgive me if I just leave it at that.

New G-Music charts out today, heh. I’ve grown addicted to watching Cowboy Jay slip down the charts and Mayday stay at the top of them; I hope this trend continues. Mayday, or rather, B’in Music has joined up with mainland search engine Baidu to provide on-line streaming of the Poetry of the Day After album. The first week it was up, “You’re Not Truly Happy” was played over one million times.

In other shocking developments – are you sitting down? – mainland rocker Dou Wei (窦唯) says that “idol bands” like Mayday cannot be said to produce true “rock” music; moreover, lots of famous singers actually don’t have a clue what they’re singing. Boy, we haven’t picked up this theme in a while, have we – I was sorta starting to miss it. He also says he’s been listening to a lot of Xu Wei (许巍) lately. Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m a fan of Xu Wei myself – but if Mayday’s music isn’t rock, and I’d agree that a lot of it isn’t, then quite a lot of Xu Wei’s music definitely isn’t… but of course, Dou Wei didn’t really claim that it was, just that he liked that he liked the genuineness and sincerity of Xu Wei. There’s actually not much I disagree with here: I don’t have any particular problem with Mayday writing pop songs; I don’t think that Mayday’s music is always rock, though I think some of it is; and I’d agree there are a lot of wide-eyed and clueless stars and starlets who don’t have the foggiest idea what a chord is who are recording albums and taking themselves entirely too seriously as “musicians.” So why mention this at all? It was that “idol bands like Mayday.” *Idol* band? That smarts. Always has, always will. Even if it is kinda true.

Okay, on a totally unrelated side note, can I just complain about something for a minute? I’ve been using the Google China news feed to search for Mayday articles; aside from the weeks around May 1st, when there is a lot of competition to use the phrase ” 五月天” in various contexts, it works pretty well. But in the last two weeks there’s been some sort of explosion of news about some, ah, “adult” website also called “五月天.” (I’m not sure what for exactly; I’m not eager to click those links to find out….) Sorting through that mess to get to the news is downright annoying. Not difficult, but certainly annoying.

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Mayday | 3 Comments »

Catching up with everyone else

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

Let us look past that whole Jay/Mayday pre-order sales kerfuffle yesterday to other things. Though speaking of other things, I wonder how the pre-orders are going for Leehom’s album? Haven’t they been going on pretty much forever? Once his album is finally released and depending on the sales figures, this could open up a whole new can of worms… (I dressed up as “A Whole New (TM) can of worms” for Halloween once… in general, I do not recommend dressing up like idioms, no matter how well-known they are. I spent the whole night trying to explain myself, which only got harder as party-goers got drunker. I was going to be Ashin this year, but I ran out of time to create oversized denim suspenders, and anyway, I can’t imagine that the joke wouldn’t be lost on pretty much everyone I know here. Instead I’m going as the goldfish pond outside our office building. Much simpler.)

The winners of the 8th Annual Chinese Music Media Awards (华语传媒音乐大奖) were announced this week; they held no ceremony, supposedly because of the uncertain economy. Sodagreen came out the big winner, taking home prizes for best album, best band, best producer and best arrangement for the awesome song, “The Moon Haunts in the Daytime (白日出没的月球).” Other notable prizes: Best Male Singer went to A-yue (YAY!) and Best Mandarin Male Newcomer (最佳国语男新人) went to…. Peng Tan!!! Yippeeee…. Incidentally, the best rock band award went to Carsick Cars, a mainland band on the same label as PK14 with an impressive following in Europe; I keep meaning to buy one of their albums, and now I guess I have the incentive I need.

I suppose I should mention the 2008 Singapore Hit Awards, but when S.H.E gets best band/group over both Mayday and sodagreen, the entire operation is already suspect. There were some bright spots, though: Tanya Chua’s song “Darwin” won the best lyrics, and Tanya Chua was best composing artist. Sodagreen beat out F.I.R. and Champion for best band and Mayday won a media prize and best performing act prize. Both sodagreen and Mayday had songs on the top ten songs of the year list along with Leehom for his Olympic song, but that list also included “Cowboys Are Busy,” so I have deemed it null and void.

There were also the Global Chinese Music Awards this week (man there were a lot of awards in a short period of time here…), which frankly came out looking a bit dodgy as well – in this case, Mayday, sodagreen and The Flowers shared the best band award. Seriously? The Flowers? Okay, next year: Fusion. This must be our mission, and there can be no backing down from it. Other than also giving producing props to Tanya Chua for Goodbye & Hello, the rest of the winner’s list was a bit, erm, lacking. Of these three, my vote is soundly with the Chinese Music Media Awards for demonstrating impressively good taste; I wonder if the fact that there was no ceremony and red carpet meant they had more freedom to pick real winners, and not just popular ones?

We’re not done yet, though. There’s apparently a vote taking place to decide who will MC that MTV-CCTV Awards Ceremony later this month, with voting between Vanness Wu, Leehom Wang, and JJ Lin. What do these three have in common? Fluent English, I imagine. Interesting. (Oh, but what do Vanness and Leehom also have in common? Sweaty shirtless boxing.)

Okay, on to non-awards ceremony news. Qingfeng wrote a song for Rainie Yang’s new album, called “Take Me with You (帶我走).” That article notes that Qingfeng is such a good singer himself that he tends to write songs that he could sing, but are rather difficult for other artists to tackle in concert. If you listen to it, I’d say that’s true: you’d have to be pretty confident to do this one live. A-mei could do it; I have no sense at all whether Rainie can.

Sodagreen will be having a concert in Guangzhou on Christmas Eve this year, but don’t expect a new album from the band any time soon. Qingfeng has noted that the songs on Unparalleled Beauty were mostly songs that he’d written in the last few years; now he’s out of new songs and the band won’t put out a new album until they have new songs they are satisfied with, and they’re not putting a date on that. I can think of one or two other artists who could afford to learn from sodagreen’s example on this, to be honest.

The four Taiwanese bands that mainland newspapers are talking about right now are Mayday, on account of the new album, sodagreen for the Sing With Me live album that only hit mainland stores this fall, 1976’s Asteroid which is being called the one album you cannot afford to miss, and backQuarter, for World, which is apparently quite a departure from their past work. So go ahead and make those shopping lists…

Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Leehom Wang, Mandopop, Mayday, Sodagreen | 7 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 »

Greetings from Chinese Standard Time :)

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Aaahhh, jet-lag. Well, we soldier on. I took the week off from Mandopop news while I was traveling (I stopped off in Korea for a few days on my way), but now I’m getting settled into life on the other side of the Pacific, and I’m curious about what’s been going on. Warning: I’m still working out my system for picking up news links with some of my old sites… ahem… less easily available, but I’ll figure it out.

  • At that concert for Chang Yu-sheng, Ashin and Qingfeng proved eerily on the same page, both sporting black-framed glasses and singing “My future is not a dream” (which sodagreen has covered before, but Mayday combined with “When I was young”). That article also notes that the production on the new Mayday album is held up by Ashin, who is still working on lyrics.
  • Ashin appeared at an event to support director Ma Yizhong (馬宜中) last week. Director Ma has put out a new book talking about some of the background behind the music videos, ads, and movies that she’s been involved with. Having cooperated many times on such things for Mayday, Ashin was only too happy to show up and support her (they also joked that since she always loses money on Mayday videos due to unexpected expenses, he owed her and had to show up). Ma praised Ashin as not only being easy to work with, but for acting as a sort of “assistant director” – he is forever coming up with new ideas to try. When asked if he’d pursue the path of a director, Ashin said that it would take ten years for him to have Director Ma’s ability; Ma retorted that if ten years from now Ashin is a director, she’ll put out an album. Ashin also told a story about his mother having some pretty serious doubts when Mayday was getting going about whether Ashin was good-looking enough, or good enough at singing to be the lead singer; Ashin at the time told her that however he looked, she was the one who gave birth to him. But after Director Ma filmed him and the band in the video for “Viva Love,” his mom started to have confidence that maybe he was good-looking after all. To this day, his mom has that song on her cell phone for callers to hear. Ma has also filmed videos or ads with Andy Lau, S.H.E, Jolin, Stephanie Sun, Wu Bai, Emil Chau, and Lin Chinling.
  • Ding Dang was at a Breadtalk store in Shanghai recently learning how to make moon cakes by hand. The real question to me is whether she will be allowed to eat any.
  • Tickets have sold so well for the joint Mayday-Linkin Park concerts in Shanghai and Beijing that Linkin Park has added a show in Wuhan; this one won’t be a joint performance with Mayday, though – it will be a Linkin Park concert with Chang Chen-yue acting as the special guest. Hmm, some might argue that Chang is a better match for Linkin Park anyway, though that sort of depends on the criteria considered.
  • Half the cast of musical “Turn Left, Turn Right” is celebrating birthdays around the same time (i.e. all are Virgos), including sodagreen’s Qingfeng and Xiaowei. They all celebrated together at rehearsals for the performance (which runs this coming weekend), and discusses how the coincidence bodes well for the show.
  • Leehom is working the rock angle on the new album, it seems, but not forgetting about including Chinese influences. In the video for one new song, he rocks out on yet another special guitar which is painted in Chinese traditional style (actually had to be painted over and over in layers for the ink on the wood to be visible), and is matched by tv host Janet playing a pipa (琵琶), or Chinese lute. This claims to be a sample of the new song. Um, sounds like a cover of a Hannah Montana song, to be honest, but we’ll have to wait and see what the album is like.

    • Anyway, that’s what I’ve been reading. I should be updating more regularly now, I think.

    Posted in Chang Chen-yue (A-yue), Leehom Wang, Mayday, Sodagreen | 6 Comments »

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