Okay blogging has been light, I acknowledge, though that’s not just because there hasn’t been much going on in the Mayday world while they’re shut up in the studio finishing their new album. The real issue is something I have alluded to a few times in the last months, which is that I’m moving to China for work, erm, next week. Okay, this summer flew by. There’s a lot to do in the short term, but once I get settled there I should be back in business – posting from a slightly different time zone, but in far better position to stalk Fusion or, increasingly, Chang Chen-yue. More on him in a minute.
But first, older news. This time, the rumors of a Leehom-Rain joint performance at the Olympics Closing Ceremony proved true, and there they were (along with half the Mandopop and Cantopop worlds led by Jackie Chan, apparently, though they first sang a song with a handful of stars from the mainland and Hong Kong). The event was, however, Cowboy-free – Leehom was the only Taiwan (or, more accurately, American) artist there. You can catch it here, with fun Korean commentary. (I suspect they are required to lipsync, but on the audio track you can really hear Leehom’s voice coming through. I wonder if Rain struggled with the Mandarin, or if he sings more softly in general?) Yeah, I missed the televised version – I was too busy enjoying an evening of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Buddy Guy, and Jonny Lang (though as we discussed after the show, only in the Twin Cities would Jonny Lang get top billing over Buddy Guy!). That capped off a near perfect day at the legendary Minnesota State Fair, which my sister has described here.
Okay, now that the Olympics are over, those of us in the U.S. will finally be getting a little more sleep, but there will also be a veritable deluge of new albums dropping in a pretty short span of time. New albums are expected from Leehom, Cowboy Jay, A-mei, Coco Lee, Jolin Tsai, Stephanie Sun, Wu Bai, Mayday, F.I.R., and S.H.E. Whew, that’s quite a list. Obviously, I’m not interested in all of these – in general, I’m more inclined to protest new S.H.E albums than buy them – but that is an impressive line-up. There are also some questions about what is in store for the future: will Jay remain a cowboy (ah, or to follow the article, will Jay continue his use of traditional Chinese music)? Does the whole Ironman/Music Man moniker mean a more rock-like direction for Leehom? Will Mayday to continue to become more and more mainstream pop? And, adding a few of my own, just exactly when is this second album expected from Fusion, or the sole effort from superband Western Line? Will Deserts Chang or Cheer Chen be putting out new albums? Well, there is much to anticipate, at any rate.
On August 23rd, two concerts were held simultaneously in Taipei to much fanfare: Lu Guangzhong (i.e. Vitas/Crow/Crowd Lu) and A-yue. The first of these two was attended by both Fish Leong and her new boyfriend and old flame Masa, so you can imagine the headlines. That little melodrama aside, the concert apparently was great fun. Vitas/Crow/Crowd (seriously, someone help me here: what’s his OFFICIAL English name?) appeared in his trademark shorts and mushroom-head haircut, but he had a slightly sore throat. In spite of this he tried to show off his “dolphin voice” (right… he can mimic Russian singer Vitas, known for his high voice), and he sang versions of “I will always love you” (okay, I have this album and I really like this guy, but… what a horrible song) and “Loving You.” Anyway, the more than 3,000 fans in attendance were highly entertained.
Now, as for A-yue… well, get your very best wolf-whistle ready. For one section of the concert, A-yue appeared in traditional aboriginal dress, and can I just say, I had no idea before what was underneath all those baggy clothes he normally wears:
A-yue was joined by his band Free 9 for the “Work and Play MTV Live” Concert on Saturday. He turned the venue into a hip-hop party, featuring a performance from band Monkey Pilot (猴子飛行員) – the lead singer of which called for those present to do away with sodagreen and Mayday. (Heh – not unlike the jokes from the superbanders lately… we know which bands are on top in Taipei, obviously.) The nearly 4,000-strong crowd enjoyed the DJ for an hour before the concert started… though when the concert began, the DJ ripped off his fake beard and the crowd discovered it was A-yue all along. Now, A-yue may talk hip-hop, but his music is still mostly rock, and that was clear from the time he started singing. During the aboriginal section of the concert, he sang along with Totem Band (aaaahhhh… that would have been amazing. If you have not enjoyed this video from Totem yet, run on over – that song is fantastic and the video is marvelous) (and Suming is adorable, let’s be honest).
A-yue will be taking his act to Shanghai on August 30, with special guest Cheer Chen (!!). If you hate that you’re missing this concert, imagine how I feel – I’ll get to China a few days later. ARGH. (That day is also the Chang Yu-sheng memorial concert, so we’ll have lots of news for early September.) Ah well, he is supposedly touring all over China this fall; I hope he follows through with that. If I can get an A-yue ticket, I am willing to travel.
In much sadder news, last month Little Stone ended up with a case of salmonella – he was hospitalized for a week while his scared parents worried, but he seems to have recovered now.
Finally, if there are any Shin Band fans out there still scratching their heads over Shin’s departure last year, I’d suggest you take a look at this comment, which really sheds some light on the situation. I remain skeptical about Shin’s solo career, though I also think it might be better for the band to take on a new name now.
Emil Chau was also present.
China’s a week away, what about the massive family reunion that has been taking all of our spare time the last few days?
Wow on the A-Yue picture, you had even warned me and I was not prepared.
I hold you responsible to find us something interesting to see or listen to when I come to visit you in just over 6 months…. there’s got to be a concert somewhere, right? (Kinda like the “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere excuse used by people who drink East-meets-midwest cocktails at lunch time?)
But seriously, how could you say little stone without making the baby rock joke?
Oh… does Emil Chau count as Taiwan? I have him mentally filed under “Hong Kong,” and one of the articles I read called Leehom the only Taiwaner there… I didn’t check the list of everyone who sang with Jackie that carefully, but there were a lot of people from Hong Kong on it (i.e. Andy Lau, Joey Yung, etc.)
Mich – I didn’t run through the laundry list of things eating up my time, mostly because if I did, I’d never get to the Mandopop, and working my way down to that picture of A-yue was by far the key point of the post.
I’m really hoping for something better from Jay. Some of those artists you listed were beyond “meh” and more like “Ahhhh!” for me. For the rest, I’m cat-sitting in order to earn some money. (The cats are really sweet, and I love cats, so I’m getting paid an outrageous amount of money for something that I actually enjoy!) I had to narrow the list down to four albums, but one isn’t on the list because it’s already out. I ordered that one this morning, and pre-ordered the Japan version of Jay’s album. I’m not sure why, since it’s more expensive than any other country’s version, but I wanted to get it in with my order of 南拳妈妈, from whom I have no other albums. For some reason, YesAsia doesn’t seem to keep any of their albums in stock except for their debut album, which was before the band was reformed, so I wanted to get in my order before it ran out of stock. The best thing is, it’s a 2CD set. Despite only having a few new songs, it has a compilation of songs from past albums (including the ones not available through YesAsia), including “Here We Go” featuring MC Hotdog and “小时候” featuring Jay Chou, as well as a bunch of my favorite songs by this band! Oh, yeah, and my 4-album list will be amended include Fusion if their album comes out anytime soon, for sure!
I suspect that everyone lip-synced as well, since when LeeHom grabbed that one girl’s cymbol, it didn’t make a sound! I suspect the American media will have a ball with that when they find out! (Let’s see, they’ve found fake fireworks, and the girl in the opening ceremony lip-synced to another girl’s voice, so I’m sure the American media has built up quite a grudge against China at this point.) I recorded it on DVR, as I said I would. I suspect Jay didn’t should up because he’s not very good at lip-syncing. Seriously, the man looks like he’s going to go into seizures when he isn’t actually doing something! He gets rather fidgety. I saw someone else wearing cowboy boots, and for a bit, with the dodgey camera-angles, I thought it was Jay. Well, if it does turn out to have been a lip-syncing performance, which is quite possible, then it’s probably best for his reputation that Jay Chou doesn’t get remembered for lip-syncing.
I was just scrolling down the page before I read this entry, and I was like, “Is that A-Yue?!” I’d never seen him without glasses and baggy clothes! Definitely a change from the Olympic ceremonies in which the people wearing the clothing of the ethnic minorities weren’t actually ethnic minorities themselves! I do agree that A-Yue’s music is mostly rock, not hip-hop. Hmm…I had never heard of Totem. Of course, that’s part of the reason I always read your blog, Merry! I find out about all these good singers and bands I’d never heard of before!
Well, Jay has been forced to lip-sync by mainland music authorities before (I’m thinking of at least one big Chinese New Year show) – I doubt that anyone in Asia, at least, thinks they were allowed to sing live, and I also don’t think there is any stigma at all attached to it, because at certain performances the decision is made for you, based on a.) importance and b.) the sound system. For people like Leehom who are very reliable live, I’d guess it is not ever the preferred choice, but circumstance.
Which Jay album are you buying now? The new one isn’t out yet…
Pre-ordering, actually. For some reason, the Japan version is up for pre-order before anything else, even though there’s no tracklist and no title. (I’m kind of hoping for “千山万水” and “秘密花园” to be included on it, though.) This is probably a dumb move on my part, since the Japan version is always $10 more, and the details are very sketchy.
Yes, Jay has lip-synced before, just not well, and I suspect that if he were invited to sing, but knew he would be lip-syncing ahead of time, he would try to get out of it. When he did that “千山万水” performance 100 days before the Olympics, for example, it was extremely obvious that he was lip-syncing. As he does a lot, he recorded his own voice singing the background parts, and you simply can’t sing two lines at the same time without backup singers! Also, he kept swaying back and forth. I guess his choreographer (Ice Cream, I think…) didn’t teach him any kind of dance moves before he did that, and we all know that Jay can’t sound exactly like the CD recording in live performances, not that his live performances are bad, of course. Most foreigners won’t know that it sounds too much like the CD version, since they haven’t heard the CD version and haven’t heard Jay sing live before.
lu guangzhong is coming to singapore in sept!
yeah!~