One Day in May…

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….

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am and is filed under Mainland China Bands, Mandopop, Mayday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.