Perhaps some of you have noticed that our live dates calendar has been pretty…bare. Not any more! There’s a whole bunch of stuff going on this weekend, and if you go to the live dates page (or just look at the list on the right of the home page) you can click on the event for a short description, google map, links, etc. Special shout-outs go to Bjorn Solli in Hangzhou because I’m playing with him (if it’s not totally awesome, I will get you a beer), and Jean Georges Speakeasy night because Friday is the last night you can catch that band there. Apparently Jean Georges has followed Blues Room in realizing that jazz doesn’t sell. Shit! Or maybe they’re just changing things around a bit. We’ll see, I suppose.

The other shows should be awesome, too. I’m going to try to make the Yuyintang show on Saturday (aka Miniless Shanghai Calling) and either Mandarina Orchestra or STD depending on when the first show gets out. Hope to see you there!

Just coming out of the oven, the new and first cd of Alec Haavik Friction Five (who are still are first Featured Artist) is going to be released this next Thursday, July 24th.

This is the invitation:

Alec Haavik Friction Five’s  first CD!!!!
named “Ye Shanghai”, for our famous hip-hop / ska / surf-rock version of the old Chinese pop tune,
and also featuring our “Frictionized” covers of Led Zeppelin, Diana Ross, and even Kenny G.!
And of course Haavik’s original compositions, many written since moving to Shanghai three years ago…
By amazing fortune, our percussionist, Leonardo Susi, has just returned from six months back in his home country of Brazil just in time for the big party!
Lawrence Ku will be back from his trip home to L.A. as well!
In addition, Nicholas Bouloukos, who recorded on the CD, will come back on this special night to play keyboards with us!
So it will be a reunion show as well a release party!

Please come to JZ on Thursday night to help us celebrate this happy event!

Not much more to say except we are excited about listening to this cd, we have been waiting for it and of course, we do have high expectations. We may be there since very early, to enjoy every minute of the night, and to party too! ( …now, wondering what will be the surprising outfit Alec has chosen for this night)

Once upon a time, not so long ago, my personal mantra was “tighten the screws, relax the sphincter.” It came to me in a dream, and this brilliant, cosmic, east-meets-west prescription for success and self-mastery was a powerful revelation to all who heard it until I forgot about it a few weeks later. At Yuyintang on Tuesday it returned to me as I witnessed the rocking-out of Wang Wen, 21 grams, and Sound Illusion. All three bands could stand a little screw tightening, though maybe as little as a half turn would do. As they were expanding, filling the room and coloring it, everything was cool, but it was when things started to move, bubble, and rock that you felt that tightened screws would make for a more convincing surge of energy. Which is not to say that sphincters were overtight, on the contrary I totally dug the rawness and especially the unpredictability of all three bands on what was billed as “post-rock night.” I don’t really know what post-rock is except that I have heard people say Radiohead is post-rock. They reminded me much more of Sonic Youth, with slowly developing, almost exclusively instrumental songs, with timbre and dynamics on equal footing with harmony, melody, and rhythm.

It was my first trip to Yuyintang, as well my first time hearing these three bands, and the venue gets a hearty thumbs up from me just as it seems to from everyone else. The audience wasn’t dancing or moving much, but I wouldn’t call it subdued either. There was a positive, friendly atmosphere, and everyone was listening, which is all you can ask for, really. I am looking forward to checking out these bands and this venue again soon.

And now some links for your enjoyment:
Wangwen’s Myspace, 21 Grams’ Neocha
Video of Wangwen at Yuyintang
Andy Best’s Youtube page, including clips of Wangwen and 21 Grams from Yuyintang
Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything but an empty Neocha page on SoundIllusion, which was probably my favorite band of the night. If anyone has a link, please send it.