March 19th, 2010 |
Posted in Articles, Live Music Reviews by emma
The latest in a cavalcade of American artists dropping by our sleepy little backwater town, St. Vincent played a set on Saturday night at YuYinTang as part of the JUE Festival. Accompanied by violinist/guitarist Daniel Hart, a dizzying array of pedals, and a handful of backing tracks, St. Vincent played a tight set of songs from her albums Marry Me and the latest, Actor.
To open the show, Boys Climbing Ropes came out rocked the place, firing off seven songs to get the crowd going. I have not seen them before (I know, I know, where have I been hiding?) but these guys have some catchy songs and the energy to rouse the masses. I especially liked their collective stage presence. The bassists, guitarist, and drummer have a wild, frenetic style. The lead singer stood planted center stage in some traffic-stopping neon tights, hands firmly on hips, eyes closed, and howled her way through the lyrics.
St. Vincent came on shortly after, and made it very clear throughout the set that she thinks Shanghai and her tour and everyone in the audience was “awesome.” I would like to reciprocate the compliment. St. Vincent is essentially Annie Clark, a 27 year old guitarist/singer/songwriter and whoever happens to be accompanying her. Clark and Hart fleshed out songs in intricate detail with the use of loops and sample sounds, and most of the songs began as simple melodies and ended up as huge arrangements with dozens of parts layered on top of each other. Most of the set followed this pattern, which made St. Vincent’s solo encore (solo as in, guitar and voice without additional looping or sounds), ‘Paris is Burning’, an interesting and affecting end to the show.
St. Vincent has musical chops to spare. Annie Clark is from Texas, and started playing guitar at 12, and writing and recording songs at just 13. Ms. Clark began her career as a guitarist in her early teens, touring with her aunt and uncle in a jazz band. After studying music for three years at the famous Berklee College of Music, she played guitar with the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. In 2007, St. Vincent released her debut album Marry Me (the title is a playful reference to the cult sitcom Arrested Development). On top of being a phenomenal guitarist, Ms. Clark has a lovely, jazzy vocal style that compliments her songs. Her singing voice, which can veer towards Disney Princess territory, makes a great counterpoint to some the darker imagery that comes up in songs like “Laughing with a Mouth of Blood” and “Marrow”.
St. Vincent has stated that she composed her album Actor purely on the computer, and only after writing did she come back to arrange the songs for a band. The songs reflect their theoretical origins in their intricacy and precision, and it was extremely impressive to hear Clark and Hart work together to create such deep arrangements. At times, due to the complexity and the many layers of sounds that create the songs, St. Vincent’s set leaned towards more of a cerebral examination of sonic textures than just a regular rock show. It’s the kind of music that requires some serious listening.
During the set, some of my favorite moments came when Annie Clark took a little breathing space in the arrangements. Annie rocked back slightly, closed her eyes, clenched her jaw, and proceeded to shred.
tags: Boys Climbing Ropes - St. Vincent - YuYinTang
March 14th, 2010 |
Posted in Articles, Live Music Reviews by zack
I’ve been trying to convince my work to switch over to a four-day workweek. It’s been shown to improve employee efficiency and effectiveness, as well as control costs. Actually, I don’t care about any of that. I just want to be able to wild out on Thursday without having to wake up early the next day. This is because Thursday has already become the precursor to the weekend and musicians in the city have been taking that prelude and running with it.
For instance, last week. DJ Vadim and Yarah Bravo were on hand at The Source store to give an insight into their creative process with a workshop and Q&A. It was actually an uncomfortable setting, but it turned into something better for us later on. Why was it uncomfortable? Well, some people decided to take it as a social occasion and insisted on chattering aimlessly during the whole thing. This was mixed with the problem of a less-than-booming PA system at The Source, which combined to make it pretty damn impossible to hear what the artists were saying. Then people started to get agitated at the talkers and admonish them on the microphone, but their admonitions were ignored, which made things doubly awkward. So it wasn’t the greatest thing to behold.
However, things got better when everyone left because Benoit from Free the Wax set up a private interview with the pair for Layabozi. We sat down to talk and it became obvious that Vadim and Yarah could not be any nicer or more expressive. The interview went down and then we proceeded to have another unrecorded conversation for an hour. I was asking him about everybody in hip hop I could think of and he was happy to tell me everything I wanted to know. He’s a really smart and well-traveled guy, but at the same time humble and funny. He even bestowed upon me my new MC name- Deadly Silence. We eventually got onto the subject of the fall of the United States empire and, inevitably, like all empires, the conversation ended.
We went to see Gary Wang and a soul set at The Shelter, which was made more enjoyable by the band there, which included Asaph on guitar, piano, and vocals, along with electric beats. I enjoyed the whole thing; awesome records were played after the live set and it was a cool night. Shelter really has good stuff going on most of the time. I still have yet to check out The Swap Meet, but I will do it, although I don’t have a turntable. I just want to see what’s on hand.
And that was just Thursday!
Friday night I had a good time at the Local King show going down at Mao. The atmosphere was great because it was a free show and totally packed out. There is something great about a packed out show at Mao, that’s why I hope it survives. When you are there with all those people you just feel a collective energy that amplifies the vibe of the bands. The bands (Pinkberry, whom I missed, Candy Shop, Sonnet, and Boys Climbing Ropes) were just OK, except for Boys Climbing Ropes, who seem to do well no matter what the stage, but it was really the vibe in the place that won me over.
Saturday night I went out to see St. Vincent, for which I was really excited. This little lady has a control of the guitar, as well as a tremendously beautiful voice. She brought along a violinist and they managed to do justice to many of the tracks off of her Actor album and also threw in a couple other numbers. Good show. More on that show from Emma later on.
It was a good weekend of music, thanks to Free the Wax for Vadim, Splitworks for St. Vincent and the ongoing JUE Fest, and Jagermeister (WTF?) for the Local King show. Good job, guys. Keep it coming.
tags: Boys Climbing Ropes - Candy Shop - DJ Vadim - Free the Wax - Jue Festival - Pinkberry - Sonnet - Splitworks - St. Vincent - The Shelter - The Source - Yarah Bravo - YuYinTang
March 11th, 2010 |
Posted in Editor's Picks by mike
Actually, I think it’s not fair to call Finland a classic invader country. Though they share excellent death metal and extreme alcoholism with their Scandinavian neighbors, I think they’re more invaded than invader. On to the picks:
Thursday:
Niklas Winter & Teemu Viinikainen
Coinciding nicely with my own trip to Finland tomorrow these two Finnish guitar badasses are coming to JZ for a gig. If I know anything about how JZ financing works, we have both the inestimable Ren Yuqing and the generous Finnish government to thank for this. Check out Teemu’s space for some sounds. For even more hot guitar action, these viking bros are joined by our own Lawrence Ku, bassist EJ Parker, and drummer Chris Trzcinski. Opening is the illustrious Illusion Trio, with me, Oleg Roschin on piano, and I think Chris on drums again.
JZ Club, 46 Fuxing Xi Lu near Yongfu Lu
9:00-1:30, assuming they do three sets.
No cover, gotta love that government money
Friday:
DJ Vadim
As re/previewed by our own Zack, the illustrious Vadiim returns to these Shanghaiian shores, with his wife and cohort MC Yarah Bravo. Though I wasn’t too taken with her rapping when they came last year, perhaps it will be better with the updated soundsystem, maybe I was just in a bad mood, etc. In any event, Vadim is creative and eccentric, and certainly beyond reproach on the wheels of steel. Support from V-Nutz, Fortune, hBd.
The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu
10:00 start
50 RMB cover
Hanggai
The #1 Mongolian party band returns! Everybody who has seen them loves this band, and for good reason. They just come right in and get to it with conviction, energy, and booze. Do Not Miss! Also, when I saw them in November at Dream Factory we assumed there would be opening bands and general amateur late-ness. There wasn’t, and we showed up half-way through, and we only got to hear as many songs as we did because they were generous with their encores. Definitely get there on time! The first show in Shanghai of Split-works’ Jue Festival.
YuYinTang, 1731 Yan’an Xi Lu, enter from Kaixuan Lu
9:00 start
50 RMB cover
Node Lounge Soft Opening
A new club is opening in Red Town, possible a cousin to the infamous Dragon, in any event with direction from Baru of Dragon fame. Music comes from Dave K, Wassili, King, and Baru himself. If you can steal some time to check it out, there are going to be free drinks from 9-midnight. That’s pretty awesome. Stay tuned for the grand opening on the 10th of April.
Node Music Lounge, 570 Huaihai Xi Lu, nearish to Hongqiao Lu
9:00 start
No cover
Saturday:
St. Vincent
Again, as CD-reviewed by the never-sleeping Zack, St. Vincent comes to Shanghai as part II of the Jue Festival. As with part I, get there early because it’s YYT and it’s sure to be PACKED. Expect melodious innocence with unsettling lyrics. Myspace? Boys Climbing Ropes open.
YuYinTang, 1731 Yan’an Xi Lu, enter from Kaixuan Lu
9:00 start
120 RMB cover
LTJ Bukem
On the DJ front, at least, it seems like Shanghai gets it’s share of heavy hitters. The same weekend as Vadim comes one of the original immortals of jungle/d ‘n b, that is LTJ Bukem, joined by MC Conrad. I picked the wrong weekend to go to Finland, though the temperature is apparently above freezing now.
The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu
10:00 start
80 RMB cover
tags: Baru - Boys Climbing Ropes - Chris Trzcinski - Dave K - DJ Vadim - EJ Parker - Fortune - Hanggai - HBD - Illusion Trio - Jue Festival - JZ - Lawrence Ku - LTJ Bukem - MC Conrad - Mike Brownell - Niklas Winter - Node - Oleg Roschin - Split Works - St. Vincent - Teemu Viinikainen - The Shelter - V-Nutz - Wassili - Yarah Bravo - YuYinTang
February 3rd, 2010 |
Posted in Album Reviews by mache
Boys Climbing Ropes is an emblematic Shanghai band. They are a representative sample of the local bestiary, as is their sound. The characters behind the band have continued to grow in the wilderness of Shanghai’s indie music scene. You should not overlook this as a minor detail. It’s a great asset for these punk beasts.
Except for the Darkness is the second EP from the band. At first glance it may seem irrelevant that this is an EP, but to me it’s not. There is a certain care behind it, including a pinch of timidity and maybe a lack of resources (money, or free time out of their daily jobs), but I believe it includes strategic thinking. We are in a strange environment where it is not so complicated to go into a studio to record an album for a relatively cheap price you can record one thousand copies of a new album. After all, we are in a paradise city for CD and DVD copies. That’s why it’s not strange in China to get albums of new bands that haven’t been out playing a lot. But then, if you want a decent album with proper sound engineering, and a solid musical proposal, the story is different. So definitely, there are stories behind the EP concept for bands in China.
Boys Climbing Ropes have enough experience and stories to tell about their musical trip in China and, even though they have been around almost five years, they are as young as the local indie music scene. This means their development is linked to the local scene; they are becoming more confident while the scene is growing and empowering. They are becoming more creative while the scene becomes more solid. They are becoming better while the scene is becoming bigger and more popular. So, whether you love or hate rock, they are local treasures.
Last Saturday night at YuYinTang (another Shanghai cultural treasure) the first chords of the Boys Climbing Ropes’ Except for the Darkness release show sounded at 11 pm and those chords excited the atmosphere in a blink. It was already crowded in front of the stage, but with these magical chords it got even more so. People were running to the hall, chords calling them, and more bodies pushed for space to dive into the audience, looking for a spot to rock and, of course, to mosh. Every person that had to be there was there to celebrate the greatness of the moment. The show was perfect, the sound was awesome, the mosh was memorable. In summary, it was a great celebration for music.
On the tiny free spaces of these moments of music in China, I can never avoid wondering how the future will remember this one because in my world these are the spots “that build structures in places that they taught us never exist,” (as BCR say on their “Whale Song”).
The album Except for the Darkness displays with accuracy Boys Climbing Ropes’ best sounds to date. “Little Person”, the opening song, reflects well the initial call, the battle cry of the band when onstage. Even though the entrance comes at the ears aggressively, once inside, there’s a certain warmth that keeps you with it comfortably, and that goes on all through the album. As it evolves, this dark warmth becomes more palpable and clear. This characteristic could in time prove itself as the band’s identifying mark. For now I can say this punk music has room for you to be in it, which to me is the biggest accomplishment of BCR. This comes from a tighter coalition in the band, and a better musical direction. It’s about practice, practice, practice. How much do we appreciate Shanghai bands that are actually an effective team?!
As the songs go on, Jordan’s riffs mark a path through the album. The guitar sounds dirty and when it meets his voice they crash and match in a sour and rusty combo that moves the air around the speakers.
Little Punk’s voice gets always along with Morgan’s bass. They share a clandestine joy for playing with silences in between chords. Sometimes I lose the bass in the whole of the sound, but I believe it must be there because my instinct tells me that’s what’s keeping everything together. When it comes in again for a space, I breathe.
On every song there’s confusion mixed with rage and, strangely, with innocence too. Little Punk’s voice is always coming from the shadows and, with Jordan’s, either battling or agreeing on every other corner, having their own private discussion on what is transcendent and what is not. One could feel like joining the argument. Personally, I’d rather listen, but the situation is interesting and keeps me hanging in there, absorbing.
The simple set of four notes on keyboards can be part of that innocent sound heard all over, and it could also be read as a leitmotiv of the album. Because of the repetition from song to song or because of its simplicity, it comes to me as a flawed device. Instead of innocence, I think of lack, although creativity can happen in black and white, or only with squares and circles. Art is in the use of the elements.
The drums by Devin are a whole different artistic subject, the discussion of chaos against order in action. We know that on live sessions when the drums see Devin come, they (yes, the drums) pray for long, courageous roots to fix them to the ground. On Except for the Darkness the drums are well content, still on the front, but not as notorious as when I think of them in the live setting. I figured this could be the result of the sound engineering under Brad Ferguson, so I had to ask about it. Brad:
“I don’t want to give away any secrets… but the production of the drums was one of the most difficult parts and it’s obviously different from their live sound but it was what the band, and I, felt was best for the album. First of all drums are difficult to record well in general, and in Shanghai, there aren’t many good places to do it. Then, as you said, he’s a very powerful drummer, so I started by recording him playing in Juju’s studio, we did several takes of each song and then I went back and edited the drum parts using some samples of his drum hits and other drum samples to rebuild the drum parts. I just wanted a steady rhythm at a level that worked for the intensity of the songs. They’re very intense live, but for the album I was thinking more indie-rock, more jangly guitars, reverb vocals, etc. In the end, we all sat down and listened to rough mixes several times, adjusting them to sound how the band wanted. They wrote the songs, and they have the vision for the songs, I just did my best to capture their vision.”
The result is a well-developed and well-presented album, strong and solid in its simplicity, that brightly instigates curiosity in what will come after.
The CD kindly includes the lyrics, for which I’m thankful. If you are like me, then you’ll give also one more point to BCR’s new EP for this. I believe rock must have a big mouth, and often it’s difficult to understand what’’s being said with all the yelling and the funny accents. When rock says something good the power grows bigger and faster. It’s important to understand what is being said. And Boys Climbing Ropes have many things to say.
I applaud this album because it builds tensions, and produces energy that moves, not only to mosh, but to pay attention, too. I didn’t get to listen to them before Little Punk joined them, but I’ve seen them evolve with her the last two years, the evolution has moved faster the last months. And now with this album they’ve moved even further.The six plus one songs flow smoothly, but every time I end up on the last song, the hidden one (no title for this one), the same ideas appear. I thought if this was a preview of what could come next, it sounds like an interesting prelude. Funny, when talking with Brad, he whispered to me that actually this is an old song Jordan and Devin wrote. They recorded it on the spot.
I’m listening to the last hidden track again, at the end, either as a reminder of the past or a preview of what is coming next. It establishes a range of sounds coming from Boys Climbing Ropes. This is the one that brings the change on the sequence of the six songs, and the one that raises the question: Are they going to explore further, to expand and extend their creative potential? … I can imagine them answering “We just finished this one…” However, they created the question with this album.
tags: Albums 2010 - Boys Climbing Ropes - Except for the Darkness - Punk - Rock - Shanghai
The latest in a cavalcade of American artists dropping by our sleepy little backwater town, St. Vincent played a set on Saturday night at YuYinTang as part of the JUE Festival. Accompanied by violinist/guitarist Daniel Hart, a dizzying array of pedals, and a handful of backing tracks, St. Vincent played a tight set of songs from her albums Marry Me and the latest, Actor.
St. Vincent has musical chops to spare. Annie Clark is from Texas, and started playing guitar at 12, and writing and recording songs at just 13. Ms. Clark began her career as a guitarist in her early teens, touring with her aunt and uncle in a jazz band. After studying music for three years at the famous Berklee College of Music, she played guitar with the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. In 2007, St. Vincent released her debut album Marry Me (the title is a playful reference to the cult sitcom Arrested Development). On top of being a phenomenal guitarist, Ms. Clark has a lovely, jazzy vocal style that compliments her songs. Her singing voice, which can veer towards Disney Princess territory, makes a great counterpoint to some the darker imagery that comes up in songs like “Laughing with a Mouth of Blood” and “Marrow”.
During the set, some of my favorite moments came when Annie Clark took a little breathing space in the arrangements. Annie rocked back slightly, closed her eyes, clenched her jaw, and proceeded to shred.
