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
September 17th, 2009 |
Posted in Editor's Picks by mike
Thursday:
Heart Attack feat. Sean Leow
Everyone’s favorite heart-throb entrepreneur takes over the decks for Not Me’s weekly indie night. Given all the stuff he hears as one of the founders of Neocha, there will likely be a lot of cool Chinese stuff on hand.
Not Me, 21 Dongping Lu near Wulumuqi Lu
10:00 start, though Sean will likely not go on until later
No cover
Friday:
Wan Xiaoli: Summer Solstice
It’s well past the summer solstice, but Wan Xiaoli brings his tour to Shanghai under that name anyway. His write up bills him as a folk artist, in the Bob Dylan sense not the songs that rise up spontaneously from the people sense, though obviously there’s a connection there. In any event, the music part of it is more developed than in the plain-strumming-as-backdrop-for-lyrics version of the genre, though word is that his lyrics are quite hip as well. My Chinese isn’t good enough to know. Check out his Douban.
YuYinTang, 1731 Yan’an Xi Lu, enter from Kaixuan Lu
Doors at 8:30, music starts at 9:00
60 RMB cover
Free the Wax One Year Anniversary featuring Francisco
Free the Wax, who have been specializing in producing live electronic shows and bringing leading proponents of said style, along with DJs, to our quaint little hamlet are celebrating one year of rocking it. Francisco of IT/Nature records will be the headline DJ for the anniversary with support from Elnomo, Trix, and Yen.
The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu
Doors at 9:00, Francisco around 11:00
50 RMB cover
Saturday:
JZ Big Band
Since Nicholas Bouloukos took over the JZ Big Band he’s been doing things a little differently than his predecessor did. He’s changed the repertoire and the personnel, done new arrangements and written new tunes for the band. He continues this week by replacing American rhythm section stalwarts EJ Parker and Chris Trczinski with Brazilians Tinho Pereira and Leonardo Susi to go for a more Brazilian groove. This week will be something of an introduction for this variation of the big band as Nicholas tells me it won’t be all Brazilian repertoire this week, and EJ and Chris will definitely be back again later, but it certainly will be something to check out for those of us who are starved for Brazilian grooves here in Shanghai. I believe Abraham Carmona’s group will play the first set but I’m not sure. The JZ jam session will follow the big band show.
JZ Club, 46 Fuxing Xi Lu near Yongfu Lu
10:00 start
30 RMB cover, free after 1:30 or so
Santiago Salazar presented by Void
Void continue bringing great techno talent, this time presenting Santiago Salazar from LA by way of Detroit, where he did some stuff for Underground Resistance before forming his own label, Historia y Violencia. His gritty but melodic productions sound great in my living room and we’ll see on Saturday what he does, if anything, to translate the emotion to the dancefloor. Support from Nat Alexander, MHP, and Shanghai_Ultra.
The Shelter, 5 Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Xi Lu
10:00 start
50 RMB cover
Fiesta Plastidécor (An Indecent Dance Party)
Plastidécor bring their infectious jams to Logo. Smart Shanghai alleges that ” After taking a nine-day vanboat from Madrid, Spain’s production/DJ duo Plastidecor arrives to rock LoGO this Saturday on their one-day visa. Expect neon-electro, erotic Spanish techno, and explicitly sexual house music until sunrise. Supported by the infamous Baijiu Robot.” I don’t know about that, but judging from the Myspace it sounds like a fun show.
LOgO, 13 Xingfu Lu near Fahuazhen Lu
Get there around 10:00, I guess
20 RMB cover
Bigger Bang
I know, I know, I usually only do two picks per weekend night to make things easier on you guys, but I just couldn’t decide between these four. The JZ show will be of probably the most interest and groovial satisfaction to me, Santiago Salazar is pretty emotionally and texturally involving, and then Plastidécor and Bigger Bang both will just be really fun shows. These guys do fun dance rock that sometimes sounds like Mega Man themes and sometimes more straight rocking, with adorable vaguely ESL sounding growly vocals from a cute frontwoman. Are there any Beijing bands without a woman lead-singer? I need to start me one of those and sit back as the profits roll in. That’s just a slightly catty aside that has nothing to do with this band though. Incidentally, this is an S.T.D. show and Sonnet are the opening band.
YuYinTang, 1731 Yan’an Xi Lu, enter from Kaixuan Lu
9:30 start
40 RMB cover
Sunday:
To make up from my profligacy in the Saturday department I’m going to leave you kids alone on Sunday. See if you can find out about a show on your own, or just take it easy. Have a good weekend.
Love,
Mike
tags: Abraham Carmona - Baijiu Robot - Bigger Bang - Chris Trzcinski - EJ Parker - Elnomo - Francisco - Free the Wax - Heart Attack - JZ - JZ Big Band - Leonardo Susi - LOgO - MHP - Nat Alexander - Nicholas Bouloukos - Not Me - Plastidécor - Santiago Salazar - Sean Leow - Shanghai_Ultra - Sonnet - The Shelter - Tinho Pereira - Trix - Void - Wan Xiaoli - Yen - YuYinTang
May 6th, 2009 |
Posted in Live Music Reviews by mache
Some of my friends are sad that last weekend is over already and some others are happy it is finally over. Last weekend China was invaded by music, it’s been a non-stop music trip since Layabozi began its operations, and the ride is getting more intense every time. One would imagine after a year of this we would already be used to these “rush-hour” weeks of music, but still sometimes it’s overwhelming.
I began May holiday on Thursday night at the already classic Antidote party at C’s, which had an indie rock theme for this edition. I arrived late, right after Brad Ferguson finished his DJ set. Michael Michael told me that when Brad came he said he was thinking about playing a set of Mexican Rock, Michael said to him immediately “Do it! Do it!”. And Brad did it, and it seemed like it was a total success. Shame on me: it’s one more set to add to my list of “I would like to have listened to…”.
The good news was that the weekend was just beginning. So when DJ Sacco took control of the C’s booth, my music trip began. Super Sophia was just coming from the gig with Army of Freshman at YuYinTang, right on time for us to dive on the dance floor together at DJ Sacco’s great set, the crowd danced and enjoyed the sound of the very well chosen electronic guitars and dirty drums.
From Antidote’s at C’s the flow guided us to LOgO. We made it to the after party, after Reptile and Retard, who I knew rocked Vox Bar in Wuhan the week before with the Antidote guys. DJ Alex was on the tables when we arrived to LogO, and though it was the first time I listened to him, the music was fantastic, the place was not very busy, but the right people were there to have the perfect end of the night.
Friday’s music began early evening at YuYinTang with the gig of Crazy Mushroom Brigade , Andy Best’s own favorite Shanghainese band. 仆仆 (Pu Pu ), leader and singer of the band, has total dominion over the stage and the music this time sounded much clearer than other times I’ve heard them. I had fun with them. Creature was the Canadian band, the big dish of the Split Works night. The sound at YuYinTang was really impressive, so much it’s worth it to mention it. The place was full, not packed and impossible, but full enough to not be able to walk around freely. So it was a wonder who was causing the magic there. It just took a look to the back, to see by the soundboard a new face, someone totally unfamiliar, very possible the responsible for the miracle. I hope that whatever was the cause of the great sound is already fixed and set for good at YuYinTang’s soundboard.
Creature, the Canadian band, was very fun, the chicks were sexy, the music was tight, the front man was strong, and again, the sound was miraculous. I was planning to run after to LogO to end at The Shelter, but I was caught by Coco and his friends, and YuYinTang’s garden was haunting, and the people stayed long after the music was over. So the safe way out of there was straight to home.
Saturday came too soon, and the hang over from last night was annoying, but everything was still working perfect. Mike called me to go for dinner, and right after I followed him to his gig, the first set at JZ with Tico’s trio for Latin Jazz. The three members of the band are Tico Cardenas on the piano, Mike “Big Duck” Brownell on double bass, and Pablo Ortega on drums. This trio has been together for some time already, and their concept is pretty cool. Tico is the lead man mixing the Latin and the jazz sound, Mike brings the swing jazzy colors into the latin grooves, and Pablo the Latin drums, with a nice swing touch. All was cool, just when it’s about Latin music, I can’t just passed by without saying, why is always about tropical sounds? Latin music is as vast as Chinese food, and so I’m hoping soon I’ll get to hear some news on Shanghai Latin music scene, some Argentinean zamba, tango, maybe a Peruvian waltz, or some Mexican rancheras (notice I’m not being that picky, if so, I would be asking for some Andean tunes or a Sau Sau). Anyway, these guys are pretty cool, and I must say that you all should go and check them, specially the most awesome, good looking, and coolest bass player ever (who incidentally is our chief editor, and I better pay the proper respects here or I may get fired).
I would have loved to stay to hear JQ with the Abraham Carmona doing their flamenco fusion, but I had to run to Anar. Lions of Puxi have been a success
in constant growth since last year. These French-Chinese-Mauritius guys are having so much fun together, it is impossible to avoid their happiness. All of them have been going through different experiments The Swing Gum Dynasty, The Gypsy Jazz band, Noukilla, the Mauritius sega band. And now when you see them on the stage, you can feel with them, this is what they were looking for. They fit together, everyone of them brings their own style and all together they create a general mood of joy, which is perfectly guided by the rhythm of their reggae vibe. Anar has a cool stage and the Lions clearly feel comfortable there. The band finished playing and all the guys jumped off the stage and left quickly, they are all working a lot and the day after there was a recording session for a Jazz album for some of them, TV for others, and a rest day for a few.
Next was again LOgO, Sweet Snacks with S.T.D. The band just finished playing when I arrived, and the general vibe of the people was very satisfied with the gig. The DJ sets began right after. There were four guys in the booth, and a VJ in the back. The graphics were great, and the sound was very impressive too. At this point I was thinking it might be because the spirits of Shanghai were in a good mood and decided not to interfere with the sound waves; it was too much coincidence. The DJ’s were really great, the people was impressed with their sound, the energy went never down, and it was difficult to leave. But Super Sophia and Julie were there and the rumor was “DJ Sacco is playing at MAO and he is going to do his all to get fired.” I was tired, but that is a weird invitation and curiosity has yet to kill this cat, so I had to go. We headed to MAO, a club struggling to survive since months ago, bringing underground DJs reluctantly. What I most regret about MAO is the way they confessed once they didn’t really care about the music they have. Have I told this before? I can’t remember. Anyway, I still remember such words. How can it be possible???
Well, at MAO, DJ Clement was there and he was genuinely angry to see all his friends there, who have never gone to his gigs at MAO. What could I say? Except I hadn’t checked his gigs at MAO but I was there when he played at Dragon with Laura Ingalls, a gig to remember because I learned a lot about Dragon with them there.
Back to DJ Sacco at MAO, there was the usual ‘MAO crowd’, and the others, should I call it the renegades of the electronic music in Shanghai, those that submit to the label of underground, just because they are people who are paying attention to the music and not only to the available drinks and affairs surrounding the speakers, which by the way, talking about sound, MAO’s sound system should be priced with the top one worst.
Sacco’s set was well prepared and disturbing, and amazingly well received. I don’t know yet what the result of the night was. I didn’t stay until the end (7 am), love of music is limited sooner or later by the need for rest.
Sunday was finally a bit slow, the rain and the holiday mood was good. I had a gig myself, and I was planning to go to Anar as soon as I finished, but I finished too late and when friends and me finally arrived at Anar, the music was over and the people were gone. So, LOgO. LogO’s Sunday Jam Sessions changed some time ago, and now they are guided by the Carmona Brothers. The Jam Session was finishing but there was a DJ after (of an unknown name, I was too done to do the proper search) and some of the guys who were just back from the Midi Festival. Some of them were totally discontented with the festival, but some others were so happy about it they had to go out to spread their energy around.
Right now I’m back from Monday at JZ, I made it to listen to the Lawrence Ku’s Trio, with him on the guitar, EJ “Silver Ass” Parker on double bass and Chris Trzcinski on drums. This trio plays a strong and cool kind of jazz–a refreshment for the ears full of rock and beats–nice melodies, cool solos, and well developed dominion on the instruments.
Shanghai has so much music we are not being able to cover it all. The sounds are coming from everywhere, the bikes, the woks, the horns, the yells, the music. It’s rush-hour in music.
*Photos of Split Works’ Creature at YuYinTang by Damien Chang
tags: Anar - Andy Best - Antidote - Brad Ferguson - Canada - China - Chris Trzcinski - Crazy Mushroom - Dance - DJ Sacco - Electronic - Fusion - Indie - Jazz - JZ - Lions of Puxi - Listen to - LOgO - MAO - Michael Michael - News - Rain - Reggae - Rock - S.T.D. - Shanghai - Split Works - Tango - The Shelter - Tico's Trio - UK - YuYinTang
January 13th, 2009 |
Posted in Live Music Reviews by mike
Pudong, as you probably know, is a little weird. Between Lujiazui and Pudong Airport lie many ordinary streets and neighborhoods, but all of the major sites in east of the river have the same feeling: futuristic, oversized, and alienating. The first time I arrived in the airport it took me fifteen minutes to walk from the plane to immigration, where three of the approximately 50 million counters were staffed and I had to wait another hour. The fact that it was new and clean meant nothing to me. Now that I know what to expect, I find the bizarre-futuristic thing kind of charming, and it feels almost homey, in an anti-homey sort of way. So too do I find strangely pleasant the huge empty plaza next to the Science and Technology museum—populated Sunday by five teenaged skaters, who had brought their own iron rail from somewhere, ten civilians enjoying the afternoon sun, and fifty touts scalping tickets or promoting some kind of “New Xiangyang market” they’ve got over there. There’s something, too, about the eerily purposeless strips of grass, benches, and skinny trees that meander along next to similarly obscure streets, like you could sit down to relax and you’d be as anonymous and placeless as if you were on the moon. Visible from the subway exit that coughs you up in the middle of the empty plaza, and also designed by Paul Andreu, the same firm responsible for Pudong Airport, is the orchid-shaped Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, which hosted Alec Haavik’s Sunday concert, titled “Life, Death, and Everything Else.”
Mahler once said that a symphony should be like the world, and Alec had similarly grand intentions for this concert. He interpreted or used works by Messiaen, Schoenberg, Bach, and Coltrane, as well as his own pieces. The three classical pieces all deal with one of the above issues more or less openly: Messiaen’s Quartet For the End of Time, composed in a Nazi concentration camp, takes a religious and long view, addressing the book of Revelation; Schoenberg’s “String Trio” tells the story of the heart attack which almost killed him in 1946, and takes a programmatic and perhaps more personal view of life and death—Haavik tells us in his exhaustive program notes that “the pivotal event in this musical portrait is the injection which he received directly into his heart”; and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Bach’s famous piece which Alec points out is “often performed at Wedding Ceremonies” is also so familiar it’s hard to think of it as belonging in the heavy company above, but it surely holds something of the commitment to divine life that informed all of Bach’s work. Coltrane’s “Venus”, a stunningly beautiful tune, especially in the context of the album on which it originally appeared, Interstellar Space, is similarly one piece from a deeply spiritual man, and no more about life and death than the rest of his work. “Bessie’s Blues,” which rounded out the first set is only about life and death to the extent that all blues are. So file those under “everything else” I guess.
The five jazz musicians—drummers Chris Trzcynski, and Feng Hao, organist Steinar Nickelsen, pianist/keyboardist Huang Jianyi, and Alec—took considerable risks in performing this music. Though all are flexible musicians, Sunday’s concert, or the first half anyway, wasn’t exactly in their collective wheelhouse. I know that some of them are very strong at reading music, and maybe they all are, but it’s rarely a good sign at a jazz concert to see players looking at charts the entire time. Secondly, they attempted to take advantage of the acoustics in the room by playing unamplified, except for the Organ and Huang’s keyboard. While this was successful at times—a friend remarked the feeling of being really immersed in the sound—more often it was a hindrance. The piano was mostly inaudible, and sometimes the drums drowned out organ and even saxophone. Perhaps the biggest challenge of all was the most successfully conquered: having two drummers in the same band. There were a few moments that got chaotic and muddy, but they never lasted long, and more frequently they had fun with it and took advantage of this unusual opportunity. Feng and Trzcynski had some drum “battles” that were enjoyable, but even better was watching them figure out different orchestrations in the ensemble parts, though perhaps the fun they were having playing together was related to the balance issues.
The concert was a welcome experiment. The material, instrumentation, and venue showed ambition, a chance to hear something different from Alec than what you get at JZ on a Thursday. It was indeed that, and there were many moments in the first part of the program (The unison attack of “Dance of the Fury,” from Quartet for the End of Time for example) that were wholly effective. But it was in the second half of the program, which featured staples of his band’s book, that everyone was comfortable enough to push things and the music jumped a level. My personal favorite of Alec’s tunes, the beautiful “42 Bus” was the strongest performance of the afternoon, featuring a half-chorus “bass solo” from Steinar’s feet, and a cadenza from Alec that was teeming with quotes. These musicians are all accomplished club players and jazz players, and if the JZ-run concert series at the Oriental Arts Center continues to take these kinds of risks, they will soon be able to take fuller advantage of the possibilities this type of venue and this type of material afford, and become just as accomplished concert players.
tags: Alec Haavik - Chris Trzcinski - Feng Hao - Huang Jianyi - Jazz - Oriental Arts Center - Steinar Nickelsen
Hanggai
