Rolling Chinese indie rock thread

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I'd heard a little bit of some sort of experimental indie rock scene going on in Beijing and Shanghai... Aquarius Records had been mentioning White+ recently, but I didn't really get a sense of it until we saw White, Carsick Cars, and The Gar last night here in LA. Yowza!

White+ in action...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYNtPBtUM8o

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:47 (eleven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9woCQXjKxL0

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:49 (eleven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1KLcC6RJEU

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:50 (eleven years ago) link

More Carsick Cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czQ-zd-KyoA

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:50 (eleven years ago) link

This track is pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1_lB65bn9A

earlnash, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:59 (eleven years ago) link

Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it to this last night, but great to see this start to get more attention for sure.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 00:03 (eleven years ago) link

Been listening to Hedgehog all week...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEM13tD49x4

Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 19 March 2013 00:48 (eleven years ago) link

three months pass...

Snapline on The Sound Stage show. You at least owe it to yourself to skip ahead to the performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbRzCEHEHXI

Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 22 June 2013 03:24 (ten years ago) link

Hedgehog kicking ass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7fW3ml5EHs

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 24 June 2013 07:26 (ten years ago) link

two months pass...

i would say i'm not interested in chinese indie rock but i kinda like pk14 and this is a good interview with yang haisong

http://www.smartbeijing.com/articles/community/culture-bureau-yang-haisong-pk14

dylannn, Monday, 9 September 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link

and i'm going to see them this week.

dylannn, Monday, 9 September 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link

I like that Snapline performance above a lot

#fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 10 September 2013 13:57 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

http://www.chinafile.com/sound-china-future

乒乓, Sunday, 3 November 2013 13:08 (ten years ago) link

two months pass...

Heads up! Carsick Cars and White+ are touring the west coast in March. GO GO GO - http://www.facebook.com/groups/357468995160/

Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 04:48 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiBU359CQAErHEH.jpg

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 6 March 2014 05:39 (ten years ago) link

two weeks pass...

White+ at Los Globos last week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvBp1k2l-0E

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 21 March 2014 07:23 (ten years ago) link

And a little bit of Carsick Cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IFW70rSghE

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 21 March 2014 07:23 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

New Hedgehog album is out! http://hedgehogrock.bandcamp.com

http://f0.bcbits.com/img/a0506572466_2.jpg

It is 100% fantastic!

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 24 April 2014 07:38 (ten years ago) link

two weeks pass...

A lot of this stuff turns out to be on Spotify. Kind of enjoying Mr. Gracious, which would seem to be the Chinese lilys I guess. This is the best overview I've found thus far, not including Aquarius write-ups.

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4147269-a-musical-revolution--the-china-wave

dlp9001, Wednesday, 14 May 2014 14:16 (nine years ago) link

two months pass...

New White+ film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt3SQUbD_sA

Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 07:54 (nine years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bWr23tBAok

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 8 August 2014 03:20 (nine years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vog_aV7XZJY

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 8 August 2014 03:21 (nine years ago) link

one month passes...

Enjoying Chengdu's Hiperson/海朋森 atm:
http://site.douban.com/hiperson/

etc, Thursday, 2 October 2014 14:06 (nine years ago) link

Anyone know anything about Secondhand Rose, a glammish Chinese band about to tour the US?

curmudgeon, Thursday, 2 October 2014 14:09 (nine years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Interview w/the Hormones 荷尔蒙小姐乐队 :
http://kiwese.co.nz/2014/10/17/not-just-a-girl-band-interview-with-ming-ming-from-the-hormones/

etc, Friday, 17 October 2014 22:19 (nine years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Cool interview with Jonathan Alpart of CRI on being a indie music radio DJ on a state-controlled network.
http://www.chinamusicradar.com/government/the-sound-stage-on-radio-in-china-no-ez-way-about-it/

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 7 November 2014 00:12 (nine years ago) link

seven months pass...

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150602-how-to-be-a-rock-star-in-beijing

Subtitle: Inside Beijing’s underground rock scene

Rock music in China was linked with protest against the government in the 1980s, forcing it underground. What does it sound like today? Henry Knight finds out.

curmudgeon, Monday, 8 June 2015 13:57 (eight years ago) link

mentions tiananmen, how chinese art is a complete sham, interviews two expats and then sums it up: there are lots of bands and some of them use tin whistles and none of them make any money and it's a WILD scene.

dylannn, Monday, 8 June 2015 18:23 (eight years ago) link

That'd be a decent submission to whereistheprotestmusic.tumblr.com

Caught a p.decent Nova Heart show a few months ago (the album's packaging is absolutely gorgeous); wrt/ postpunk/shoegaze/psych/whatevs stuff Chui Wan, Hiperson & Hedgehog are playing GZ soonish; liked what I heard of the new Chui Wan when I was trawling through upcoming stuff on Douban, and the Hiperson debut's been getting repeat plays - was a free d/l via Xiami, but shld be findable on Bandcamp.

http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/features/Music-Music_features/27720/Interview-Chui-Wan-.html
Lest We Remember, Lest We Forget: Interview with Hiperson 海朋森

etc, Monday, 8 June 2015 18:43 (eight years ago) link

THere's a live set by Chui Wan from a Los Angeles date up on Dime this morning. I hadn't heard tehm before. Sound interesting.

Stevolende, Thursday, 18 June 2015 08:18 (eight years ago) link

five months pass...

Enjoying the Hiperson album, thanks to etc's nomination in the EoY poll thread.

emil.y, Sunday, 13 December 2015 18:57 (eight years ago) link

Oh, sweet, glad somebody else likes it - figured it was a bit of a nomination into the void.

They haven't recorded properly yet, but Kunming's South Acid MiMi Dance Team are amazing live and have a whole mess of demos on their Douban - garish psych meets electroclash (Boredoms/Le Tigre?). Figured either you or imago might like them, emily.y ...

2015 albums ... hmmmn. Lot've post-punk-y stuff around ... Chui Wan - Chui Wan's is a bit kraut/psych-y with some folk influences; Chengdu's Stolen's album Loop take on cold-wave goes a bit more grandiose than what I'm used to (shades of NIN or even .... Muse?), but their live show & lead singer pull it off. Zhuhai's chestnut bakery's Diaries is adorable shoegaze with Chapterhouse-worthy cat-closeup cover art. New Skip Skip Ben Ben album coming out late December to look forward to, as well.

etc, Monday, 14 December 2015 00:32 (eight years ago) link

Noted re all this. Planning on a big indulgence in a lot of this in the near future.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 December 2015 03:36 (eight years ago) link

Loved the Chui Wan shows I saw this year. Really happy that Gate To Otherside is recording.

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 14 December 2015 06:52 (eight years ago) link

South Acid MiMi Dance Team were a bit less wild/more cute than I was expecting from that description, but I still like it a lot - seems like by the '15 demos they get a bit of a harder edge, but there's only a couple on there, hopefully they're hiding away to record and haven't disappeared already? Chui Wan also pretty good.

Not Chinese but Thai, but I followed a bit of a trail from another thread and found Two Pills After Meal - kind of electronic indie rock - anyone else liking this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw8ivCTbbpA

emil.y, Monday, 21 December 2015 13:40 (eight years ago) link

http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/music/2015-chinas-best-albums

dylannn, Tuesday, 22 December 2015 06:54 (eight years ago) link

i kinda like that damacha album

dylannn, Tuesday, 22 December 2015 06:57 (eight years ago) link

https://soundcloud.com/svbkvlt/damacha-trybab_loudversion2

dylannn, Tuesday, 22 December 2015 07:03 (eight years ago) link

yeah, hiperson and chui wan are good stuff

hiperson album on heavy rotation. anyone care to parse those lyrics?

F♯ A♯ (∞), Tuesday, 22 December 2015 20:15 (eight years ago) link

five months pass...

Good bilingual interview with Beijing-via-Shandong band Lonely Leary:

https://kiwese.co.nz/2016/06/08/beijing-noise-rock-interview-with-lonely-leary/

https://lonelyleary.bandcamp.com/album/-

As well as talking about what their current local faves, I like this detail about their hometown - "Music hobbyists can learn to play guitar and drums in some instrument shops. They used to form bands and cover “Beyond”. There were over a hundred Beyond cover bands I think."

etc, Thursday, 9 June 2016 03:35 (seven years ago) link

four months pass...

Seeing Chui Wan tonight, looks like they're heading to CA and NY after this. Unfortunately Carsick Cars had visa issues and appear to be off the tour.

JoeStork, Wednesday, 12 October 2016 05:32 (seven years ago) link

Carsick Cars rejoined! Furious motorik in Long Beach last night

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 17 October 2016 07:30 (seven years ago) link

two years pass...

New P.K. 14 album is out: https://downloads.maybemars.org/album/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-his-name

Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 8 November 2018 22:12 (five years ago) link

i'm not sure what kind of appeal song dongye's 宋冬野 folky mor emo stuff will have to anyone here, and it came out 5 years ago so if you're into that stuff, you've heard it, but i've been playing the <i>north of anhe bridge</i> 安河桥北 album again, pretending my kitchen is a jiaodaokou coffee shop.

this is representative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q2DrrQ33OQ

XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Friday, 9 November 2018 00:51 (five years ago) link

Really liking the new Backspace album too.

https://downloads.maybemars.org/album/human-nature-architecture

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 9 November 2018 07:01 (five years ago) link

Stolen has a huge buzz right now (pretty much everyone in Chengdu has a buzz now), I like the songs - not sure of the album as a whole yet.
https://stolenmusic.bandcamp.com/album/fragment
https://radiichina.com/chengdu-stolen-post-punk-to-techno-new-album-fragment/

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 9 November 2018 07:03 (five years ago) link

Chui Wan a couple months ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBXcaWr2iJc

Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 10 November 2018 14:59 (five years ago) link

nine months pass...

Anyone into Thud from Hong Kong? They played Indietracks last month and were great. Kind of shoegazey.

https://thudhk.bandcamp.com/

emil.y, Sunday, 1 September 2019 23:03 (four years ago) link

four weeks pass...

Someone compiled all of Hedgehog's performances on The Big Band together into one video. Rock out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzS4pYjV5mo

Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 29 September 2019 01:29 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

Relatively good overview of the state of things right now:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/beijing-calling-chinese-rock-underground-1186928/

Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 7 July 2021 23:43 (two years ago) link

seven months pass...

The entire Tenzenmen discography is onsale at Bandcamp for 90% off. It's about US$56 in total.

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 March 2022 09:46 (two years ago) link

https://tenzenmen.bandcamp.com/

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 March 2022 09:46 (two years ago) link

three weeks pass...

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDgLLnSBXR_PEYNscRQH6uK8nh6drqPhr

https://www.taiwanaseanmusicaction.com/en/rock-records-40-classic-hits-dust-off-and-given-new-life/

Taiwanese institution Rock Records put out a 40th anniversary covers comp with mainland bands like Carsick Cars, Sunset Rollercoaster etc tackling classics (Karen Mok!).

Has it really been five years since I've posted to this thread? Been enjoying releases from THE 尺口MP, Autumn Rush, Cheesemind, Backspace, Fishdoll, Gentle D.Boy etc etc.

etc, Sunday, 27 March 2022 20:21 (two years ago) link

three weeks pass...

New Hedgehog album!
https://indieworks.bandcamp.com/album/crow-valley-its-all-connected

Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 17 April 2022 00:00 (two years ago) link

Rock

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 April 2022 01:57 (two years ago) link


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