I thought I’d continue the saga of my muso cartoons -’Strugmo’ and his band ‘Acid Reflux’. I haven’t got any particular storyline set out, I’ll just make it up episode by episode. He’s the first one for 2012.
The Taiwanese indie rock album I’m listening to now is Wubai’s latest album ‘One Way Ticket’… Wubai and China Blue have been around since the 90′s and really could be considered ‘mainstream rock’ for their success with consecutive hits such as ‘Wanderer’s Love Song’ and ‘The End of Love’ that impacted the whole Chinese speaking world.
But now in the age of Facebook, Youtube and the Korean pop wave they seem to cater more to a faithful indie-rock niche, albeit Chinese style. And I’m somewhat of a fan, having seen him twice in concert (once last year in Sydney) and I think I pretty much have all his albums.
I like Wubai’s attitude -he just writes what he wants to write and unashamedly claims to never cater to the record execs or even his fan base. So, naturally I don’t dig every single song but every album seems to have its gems (this album no exception) and he has a knack for infusing his songwriting with great sentiment and he searches for interesting melodies. And there’s a consistancy of style having kept the same band members since way back with drums, bass and keys.
One Way Ticket seems to be the ‘single’ of the album but my favourite tracks are perhaps more off-beat, such as ‘Knot’ and the dreamy opener ‘Blue Moon’. Anyways, I’m still absorbing this album but I think I’m liking it more than his previous record ‘Space Bomb’ …
22
Jan
12
Just bought sea slugs…
I’ve recently been getting into local Sydney band Only the Sea Slugs -just got their mini LP at iTunes…
http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/street-music/id470491396
21
Jan
12
Rock meets local Chinese opera
Probably one of the three most influential independent rock bands from Taiwan is The Chairman (董事長樂團 or ‘dongshizhang’ in mandarin). They’re certainly one of my favs, and I’ve collected five of their studio albums now.
And they don’t just record album after album, they infuse each one with a different theme or slant without sacrificing their down-to-earth songwriting style. For example, one album they mixed electronic while another album they reflected a kind of local ‘gangster’ theme. In my mind they really reflect the local flavour of Taiwanese rock, with A-ji’s gutsy vocals, a tight and steady rhythm section and well-crafted twangy guitar jingles and counter melodies. You can tell their music is a labour of love and not just part of the Taiwanese music factory that churns out dross for profit.
So since 2011 was an auspicious year as the 10oth anniversary for the Republic of China The Chairman have taken inspiration from the local Taiwanese theatre and opera culture by infusing their songs with local instruments and painting their faces for a visually exciting show as well. I can’t say I love all the songs on the album and I was disappointed there were only 9 tracks but I think they did a great job of infusing instruments and percussion of traditional music with their songs.
15
Jan
12
Happy New Year…
It’s a bit late, but I’ve had a bit of a break over the last few weeks. I took off and left old Sydney Town for the urban jungles of Taipei, Taiwan where I topped up my Taiwanese indie record collection. Over the next few posts I’m going to share some of the albums on this blog…
And speaking of this blog, I’ve rethought my blogging strategy. I have blogged on a couple of other sites -Blogspot and Myspace to be exact, but not very frequently. Now I’ve decided to just mirror what I have blogged here on those sites as well in order to spread the net a bit wider… I don’t get many hits on those sites anyways. Here’s to a happy 2012!
I’ve just booked a seat that was relatively inexpensive and since work restraints have made it difficult to get away I’ve taken the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in Taipei. I hope to check out a few of my favourite indie bands if they’re playing. Will see…
08
Dec
11
Musical slugs…
I’ve been getting into a local indie radio station in Sydney called FBI which has the odd gem. One band I found interesting recently is called “Only the Sea Slugs” and they’re apparently playing in Sydney tomorrow night at the Oxford Art Factory… They have some cool atmospheric guitar and the track picks up with a good beat later on.
One of my favourite bands for 2011 has been Floating Me just for their dense harmonic atmosphere and interesting songs. I was excited to hear they got a nomination for an award at the Australian Record Industry Awards this year (the winners were Frong End Loader). Congrats anyway!
http://www.ariaawards.com.au/nominees/2011/aria-awards/best-hard-rock-heavy-metal-album/
26
Nov
11
Beijing Band Hedgehog…
Another ‘Beijing’ band I’m getting into is Hedgehog who are with Modern Sky Records. I mainly like their catchy indie songwriting and I’ve picked a few gems off itunes from their Blue Day Dreaming album. They released another album in March this year which I’ve yet to check out. The following youtube clip was the closest thing I could get find to a video clip but the soung production of them playing live is pretty good.
http://www.rockinchina.com/w/Hedgehog
I’d heard about xie Tian Xiao around on the blogosphere but it wasn’t until recently I began to appreciate his mixture of moderate rock songwriting with traditional Chinese instruments and I find it mixes well. He’s definitely an artist I’m going to keep following…
He and his band The Cold Blooded Animals were the first Chinese band to play SXSW. He’s also known as XTX
