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
The Carsick Cars are one of my favourite indie rockers hailing from Beijing. They’re my musical ‘happy place’, and it was great to catch them for their first gig in Sydney at the FBI social, Kings Cross hotel last Thursday night.
I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the gig but luckily I managed, with the help of a photographer who also took some great pics. There wasn’t a huge write up in the local street/music rag (Drum Media) but I did find something towards the end… Photos of the gig courtesy of Oliver Dunlop
The Carsick Cars are coming to Sydney -but alas I won’t be able to see them coz I’ll be out of town…
I’ve been following some for Chinese indie-rock scene because there’s a freshness and absence of ‘over-marketing’ that permeates the Western music industry.
Some other bands I’m liking are P.K.14, The Gar and Hedgehog
The Carsick Cars will play in Sydney on Thursday November 3 at the FBI Social, Kings Cross Hotel.
For more info see: http://www.fbiradio.com/events/carsick-cars-china-mere-women-rites-wild and
http://www.tenzenmen.com/uncategorized/carsick-cars-australia-east-coast-tour-2011/
or google it…
As I’ve said before Wubai is a rock icon of the Chinese speaking world, up there with the likes of Cui Jian. My impression is he’s done it through songwriting and writing songs that capture the imagination of his audience, rather than just trying to be a ‘Chinese Bon Jovi’ or imitate Britrock…
And he’s a world-class entertainer as I witnessed on Friday night in Sydney’s Roundhouse venue at the University of New South Wales. Even though the concert venue was downgraded from a small stadium to a medium-sized gig, you wouldn’t know of any disappointment on his or his band’s part because they gave an infectious performance that earned them two encores. I had seen them play about 7 years ago in Taiwan, but because this was a smaller and more intimate venue, I was really impressed this time around, and the sound was great. Furthermore, Wubai plays a rock-star as second nature without being cocky or arrogant, which endears his audience to him. He and his band have been doing it for 20 years and you could tell. I’ll see them again if I get the chance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Bai
Wubai is a Taiwanese and Chinese rock icon -kind of like the Jimmy Barnes or Bruce Springsteen of the Chinese-speaking world but he’s a bit more indie and alternative with some of his songs… He’s a great songwriter, and with his band, he’s going to play in Sydney at the Horden Pavilion. I think it’s still aimed at the Chinese population because I haven’t seen it in the English media here, but I’m thinking of going along at any rate…
It’s true what they’re saying about the new role of labels: they’ll help filter out the white noise on the net. I’ve found a label to my liking -China’s Maybe Mars (http://www.myspace.com/maybemars)… First I got into the Carsick Cars -they earned some publicity from their SXSW impact, and it started from there…
Another label I’ve taken note of but it’s not quite my taste is Aussie label Ivy League Records (http://www.ivyleague.com.au/news)… But you can trust their tastes and it’s easy to follow a few similar bands rather than be bombarded with a bunch of songs from artists you’ve never heard of and you’ve no time to sift through…
My personal situation though, is that I’m a little tired of the Western scene -having lived in Asia as a teacher I’ve found the indie scene in places like Taiwan and China far more fascinating, because there’s a freshness from a culture that doesn’t have such a overwhelming rock tradition and they’re often coming from a different perspective but it’s still similar to my tastes in underground or alternative indie. I’m tired of the ‘look at me’ vibe that permeates Western bands. We’re kind of weighed down with decades of cock-rock excess and posing whereas the Beijing scene comes from humbler beginnings. Bands there don’t expect to become stars -they never will and they know that, so they do what they do because they love it, and there’s less pressure and expectations because 99.99% of the Chinese population don’t care anyway. They’re free to create how they want and I love that.
With countries like China and India attracting more attention for Western business it was encouraging to see the music industry also showing more interest with the Music Matters conference.
Although I’m not part of the music business, I’ve lived in China, Taiwan and South Korea and thought I’d throw my two pence in, because the culture and mindset is so different to the West and I think there are certain things to consider. For bands and artists seeking to make an impact and gather a Chinese following, there are some obvious positives:
<> Over a billion people. There’s gotta be some fans in there somewhere!
<> They’re getting richer. Hopefully, an emerging middle class means more spare cash for entertainment.
But it’s important not to be duped by companies or people painting it as some kind of ‘salvation market’ or fast track to success -especially when there’s money to be made in it for them. It may be a big market but my impression is it’s still a very difficult market -especially for Western style rock music. Here are some reasons why:
1. Selling music isn’t like selling beef, or French Fries or trendy clothing. In each culture potential music fans/consumers will have certain sensibilities (for want of a better word) that are open to some artists/genres and not others.
For example, it’s not hard to see that domestic pop music and pop stars dominate the music scene in Asia. Then some mainstream pop from Japan and the West is also popular -and particular bands have an impact like Air Supply and Bon Jovi, and of course stars like Michael Jackson.
But local indie rock and ‘underground’ rock has never taken off in China on a big scale despite Westerners testifying to a culturally rich and interesting scene in places like Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. When I was there 5 years ago indie music was pretty much ignored by the mainstream media.
You can follow China Radar for info on the indie scene in China (as well as the high end promoters’ circuit –www.chinamusicradar.com)
So, if it isn’t a breeze for local indie bands who represent the grassroots culture, how much harder will it be for foreign bands who don’t fit in to the Chinese music industry’s ‘mould’ for a ‘hot act’?
2. Obviously there’s the language barrier.
Now that social networking is such an important part of how artists connect with fans, gather a following and market to them, how will you overcome the language barrier? Will that constrict you to only English speaking Chinese people? There are still plenty of those, and many students (which for indie bands, are the main supporters). But most of them don’t have much money.
And don’t forget, some social networks you may rely on for daily communication/blogging can’t be accessed in China.
The language issue may be a reason to work with a major label that has had branches in Asia for years.
3. Business wise, there’s also the cultural barrier.
Have you been reading the news? If you’re doing the business side of music, business in China is a whole different ballgame than in the West in general -possibly more so in music. You’ve probably heard it’s about connections -‘guanxi’… They have to be good connections, based on trust, and the only way to develop those is to do your homework, understand how the business culture works and go in for the long haul.
So those are my impressions. I’ve never made money from music in Asia, I’ve only played the local pub and bar scenes in bands or in open mic nights -I’ve seen some of the top local indie acts of the last generation (The Chairman, Wubai, Miserable Faith, bit of Tizzy Bac etc…) The only one that I get the impression makes any decent money from the music is Wubai and Chinablue but I could be wrong.
On an end note -Taiwan might be a good testing ground… Some Western indie acts seem to get a connection with that ‘sensibility’ that clicks with students, for example. I became a fan of Australian band Dirty Three because they toured Taipei. Cat Power have a following there.
Also, Taiwan could be more reliable for touring seeing it’s been developed longer than China. You might build good connections there to help you for tackling China later on.
Continuing in the vein of Chinese popular music, I was in Chinatown just over a week ago and picked up a bunch of tapes from a CD store’s ‘bargain basket’. I still have a Sony Walkman tape-player and listen to tapes, and these were about 50 cents per tape.
It’s funny how one’s musical tastes can change over time. In your teens and twenties you think you have music all figured out. You know what’s ‘good’ and you know what’s ‘trash’. But I’ve found I just can’t listen to the same stuff I listened to 15 years ago. Besides, having lived in Asia for so many years, I’ve let its pop and rock culture influence me.
Though it has happened over time. And it’s also partly because I’ve become a little tired of Western pop and rock. It’s not to say there isn’t great stuff in a country like Australia -there’s a huge selection of great artists and bands, but it’s the same promotion engines you get sick of, that keep blasting out the same sounding stuff on and on. Granted, I should be married by now with two kids and listening primarily to talk-back radio. I’m in the next demographic. But I’m a muso…
And so my latest phase seeking musical stimulation is the Asian scene, and some of the tapes I purchased included PRC rock music. One was ‘Heibao‘, which I think translates as ‘Black Panther’, and the other was Cui Jian, and his album ‘The Power of the Powerless’.
And after listening to them I was pleasantly surprised. I felt previous listenings to such hard communist rockers were a little difficult to swallow, a little rough around the edges, but this time I just ‘got it’.
Because these guys aren’t mainstream, they’re not making loads of money and so they’re not getting the commercial and production support of the mainstream music industry. There’s an honesty and rawness to them, which is lacking in the West, where even indie music is marketed by a well-oiled machine with top producers etc…
Maybe that’s why I didn’t get into mainland Chinese rock all those years ago (always a fan of Wubai). Production-wise the mixes or catchy songwriting can’t compete with top American bands, but listening to them this time there’s a freshness that’s just hit me. Like they bring you back to what rock and punk were all about -music with passion and sincerity that impacts you without the polished production.
In fact it’s the polished production that sometimes leaves you feeling bored and restless, because it’s not raw, there’s no risk or adventure. Maybe there’s an implied message in a work of art that is to well polished: ‘we didn’t want to take to much of a risk, so we paid top dollar to make sure it’s sellable to the most amount of people’ (i.e. the lowest common denominator).
Ironically, even though the tapes I bought in Chinatown looked like the real thing, after listening to them I knew they were pirated copies. Real record companies don’t let the CD skip when recording on to their tapes. You wouldn’t know it from the packaging. So one day I hope to get proper copies and more albums of Cui Jian, Heibao and similar artists.
http://wiki.rockinchina.com/index.php?title=Black_Panther
About the cartoon
This silly piece is a reflection on how far a city like Sydney is influenced by Eastern culture -particular with food, health and religion such as Buddhism.
Struggling Muso 