Rolling Chinese indie rock thread

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

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

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

More Carsick Cars

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

This track is pretty cool.

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

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

Been listening to Hedgehog all week...

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

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

Hedgehog kicking ass

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

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

and i'm going to see them this week.

I like that Snapline performance above a lot

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

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

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

White+ at Los Globos last week

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

And a little bit of Carsick Cars

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

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

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

It is 100% fantastic!

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

New White+ film

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

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

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

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

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

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/

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/

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

i kinda like that damacha album

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

yeah, hiperson and chui wan are good stuff

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

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."

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.

Carsick Cars rejoined! Furious motorik in Long Beach last night

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

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

Really liking the new Backspace album too.

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

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/

Chui Wan a couple months ago

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

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

https://thudhk.bandcamp.com/

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

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

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

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

https://tenzenmen.bandcamp.com/

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.

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

Rock

Backspace live in Suzhou last month

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz8VuDBTb2k

Here's a 2024 playlist from Jake Newby's Concrete Avalanche newsletter (including Backspace) - still catching up / trawling Bandcamp etc.

https://jakenewby.substack.com/p/the-best-of-2024-so-far

Concrete Avalanche definitely a must-read for folks on this thread. Haven't listening to everything in his list, but definitely recommend the slow-burn psych of Run Run Run's new one: https://spacefruityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/--3

New (last?) Carsick Cars video (couple great shots of D-22)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE-jvrtOsg