“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
PRX, New Sound of China, Carsick Cars, Music Dish, Rustic, Maybe Mars, Global Times, Re-Tros, P.K.14, Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, Beijing Punk, Misandao, Demerit, Hedgehog, Reel Fanatic, D-22, Generation Six, Birdstriking, Flyx, Old Fashion, Pangbianr, Kwanyin, Sub Jam, Yan Jun
Cat #: 046TZM
The band Low Wormwood (Di Ku Ai), which in the corner of Lanzhou, has got the unique pride and mind to view themselves and the world. Picking a wisp of wind from the Yellow River, scooping up a handful of snow from the Qilian Mountain, collecting a piece of sand from loess plateau, then mix them as a kind of style that is impassioned and forceful but not artificial, close to heart but not compromise. They use this kind of independent attitude to compose their music. Independent and psychedelic, based on simple ballad style with multiple instruments and variety samplings, together made their music strong experimental and national colour. They has won high popularity as they published an album and take around tour each year which not only makes them one of the most active and excellent domestic bands but also one of the representative bands of Lanzhou and northwest of China .
We can’t help keep kissing each other, originally released in China in 2008. The poetic lyrics were blue and sensitive. Absolutely, lyrics were always the important part that they valued. Some more mature composed passages made their expressions more powerful and beautiful, but not deliberately luxuriant. The whole album focused on the individuals’ feelings in the changing environment, about some hope and despair, loss and obtaining, when the music developed as movies, you may feel familiar with some plots or have been experienced before. When the once radical angry rock’n roll music intends to become some consumer goods for idealism, their faltering monologue under emotions would enter your heart as an outstanding one among them.
The new album had taken 6 months from choosing songs, recording in studio and to downmix. The former part was done by the experienced sound engineer Yuan Tianfeng from Lanzhou. And the latter part was firstly made by him then the more experienced mixer Dou Tiemin dealt with the post production and mix of the master tape.
It was particularly important to deal with the unique samplings and effects. It was also because of the contemplation of the band and sound engineer, they decided to deepen the integral atmosphere of the songs that appear in the record. The harmonica and harmony were all played by friends, who had tried their best. They made the album more excellent. It can be said that the whole album was elaborate produced by all the people who take a part in.
I used to receive these one-sheets from Maybe Mars in Beijing and have to rewrite them from the Chinglish versions into something a little more comprehensible. But I opted not to even bother with this one, wondering perhaps if it would add some authenticity and make it more obviously Chinese.
Cat #: 045TZM
Founded in 1996, SMZB was one of the first punk bands to form in China and the first to originate from Wuhan, one of cities at the heart of China’s burgeoning underground music scene. Drawing their own influences from Celtic-inspired bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, and transforming these influences in response to the massive and out of control social transformations taking place in their hometown and throughout China, SMZB is widely recognised as one of China’s most influential bands, whose fans include musicians from many of the most important punk and underground rock bands throughout China. Although they have produced five CDs to date, only the first one, released by Scream, was approved for sale in China, the rest were released only in Europe and North America.
Originally a trio when they first began playing smoky clubs and small performance spaces in their home town, SMZB has subsequently gone through several member changes and, by the end of 2002, had evolved into a quartet. During the early years the band kept up a rigorous schedule of shows and tours throughout China and eventually abroad. In 2004 SMZB toured across Southeast Asia and in 2005 they completed their first European tour with the help of Norway’s October Party Records. In 2006 the band changed their line-up yet again replacing their guitar and bass players and adding a flute & tin whistle to complete the current five member line-up. Through these changes SMZB has grown and developed, smashing together in their music a mélange of Chinese influences, Celtic noise, and straight punk fury which has resulted in a unique style that is instantly recognisable.
It is not just as musicians that SMZB has helped create the explosion in music that China is currently experiencing. Since the very beginnings of China’s underground rock scene founding members Wu Wei and Hu Juan have been active promoting shows, booking tours for foreign bands, and helping younger punk bands gain a foothold in the scene. Shortly after they were formed they founded the Wuhan Riot Group, a collective of Wuhan punk bands that was instrumental in forging the Wuhan underground music scene. SMZB continues to serve as role models for a whole generation of Chinese punk rockers and after ten years are considered one of the key bands in the explosive Chinese music scene.
tenzenmen is proud to present SMZB’s sixth CD release, Ten Years Rebellion, which was recorded in Wuhan and mixed in Norway and is only their second CD to be released by an independent label in China (Maybe Mars).
Cat #: 044TZM
Considered by many to be China’s greatest underground band, Joyside was formed by Xinzhiang refugee Bian Yuan in 2001, in a dark dank basement in the north of Beijing. After three years of playing small clubs in Beijing, literally for beer and cigarette money, they lazily released their debut album, Drunk is Beautiful, whose name comes as close to expressing Joyside’s ferociously decadent aesthetic as any three words can – they consider themselves to be bitches of rock ‘n’ roll, addicted to the music and the mad posturing of the pre-punk New York scene.
The band consists of Bian Yuan on lead vocals, Liu Hao on Bass, Guan Zheng on percussion, and on guitar an astonishing young guitarist, Hong Wei, who was featured in a 2007 Rolling Stone article as one of the four most important guitarists in China. Along with their work in Joyside, the band members are actively involved in other projects. Both Bian Yuan and Liu Hao are members of Johnny’s Teeth, and Liu Hao also plays for Dog 13. Guan Zheng performs regularly with Linga and Believers, while Hong Wei has performed in number of one-off and experimental shows throughout Beijing. Bian Yuan’s acoustic performances are a mainstay at the famous Wednesday night Punk on Wood series at Beijing’s D22 club.
It is hard to go to a Joyside show without ending up drenched in sweat – they rock ferociously and in the great tradition of outlaw rock they turn every audience into frenzy, especially as Hong Wei’s intelligent, subtle guitar playing suddenly breaks into a nasty, ugly crunch and twists around Bian Yuan’s singing. There are influenced by the full gamut of rock and roll history, completely at home with the early American rockers, the Mods, or the seventies punk scene, with particular influences being the Dead Boys, New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders, Sex Pistols, and the Stooges.
Rose Mansion, LuXinPei, Yan Jun, Sub Jam, Kwanyin, Bob Blunt, P.K.14, Pangbianr, tenzenmen, Music Dish, Carsick Cars, Hedgehog, AV Okubo, China Youth Tour, Nick Pedan, ChaosCS, Enovate
If 2010 on a local front seemed a quiet year for the P.K.14 camp with just 3-4 shows, then there sure was some momentum built abroad. The band very much became internationalists last year with welcomed invitations to two internationally renowned music festivals: South by Southwest in March in Texas USA, and the Melbourne Festival in Australia in October. As we all know, part of supposedly cutting your teeth on the global stage requires being hauled into a festival or two, alongside bands from all over the world, and if that means getting a chance to heat the boards for Low from the States, or The Drones from Australia, it’s an invitation to not shrug your shoulders at. I reflected on that and other stuff with the band’s front person Yang Haisong over a coffee recently.
Yang Haisong: It has been amazing for us to have a chance to travel to different parts of the world. Touring has become this new exciting thing and it is something we love doing. In the States, our label manager Michael Pettis (Maybe Mars) has a great network of support and that has really helped us. We have done two tours there now and met many of our personal heroes – the guys from Fugazi and Sonic Youth were really helpful. In Australia, we supported the Drones at the Forum Theatre, one of the most beautiful places we have ever played. We also met guys like Shaun from our support label Tenzenmen who does a great job for Chinese bands there. He ended up coming down from Sydney and staying with us for the whole week, which was a lot of fun. We just hung out on the blocks of Smith and Brunswick Street and saw some great local bands like Eagle and the Worm and of course The Drones.
Full interview at pangbianr here
Cat #: 055TZM
There’s a lot of noodles out of Brisbane around this time and To The North lead the way.
Time Out, Guai Li, Boys Climbing Ropes, Hang Gai, Queen Sea Big Shark, Wang Wen, Noughts and Exes, Pairs, Duck Fight Goose, Liu Kun, Beijing Daze, 24 Hours, 2 Kolegas, Lazy Camels, Dama Llamas, Cipher, D-22, Maybe Mars, City Weekend, Birdstriking, Carsick Cars, F Yeah Chinese Indie, Zoomin’ Night, Archie Hamilton, Split Works, China Music Radar, Smart Shanghai, Morgan Short, Pairs, Rustic, Layabozi, Xiao Pengke, Little Punk, Qu Records, Trash A Go-Go, The Instigation, Beat Bandits, Jake Newby
25th Sept 2021 – When I look at the line up for this show I wonder how it happened! The initial inspiration was to put on a show for Mekare-Kare from Japan. I’m not certain how they got in touch with me now but possibly through friends in Perth. Struggling to find a venue, Dirty Shirlows were willing and able to help me out but it was a big space for an unknown band from Japan to try and fill so I came up with this crazy idea for an all day show.
I still don’t know how all these bands managed to pull together to make this show, except Spider Goat Canyon and Teratova, who got added to the bill at the last minute. Both these bands were touring together and were on their way through from a show the night before, to another show that evening and asked if they could play. They were happy to start the event off and didn’t need to be paid. They just wanted to be part of what was going on.
As the show date approached the Shirlows crew were getting jittery about law enforcement interest in the space and they mentioned that they had had other things go on in their space, such as film shoots, without any issue. So I hit on the idea that this wouldn’t be a show but a film shoot instead. Of course, 20 bands would be playing and the ‘paying’ audience would be the film crew. This was more a subterfuge cover than a directive and at the end of the day little film footage was taken.
I was generally busy running around making sure things happened when they were supposed to happen. People came and went and whilst it wasn’t the most successful event attendance wise, everyone got paid something if they had asked for it. Others were just happy to play and take part. There were so many great bands that night but for me Mekare-Kare stole the show. I’d never heard them before but they blew my mind with their complex and super tight musicianship. As they were tuning up and getting ready, the sound guy was growing impatient, telling them and me that they could start. But these guys knew exactly what they wanted and what they were doing. When they started their first song, jaws hit the floor (including the sound guy), soon replaced with joyful smiles. At least, that was my impression. Mid set, this crazy bass and drums two piece started circling around a duelling banjos theme before super-tightly repeating the whole piece together at an even faster pace.
The whole shebang was worth it to me just for this 25 minutes of bliss.
And to round things off East Brunswick All Girls Choir played a stirring set of their soulful rock which was lovely and poignant.
I’m still grateful for everyone who helped out with this show and all the wonderful members of the bands who played. There were no dickheads and luckily no cops. It was also Kevin Duo Jin’s 16th (?) birthday. A newly arrived scene protagonist who became a regular at these shows as he wasn’t able to attend bar venues.
25th Sept 2021 – Well, searching around the internet to remind me more about this day and I found this, which I had completely forgotten about and don’t even have a copy myself. I think I sent this out to radio stations and drop into records stores as giveaways.
From Two Point Eight blog by Dimity Katz:
An all day/night festy put on by tenzenmen featuring a really versatile line-up of mostly Australian bands from all over the country, but also a couple from Japan (full line up here). The idea was that people shoot videos and submit them to the YouTube channel, and in turn receive $5 off (the $20) submission, with the result being a bunch of footage at the disposal of all the bands I guess. I’m not sure how much of a success that part was, but it was a fairly enjoyable day spread across two stages so there was always something going on. I was mostly there to see The Native Cats in what was their first Sydney appearance. They played all new stuff and all good stuff and I wish more people hung around to watch them so they’d come back soon and play their own show, but what do you do (come back anyway). I also caught Fag Panic of whom I was at first very sceptical (could have done without the ‘wacky’ outfits) but pretty soon warmed right up to their tropical pop jams. Though they look like a novelty band their songs were actually really good, substantial pop music. I don’t know that it’s something I’d listen to at home, but they got people in a banana suit and what I think was a snow-pea suit to dance and that is awesome. These photos go: Fag Panic, Axxonn who seemed to be having a wonderful time with his synth (I didn’t mind it either), The Holy Soul (who have supported and played with the likes of Can’s Damo Suzuki but I wasn’t all that impressed), and then the Native Cats. I kind of left wondering when Dirty Shirlows turned into a hippie-haven, though. So much incense was goin’ on.
Real-life evidence that this event did occur can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nUU5M1WQgM
Post-Concrete, Hang On The Box, Brave New Eye, The Beijinger, Pangbianr, Beijing Daze, Skip Lunch, You Mei You, Flying Mantas, Doc Talk Shock, Dalian, IDH, Smart Shanghai, Little Punk, Qu Records, Subs, Kang Mao, 2 Kolegas, Lucifer, Rustic, Top Floor Circus, Queen Sea Big Shark, Matthew Niederhauser, Modern Sky, Guai Li, Maybe Mars, ShanShui, Sulumi, Torturing Nurse, Hong Qi Le, Xiao He, Glorious Pharmacy, Josh Feola, D-22, Gum Bleed
1994ever 