Jake Newby

Well alright, there's not actually any new Subs that you can listen to yet, but they are recording new material at the moment, which is pretty exciting seeing as how they're one of the best bands in China. They've put up some photos of them recording the vocals for their new album - check out the gallery here. A cursory look around their Douban page reveals no details of when the album will be out, but hopefully if they're doing the vocals it won't be too much longer. A new Subs record is something to get excited about.

New material that you can actually listen to, comes in the form of a new demo from Shanghai's Bang Bang Tang. It's called 异客梦, which I'm going to translate (probably badly) as Traveller's Dream. As always, Xiao Bai's vocals are fantastic and the musicianship is tight - check it out here.

Another new demo has gone up recently from Da Fresh, a Shanghai Brit-pop band. They were quite active a while back, but have been quiet recently. Basically, they've done hardly anything since they started working closely with Soma, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Ahem. Anyway, the song is called 完整夏天 (All Summer) and you can hear it here.

If those two tracks are a little pop for your tastes, then check out the new instrumental demo from Shanghai metal act Screaming Saviour. That's right here. 

This is episode three of series two and it goes a little something like this...

There's reviews of last weekend's gigs including the Playful Warrior show at YYT and a CD release from someone or other. We have a good old chin wag about Douban (which is like crack to us) and the impressive numbers being racked up by some local indie folk acts there. Then, we take a look ahead to this weekend by previewing some of the gigs that you can catch around town. Go listen.

You know what to do with these:

Reviews
Playful Warrior write up
Chaos Mind
Loudspeaker
Six Shot
FAF
BCR + DFG write up
Boys Climbing Ropes
Duck Fight Goose

Folk Douban
Andy's post
Coverpeople
Mogu Hong
List of the top artists on Douban

Previews
The last New Vector Show
Video: New Vector's Run Just Run
Jehosaphat Blow and the Blah Blah Blahs
Weghur
RESO 11

Last Friday, Andrew Bird played at the Zhijiang Dream Factory to a full house. A full house and then some really. When I turned up, people were being turned away at the door. Although Splitworks did finally allow a few more in having assessed the situation, there were clearly many who were disappointed and didn't make it into the venue.

Meanwhile, over at Yuyintang, the Playful Warrior night of metal bands was packing them in as well. On show were some of the city's finest metal bands who have built up a solid following, particularly since the founding of the Hell United collective nearly a year ago. These people love their metal and from Andy's write-up, it sounds like a great atmosphere.

At the same time, MAO Livehouse hosted Break for Borneo, Lions of Puxi and The Violent Phlegms. Different genres again and, one suspects, different demographics in the audience, but the same result by all accounts: a decent turn out.

Now, in a city with a population about two and a half the times of London, getting big crowds at two mid-sized and one smallish venue doesn't sound like a big deal, but anyone who has been following the Shanghai music scene for anything more than a couple of years, knows that this is something worth celebrating. So yeah, this is me celebrating it. Now let's just hope the Expo doesn't fuck it all up.

That photo is from an old Mushrooms gig incidentally, just thought it illustrated the point nicely

Little Nature (remember them?) have put up a new track on their Douban. It's an English-language version of their track Different World, which always had an English chorus anyway. Click here to listen to it (it's the bottom track) and see what you think, then get on the comments and share your thoughts on the song - it's an interesting look into the mindset of Soma that they've recorded an "international version" of the song. I think I've probably said enough in the past about Soma, so I'd be interested to see what people think. The band, shooting a music video that hardly anyone's seen in the photo here) are also going to be at the Yuyintang New Year's party on February 12, a night that also features Momo, Double Control Where and The Mushrooms.

If you click here, you'll find a few videos from the Playful Warrior show that Andy wrote about here. Apparently, Mr Best has one of Six Shot himself, but it hasn't gone up yet Mr Best's video isn't happening. Keep your eyes out for that one.

Mai Mai has a couple of live recordings up here from a show he did this weekend and that I only found out about after it'd taken place. Damn.

So Andy was joking on the pod that I was foaming at the mouth over this gig and it's true I was really looking forward to it - even though I've seen both these bands loads of times now, I felt it would be a great show. And it was. Boys Climbing Ropes have, with production from Brad Ferguson, released an accomplished CD and last night's gig showed them at their best. Everything sounded great, the crowd kicked off right from the start and it was just an all round brilliant show.

Naturally, they played material that was mostly from the new CD, but they also slipped in a couple of old favourites. It's the kind of music that deserves to have a room full of people jumping around to it and last night it happened - they got the response they deserve. I'm running out of ways to describe just how much I like this band.

Same goes for Duck Fight Goose. I know I say this every time I see them, but they just get better and better. The bar is already pretty high from their previous performances, but each time they play, they just seem to improve on it. Again, I'm running out of superlatives for them, but they really are that good. If you've never seen this band play before, you seriously need to get along to their next show, they are outstanding. Someone needs to get those guys in the studio now.

As a postscript, I got to LOgO for Dan'sToshi's night there in time to catch some of Jehosophat Blow and the Blah Blah Blahs. I'm not going to write too much about them as I didn't see the whole show, but give that link a click, listen to their stuff and if you like it, I'm fairly sure they'll be at Yuyintang on Friday. I'll confirm that when I can...Confirmed. Details here

Not sure if I've mentioned this already or not, but Boys Climbing Ropes are releasing their new CD tonight. The CD is excellent, the band are on top form and Brad Ferguson has, as usual, done wonders. It's a top quality release and if you don't love it when you listen to it, then you need to get your hearing checked out.

I went to see Andrew Bird last night, a sell out at the Dream Factory and one of the most idiosyncratic performances you're ever likely to see, but Andy caught a gig of a slightly different nature. Read about it here.

But yeah, tonight at Yuyintang with Duck Fight Goose in support. Call it hype if you like, but I am genuinely very much looking forward to this gig. You should be too.

So, torpedoing our exclusive on Whale Song, Boys Climbing Ropes have gone and put the track up on their Douban. How dare they share it with the masses? That was supposed to be ours. Still, check out the podcast anyway. Then, sniff, I suppose if you really want to check out a brilliant song without half an hour or so of Andy and I rambling on, I guess you can click here and listen to Whale Song in all it's glory.

Remember: Saturday. Yuyintang. Duck Fight Goose in support. Boys Climbing Ropes CD release. Enough said.

Despite their John and Yoko peace and love bed photo on the right here, Little Punk has been embroiled in a raging battle recently. At least, that's the idea behind a forthcoming article in That's Shanghai. They asked five local bands to review each others songs in the hope they'd talk shit about each other. Here's how it panned out.

Elsewhere, SmartShanghai has some photos up from the Maybe Mars showcase for those who, like me, didn't make it down there. They nabbed them from here, where you'll find a couple of different shots, courtesy of Jenn Wong.

But the really exciting news that I wanted to throw out in this post is that I have the same bedsheets as the ones in this photo of BCR. They're the cheapest ones you can get at IKEA. Now, that is the kind of exciting news you come to this blog for eh?

Series two, episode two then, looks like this: there's a look back to the Maybe Mars showcase last weekend, followed by some discussion of what they and Splitworks are doing with some of the up and coming bands in both Beijing and Shanghai. There's the fascinating story of our trip out to the new 0093 location and then there's a look ahead to this weekend's big gigs before playing an exclusive preview of Boys Climbing Ropes' track Whale Song.

Clickedy click:

Maybe Mars at MAO
Dan on Rustic
Andy's review

Crosstalk
D-22
The Mushrooms
Splitworks

Previews
FAF
Chaos Mind
Loudspeaker
Six Shot
Boys Climbing Ropes
About that song

Just a week to go until BCR release their new EP, Except for the Darkness (it's no longer going to be called Jingan), a release you really ought to be excited about. As a taster, you can now listen to the track Saskatchewan by hitting up their Douban page right here. This is the flyer you can see next to this text, not sure if it's the album artwork, but it's a nice photo. So there you go. Oh yeah, they're being supported by Duck Fight Goose that night too. Unmissable.

So it's come to this. A second series.

Yup, we're back and because it's been a while, this pod's a special hour long one. Before you get too over-excited, have a quick squizz at what it's all about: we look back at the main story of the long, cold podcast-less weeks, review last weekend's gig action, talk a bit about ch-ch-changes with Hedgehog and then look forward to this weekend. Not only that, but there's two songs included. Yes indeed.

Here's your links then, click 'em while they're hot:

Since We've Been Gone
Top Floor Circus
Harmonisation
Those t-shirts
Minter on Expo

Last Weekend
Good Jive
Good Jive review
Rock Shanghai at YYT

Noise Hit World
Hedgehog's Douban
Hedgehog's changes
B-Side Lovers

Previews
Andy's agony (including that photo)
Melodic death metal night
RESO 10
P.S. The Maybe Mars showcase line-up has changed since we recorded this last night