My friend Peter has another round of Peter’s Picks for your enjoyment:
“It’s time for another round of Peter’s Picks, just in time for the end of summer. I’m happy to be sharing another sampling of the music I’ve been listening to lately. Here we go!
Andrew Bird – Improvisation on a Familiar Theme I first heard Andrew Bird’s music after buying The Mysterious Production of Eggs my junior year of high school in 2005. In the years since, he’s released a whopping 18 albums – essentially all of which I love. Aside from being a prolific multi-instrumentalist, he’s an accomplished violinist, a fantastic vocalist, and a world class whistler. His latest release, Outside Problems, is unsurprisingly beautiful.
Skinshape – Amnesia Skinshape’s music seems specifically made for a summer campfire.
CoryaYo – Still Here Groovy instrumental hip hop like this will always put me in a good mood.
A Tribe Called Quest – Jam ATCQ are one of my all time favorite music acts, period. This track is a summer house party staple and one of their best, in my opinion.
Little Simz – Gorilla This music video popped up randomly on my Youtube feed earlier this summer. It reminds me (fondly) of Missy Elliot.
As someone who’s grossed out by basically all feet, you won’t hear me argue with this title. But according to her Wikifeet score (yes this is a real thing), Taylor Swift might disagree.
Antoine Lang – Faut Pas Rêver (Zimmer Remix) Over the past several years, I’ve come to have an affinity (if not an obsession) for French electropop. This one’s a favorite recent discovery.
Speaking of French electropop, Polo & Pan have been a go-to for years now. The Parisian duo create refreshingly creative and impressively varied music while still having a distinct style. This has easily been the song I’ve revisited most off of their last album.
Sunny Side up features analysis and commentary from my former colleague, Sunny
The Cantopop scene has not created a generational icon for a long time, but it was the “IT” thing in the ’80s and 90’s.
In particular the 80’s – Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Danny Chan, Priscilla Chan, Sam Hui, George Lam, Beyond, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau – are among some of the Cantopop artists that launched the career and/or become extremely popular during that decade.
Even without formal record labels to release their music in China in those days – there was no such system back then, ask anyone who grew up in the 60s,70’s, and 80’s in China, and many of them shall at least have some familiarity with Cantopop. How so?
The cassette tapes were the main medium that could be purchased from small vendors. Not only Cantopop, but also English pop, like Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, and Japanese music on tape were also available.
But Cantopop was the top choice, in an era when Hong Kong was the destination many were looking up to, and where it dictated the trend of the Chinese music scene. It was definitely the golden era of Cantopop.
When sampling these three tapes, I was trying to understand people’s tastes at the time and the quality of music they listened to.
Tape 1 is mainly music bootlegs from Hong Kong radio stations – I can hear on one song the DJ was speaking about the weekly album ranking. The music was from the 80s that were lesser known tracks compared to the other two tapes discussed below (honestly, a lot of them I could not recognize and will require much more research). Anita Mui and Priscilla Chan’s works were included.
Tape 2 is popular 80’s Cantopop songs seemingly being covered – they did not sound like the original. Who covered them is unknown. The songs were well-known, some were theme songs from Cantonese TV drama, which was also huge at that time, and some romantics songs like 只怕不再遇上 with a catchy chorus to leave an easy impression. There were quite a few Leslie Cheung covers, so it seems that was the big selling point.
Tape 3 was from a live concert recording of a singer that I am not familiar with, but the songs covered at the concert were definitely well known in the 80s, including mostly Leslie Cheung’s popular works, some Anita Mui’s and other random ones.
These music tapes did not have any bootlegs from the original albums. And even without better sound quality due to the bootleg conditions, nevertheless, these tapes were probably important sources of entertainment, and a window to expose to Hong Kong, the at the time glistening pearl of the East, even for rural and remote places, for those residing in China at the time.
Fourteen years into her China experience, Jane Nicola Douglas (“Jane Nicola”) shows no signs of slowing down.
Jane Nicola Douglas (尼古拉) 在中国的经历已有14年，不过她没有显示出任何放缓的迹象。
“I believe being abroad challenges us” – In many ways, Jane Nicola is the same soul-folk performer that she started out as in the U.K., having grown up in the art-centric countryside of Somerset. Besides performing in London into the wee hours of the night on Denmark Street while a student at Middlesex University, singing teacher Sonja Kristina encouraged Jane Nicola to songwrite. The lead singer of band Curved Air introduced her to long-time producer Graeme Holdaway, who also recognized Jane Nicola’s strength in songwriting.
Jane Nicola’s Railtrack album dates from this time, and is making a reprise today with her new film collaboration with Remo Notarianni. Jane Nicola also acquired a Master’s in Music Therapy, but became “burnt out” from the U.K. In 2009. In her own words, she opened a travel book to whatever page first appeared and determined that her next location would be China.
Jane Nicola taught both English and music in Ningbo during 2009 and 2021, respectively. She taught music and English culture in Shaoxing “without a music room,” which speaks to the challenges of private education in China in general. She also taught internationally in Singapore and spent time gigging in Hong Kong, before returning to China and sticking through the pandemic.
“I wasn’t going to run off,” the musician asserted, organizing jams at a tiny bar in Hangzhou and trying to connect with other artists given the circumstances. Eventually, Jane Nicola began Soundvibe, a critically acclaimed podcast that provides in-depth interviews of artists, writers and musicians in China and beyond. It was Jane Nicola’s way of staying in touch and bonded with other artists during a time of isolation, and the program has taken on a life of its own.
“I’m becoming more of a recording artist now than a performance artist,” says Jane Nicola, who sees film as a different way to reach people in a more enduring way. Her experience as an educator also shines through: “Parents are asking more questions about well-being, probably because of COVID,” people are becoming a lot more aware. Jane Nicola describes one filmmaker and colleague who had a child during lockdown, and the effect that must have had on them.
While at the Ningbo Music Festival – where Jane Nicola performed – she thought it was remarkable how families and young people were represented at the festival, enjoying themselves. Performing and performances serve as stress relief, but also bring participants a sense of accomplishment. For Jane Nicola, a seemingly never-ending formula for action and activity seems to have been adroitly concocted: Don’t miss whatever comes next.
“I wanted to let my passion show through, and D.A.I is a big part of this,” Phil said, “I’m connecting with independent music after leaving the stage for ten years, feeling confident about the songwriting and the overall need for music with this message.”
Friday night kicked off Bob is Tired’s Yuyingtang doubleheader, two sold-out shows over one weekend to draw their successful China touring of the past months to a close.
– Philip Hsu, Contributing Writer
Bob is Tired opens with a tightness not often seen in live acts, immediately proving that while this pop-punk style of music is not necessarily my cup of tea, there’s something else in the water that is propelling this band to its current success. What starts out with very 五月天 and Jay Chou-inspired numbers devolves deliciously into something I last heard with the Brian Jonestown Mass., which is sort of shoegaze but with kick, and undoubtedly sinister.
On the 3rd song rhythms plummet through guitar and chords, setting up psychedelic smoke plunging into null beats: The beat you think is there, but isn’t, setting up excellent dissonance and pulling the audience into the sound. Be it uptempo or a mellow, underwater pop mood, Bob is Tired puts forth a classic 迷魂/銷魂 sound which takes influences from EDM also.
Bob is Tired’s compositions and technical skill are in many ways a cut above its competition, and the band’s musicality is strong, i.e. the composition of the notes and rhythms to produce a musical nature. However, some themes could be better defined – clear experimentation by the artists produces music which is counterintuitive, but at times too subtle. The band’s range is described as a box of chocolates a la Forrest Gump, but that movie’s most quotable characters and lines are from Jenn-ay and Liutenant Dann (you have to say it with a Southern accent), not from the titular protagonist.
We can see the fruits of in-depth musical exploration and investment from the clear themes and ideas in the band’s song after the chocolate monologue, striking direction and vocalizations which punctuate rhythms closely and distinctly.
With this amount of creative output and technical skill, Bob is Tired does not lack direction or ability, but could develop more concepts in its work. We’re looking forward to seeing them again and hoping they’ll extend their stay in the moment, and in the scene.
The Messy 梅西合唱团, Annaki 安娜其, Purple Jam 酱紫, Neotea Store 新茶士多
– THE BOXX
2021.08.01
Pinkie Hello! Pinkie Roar! – The Boxx Rises
Sunday night saw The Boxx’s first live show at its monumental new location on “Laowai Street.” The performance as a whole was impressive at a quality venue, reminiscent of a skillful watercolor exhibition at a fine gallery. However, as is sometimes the case with watercolors, using too much water when mixing colors can result in blurry results, and live music is no exception. Let’s have a look.
Pre-show, we are treated to videos of Japanese artists Kei Hayashi and YMB, the former channeling Usher and Chris Brown in an empty stadium for J-inspired R&B and Soul, the latter sitting in Tatami environments jamming out home recordings in a more Pop Rock style. This seems to please the crowd at the venue, which is mostly comprised of young women dressed like they are going to a picnic.
Unfortunately, since I can’t speak Japanese, all I hear is ahh ahh yayoo oishi desu ga. Those sunny days sitting by the window in swanky Tokyo apartments as your purebred cat saunters by lush bonsai were to me but so many uncut trips past the sake bar Decibel and the eternal silence of St. Mark’s Square.
Enough, the performance begins. Purple Jam which I guess is like Pearl Jam but Purple, says they are the first band to ever perform at this new space, which is nice because it’s a nice space. At this point there’s like 20 people in the audience but Purple Jam are Purple Pros and rock away with an unreleased song featuring nimble xylophonics overlaid on a J-Jazz base. This deserves credit for originality and gusto, and when the sound system miscooperates in the next song, I actually like the resulting sound better than the somewhat canned but better-known number that they end up going with.
I think I am supposed to be happy listening to these songs. They are slightly shorter than, well, the length with which songs are usually played with, but this is not a bad approach to condense songs in a live setting to maintain intensity. By their 3rd song Purple Jam show signs of life as a strong rhythm section pulls the piece through with solid vocals supporting. You can really start to hear the warmth and intensity of the song, even though it’s “soft.” We hear depth and meaning in songwriting: Lyrics with a message, to sink into you, to be content just spending time and life with one’s partner, reveal Purple Jam’s range and depth, which convert well between individual songs in their performance.
Most of the time only the bassist is looking at the lead singer or anyone else in the band to keep tempo, which may be helped if the performers walk around the stage more, to generate space in the body which follows into the voice and the overall musicality. The lead singer even remarks that one of his songs makes him want to move around like a rapper, which is the correct instinct here.
An obligatory funk number occurs; the sound is well-blended and enjoyable but doesn’t hold the syncopated descension that traditional funk usually evokes. As the lights come on to shine on the gaudy sheen of cosplay outfits present in the audience, I have to say that Purple Jam did a much better job (Jam?) than people maybe realize. Cohesive playing and surprising, subtle depth coalesce into a warmly charismatic performance which could be potentially elevated in any number of ways – but no rush. We’ll hear more of them yet.
The eyes deceive when I hear the disco balls spinning and Neo Tea Shop takes the stage. “Deceive,” for I have never been to Miami, let alone during the 1980s, yet for the second time now it appears as though the tenor of that time, with Funk, have Resurfaced in Retro. I am not so Hong Kong either, but I only surmise that certain styles have spent themselves across the coursing paths of uninterrupted time to deliver unto us such Siren Songs.
Neo Tea lead singer describes the band’s music as sleepwalking, evoking and reflecting the night, which would be much better served if the band’s rhythms didn’t become plodding at times. Mishaps with sound and smoke unrelated to performers reveal that the technical nature of music is a practiced art, and unfortunately nearly every act experienced such an inspired learning tonight.
After the smoke comes a “Weiweian” slow dance measure, which was very stylish: I distinctly had a vision of prom night, although maybe more middle school dance for this one, those terrible pink dresses and how they just did not have my size tux, but at the end of the day, it’s not about what you were wearing, but who was wearing you on their sleeve. The chaperones may enforce the arm’s-length slow dance, but you can still look quite lightly into your partner’s eyes, then longer, then deeper and longer still until a smile crosses both of your lips and you laugh like the teenagers you are and run to your giggling and similarly awkward friends in the corner. Lovely.
I’m starting to get a feel for this style of music, which seems to be DEPAPEPE influenced by J-Rock; a light air but not sure if Final Fantasy 8 or the sound the Asahi machine makes when you need to replace the keg. By that, I mean FF7 is considered the classic and Kirin is the superior beer, but all games and beer have merit, as long as you are invested enough in your choices. So it is probably not a great look to pull an iconic theme out of a very well-known Coldplay song as your hit song, as subsequently the light air has a chance of becoming just air. Then again, I come from the country that is proud of making Budweiser, so maybe I should just shut up. Overall, I thought this was a good act, and I will remember that Weiweian song for quite some time.
Now it’s always a good sign when you’re just minding your own business and whoops, wave of sound just sweeps off you a bit like those unwanted children of riptides off the Jersey Shore. Songwriting becomes key to stringing vocals and rhythm together and My Word, Annaki are moving, moving onstage, onSTAGE! It’s Alive, Alive!
See, this is the nice part where the drums and guitar both go crazy. Vocals not pushing or shouty but keep intensity, unfortunately a rather unique vocal quality is a bit lost in motion here and would definitely deserve to be brought out more. This drummer is a monster and everyone is working hard to keep up – Nothing a few cardio sessions at your friendly neighborhood Super-Z-Orange-ropes flying-circuit-Circuit-stretchy-stretch-stretch-yogalates can’t improve!
Distortion in the music marks the part where the UFO saucers start flying and death rays beam onto those people waving the signs on the rooftop of Capitol Records. I’m loving it but there’s still only 2 people dancing (well 3 if you include me) and the reason is because some folks in the band – not gonna name any names – are not keeping time.
Will Smith has perfect timing, which is why we buy his reaction to (fake CGI) aliens coming out of spaceships he shot down all by himself in an F/A-18 that can’t even fly at those altitudes at that speed for more than 20 minutes, let alone traverse the entire Grand Canyon after suffering a brutal defeat in LA which is in California, not Nevada; they are 800 km apart.
Just go with it and say if you had perfect timing, you, too, could save the world from bad music while somehow still acting surprised about Area 51, even though we know the aliens came for the cattle and not us. Ok, what I mean is, timing allows the audience to suspend their (dis)beliefs, and in complex acts especially this is a pretty hard line that needs to be walked. With Annaki’s massive energy, talented sound, strong songwriting, a female lead singer bringing this amount of spunk and overall quite well-put-together package and image, now comes the work to “draw the eyes on the dragon,” to channel chaos further into being.
Something about adult games which I guess is like 50 Shades of Grey follows, but I do like the darker vibes, which diverge into grrrrlrock. Sorry, I do not know what the correct spelling of this word is. I’m seeing twenty one pilots now; I also want to see The Black Keys. Shoegaze influences blend into pop rock a la FIR, but the musical Stratosphere consists of both firmament and pluckering it with greater decision and crispness, the feeling of a single silver jetliner crossing an endless blue sky; I already see the chemtrails, now please also provide the 747.
Experimentation with electronic sound and synth new wave directs towards new directions in Annaki’s repertoire, a real festival crowd-pleaser which to me shows a band very much in sync with itself and understanding the essence of what makes a good song. Now it remains to be a matter of maturing this essence, allowing it to pervade throughout the rest of the band’s work, and throughout a single performance.
Rounding out the four-band set is The Messy, which has one of the best “Spines” – in this instance, driving and tight rhythm between 3-piece guitar, bass, drums, and dual vocalists – I’ve heard in a while. The drummer is also on point although makes me wonder what additional directions this band could find with less restraint.Catchy funk bass lines and guitar riffs draw the audience in and Messy’s Spine keeps it, but after Yelang Disco, everything now sounds like Yelang Disco. Standing mics might be a limitation here, you can see both moving and rhythm freed up when the two lead vocalists walk around the stage with their instruments jamming, which can’t happen with a stationary mic setup. Overall Messy are tight but not constrained, adding cool new wave synth when warranted, which could be improved by developing better focus and themes in the musical notes employed. The vocal sound mix also needed some attention, at least to get it up to the level of KKBox when your uncle starts belting out Deng Li Jun and Auntie lah, just want to go home lah.
Messy play well together and sound awesome, I just have a hard time finding where a style of music traditionally played in smoky bars where mature ladies with deep voices down tequila shots now enters the Chinese mainstream. Franz Ferdinand influences appear with a vengeance, but I think where Penicillin captured quite well the angst of Britpop or post-punk, lyrically and musically songs describing common themes could stand with breaking up or playing a little with emotions, tones, timbre, levels.
To expand on my watercolors metaphor, tonight’s performance was like attending a very enjoyable art gallery exhibition of talented watercolor paintings, but at times so much water was used in mixing the paints such that the individual pieces and paintings became blurry. Not that the blurriness necessarily reduced the enjoyment, but that I became someone who wanted to see the objects or subjects of the paintings more clearly, and yet could not distinctly do so, and then started to wonder why many of the paintings looked quite similar. At times I could indeed see that a piece represented a portrait of a woman, for example, or a landscape or an emotion, but I could not determine from the piece or its introduction alone who that woman is, or what they or those emotions or landscapes mean to the artists who painted them
As a jam or complete piece, and definitely in an entire performance, the audience needs to be challenged aurally to stay engaged, and at times despite real technical skill and quite impeccable teamwork put on play with Messy, I was becoming a bit lost as to which song was which. A re-watch of Saturday Night Fever may be in the cards here, with particular attention to the exact arrangement of John Travolta’s chest hair and the part where the Bee Gees sing, and I quote: “Ahh-Ahh-Ahh-ahh Stayin’ Aliveeee~iveeee~ivvvveeee.”
Having listened to all of the bands featured tonight on the streaming before coming to the show, I had a good feeling about the performance, and it turned out to be as much as I had hoped for, and even better. The venue is actually quite nice as size and surrounding amenities – it seems especially suited to a major rap or hip-hop act – and the staff are professional and involved. Hopefully, more people will be dancing next time around and I am not now banned from the premises for having one too many watermelon juices. Stayin’ Aliveeee~
Anthology “Antho I” includes two sci-fi short stories and one novella, all completed between September 2019 and June 2021. An Afterword is provided to provide background and commentary on the pieces.
Probably most people do not know about how or why I first started Philbert’s Phables. In May of 2019 I had just suffered the loss of my grandfather, broken up with an ex, had to undergo surgery. For a moment there, I was in a bad place.
However, I am fortunate to have friends and family who support me, and the resources with which to support myself. And as part of getting better, I decided to start writing and posting my writing again, posting to the blog, as a form of creative self-expression in the face of despair. And you can see the bars below, of the people who came to visit the site and read, in the ensuing months, of my work.
(The numbers matching these columns are small, but the recovery was substantial)
Shortly after moving to China, COVID hit, and this site suddenly seemed rather quaint, to be chatting about Starbucks menus and work and temple processions after a global pandemic, which is, unfortunately, still in progress.
So, truthfully, I found another direction for this blog:
City
Date
Venue
Lineup
Genre
Shanghai
Date 时间: SOLD OUT
Venue 地点: YuYinTang Park 育音堂音乐公园
Lineup 演出名单: Kirin Trio 麒麟三重奏, Peach Illusion 桃子假象
No, I don’t think anyone outside of China will be coming to Shanghai for these shows anytime soon. And these shows happened last week, so nobody can actually go to them anymore. But for now, let’s keep the mystery of what is happening a bit, so as to allow nature to take its rightful course.
Hey everyone! The same night of the lantern festival, I went to a temple parade at another location in Hualien. It featured worshippers, performers and idols from different temples around the area:
Here a procession is followed by tall gods (they are called 七爺八爺):
Close-up of an idol (五府千歲）:
Floats lit up in neon accompanied by a band and a dancing idol:
Presenting offerings to the idol:
People crawling under the god of wealth to accrue his blessings for the new year:
Assorted other gods (sorry, I’m not very knowledgable about them)
（八家將）Performers from a local temple:
Pimped out ride playing a techno remix of Tokyo Drift:
Lanterns from a display:
Stuck behind the slow-moving idol carrier on the way back!
