Tag Archives: jue festival

春节快乐!! JUE | Music + Art Festival goes large

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Dear Friends, once more into the breech, once more.

It is that time of the year again, the time when dragons turn to snakes. We apologize profusely for our inconsistency over the last 6 weeks, but Christmas and Chinese New Year in quick succession always make for posting light. January is also the month of finalizing everything for our JUE | Music + Art festival, which is going into year 5 in March 2013. And it’s looking like a bit of a monster, even if we do say so ourselves. Come and join the party:

Gang of Four playing with AV Okubo? Grimes bringing her Pitchfork endorsed weirdness to the Mao’s? Frank Turner, How to Dress Well or Marshall Allen of Sun Ra Arkestra playing in China for the first time aged 89? Or wanna watch a world premiere of a documentary about UK bands going to the furthest reaches of China, or an expose of Mongolian hip hop, or a cookery class with a dyed in the wool Beijing oi-punk? Markets, workshops, readings, improv. JUE has the lot.

JUE Festival 2013, China, Art and Music

We’re back on the 15th February. Until then, we love you all very much!

Phantom Carriage, by The Horses (Acid Pony Club)

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Words: Ami Li

For this year’s JUE | Music + Art festival, China promoters Split Works brought over a three-piece American group called Devil Music Ensemble, who performed an original composition, a new score to the Chinese silent film Red Heroine. In Shanghai, the opening band for their show were two Shanghai-based DJs Laura Ingalls and Clement Pony, who perform as The Horses (or Acid Pony Club). They had prepared their own new, original composition film score, to a seminal (or so Wikipedia tells us) Swedish silent film called The Phantom Carriage.

Split Works pencil sharpener/top banana Archie Hamilton was quoted saying that Devil Music Ensemble and Acid Pony Club gig at Art Labor was the “best fucking show at JUE this year.” Now, the Ponys have finally uploaded their work to the wild wonderful Internets for all of you lucky people to watch, learn, and be amazed. Check it out below. Peep at the Ponys’ Soundcloud and keep updated with their distro label, Disques Poney.

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China Music coming of age

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It’s our 4th birthday.  4 years ago today, we wrote a somewhat snippy review of the first stadium show by a Western rock band in China. You can read again here Linkin Park at Hongkou Stadium in 2007. With age and maturity (!!) we understand better the difficulty of such a feat and also the significance of the show. It is only when such milestones are passed that they become standards from which we can move forward.

Uprooted Sunshine Shanghai, 6th Birthday

And while November marks four years of the Radar observing the huge growth and progress that has been made in China’s still nascent music scene, there are some other much more significant birthday celebrations this month and next that highlight the fact that China is beginning to see some experience added to the enthusiasm that has got us this far.

On Friday, we were down in Shanghai venerable old bomb Shelter celebrating 6 years of Uprooted Sunshine. China’s premiere roots and reggae outfit have been refuting the somewhat crazy notion that reggae belongs in China: the crowd at Vibronics, while still nominally expat had a more than healthy section of roots-loving Chinese fans. ChaCha, the main MC for Uprooted was performing a farewell show before heading off to Europe having been selected for this year’s Red Bull Academy. She will play at selected European festivals after the RBMA. This is all at Shelter, which of course is celebrating it’s 4th year in business at the end of the month. Lots of wonderful achievements wrapped into a tight little ball.

All the while, we’ve been following Carsick Cars as they seem to be raging through Australia on tour, and Hedgehog added to their US fanbase on their 3rd tour of the country in October. At the same time, we are over the moon to see Hanggai high up the bill on a mainstream Australian festival that we are planning to go to at Christmas.

Hedgehog Beijing band in New York with Xiu Xiu

Carsick Cars, Australian tour

Back to the birthdays for a second: our sister company Split Works is celebrating 5 years in the promotions business in China. a few hundred shows all over China and SE Asia, the JUE Festival, the Black Rabbit Festival, Wooozy and lots more. There will be 5 shows in 5 days for 5 years, featuring artists old and new: Trippple Nippples, the Iron Mic 2011 MC competition, Chad Valley, X is Y, Jay.Soul, Hamacide and Eat Alien Brain, a trancecore outfit from Chengdu….

Split Works 5 Years Old

Shameless self promotion aside, it is for definite exciting times for China’s underground music scene. Lots of festivals, lots of live houses, a few new labels: welcome to a brave new world of Chinese Music!

 

Josh Feola of Pangbianr talks to Wooozy

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Last month, our sister site Wooozy (purveyor of all that is interesting and indie in music in Chinese) conducted and subsequently published this interview with Josh Feola of Beijing based blog Pangbianr (which is also a purveyor of all that is interesting and indie in music in both Chinese and English). They kindly allowed us to reprint – here is part 1.

Pangbianr talks to Wooozy Wooozy Speaks to Pangbianr

SXSW last month, you were on the SXSW tour with Carsick Cars as tour manager. Have you been to such big festivals before?

Just to clarify, I wasn’t exactly Carsick Cars’s tour manager. Their trip was sponsored by Converse and they were also supported by their label, Maybe Mars. Since I’m from Texas and I “grew up” in the independent music scene in San Antonio and Austin, I know a lot of people who organize more underground, independent shows during South by Southwest. I also knew Carsick Cars from living in Beijing and running pangbianr. So it was a good opportunity to help out the band by booking some more local shows for them during their trip to Austin. In general I don’t really like big music festivals, but South by Southwest is different. It’s like a music festival spread out across dozens of venues every day for almost a full week. I went to SXSW a few times while in high school but mostly just to see my friends’ bands and more off-the-radar shows at houses and small bars that the majority of fest-goers wouldn’t ever hear of.

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Zhijiang Dream Factory

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The final curtain seems to be coming for the Zhijiang Dream Factory. According to the management, Shanghai’s first mid sized venue will be turned into offices in May.

Maybe Mars Showcase, Jue Festival, Split Works

The venue shot to prominence in early 2009 with a series of shows from Shanghai promoters including the inaugural JUE Festival shows (a Maybe Mars showcase and Demerit), Ratatat, Battles, and local showcase Get in the Van!

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The biggest weekend ever for the Shanghai music scene?

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March is a kicker for sure. After full houses at the MB Arena for the Eagles and Usher last week (more on that later), it’s the turn of the underground to bark loudest. We’ve been building up to this in China’s Southern Capital for quite a few years (don’t hate, Nanjing). While Beijing regularly sees a slew of great shows across any given weekend, Shanghai has never seen a weekend like this one before.

All venues are packed full of juicy goodness, from the JUE Festival offerings of Besnard Lakes and Vitalic on Friday night (plus a literary battle and the opening night of ENTER at Source), and a showcase from Maybe Mars bands Snapline and AV Okubo on Saturday night, to uprising local band Rainbow Danger Club‘s Where Maps End album launch, to Beijing band Hedgehog’s latest return to the capital, to the ambitiously titled “Longest Nite Ever”, an 8pm – 8am extravaganza over at the new Hennessy sponsored Mixing Room at the Mercedes Arena. Finally, there is a benefit for Japan run by the Beat Bandits. Run along to Lune around midnight to give your 20RMB to a good cause.

We are sure there are other bits and pieces happening, but this all seems to reflect a new appetite for live entertainment in Shanghai. There are more (and better) venues and with Mao Livehouse set to open next weekend, it finally looks as if Shanghai might be developing a live music scene worthy of her status as one of the world’s most important city… get out there and support your local music scene this weekend Shanghai.

Besnard Lakes in Shanghai -Jue Festival

The Rumour Mill

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As March swings in, so does the warmer weather (allegedly) and lots and lots of music. Alongside the aforementioned JUE Festival, you would have to be blind to walk around Shanghai and not see that Usher will be here next week (12/3). There are several Usher pre-parties around the town this weekend (apparently every single club is having one) and it’s no surprise that Shanghai is showing her penchant for blinged up R&B (did anyone else read that Usher has invented a genre for himself – Rev Pop?). Tickets are racing out the various doors, so gorge people, gorge.

Three days before (9/3), the Eagles will swoop in carrying their own sound and lights on their shoulders, so we can expect the acoustic strains of Hotel California to sound better than they have ever done at PartyWorld. Apparently tickets are also flying out of reputable outlets, so it looks like we might have a couple of pretty well attended big shows on our hands this month.

More importantly, what’s coming up? You may have seen more Bob Dylan rumours circling these shores. After the debacle of last year, it seems that the government have confirmed the permit just today (although it has since been deleted from the official website). You can see that royal goodness HERE. Does Bob have the ability to pull in arena capacities in Beijing and Shanghai. We have only 6 weeks to wait people.

(update: kungfuology got to this rumour before us we’ve just discovered).

And the last rumour – well, that deserves a post of its own.

JUE Festival tickets on sale now

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There are some big things happening in music and alternative culture in March. One of those things is the annual JUE | Music + Art festival, boasting a huge selection of international and local music and an equally large collection of alternative artiness: live design battles, literary deathmatches, improv, film screenings and lots more to boot, in various venues across Shanghai and Beijing.

An Amazon rainforest worth of programmes are going out around the two cities over the next few days and tickets are now onsale. Go to the JUE website for info on all of the above.

JUE | Music + Art, China

disclaimer: we are somewhat involved with Split Works, the company behind JUE.

Olafur Arnalds talks China to Drowned in Sound

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In March of this year, Split Works and Sonicbids brought Icelandic artist Olafur Arnalds to China for an 8 city tour as part of the annual JUE art and music festival. Over 3,000 tickets were sold. In Drowned in Sound today, Olafur talks about many things; he pays particular attention to the tour in China.

JUE 2010 | 冰岛Olafur 嘉宾

Check it out:

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Year of the Tiger

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We hope you all had a wonderful Chinese New Year.  It is now year of the Tiger, and you can expect the following from the year (according to City Weekend)

The Tiger in 2010:

Tigers are the courageous iconoclasts of the Chinese zodiac. Brave and competitive, you Tigers dive into challenges at work, in life, and in love with unabashed zeal. But in the Year of the Tiger, you big cats tend to get kinda insecure and emotional. And all those tender little feelings will manifest themselves in the worst way imaginable.

If you get an inkling that something’s not going to your liking at work, your first instinct will be to get impatient. Who cares if your actions will offend subordinates and bosses? Pounce first, ask questions later! In love, on the other hand, insecurity takes its hold on you like a niggling ache. At best, you’ll find yourself relying on your partner for affirmation. At worst, you’ll focus all your nervous energy on your other half, demanding that he or she change to your liking. Needless to say, that’s a lot of pressure.

So in 2010, Tiger, when you’re unhappy and you know it, and you really want to change the world, there’s one word for you: Don’t. The Year of the Tiger is truly unsuitable for making any big changes. You must view any bad decisions made as good experiences had. Control your temper and seek inner peace.

So what should we in the music industry expect from this year of the Tiger here in China?  Casting an eye into the immediate future, we don’t think we’ve ever seen a busier month for the small to mid-size part of the market.  Venues such as the Maos, Yugong Yishan, Yuyintang, the Shelter, new Beijing clubs Lantern and White Rabbit (2) are all full to bursting this coming month, and at the bigger end of the market, Korea’s Super Junior and the Backstreet Boys are moving in for some stadium action.

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