Hello Beijing Cream readers. My name is Morgan and I work at this other website called Smart Beijing, wherein we specialize in nothing but Pulitzers — huge, rock-hard pulitzers. The Tao is outsourcing these Friday Musical Outros to me so he can concentrate on his true journalistic passion, which is dousing the fires of internet gossip and innuendo with the gasoline of truth.
Welp. T.G.I.F., Beijing Creampies, it’s Friday and you know what that means: more musical obscura from Youku to wind down the work week and ring in the weekend.
Real special video this week. Real next-level shit. What we’ve got here is a new experimental psychedelic four-piece coming out of the countryside, currently tearing up the weibo with their fresh, free-form mix of Eastern and Western instrumentation and Influences. Kind of defies genre classification, but if I had to take a stab at it, I’d say it’s like proto Bollywood circus music from an alien planet. The name of the band is “Rural Wedding Show,” and in this video they’re performing their break-out single, which is actually a cover of the “Cantina Song” from Star Wars.
The accompanying music video for the song also makes some bold aesthetic choices, matching in a visual language the explorative, avant garde performance of its subject. In particular the bits where the camera technician zooms in and out on the horn player’s breasts, in my reading, seems to be some pretty salient and biting commentary on censorship in China and the repression of the arts. Strong stuff. Pretty surprised it made its way past the censors, to be honest.
Anyway, word on the street is that there’s already some pretty big industry buzz around Rural Wedding Show, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they get snatched up by a label real soon. Something real special going on here. I think a lot of people are going to sit up and take notice.
Remember, you heard of them here at Friday Night Music Outro first. Finger on the pulse.
We kick out the jams, motherfuckers.
Morgan is the editor of Smart Beijing and fake DJs around town. Suggestions for Friday Music Send Outs and feedback to editor@smartbeijing.com.
I’m not being ironic or post-modern here; its just that I want to say something and I can’t.
Alrighty. Lets go free form. Should I feel embarrassed for actually liking this music? Its sort of 60s funk meets China actually. The band is so not cool. So… like they are really frigging peasants. Yes they stumbled onto a unique sound. Damn.