“1 Škoda 2 guys 3 cameras 30000 pictures,” reads this YouTube description. (Škoda is a Czech car brand.) It’s an entrancing video, if only because we wish traffic always moved that fast in Beijing. It’s only too bad that the video’s not longer, but it looks like the guys already did a lot of work to produce... Read more »
Global travelers Maxwell Swann and Todd Van Duzer “won a 30-day all-expense-paid trip to China,” according to the Vimeo description. “Armed with a couple cameras, they explored almost all China has to offer two 25-year old college grads. Baby pandas, bungee jumping, monkeys, and so much more.” It’s a decent video, and might, if nothing else, inspire... Read more »
Michael Pettis's club XP will welcome Shanghai's Pairs tomorrow night, described by our music contributor as a "rad... nowave / shitrock duo." If you know what that means, you'll enjoy the show. They're joined by Gum Bleed, 16mins and Baby Formula. The song is the first single from Pairs's double vinyl album If This Cockroach Doesn't Die, I Will, which we're told is about people in the Shanghai music industry, and "really funny -- if you know who he's singing about." Music video by Dani Grant.
We last heard from The Freshest Kids in China when they were making this cool video of October's MIDI Electronic Music Festival in China. Well they're at it again: George Zhi Zhao has filmed a time-lapse of graffiti artist MELS of BEASTMODE CREW doing his thing at Shanghai's Moganshan Road. "There's a lot of things happening right now with Chinese youth creative / street culture and a lot of talented people that just haven't been given the right exposure yet," George writes to us. "That's the main idea behind the freshestkidschina project."
Still a legend, but Sir Elton John was looking slightly less fabulous than usual Sunday night despite his electric blue glittery jacket and matching glasses. This was my first major concert in China, so I was prepared for the unexpected. After all these years, I wondered if he'd still have it. I wondered how Chinese crowds would respond to such a legend, and I really wondered if he was going to play his Lion King stuff. I'll be honest, I completely, unashamedly love the Lion King soundtrack.
This picture (and the ones after the jump) is via Gonzalo the 3rd (update: originally posted to Ai Weiwei’s Instagram), and appears to have been taken today. Tipster Mark D writes in: Elton John dedicated this evening’s show to Ai Weiwei. Not exactly on the Bjork-Free Tibet scale of scandal, but still interesting nonetheless. The Bjork... Read more »
Are we even sure PSY knows how to rap? He lip-synchs every performance, right? And MC Hammer -- that dude. That dude, man. Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.
Shanghai favorites the Fever Machine will be in Beijing tomorrow to hold a release party for its two-song, 7-inch vinyl record, La Chupacabra. The guys will play a free show at Temple Bar starting at 9:30 pm, with the first 60 through the door receiving a free copy of the record. (They'll play Shanghai's Yuyintang on December 1, with free records going to the first 250.) The outfit's Beijing-based label, Genjing Records, describes it as combining "the swirling, spacey elements of psychedelia with progression song structures," with "melodic pop hooks" and the "grime of stoner rock and proto-metal without buffering out the dents." See for yourself: featured here, the album's title track.
