Revival of Chinese Alt-Rock

Wikipedia - Chinese Rock

2006-06-01T00:41:00.000-07:00

Chinese rock is often and inaccurately described as a style of music which combines Chinese musical instruments with techniques of Western-style rock and roll. But the essential nature of rock and roll music is that of attitude and lifestyle, which sees no borders or ethnic identity; therefore, "Chinese rock music" is in simplest terms, Chinese music with modern orchestration (with or without traditional Chinese musical instruments), exemplfied by attitude and lifestyle not compliant to mainstream market and state-approved entertainment. Chinese rock music as one recognizes it from the sound that has been developed in the United States, from the earliest 20th century incarnations in traveling bluesmen (ie: Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf, etc.), to the distorted sounds of metal-rock (ie: Ozzy Osbourne, Rage Against the Machine, etc.) rose in popularity in Mainland China from the Northwest Wind music movement in the mid-1980s, made headlines during the Tiananmen protests of 1989 and undergone varying periods of ups and downs in the 1990s with insurmountable difficulties in promotion and marketing in the face of censorship and limited listener base. Chinese artists and musicians whose musical expression that exemplify such attitudes and lifestyles enjoy far less media exposure and promotion of ideas from the state-controlled media than their local and international pop-music counterparts.

Alt-rock bands in Taiwan

2006-05-31T23:36:00.000-07:00

In Asian countries there’s a saying, that “guys with guitars…women follow them anywhere” A lot of famous alt-rock bands in Taiwan today has insightful, melodic music that touches the heart. Bands like Wu Bai + China Blue, FIR, May Day, Shin could be called the Rolling Stones of Asia considering their status level in Taiwanese music industry. Chinese alt-rock in recent years have moved on from the old rock, adding more digital sounds, mixes, and fancy keyboard sounds. They do not only play formula music but also creative and original pieces.

May Day
This 5 man band is known for it's simple and fast tempo rock music. Their lyrics are simple but reveals the truth in everyday life and love.

Wu Bai & China Blue
The music of Wu Bai and China Blue transcends language and nationality. You don't need to understand the lyrics to appreciate the talent, but he does writes simple but beautiful words. His lyrics are intensely poetic, and he uses a lot of classical Chinese to convey realistic messages.

FIR
With only 3 members in the band, FIR produces music like never before. They use a lot of keyboard and lots of mixes in their music.

Shin
Also a 5 man band the vocalist "Shin" has an amazing high rock voice.
Here is a part transcript of an interview done with Shin

No sex, drugs, just good olf rock 'n' roll
By Chang May Choon

BLAME it on the larger-than-life US rock culture.
Mention rock band and sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll come to mind.
It is a misconception that Taiwanese rock outfit Shin is constantly trying to set right.

'We're innocent!' protested hunky lead singer Shin, whom the band is named after.

In town for album promotions on Wednesday , he was quick to clarify that he and his fellow band members - guitarist Chris, bassist Max, keyboardist Tomi and drummer Michael, all in their 30s - do not live the life typical of party-hard rock stars.

Added Tomi: 'We do go out to relax and party once in a while, but not every day. Most of our time is spent on our music.'

In fact, the gang would usually gather at his house in Taipei to brainstorm music ideas.

Ten laborious years of jamming in smoke-filled pubs have also taught them not to live decadently like many of their peers, said Michael.

'We would not be standing here if we had chosen to indulge in things like cigarettes and alcohol,' he added.

'We set out to do what we want to do, which is rock music, and with hard work and a stroke of luck, we have succeeded.'

More can be found at: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,58791,00.html

Tuned Out @ Buddha's Festival

2006-05-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

Revival of Alt-Rock
Sorry I’ve been too lazy to put up what I’ve written but here it is.

Two Saturdays ago my band performed at The Buddha’s Birth Festival held at South Bank each year. Although it is to “celebrate” Buddha’s birthday but no offence, it’s really just an excuse for us to have fun and pretend to be busy. XD It is one of the tradition at Buddha Fest to have bands playing along with other cultural performances. Bands have to contact the organiser themselves and see if there is a time slot to perform. Normally bands start taking up times 2 months prior to the day but this year we approached them late…Therefore we did not get what we hoped to be the night time session but instead, 1pm when the sun is boiling hot and no one wants to sit down to listen. >< Bands usually get 1 hour to perform including set up and pack up time.

My band “Tuned Out” is a non-professional alt-rock band consisting of six professionally trained-to-be lawyer, pharmacists, scientist, entrepreneur & sound engineer. We reproduce cover songs of different languages and different music genres endeavouring to entertain audiences. Despite the name, its musicians play and sing in tune (most of the time). Formed in 2001 by guitarist Grant and drummer Joe, Tuned Out is one of the veteran Asian bands in Brisbane. Playing alongside are guitarist Stanley, bassist Taka, and vocalists Tom & ME!

This year at Buddha Fest we performed 7 songs all together; Tom 4, me 2 and we sang 1 duet. Tom sang 2 Chinese rock songs, 1 Japanese punk rock, and “Wake me up when September ends” by Green Day. I sang 1 Chinese pop rock and 1 Japanese punk rock. The duet was soft Chinese pop rock. We did not have time to produce any original songs this time due to time constraints but hopefully we will have some for our performance coming up in August. Our online album/blog/message board can be found here: http://www.wretch.cc/album/tunedout
p.s. I created it~ Sorry if most writings are in Chinese ^^”

Telling the world about my blog = ="

2006-04-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

My topic is on alternative rock, inspired by The Goo Goo Dolls.
My own band itself is sort of like it, we play pop rock and punk rock mostly (Chinese, Japanese & English) . Only that we don't have time to create original pieces so we are so far a cover band.
~^^~