MV Tuesday: XXYY, Mr. Asbo, Underground China, Haozi

Get your vid kick as we bounce through the latest from electro jazz producer Mr. Asbo, Shanghai power punk outfit XiaoXinYiYi, Beijing-based pop folk singer songwriter Haozi, and Cool Ghoul’s newest media rabbit hole – China Underground. Strap in your eyeballs already.

Acid jazz indietronica producer Mr. Asbo, has been on a tear as of late with their latest music video endeavor – ‘Mango Boy’ – which gives noir a latin groove and a post-bop makeover. The sexy black and white video has already grossed over 750,000 views on the Chinese website LEtv over the past few weeks and has broken into the top 3 watched videos overall on the site. Not too shabby. The video perfectly captures the tropes of noirs and contemporizes it. Check out an interview with MR. Asbo over at AWEH and a peek into the conceptualization of the video.

Power pop gets its kicks down in Shanghai in the form of Xiao Xin Yi Yi (XXYY), the three-piece band that includes fellow blogsmith Mike Herd. The band’s shameless throwback back to the high-octane punk pop rock and roll of my youth gets the MV treatment courtesy of Live Circus. ‘Drive’ is exactly the sugar rush it sounds like, with some nifty cartoon effects filtered throughout to give the live performance an even more animated feel. Supposedly this is one of the band’ last woorah’s so enjoy it.

UNDERGROUND CHINA episode 01 from Shanzhai Laowai on Vimeo.

Pestilence Pictures International, the brainchild of everyone’s favorite true blue punk Cool Ghoul, releases their first episode of Underground China which will strive to “profiling some – of the many – truly underground – bands active in China. Interviews and exclusive performances (and eventually performance art, original animation, and more) from bands that are usually ignored by the lazy \”parachute journalists\” that occasionally drop by China for a cup of coffee for a token article about what\’s going on in music here.” 100 % D.I.Y. and non-profit and is downloadable over at Ghoul’s vimeo page. Episode One features folk punk duo Little Punk and quaint street punks Diseased Fruit. Love it. Can’t wait to see what Cool Ghoul has in store for the next one.

Chinese folk music with singer / songwriter, Haozi, fresh off the release of his latest, Wandering Wanderer, heads back to his roots in the video for ‘Lanzhou’. Haozi’s music which utilizes many styles and genres like post rock, folk, and reggae comes to a head in the singer’s love letter to the Shanxi city. Reminds me of a few towns outside of Xi’an. Bask in the nostalgic and old school lifestyle. Catch Haozi on June 19^th at Jianghu Bar.