At the end of May, I headed down to Shanghai to cover the Plastic People of the Universe. Who’s that you say? Well, they’re a Czech rock band hailing from Prague who formed in 1968. Obscure they may be, but they were one of the foremost representative of Prague’s underground culture, at a particularly shaky time in the region (cough) and have a potent fanbase they won over with their psychedelic brand of garage rock that leans more toward avant-garde and Zappa territory (hence the name). And yeah – they rock. Didn’t have time to take photographs (but stay tuned for a film piece on them) but I did manage to catch a inebriated afterparty set from none other than Wu Tiao Ren – the Guangzhou crooners who along with tons of other esteemed musicians (including Hai Qing and members of Omnipotent Youth Society) belted out some ramshackle jams with a rotating crew of misfits. Can’t say I expected I would be hanging at Czech restaurant well past midnight watching Wu Tiao Ren but that’s Shanghai sometimes.
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