MV Monday: Auburn, The Boys, Nahash, The World Underground

The smoke has finally cleared – the hangover has lifted; the parents are gone; and I’m hitched! So back to business – and what better way to start the afternoon than with an assortment of videos – short and long – that showcase the music scene from here to there. Including: new vids from Auburn, Nahash, The Sound Stage, and The World Underground. Check it out.

Up and coming Beijing indie rock outfit Auburn, who release their debut last year, continue to make headway with the drop of their latest music video for ‘Then’. It’s not too gonna blow anyone’s mind but it’s a fine enough intro to the band’s sound and aesthetic appeal – grunge ballads? Frankly, it’s not a bad song – it’s like Britpop that’s trying really hard to be hard asses when all they wanna do is curl up in bed and watch reruns of Downtown Abbey. Grunge kids with soft hearts. Gotta love it. Nice studio though.

Love it – straight from the dark lord himself: “On March 17th 2015 Nahash was booked to open for Sludge Pop semi-gods Boris in Shanghai, but after the omnipotent Cultural Bureau cancelled 2 out of 3 dates off the Boris China tour we had to cancel our slot at the Shanghai date. Undefeated, we put together this little movie that was supposed to be shown instead of our live performance, but that got cancelled too because of licensing issues. So now we\’re posting this on the internet, it\’s made out of old 16mm films that Tina Sprinkles salvaged from a dusty junk pile, it depicts the China that everyone thinks of, martial arts, monkey king, fierce women and beautiful scenery. Unfortunately this China is long gone… Nahash\’s music thrives from this super-polluted environment to create their own personal take on dystopian drones, doom and black metal.”

Here’s a little shout-out to The Sound Stage, Jonathan Alpart’s (government funded) video series that highlights bands across China almost weekly – a series that doesn’t get enough play here. This particular episode I had the pleasure of taking part in as cameraman, as unsung UK punk heroes The Boys, salvaged their botched China tour, with a few under-the-radar gigs and an interview session with the Sound Stage, with a helping hand from Cool Ghoul (aka Darryl Pestilence), an encyclopedia of punk himself, Chachy, lead singer of Round Eye, and Shanghai photographer Rachel Gouk. And while, above is the ‘Chinese version’ there is a slightly longer uncensored version on youtube.

The World Underground is finally up online! The new documentary series headed by John Yingling, a US native, has finally unveiled it’s first episode, which focuses on China’s indie rock scene. It follows Yingling, as he joins Maybe Mars’s P.K.14 on their China tour – through Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, and of course Beijing. Lots of interviews, lots of live footage – and at an hour and a half – it’s quite the archive – though one that leans heavily on the Maybe Mars/D22 side of things. Nevertheless, pretty cool stuff – one that has me more intrigued by the scene in Hangzhou. And hey, there’s a quick shot of me doing a terrible job of stamping zines for Jingweir (I’m more of a stapler guy). So that’s cool. Expect to find Episode One on youku some time in the near future.