Weekend Update

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The Sound of the Xity reigns supreme this holiday weekend, so if you were planning on brushing off a few tombstones you best plan accordingly. Besides, the tornado of shows hosted by SotX, there’s plenty of other gigs to get excited about – check it all out below and as always take a garner at the calendar for more.

FRIDAY APRIL 4th

A band that needs to introduction – the one and only Hanggia – horse-whipping, beer guzzling, Inner Mongolian rockers are primed to release their latest opus of sweeping epic soundscapes that evoke the vast grasslands of Mongolia – Back To You – at Mako Livehouse. As foreign, exotic and grand as Hanggai’s sound is and will continue to become, even as they skyrocket to stardom here and aborad, when all is said and done, you could totally see yourself tossing back a few with them. And it’s all because of this song. Screw cultural differences when we can all just grab a beer. UK punk legends The Adicts bring their cockeyed croony boys to The One Club with support from Demerit. King Zhou and Jasmine Monk, both part of the Haystack Folk compilation I reviewed yesterday, will perform with others tonight ta Jianghu Bar. Garage rock, doo wops, and indie darlings take stage at XP including Heat Mark, Candy Monster, 16 mins and Fuzzy Mood. Meanwhile, metal and hard rock gets its due at Yugong Yishan with veterans Tomahawk, trip hop outfit CMCB, The Face, Sick Pupa, and Scae Constitution. Over at School indie blues rockers Hoochie Coochie Gentlemen take stage along with Dizzy Monkey, while over at the Blue Stream Bar Xinjiang flamenco outfit Tursun perfrom. Last, check out avant grade musician Fusha perform at Zajia Lab.

SATURDAY APRIL 5th

Celebrate everything 80s at School with this mashup of good times, vintage clothing shopping, and of course good tunes including new wave rockers Steely Heart, garage rock duo Heat Mark, synth punks The Big Wave, up and comers Drink, and more – with the notion that each band will perform an 80s hit. And if you dress up in 80s attire, you’re in for free. How is this not going to be awesome. Did I mention there will be a party bus that drives around all afternoon? Hook, line, sinker. A good buddy of mine tells me the only way to celebrate Qingming Festival is with death metal. I’m inclined to take him at his word considering that one of Beijing’s leading metal outfits, Frosty Eve, have made it a tradition to play every Qingming Festival – so let’s burn some ghost money and repay our ancestors with some good ol fashion death metal at Mao Livehouse with some help from veterans Narakam, Silent Resentment, and sludge metal group Never Before. All hail metal!! Day One of SotX at Tango brings the good vibes in the form of Tribal Trip, Polish group Dagadana, Fuel Fandango out of Spain, Russian artist Albert Kuvezin and Amsterdam ska-rock-flamenco group TemTemPies along with our own Longshendao and Suyang. The Old What? Bar is the defacto bar of spring time and when the stars align just right nothing beats it – tonight brings acid bluesmen Wu & The Side Effects, who simply don’t play enough nowadays, to the Forbidden City dive. At the Blue Stream Bar, minstrel rockers Bloody Woods join electronic duo Weval from the Netherlands as well as indie poppers Poshangcun. Meanwhile at Yugong Yishan, things get hot and steamy as electronic trio Red out of Taiwan join dark electro queens Nova Heart and electro rock and roll outfit MUMA & Third Party. Temple feels the world music as Neemah, Sanchuan, Tulegur, and Taan Towch join Depedro from Spain. The Kurt Cobain tributes begin tonight at Dos Kolegas as Silt & Lotus join Wacky Tobacco, Drunkard, CA, and South Koreans Dayfly for some grunge action. Finally, popular UK post punk revivalists White Lies perform at the One Club.

SUNDAY APRIL 6th

Day Two of SotX at Tango gets a lot heavier than the pervious day and I’m loving it, mainly the inclusion of South Korean instrumentalists Jambinai who received a lot of good press at SXSW this year and for their fantastic mix of post-rock and traditional Korean music – watch in awe. Also joining them are our own pagan metal outfit Nine Treasures, Yannan folk rockers Shanren, and sunny gyspy jazz trope Soundtoy – and the international side we got Les Tireux’d Roches out of Quebec, Maya Kamaty from France, Nine Treasures and Nsista from Brazil. This is a melting pot of genres, sounds, and cultures and it should be a treat. Speaking of blended brews, I have no idea how this lineup got put together at Temple but I’m down. I was taken aback this morning by Belgian group Amatorski’s stripped back sound immediately – simply beautiful synth pop with a post rock edge and jazz flourishes (aka completely the wrong type of music for Temple). On top of that we have Inner Mongolia folk rock outfit Ajinai, whose mix of contemporary and traditional has earned them quite the reputation with the bare foot stomping knee slapping bluegrass group the Randy Abel Stable rounding out the lneup with a DJ set from Longshendao frontman Guojian. Over at Blue Stream Bar, folk pop artists Welfan, Cuilongyang, Yangzhongguo perform. The last SotX event is the huge Yugong Yishan bash which brings over Isareli post rock electronic group Tiny Fingers (along with famous UK electronic producer Howie B and Daddy G of Massive Attack fame – our own trance rockers WHAI support. Kurt Cobain purists head to School where The Pace of Time and Jajatone perform or to Mao Livehouse where Fuzzy Mood, Stone Lion, Fire Bell and more pay their tributes. Finally, catch Mexican indie rock outfit Deer at XP alongside 16 mins.

MONDAY APRIL 7th

Punk mainstays The Flyx complete their mini tour today with a punk gathering at rock and rolls safe haven School – the old school punks are joined by those obnoxious rascals, The Diders as well as Joking Tasty, who claim to fame is their appetite for fiddles, and Found Amber. Expect the usual hooliganism for all you world music haters. Hehe. 40 RMB

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