Horse Radio – One Day

Inner Mongolian Beijing-based outfit Horse Radio return with a new single – the buoyant and exploratory ‘One Day’. The band continues to inject elements of krautrock, psychedelic music, electronica and experimental tones into their ancestor music – giving them room to breathe and allowing them to chart their own course. The video is full of gorgeous vistas of the Mongolian grasslands.

Steve Rocks – I CAN BE YOUR FRANKENSTEIN

88risng electronic producer and musician Steve Rocks, also known as the rocker and vocalist behind synthpop outfit Brides Crisis新娘危机, brings his love for 70s/80s asian pop and vintage rock and roll to mad life on his latest single ‘I CAN BE YOUR FRANKENSTEIN’. Considered a ‘sadomasochistic love story full of conquest, compromise and submission’ the music video is a cheerful pop art concoction, evoking something you might come across on MTV in the mid-80s.

gilded forest – Are You Happy Now?

While Beijing-based neo folk-laced indie rockers gilded forest have found themselves separated geographically the band is still very much active – and they’ve got a new single to prove it!  ‘Are You Happy Now?,’ a slow burn of a song, gets a neon-drenched MV courtesy of Cynthia Lin and Dawei. Centered on the insomnia struggles of lead singer Queyue who eventually falls deep into a dream world of swirling colors and raucous sound alongside her fellow bandmates. The band will be hitting the road in Europe at the end of April.

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Last Goodbye – Memory
Gum Bleed – Civilization Crime
Future Orients – Motto (demo)
Spin Axis – 在地铁隧道里看见森林
Not in Catalog – Start Stop (live)
WHAI – Happy & Triste
Rhonda – Laconic Youth (live/recorded by Shanzhai Laowai)
JaJaTao – Comrade Lover
Horse Radio – Crow

Special edition mixtape

– catch Future Orients, Not in Catalog, WHAI, and december3am (formed from the ashes of Horse Radio) at Schoolhouse Rock Vol. 2 at School Bar on September 2nd

– catch Last Goodbye, Gum Bleed, Spin Axis, Rhonda, JaJaTao at Autumn Harvest Fest at DDC on September 3rd

The post LBM Mixtape No. 103 first appeared on .

Interview conducted by Michael Cupoli

Lao Du is an amazing drummer who has been kicking around in a number of bands for years now. These bands include the lineage of Taan Towch, Horse Radio, and now the newly formed december3am. We discussed the end of Horse Radio, who oddly had their last show organized by Live Beijing Music, and their evolution of becoming december3am. Catch their first show on May 12th at DDC.

What is your background in music?

As a boy I was sent to an evil reptile flute teacher every Wednesday morning, and later to an old choleric czeckoslowakian to learn the trumpet. It wasn\’t about music, it was all about what they called education. My musical initiation was the discovery of that mighty Boom Tchak, the glorious 咚呲哒呲. Playing the drums seemed like a very reasonable choice. I was thirteen when I formed a band with two friends, doing mostly german punk covers of bands like Slime, Toxoplasma and Die Toten Hosen. A year later, in 88, I went to a Slayer show and that felt like a car crash, I left a different person. Not that I was into metal music much, I preferred punk and hardcore. The next ten years I was busy in various bands, playing all over Europe in squats and clubs. In the late 90s, I managed to get in and out of a degree course at a renowned Swiss Jazz school. Year 2000 I moved to Taipei and played in some bands there as well, including 瓢虫 the Ladybugs. I came to Beijing 2003 and didn\’t touch a drumstick for seven years. In 2010, after moving to Tokyo, I picked it up again, playing in a dadaist punk duo with a Japanese singer/guitarist who is now a buddhist monk.

How long were you in Horse Radio for? What is the history of the band?

I joined them in August 2013 I think. They were called Taan Towch at the time and already at it a year or two.

Horse Radio was listed by Live Beijing Music as one of the best bands for 2014. How did this honor change your life?

Instant stardom. Live Beijing Music was always very kind and supportive.

Since I have a strong feeling you aren\’t of Mongolian descent was there any sort of initiation ritual or hazing that was involved with joining Horse Radio?

I think there was no time for rituals. They had this big festival show coming up, so they were more concerned about me learning all the songs within a couple of days. And no, no hazing, they respect the elderly.

Horse Radio had four members in it and now it has regrouped as two piece called december3am. How did the change come about?

I quit the band. Actually we were a five piece originally. I don\’t know, I just couldn\’t see a future. Investing so much and being broke all the time. So it was obvious that the next logical step would have been to go on TV, join 中国好歌曲 or whatever, or sign with some label. It\’s all good, I can understand that, just for me personally that wasn\’t an option. Also people wanted to sing along to the hits and expected songs that transported certain grassland romantics, Mongolian cliches. The pure and happy song and dance of the ethnic minorities broadcast on Chinese television everyday, while in fact the grassland is all coal mines, power plants and fences, and we try to make our way across a street in Beijing, through heavy traffic and smog.

Musically too, there were limits. We started to do these long improv pieces, and not everyone of us was comfortable with the direction some songs took. At the end of last year we decided to record some of the new material. It was a kind of desperate attempt to keep the band together, but the results were a disaster. We haven\’t released any of it. I\’m very glad and thankful to have been a part of the band, and break ups suck. But than again, bands form and bands split, it\’s Rock\’n\’Roll. The last show Horse Radio played was on December 26. 2015 at Temple in Beijing, it was organised by Live Beijing Music.

Why is the band called december3am? Does this time have some special meaning to the two of you?

Diciembre 3 a.m. is an album I like of a Spanish band called Migala. We stole the name. It\’s kind of inclusive, not a specific date. I guess most good people are asleep at that time. Some still drinking for sure, some freezing, or maybe you just woke from dream. december3am could happen to anyone.

Last November for the Beijing Underground Showcase No. 2, the two of you performed as the Two Horses Duo. It was quite a different sound from Horse Radio even though you played some of the same songs. The sound more post-rock with a jazz feel to it. Is this similar to what we can expect from december3am?

Yeah. I don\’t know about post-rock and jazz. I never made it post the rock and the roll. I called it postpostpre-rock which is complete nonsense too of course. Horse Radio hasn\’t regrouped, december3am is a whole different animal. Even if we would do some old songs, the whole vibe is changed, it\’s another chemical bond, less stable. We\’re currently meeting daily, trying to figure things out.

I seem to run into you at Cellar Door quite often. What is your favorite drink there?

Until not long ago I used to be a professional session drinker, cheap Lager and Jameson, and I drank like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately that doesn\’t work any more. Now I walk my demons on a leash

The post Interview: Lao Du first appeared on .

While we take a step back and begin plotting our next moves for 2016, LBM decided to give this year one final rocking evening to remember. And tis the season for giving, so for this post-Christmas night, Saturday, December 26th at Temple, we\’re gonna give you two performances that\’ll keep you toasty and satisfied – Inner Mongolians rookies of the year, Horse Radio, who conjure up the sounds of the grasslands and then some and are a band that delivers on all fronts and isn\’t afraid to dip their toes into other genres – serious talent who are turning into a crowd favorite. They will be joined by one of Beijing\’s most underrated bands, Perpetual Motion Machine, whose traditional Chinese rock revisionism has kept folks enthralled and full for years. Sounds unique to China that will keep spirits high, and the beer flowing. Mark your calendars, casue it\’s gonna be a good one!!!!!!!

What: LBM Post-Christmas Bash

When: Saturday, December 26^th

Where: Temple (206 Gulou DongDajie)

Lineup

Horse Radio

Perpetual Motion Machine

The post LBM Offline: Horse Radio, Perpetual Motion Machine Xmas Bash (26.12.2015) first appeared on .

South Acid Mimi Dance Team – NUNUDUGU (Dec. 25th Yugong Yishan)
Gatsby in a Daze – C-O-Double M-O-N (Dec. 26th Modernsky Lab)
Perpetual Motion Machine – 斩黄袍 (Dec. 26th Temple)
Queen Sea Big Shark – 时髦人都好Fancy (Dec. 24/25th Modernsky Lab)
Horse Radio – Desert Rock \’n’ Roll (Dec. 26th Temple)
Wogui de Huoche – 做梦大王 (Dec. 26th Modernsky Lab)
Dawanggang – 财神们 (Dec. 26th Post Mountain Space)
Nova Heart – Right Wrong (Dec. 25th Yugong Yishan)
Soundtoy – 星航者发现号 (Dec. 26th Yugong Yishan)

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