Trouble

During my first year of living in Taiwan I was under the impression all the Taiwanese were interested musically was light pop and the closest of heavy metal, punk or even grunge anyone came to was listening to Bon Jovi. The first Taiwanese band I saw were a group that all had music stands to enable them to play a Bon Jovi song. Not until a few years later I'd discover there was an underground scene. A-yue aka Chang Chen-yue (and various other versions of romanised Chinese) was described as the Taiwanese Enimen but this had more to do with his dress sense than his music on this album which alternates between electronic rock, light pop and grunge.

His music was a lot better than the Mando and Canto-pop I continually heard blasted when Enimen and Bon Jovi weren't contributing to musical hell. The first song translates directly into English as 'Fart' but is entitled 'Bullshit' which is a more accurate title. )0204 is about calling the phone sex lines that are advertised on late night Taiwanese TV. This album of course comes with an explicit lyrics warning and some A-yue songs are banned in China and Singapore. If I remember correctly gounanren translates literally into dog man woman which is Taiwanese slang for Bitch. So this isn't just a bunch of soppy love songs. I wore out my first copy of this album within two years.

You got the fucking trouble.

hoa bu hoa?

The video below is for "gou nan nu"

Entertainment you can bet on

Pic provided by Peter from the Pessimist Club

Today, for the first time in years, I bought one of the major music mags that I used to occassionally contribute to back in the early nineties. Back then they were free newsprint and getting black type on your hands was a joy that went with reading the latest reviews of albums. Nowadays they might even pay their contributors and as the paid writers sip their cappuchino, former writers read their overpriced glossy magazines in the shop instead of buying it. This month's Real Groove features an interview with Ima-Hitt records founder Brian Wafer. Amongst other things Brian mentions a guy from Wellington band, TAB dropping his pants on stage and setting his pubes on fire.

There was a time when the New Zealand betting agency, T.A.B. only allowed gambling on horses and greyhounds and in the late 80's they were running a television ad with the slogan "Entertainment You Can Bet On" and the slogan was the meaning of the band's abbreviated name. The band take in American 80's punk like Bad Brains with a reggae track to boot and they have a similar punch to early Naked Raygun. There's a punked up John Denver cover that was done in the days before ironic punk covers were the norm. In '89 I picked up this EP from a second hand record shop in George Street, Palmerston North which sold brand new Ima Hitt record releases. Only 500 copies of this record were pressed. Is it any good? Hell, yes. For me, Christmas Day starts in less than six hours.

So, Merry Christmas.

Clawhammer

Clawhammer are a somewhat unusual band. Although this could be expected as they take their name from a Captain Beefheart song. However this album was released on Epitaph records in the mid 90's when it seemed every band on that label was designer pop-punk for ESPN's extreme sports segments. There is a Captain Beefheart feel on this album but it seems to be filtered through the spirit of Dread Zeppelin. Remember them? Oh, by the way, Dave Naz, the Chemical People drummer plays the guitar and fiddle on Pablum.

Go to it!

Read this blog now

While looking for reviews of albums I already own I stumbled across this great album review blog written by an ex-music critic with a passion for music and writing. Michele was a reviewer who wrote for a local weekly and lost her job straight away due to giving Sugar Ray a bad review instead of giving the album a big push. She describes her posts as "more like sensory reactions than reviews; it's about what the music did for me, not what it should do for you". So the reviews in her blog are brief, personalized and to the point with minimum bullshit.

The reviews are of her personal music collection and goes from the quirky cool of Steel Pole Bathtub and Nomeansno to the metal of Metallica and Pantera and then to Neil Diamond and Steely Dan usually with no sense of shame. You know you're in for honesty and decent writing when the reasoning behind it is: "Just once I would love to see a smug critic put something totally mainstream amongst on his list amidst all the earnest and self aware bands. Like right in between Songs Written in a Bleak Afternoon in Prague and This Album Title is Really an Obscure Reference to a 13th Century Philosopher, there would be the latest offering from Papa Roach, with the explanation that it makes the critic feel like a pre-pubescent boy just discovering his dick, and he likes that".

Read it.

Black Sheep (Swedish punk)

Avoiding the delete button from the email were Swedish band Black Sheep. I'm not sure why exactly I bothered to check them out as they don't have any songs streaming on the internet. I guess it was the country of origin thing as a lot of Swedish bands are often ass kickers. I've been listening to Avskum's new one a lot lately so one thing led to another. The email described this band as hardcore. After downloading I don't hear that. What I hear is a band that sounds somewhere between Sham 69 and Angelic Upstarts after 8 minutes of recording their demo discovered Minor Threat and Gorilla Biscuits records. In this day and age, you've got to admire bands who snub the myspace route. Here's the info they sent me regardless:

Black sheep is a Swedish hardcore punk band that started out in the summer of 2008. BS plays straight hardcore without the nonsense parts. It´s more about heart then brain, it´s more about will than whats right or wrong. Black Sheep has recorded a 7 track demo in 12 minutes. These songs are about the daily life and ideas, thoughts about these. At the moment it´s available to download and will be a tape and cd-r in about a week. Both the tape and cd-r will have lyrics and liner notes with it. We hope that you will enjoy listening to the demo.


Swedish Weresheep

Smoking Popes - Born to Quit (1995)

A reader asked me to re-up the Smoking Popes Born To Quit album after the link died from lung cancer. As I swapped filesharing sites to Mediafire, which seems to be great unless it's a big file then it's a case of sticking to the evil I know as sendspace.
I only recently noticed the request for a re-up as like a lot of bloggers I don't usually go through the old comments. I also noticed a request for a Big Drill Car re-up but, sorry, the band have put their entire catalogue on i-tunes and would rather you get their music from there. It's quitting time.

Vas Deferens and Black Lick, Adelaide Tavern, Wellington, Nov 27 2008

Vas Deferens frontman Luger Douche got in touch with me through Youtube because he liked the way I'd filmed the UK Subs at Valve. He was hoping I could film his band playing there but due to circumstances that never happened. The major reason being the venue closed down due to family illness. It really is a shame as it was a huge supporter of underground music and had sound nailed compared to most other Wellington venues.

Wellington band, Black Lick played first. I was eager to check them out, because on their myspace site, their singer didn't sound a million miles away from Blaine Cook of The Accused. I arrived while they were playing and was impressed enough with their first live appearance to pick up their CD.




Above pic: Black Lick
Below Pics: Vas Deferens




Vas Deferens, who were playing 20th anniversary shows, turned out to be a punk covers band and played songs by Zodiac Mindwarp, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Guns 'n' Roses and a few others I can't remember. Even though I went home due to tiredness during their set I'm sure Luger Douche might hold some sort of record for the most beer drunk by a frontman during his own band's set.