From the Vaults: The Foreign (Musical) Experience

Fans of This American Life were treated to a bit of China this week, with an episode entitled “Americans in China.” With that in mind, I figured I’d drop a little piece of my own China experience; an article that the Globe and Mail published back in May of 2005. Literally every foreign musician playing in China will have similar stories.

This is one of those stories.

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CCTV and Metal

Yaogun is still at that point where it’s news when it gets on television. Particularly when it is shown on China Central Television (CCTV) — though in the Chinese television landscape, there is no less “Central” television station, the impression one gets when one says CCTV is of the Government’s living room.

Suffocated (Cai Ming via midifestival.com)

So when word came, via Rock in China‘s Max and the rest of the gang at the RiC Facebook group that metal band Suffocated was on CCTV-5, it got my attention.

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Talkin’ yaogun with the Wall Street Journal

On a visit to Hong Kong earlier in the year to speak at the Asia Society, the Wall Street Journal sat me down to talk about a few tunes that represent yaogun’s evolution. Here’s me trying to sum up yaogun in three songs.

Suggestions for other representatives…?