Sub Jam

Sub Jam, the “experimental art organization” headed up by poet, critic and musician Yan Jun, just put online an archive that is a treasure trove for fans seeking China’s outer-edge music history. Compiling over ten years’ worth of events, publications and photos, there is a lot to go through. But anyone interested in a window into how the edge of yaogun mapped itself out should head there and check it out.

Sub Jam’s, and Yan Jun’s, story is you might say, typical of yaogun in its atypicality…

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Rockin’ In the Year of the Snake

In light of the Year of the Snake’s arrival, I put together a playlist, of sorts, for CBC Music. snake rattle rollAnything to direct folks away from the madness of  China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala variety-show-on-steroids-laced-with-Angel-Dust-and-acid madness, and what better way than with yaogun.

(though, on the Canadian Content front, we rejoice, if reservedly, as Celine Dion and Mark “Da Shan” Roswell will both appear. For those outside of China, Roswell is the most famous Canuck in China, having mastered a traditional comedic style and appearing in commercials, billboards, TV shows and more across China for the better part of the last two decades).

As always, there were a million tunes that didn’t make the cut, because, well, you gotta cut it off somewhere…

Check out my Snake Year rock playlist at CBC Music’s blog.