Yaogun yucksters Second Hand Rose have a big show coming up: They’re bringing their Chinese-opera-folk-comedy-tinged rock to Beijing’s Workers’ Gymnasium on December 7. The stadium, which has hosted, among many others, Bob Dylan, Deep Purple and 2HR’s fellow yaogunner Xie Tianxiao (aka XTX), holds upwards of 12,000. So big is the upcoming show that the band has, in the lead-up to the big event, produced not just a promo video, but, looking to Serve the People, produced some helpful how-to’s.
Music Fest Deja Vu
The deja-vu encountered by looking through the Modern Sky Festival’s early-October 2013 lineup inspired the penultimate post by the now-done-with-Tumblr Slink Rat. It’s a deja-vu this blog has also had, and one that all fans of yaogun and observers of China’s growing festival scene should, too. In short, Slink Rat questioned why, with as genuine a curiosity as one might intuit from a blog post, it is the case that the same bands play the festival every year. To that we might add the concern that this is happening across the festival landscape in a way, Slink Rat points out, that wouldn’t fly elsewhere.
(Don’t) Honk for Midi
For almost as long as they have been putting on festivals, the folks at Midi, who have been doing it longer than anyone else, have aligned with various causes and organisations to raise awareness for a range of issues. In announcing the event that will kick off 2014’s Midi season, they have unveiled their latest guiding principle.
Baishui at the Movies, and in Texas
Voices, Idols, Yaogun, Midi and the Mainstream
I have, in this space and others, previously written of yaogun’s experiences with and breaking into the mainstream. There is yaogun’s appearance on The Voice China (中国好声音)’s past episodes as well as the show’s recent addition to the judges’ panel of rocker Wang Feng (and this little ditty, “I Want To Rock,” sung by Liu Yating who says she started singing rock when she “got fat”); Cui Jian’s best-known song sung, in competition, by a Super Girl contestant; yaogun soundtracking CCTV’s World Cup coverage; and more.
Now, more news from yaogun’s adventures in the mainstream—or is it the mainstream’s adventures in yaogun…? 逃跑计划, the band formerly known as Perdel, and now known by the translationally more accurate (though not as much fun) Escape Plan.
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