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Friday, October 9, 2009

Do You Like Rock Music?



































What a great combination for an alternative music band show.
The Yours ,a local outfit whose heavy,alienated sound is a bit like Spacemen 3 jamming with the Telescopes and British Sea Power ,whose mood can shift from the darkly uplifting,anthemic 'Waving Flags' on 'Do You Like Rock Music?' to the melancholy 'No Man is an Archipeligo' on' Man of Aran'and whose preoccupations range from subatomic particles ('Atom') to the environment (LIghts Out For Darker Slies').
Grappa's Hong Kong was packed to witness this gig set up by Justin Sweeting and the People's Party.Local heroes The Yours opened with their dark ,shoegazy sound and lots of new songs to be featured on their soon to be released album.Like the main band they have lots of passion for rock music although their style can be a little harder to get into and they seem to enjoy creating a moody,alienated sound which defies labels..Listening to their song 'Tasteless' ,you might well hear echoes of My Bloody Valentine but there's a lot of other things in the mix.To their credit ,they are one of the Hong Kong bands who have already created interest in publications like Drowned in Sound for their debut EP.
http://myspace.com/theyours
British Sea Power began their set in a fairly low-key way before climbing the heights with songs taken mainly from 'Do You Like Rock Music' apart from the anthemic 'Please Stand Up', the cinematic 'The Great Skua' and fan favourites 'Carrion' and 'Remember Me' but the band demonstrated that you can be a good indie band if you write good songs and a great indie band if you just defy genres like indie,rock,britpop,and experimental,mix them all together and see what happens.
The band have been described as eccentric live performers but the lead vocalist Scott is more like a performance artist than a rock star as he windmills his arms,crowd surfs and encourages the band and audience to come together and to revel in the unique musical experience that is a British Sea Power gig.Unforgettable.
By the time of the encore,he's invited the support band on stage to jam,bodysurf and have some fun with the band,the audience,everyone.I think the last song was 'A Wooden Horse' but I'm not sure,such was the mayhem created by one of indie's best live bands.


Rockraiser Festival





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The Hong Kong indie kid is finally coming of age on a day which saw a host of great bands lining up for a kids' fundraising extravaganza just hours before the awesome British Sea Power took to the stage. Thanks to Kap Liu of Crazy Young Master Hong Kong had its very own all day mini-festival featuring well-established Beijing bands New Pants and Queen Sea Big Shark alongside local rising stars Chochukmo and Modern Children just 1 week after our beaches were rocked for 3 days by more than 30 bands in the Silvermine Bay Music Festival.
Hoghlights of the show for me were sets by Modern Children and Chochukmo and the aforementioned Beijing garage-punk rocksters Queen Sea Big Shark and New Pants.Unlike the earlier scheduled version of this event back in April, we had a sunny afternoon to rock out beside the South China Sea.
Typically for this event, there was a relaxed family atmosphere with lots of extremely young rock fans getting into the action.
Modern Children are one of the many promising young bands on the Hong Kong indie circuit with lots of ideas, a unique folk-rock style and a perfect band for the occasion, kind of like Arcade Fire on an up day meets Noah and The Whale. Perfect indie folk-pop.



http://myspace.com/modernchildrenmusic
Chochukmo are the perfect band for any event as their playing can flow betwen pop, rock, latin and jazz.
Jan, Mike, Lester and Kitty aka Chochukmo are really getting better and better in their live shows.Having just returned from a successful tour they've also been voted best new band in Hong Kong and are currently producing their debut album.One of Hong Kong's most quirky and individual bands, they play in a style that encompasses, rock, pop, and latin with lead vocalist Jan's mercurial vocals leading the sonic intricacies and shifting mood changes.The band played a great set with favourites like 'Caroline'and' Number One ', closing with a jangly upbeat version of' Head To Toe '

http://myspace.com/chochukmo
Queen Sea Big Shark generated the kind of excitement that local fans always display for visiting mainland cousins as the band powered through their set, opening with a gentle electro-pop number before launching into their more typical spiky, hook-laden, new wave garage rock with synthesised loops in 'No, No No!', 'Kiss, Kill Bang!', 'Love is Pop'and other favourites from their debut album, complete with pounding drums from Xiao Wu, infectious guitar riffs from Cao Pu , strident bass from Wang Jinghan and Fu Han one of the current Beijing's scene's most appealing vocalists.The band were chosen to support The Yeah Yeah Y eahs.

http://myspace.cn/queenseabigshark