What are we?

Well, sooner or later I commonly end up on that question. It’s my sport. Probably very much related with my place of origin. Anyhow, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I took the summer off from music, I needed to stop listening to the outside, and pay some dedicated attention to my selves.

Music is and has been a constant source of life for me, and I felt I was having an overdose of sounds. When making the final decision to start or not Layabozi, I imagined this was a risk I was taking if I was going to begin to develop a project dedicated to talk about it. And it happened, most of all, because there’s a lot of music I’ve listened to that didn’t really add one good thing to my life, and there’re all the stories around music that finally passed me the bill too.

I had the bad idea to research about it, and I found some discussions that mentioned this as a downer of writing about music, some of them with very scary stories about it.

Talking with some friends, I learned that some of them, musicians, have gone through this thing with music too. But they’ve survived it. So it’s possible to survive it.

Hearing too much music in China has definitely caused some damage in me, my ears have lost some sensibility to start with, and well my heart has been broken too, this thing that happens here with bands that are starting to do well, and sooner than later they find the end of their road, because one of their members is leaving to other city or country, or because becoming bigger in their heads than on the stage they make disappointing mistakes, and anyway bye bye stage. Plus the multicultural condition, that is much deeper than the mix of North American (rock, jazz) music with China. The parallel worlds coexisting on one stage, the constant reminder that there’s actually a division of the foreign world from the Chinese world, a strange situation that still does not find comfort enough to grow and create a solid local identity. Of course, it’s not only bad news, there are some good bands to talk about,  some bands, musicians, and projects that are collaborating with our development. Other way, it would be hell, and really silly to keep on doing this.

Well, all these things, you know, hearing people that’s investing their money, their time, and their dreams in the Chinese music scene, hearing them feeling worried, and sometimes hopeless…  it’s simply hard to keep it together when hearing too much of these things!

I’ve been there on moments of celebration too, of course, the JZ Festival of 2008, The Antidote Festival at Zhejiang on 2009, STD’s concert with Ratatat on 2009, The Rogue Transmission coming back with a new sound to Anar, the warehouse party by Void on 2009. You know, great moments when it seems that we are moving forward and getting things done for better and more music to come to us.

But, those are events that are like islands in an ocean of uncertainty, or that’s the feeling I get after hearing so many stories of disappointment, and okay, I’m trained to listen to people’s troubles, but in this case it affects me too, and it got me.

This is complex. And actually, instead of needing to be analyzed, it needs to find a solution, a musical identity that’s connected with the real environment of the bands, and a developed sound good enough to capture the attention of the people living in the same dimension of the band. When these things work well, then the listener identifies with the music, and with the musician, and then they belong to each other. A music scene that before being proud is consistent, that can stand by itself and live of its productivity, and that’s not a hole sucking the energy, the motivation, and the money of the investors. A music scene that’s creative and skillful. Those are things that we need, that I’d love to have here, that’s why I’ve spent my energy with music, and on Layabozi.

Coming from South America, I grew up in a world where these kind of things were happening too, and with a much tough social condition, censorship was really hard, military forces were over the artist constantly, lack of resources was the every day’s bread, and hope was a dream of fools. But the battle was won, and the day that the words “rock latino” were pronounced for the first time, we all knew it was real, it was good, it was us. And it was not because Latin America thinks whatever is Latin is better, but because we could just hear it was good, it made sense, and it was solid in its technique. So, to me the consolidation of Chinese music scene, indie music, rock, electronic, jazz, whatever, the style is, is not a funny dream, it’s something I can (could) see happening. But the trip has been way harder than I expected.

Anyway, I can flow with the waves, and I don’t really believe too much in plans, so I can adjust to the challenges of the present time. I just  needed to find my balance with music again.

I know, these are a lot of thoughts to throw out just like that, I could write and talk about this for hours, but this is not the moment for that. This is the moment to come back to music.

So. One of the things that helped to make me tired was that many time I found myself on a situation I had to be at three gigs at the same time, and well, still I can’t find the way to be omnipresent. So while I’m still a common human being, my picks will be those I will actually go to, although probably some of the “if I could, I would” will come out once in a while.

Enough.

Let the music talk!

When I was talking before about the need for a solid identity this was one of the bands I was thinking I have to hold my hope to, there are few, but yes they exist. Boys Climbing Ropes is probably one of the most Shanghainese bands that you could find out there. One that can pride on their survival through the years too, not many yet, but more than many bands can count yet.  Perseverance, plus the focus on the right objective, plus practice for the pleasure of playing better, these are basic tips of survival I’d say, but so many times taken for granted and forgotten.

So, if you are one of those uninformed and lost dudes, thinking that there’s no rock in China (they exist, unfortunetelly), you should probably learn to be more informed, it’s always a good time to start to follow your own needs. I’m expecting some serious head banging, strong yells charged with emotional release, and new songs too.

The Fallacy will be opening.

After that concert, I’ll probably go to Logo to cool down, but that’s enough for a night. Home will do the rest.

Starts at 9 pm

Address: 851 Kaixuan rd. near Yan’an Xi rd.

Price: 40 rmb at the door

Saturday  September 11th (btw… I’m Chilean I grew up immune to this date)

Among the many bands I’ve listened around House of Blues and Jazz and JZ, one of my top favorites was the one formed by Theo Croker, Tobin Chodos, Charles Foldesh, and Rob Atkins. They had me at the first song of their first night in HOBJ. Now after three years, Theo and Charles, who are now Shanghai residents, meet again with Tobin on a stage.

Theo is a talented natural trumpet player, Charles is a hell yeah! Drummer, and Tobin is one my favorite piano players of the many I’ve listened in Shanghai’s jazz scene. Rob is not here now to join them on the bass, but Curtis is, I can’t really describe Curtis playing yet, I’ve listened to him playing many times, he is a great bass player, but still I don’t know him that well to get his musical essence, I’ll get it soon though. With them is Andreas Boiarsky, a very cool sax cat, and Arlene Estrella with her strong voice to croon.

Drinks are kind of expensive there, and the curtains of the room did distract me a lot when I was there the first time. It’ll be less disturbing now, I hope, if not, I’ll have to drink more. Who cares, as a matter of fact these guys could be playing in hell, and I’ll go to listen to them. They have power, and they know how to use it, and they are doing again one of these crazy gigs of playing six nights a week together, that are a big trip for a band. So, I’ll be going to listen to them periodically.

Starts at 9pm

Address: 20 Nanjing East Rd. near The Bund

Price: no entrance, but be ready to spend, or drink later.

From Peace Hotel I’ll stop by JZ. Saturdays there are getting interesting. I’ve heard Red Groove, Lawrence Ku’s new funk band, is pretty awesome, and I want to listen to them. Afro Sonic Orchestra, is Theo’s new project, they are doing really nice music, and I’m totally digging their Temptations-like choreographies. And the Jam Sessions are the spot where to feed yourself with music.

Starts at 10pm

Address: 46 Fuxing rd. near Yongfu rd.

Entrance: usually 30 rmb, and yes drinks here are not cheap is true, but they are well done.

I can’t be at two places at the same time, but I can come and go between two that are near by. So this is the case. I haven’t been at any of The Antidote’s parties during this summer, and I’m missing The Shelter too, so with this one I kill two birds with one shot.  I don’t really know these dudes playing this night, I’m sorry if I was supposed to know them, but I know The Antidote is always bringing nice music for my ears, so I will go to find out more about them right there.

Starts at 10 pm

Address: 5 Yongfu rd.

Price: 40 rmb and here I can have all the cheap beer I want.

Last Sunday I went to meet a friend for a beer to Logo. I wasn’t there a Sunday in ages, I was happy to find out they have a new set of drums, and nice people happy to play music for fun, and even some of them were actually good musicians. I remembered I used to go in the search for new guys coming to join the scene, looking to form bands, and interested on starting to do some music. So, I probably will go again this Sunday, it’s always nice to have a beer with friends at Logo, after all it’s almost like my back yard.

Starts around 10.30pm

Address: 13 Xingfu rd. near Fahuazheng rd.

No entrance, of course, cheap drinks, and you can get ice cream at the convenience stores around.