Re-tros Preview + Contest: Win 2 Tickets

Win tickets to Saturday’s YYT show! Click through to find out how.

Here’s my review of what they did with Cut Off!:

Dark.

Very Dark.

I think its safe to put this in the Gothic Rock section.

Hedgehog 4/11 at YuYinTang

The place was packed and it was only 9pm. With the new renovations Yuyingtang’s manager Durn (Haisheng) has been working on, a lot more folks can squeeze in to get their live fix, and over 400 turned up for the show Saturday night. After getting us all excited with Yoi and Pinkberry, nice and cozy with Wild Cat (the Asian rock team), and then revved up with Crazy Mushroom slinging us around from a whisper to a scream, Hedgehog made a big entrance.

Editor’s Picks April 10-12

The doctor’s prescription is: music.

Interview: Brad Ferguson on the Hard Queen EP Release

Beijia Becca debuts with her first article, an interview with Brad Ferguson about Hard Queen’s hot release this week. Today Hard Queen will be releasing their first studio EP Holiday at YuYinTang. To warm up for tonight’s concert read the interview and listen to some of the tracks from the album, which you will get at YYT included with the entrance fee. See you there!

Noise Doesn’t Have To Be Annoying

Since the first RESO (Reconstruct the Experimental Soundscapes of Ourselves) concert in April of last year, this collective has managed to bring in a number of experimental artists from around China and the globe to educate the relatively naive ears of Shanghai denizens on non-conventional music. The most recent gathering was at YuYinTang on Sunday night and it opened with Montreal-based Dirty Beaches, a lo-fi ‘call-it-pop’ project of Alex Zhang Hungtai.

D.O.A. Tours China

D.O.A. has been rocking hardcore since 1978, when punk was just beginning. They were there producing and collaborating with the movement that would influence music, films, books, and fashion; and, let’s not forget, cause trouble too. Their first album Hardcore ’81 produced a new first name for rock and punk. Last October D.O.A. released their newest studio album Northern Avenger, and with more than positive reviews they are now beginning their tour to promote the album and celebrate their thirty-year anniversary. After touring Canada, they have arrived in China and this Sunday will come to play in Yuyintang. Layabozi interviewed their leader and founder, Joe Shithead, who invited us all to “Come and have a wild unbridled time at D.O.A!” … +++ check new photos from the show at YuyinTang

Leighfield goes it alone for Xmas

If there is one thing you can say about the British it’s that they love their sporting analogies. Listen to a conversation between two or more for a while and you’ll hear endless mentions of ‘fair play’, ‘playing with a straight bat’ or ‘knocking one out of the park’.
The one that came to my mind after seeing Luke Leighfield at Yuyintang on Christmas Day was undoubtedly ‘it’s a game of two halves’.
With his show split by a 20-minute break, those who stayed for the second half were [...]

Hedgehog Pie

It is with some reluctance that I write this post, because I had decided to try to minimize my writing about “rock” music (please excuse my ignorance of genres). While there are a good few rock bands that I absolutely love, I just can’t get that excited about a rock band that does everything well except have its own strong identity. For many people, going to a good, solid, rocking show is like pizza. Even if it doesn’t change the way they understand their role in the universe, it’s something that they need to have once in a while–or more often in some cases. In my case, if the pizza is not really really good, I’d just as soon not eat pizza. Hamburgers—ie jazz, stick with me people!—I’m not so picky about. If the band is really swinging and the soloist plays with conviction and energy, I can listen to clichés all night. Sure I’d rather be hearing someone’s totally realized unique self, but it’s a hamburger. Melrose Pizza I can definitely take or leave, emphasis on leave.