"Alternative Music" in Mandarin

I'm WAY behind in reading this post.  Gotta catch up!

Joachim said:  "julesong's initial request regarding Chinese Fusion Folk now hosts somethings slightly different. What is this mushroom pillow stuff?"

I dunno about mushroom pillows, but yep, I'm still searching for Asian Fusion Folk.  :)

The correct link for the Can't Take the Sky radio station where I play all the Asian Fusion Folk I can find is here:  http://www.live365.com/stations/julesong

foleadu - "I'm *so* glad you've discovered Abigail Washburn, too!  Although I've enjoyed her collaborations as/with the Sparrow Quartet, I really enjoy her solo CD even more.  Do check out the few pieces in Mandarin she did with Uncle Earl that I listed above, too.  I got to see Abigail and the Sparrow Quartet perform in Seattle last month, along with Earl Scruggs!  Bela got to play with Earl, and it was fantastic.  :)

I just bought Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet's most recent CD, which is self-titled.  She sings a few songs in Mandarin and you can hear Chinese influences on other songs, though the main style is bluegrass.  It is very relaxing.  She sounds great and the other musicians (including banjo god Bela Fleck) are stellar.  Definitely worth checking out.  Hope she comes to China on tour.

This site has some interesting info on Chinese writers:

http://paper-republic.org

Translator Cindy Carter also provides some translations of lyrics by Second Hand Rose: http://paper-republic.org/index.php?/cindycarter/ (scroll down almost to the bottom)

Happy Hardcore is my favourite style of music. ;)

bazza: My first thought was: This may be in whatever language, it doesn't matter as there's nothing to really understand, anyway. Then I got to the sequence with some kinda intelligible text, but it's probably not really necessary. bazza, you do have some strange inclinations at times. ;-)

I'm partial to a bit of Gabba, I think that would be fun in Chinese. ;)

I'd remove them if we could edit posts. ;)

I just think its funny how you have to zoom down through this thread to pause the music...Felt like an old man when I first went through and was not realizing that I was hearing three competing tunes..."They call that music! these young whipper snappers have gone too far." :)

julesong: Maybe Hsu-Nami with Er-hu Rock Fusion is something for you?

Although, this time there's not much Chinese music, dragonradio.hk has a new show out.

Either available at http://www.dragonradio.hk or via iTunes at itpc://www.dragonradio.hk/podcasts/m4a.xml.

Mushroom Pillow's nice. May be the first Chinese song that I really like (without putting a "it's good, for China" disclaimer next to it). Too bad there's no actual Chinese singing in it.

Well the topic just says "Alternative Music". ;)

bazza: You sort of hijacked this conversation :-p

julesong's initial request regarding Chinese Fusion Folk now hosts somethings slightly different. What is this mushroom pillow stuff?

btw I quite like the name neocha/ 新茶网.

I've discovered I like 8-bit music. :)

http://www.neocha.com/virginmix/music!3009.html

That "mushroom pillow" song is one if the weirdest I've ever listened to...

bazza *lol*

btw, I love your recommendations

You can stop these from autoplaying though, they all play at once.

This seems to be very popular one:

扩音器 are pretty good. :)

Cool, it works. Love this site.

Embed test

If you register you can save your favourite songs and stuff I think.

http://www.neocha.com/bazza

Here is the genre section:

http://www.neocha.com/-/musics.jsp?group=all

This is the one:

http://www.neocha.com/Antidote/music!330.html

Breakcore remix of 'Hey Jude'. hehe

Breakcore is 碎核 in Chinese.

I've been working looong days the last couple, and haven't had time to stop by here, dangit. But I'll check it out soon, Phil!

Currently listening to a crazy Breakcore tune on NEXT, has English lyrics though.

Hey Phil, that Neocha is a great resource, thanks!

Next is pretty cool too. It's definitely hard to find good Chinese indie music, and this does a great job. The music player is brilliantly simple.

julesong,

the following is from Danwei today (http://www.danwei.org/). I haven't checked it out yet but you may find something of interest from the list of genres that are mentioned. I'm afraid they don't mean a lot to me being a relic from the progressive, underground and psychedelic era.

Neocha.com is a networking website for Chinese creative communities, i.e. musicians, designers, photographers, artists, filmmakers, etc. They have just launched a new feature called NEXT. It's in beta — geek speak for nearly ready.

NEXT plays songs from Neocha.com's library of user-uploaded music, from within a web browser, or from a downloadable widget. All of the songs are 100% original works from Chinese independent musicians, in genres spanning garage rock, electronica, hip-hop, shoe-gazing, indie-pop, art rock, folk, ambient, dance, metal, post-rock, etc. The widget is fully bi-ingual (unlike Neocha's Web site which only has Chinese), so it addresses the "where to find Chinese indie music when you don't know where to start" question for non-Chinese readers.

Neocha founder Sean Leow say that NEXT is "Neocha's way of giving its musician users a broader platform for exposure to not only different Chinese audiences, but also audiences all over the world...we want to give our users the chance to be discovered "next," that's part of the inspiration behind the name." The widget has essentially only one button that takes you to the "next" song; it's extremely simple to use.

Neocha is rapidly adding users, especially musicians, so expect NEXT to be tapping an ever-expanding library of original independent Chinese music.

Click here to download NEXT or give the web pop-out player a spin.

Click here to check out the music section on Neocha's site.

laorui: Jenny didn't actually sing it, but they played the bit of the song where it said ai bu ai wo, and Jenny sort of imitated it. It was in the 'Whatever' elementary lesson.

Here's the link - it's a great lesson. (Not that anything on ChinesePod couldn't be great :) )

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/whatever/discussion

Julesong,

I tried the link and it worked from here. Give it another go. You were close, ai bu ai wo translates as does does she love me. Casie reckons that Jenny sang some of the song during one of her lessons. Anyone know which one?

I think that ChinesePod should do a lesson on using baidu. You can just about find any Chinese song you want as well as download the lyrics.

Ray

Depradadora - I have an answer for you on the Chinese Visual Kei!

http://miko2.livejournal.com/383389.html#cutid1

He's a friend of mine, and sent me links to his LJ about it, and it includes other links I'm sure you'll want to check out. :)

He said: "Silver Ash, a Chinese Visual Kei band, which is a Japanese style... essentially artsy pop rock played by guys who dress like frilly Victorian dandys with punked out hair.. or as often as not, dress like girls. One of the founding Japanese Visual Kei artists is a guy that has had a major influence on gothic lolita fashion; he founded The Gothic & Lolita Bible, a magazine dedicated to the fashion, and he regularly appears in fashion spreads in it (always dressed as a girl). So it's pretty odd for a Chinese band to get away with that kind of thing, but I guess there are quite a few Visual Kei bands in China these days."

Sorta like modern Chinese goth glam rock? :)

Ah ha! I found another Chinese Fusion Folk or Country Eastern song:

http://www.chinese-tools.com/songs/song/12/cinderella.html

"Cinderella by Zheng Jun

What movie is this Jay Chou song/video from? It looks exceptional, and I'd like to see it...

http://www.chinese-tools.com/songs/song/77/juhuatai.html

Thanks a lot for striking up this topic, julesong.

You actually managed to get me into this kind alternative music. Being a gothic girl (well, woman would be closer to the truth), I never imagined I'd like this stuff. ;-)

(Is there a "scene" in the VRC, perhaps in the big cities if anywhere, a Chinese equivalent to the Japanese Visual Kei scene? I have my doubts...)

The recommendations are brilliant, and with annotations too, splendid!

http://www.chinese-tools.com/songs/song/66/heiseliuding.html

Oh, man, I AM LOVING THAT SONG! I think I've translated it correctly as "Heise Liu Ding - Black Willow" (from the album by the same name) by Tao Zhe. Who woulda thought, Grunge Eastern?? I'm sitting here at the computer listening to it over and over.

The translation from written to romanization is on that page, but I still don't know it in English...

Joachim - wow, you've really pointed the way to good tools! :) I love this song:

http://www.chinese-tools.com/songs/song/66/heiseliuding.html

It's not at all the kind of song I'm looking for, for my Firefly radio station, but it's definitely going onto my regular listening that's not (as someone suggested earlier) "Country Eastern"... it's more like Grunge Eastern, and I *LOVE* it!

laorui - is the translation of that "love only me"? Unfortunately, the link doesn't seem to work. I can't read Mandarin, yet, arrgh! And I haven't quite figured out Baidu, yet, either.

Joachim - I *do* like the songs, both the Xin Chang Zheng and the video!

The one on the video is is really nice, with just the guitar accompaniment, is the title of the song "Spring and Autumn" or is that the title of the album? With my little translation add-on going, it looks like either the song title or the album is "Between Mountains and Sea"? And is that Cui Jian, too, or a different band? It sounds like a different band... I *really* like it!

For the Cui Jian piece - is the translation of "Xin Chang Zheng" "Rock and Roll on the New Long March" as it seems from http://www.chinese-tools.com/songs? I do like it, and I bet a lot of other folks will, too! What album is it from, do you know? (I need to add the album info to the mp3 tags in the file.)

Hmm. I think I may have found it. Is it from a live concert at Live at Hongshan Gym, Wuhan, 6/3/05? It might be, according to this page: http://www.cuijian.com/ENGLISH/Pages/news/photos.html

I'm still searching for Chinese Hardcore. ;)

julesong,

Have you listened to "Zero Point Band"? Not really country but not far off. One of their better known songs was 爱不爱我。Here is a link that should work. If not, Baidu will find it.

http://58.52.129.129/wlfw/ysyy/abaw.mp3

Let me know what you think.

You might like 春秋乐队, too.

Try the song 山海间 (video link: http://video.baidu.com/p?word=%C9%BD%BA%A3%BC%E4&pos=1&s=3)

Here is a direct link to a song from Cui Jians website: http://cuijian.com/CHINESE/Media/20070622/xinchangzheng.mp3

julesong: Try Cui Jian's own website http://cuijian.com/ or go to baidu.com which - as a search engine - references almost everything in (Chinese) music as mp3.

Not so much looking for rock music, myself. I'm sure others will appreciate the reference, though!

Hmm... need to find somewhere online to hear Cui Jian's music. None of the Amazon pages have samples of the music...

brokenwindow: Try http://www.rockinchina.com/ for Chinese rock, metal etc.

dragonradio.hk also features rock music.

You might look at some of the things that Cui Jian did. They sometimes sound like country western to me.

If from China, shouldn't it be country eastern, then? ;-)

Anybody find any Chinese country western for me? *grin*

Phil - thanks for Cold Fairyland! I do like their sound. Not quite the folk sound I'm still looking for, but good for listening to for everyday stuff. :)

Pat - went to the site, and unfortunately their server isn't answering when I try to download any of the songs. :(

LostInAsia - thanks for pointing the way to the "Rough Guide" CDs, as I hadn't seen them before! I do want to get ahold of the Chinese one. You might want to check out some of the links I provided above to Abigail Washburn. The folk mixed with Mandarin is really nice. :)

Oh yeah, off the Rough Guide: China CD, I guess the song "I want to go home / Wo Yao Hui Jia", by Bai Hong (you can hear part of it at the Amazon link above) is an example of the Asian Fusion Folk described in the thread-starter. Until today, mind you, I had no idea that was actually a trend.

I wish I had my liner notes for that CD available, but unfortunately they're on another continent.

You could do worse than the Rough Guide: China CD. Typically of Rough Guide, it mixes traditional with pretty modern stuff. (Their Japan CD, which is EXCELLENT--whereas the China one is merely good--guided me to Jin Jin, mentioned above).

http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Guide-Music-Various-Artists/dp/B0000AQORM

Actually, if a local bookstore has a copy of Rough Guide's world music reference volume, it'd be good for a perusal. It has... oh my goodness... 26 pages about Chinese music. (I really should read that one day.)

Just DON'T ask local university students. OK, a few have good taste, but in general Bon Jovi--shudder--is about as exotic as you're going to get. What's weird is how many wear Sex Pistols or Nirvana shirts, but have never even heard of those bands.

Meanwhile, Broken Social Scene is coming to Taipei and I'm trying to decide if it's worth about $90US for a ticket. The show's in a mid-sized club.

Speaking of "alternative music" - I've forever been trying to find Chinese metal, industrial or rock music. Any suggestions? I'd really appreciate your help.

Hey, what I do in my ipod between chinesepod I put chinese music between every other podcast to break up the lessons so I do not burn out, my fav singer is Deng li jun god bless her, here is a link to a site where you can get some good tunes one that applies here I think is "Jiu Meng He Chu Xun" check it out at http://teresateng.org/Songs.html they are all free downloads cheers Pat.

hi julesong,

i think you will find an outfit called Cold Fairyland, a Chinese band from Shanghai, may meet your requirements of Chinese and Fusion. They were highly recommended by the legendary Aric and appeared on a Saturday Show a long time ago.

Their website is here http://www.miyadudu.com/english/index.htm where you can listen/download a few samples. I am yet to discover a CD here in Changchun but I see that they may be ordered online. Since I shall soon be relocating to Beijing I am hoping to catch up with them live somewhere soon

Yep - he's helped me find music for Can't Take the Sky Radio (http://tinyurl.com/3anfre - free to listen!), and with getting submissions for the Big Damn Chefs cookbook (http://www.BigDamnChefs.com) from cast and crew. I was privileged to go over and have pizza and drinks with he and his wife when I was down in LA in December - such a neat guy! I'll pass along your thanks! :)

You're friends with Greg Edmonson?! Please pass along my thanks for his work. I'm a fan.

Sorry, forgot to post where the lyrics came from...

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/uncle-earl/streak-o-lean-streak-o-fat-20792.html

I found a translation of "Streak O' Lean, Streak O' Fat" - fun! I don't know how accurate it is, but it amusing all the same...

What would an accurate title translation of "Braised fatty meat" be? Not "Péi Gēn" (bacon), after all. "Hongshao Rou" in what tones? Huáng 黄 Shāo 烧 Ròu 肉? 红烧肉 Hóng Shāo Ròu?

----------------------------------------------------

** Streak O' Lean, Streak O' Fat **

Abigail Washburn, Jon Campbell, Uncle Earl

Hongshao rou

Braised fatty meat

You ren xhuan, you ren shou “No!”

Some people like it, some say “No!”

Wo, wo ri’ai hongshao rou

I love me some braised fatty beef

Ye bie wan le he xiao jiu

And don’t forget to drink a little liquor

Yi bei, yi bei he zui lou

Cup by cup we all get drunk

Oh, tiaowu tiao dao da tian liang

Dance til the break of day

Ta tiao de xiang ge feng poniang

She dances like a crazy mother in law

Ta zhen niu

She’s freakin' crazy

Ta qinkaui de yaoming you

She plays that thing like she’s starting a revolution

Kuai lai yi wan hongshao rou

Bring on the braised fatty pork

Dan bie wan le he xiao jiu

And don’t forget the liquor

Yi bei, yi bei he zui lou

Cup by cup we all get drunk

Xiang zheyang zenme huoxia qu

Living like this, how can we go on?

Jinzhao he jiu jinzhao zui

Today we drink, today we're wasted

Hongsho rou wan sui

Long live braised fatty meat!

Although not Chinese, I really like Agatsuma's song "On Bourbon St." which is on his CD "Beams"

http://tinyurl.com/ypofrb

And Takashi Hirayasu & Bob Brozman's song "Jin Jin" and some of the others on the CD also called "Jin Jin" are fun, although the skill in some of the singing might be called to question. ;) http://tinyurl.com/ywsoyh Bob Brozman's other Asian collaborations are interesting, too.

http://tinyurl.com/ywsoyh