Amar, Nathanel (2022). ‘We come from the underground’: Grounding Chinese punk in Beijing and Wuhan. Popular Music, 41(2), 170-193. doi:10.1017/S0261143022000046 The history of the Chinese punk scene in the scientific literature or in retrospective testimonies is traditionally dominated by a...
It’s now becoming a tradition, reviewing the past year in music – as we did in 2020 or in 2019 with a review of the past decade. To be honest it’s complicated to top last year, with the (very) long...
We already talked about Wuhan early punk bands, with the 2003 Wuhan punk compilation “Travel in Desert” (荒漠旅行), featuring SMZB 生命之饼, Si Dou Le (SDL) 死逗了, Polang 破浪, Disover and Big Buns. They were some of the most influential early...
2020 is already gone… It was a strange year indeed. The COVID-19 pandemic of course, and at its epicenter Wuhan, probably the city I talk the most about in here (you can check my Wuhan playlist here). During the Wuhan...
I recently wrote an article on RadiiChina about SMZB new album, “Once Upon A Time In The East” (东方往事), which is supposed to be released soon on Maybe Mars – the famous indie label bought by Taihe Music last year....
What do the Beijing punk bands Brain Failure 脑浊, Hang On The Box 掛在盒子上, the Japanese garage-rock band The 5.6.7.8’s and Quentin Tarantino have in common? To my surprise, it’s Kill Bill (volume 1), the 2003 critically acclaimed movie directed...
J’ai récemment écrit un court article dans RadiiChina intitulé “Is China Headed Towards a Future Without Foreign Bands?”. Cet article faisait suite à des polémiques ayant dernièrement agité le monde de la musique indépendante, après la diffusion d’une nouvelle directive...
This is maybe the last testimony of the music early Wuhan punk bands. As mentioned earlier in this article on Wuhan punk, Wuhan was one of the first cities, with Beijing, to witness the apparition of a punk subculture in...
I was going through a pile of Mandopop albums in a tiny Chinese music/video store located in a basement of Los Angeles’ Chinatown when I stumbled upon a dusty album published in 2004 displaying on the cover two guys dressed...
If UnderBaby paved the way for punk music in China by offering the possibility for bands to rehearse in their Baihua’r hutong room, it’s the punk collective “Wuliao Jundui” (无聊军队 – namely the “Boredom Contingent”) that truly laid the foundations...
Is Underground Baby (also known as UnderBaby or 地下婴儿 – Dixia Ying’er) the first Chinese punk band? The myth states that “All the same” (“都一样” – “Dou yiyang”) is the first Beijing punk song. We will eventually come back to the question...
The Bricks (板砖) n’est ni le groupe le plus connu, ni le plus ancien de la scène punk chinoise. Outre le fait qu’il se soit créé en 2001 à Hangzhou, capitale du Zhejiang proche de Shanghai, surtout connue ces temps-ci...
En plus de porter fièrement un des plus beaux noms de groupes de punk chinois, Ouch! (哎吆) est aussi le premier groupe de ska-punk pékinois. Certes, certains groupes du Wuliao Jundui, et notamment Reflector (反光镜) avaient intégré des rythmiques ska dans...
Si UnderBaby a ouvert la voie de la musique punk en Chine, en offrant notamment la possibilité aux groupes de se retrouver dans leur salle de répétition à Baihua’r hutong, c’est le collectif “Wuliao Jundui” (无聊军队) qui a véritablement posé...
Premier groupe de punk chinois, Underground Baby (aussi connu sous le nom d’UnderBaby ou 地下婴儿 – Dixia Ying’er)? La légende veut que “Tous pareil” (“都一样” – “Dou yiyang”) soit le premier morceau de punk pékinois. On reviendra sur cette controverse sur...
