Foreign Band Picks:
:40 of Hell (Oklahoma, USA)
These heavy punkers from Norman, Oklahoma are making their first trip ever to Spring Scream. Maybe all you need to know about them is summed up in their Web site motto: "We're rockers who like to rock. Rock on Rockers!"
Fevers (Tokyo, Japan)
Returning to Kenting for their fourth Spring Scream, they are what punk was, is and should be forever. Lots of energy. Lots of yelling in Japanese.
Guardian Alien/Banjovi (Seattle, USA)
Band leader Guy Davis pushes music to extraordinary limits, whether on bass, vocals or electric banjo. What's added on the squeeze box and drums make for the most rocking electric banjo group(s) you'll ever see.
Mimie-chan (Tokyo, Japan)
Loved for their hard-driving ska, yet feared for a dancing, daiper-clad sumo wrestler and what he throws into the crowd. If you believe that Japanese people are weird, you will love this band.
Miracle Saru (Tokyo, Japan)
They're what might have happened if the Allman Brothers had brought a DJ like Junior Vasquez into the band. An all-instrumentals group with incredible guitar moments and mesmerizing rhythms. Psychedelic rock and trance.
Q (Texas, USA)
A synthesis of bluegrass and klezmer called "Jewgrass." Performances involve a heavy dose of comedy, especially when the Mormon Whisbi priest, Elder Rado, is around.
Dzap Dau Dau (Hong Kong)
The music they play is hard, and yet they're girls, not grrrls. They're cute, they're punk. They're cute punk!
Taiwan Band Picks:
Air Dolphin 海豚
Think of Prodigy on qualudes, or Can in their trancier moments. Stuff to take off the sandals to and start swinging.
Anarchy 無政府
Taiwan's Rage Against the Machine. Also leaders of the Feirenbang, a Taichung-based "gang" of teenage punk rockers.
88 Balaz 捌十捌顆芭樂籽
Modern rock that goes from moody to festive. They might just be ready to move beyond the "up and coming" stage.
Beeboys 蜜蜂小子
A rock outfit headed up by a sunshine girl of a lead vocalist. Veterans of Taipei's livehouse circuit. Plenty of fun to watch.
Charlie Swiggs
Footstompin', jazzified rock and blues from Tainan. A rare group that mixes expats and locals and always puts on a good show.
Chthonic 閃靈
Taiwan's major representative on the international black metal circuit. On some songs they add an erhu.
The Clippers 夾子
One of the few surviving pioneers of Taiwan's early underground rock movement. This band has been going for six years on a combination of cheezy local flavor, dancing girls and heavy social satire. They've been recording recently and should have new material ready for the Spring Scream crowds.
Nicole Darcy
Peace-loving and barefoot, this mandarin-singing Minnesotan lashes out at the world's problems with folksy guitar and sharp lyrics.
Dribdas
An acronym for "Downright Intricate Booty, Dave and Steve." The band also includes Spring Scream organizers Wade Davis and Jimi Moe.
Dog G 大支
MC Hotdog is doing military service, so in his stead Rock Records is sending Dog G (a.k.a. Jerry), Hotdog's Taiwanese rapping partner.
Labor Exchange
Hakka rockers that have found success on the fringe of Taiwan's mainstream music industry. Acoustic guitars, wailing vocals, traditional instruments and lots of Taiwanese soul.
Milk
A high octane groove band of (mostly) Canadians from Taichung. As many times as we've seen them, they always manage to show us something new and something that at least threatens to blow the roof off.
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