If you've ever seen him in concert, you're sure to remember the name. Dirt Star is the indie-pop, punk-rocking guy with a Keebler elf haircut and cosmonaut suit. He might have been writhing around in his own spilled beer in front of the stage when you saw him. That might ring a bell.
He and his band of outer-space musicians have been frequent visitors to Spring Scream in years past and semi-regulars at Taipei's Underworld. Now he's returning from his adopted home of Shenzhen, China, to release his debut album The Score here in Taipei.
He's planned a weekend of events, starting with the album party and show at the Living Room tomorrow night, followed by a "Greet Dirt Star mini-show plus interview and autograph session" at Mo! Relax Cafe on Sunday afternoon.
Shino (林曉佩) and Hong Kong hip-hop DJ TKO will make cameo appearances at the Living Room gig.
But why put a DIY punk/indie-rock band in the Living Room?
"My original idea was I wanted to have 50 rockers in one room, really tight and sweaty and packed," Star said in a crackly phone call from Shenzhen. "I've never been there. I'm really excited."
What's the music like? Star says his shows were once described as "a rocket blasting off without a pilot" and that they are "as entertaining as the universe is vast," but even listening to the CD on your home stereo keeps the dopamine flowing.
I could make allusions to half a dozen obscure bands that Dirt Star sounds like (vocals reminiscent of Dynamite Hack!), but the best way to taste the band's fruity flavors is to sample the couple of tracks offered online (http://www.bubblegreentea.com).
Star put The Score together with a little elbow grease from Wan-ting (晼婷), the former Ladybug and current 7" Vinyl Records engineer. They cut the guitars and vocals to tape, "or rather hard disk" Star points out, then he stole away to his secret cave in the verdant hills of Shenzhen and went mad-scientist with it.
"The album was finished over a year ago," Star said. "Then I basically revamped every song like 20 times in a year."
His long-time collaborators K Sauce, Ant, Yen-hui, and Wen Feng provided the riffs, words, drums and squeaks, though not necessarily respectively. Star's not saying who did the squeaking.
The production quality is worth a mention. The Score was mastered at Hong Kong's Noise Asia Records by Dickson Dee, who deserves kudos for bringing the sound out of the box and putting it in the listener's head. He's kept Star's freshman effort from sounding like one.
Lastly, to get The Score in the hands of the multitudes, Star and his friends set up Bubble Green Tea records to "help bring the indie subculture of Greater China to the world."
Their Web site, promotional efforts and the album itself are enough to make you think "Gee, these punk-rock kids have their act together," which isn't something you'd normally think about punk-rock kids.
The launch party for The Scoreis tomorrow at 9:30pm at the Living Room, located at 3F, 8 Nanjing E Rd, Sec 5, in Taipei (台北市南京東路5段8號3F). Entrance is NT$300 and includes two drinks. Star's mini show will be at Mo! Relax Cafe on Sunday at 3pm. Mo! Relax Cafe is at 20, Ln 60, Taishun St, Taipei (台北市泰順街60巷20號).
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and the New Taipei City Government in May last year agreed to allow the activation of a spent fuel storage facility for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門). The deal ended eleven years of legal wrangling. According to the Taipower announcement, the city government engaged in repeated delays, failing to approve water and soil conservation plans. Taipower said at the time that plans for another dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) remained stuck in legal limbo. Later that year an agreement was reached
What does the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in the Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) era stand for? What sets it apart from their allies, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? With some shifts in tone and emphasis, the KMT’s stances have not changed significantly since the late 2000s and the era of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) current platform formed in the mid-2010s under the guidance of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and current President William Lai (賴清德) campaigned on continuity. Though their ideological stances may be a bit stale, they have the advantage of being broadly understood by the voters.
In a high-rise office building in Taipei’s government district, the primary agency for maintaining links to Thailand’s 108 Yunnan villages — which are home to a population of around 200,000 descendants of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) armies stranded in Thailand following the Chinese Civil War — is the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC). Established in China in 1926, the OCAC was born of a mandate to support Chinese education, culture and economic development in far flung Chinese diaspora communities, which, especially in southeast Asia, had underwritten the military insurgencies against the Qing Dynasty that led to the founding of
It’s fairly well established that strength training is helpful at every age: as well as building muscle, it strengthens tendons and ligaments, increases bone density and seems to have protective effects against everything from osteoporosis to dementia. But a new study based on data collected over two decades in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, suggests that another physical attribute might be just as important — and it’s one that declines even faster than strength as the years go by. The good news? It might also be less uncomfortable, and even slightly safer, to improve. Also, it will probably make you better
RSS