Hanna Hais
House music fans will want to catch this French DJ, who’s lauded for her good taste in beats and sultry voice. Hais, who was invited to Taiwan by the French Institute in Taipei, performs at the DJ stage tomorrow and Sunday.
www.myspace.com/hannahais
Lazy Habits
Hip-hop with big band soul and a British accent: Lazy Habits are from East London. You’ll even hear a little mariachi in the mix. This eight-piece group, armed with two deft MCs, a scratch DJ and a jazz band, is a sure-fire party waiting to happen.
www.myspace.com/lazyhabits
The Clippers (夾子電動大樂隊)
The Clippers were one of Taiwan’s most memorable bands during Spring Scream’s early days. Fans loved the dancing girls on stage and the group’s mix of rock, dated karaoke music and social satire. The band returns to Spring Scream with a few new members, but expect the same campy humor from lead singer and actor Xiao Ying (小應), who recently enjoyed a little stardom in the hit movie Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
obaigonn.pixnet.net/blog
Ciacia (何欣穗)
As one of the most talented singer-songwriters in Taiwan’s indie scene, not to mention a producer with a keen ear, Ciacia is always worth a listen.
www.myspace.com/ciacia.her
Matzka and Di Hot (馬斯卡和辣肉樂團)
This dreadlocked Paiwan (排灣) musician is guaranteed to please sun-soaked crowds with a unique blend of reggae, hard rock, soul and Aboriginal folk. Don’t be surprised to find yourself humming his catchiest song, Ma Do Va Do (像狗一樣), long after the show.
www.indievox.com/matzka
Daximen (大囍門)
This hip-hop outfit of three MCs raps in Mandarin and Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) against a backdrop of funky beats and jazz riffs. Daximen’s sound and rhymes lean mainstream but stay clear of Mando-pop territory.
www.indievox.com/mrbrownchen
Celluloid (賽璐璐)
Another veteran band from Spring Scream’s early days, Celluoid plays blues and garage rock. The band might lack the style and sheen of younger groups on the underground circuit today, but it always delivers for audiences that simply want to rock out.
Elisa Lin (林依霖)
Elisa Lin is one to watch. This young folk rocker looks as if she’s already being groomed for Mando-pop stardom, but her original songwriting and soulful voice keep things real. She often performs with IO, a group of talented Chinese Canadian rockers that won ICRT’s Battle of the Bands last year.
www.myspace.com/elisa010
88 Balaz (八十八顆芭樂籽)
This four-piece band’s punk-inspired garage rock is a perfect match for Spring Scream’s “let loose” ethos. Lead singer Ah-Chang (阿強) probably won’t be stage-diving into the crowd on a bicycle like he did during his first time at the festival, but that same energy will be present.
balaz88.pixnet.net
Zenkwun (神棍樂團)
Plenty of bands experiment with traditional Chinese instruments, but Zenkwun uses them particularly well in its brand of pop-rock. Listeners will hear strains of nanguan (南北) and Hakka music in the sounds of the erhu (二胡) and suona horn (嗩吶) laced between electric guitar riffs and loud drums. And how can you not like a band whose lead singer named himself (Obiwan, 歐比王) after Obi Wan Kenobi?
www.indievox.com/obiwan1103
Milk
Festivalgoers who keep track of Spring Scream history will welcome the return of Milk, one of the most beloved and storied expat bands in Taiwan. The group is back after a hiatus of several years.
theroamads.blogspot.com/2007/07/tribute-to-great-taiwan-band-milk.html
The Money Shot Horns
The Money Shot Horns are a crowd pleaser. Their brand of funk, groovy soul and R ’n’ B appeals to many, thanks to charming lead singer Dooley Chandler. His magnetic stage presence and the talented musicians in the band form a lasso that pulls you onto the dance floor from the very first note.
www.myspace.com/themoneyshothorns
My Skin Against Your Skin
My Skin Against Your Skin has given Andrea Huang (黃盈誼) room to grow from her days as the head-thrashing lead singer of Rabbit Is Rich (兔子很有錢) into a performer with a wider repertoire. She still punks out, but now also delves into smoky blues-rock vocals reminiscent of another queen of disquietude, PJ Harvey.
www.myspace.com/myskinagainstyourskin
Go Chic
Go Chic takes chick power to the nth degree with irreverent but relevant lyrics written from the point of view of modern youth. Hilarious, dangerous and fun, the band takes the piss out of everyone from culture vultures to foreign men, and redefines the “Asian girl” stereotype in the process.
www.myspace.com/gochictheband
Dr Reniculous Lipz and the Scallyunz
With catchy, fun and wacky rhythms and lyrics and rhymes that tickle the brain, Dr Reniculous Lipz and the Scallyunz are a bit like Dr Seuss for grown-ups. Add a rocking live band (with bassist Molly Lin (林孟珊), who occasionally dresses as a nurse), and you have a treat for the eyes, ears and feet.
www.myspace.com/theskallyunz
Skaraoke
Skaraoke’s frontman Thomas Hu (胡世漢) is as engaging and professional as Money Shot’s Dooley Chandler, with the manners of a dapper gentleman and the style of a streetwise hepcat. The group’s big band sound is full of raging horns and toe-tapping beats that speak ska, reggae, rocksteady, swing and jazz. There’s even a bit of karaoke in the mix.
www.myspace.com/skaraoke
Collider
Collider has lost none of its dark, soul-wringing power, despite several lineup changes. Its newest member, bassist Thomas Squires, helps create an angst-ridden and beautifully torturous sound.
www.myspace.com/colliderrockband
New Hong Kong Hair City
New Hong Kong Hair City has set the bar for expat female talent with lead vocalist and keyboardist Danielle Sanger belting out and growling songs full of passion and vigor. Macgregor Wooley matches her intensity on vocals and saxophone.
www.myspace.com/newhongkonghaircitytw
Point 22 (.22)
Composed of a trio of “founding fathers” from the expat music scene, including festival co-founder Wade Davis, Point 22 (.22) is a rock band with songs that are either gut wrenchingly funny or so catchy that they stick in your head for days.
www.myspace.com/point22
Blood Orange
Blood Orange (血橙) is what would happen if you sent a bunch of punks back in time to the jazz age and told them to form a band. With chaotic, discordant melodies that smack into full stops then twist back around for more, it is an instrumental band that doesn’t need a vocalist — the music is the frontman. www.myspace.com/bloodorangetw
Taiwan has next to no political engagement in Myanmar, either with the ruling military junta nor the dozens of armed groups who’ve in the last five years taken over around two-thirds of the nation’s territory in a sprawling, patchwork civil war. But early last month, the leader of one relatively minor Burmese revolutionary faction, General Nerdah Bomya, who is also an alleged war criminal, made a low key visit to Taipei, where he met with a member of President William Lai’s (賴清德) staff, a retired Taiwanese military official and several academics. “I feel like Taiwan is a good example of
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) announced last week a city policy to get businesses to reduce working hours to seven hours per day for employees with children 12 and under at home. The city promised to subsidize 80 percent of the employees’ wage loss. Taipei can do this, since the Celestial Dragon Kingdom (天龍國), as it is sardonically known to the denizens of Taiwan’s less fortunate regions, has an outsize grip on the government budget. Like most subsidies, this will likely have little effect on Taiwan’s catastrophic birth rates, though it may be a relief to the shrinking number of
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
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