There are some bands that are in such total possession of the rock ’n’ roll spirit that when they pop up on your iPod shuffle your knees start shaking, the earth starts quaking, and you start spontaneously, irresistibly pulling a Tom Cruise Risky Business dance-off in the living room in your underwear.
When they play a gig, they make the smallest, dingiest club explode into life with guys and dolls whipping out dance moves their grandparents invented in the 1950s.
It’s a deadly vibe, they are the Deadly Vibes, and they’ve been back on the scene this summer after an eight-month hiatus while lead guitarist JD Long was laid up with a broken collar bone and cracked ribs following a motorcycle accident.
photos courtesy of Craig Ferguson
The enforced time off was the longest the group had gone without playing since they formed four years ago. “It was really nice to see all our friends and fans again ... we were really happy to see a lot of new faces [too], because after such a long break you never know what’s going to happen,” said lead singer Jason Copps. “It’s nice to know everyone still appreciates our brand of rock and roll!”
They used the time off to incorporate a bass into their lineup, though Copps was initially resistant to the idea, as he likes to jump on tables and chairs and into the audience while singing and was afraid the instrument would hamper his intensely physical performance style. “But I bought a light bass and after a few practices I was hooked,” he said. “I’ll definitely be jumping on everything I can on Saturday night [at Underworld].”
The bass fits in with the new songs and “fattened up our sound and has given us some needed bottom end” said Copps, adding that it has also influenced Long’s guitar playing. “JD really wails and rocks the Chuck Berry boogie,” said Copps. “Everyone seems to dig the new sound.”
photos courtesy of Craig Ferguson
Their approach to composition remains the same, with one coming in with a riff to work on and Copps writing the lyrics. “Because we now have a bass,” Copps said, “we kind of need to rethink the way we do things, but for the most part we just jam on a few ideas until the magic happens.”
Newer songs are still about “classic rock and roll themes like girls, booze, and having fun,” said Copps, known for his simple, catchy lyrics. Even more serious themes, like people who are unimportant in one’s life consuming time and energy translate into lyrics like: “I’ve got something better to do then waste my time on you,” which Copps wrote for JD Long when he was having girl troubles. A new love song The Bug is about “JT [Long] getting bitten by the love bug” said Copps.
JT and JD Long are identical twins — does Copps ever feel left out? No — he thinks everyone should come out on Saturday and meet his identical twin brother, the new bass player for the band, he said with his trademark tongue-in-cheek humor. “We were separated at birth and he was raised by missionaries in Bora Bora,” he said of his imaginary alter ego. “He’s a total rock and roll maniac!”
Check out this rocking trio (and imaginary friend) tomorrow at Underworld (地下社會), B1, 45 Shida Rd, Taipei City (台北市師大路45號B1) with a newer rock band on the scene, Roxymoron. The show starts at 9:30pm sharp, and the Vibes are not known for overly long sets. The NT$300 cover charge includes one drink.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless