As the collective jonesing for Spring Scream becomes ever more unbearable, show organizers around the island are trying to provide some quick fixes in the form of pre-event parties. The Bachungjou (
Reproduction
PHOTO: HSIAO-HSIN
They're young, loud and not too good. So for you purists out there, Reproduction is punk rock at its best. "The first time we saw them [in Taichung] a couple years ago," said Wade Davis, Spring Scream cofounder, "they were playing their instruments in school uniforms. Then, like a year later, they all had piercings and mohawks." The band is headed up by two 17-year-olds -- high school dropout Hsiao-hsin (
PHOTO: HSIAO-HSIN
Anarchy
Clueless, useless and lame, anarchy pretty much is what Anarchy advocates. Fortunately for them, Taiwan's youth is right there with them. The four man group, all classmates at Taichung's Providence University, has made a small splash in Taiwan's indie music scene since releasing an album Dec. 31. In less than two months, the CD, titled Anarchy, went into a second run after selling out its initial Crystal Records release of 2,000 copies. It doesn't matter much to their fans that they sound a lot like Rage Against the Machine. "We're a political protest band," said bass player Allen Liu, age 25. At Providence University, Liu said he majors in Spanish because "it's easy." That was about the most useful thing he could say. For example, to the question: what's your band's political platform, Taiwan independence? he could only say: "Yeah right."
After other equally evasive answers, he began to talk about the time he dropped his pants on stage and his mother saw him. Then he said, he wants to be a rock star -- as a career.
Smoove
Taichung's music scene can be like a bowl of primordial rice porridge, teeming with musicians, sweet potatoes and other complex proteins. It is a seminal mix, and it is constantly stirred with a pair of primordial chop sticks. It was there that Smoove congealed about a year and a half ago, finally becoming a band. According to the band, Smoove is little more than bass player Steve Taylor's first full-fledged post-Dribdas group, and guitar player Will Zuckerman's latest attempt to shake drugs. Joined by three other Taichung multi-purpose groovesters, they believe themselves to be "snot punk," as in "it's not punk," or "punk with mucus" -- you choose. According to Taylor, they're also not rockabilly. "We're more rock than country, and more punk than billy," he said. But late at night when their audience is drunk, they will more likely than not forget their originals and pull out some Johnny Cash, often in the form of a sacred rag doll which they purport to be his avatar. Sometimes they also play his songs.
What Shenjing Yuedui (神經樂隊), Reproduction (複製人), Anarchy (無政府) and Smoove
Where and When Zeitgeist (聖界), 122 Chunghsiao E. Rd., Sec. 2, B1 (忠孝東路二段122號B1), tonight 8:30pm
Tickets NT$250
Spring Scream will be held from April 5 to 8 in Kenting. Four-day concert passes will not be available at the concert site and must be purchased in advance. Sales locations include: Zeitgeist in Taipei; Napoli in Taichung, 424 Hwamei St. (華美街424號); the Armory Pub in Tainan, 82 Gungyuan S. Rd. (公園南路82號), and DNA in Kaohsiung, 77 Minsheng 1st Rd., 4F (民生一路77號). For more sales locations or other Spring Scream information, check: www.springscream.com. To purchase tickets online, check: http://trasite.com/springscream/ticket/index.htm
The ultimate goal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the total and overwhelming domination of everything within the sphere of what it considers China and deems as theirs. All decision-making by the CCP must be understood through that lens. Any decision made is to entrench — or ideally expand that power. They are fiercely hostile to anything that weakens or compromises their control of “China.” By design, they will stop at nothing to ensure that there is no distinction between the CCP and the Chinese nation, people, culture, civilization, religion, economy, property, military or government — they are all subsidiary
Nov.10 to Nov.16 As he moved a large stone that had fallen from a truck near his field, 65-year-old Lin Yuan (林淵) felt a sudden urge. He fetched his tools and began to carve. The recently retired farmer had been feeling restless after a lifetime of hard labor in Yuchi Township (魚池), Nantou County. His first piece, Stone Fairy Maiden (石仙姑), completed in 1977, was reportedly a representation of his late wife. This version of how Lin began his late-life art career is recorded in Nantou County historian Teng Hsiang-yang’s (鄧相揚) 2009 biography of him. His expressive work eventually caught the attention
It’s always a pleasure to see something one has long advocated slowly become reality. The late August visit of a delegation to the Philippines led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-ching (黃昭欽), Chair of Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council vice president, Lotta Danielsson, was yet another example of how the two nations are drawing closer together. The security threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), along with their complementary economies, is finally fostering growth in ties. Interestingly, officials from both sides often refer to a shared Austronesian heritage when arguing for
Late last month the Executive Yuan approved a proposal from the Ministry of Labor to allow the hospitality industry to recruit mid-level migrant workers. The industry, surveys said, was short 6,600 laborers. In reality, it is already heavily using illegal foreign workers — foreign wives of foreign residents who cannot work, runaways and illegally moonlighting factory workers. The proposal thus merely legalizes what already exists. The government could generate a similar legal labor supply simply by legalizing moonlighting and permitting spouses of legal residents to work legally on their current visa. But after 30 years of advocating for that reform,
RSS