After a hiatus of nearly three years, the Taipei band Sticky Rice (糯米糰) made a welcome return to the local music scene late last year with the band's second album Bird King (青春鳥王).
Packed with different styles ranging from electronica and funk to break beats, it was a far cry from the band's 1997 eponymous debut Sticky Rice (糯米糰), on which the band blasted its way through a collection of tunes packed with guitar-driven rough-and-ready musical mayhem.
Formed in the mid-1990s, Sticky Rice hit the local music scene at a time when the nation's now maturing indie scene was in its infancy. Led by lanky vocalist, Ma Nien-hsien (馬念先), who sported a mohawk hair-do and wore distinctive retro glasses, the band proved an instant hit, selling out many of the city's alternative music venues.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGIC STONE
As the band built up a following among the indie crowd, Ma and his three bandmates -- Chen Chi-han (沉其翰) on guitar, Hung Chih-li (洪峙立) on drums and Yu Guang-yao (余光耀) on bass -- caught the attention of the movie industry. Director Chen Yu-hsun was so taken by the material on the album, that he invited them into the studio to record the soundtrack for his 1997 film Love A GoGo (愛情來了). The soundtrack was later nominated for Best Musical Score at the 1997 Golden Horse Awards.
Just as the band looked set to become one of only a handful of local acts to rise from garage band status to pop stars their country called. The lads were shipped to boot camp to begin their military service, where they remained until early last year.
The band may have been dormant while Ma, Chen, Hong and Yu were doing push-ups for the nation, but the local music industry didn't forget Sticky Rice. Shortly after being demobilized the band was back in the studio and recording a demo tape. Magic Stone signed them soon after.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGIC STONE
"We sent demos to three labels and heard back from three of them pretty quickly, which was a real surprise," Ma said recently. "We were looking for a certain amount of freedom in the studio to record the music we wanted, rather than what the record label told us to."
Far from numbing the senses, military discipline appears to have paid dividends, as last year's Bird King attests. The album shows a tighter and musically more mature Sticky Rice. Thankfully, the military didn't take away the band's dead-pan sense of humor. The electronica/funk song Aluba Aliba, for example, tells of a game in which young boys compete to see who can run, jump and then slide across the ground and come to a halt closest to the trunk of a tree without damaging their manhood.
Any gig Sticky Rice headlines or even makes the briefest of appearances at is guaranteed to be a rowdy affair. The band doesn't offer stand-up comedy routines full of biting social commentary like their peers, Clippers (夾子電動大樂隊), but they have their own style of onstage nonsense. When the band kicks into a funk tune in the style of Sly and the Family Stone, the chances are the tune won't stay that way for long. The band will suddenly up the tempo and before audiences know what's happening an onslaught of electronica twists and guitars turns the tune into a thumping dance song that whips crowds into a frenzy.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGIC STONE
While Sticky Rice cut its teeth on the fringe of the local alternative scene, the band remains adamant that they are not, and never have been, an "alternative" band. They are pop stars, they say, albeit rather eccentric ones.
"We started out playing venues such as Roxy Vibe and Underworld, and have played at several Spring Screams, but I wouldn't call us alternative. We never touched politics like LTK (濁水溪) or Clippers and we steered away from guitar rock like Quarterback (四分衛)," said Hong, the band's drummer. "If people have to label us, then I think that an off-the-wall pop band would be a much better tag."
Performance Notes:
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MAGIC STONE
What: Sticky rice Live (糯米糰)
When: Tomorrow 7pm.
Where: @Live Disco, 3F, 15 Hoping W. Rd., Sec. 1 (和平西路一段15號3F).
Tickets: NT$400 at the door.
In recent weeks the Trump Administration has been demanding that Taiwan transfer half of its chip manufacturing to the US. In an interview with NewsNation, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that the US would need 50 percent of domestic chip production to protect Taiwan. He stated, discussing Taiwan’s chip production: “My argument to them was, well, if you have 95 percent, how am I gonna get it to protect you? You’re going to put it on a plane? You’re going to put it on a boat?” The stench of the Trump Administration’s mafia-style notions of “protection” was strong
Every now and then, it’s nice to just point somewhere on a map and head out with no plan. In Taiwan, where convenience reigns, food options are plentiful and people are generally friendly and helpful, this type of trip is that much easier to pull off. One day last November, a spur-of-the-moment day hike in the hills of Chiayi County turned into a surprisingly memorable experience that impressed on me once again how fortunate we all are to call this island home. The scenery I walked through that day — a mix of forest and farms reaching up into the clouds
With one week left until election day, the drama is high in the race for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair. The race is still potentially wide open between the three frontrunners. The most accurate poll is done by Apollo Survey & Research Co (艾普羅民調公司), which was conducted a week and a half ago with two-thirds of the respondents party members, who are the only ones eligible to vote. For details on the candidates, check the Oct. 4 edition of this column, “A look at the KMT chair candidates” on page 12. The popular frontrunner was 56-year-old Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文)
Oct. 13 to Oct. 19 When ordered to resign from her teaching position in June 1928 due to her husband’s anti-colonial activities, Lin Shih-hao (林氏好) refused to back down. The next day, she still showed up at Tainan Second Preschool, where she was warned that she would be fired if she didn’t comply. Lin continued to ignore the orders and was eventually let go without severance — even losing her pay for that month. Rather than despairing, she found a non-government job and even joined her husband Lu Ping-ting’s (盧丙丁) non-violent resistance and labor rights movements. When the government’s 1931 crackdown
RSS