fter taking out a 20-year installment loan to pay for Megadeth and the other big acts last year, Formoz organizers have decided to pull the music festival's scale back within reason for 2002. Headliners for the Sept. 6 to 8 event will consist of four top Japanese bands, which organizer Freddy Lin said "are not only more what local people want to hear, they're also a lot cheaper."
The four headliners are Mono, Exias-J, Jack or Jive and Brahman, all of which belong to different genres within the spectrum of contemporary rock. Lin said that a survey on the formoz.com Web site allowed local fans to suggest bands they wanted to hear, and the results overwhelmingly pointed to Japanese bands, with suggestions including the four bands finally chosen.
"I didn't even know about some of the bands, but that was what people wanted, and it's fine with me. It's also good because the bands are fresher and more exciting. Also, we can make ticket prices more reasonable," Lin said.
Tickets for the three-day festival will cost NT$950, a big cut compared to the NT$3,500 many whined about and even more refused to pay last year. But then again there's no Megadeth, Biohazard and Yo La Tengo -- all of which performed at last year's inaugural Formoz, along with three big Japanese acts and bands from Hong Kong and Singapore.
The NT$950 passes entitle holders to see three stages worth of performances over three days, as well as a special display of pro-wrestling, free admission to the Taipei rock club Zeitgeist (
The venue for this year's Formoz Festival is the old Chungshan Hall (
Formoz 2002 headliners:
Mono is a four-person group from Tokyo devoted to intense, cerebral instrumentals. Aside from My Bloody Valentine and the no-vocals compositions of Sonic Youth (both the band and solo projects by Jim O'Rourke), Mono cites few influences. The group is fairly new, and by all indications, very up and coming. Since forming in February of 2000, they've toured the US at least four times, appearing at big name venues like CBGB in New York and Austin, Texas' SXSW festival. So far they've only released one full-length album, Under the Pipal Tree, but reviews have been positive, calling the music everything from "powerful" to "gorgeous."
Exias-J is a musician's collective with jazz roots and a penchant for improv and abstraction. The name is short for Experimental Improvisers' Association of Japan, and though the cast changes continually, the current lineup includes electric guitar, saxophone, percussion and double bass. Founded in 1999 by Kondo Hideaki, Exias-J claims to disparately focus on "composition-oriented music," "the dynamism of free improvisation," and deviation from music until it is unrecognizable as music.
Jack or Jive is a Japanese goth duo responsible for around 20 albums since forming in 1989. Stage performances are fronted by the spooky, ethereal antics of vocalist Makoto Hattori, and supported by Chako, who combines prerecorded background tracks with various types of live embellishments. Though the visual aspects of Jack or Jive performances are strong, the group does not quite count as "visual rock." The emphasis is still on the music.
Brahman is a big name in Japan, though little known outside it. The four-man group plays a mainstreamish vein of hardcore and punk that sells lots of CDs and last month vaulted them into a huge set in Japan's mega-music festival, Fuji Rock. The band's lineup may be pretty standard -- vocal, guitar, bass and drum -- but the music rocks. Fans who liked the Garlic Boys at last year's Formoz will no doubt enjoy Brahman, another key element of Japan's hardcore scene.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,