If you want to treat yourself to the hardest rockin' band in Taipei, don't miss Sky Burial on Sunday from 9pm to 10pm at the Riverside Cafe.
Named after Tibetan funeral rites, the band is made up of seasoned musicians that hail from Chicago, New York, Maine and the UK.
They describe their music as Goth punk, Western, country, gospel, "Bright, happy stuff, SUV-driving [stuff] Americans listen to.''
Now they plan on "attacking the college crowd in Gongguan,'' according to lead singer Jimmy Vulture (aka Lance Gura).
Sky Burial started out in 2000 with what guitarist Brian Kleinsmith described as a "Hootenanny,'' a rural American jam session of U2, Beatles, old blues tunes.
The band of English teachers soon began writing their own songs, often recording in Kleinsmith's bathroom and laying down tracks with Kleinsmith's Bostex.
Gura and Kleinsmith found a formula: Gura writes lyrics, Kleinsmith works out the melody, and then Paul "Alfie'' Routledge and John Ring lay down drum and bass lines.
"We play roles and it works quite well,'' Routledge said.
Gura added, "It only takes Brian a few minutes to work it all out and to be on the same page. It makes me lick my lips to think of writing 10 more songs. In New York, it could be tedious.''
For the past year, Sky Burial has been perfecting its darkly satirical, hard-hitting punk style at the Living Room. With the help of hairdresser/Web master/drummer Routledge, they've incorporated a "bird of prey'' theme into their act and Web site (www.sky-burial.com), as well as projecting multimedia "eye candy'' behind them as they perform. Their upcoming album, The Freak at the End of the Rainbow, is due early next year.
With classic punk- and rock-inspired, tight riffs by guitarist Kleinsmith and searing lyrics by charismatic lead singer Gura, songs like Ivy and Punishment Fuck will send chills down the spines of even the quietest audience, or at least make them want to get on their feet. As a finale, they do an obscure and loveable Rolling Stones tune, Cocksucker Blues.
As Gura said in an interview. "It's fun to freak out the audience. They strangely don't leave. People are rubberneckers. They see the trainwreck coming and definitely want to check it out.''
Riverside Cafe (
To the consternation of its biological father — China — the young nation of Taiwan seems to prefer its step-dad, Japan. When the latter was forced out, a semi-modernized iteration of the former returned. And just as some people thrive as adults, despite an unstable childhood, Taiwan has become a democratic success. Unfortunately, the island’s biological father behaves like a parent who is no use, yet who continues to meddle. A combination of rose-tinted retrospection and growing mutual respect has given many Taiwanese a highly positive attitude toward Japan. Physical reminders of the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule are treasured,
Last month China lashed out at Taiwanese agricultural exports again, banning grouper imports. This event marked the ignominious end of what was once the star agricultural product of the ill-starred Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). Local media quoted the Fisheries Agency as saying it was a turning point in Taiwan’s grouper history. Spurred by the signing of ECFA, by the spring of 2011 grouper had become the leading agricultural export, driving profits for middlemen and food price inflation. Grouper exports were among the few products whose market grew, enabling then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to
A year before Britain handed Hong Kong to China, then-president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) hailed the “one country, two systems” plan for the city as a model for the country to one day unify with Taiwan. Taiwan would get “a high degree of autonomy” — the same pledge China used for Hong Kong — while keeping legislative and independent judicial power, and its own armed forces, according to Jiang’s speech, copies of which were distributed at Hong Kong’s handover center in 1997. For Taiwan though, the proposal has never been an option. Even the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — a vestige of
How does Hong Kong look to people born in the year of the handover — for whom the city has always been under Chinese sovereignty? Some feel their fate is tied to Hong Kong’s, while others feel like bystanders as Beijing tightens its grip. Many plan to leave sooner or later. We spoke to six 24 and 25-year-olds about the Hong Kong they grew up in, and the one they expect to exist in another 25 years. THE RETURNING PROFESSIONAL “I feel helpless witnessing the changes that Hong Kong has been through,” said Keanne Lee. “At the same time, I want to keep
RSS