moon cakes and punk rock?

There’s so much happening during the upcoming October holiday that one hardly knows where to look, where to go, or how much to drink before puking up all over the place. A general rule of thumb is if you’re still hungover and the sun’s already gone down, it’s a good sign that you probably went too hard the night before. With two awesome festivals happening simultaenously in our capital city, plus all the rock shows you can shake a stick at, you’re going to have to plan everything very carefully so that you don’t miss a thing.

Starting off the holiday week is A Groove of Two Cities, which is the warm up party to the much awaited Modern Sky Music Festival set in Hadian Park. Come to ALFA on Monday, October 1st and listen to techno sets by DJ Dave K, John Yang, Gao Hu, Huang Weiwei, as well as a Drum ‘n Bass set with Nicole and Wolf Candy. There’s a dangerously awesome open vodka bar, and tickets are available at Alfa, Muse, Le Hugo and Ball House for 80rmb (100rmb at the door).

On Tuesday, there seems to be a million things happening all at once – namely the kick off of the Yue Festival, put on by the happy kids at Splitworks at The Star Live. Tuesday brings us the much anticipated Talib Kweli + Ozomatli and DJ V-Nutz and the next night will feature Faithless and DJ Youdai. As always, the Bacardi booths are ready to serve. If Talib isn’t your kind of thing, head to Hadian Park for the first night of the Modern Sky Festival, (also on October 2nd) with over 120 acts and four stages. While the big name this year is sure to be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (October 4), I’m also pretty stoked to see DJ sets from Tim Goldsworthy and Tim Sweeney of DFA Records. Full list of artists can be seen at the website, along with ticket info and directions to the venue. Also of note are my favorite band in Beijing, Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, fresh from the studios who will be performing sometime during the festival. Strangely, the full schedule hasn’t been announced as of yet, and the website doesn’t give any concrete answers.

Also on Tuesday, definately please for sure make time to stop by the new Yugon Yishan and check out Portland Oregon’s wunderkid Jona Bechtolt of Yacht (and formerly one half of awesome pop duo The Blow with Khaela Maricich.)

Finally, on October 3rd, along with the Modern Sky and Yue Festival festivities finds everyone’s favorite drunkards and basic Doors coverband Joyside at D22 in Wudaokou. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Joyside onstage, and D22 is certainly one of the best places to see them.

Happy holidays!

yeah yeah yeahs prepare to hit beijing!

I’m so excited about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs coming to town that I could puke. The Grammy nominated, New York based threesome are set to play the Modern Sky Festival at Haidian Park this October holiday, and I’m re-posting my interview with the band here.

The original article will appear in next week’s edition of City Weekend Magazine. If you want to go and are tight on cash, the magazine is offering a contest for free tickets! Other notable bands performing at the festival will be local rockers Hedgehog, The Scoff, PK14, TooKoo, Snapline, Joyside and Casino Demon.

1.What is the motivation for Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ coming to China?

Karen O: Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been wanting to play China for a while. I’ve read several articles about the rock/punk scene in Beijing and Shanghai over the past few years and I’m eager to learn about the music and the culture first hand. I’ve wanted to visit China all my life, it is very fortunate that this opportunity arose. Not only do I get to visit, but I also get to share a piece of my heart with our music.

2. Are you listening to any Chinese bands now, and are there any acts you’re particularly excited about performing with at the Modern Sky Festival?

K: I have been exploring the Beijing rock scene over the internet on MySpace. My immediate attention was drawn to female fronted bands such as Hang On a Box, The Subs and Cosmic Shenggy. I’m eager to learn more about the “scene” in Beijing, I could be mistaken but it appears to be tight knit. I discovered some of the groups that we will be sharing festival stage with through the MySpace pages of the bands I mentioned earlier. Carsick Cars just played a few shows with our friends Sonic Youth in eastern Europe. I’m looking forward to seeing them and Snapline among many others!!

4. Is there a different dynamic at Yeah Yeah Yeahs performances for audiences outside the States? How?

Nick Zinner: Every audience is different, even night to night in the same city, so it’s hard to predict. Some audiences may have different tendencies, but we try to bring people together in what we are doing, wherever. Even when we played in Korea, kids seemed to know the words, and understand the spirit of the music, so I think ultimately, it doesn’t really matter where we play.

5. The “Is Is” tracks were written on the Fever tour a few years back. What was it like to go back and record these songs after completing Show Your Bones last year?

N: It was probably the healthiest thing we’ve done as a band. We always wanted to record these songs, but they didn’t fit in with our last record, and it was too stressful a situation last year while recording to try to jam them together with the new songs. To me, it really felt like the same freedom as when we recorded our very first EP- we really only made it for a fun project, and for our fans.

6. Does the “Is Is” EP mark a return to an older YYY sound, or is it more of a way of tie-ing up the loose ends of that period in YYY’s evolution?

N: It is both, by nature of when the songs were first written, but we were able to complete them using what we know now, and where we are as a band now. We’ve been playing a few of the songs on tour for the past few years, and songs slowly evolve the more you play them, so it feels like something that has elements of all our periods.

7. Speaking of evolution, how have the YYYs’ live shows evolved since the period in which the “Is Is” songs were written?

Brian Chase: When you’re an older musician and you listen to yourself when you were younger, you think, “it’s good, but, if I only knew then what I know now.” Now we are older. A few years from now we’ll look back at this current period and say the same thing. Although, each phase of a band’s life really stands on its own and speaks for itself; sometimes it’s helpful to approach it like that rather than looking for a linear development.

8. It seems that the conveniences of digital recording have led more and more bands to emphasize their studio work over their live work. YYYs, on the other hand, has released a great number of live tracks as well as a DVD of live performances. Why has YYYs made releasing live music and DVD performances a priority?

B: Live recordings and studio recordings can be ways of capturing two very different sides of the same band, as it is in our case. The live thing is really about capturing the dynamic energy between us and the audience. Live performance is about the Moment rather than Posterity. Studio recordings tend to be about presenting one version of an ideal representation of the Song. With dvds you can WATCH us and see what we look like and the visual element of our performance, which is also important. This was also the motivation for us releasing live performance night vision videos on YouTube to go with the songs on Is Is.

9. One of my favorite YYY live tracks is your cover of Sonic Youth’s “Diamond Sea”. How did the cover of “Diamond Sea” come about?

B: We had the opportunity to be in a really nice home studio in San Francisco to record tracks for an iTunes session. Karen said she always wanted to do a cover of “Diamond Sea” and we worked out a really beautiful acoustic version that is a nice contrast to Sonic Youth’s original.

10. What are you most looking forward to doing in Beijing?

B: We have high hopes for an amazing concert and we’re looking forward to connecting with our Chinese audience.