april 7, 2003:
in the summer of 1999, pepito was sent to beijing to study mandarin. instead, he had the extraordinary fortune of happening upon a seething beijing punk rock scene. three years of underground foment and beijing punk had finally broke. every saturday night, as the sweltering heat finally dissipated, beijing's underground awoke.
a handful of chinese punks, local ex-pat kids, foreign journalists, and international students would converge upon the dark alleyway of the tiny scream bar to drink beer, smoke dope, talk shit, and of course sweat long after the midnight hour to the sounds of the anarchy jerks, 69, brain failure, hang on the box, bieniu, rockstars, and reflector.
curious about the sounds of early beijing punk? enjoy: brain failure, 69, anarchy jerks, and reflector.
(all songs taken from the seminal and hard to find 1999 "wuliao jundui" compilation tapes on jingwen records.)
some four years later, hang on the box (now on benten records) stood jubilantly onstage in another steamy, claustrophobic backroom-- this time though halfway across the world. the overwhelming stench of beer, sweat, and weed, with kids going crazy, made it feel like beijing all over again. however, the inter-mingled barking of drunken spanish and mandarin made it a distinctly san franciscan experience. the clarendon hills, eskapo and Xour turnX played too.
the c-hills are suffering from a serious case of skye fever. but who wouldn't after seeing this amazing video? despite the malingering effects of playing five shows in eight nights, nothing could keep the c-hills from witnessing first-hand the phenomenon known as skye. pepito's breathless show review (with photos): here.
there was definite electro-boogying at the numbers, xbxrx, deerhoof, and california lightning show last sunday, but it really didn't compare to skye.
in other news, christine is set to appear in san jose morose-rockers xiu xiu's upcoming music video. elbert is reading cerebus. pepito's faith in pinball has been renewed. last minute film recommendations: "irreversible" and "bang on the machine."
