Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 1:46 pm. 0 comments
应朋友（逆音）的邀请，我会邮件采访英国团体The XX，其实也就是想一些问题，然后电邮给他们，然后再把他们的回答翻成中文，最后由新浪发表，其实是过程还是很简单的，就是硬把我给加上去，好吧，那我就想些问题，逆音在豆瓣上还贴出了相关活动，网上已经有人提出了他们的问题，我的问题会是：
- Why The XX? Why not The XXX or XXL? I mean it’s a fun name, but do you think it’s generic?
- It seems that nowadays Elliott School is a hotbed for hot bands in UK, Is it a coincidence or it’s the right place to form a band?
- I am impressed by the instrumental arrangements of the album. Are you gonna release an instrumental album?
- Everybody is talking about your covering Aaliyah, but why not Try Again?
- Who will you cover or want to cover next?
- Can you imagine yourself in the 90s when you might have sold more than you do now?
- Did you get influenced by Yeah Yeah Yeahs? At least that’s my impression. Who is the biggest influence among your peers?
- What kind of music do you envision for your second album?
- How have the fame impacted your life? Is there something that you can’t do as a normal teenager or something that you have to do, but don’t really enjoy?
- Mercury Prize or a best-selling album?
- Dizzee Rascal or Tinchy Stryder?
- Taio Cruz or Jay Sean?
- Girls Aloud or Sugababes?
- Alexandra Burke or Leona Lewis?
昨天才听了他们的专辑，可以说是不错，四个小孩子真是了不得，但是暂时没有特别感觉，所以问题有些枯燥乏味，不知道是不是符合要求。
为了支持这次活动，我就不贴链接了，不过SiRE分别推出过The_XX-XX-2009-SiRE和The_XX-XX-(Bonus_CD)-2009-SiRE。
Posted 5 months ago at 8:52 am. 0 comments
I have to admit that Google sucks, big time. First they blacklisted my website for malware claims. After serveral attempts to rectify it, to no avail they still blocked my site. Then I gave up. Then they unblacklisted me, which left the impression that something is better not to be done and the same correction mechanism does exit.
Anyway, since I got my site back, I will be back on the track. And here is the deal, I am gonna turn this website into Chinese again. Hence this is the last English post of mine and 我回来了。
Posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago at 11:09 pm. 2 comments
I hardly give any leniency of mine to censorship imposed by the Chinese government, but it didn’t occur to me to write something about censorship in other countries mostly due to the fact that this is not politial blog. However today I take my stand agaisnt censorship done in a democratic country, UK, but with a catch.
The new Manic Street Preachers’ album portaited a battered kid’s face on the cover, and this caused a huge problem for the supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda. Now the albums have been put into a slipcase so that the cover doesn’t show. It’s clear that in this case the censorship is not exercised by the government, but rather corporates in the name of a noble cause. It makes me wonder, as showed in the title, which is worse, state censorship or corporate censorship.
When the government bans or censor something, I am sure that there is way around, be it proxy or illegal copy, but when it comes to corporates, I bet that every establishments of theirs strictly follow the rules. They might be even on the higher moral ground preaching the righteousness to the public. Now another case comes to my mind, the ban on Dixie Chicks in the states.
When almost all the county radio stations banned Dixie Chicks, when their single Landslide fell out of the chart like a landslide, it was upsetting and outrageous.
If it’s possible to fight agaisnt government, can we also fight against corporates?
Posted 9 months ago at 7:19 pm. 0 comments
How could I skip this young English bloke? He might be the next best thing, and you know what? He could be the actual next best thing who came to Shanghai before the stardom. Yes the picture here shows him standing at the bund in April this year.
His debut single Dirty Punk is out this week and now it’s inside the top 75 UK singles chart according the mid-week report. Way to go Steve. The album is due later titled When The Sun Comes Up, which runs against Arctic Monkeys’s When The Sun Goes Down. Is this a deliberate act?
Well Steve Appleton music is, especially his debut single, is the fusion of drum n bass and punk. His profile on MySpace goes with pop, acoustic and punk. I don’t know how he pulls that off, but punk meets drum n bass? Sounds peculiar and interesting.
He keeps the typical drum n bass beat at minimum, but the feeling is still there. Sampling his other music, I have to say that his music is really appealing and his vocal is decent. In general I do see potential in him and hopefully his single will stand inside the top 75 this week.
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 12:06 am. 0 comments
Usually I don’t go to those obscure indie bands, because there are thousands of them. You never know who is better than who. I am making an exception today.
Gliss has been touring with a lot of famous bands already such as The Editors, Smashing Pumkpins, etc as listed on their MySpace page. I know that they are from LA and Morning Light comes from their second album Devotion Implosion released back in April. I know the lead singer is a girl. I don’t care about other info on them for now, because I am in love with Morning Light.
To be exact, I love the instrumental of the track. It’s all new wave and alternative mix. The vocal is OK and it grows as the song progresses. The song has left a pernament scar on my mind.
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 10:27 pm. 0 comments
It looks like justice will prevail in the end. The now-hardly-mentioned Daft Punk scam will have a happily ever after. Isn’t that great? I am not one of the victims, but to see perpetrator got apprehended somehow makes me very excited. According to a post from Shanghaiist.
It’s reported that the identities of the scammers have been found out and they turned out to be French. Now it leaves up to the French police to do their job. I can’t wait to see the ending of the story and a TV feature of the episode.
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 12:22 am. 0 comments
When you can listen to whatever music you want, who needs radio? But from time to time you might find a song that you like, by a casual tuning to a radio station, which could be old or brand new, then there is the surprise or even some kind of sublation.
Out of curiosity I listened to BBC Radio 1 for a couple of minutes today and this song which was played on Scott Mill’s show caught me attention. The singer definitely is not new. He was already featured on several tracks. His debut was released months ago, but this is the first solo track for him. His last single Change was decently good, but the rapping seems to me a bit out of context. Now Red is a perfect song for him, a ballad, a accoustic soul song, which will be the flagship of his musical talent. You can see James Morrison or even Glen Hansard from Once in it. His folksy voice roughs up the song a bit with a strained emotion.
His album will be released at the end of May. I am so looking forward to it.
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 6:08 pm. 2 comments
By writing this post, my blog has been officially reactivated. Though I bought my Macbook Pro a long time ago, it’s the first time I write a post on it. It feels different, much better to be exact. My blog was neglected for some time. I even didn’t notice the failure of the database until a week ago or so.
Keeping this blog is now my priority along with setting up my another official homepage.
Music scene is very dynamic these days. A lot of things happened and some big names are going to drop their albums very soon including Green Day’s brand new album, but somehow I am still lagging behind. I have several major releases pending to listen to. It will probably take me a week to get back to the current trend.
The content of the blog has been a perennial issue here. Restructuring the blog is as much imperative as the case with US automakers.
The cafe that I am in is playing Rihanna’s Pon De Replay. I just saw her battered image, which seems to be a big deal gossip-wise.
Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago at 3:54 pm. 0 comments
Let me put this straight. What makes you have good taste in music?
Very often I hear people say that so-and-so has excellent taste in music and that makes me wonder what he actually listens to. However, if you listen to pop music, then you are destined to be denied the entry to good taste. I hear heavy metal is tasteful, and I also was told that classical music is tasteful. OK, I get it. Objectivity is the word I was looking for.
The problem that I have is with those people who believe they have good taste, but I beg to differ. Looking into there playlist, I don’t even know half of the artists they listen to. Some people would acknowledge their excellence not want to admit their ignorance, but I want say that listening to weird music doesn’t prove that you have better taste. So you can’t impress me with those obsure bands and stuff. You also have to elaborate telling me why you think their music is good.
There are also people who in, order to show that they don’t lack any musical taste, will lie about music. They will pretend to listen to certains, which are not commercially successful, but have a huge loyal following. For example, it’s consider to have taste among xiaozi listening to Jazz.
This is my last.fm account. Like it or not, I don’t care if I allegedly have good taste or not.
Posted 12 months ago at 2:17 pm. 0 comments
Grammy Awards is not a popularity contest. If a popular song doesn’t win the award, it doesn’t mean that Grammy sucks. That’s my biggest lesson learned this time.
I failed at almost all the major categories except for Lil Wayne. My instinct actually went for Alison Krauss, but I chose other nominees for my predictions. Why? Because I like them better. It’s a pity that Jason Mraz didn’t win and I love him so much. However the fact that he lost doesn’t mean that he was a loser or something.
I watched the whole ceremony. As usual it featured some weird collaborations and surprising moments. For example, Whitney Houston presented the award to Jennifer Hudson after the ordeal she’s been through (Did she lip-sync this time?). The performances sometimes are spectacular and sometimes are down-right cheap and tacky. It delved into serious boredom at the second part of the show, which is OK, because that’s what it should do.
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant is everything that Grammy wants. I can say that Alison Krauss could have won alone had if not been for Robert Plant. Grammy have their rules and stereotypes, which make some artists hard to win. Going commercial or going conservative is the perennial debate about Grammy. I think giving three awards to Lil Wayne is a compromise, because Lil Wayne is anything but Grammy-ish.
On the other hand, Grammy, as much as prestigious it is, is not the final judgment for any artist. Those who revere Grammy as if there were nothing else are just plainly ignorant, i.e., some Chinese critics and websites.
It disgusts me every year this time that the whole nation starts to pay attention to western music, if not listen to it per se. Naive critics and writers come out to tout their annual feature on Grammy on their websites. Votes are cast and polls are made. They think well it’s time to listen to some English music other than crappy C-pop. They might listen to all the nominations, but they are still as ignorant as ever.
Grammy is important and should be made a big deal, but it should not, in any way, be the only guide when it comes to English music. It barely represnts the while English music industry for God’s sake. If you care about music, you should listen to music much more often than just once a year event. Instead of looking for nominee’s music, you should have your instant opinion when the nomination gets out. Awards are retrospective. It can serve something of tutorship, but when it becomes a symbol, you know how dire the musical situation in China is. It not only shows how short-sighted those campaigners and promoters are, but also how pathetic the mass become, a problem mostly caused by radio editors, DJs, government regulators.
The silver lining here is the booming of personal music blogs who are doing a greatly immense job for the music in the name of music in a very altruistic way.
Radio is dead in China. Blogs are the new media.