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MP3 Monday: Demerit

Bastards on a national scale - By Morgan, Aug 04, 08

MP3 Monday is a new weekly SmartShanghai column, serving up mp3s from bands living and making music in China. Right click on the links and choose "Save As..." to download them and check out how to purchase the CDs at the bottom.

This weeks MP3's are pretty a-topical, as the band isn't from or coming to Shanghai anytime soon, and the CD's been out for a little while now, but I really like this record so whatever.

Formed in 2004 in Qingdao, Demerit is one of the best hardcore/oi acts I've seen and heard in China (well, I guess they're calling it "street punk" these days), and they've released their second full-length CD in April of this year, Bastards of the Nation (2008). It holds up to multiple listens both for the quality of recording (a rare thing) and the song writing (rarer still). They're probably the one of the most overtly political bands I've seen in China -- they sample Martin Luther King on the "Intro" to the album -- and the MP3 samples below show that as well.


Musically, it's new school, fuck-you-mom-and-dad-and-George-Bush hardcore in the vein of Leftover Crack, with thrash metal undertones (kind of Iron Maiden-ey in places). If you are so inclined, you can read a full review of the record here, languishing there in its obsolescence, written before we started doing these MP3 things...

Demerit - Bastards of the Nation

Demerit - Beijing is not my Home

Demerit - Fuck the Schemers

Demerit just capped off a massive national tour for the release of this album (they were at Yuyintang a few months ago) so I wouldn't expect to see them again in Shanghai anytime soon, but I would imagine they would be playing the Midi Fest in Beijing over the October holiday (if it doesn't get torpedoed by the fuzz).

Other punk highlights in Shanghai for the next little while though, include a performance by Old Doll at YYT on Sept 16.

To get this CD: Bastards of the Nation is available at the Yuyintang CD shop. Or online at interpunk.com. They've also got T-shirts and other stuff that you can check out on their MySpace page.

Photos of Demerit are from their MySpace page.
Photos of Demerit by Matthew Niederhauser.

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