MP3 Monday: Get in the Van III
By Morgan Short, Apr 20th, 2009 | In Nightlife
MP3 Monday is a weekly SmartShanghai column, serving up mp3s from bands living and making music in China (or coming to China, or thinking about coming to China, or whatever). Right click on the links and choose "Save Link As..." to download 'em. Click play to rock 'em.
This weeks MP3 Monday is in anticipation of the stupendous Get in the Van 3 concert this Saturday at the Zhijiang Dream Factory, a beer-laden bus, and at Yuyintang. We've got MP3s from every single band playing, including one from local garage rock supastas Banana Monkey, which is pretty neat-o because even though they're one of the city's most popular bands, they've never released anything on CD.
First, a disclaimer: the author is in one of the bands in this list, so feel free to think I'm a lame guy for posting an MP3 from my own band here. It IS pretty lame. Go ahead and skip that. But have a look at the other bands on the list, because each is more rocking than the next, and "journalistic" conflicts aside, you should really check them out.
"Get in the Van" is a series of concert that first came about last year in response to the closure of 4Live. At the time, 4Live was the only mid-to-large-sized venue in town, and the inability for it to maintain a profit-margin was sort of a depressing indicator of the "state of live music in Shanghai." So the Get in the Van concert was an idea that came from people in local bands in Shanghai to present live music in a more epic, party-like context. Even if you thought the bands sucked, the party was still good. Or maybe you came for the party and discovered that the bands were half-way decent. It was thought that hopefully it would appeal to a broader range of people and maybe change a few people¡¯s minds about coming out to see bands in Shanghai.
Then the people in the bands would get record deals, become world famous, sell a million records, headline massive festivals, develop crippling drug habits, break up, reform, record a comeback album, break up, hit bottom, reform, play a comeback tour, break up, reform with different members, die, get inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame, reform with none of the original members, get a radio show on NPR, reform with a few of the original members, "loose what it was that made them good in the first place," breakup, reform, and be back on the club circuit playing at Yuyintang again in their 40s.
Chase the dream!
Assuming a namesake from the Henry Rollins Black Flag tour diary of the same name, "Get in the Van" is a main show at a large venue, local bands opening for more established and relatively more well-known BJ bands, and then everyone gets into a bunch of buses, gets to drink free REEB, and gets dropped off at yet another concert venue with another band playing an after party show, more REEB, and good times, and a DJ, and dancing, and hanging out, and REEB, and so on.
Concert organizers at one point tried to get REEB to sponsor the whole thing but they weren't into it.
So this year's Get in the Van features not one but two headlining acts from Beijing, both from that Maybe Mars label that gives everyone at the New York Times and Time Magazine and CNN and Atlantic Monthly massive erections. They're both in town behind new albums, "on the way up", so to speak, so check out their MP3s:
The Gar - Circle
24 Hours - Mr Stevenson (with Train)
Both are in the indie rock/ dance rock end of the spectrum, so if that's how you roll, roll with those. That second one from 24 Hours is not quite finished and is still going through the spit-shining of mastering, so expect that one to sound different (and better) on their album.
The next three are from local bands The Dropkicks, The Rogue Transmission, and Banana Monkey. Each plays a variation of good-time party rawk, and it's going to be interesting to get all three bands on the same bill, as each will no doubt try to out-crazy each other on stage. Drop the gauntlet. You might have seen these guys around town once of twice before, but it's always good to see them together when the pressure of competition brings out the best in them.
The Dropkicks - Lost in the City
Banana Monkey - Double Trouble
The Rogue Transmission - Wicked Devil Heart
The last band is an indie rock band called Boys Climbing Ropes that will play at the last leg of the show after the beer buses drop people off at Yuyintang. By that point, everyone will be really drunk, very forgiving of the inevitable equipment malfunctions, and totally receptive to Weezer covers, which is what the BCR bring to the table in spades.
Boys Climbing Ropes - Pleasure to Be Here
Get in the Van is this Saturday at the Zhijiang Dream Factory at 8pm (bands start at 8:30pm). Tickets to the whole thing are 60rmb, and that includes the main show at the Dream Factory, a bus ride to Yuyintang, free REEB on the bus ride to Yuyintang, the concert at Yuyintang, and dancing until morning at Yuyingtang with some chump on the decks called Sacco playing The Business, The Briefs, Undertones, Misfits, and hopefully Cheap Trick.
Here are the 90 million MySpace links for the bands playing:
http://www.myspace.cn/the2gar
http://www.myspace.com/nopartypeople
http://www.myspace.com/theroguetransmission
http://www.myspace.com/bananamonkeysh
http://www.douban.com/artist/thedropkicks
http://www.myspace.com/boysclimbingropesshanghai
http://www.westaddradio.com/shanghai79/
Hassle free ticket purchasing and delivery for Shanghai's cultural and concert events:
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