MP3 Monday: 21 Grams
By Morgan Short, Sep 14th, 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.
Today's MP3 Monday is inspired by the news that Japanese post rock band Mono is coming to Shanghai on November 27. In terms of notoriety and acclaim in the genre, it doesn't get much bigger than Mono, and their coming to Shanghai is quite the momentous occasion. As a genre, post rock has really taken off in China, and the imminent arrival of one of the world's best bands is sure to be a huge deal. Click here to be redirected to their MySpace. Check out the pictures of them kicking out the jams with a full orchestra. That's a real post rock thing to do. In recent Mono news, they played All Tomorrows Parties in Somerset, England in 2008; the festival was curated by the band Explosions in the Sky, so there you go. Mono also just released their fifth album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind.
I was looking through my old CDs and came across this band, 21 Grams, a Shanghai post rock band that were quite active around 2006-2007. Despite being a relatively new band, 21 Grams attracted a lot of attention around that period, and played a bunch of higher profile shows at Live Bar, LOgO, Yuyintang, ddm warehouse, culminating -- crescendo'ing really -- in the band opening for PK14 at 4Live. The band's success (as much as success is available to bands in Shanghai) had them sort of poised to be the city's answer to Dalian's Wang Wen and Wuhan's Hua Lun -- two other really talented, nationally-touring post rock bands that imprint their own localized stamp on the genre.
If memory serves, 21 Grams also embodied the key elements detractors of the post rock genre despise most -- namely, there was basically no visual element to the show. With the emphasis being on sonic texturing, the ebb and flow of layered guitars, no vocals, and seven to ten minutes of crescendo and decrescendo, if you're not down with that style, seeing it live can be totally excruciating. It's mostly really sparse, and if you're not willing to be open to the subtleties, it's really fucking boring -- four motionless dudes staring at their feet, playing songs that last forever with no singing.
Of course, that's not really a criticism of the band but more the style in general. To each their own. There tends not to be a middle ground with the post rock; you either really like it or you really don't. But if you do, you should keep an eye out for this band 21 Grams, who haven't played in a while, but are rumored to be still around and practicing. These songs are off their 2006 eponymous EP-type thing. All their songs are inspired by movies and it seems like they are explicitly writing scores for said movies.
21 Grams �C 21 Grams
21 Grams �C Brokeback Mountain
21 Grams on the web: here's their MySpace page and here's a internets music show video about the band. Looks like they're rocking out in a certain now-closed practice space on Wuxing Lu. Ahh memories...
And here's a classic: Mogwai Fear Satan at the Fuju Rock festival. Wait for it.......... BOOM!
Today's MP3 Monday is inspired by the news that Japanese post rock band Mono is coming to Shanghai on November 27. In terms of notoriety and acclaim in the genre, it doesn't get much bigger than Mono, and their coming to Shanghai is quite the momentous occasion. As a genre, post rock has really taken off in China, and the imminent arrival of one of the world's best bands is sure to be a huge deal. Click here to be redirected to their MySpace. Check out the pictures of them kicking out the jams with a full orchestra. That's a real post rock thing to do. In recent Mono news, they played All Tomorrows Parties in Somerset, England in 2008; the festival was curated by the band Explosions in the Sky, so there you go. Mono also just released their fifth album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind. I was looking through my old CDs and came across this band, 21 Grams, a Shanghai post rock band that were quite active around 2006-2007. Despite being a relatively new band, 21 Grams attracted a lot of attention around that period, and played a bunch of higher profile shows at Live Bar, LOgO, Yuyintang, ddm warehouse, culminating -- crescendo'ing really -- in the band opening for PK14 at 4Live. The band's success (as much as success is available to bands in Shanghai) had them sort of poised to be the city's answer to Dalian's Wang Wen and Wuhan's Hua Lun -- two other really talented, nationally-touring post rock bands that imprint their own localized stamp on the genre.
If memory serves, 21 Grams also embodied the key elements detractors of the post rock genre despise most -- namely, there was basically no visual element to the show. With the emphasis being on sonic texturing, the ebb and flow of layered guitars, no vocals, and seven to ten minutes of crescendo and decrescendo, if you're not down with that style, seeing it live can be totally excruciating. It's mostly really sparse, and if you're not willing to be open to the subtleties, it's really fucking boring -- four motionless dudes staring at their feet, playing songs that last forever with no singing.
Of course, that's not really a criticism of the band but more the style in general. To each their own. There tends not to be a middle ground with the post rock; you either really like it or you really don't. But if you do, you should keep an eye out for this band 21 Grams, who haven't played in a while, but are rumored to be still around and practicing. These songs are off their 2006 eponymous EP-type thing. All their songs are inspired by movies and it seems like they are explicitly writing scores for said movies.
21 Grams �C 21 Grams
21 Grams �C Brokeback Mountain
21 Grams on the web: here's their MySpace page and here's a internets music show video about the band. Looks like they're rocking out in a certain now-closed practice space on Wuxing Lu. Ahh memories...
And here's a classic: Mogwai Fear Satan at the Fuju Rock festival. Wait for it.......... BOOM!
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flyswatter, Sep 14th, 2009
Yeah 21 Grams are still around. Their latest show was at the enoise showcase a few weeks back in eno on Changle Lu. You can buy yourself a 21 Grams t-shirt from said clothes shop too if you're really into the post rock thing. Caught a bit of Wang Wen at the weekend and, though I quite like their CDs, I have to admit I got a bit bored after a while. Maybe I'm just a philistinemorgan, Sep 14th, 2009
Ah right on. It seems there was a bit of a lull there for the band and I wasn't sure if they were around still. Maybe I could have tried to "research" it.cissy4, Sep 15th, 2009
hey,check this album:http://www.thesirenssound.com/2009/08/25/various-artists-post-rock/
It was released in 2007.
Wang wen is in their 10th year already.
'post rock has really taken off in China'
I really doubt it. Cause true ambient music soul is rare in other lands as well.
See how dancing crowded at all these electronic places in sh..
pffff..
cissy4, Sep 15th, 2009
anyway, mono mono..morgan, Sep 16th, 2009
By "taken off", I more meant that there are a handful of bands around China that have latched onto the style and there is a bit of an audience for it -- which explains why Mono can come do a show here. Not "taken off" like it's all over the TV, radio, and mainstream press. But I can think of at least four post rock bands in Shanghai alone... which is quite a lot.So it's "taken off" as apposed to say, say, ska music, which is pretty non-existent in Shanghai and (i think) China in general.
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