Clocking in at just over 47 minutes, the S/T debut (Badhead/Modern Sky) from Beijing's Queen Sea Big Shark is a 14-track gem that, from start to finish, showcases their signature surf-punk dance-rock sound, demonstrating why they are one of the most infectious bands in the Middle Kingdom.


Often compared to New York alternative, art-rockers The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (an assessment that guitarist Cao Pu refers to as "bullshit," claiming that, "those who never give up this issue don't listen to a lot of music."), QSBS has clearly carved out their niche with a handful of three-and-a-half minute numbers featuring Cao's classic, razor-sharp (Fender) Twin Reverb tone, drummer Xiao Wu's heavy-steady rhythms, and, of course, the ferocious, attitude-laden drawl of riot girl/front woman Fu Han.

Standout tracks "Hard Heart," "No! No! No!," "Hold Your Hand," and "Dirty Mind" perfectly encapsulate the carefree, dancey-swingy-bop that QSBS has become (relatively) well-known for, but S/T also captures the band delving out into unknown territories with the ballad "Man On the Moon" and the electronic-drum laced "Lady Sisters."

"We are not meant to stick to some kind of style," explains Cao, who along with Xiao popped their production cherries after several failed attempts at collaborating with more experienced knob-turners. "Expressing emotion in the song is the best . . . we are also willing to try something new."

In an effort to promote and push the album, QSBS is currently in the middle of a five-week national tour which they describe as "taking a fantastic trip by Galaxy Express 9999." Whatever that means (it could just be a translation problem), this brief quote does expose the main weakness of S/T, namely the lyrics. Sure, allowances can be made given that English is not Fu's first language (she writes all the words), but lines like "don't you cry betty boom," "joan jett sings the stars for her," and "you're such a shit girl / what does the twenty one century youths against," are just, well, lazy and sophomoric.

Vernacular aside, the current tour (which began three months after the December 2007 release) has been an overall success for the QSBS camp.

"While we are performing on the stage, there are a lot of audience [members] singing with us, which has never happened before," affirms Cao. "Furthermore, those audiences from the other cities seem quite familiar with us."

With their Shanghai gig scheduled for Friday, April 18th, at Rock, Paper, Disco at the Living Design Centre (407 Yishan Lu. near Kaixuan Lu.), Cao Pu has a soft spot for the Pearl City recalling that "the first place we performed was Shanghai, when we just grouped our band . . . so we always have strong feeling for Shanghai . . . [so] dance to the explosive rock music in the laser."

Queen Sea Big Shark headlines Rock, Paper, Disco this Friday.

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