*** Pretty packed week, musically. A bit for everyone. Hopefully you're still functional after Daze Feast or those EDM parties or that ongoing World Cup thing that is happening in the ungodliest hours imaginable. How depressing is it when the sun rises on your nefarious nighttime habits? Coffee number two now. OK let's do this: *** First on today's docket is Birdstriking. Not exactly a new band, and they don't really have any new tunes, but they're making a kind of comeback on Tuesday at XP. Circa 2010 this trio was my favorite Beijing band. Initially inspired by the first Maybe Mars wave (the guitarist, He Fan, and drummer, Wang Xinjiu, met at a Carsick Cars show), Birdstriking cut their teeth at D-22's Wednesday college nights in 2009 before becoming engrained in the then-nascent Zoomin' Night experimental music weekly, also at D-22. Gained some momentum in 2010 and 2011, culminating in the release of their self-titled, debut album in February 2012. Here's that: This one dropped with a bit of drama. If I remember correctly there was some lyric like "you can control the media, but you can't control my fucking mind" that got it axed by the censors. So the CD never got official release or distribution within China. Just one of those slim-case CDR deals. Soon after releasing the record, Birdstriking started to fade into the ether. He Fan joined Carsick Cars, bassist Zhou Nairen joined Skip Skip Ben Ben for their 2012-2013 hot streak, and Wang Xinjiu went to Wales to cop a graduate degree in Mathematics. All that to say: they're back! In a big way. Genjing's going to re-issue their LP on vinyl, and in a few weeks they're heading to Europe for a tour with Brian Jonestown Massacre. That's pretty huge. Catch Birdstriking's comeback warmup on Tuesday, June 17 at XP. *** Next in chronological order: Marseille hip hop legends IAM, live at Yugong Yishan on Wednesday night. I don't really speak much French at all but I like that thing they do where they invert the first and last syllable in a word, you know? Like, "cimer, mec." It's pretty cool. I'm sure IAM are operating on a much higher level of linguistic innovation. The French speakers in my life tell me these guys are super legit. They all have complicated names and a deep fascination with ancient Asian / African cultural symbols. So they're basically like a French Wu Tang: "IAM [are]... the inventors of a unique universe which blends Chinese mythology and the reality of the suburban life of Marseille, high level lyrics spun by the two singers Akhenaton and Shurik’N and knock-down instrumentals produced by the sound architects, Imhotep and DJ Khéops": These guys are serious with their Africa references. In 2008, to celebrate their 20th anniversary, they played a gig by the pyramids at Giza. And now, according to the press statement I'm leaning heavily on for this one: "IAM just released their last album, ...IAM, which they announced to be the last one. A pilgrimage to China was one ritual they needed to achieve through their amazing career." So that's happening on Wednesday, June 18 at Yugong Yishan. Tickets are 300rmb at the door, or you can get a pre-sale stub for 200 here. A can't-miss for your inner Francophone. *** photo by Shadow The real biggie for the rock music this week is Wang Wen at Yugong on Friday. Wang Wen, from Dalian, is China's most well-known post-rock band, both at home and abroad. I prattle on about the post-rock in China thing all the time, so I won't repeat myself here. Wrote quite a bit about Wang Wen about a year back. To be honest, I am not even down with the post-rock. Bores me. But I've always found Wang Wen interesting, even if not a band I'd repeatedly spin in headphones. That might change with Eight Horses, above, their eighth album. Damn, it's good. The songwriting is dynamic across the eight slow-burning tracks, and the recording quality is the China Indie industry standard (produced by Yang Haisong, naturally, plus Ningbo-based Anzi and Belgian musician Wouter Vlaeminckx). In the final push for the album release they also just dropped this animated music video, which must have taken a long time to put together: Very cool. Think that's a China-only joint; if you're anywhere else in the world you can catch it on YouTube. The gig on Friday is being put on by New Noise, so you know it'll be done well. That's Friday, June 20 at Yugong Yishan. *** RECAP: Birdstriking = Tue, June 17 @ XP IAM = Wed, June 18 @ Yugong Wang Wen = Fri, June 20 @ Yugong