*** Whoa, I drank way too much Red Bull last week. I drank so much that now instead of using the phrase "drinking the kool aid" I'll say drinking the red bull because when you drink enough of that stuff you start to believe real weird shit. I'm balancing out now. Spent the weekend in Hong Kong where they have this drink called C.C. Lemon that's carbonated, refreshing, and not potentially coma-inducing. SO, back to my usual grind. This weekend there are a bunch of live music events featuring bands releasing physical objects that contain their music on them. All kinds of physical objects... plastic ones, vinyl ones, ones that are made out of whatever cassette tape is made out of (magnet-coated polymer). Mostly local bands, mostly self-releases. Support the scene and all that: *** The one exception to the local/self-release thing I just mentioned is the Beijing drop of Teenagarten by The Yours on Friday at XP, because they're from Hong Kong and the record's coming out on Maybe Mars. But the band's great, the album rips, and Maybe Mars is celebrating their 7th year in the hard-knock China indie label game, so that all deserves a bump here. Teenagarten is The Yours's third studio effort, following up on an earlier EP (Abraham) and LP (The Way We Were) released on staunch HK underground music pot-stirrer Alok Leung's Lona Records. The Yours eventually caught the ear of Yang Haisong here in Beijing, which led to them becoming one of Maybe Mars's two new signees (the other is Hiperson from Chengdu). Teenagarten is honestly one of the best records I've heard coming out of this specific noise rock / post-punk / grunge revival niche that has such a deep expression in Beijing. Here's the whole album: Especially recommend "Darnkess '91," which is about being born in 1991. Dark. The Yours drops Teenagarten in physical form on Friday, September 19 at XP. This is also Maybe Mars's official 7th anniversary bash, so it's a pretty deep lineup: live sets from label standard bearers White+ and Birdstriking, a guest appearance from Hong Kong's Murmur, and some kind of afternoon schmoozing hangout party before all of that. Find full event info in the listing. *** For less structured — if no less noisy — vibes, maybe check out Noise Arcade on Friday night at DDC, when he'll be releasing a new split cassette with Malaysian noise dude Jerk Kerouac (cool name). Jerk himself won't be at this gig, but he and Noise Arcade are about to embark on a Southeast Asia tour. Bet it'll be loud. NA just got back from a lengthy tour to Korea and Japan, actually. Here's a whole album he made about it: The tape release is Friday, September 19 at DDC and features opening sets from fellow electro-noise weirdos JFI, thruoutin, and Charm. *** Meanwhile, on the punker end of the spectrum: Gum Bleed is releasing their latest, City of Heroes, at Mao Livehouse, also on Friday. Damn, packed night. This is Gum Bleed's first full-length release since No War But Class War, which dropped at D-22 way back in 2010. I was at the release gig for that one, and the CD came with a little pack of Gum Bleed pins and patches. Pretty cool. In the intervening years, Gum Bleed has sawn off some of the more discordant edges of their sound, introducing a slightly more tuneful and musical nuance to their still otherwise classic street punk thing. No streams for the new album, but here are a few jams from some more recent Genjing releases: Catch Gum Bleed on Friday, September 19 @ Mao Livehouse. *** One more release show for you this weekend: British blues daemon Guiguisuisui will release his first 7", The Court of King Necro, on Saturday at XP. GGSS just returned from a tour of 90% of the known universe. His pants were already falling apart when he left and rumor has it that by the end he was literally just wearing four strings hanging from a Gum Bleed patch. Saw him the other night though and he's purchased a new pair of knickers, so this one should be kosher. Here's a digital version of the new slab: "King Necro" is when GGSS puts on a death's head mask and cape and kinda fucks with the audience, by the way. Release gig is Saturday, September 20 at XP, with a super erratic opening lineup: new-ish punk upstarts Bastards of Imperialism, Bedstars, and Jordan Mitchell's debauched rapper alter ego Chronmaster. Mixed bag, for sure, but that Guiguisuisui likes to mix it up. *** Buy some music objects this weekend! They feel better in your hands than MP3s, which don't actually exist.