A few times every year I need to use this space to clear out all the electro, "bass music", popular alt rock, world folk, and, yes, even "noise music" that gets stuck in my earwax in the course of my usual Music Monday routine. I do this of course by jamming the shit out of a bunch of punk, since this was my first love after I started to consciously gravitate away from the country music & Top 40 oldies stuff I ambiently soaked in as a small lad. (Not gonna lie, there was also a pretty serious nu metal phase in between but I'll gloss over that except to say, yes I was at the 1999 Family Values tour). Yep, some quality punk gigs on in Beijing this weekend. Two, to be precise. Both fully loaded. Let's get into it: *** The first and bigger of the two is an EP release for Shanghai hardcore punk torchbearers Spill Your Guts, who drop in to School Bar on Friday, July 4. Gave these dudes a brief shoutout last time they were in town, which was for the big China Hardcore Fest last September. Unity is a big theme in the HC punk world, and Friday's lineup reflects how deep that shit runs regardless of your geographical point of origin. There are SEVEN local bands opening up for SYG at School, and considering the ticket is only 60rmb I can pretty much guarantee they're not in it for the bucks. Spill Your Guts are in town to drop their latest DIY effort, a five-song ripper called Slip and Fall. Here is that: Yes. Fast hardcore, done well. Couple blast beats and nods to black metal dirge at points, some ringing harmonics here and there, even a few slightly melodic segments to break up the well-done fast hardcore bits, which honestly are all I need at the end of the day. Also plenty of obligatory hard breakdowns with rippin' guitar solos. Without nerding out too hard about it... bands calling themselves "hardcore" in China are usually doing more double-bass-pedal, cookie monster vocal metalcore stuff. And hey, who really gives a shit? I don't get hung up on the genre name stuff but what SYG does is the "hardcore" I rage to, and it's still some of the most exhilarating music one can experience live. Spill Your Guts just finished a winding Southeast Asia tour, and if this video from the final Pairs show in Shanghai a few weeks back is any indication, you can expect a thorough brain thrashing on Friday: Getting a double dose of Shanghai at this one, actually. Here are a few tunes from Loudspeaker, who are also making the high-speed train trip up on Friday: And, yeah, like I said, there are seven Beijing bands on the bill. Here's all their doubans: xIt Never Happenedx, Provocation, Own Up!!!, Li Shi, The Last Resort, Return the Truth, and Tinnie Whollie. Most of these bands have been around for a minute. I don't know, Tinnie Whollie is a new one for me. Li Shi too I guess. The latter has this rad promo shot of the band walking down the road into a rainbow, and the band is apparently like a Lonsdale suspenders guy, a woman in a qipao, and an Evisu jeans baseball bat guy: Li Shi is in the middle of raising some loot to put out their first record, FYI. Throw some bones their way here if you wanna. And here's one more for this show, a full (~15 min) set by Beijing's OWN UP!!! from last February. Just because they're one of the better (and only) new-ish BJHC bands. The vid starts with some pre-show stretching and an anomalous hip hop intro, skip to 3:00 to get straight to the hardcore, or to 6:50 if you're just in it for the Youth of Today covers: So, yeah: that's Spill Your Guts, Loudspeaker, Own Up, and many other bands on Friday, July 4 at School Bar. Pledge allegiance. *** The other one on this weekend for the punk rock is pretty all over the map by comparison. It's a typically confusing Mao lineup, a vaguely sexist "summer vintage party" called Girls! Girls! Girls! scheduled for this Saturday night. Not sure how that theme translates to the music but girls in bikinis and/or miniskirts get in for half price so... Anyway, Demerit is playing this show, and I love Demerit. They play pretty rarely. You should go check them out. They haven't put out new music in three years but here's some tracks from an early Genjing 10". Bonus points if you can pick out my backup vox: Another Maybe Mars band playing on Saturday at Mao that has not released new music since 2011 is Rustic. Quite a storied history these guys have. They just played a semi-official reunion show over the weekend at XP. Morgan wrote the best thing that's ever been written about Rustic ahead of that one so I'm just gonna copy/paste that steez: Quickly cycling through the tried and true cock rock narrative -- obscurity, scene kings, larger success, international touring, band infighting, band breaks up, band continues on without some original members to less acclaim, band breaks up entirely, band members do some side projects, reconciliation, and then band does reunion tour with original members -- Beijing stunt punk three-piece Rustic have pretty much completed the circle in what... like three years. Currently, they're now newly ensconced in the "reunion" phase of their whirlwind career... with Lucifer, Ricky, and The Other Dude all back together again like one snotty little family with undeniably good taste in pants. Boom. Here's Rustic's LP: Saturday's gig also features sets from BJ street punks Hell City, hair metal revivalists Los Crasher, all-woman pop punk quartet Miss Mix, and a band from Nanjing called Car Car Cars, who are also releasing their debut EP on the night. Here's what Car Car Cars sounded like at Mao around this time last year: *** RECAP: Spill Your Guts (Shanghai) EP Release = FRI July 4 @ School Demerit, Rustic, Hell City, Car Car Cars, et al = SAT July 5 @ Mao