*** More sounds from the out-of-town underground piping through our system this week. And the last of what's become a summer at 2 Kolegas institution: 'dazeFEAST IV: The Final Reckoning. Let's get into it: *** I harp on this theme a lot, but post-punk has really evolved into a unique beast in China. There's an account of the phenomenon over at post-punk.com, though it's seriously outdated and full of errors. The most interesting thing about the post-punk sound in China is that it's popping up all over the place now. I saw Xi'an's The Fuzz for the first time over the weekend, and they blew me away. Their singer had stage moves ripped directly out of Ian Curtis' playbook, for sure, but they channel that Manchester sound and invert it, bend it into something thornier and much noisier. I had the same feeling when I saw The Fallacy from Xinxiang, Henan last November. At that time they also captured the ear of Genjing boss Nevin Domer, and they're headed back this weekend to drop the result of that union. Solid 7" single here. Recorded — as pretty much all Chinese post-punk bands are now — in Yang Haisong's Psychic Kong studio. One day "Psychic Kong" will be used to describe a specific guitar tone. My pick of these two is the B-side/title track, "Painkiller." It's a tightly composed little number, but the coherence belies how vicious Fallacy can be live. You have to see them in a dingy club to get the "punk" part of their sound. Besides being a Genjing release, this show is also part of Douban.com's Behind the Billboard series. In addition to The Fallacy, Douban is shining a light on Little Wizard from Shaoxing, a small (China small: population was near 5 million in 2010) city near Hangzhou. These guys are more on the mathy post-rock tip. Intricate instrumentals. Can't find any jams to embed (whoa Douban, get on that) but you can stream their two self-released EPs here and here. And here's a pretty good-sounding live video from last March: The Fallacy and Little Wizard play on Friday, June 13 at XP. *** photo by Crows The next night, XP hosts Hiperson from Chengdu, who played one of these Douban jernts last year. The Sound Stage's Jonathan Alpart was at that one, and caught up with the band before they left Beijing: Hiperson definitely stuck between the ears for me as well. They only have the one demo (sneak some downloads here) and a few live recordings to date. I expect they'll be recording a proper album soon. Probably with Yang Haisong. Possibly for a Genjing record. There's a pattern here. This is my favorite song of theirs and hey, cool, I just figured out how to use Xiami: Hiperson's at XP on Saturday, June 14 along with Glow Curve. *** On the local front: Saturday is the last ever 'dazeFEAST, Badr Benjelloun / BeijingDaze's erstwhile annual love letter to his adopted home city via summer tunes on the 2 Kolegas lawn. Guess he's too busy with the Sisyphean tasks of perfecting Cu Ju's rum list and fixing theBeijinger's website to keep it going. There are a whole lot of bands playing, and more to be added probably. Keep track of the lineup here. My personal pick of the litter would probably be Nakoma, who've recently made a comeback and have been hitting it hard, new guitarist/vocalist in tow. Here are some practice room demos recorded in February: Really can't go wrong with this gig. Weather should be fine, there will be one or more roasted goats in the building, and even the chance for some demonstrative sport courtesy Capoeira Mandinga Beijing. All for free. Badr's 2K shakers have become a landmark of the live music calendar year, sorry to see this series bite the dust. Catch the last 'dazeFEAST on Saturday, June 14 — 3pm til very late. *** RECAP: The Fallacy + Little Wizard = Friday, June 13 @ XP Hiperson = Saturday, June 14 @ XP 'dazeFEAST = Saturday, June 14 @ 2 Kolegas