Return to the Spring City
Over the weekend, Jovian and I brought Disco Death to Kunming for the first time. It wasn't without its complications (as we expected the first event at a new venue to be), but we had a good time and came back smiling. The eve
We stupidly waited until the last minute to book our plane tickets and ended up paying dearly for it. We paid almost what it costs to fly to Bangkok from Chengdu, and as expected, we weren't able to recoup such a significant expense. We took the train back, which took 20 hours, but even that was a pretty good time playing Scrabble and watching the landscape whiz by.
In between going to Kunming and coming back, we had what felt like a 3 day vacation in tropical China. Kunming feels completely different from Chengdu, and it had been six months since I'd been there so it was great to return. We went to 文林街 and ran into many old friends - Nick, Shonny, and others. Oh, and we witnessed the final night of the Speakeasy Bar. For anyone who doesn't know, that was the most notorious party venue in Kunming for years and years. I still can't believe that it closed - that's what'll happen though when the landlord raises your rent from 5,000 yuan a month to 25,000. As expected, the last party was crazy.
The show that we performed on Friday was seriously marginalized by it being Speakeasy's final weekend. Put simply, we were two outsiders competing with a large group of locals (3 bands and four DJ's) at an infamous bar on it's closing weekend. Also, their party was free, and ours wasn't. Still, it didn't completely bomb which is good. The event was at Uprock, which is certainly in the running for Kunming's top party venue since Speakeasy is finished. The problem, however, is with the child-like owner who invites us to his club on Saturday but gets so drunk he has to be carried out before we even arrive. Putting my money and time on the line and doing business with someone like that always makes me nervous. My job now is to minimize his ability to compromise my goals in his own venue - even though in the end, what's good for me is good for him as well. We'll see how that goes.
One of the highlights of the trip, though? Boating around 翠湖 (Green Lake) in Kunming. Honestly, this photo doesn't even do it justice:
Gettin’ Busy
Recently business has started to pick up - after months of working on music production and developing guitar skills at home finally I'm getting calls. Right now I'm in Wuxi, in Jiangsu province very near Shanghai, and the day after tomorrow I return to Chengdu to do two shows (including the Hemp House 4 Year Birthday party which I'm looking forward to) and then off to Qingdao to play a 3-day music festival. Qingdao is one of the places that I've been waiting for an opportunity to visit for four years. Once I complete that goal the only significant city I haven't been to in all of China will be Haerbin.
Here's to completing your goals, no matter how long it takes.
What I’ve Been Up To
The last 3 months I've been traveling every weekend - I'm thoroughly adjusted to my routine and recently it includes commute by airplane twice a week. I'm on tour with Chivas but I only do shows on Friday and Saturday, so I return home in Chengdu for the rest of the week.
Every Friday morning I wake up early and catch a flight to another city, almost always in central China (Xian, Changsha, Wuhan, Yinchuan, Guiyang, etc) and work for two nights. As you might imagine it's not as simple as showing up, doing the show, and going home. Every weekend I play in at least two different clubs (more on extended weekends) and I haven't returned to the same venue in six months. Each location is different - some are large bars, some look like Chinese opera venues, and some are mega clubs. Playing in such a wide variety of places has been good for me, I've learned to adapt to a previously unimaginable number of situations. Sometimes it's great fun and everyone is drinking and dancing, other times I feel like a corporate pawn who collects the deer-eyed stares of hillbillys who've never seen a caucasian. More often than not it's enjoyable and rewarding, from meeting friendly people at every stop who eagerly give me big smiles, cigarettes, and business cards, to drinking Scottish whiskey with locals who gush to me about the beautiful culture/women/food/lifestyle of their hometown. The worst part is the transit, but I'm getting used to that. I'm used to sleeping until noon on my time and waking up at 6am to catch a flight to here or there. Sometimes I spend 12+ hours in a car over the course of weekend, sleeping in the front seat, listening to MP3s, or watching movies on my laptop. I could draw you a map of the layout of half a dozen Chinese airports from memory.
What separates this routine from most is the stiff dose of unpredictability. I never know how the gig will turn out, but I often learn something new. Despite first impressions at sound check, I can rarely guess how the night will turn out with any accuracy. And when I think I can, I'm quickly proven wrong. The chance that I'll stumble upon something outstanding that I didn't know I was looking for is always in the back of my mind. With my American 9-5 routine in mind, all the chaos of what I do here is a blessing and exactly what I came here looking for. Of course, I wasn't aware of that at the time.
When I get home on Monday afternoon I'm always exhausted. Three days on the road doesn't seem like much, but I'm always happy to come home afterwards. I wouldn't be happy to be constantly on the road for months at a time like I've been in the past. I really loathe the touring and living in a hotel life, as exotic and cool as it sounds.  So when I return home, my life goes somewhat back to normal. Yesterday I played on Xbox Live for the entire afternoon. The day before that I watched Hackers while installing OSX on my laptop (a Lenovo). At least twice a week I go to an American Tex-Mex restaurant down the street. And in between, I hang out with friends, play chess, practice guitar and piano, and geek out on the couch.
I arrived in Hunan a few hours ago and there's some freak weather here - it's 75 degrees outside and the sun is shining. I'm going to go walk around, find a restaurant, and order a local dish.
宝鸡 РThe Treasured Chicken
I just returned from a week long tour of 3 cities in central China - Wuhan, Lanzhou, and Bao Ji.
The first show I had was on the 30th of September, the eve of Chinese National Day, at a club in Wuhan, the capitol of Hubei Province. I had the show with Tenzin "Plump Fingers" Gyaltsen, my favorite American/Tibet from San Francisco. Outside of the club was a giant graffiti mural which local artists had made - they did a great job and I took photos but evidently left my camera behind a few days later (my old pocket camera, not my DSLR). So it was a hip hop show with me on the black plastic toy-like CD players and big Tenzin on the microphone. We rocked about a 90 minute set and had a great time - I rolled through a dozen classics in short order and Tenz sang along. Good times.
The next day he returned to Chengdu and I spent the day in my hotel reading news on the internet about the financial meltdown and watching movies on the circular bed in my hotel room (which I also photographed before losing the camera, damnit). I downloaded The Rocker (starring Dwayne from The Office) and Indiana Jones 4 but was so loathing Indy 4 from all the negative buzz I've heard that I didn't even bother watching it. The Rocker was somewhat of a slave to formula (mostly biting Jack Black in School of Rock) but had its moments.
After a day off lounging in the hotel room I caught a flight to Lanzhou where the temperature dropped about 25 degrees. Suddenly it's cold and I'm eating nothing but meat (in north west China style, vegetables are for wimps). Played a pretty mediocre show, again on DJ CD players (once again, I hate them) and got to bed early to catch an 8am train to the city of Bao Ji.
Now if not for any other reason, this place is interesting for its name. I had heard Bao Ji several times in my sleepy early-morning state but it wasn't until I had the train ticket in my hand that I could see how the name was written. The city literally means Treasure Chicken or Precious Chicken (literal translation from Chinese-English is always shaky as nearly every character has multiple meanings). I asked in the train station why the city was named that but no one could tell me. I arrived in Bao Ji after a few hours of sleeping on the train and a few more playing Final Fantasy IV on nintendo DS (this game is pure old school RPG nostalgia, I had it nearly memorized 15 years ago). I didn't manage to get the full story but was told that the namesake for the city is infact an ancient chicken. That's really all I wanted to confirm, anyway.
I played a pair of shows in Bao Ji along with three Russian dancers that I traveled with last year. This year they're doing a Batman show. That is, the guy (Pacha) dresses up as Batman and the two girls with him are two Catwomen. Then they do all this flashy synchronized dance stuff that looks like it was choreographed for Russians. The three of them are all outstanding dancers and they work great together. I took video of it (on my camera, naturally).
I returned home at noon today to find my girlfriend still sleeping - lucky her, I woke up at 5:30 to take a three hour car ride to Xian to catch a flight back to Chengdu. After eating delicious sichuan food (which I had really missed after only a week) we went to a Sports Authority-like store I'd never been to where I found some size 12 Asics and maybe more significantly, SWEATPANTS. certain things are really difficult to find here -sweatpants, large shoes being two of them. Booya!
Scheduling, Sacrifices, the Lake Festival
I'm not even back 4 hours and already I'm making plans for the next trip.
It turns out that a gigantic festival that my friend has been trying to organize for years is finally coming to fruition. It's called The Lake Festival and it takes place outside of Chongqing (one of the most populated cities in the world, also in Sichuan province) between the 29th of this month and the first of next month. In the festival tradition, it's a tent or nearby hotel scenario with multiple stages and different kinds of music. Plus a ridiculous mess of people (10,000+). The only way organizing this many people is possible in China is with government support which they have gained). Among the headliners is Cui Jian, the undisputed godfather of Chinese rock and roll, who I've heard a lot about and I'd really like to see. So the priority for me is primarily going to check it out, see the bands, check out what it's like. It'll be nice to play some music but I'm among a list of like 9 DJs or something, only two of which (Christopher Lawrence and Donald Glaude, who are world famous) made the actual headlining list which is mostly rock bands. So my name is buried under a list of Chinese heavyweight rock bands. Which isn't a problem but unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to skip out on a big commercial club gig to play at this festival for free.
- edit (6 hours later): Maybe not after all - turns out that Kafei and I (the Chinese MC that I live with) are scheduled on the second day in the middle of a stack of rock/metal bands. Six bands before us, seven after. The schedule looks really funny - it's filled with 13 rock bands all written completely in Chinese and then in the middle a completely lowercase and all English "charlie and coffee". We had a good laugh at that when it occurred to me that the other 13 bands must be looking at the list wonder what bad ass rock band we are from overseas. In the end we talked it over and decided that unless the scheduling could be changed we would skip out on playing the show but still go for the first two days. This way we can have fun and check it out, which is something I really want to do, and not have to worry about being the awkward two-person hip hop interlude that no one can understand between screaming Chinese metal bands. And in the end I can do the other show.
I'm in talks to do another tour starting in October, ending in January of next year with a big alcohol label. It's a standard commercial club run which would essentially be a glorified cash grab unless I can intertwine some interesting kind of project, whether musical or otherwise. I have a lot of ideas on how to maximize the tour experience which I learned from the last time around the Coors. Still I'm reluctant to commit since it means I can't do any other shows and I have to be on the road for months at a time (which I'm pretty sure I won't enjoy as much this time around since I've been to most of those places already). I'm asking for twice as much money as I got paid on the last 3 month tour - if they accept I think I might just have to do it. At least I won't be VJ'ing - HA!
Heading out of Yunnan Province
Since the last post I've been DJ'ing every night here, the last five in Mang Shi, which is the capitol of De Hong province which borders Myanmar. It's been a long time since I've had shows like this: 10+ in a row, and I'm reminded of the toll that it takes on my body and mind. It's exhausting and I've had to put cotton balls in my ears after the first two nights which left my ears shot. And while Mang Shi isn't quite as crazy as Rui Li, the people are overwhelmingly friendly and receptive. Lots of silliness like signing autographs and camoflauged guards escorting me into and out of the club (really, I don't think that's necessary).
Highlights of the trip:
- playing the ruffest tracks I had to a crazy crowd every night in Rui Li
- drinking fresh lemonade everyday
- meeting Burmese who swam across a river breaching international borders coming into China to get to the show
- the great food and friendly people - the hospitality of my hosts
Downsides:
- getting a cold
- hearing damage after the first two days
- living in a hotel for two weeks
 
Good game, Yunnan.
 
Ears Ringing on the Burmese Border
I've been on the road for several days now, in a small city at the China/Myanmar border. It's called Rui Li and it's famous for its gangsters and drug trade - or at least it used to be. Still I've seen a few handguns here and there which as anyone in China will tell you, is a very rare sight. The sky is bright blue, the sun extremely bright, and the weather closely resembles Thailand - thick vegetation and geckos leisurely scaling the walls of buildings everywhere. It probably more closely resembles Myanmar (since half the people here are Burmese) but I've never been there. Since I arrived two days ago many people have offered to show me around Myanmar but sadly I don't have a visa and can't get one without traveling a long distance to Kunming, capitol of the province I'm in. It wouldn't work out anyway because I have shows every night until I leave here.
And speaking of the shows, they are outstanding. I was told that I'd have a good time and that people here are more unhinged than those in most of China, but they were right. Check this out - last night people swam through a river across the Chinese border from Burma just to come to the club that I played at. That is just ridiculous - you know that someone like that is coming to party their ass off. And so it was, the last two days I've been surrounded by a wall of sweaty people going crazy all around me. It's been a while since I've had this much fun DJ'ing. The only downside is that on the first night my ears got wrecked by the sound system. Also because of the heat in the club I ended up drinking 9 beers - but I don't regret that.
Funny story from last night. Before I started playing I was behind the DJ in the booth, just waiting. To the right of the DJ booth was a table full of girls waving and signaling me to come over. I waved hello and didn't really want to walk over there, but they were extremely persistant. So I say okay, walk around the DJ booth and sit down at the table. And then look up to see a transvestite sitting to my left and a 200lb Chinese girl (this is SUPER RARE) across from me. On the inside I was screaming "OHH FUCK" but hopefully no one could tell - I played it off, casually borrowing a cigarette and drinking a shot of beer with them while passing a warm smile before getting up and going to the table I had intended to go to. I'm sure at this point everyone must have been saying WTF to themselves because I did this in front of hundreds of people. I did my best to play it off by hopping between 4 tables afterwards, offering a quick greeting and saying hello. First time I've ever made that mistake.
Midnight Photo Shoot
On Friday afternon I took a 4 hour bus trip to Chongqing for a pair of shows in Jie Fang Bei, which is easily among my favorite places to play in Western China. Not only that, but I had also planned to meet with a photographer of Ma Ming's and get some new photos taken.
The show on Friday was really a blast. It was across the way from Falling, which in my opinion is the most superior club in Chongqing. The place where I had the show is called Midnight (english translation) and it's an old club which had been around a long time but doesn't have quite as much of a following as Falling does. Still, when I went into the club around 10pm it was filled with people, and better still, filled with people dancing and having fun. The gig was fantastic - an hour before I started when I was sitting at a table drinking the MC announced me on the microphone and, to my surprise, everyone cheered loudly. That's a nice feeling. Something as simple as that probably wouldn't happen in Chengdu - and it's exactly what makes Chongqing an unusually prime place to perform. Although I played a relatively short set, the entire thing was sweaty and crazy. A crowd of people were 2 feet in front of me watching me DJ and sweat all over the place (it was hot in there). I laid down some echo effects over breakdowns and had some Donald Glaude-like theatrics which I've been trying to experiment for a while. For anyone who doesn't know, Donald Glaude is a well known American house DJ who's known for his on stage gestures - it's as if he's a member of the throbbing crowd - he goes crazy while DJ'ing at the same time. Fists pumping, hair flying, teeth gritting, and so on. I tried to act like a maniac on stage recently before but the crowd wasn't wild enough for the crowd or myself to get really into it. Last night was probably the craziest I've ever acted on stage. Everyone loved it; it was a smashing success not only for the crowd and myself, but also the sponsors who were present. After the show I went to check out two nearby clubs with some friends but they were both boring compared to Midnight - lots of people, but no one dancing; everyone sitting around. I went to sleep early knowing that I'd get up the next day and meet Ma Ming before going to meet the photographer. As I got back to my hotel room I immediately peeled off my sweaty black thermal long sleeve shirt that I was wearing, hanging it on the coat rack. I didn't realize the door was still open until a Chinese girl was standing outside my door shocked and excited to see a sweaty shirtless foreigner standing there. I laughed and closed the door. Half an hour later there's a knock and it's an old lady asking if I want a massage. I don't want a massage. "But the girl is here, look!" cues a young girl to sheepishly peek around the corner at me. She haggles and insists as I tell her repeatedly that I don't want a massage. I'm actually glad she paraded only one instead of a full line up of massage girls to my door.
I woke up the next morning and got a call from my manager telling me that the show that night had been cancelled. Well, that's really bad news. I was bummed about the cancelled show as I sat in the hotel room watching "Bend It Like Beckham" in Chinese, waiting for Ma Ming to tell me he was ready to meet. I waited for a few hours and then he showed up, looking pretty sick. He had a cold so he had just been to the hospital (this is standard procedure in China). We drove a short way to his friends studio, a 41 year old artist-type named Xia Ke. The bottom floor of the studio looks like a sales office - the walls are adorned with photos he's taken, mostly fashion photos. There are several clerk-types scurrying around and several people who I assumed to be clients sitting around. I get introduced and we go upstairs into an loft-like area. At one end is a photo studio with an elaborate lighting setup and at the other is a massive collection of womens clothing, both modern and traditional Chinese. After arriving he insists that we sit down and rest, drink tea, and chat. Turns out that Xia Ke is an enormous music fan. I mean enormous in the most dramatic way possible. He asks if I like rock music, I say I do, and then a large suitcase comes out of nowhere. It's clearly heavy. It's laid on the ground, opened, and hundreds of CD's are neatly stacked inside - nothing else. All of the CD's look like store bought CD's, still wrapped in plastic. This is his CD collection. He picks up the CD's and starts proudly showing them to me, and I'm shocked by his collection. Things like:
- Every Pink Floyd album (there are dozens)
- Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, The Beatles, Deep Purple, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton
- Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soul Collective, Soundgarden, Def Leppard
I could go on listing for a long time, but you get the idea. A comprehensive collection of the best rock music to come out of America over the last 40 years. He's eagerly showing almost every disc to me as I sip tea - almost each one is accompanied by "this one is great!". I actually agree with him in every instance. His collection goes about as far as Shpongle, which I was surprised and impressed to see there (and I am listening to now, on the bus back to Chengdu). The most memorable part about meeting Xia Ke was his feverish passion for music.
Eventually we got to taking photos, and that lasted for about ten minutes. I didn't have any specific ideas as far as the photos, so I went along with his recommendation along with the guideline that the photos are for promotional and commercial use. I trust that they turned out great, and I guess I'll find out in a few days when I see the shots.
Another hour or so and I'll be back in Chengdu. I don't think I've ever been on such an empty bus before - of the 50 or so seats on this bus, maybe 8 are occupied. An empty bus driving down the highway. I'm on the far back where I can lie down over 4 seats. All the cool kids sit in the back.
万州
Played a party virtually in the middle of nowhere tonight, a city called Wan Zhou, 3 hours outside of Chongqing. The promoter (J&B, evidently some Scottish brand of whiskey) didn't tell me that I was going out to the sticks so I wasn't happy about having to spend all day commuting, but it ended with a nice surprise.
Normally for shows like this, outside of major cities, I'm restricted to only playing psuedo commercial music, at least something within in the 125-135 bpm (house/breaks music range) but tonight I spent an hour chatting with the J&B boss from Guangzhou during the hour long break. He was telling me how he hates commercial club music and listens to hip hop, which blew me away, and then suggested that I play hip hop when I get back on. Me and Tangzong (the Chengdu local J&B promoter) were both reluctant but it turned into total insanity. The best DJ'ing memory at least for the last month. It was the first time hip hop had ever been played in that club.
I don't know what else to write, I just had a really great time tonight. Tomorrow I take the train back to Chongqing where I'll regroup with 哈儿妹妹，马明，小浪，and the Chungking Flight Group.
Precious Sleep
Nothing makes you appreciate sleep like being able to not get much of it for an extended period of time. Matter of fact, I can't wait until I'm asleep.
The last 4 days have been absolutely non-stop. DJ gigs every night - the MC battle, then the Barbeque, where Wu and I together DJ'd for 13 hours straight, then a few hours of sleep and a flight to Kunming and a show tonight with Chivas. I get 10 hours to sleep and then I take another flight to Lijiang where I will do nothing but lounge around for 4 days until I catch a plane to Wuhan for the weekend. Then back to Chengdu.
I've never been to Lijiang before, but I hear it's among the most beautiful places in China. I brought my big camera, which I haven't used for months, in anticipation. Now I will go to sleep, and I will not set an alarm clock. I'm overjoyed. :love:
Oh, tonight was Qing Ren Jie, which is Chinese valentines day.