Far East Audio is making the first of what I hope will be many fieldtrips tomorrow, as I travel Taiwan for three weeks. The site will be on standby while I'm gone, but come the second week of June, you can expect a series of reports on the bands, record labels, clubs, music shops and street music of the island, complete with audio and photos.

This trip will be my first back to Taiwan since I lived there in the early to mid 90s. While I was there, martial law under the KMT was still a recent memory, but already clubs were popping up everywhere, the first Spring Scream (see entries below) went down, and even a nascent noise subculture was emerging. And I can't neglect to mention metal--a more-than-healthy dose of it.

Nevertheless, the predominant musical form was very much that of the formula teen idol. It was quite easy to feel smug about Taiwan's obsession with these candy-colored clowns at the time, but not long after my return to the States the same grim idolitry took hold there. So, all the while I thought Taiwan's mainstream scene to be a throwback to 50s/early 60s America, it was really a harbinger of our new millennium.

Can't wait to see what's next...