October 28, 2005
I don't know how long this has been making the internet rounds, but it's pretty damn amusing. "Two Chinese students" mockingly lip sync one of the more treacly American pop ballads of the past decade on a web cam video.
I especially like the guy in the background sitting at the computer the whole time. Looks like he's playing Doom or something. Don't Chinese kids ever study anymore?
October 18, 2005
News | Filippino-Indonesian Music Workshop Planned in Hawaii |
Get away from the winter cold with Joey Ayala and Ismet Ruchimat (of SambaSunda)...
This coming winter, February 2 through 5, 2006, "The Power of Music" workshop series is bringing world-renowned musicians, dancers and instrument makers from Indonesia and the Philippines to teach and share their performance skills on the Garden Island of Kauai. Workshop artists were chosen for their interest in blending the old and the new: each one possesses a deep knowledge and reverence for traditional forms of expression, along with a keen interest in innovation.
Workshop participants will have the opportunity to interact, study and perform with artists including singer/songwriter Joey Ayala from the Philippines, Sundanese gamelan and kacapi maestro Ismet Ruchimat, founder of the fusion group "Sambasunda", and Ening Rumbini and Ati Sumiati, performers who specialize in Sundanese modern dance and martial arts. They will be joined by Lei Ouyang Bryant and Andrew Weintraub, musicians and university teachers of Asian culture who have done extensive field work in ethnomusicology.
For more information, go to: http://www.power-of-music.org/
October 11, 2005
-They're a Japanese band named after a Chinese greeting.
-They play inventive, heavy, playful, deconstructed rock.
-They're not unlike the Boredoms, but they're not too much like them, either.
-You can read an interview with them here.
-You can buy their two 2004 mini-albums, Red and Blue, on iTunes instead of paying import prices.
-Now please go do so.
October 05, 2005
Various | Cambodian Rocks Vol. 3 and 4 |Khmer Rocks | Cambodia
Volume III: buy it
Volume IV: buy it
The Khmer Rocks label has released Volumes III and IV of their Cambodian Rocks series and says these will probably be the last compilations. They are both well worth having, especially the psychedelic Volume III. If forced to limit my review to only one sentence, I’d write this: Damn, Cambodia turned out some badass guitar players.