New Jams: Friend or Foe, X is Y, Fever Machine

By , 2011年 6月 20日

Some new Shanghai music for your ears:

Friend or Foe – “Lie to Me (live @ Yuyintang)”

Friend or Foe recorded this one live at Yuyintang earlier in the year, and it was recently mastered at Luwan Rock Studios. For the Beijingers that missed them last April, Friend or Foe play blazing rock that to my ear sounds not too far removed from Motorhead. They’re also well known for their stage antics (they played here around Easter and one member wore a rabbit costume) and elaborate backstory (involving characters named Rabshaka and Mahanadan).

Unfortunately their bassist “Bill” has just left the band, I hope they get a new bassist and get back out there soon.

X is Y, who made it to Beijing last year (check the pangbianr interview), recently released a new single “to remind people we are still here and active.” It’s an elegant song, blending X is Y’s math-rock inclinations with dynamic shifts in volume, low-sung vocal melodies and slowly building basslines. I’m tempted to call it emo — not dyed-hair teenager emo, more like essential-listening-era Sunny Day Real Estate emo — but who cares what I call it: go to X is Y’s bandcamp and download it for free.

This song will be featured on a split EP with Boys Climbing Ropes out this Fall so keep an eye out.

Hell Yeah by The Fever Machine

The Fever Machine has been hard at work over the last 6 months recording their debut LP, Living in Oblivion, which is scheduled to be released on Saturday June 25th at Yuyintang. The process behind packaging and releasing this album encapsulates everything that is great about the Shanghai DIY scene: it was recorded across several local studios, self-produced by the band, and wrapped up in a stellar cover made by Gregor Koerting of the Shanghai design house Idle Beats.

Above you can sample “Hell Yeah,” one cut from Living in Oblivion. Catchy hard-pop guitar riffs hold this one down, with an obligatory “soft bridge” leading invariably back to heavy psych shreds that close off the jam. The release show will feature performances from Fever Machine along with Boys Climbing Ropes and the Beat Bandits, and will only set you back 40元 (which also gets you a copy of the cd). Hell yeah. [Update: the physical cd won’t be available at the CD release show but the band will issue vouchers. Full info on Jake Newby’s blog.]

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