The band seemed to possess a similar mindset, communicating with each other through their usual knowing glances and smiles. It’s nice to see a band that actually listens to themselves when playing live and enjoys the music that they’re producing.

Hot & Cold’s set often touched on minimal synth traditions of simple repeated melodies (when there is a melody to speak of), raw and bleak (or reverb-saturated) vocals, and stripped down rhythm compositions. However, Hot & Cold is definitely not another band of the Dead Luke/John Maus variety. There is no danger of inappropriate melodic lushness or oversanitized synths replacing vital shapeless noise, only an obvious lack of adherence to any one musical classification, an intelligently programmed drum machine, and post-apocalyptic lyrics.

This Saturday, June 19: a going away party for some of our friends and the Spring. Come by for veg-friendly food and drink, from 5pm til way late. La Loupe and others will perform. Bring some food so we don’t run out!

Two highlights: Zombies dedicated to Jay Reatard (“We’ve known him since he was 17. He was supposed to come here but… he fucked up”) and a Johnny Thunders cover that prompted an overenthusiastic Chinese fan to somehow short-circuit the guitar and cause a small delay.

Pen&ink: Geometric exercises

Located on a tree-lined hutong just north of Jingshan Gongyuan, Beijing Characteristics Dumpling House is unassuming, cozy, clean, and full of friendly jiaozi / 饺子 makers. The menu features every variety of dumpling you could ask for, and all of the dumplings are made from scratch as you order them.

Photo: Pangbian in Black&white

Emi documented her “clients,” which ranged from random food-aware artists to large corporate entities. The end result gives an interesting parallax view of Beijing food culture.

Dumpling-making begins in the wee hours of the morning at this place, one of the few in the alley open past 2.

Liked this band Which Park from Dalian.