Bob Dylan has added more North American dates this summer after he returns from his European tour. The tour doesn't exactly come through NYC but it hits Bethel Woods Center on August 12 in Bethel, NY. Tickets go on sale Saturday (6/18) at 10 AM and are available for pre-sale now with the code "snoopy." All dates below.

In other Bob Dylan news, his "China controversy" has been recently cleared up:

"Allow me to clarify a couple of things about this so-called China controversy which has been going on for over a year. First of all, we were never denied permission to play in China. This was all drummed up by a Chinese promoter who was trying to get me to come there after playing Japan and Korea. My guess is that the guy printed up tickets and made promises to certain groups without any agreements being made. We had no intention of playing China at that time, and when it didn't happen most likely the promoter had to save face by issuing statements that the Chinese Ministry had refused permission for me to play there to get himself off the hook. If anybody had bothered to check with the Chinese authorities, it would have been clear that the Chinese authorities were unaware of the whole thing.

We did go there this year under a different promoter. According to Mojo magazine the concerts were attended mostly by ex-pats and there were a lot of empty seats. Not true. If anybody wants to check with any of the concert-goers they will see that it was mostly Chinese young people that came. Very few ex-pats if any. The ex-pats were mostly in Hong Kong not Beijing. Out of 13,000 seats we sold about 12,000 of them, and the rest of the tickets were given away to orphanages. The Chinese press did tout me as a sixties icon, however, and posted my picture all over the place with Joan Baez, Che Guevara, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. The concert attendees probably wouldn't have known about any of those people. Regardless, they responded enthusiastically to the songs on my last 4 or 5 records. Ask anyone who was there. They were young and my feeling was that they wouldn't have known my early songs anyway.

As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There's no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play.

Everybody knows by now that there's a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I'm encouraging anybody who's ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them." - Bob Dylan

All tour dates below...

Continue reading "Bob Dylan adds tour dates, clears up China controversy"

photos by Lori Baily, words by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Carsick Cars - You Can Listen You Can Talk (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Carsick Cars - Zhong Nan Hai (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: PK-14 - Behind All Ruptures (MP3)

PK-14 @ Glasslands

Arriving late [to powerHouse Arena on November 5th] I found the place packed, but I was just able to set up in time to get Xiao He's last tune. This piece was a lengthy improv involving electronic looping, acoustic guitar, and Mongolian style throat-singing - all to bewitching effect. Next up were the catchily named Carsick Cars, a young and winsome trio who played just three songs, opening with the liberating 'You Can Listen You Can Talk' and closing with - reportedly a Chinese underground anthem - Zhong Nan Hai - a silly song about a popular cigarette brand that just happens to be named after the seat of Chinese Government. The point being, as I understand it, that being punk is being beyond politics. Lastly came P.K.14, apparently elder statesmen of the movement. Sporting a tight Swedish drummer, and singing in pure mandarin, one could discern a wide mix of influences from pop to punk, to post-punk, to freak-out rock. I've picked two tunes from them - the more melodic 'Eden' and the wild closer 'Some Surprises Happen Too Soon'. [Punkcast]

Punkcast was at the "China Underground Invasion" tour's kick off show on November 5th at powerHouse Arena. It was one of the four NYC shows for the tour that've already happened. Another was the next night (11/6) at Glasslands with These are Powers and Soft Circle. Pictures from the Glasslands show are above and below.

The trio of acts return to NYC on Friday, November 20th (TONIGHT) for a gig with The Octagon at UWS club Ding Dong Lounge with The Octagon. They follow that up with a tour-ending show at Secret Project Robot (NOT Monster Island Basement as originally listed in their dates) with Knyfe Hyts 81 and Aa on Saturday (Nov. 21). Knyfe Hyts 81 also have a show booked tonight in Manhattan with Sleigh Bells and Javelin.

Their label, Maybe Mars, lists one more stop for the gang. Guitarist Zhang Shouwang (from Carsick Cars) and Xiao He are slated to appear at the closing Performa 09 event, Scratch the Grand Finale at (Le) Poisson Rouge on November 22nd. But that isn't quite a conventional show - the fest writes that "invited artists will be asked to present a five to ten minute work responding to the following subtitles: Dining on Radio Waves; Lust is a Force; Between Noise & Silence; Songs for Architects; and Motion & Magic. The stage will be set with a arrangement of musical and Futurist inspired instrumentation and means from record decks, green light to perfume and the bassoon." Tickets are on sale.

Speaking of unconventional gigs, These Are Powers' next performance will be November 21st at Galapagos for a free edition (RSVP) of Cinema 16 (silent film+live band). For their set, the group will be scoring a pair of PSAs and one educational video from the '60s and '70s. Included in those will be "One Got Fat: Bicycle Safety" from 1963, summarized as such: "A group of children, wearing ape masks, the dangers of biking the hard way in this strange and dark PSA."

More pictures from the Glasslands show, videos via Punkcast from the powerHouse Arena gig, and more details on the upcoming shows are below...

Continue reading "Carsick Cars, PK-14, Xiao He played powerhouse Arena (videos) & Glasslands (pics), playing more shows this week"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD:: Carsick Cars - You Can Listen You Can Talk (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Carsick Cars - Zhong Nan Hai (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: PK-14 - Behind All Ruptures (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Xiao He - MTV (MP3)

PK-14

You may remember about a month ago the Sing for China tour brought three Beijing indie rock bands to America for a rare visit. Now once again we're set to welcome three more groups from China, perhaps three of the most exciting underground bands in Beijing -- Carsick Cars, PK-14, and Xiao He -- to American soil. All three bands are signed to Maybe Mars, the most well-respected indie label in China.

The new tour was put together in part by NYC's Zachary Mexico, whose new book China Underground is a firsthand look at China's emerging youth and alternative culture. Zachary says, "It's challenging for Chinese underground bands to come perform in America. There are many obstacles: the high cost of trans-Pacific transportation, the byzantine visa application process, and the difficulty of securing venues in markets where people haven't heard of your music."

Those hurdles have been cleared, and The Chinese Underground Invasion tour begins with a performance on Thursday evening (11/5) at the PowerHouse Arena for the release party of Matthew Niederhauser's book of Beijing rock photos, Sound Kapital.

Carsick Cars, PK-14, and Xiao He will also perform at Glasslands on Friday (11/6) with These are Powers and Soft Circle, and then at Santos Party House with Antimagic on Saturday (11/7). Then they'll hit the road for a couple weeks before returning for shows at the Ding Dong Lounge (11/20) and Monster Island Basement (11/21).

All dates, videos, more pictures, and bio information on the three bands, below...

Continue reading "Carsick Cars, PK-14 & Xiao He are coming from China - 2009 Tour Dates (6 NYC shows)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Hedgehog - Toy and 61 Festival (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hedgehog - Waiting for the Last Bus (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Queen Sea Big Shark - Hard Heart Love Spy (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Casino Demon - I Wish I Could Forget Your Tomorrow (MP3)

Queen Sea Big Shark

Beijing, China has a pretty healthy indie rock scene but we don't hear about it much here in the States, mainly, because they rarely tour here. But this week three Beijing groups are in town as part of the Sing for China tour, which supports an effort by the Chinese music community to help children orphaned by AIDS in China. The bands are Hedgehog, Queen Sea Big Shark, and Casino Demon -- all of which are on Beijing label Modern Sky. Hedgehog and QSBS play tonight (9/23) at Silent Barn (along with Pink Reason and Matt from Psychedelic Horseshit), and all three will play Columbia University on Friday (9/25) and Santos Party House on Saturday (9/26). I don't claim to know much about the bands, so let's just quote from the press release.

Hedgehog: Powered by pint-size female drummer/vocalist Atom, Hedgehog represent the best of China's rock scene. The band was a featured headliner at the Modern Sky Festival in 2008 and Strawberry Festival (Beijing) in May of 2009. Hedgehog's 2006 debut Noise Hit World was a critic favorite in China, and their 2008 release Blue Day Dreaming helped catapult them to the top of the Chinese indie-rock world.

Queen Sea Big Shark: Expect a barrage of rock n' roll-electro power punches from arguably the most ferocious rockers on the Beijing scene. QSBS rarely disappoints in delivering tight, raunchy instrumentation fronted by the frenetic, full-body assault of singer Fu Han, a woman seemingly possessed on stage. The band supported the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Modern Sky Festival (Beijing) in 2007 and recently headlined the Converse sponsored "Love Noise" tour in China.

Casino Demon: Veering from raw, noisy guitar bursts to tight, rapid-paced assaults, Casino Demon during 2006 moved from the outskirts of the Beijing live music scene to the forefront. At heart, they're a good-time rock n' roll band that really like to crank it up. Casino Demon recently celebrated the release of their new album, Teenage, in March of 2009.

You can download MP3s from all three bands at the top of this post. All Sing for China tour dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "Chinese indie rock bands in NYC this week (including the show w/ Matt Horseshit @ Silent Barn tonight)"

China will ban all entertainers from overseas, Hong Kong and Taiwan who have ever attended activities that "threaten national sovereignty", the government said on Thursday, after an outburst by Icelandic singer Bjork.

Earlier this year, Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at a Shanghai concert having performed her song "Declare Independence", which she has used in the past to promote independence movements in other places such as Kosovo. [Reuters]

Continue reading "'Wanderlust' screening @ Deitch, Bjork, Tibet, Iceland, video"