A Documentary of Beijing Punk

I've just stumbled upon a documentary Beijing Punk released by Newgrounds Films last year. Check it out for yourselves:

http://beijingpunk.com/

Crock Weekly 7: Xie Tian Xiao

Xie Tian Xiao, or X.T.X, was born in 1972 to a caring family. At 9 he studied Beijing Opera and performed in a local rendition of Journey to The West. Once he stole a bicycle and was placed under house arrest. The boredom led him to teach himself how to play guitar. Yet due to too much love and care from his parents that imprisoned him, he ran away from home at age 18 to Beijing to make a musical living for himself.

The life in the new city was hard at the outset, but that was what he craved. He found freedom amidst the difficulties: the freedom to take on challenges and to feel through their pressure. He received early recognition for his first band Hunters of the Cloth, for which he wrote the song "You're Not At All" that was featured as the theme song in the movie Vietnamese Girl.

In 1997, he formed another band Cold-Blooded Animals with his childhood friend Li Ming. The band received international acclaim and toured the US twice, and was the first Chinese band to perform at SXSW (for the recent Chinese Invasion performance at SXSW, see here). Soon afterwards, a San Francisco based Music Producer invited them to stay in California to try to break through to the American market.

X.T.X agreed, and from 2002 to 2003 remained in the US. What he saw and heard, however, eventually led him to return home. He remarked, "The US music scene is too fake, too shallow. Music is made only for music's sake. There is no purpose and no soul. The only thing they have is instrumental expertise, but that's about it."

All of these experiences have prompted him to pursue a course of native Chinese rock. He realized that imitating western styles will only stifle his own potentials and the culture of Chinese rock, and the only way to lead this culture to magnificence is through the strength of its own. Surprised himself, he found the skills of the opera he forwent a long time ago valuable and powerful in pursuit of this goal. Combined with his heavy Shandong accent, it gives his vocal a unique ethnic flavor that overlays the grunge and reggae musicality.

Probably one of the most identifying characteristic of X.T.X's band (whose name is now changed to X.T.X and Cold-Blooded Animal) is his playing of the Guzheng. Never before has anyone attempted to combine Guzheng, an instrument symbolic of the sagacity, with guitars, instruments of rebellion.

But precisely this kind of juxtaposition and the attention and meaning rendered to the poetic lyrics give X.T.X an air of authority that prompted the media to call him the "New Godfather" of Chinese Rock who rivals the reputation of "Old Godfather" Cui Jian.

Shanghai World Expo Pics!!

The upcoming Shanghai Expo will be the largest in history. Here are some amazing pics from the site:http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/03/shanghai_prepares_for_expo_201.html