Hanna Hais
House music fans will want to catch this French DJ, who’s lauded for her good taste in beats and sultry voice. Hais, who was invited to Taiwan by the French Institute in Taipei, performs at the DJ stage tomorrow and Sunday.
www.myspace.com/hannahais
Lazy Habits
Hip-hop with big band soul and a British accent: Lazy Habits are from East London. You’ll even hear a little mariachi in the mix. This eight-piece group, armed with two deft MCs, a scratch DJ and a jazz band, is a sure-fire party waiting to happen.
www.myspace.com/lazyhabits
The Clippers (夾子電動大樂隊)
The Clippers were one of Taiwan’s most memorable bands during Spring Scream’s early days. Fans loved the dancing girls on stage and the group’s mix of rock, dated karaoke music and social satire. The band returns to Spring Scream with a few new members, but expect the same campy humor from lead singer and actor Xiao Ying (小應), who recently enjoyed a little stardom in the hit movie Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
obaigonn.pixnet.net/blog
Ciacia (何欣穗)
As one of the most talented singer-songwriters in Taiwan’s indie scene, not to mention a producer with a keen ear, Ciacia is always worth a listen.
www.myspace.com/ciacia.her
Matzka and Di Hot (馬斯卡和辣肉樂團)
This dreadlocked Paiwan (排灣) musician is guaranteed to please sun-soaked crowds with a unique blend of reggae, hard rock, soul and Aboriginal folk. Don’t be surprised to find yourself humming his catchiest song, Ma Do Va Do (像狗一樣), long after the show.
www.indievox.com/matzka
Daximen (大囍門)
This hip-hop outfit of three MCs raps in Mandarin and Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) against a backdrop of funky beats and jazz riffs. Daximen’s sound and rhymes lean mainstream but stay clear of Mando-pop territory.
www.indievox.com/mrbrownchen
Celluloid (賽璐璐)
Another veteran band from Spring Scream’s early days, Celluoid plays blues and garage rock. The band might lack the style and sheen of younger groups on the underground circuit today, but it always delivers for audiences that simply want to rock out.
Elisa Lin (林依霖)
Elisa Lin is one to watch. This young folk rocker looks as if she’s already being groomed for Mando-pop stardom, but her original songwriting and soulful voice keep things real. She often performs with IO, a group of talented Chinese Canadian rockers that won ICRT’s Battle of the Bands last year.
www.myspace.com/elisa010
88 Balaz (八十八顆芭樂籽)
This four-piece band’s punk-inspired garage rock is a perfect match for Spring Scream’s “let loose” ethos. Lead singer Ah-Chang (阿強) probably won’t be stage-diving into the crowd on a bicycle like he did during his first time at the festival, but that same energy will be present.
balaz88.pixnet.net
Zenkwun (神棍樂團)
Plenty of bands experiment with traditional Chinese instruments, but Zenkwun uses them particularly well in its brand of pop-rock. Listeners will hear strains of nanguan (南北) and Hakka music in the sounds of the erhu (二胡) and suona horn (嗩吶) laced between electric guitar riffs and loud drums. And how can you not like a band whose lead singer named himself (Obiwan, 歐比王) after Obi Wan Kenobi?
www.indievox.com/obiwan1103
Milk
Festivalgoers who keep track of Spring Scream history will welcome the return of Milk, one of the most beloved and storied expat bands in Taiwan. The group is back after a hiatus of several years.
theroamads.blogspot.com/2007/07/tribute-to-great-taiwan-band-milk.html
The Money Shot Horns
The Money Shot Horns are a crowd pleaser. Their brand of funk, groovy soul and R ’n’ B appeals to many, thanks to charming lead singer Dooley Chandler. His magnetic stage presence and the talented musicians in the band form a lasso that pulls you onto the dance floor from the very first note.
www.myspace.com/themoneyshothorns
My Skin Against Your Skin
My Skin Against Your Skin has given Andrea Huang (黃盈誼) room to grow from her days as the head-thrashing lead singer of Rabbit Is Rich (兔子很有錢) into a performer with a wider repertoire. She still punks out, but now also delves into smoky blues-rock vocals reminiscent of another queen of disquietude, PJ Harvey.
www.myspace.com/myskinagainstyourskin
Go Chic
Go Chic takes chick power to the nth degree with irreverent but relevant lyrics written from the point of view of modern youth. Hilarious, dangerous and fun, the band takes the piss out of everyone from culture vultures to foreign men, and redefines the “Asian girl” stereotype in the process.
www.myspace.com/gochictheband
Dr Reniculous Lipz and the Scallyunz
With catchy, fun and wacky rhythms and lyrics and rhymes that tickle the brain, Dr Reniculous Lipz and the Scallyunz are a bit like Dr Seuss for grown-ups. Add a rocking live band (with bassist Molly Lin (林孟珊), who occasionally dresses as a nurse), and you have a treat for the eyes, ears and feet.
www.myspace.com/theskallyunz
Skaraoke
Skaraoke’s frontman Thomas Hu (胡世漢) is as engaging and professional as Money Shot’s Dooley Chandler, with the manners of a dapper gentleman and the style of a streetwise hepcat. The group’s big band sound is full of raging horns and toe-tapping beats that speak ska, reggae, rocksteady, swing and jazz. There’s even a bit of karaoke in the mix.
www.myspace.com/skaraoke
Collider
Collider has lost none of its dark, soul-wringing power, despite several lineup changes. Its newest member, bassist Thomas Squires, helps create an angst-ridden and beautifully torturous sound.
www.myspace.com/colliderrockband
New Hong Kong Hair City
New Hong Kong Hair City has set the bar for expat female talent with lead vocalist and keyboardist Danielle Sanger belting out and growling songs full of passion and vigor. Macgregor Wooley matches her intensity on vocals and saxophone.
www.myspace.com/newhongkonghaircitytw
Point 22 (.22)
Composed of a trio of “founding fathers” from the expat music scene, including festival co-founder Wade Davis, Point 22 (.22) is a rock band with songs that are either gut wrenchingly funny or so catchy that they stick in your head for days.
www.myspace.com/point22
Blood Orange
Blood Orange (血橙) is what would happen if you sent a bunch of punks back in time to the jazz age and told them to form a band. With chaotic, discordant melodies that smack into full stops then twist back around for more, it is an instrumental band that doesn’t need a vocalist — the music is the frontman. www.myspace.com/bloodorangetw
Anyone who has been to Alishan (阿里山) is familiar with the railroad there: one line comes up from Chiayi City past the sacred tree site, while another line goes up to the sunrise viewing platform at Zhushan (祝山). Of course, as a center of logging operations for over 60 years, Alishan did have more rail lines in the past. Are any of these still around? Are they easily accessible? Are they worth visiting? The answer to all three of these questions is emphatically: Yes! One of these lines ran from Alishan all the way up to the base of Jade Mountain. Its
The entire saga involving the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and its Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) continues to produce plot twists at such a rapid pace that fiction publishers would throw it out for being ridiculously improbable. This past week was particularly bizarre, but surprisingly the press has almost entirely ignored a big story that could have serious national security implications and instead focused on a series of salacious bombshell allegations. Ko is currently being held incommunicado by prosecutors while several criminal investigations are ongoing on allegations of bribery and stealing campaign funds. This last week for reasons unknown Ko completely shaved
The only geopolitical certainty is that massive change is coming. Three macro trends are only just starting to accelerate, forming a very disruptive background to an already unsettled future. One is that technological transformations exponentially more consequential and rapid than anything prior are in their infancy, and will play out like several simultaneous industrial revolutions. ROBOT REVOLUTION It is still early days, but impacts are starting to be felt. Just yesterday, this line appeared in an article: “To meet demands at Foxconn, factory planners are building physical AI-powered robotic factories with Omniverse and NVIDIA AI.” In other words, they used AI
The rhythms of bustling, working-class Mumbai are brought to vivid life in All We Imagine as Light. The stunning narrative debut of filmmaker Payal Kapadia explores the lives of three women in the city whose existence is mostly transit and work. Even that isn’t always enough to get by and pay the rent. One of the women, a widow, recently retired from working her whole life at a city hospital, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), is even facing eviction. The other two, roommates and co-workers in the maternity ward are in different parts of life. Prabha (Kani Kusruti) has a husband from an
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