Results tagged “thesearepowers”

        

Shanghai experienced an electric night of punk rock this past Saturday as Carsick Cars and P.K.14 shared a stage with Brooklyn-based These Are Powers at Zhijiang Dream Factory. After Carsick Cars sampled some songs from their new album, show-goers were surprised to find These Are Powers playing, leaving P.K.14 to headline the show. Regardless of lineup, all three bands delivered an intense show in the Factory that was gritty, energetic and altogether rocking.

In a music industry complicated by media censorship, internet piracy, and a mainstream aversion to anything outside of mando-pop, PK14 is refreshingly honest. When asked how the band handles such political and commercial pressures, front man Yang Haisong replied “we just write what we feel like writing.” Yang's approach to music is not complicated by external pressures but rather by his own motivation to say what he feels needs to be said.

So if last weekend was all about local bands for local people, this weekend is dominated by wai di ren. Whether it's "ghost punks" from some little hamlet in the US of A, northern monkeys from the capital or a band from the harmonious region of Xinjiang, there's a distinct outsider flavour to the next couple of days.

These Are Powers, an American collaboration between ex-Liars bassist Pat Noecker, singer Anna Barie and drummer/producer Bill Salas will be hitting Zhijiang Dream Factory as part of a Maybe Mars lineup with P.K.14 and Carsick Cars on Saturday.