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Yin: Beijing Rockers Birdstriking Return with Long Awaited Second Album, “Holey Brain”

Yin (音, “music”) is a weekly Radii feature that looks at Chinese songs spanning classical to folk to modern experimental, and everything in between. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.

Birdstriking was one of the bands that sucked me into Beijing’s music scene early on. Back in 2010, when I’d just launched my label pangbianr, they were among my closest friends and favorite artists — their fresh, raw approach to deconstructed noise rock touched some nerves with me from the first time I saw them. Mixing a healthy disregard for pop-friendly song structures with an urgent yet earnest, palpably young protest mindset, Birdstriking wailed and flailed on stage in the golden days of long-gone venue D-22, staring down the barrel of their parents’ generation’s expectations of what their work/life balance should be, and where rock’n’roll might fit into it (nowhere, really). The band’s very name refers to a phenomenon in which a stray bird strikes down an airplane by flying into it — a metaphor aptly containing the band’s sonic tendencies toward rebellion and creative destruction.

Birdstriking released their self-titled debut in 2011, and coasted on that one for the next six years, stashing several international tours and festival appearances under their belt. Now they’re a bit older, a bit wiser, and have just (like, minutes ago) released their long anticipated second album, Holey Brain, several years in the making, day jobs be damned.

The album release is heralded by this thoroughly psychedelic animated music video for its debut single, “Feed”:

About this song’s imagery, Birdstriking says:

Baby birds grow up raised by mother birds, leave the nest, fly towards a bigger forest, look forward to taking care of their parents in their old age. They eat their mothers’ wrinkles, making their youth shine again… From a fairytale to an oath, the song unfurls like a scroll, telling the story of a generation coming to maturity like a bird just now hitting its stride in the blue, open sky, soaring without fear.

Mm. Metaphors. The song itself is a mellow, mature Birdstriking still clutching at the lessons they learned (and yelled with abandon) in their earlier years. A tuneful distillation of their various influences, and a comfortably uplifting way to kickstart the weekend for sure.

Holey Brain is out now from Maybe Mars Records.

Street Corner Fitness Pods Threaten to Make Your Gym Commute Excuse Obsolete

This kiosk thing is getting ridiculous. Remember when we thought Redbox, the automated movie/DVD rental station, was an unheard of new mode of retail operation? And it really was. But now we have kiosks for hot meals, umbrellas, gambling and fresh-squeezed orange juice. We even have a creepy robot store that will drive itself to you, like Howl’s moving castle, but whose sole purpose is to provide you with convenient and efficient service of small commodities.

Well it’s about to get crazy — crazy RIPPED — because Chinese development company Misspao is gearing up to change the whole game with its line of street corner fitness pods.

Photo: Tech in Asia

Each four-square-meter pod has a treadmill, a TV screen, other fitness accessories, and air conditioning (crucial). You book the pod on an app, then when you show up, you scan the QR code and start casually toning your glutes. The pod charges you 0.2 RMB per minute (about 3 cents), then when you’re done you hop out and stroll into the open arms of the adoring public. Have you been working out?

It sounds just crazy enough to work. Misspao’s model makes sense, and it should; the company’s founder Bi Zhen got his start at Ele.me, China’s leading food delivery app. This guy is all about designing apps to make your life easier. Each gym costs 10,000 RMB, and the average daily use time clocks in at around five or six hours, so Misspao can draw a profit from a gym in ten months.

The company is less than a year old, but has gotten some strong support, having received an undisclosed amount equal to a few million USD from an angel investor as recently as last week. It’s already rolled out its first few porta-gyms in Beijing, and plans to have 1,000 operational by the end of 2017. We don’t know about the treadmills… but it looks like Misspao is on the right track.

Photo of the Day: Hutong Reflection

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This is Part 3 of a six-part photo essay by Beijing-based student and artist Liu Qilin, who recently finished his freshman year of undergraduate study at Beijing Normal University. Liu, who goes by the English name Jady, is founder of the Beijing Hutong Team, a loose collective of artists and creatives united in a desire to document Beijing’s inner-city alleys (胡同, hutong), which are currently undergoing a process of “renovation” that many feel is stripping them of their historical and cultural charm.

Liu Qilin says about this photo:

The day before the opening of Luo Music Space, I wandered around in the hutong nearby it. One side of the building had a piece of glass reflecting the trees and the building’s shadow, and I took the opportunity to capture this scene.

Follow Beijing Hutong Team on Facebook or WeChat (@BeijingHutongTeam)

Photo of the Day: Fangjia Graffiti

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This is Part 2 of a six-part photo essay by Beijing-based student and artist Liu Qilin, who recently finished his freshman year of undergraduate study at Beijing Normal University. Liu, who goes by the English name Jady, is founder of the Beijing Hutong Team, a loose collective of artists and creatives united in a desire to document Beijing’s inner-city alleys (胡同, hutong), which are currently undergoing a process of “renovation” that many feel is stripping them of their historical and cultural charm.

Liu Qilin says about this photo:

After the renovations in Fangjia Hutong, I found a new graffiti on the side of one of the buildings in the alley. The words are old, but the color and font size were different from before, as if a silent protest.

Follow Beijing Hutong Team on Facebook or WeChat (@BeijingHutongTeam)

Watch: Comedy Site Mamahuhu Returns to Tackle Obligatory China Hosting Duties

This one might not resonate as much if you’ve never spent any time living in China as an expat, but still worth a click for the educational value: Shanghai-based comedy site Mamahuhu has just released its latest masterpiece, an 11-minute video straightforwardly entitled “When Friends Visit You Overseas”:

It captures well the fatigue that sets in after years of hitting the same tourist circuits and guidebook highlights that every visiting friend and family member wants to see, long after you’ve surpassed your own tourist sell-by date. Shocking but true: after a certain amount of time, your average China-based expat will be more inclined to seek out the creature comforts of home (I have a falafel place on speed dial) than queue up for “Shanghai’s oldest xiao long bao” or whatever it is Lonely Planet recommends you get into.

Best part:

Of course there’s a fair amount of snark here, and it’s pretty Shanghai in flavor (Beijing expats tend to localize a bit more), but it’s a pretty entertaining video that does dispel certain preconceptions about China, even as it mercilessly mocks the cliche of doe-eyed, first-time visitors loudly shedding their preconceptions about China.

Mamahuhu in general is well worth a follow if you want an irreverent take on explaining contemporary urban China (again, mainly Shanghai, but still). They just came back after a hiatus, and seem to be reinvigorated in their quest for your clicks. Here are a few more highlights from them to give you a vibe:

Photo of the Day: Hutong Teahouse

Click for full-size image

This is Part 1 of a six-part photo essay by Beijing-based student and artist Liu Qilin, who recently finished his freshman year of undergraduate study at Beijing Normal University. Liu, who goes by the English name Jady, is founder of the Beijing Hutong Team, a loose collective of artists and creatives united in a desire to document Beijing’s inner-city alleys (胡同, hutong), which are currently undergoing a process of “renovation” that many feel is stripping them of their historical and cultural charm.

Liu Qilin says about this photo:

One afternoon, when I was strolling through the hutongs around Yonghegong Lama Temple, I found this tea room. Sometimes you really can’t imagine what you will encounter around the next corner of the hutong, like this shop; it’s entirely a new world.

Follow Beijing Hutong Team on Facebook or WeChat (@BeijingHutongTeam)