Music review: Rebuilding the Rights of Statues
November 29, 2008
As many readers will know, in a parallel universe I’d be a music reviewer (if not a full-time crossword puzzle editor/constructor). Almost Famous? Story of my wannabe life. I came exceedingly close to becoming a freelancer for the Times-Dispatch in the late 1990s, but budget cutbacks doomed that. So, to scratch my itch, from time to time I’ll pick up the music pen.
Last week I chatted with a Chinese law student and a UR law student who’s taught in China. Both advised me in no uncertain terms to give in to the guilty pleasures of karaoke in Beijing. I shuddered. My first thought was, is this like what I’ve heard about Japan? Drunken locals warbling “My Way” and forcing everyone on stage? (And from what I’ve heard about baijiu, this is a particularly terrifying thought.) Are the bars going to have anything newer than “Bus Stop”? In the spirit of adventure, I won’t resist. Judging from my students’ enthusiasm, there must be no better way to break the cross-cultural ice than yelping out “Sweet Home Alabama,” “The Joker,” or whatever dated stuff a Beijing KTV jukebox is likely to have. I think they just want to see a prof get down.
OK, then, so what song to be ready for? No chance I’m gonna do this without some advance prep. There’s a fine art to selecting the best karaoke song. You want something that showcases your vocal talent (or lack thereof). Few lyrics . . . or a ridiculously large number that makes you look suave for knowing them all. Maybe fast and loud, covering imperfections and getting off the stage as quickly as possible. Perhaps some real over-the-top cheese — like “Dancing Queen”? (The Brits have this one covered, no surprise there.) No super high notes or booming lows. Above all, you’d better know what you are doing. I’m no pro, obviously, but I would rather do this with confidence.
And wait, my friends both said the same song would be atop Chinese students’ request lists for me . . . “Hotel California.” As a karaoke song? Really? A great song, to be sure, but 6:30 of SoCal irony from 30 years ago, so unlikely to register with Beijingers?? I can think of five Eagles songs I’d rather sing, never mind those of other artists. I was shocked to discover that it’s on some top ten lists. “Billie Jean”? Sure. “YMCA”? Of course. But “Hotel California”? WTF? Well, at least that might explain why Beijing students would ask for it — it’s a song in English that they might have heard of, though as quickly as the first verse (”warm smell of colitas/rising up through the air”) there’d be some serious head-scratching in any Beijing audience.
Well, I thought, why not really surprise my hosts? Let’s be ready with something awesome.
I went looking for a representative playlist. Googling “Beijing karaoke” for inspiration was entertaining, but not helpful. Wacky descriptions of KTV bars and bloggers’ tales of late night debauchery just confirmed my gut instinct about what I’m in for. And I learned you’re typically not in a public setting, but a “karaoke room” (private, partitioned-off part of the bar). OK, so the audience will be 10, not 200. And this advice: “you’ll only be embarassed in front of friends, not strangers (which might be worse)” . . . not sure about that. There was a long story on one site about how an American student memorized a Mandarin song. I suppose the tour de force of memorizing lyrics in their language might kill. But that seems like way too much effort, and the songs themselves were mainly forgettable and maudlin.
I struck out in a different direction. If I had to get up on stage here, I’d do the Springsteen-meets-indie of the Hold Steady, and too bad for the lack of familiarity. I’d sell the song. But searching for the “Chinese indie rock” analogue seemed unpromising. In a land where bands have to have their lyrics “approved” by the government, the very idea of free-spirited rock seems impossible. I gave it a whirl anyway. And I came across the unusually named “Rebuilding the Rights of Statues,” or “Re-TROS,” for short. “Re-TRO,” get it? Man, that is clunky. Still, you have to marvel at the audacity of this effort. They have their own MySpace page, all red and black with early-80’s post-punk graphics. They’ve been to South by Southwest. They plug their record with song samples. In short, the typical indie band’s play for exposure.
And it’s not hard to figure out what “retro” means to them. Check out their MySpace page:
“Born in the shadow of . . . nihilism, the collapse of state run industry and a desert that will someday swallow their city whole, Cut Off!, the first E.P. from pioneering Beijing-based post-punks Rebuilding the Rights of Statues delivers explosive, danceable, unsettling energy that leaves you unsure whether you want to take your clothes off and shake the spiders out, or go look for a rope, a closet and a copy of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot.”
OK, so we’re in Joy Division territory. But wait, “Nihilism”? “Collapse of state run industry”? And the first song is called “Hang The Police”? How’d they get away with THAT? Or any of it? As I learned, it’s a good story in and of itself.
I listened to “Hang The Police.” It was angular, with taut chords at the intro followed by shearing guitars and jarring but insistent, minimalist Gang of Four-ish vocals. Cutting edge 25 years ago in the U.S., but passed over by the Pixies, Nirvana, and everything else since. If it were the Beijing equivalent of the soundtrack to the Velvet Revolution I might consider learning it (the lyrics are in English, at least), but it’s not . . . just a song from a band trying to make a go of it under serious restrictions. And it’s obviously no karaoke song. “American Law Professor Causes International Incident,” . . . uh, I think I’ll pass.
Then I got to thinking. Under what criteria should we judge rock music in China? Many bands are just copying Western acts — Re-TROS’ influences are obvious. But given what it takes just to get to this point, we should be impressed and mighty generous in our assessment. How does a Chinese youth discover Western musical influences? Learn to play rock guitar? Get past the societal filter? Have original thoughts that will get past said filter? Construct songs in English idiom? Be reasonably faithful to the spirit of early ’80s post-punk? I can’t fathom how tough all of that must be, even in the Internet age.
Also, I imagine that this is the first act of a much longer timeframe in which China’s uniqueness (”in China how we say things is not very direct,” says one band member) leads to a more homegrown and less derivative music. I’ve seen this in Israel’s popular music over the past 15 years; at the outset it was warmed-over Brits and Amerks, but much more now of a stew of local and international influences. And the most intriguing question remains: how is the evolving domestic situation going to manifest itself in bands’ work? I’m trying to imagine the members of My Morning Jacket constantly fretting over whether the government will let them make their music, with no definite way of knowing whether you’ve crossed the line.
Well, this was an intriguing way to spend an hour, but hardly productive for karaoke. I’ll go back to the drawing board on that. Suggestions are welcome.
