A Beijing-based music and gig review blog

Now in its fourth year, Zhang­bei InMu­sic Fes­ti­val is one of the biggest des­ti­na­tions for music fans in Bei­jing. It’s a hike out to the grass­lands of Zhang­bei county, but it’s worth it, and we’ve just got notice of why this year’s is going to be just as good. The fes­ti­val runs from July 27–29 this year, with a big­ger lineup than ever before. This year, they’ve got inter­na­tional acts Orbital (UK), Spir­i­tu­al­ized (UK), Joyce Jonathan (France), Linkoban (Den­mark) and Joanna Wang (Tai­wan) up along­side big local names like Tang Dynasty, Mis­er­able Faith, Queen Sea Big Shark, A-BOYS, Brain Fal­i­ure and much more. We’re all excited — are you?

Where: Yugong Yis­han
When: Sat 16 June, 21:00
How Much: 80RMB, 80RMB pre-sale
Who: Hedge­hog, Pacalolo, Space Bitch (More Info)
Why: It’s Hedgehog’s new album launch! I haven’t yet man­aged to lis­ten to all of the tracks from it yet, but what I have heard, I’ve liked immensely. In the inter­view I did with them for City Week­end, Zo said that his favorite song on the album was “Heart on Fire,” and I have to say that I agree. I love the cho­rus of that song so much; the whole thing makes me want to get up and dance in a Break­fast Club sort of way. It’s got a lit­tle of the whimsy of their early sound, but it’s lay­ered with all the expe­ri­ence, all the exper­i­ments they’ve accu­mu­lated over the last few years. It really makes me hold out hope for the rest of the album I haven’t heard, and for their live show. I know noth­ing about Space Bitch, but I haven’t seen Pacalolo in some­thing ridicu­lous like two years so I can’t wait to see what they’ve been up to, too.

Run­ners up this week are: Le Comp­toir des Fous, an Alliance Française show at Tem­ple on Thurs­day, 9:30PM, Free; Namu releases their new album I Am Your King Kong at Mako Live­house on Fri­day, 8:30PM, 80/60RMB; Ningxia hard rock out­fit Nucleus plays Old What with new­com­ers Dwaas, Thru­outin and Pork on Fri­day at 9PM, 40RMB; and finally, Ital­ian glam rock group The Medullary Paral­y­sis is play­ing, inex­plic­a­bly, at two venues this Fri­day, too, but I’d sug­gest their show at Mao for the likely big­ger crowd, 9PM, 80/60RMB.

Where: Mako Live­house
When: Sat 9 June, 20:30
How Much: 60RMB, 50RMB pre-sale
Who: Spar­row, Glow Curve, pen­ta­tonic, La’Bridge, Chi­nese Clivia (More Info)
Why: Post-rock is a par­tic­u­lar weak­ness of mine, if you hadn’t noticed, and this week­end is a great one for it. If you’re not going to see Dalian super­stars Wang Wen on Fri­day (or even if you are), this is the sec­ond of the Indie China-organized Post-Rock Fes­ti­vals. The other one was held ear­lier this year at Mao Live, and went spec­tac­u­larly well. This time, they’ve kept the golden trio of Bei­jing post-rock with Spar­row, Glow Curve and pen­ta­tonic, but brought in new blood La’Bridge and Chi­nese Clivia, also from Dalian. For post-rock lovers, this will be a great night, and also a good rea­son to get out of the city for a while. Mako starts early and ends early, but that’s part of their charm, so grab some Chi­nese food around the cor­ner from Mako and get back in time for sec­ond din­ner of chuan’r.

As men­tioned, Wang Wen is play­ing this Fri­day at Mao Live, 9PM, 80/60RMB, which will make for a good lead-up to the fes­ti­val. And if that’s not enough post-rock for you, UK group Maybeshewill takes the stage at Mao Live, 8:30PM, 120/80RMB. Out­side of the post-rock world, there’s Yung­giema per­form­ing her new age world music at Mako Live­house, 9PM, 80RMB. On Sat­ur­day, there’s a spe­cial album launch for Jing Wen Records’ Spark Project, with great folk acts like Bloody Woods, kur­tyqc and more, 8PM, 50RMB, at Yugong Yishan.