A Beijing-based music and gig review blog

Now, I don’t know why I’ve been post­ing about Sum­mer Sonic any more than you do. For some rea­son, Mao put me on the email list about it, so I’ve been get­ting the emails. But I do hon­estly think that it’s a great oppor­tu­nity for those bands going, and another step in the right direc­tion for cul­tural exchange between China and Japan, to take eight Chi­nese bands and put them on stage at Asia’s biggest and most suc­cess­ful music fes­ti­val of the year. With all that said, here is the final lineup, includ­ing Mao Livehouse’s bat­tle of the bands winners:

1. Re-TROS
2. Queen Sea Big Shark
3. Muma & Third Party
4. Perdel
5. The Ghost Spar­dac
6. Crys­tal But­ter­fly
7. Run­Run­Loser
8. Nanwu

And despite the fact I have never heard of Run­Run­Loser, I think this is a solid lineup. There’s a good vari­ety of all the biggest gen­res, and all with great bands rep­re­sent­ing China’s efforts. Of course there are bands I think would be bet­ter, but for a first pass at impress­ing Asia, I think China’s done a good job.

As pre­vi­ously men­tioned, MAO and their crew are tak­ing eight Chi­nese bands to Sum­mer Sonic this year. In an update email I just received, it looks as though they’re tak­ing a Bat­tle of the Bands stance here, and hold­ing com­pe­ti­tions in Bei­jing and Shang­hai. This will go on between June 6 and June 26, 2011. Excite­ment abounds!