February 12, 2010
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Fire up that old school ghetto blaster you found in your parents' basement underneath all those parachute pants and Aqua Net aerosol cans, cuz the REVERSE<<<POLARITY cassette series indie-pops its way into February with the 'Warriors & Worriers EP' by Arrows Made of Desire. Woot Woot! | |||||||
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Don’t believe us? Stream 'Bittersweet' right now. It’ll change your life. Wait, Queen Amidala already said that in some movie about another band. Ummmm, it’s really great??? I dunno, just listen... 'Worriers & Worriers EP' drops on February 16, but you can and should pre-order it right now! To sweeten the deal, we’re throwing in limited edition, numbered first printings of Arrows' debut album, Songs That Sell Fish. Jonney the intern discovered one last box of those bad boys whilst cleaning out the TTR warehouse recently, so we figured we’d best give 'em away, while supplies last and all that good stuff, of course. As always, we’re also throwing in customized chop sticks, stickers, and a download card courtesy of Wa3 with every order, so you’ve really got no excuses to not grab up this cassette, now do you. Of course you don’t. |
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February 10, 2010
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Yellow Fever gets all quasi-photogenic or whatever as Matthew Niederhauser sits down, drinks up and discusses his illustrious career as photo-master-gereral of the Beijing scene, pulling European chicks on tour with Joyside and taking a couple liquid gel caps of 'BEEP' and riding roller coasters with cops. Or something like that. |
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Washington Post, New York Times, Economist, Spin, Time Out NY, NPR and even the douchebags at MTV all chiming in on the madness. Despite all the love Niederfucker got from those minor news sources, we’re pretty sure he was most excited to get hammered with us and record Yellow Fever *4, which you should right click and save at this very moment if you know what’s good for you. At any rate, in the name of shameless promotion, we highly recommend picking up a copy of Sound Kapital. You can order direct from powerHouse or Amazon. Shit, almost forgot, there is an excellent CD bundled in the book for music aficionados, which includes tracks from our very own Lonely China Day and Arrows Made of Desire + plenty of other highly listenable Chinese acts. Photos are pretty good too, btw. |
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February 8, 2010
Our very own Lonely China Day recently performed a tune off of their currently untitled new album on MTV Live which aired in the PRC on you guessed it, MTV China. Said tune is called "Rise Up" and should give you some clues as to the direction the band have taken for their new release. Speaking of this long in the making, fabled opus, we can tell you now it's pretty much in the can! The band are currently doing some final tweeks before mastering and we're looking to release as soon as we can, whatever that means? Seriously, it's not far off. We should have an official release date in the coming weeks. So hang in there, Chachi. Oh and before you start sending us mails, no the band have not gone completely instrumental! Deng Pei still exercises his pipes on the new long-player, which we actually just heard for the first time a few weeks back. What's it sound like? EPIC. Hopefully this clip'll tide you all over for a while...
February 2, 2010
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ON THE RECORD with jrg_one (aka Jackson Garland) Interview by: Xiao Ding [Ed note: ON THE RECORD is a new series we’re doing here at the label to help you and yours get to know more about the artists we work with. Specifically, OTR will focus primarily on new releases from said artists perspective. Enquiring minds wanna know, or whatever. Anyway, we hope you find this kinda stuff as interesting as we do...] | |||||||
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Which do you prefer, working as a solo artist or a collaborative band member? Why? Both are obviously rewarding for a variety of different reasons. My solo work as jrg_one allows me to stretch out some of the ideas and themes that I explore musically in RandomK(e) in more detail and length. It allows me to cultivate more abstract song forms and stretch things out more than are possible in a full band context. RandomK(e) is great in that there are four equally strong (and equally different) musical approaches pushing and pulling the material into its final form. As a result, the final product of the K(e) is a result of these disparate musical influences molding something new, different and exciting. The mental interplay between band members is an exciting thing to feed off of. In my solo music, that must come from within. You are the first artist to release music on cassette as part of the REVERSE<<<POLARITY series. What are your thoughts on this cassette series? I’m excited to be a part of the series, and have enjoyed not only creating music for my tape but also sourcing the tape decks to create masters, the process of dubbing each individual tape, designing and constructing the final packaging, etc. There’s a real DIY aesthetic to the whole thing that appeals to me greatly, and I’m sure it does to all of the artists involved. The nostalgic “retro” angle is also very appealing, as tapes were the first medium I really listened to music on growing up (the occasional vinyl and 8-track aside) so to hold a cassette case in my hand and hear the “clunk” of the tape heads locking into place when you press play certainly brings back some vivid memories. What are some of your thoughts and impressions on the Chinese music scene? I’ve really enjoyed being able to watch and participate in the music scene here in Beijing over the past few years. I’m by no means an exhaustive expert of the scene and there are certainly plenty of bands I haven’t seen or have flown under my radar altogether, but there has been a lot of exciting stuff and some great shows that I’ve had the privilege to either see or even perform at. There’s a great mix and increasing diversity of styles and acts that have developed since I moved here in 2003, and over the past couple of years I’ve become more familiar with groups and scenes in other cities in China outside of Beijing. The thing that strikes me the most is the love and passion for the music by so many of the artists. It’s still a growing scene and I’m excited by new bands and acts appearing now. I hear some elements of dance music in your work. Is this a feature of your current work or influenced by some past musical upbringing? While there are a couple of sections on this album where I’m making use of layered beats, this is certainly the exception rather than the norm with my music in general. I wouldn’t say that it’s inspired by dance music really as I don’t really listen to much of that, although there has always been something appealing about the suspense that can be created with the layering and building of certain sounds and rhythmic patterns, and that’s appealed to me in music throughout the years. The higher energy sections that appear in “Slim Charles” (Side A of the tape) are designed to give a sense of forward propulsion to the overall piece and to provide a sense of contrast with Side A’s “enemy”, which is “Carl Sagan” on Side B. When did you first start creating music? Can you tell us about your songwriting experience? I’ve been playing music since I was quite young, having played different instruments in school orchestras and bands. I first started creating my own music in any kind of serious way about ten years ago. Since I don’t really write “songs” in their conventional form, I would hesitate to use the term “songwriting process” and think that “music creation” or something like that is probably more apt. I’m always listening for new sounds and enjoy closing my eyes in different places and taking in the ambient soundscapes around me. These often inspire me to get into my home studio and begin creating my own pieces inspired by these auditory experiences. Other times, I’ll simply start with improvising certain sounds, rhythms or sonic textures using a wide variety of tools (from the laptop/software to distorted bass guitar to ethnic hand instruments I’ve collected from lots of countries around the world) and take those sounds and run with them, building up larger pieces around the original idea. What is your songwriting process like? Which musicians are your favorite? Who has influenced your music? I listen to so many different kinds of music that it would be difficult to identify just a few select artists that have the most direct inspiration on my work. My influences are more the result of an amalgamation of many different genres, styles, eras, etc. That being said, I draw a lot of inspiration from film soundtracks, drone metal, dark ambient, shoegazer, krautrock, avant hip hop, free jazz and several other strains of rock. Here’s a very limited sampling of some specific artists who have inspired me: Can, Boris, The Melvins, Sunn O))), Lustmord, King Crimson, John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, Hank Williams III, Odd Nosdam, cLOUDDEAD, Om, Yan Jun, Wu Quan, White, Ennio Morricone, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Goblin, the Flaming Lips, Stars of the Lid, etc. What was your first response when you heard about the REVERSE<<<POLARITY release plan? Excited for analog!!! Which quality is most important as a musician? Technical qualities largely depend on the style of music being performed, but I think that all musicians can benefit from having an open ear to new sounds and a willingness to try out new musical approaches, even if only in the privacy of their own home. Exploration and experimentation (be it in technique, songwriting structure, etc) can be a musician’s best friend, and the benefits of this carry over into their final product, whether its explicit or not. Your music has a dark feel to it. If you were given the opportunity would you be interested in creating a soundtrack for a horror movie? Absolutely! Especially if I’m the director behind the camera making the movie as well! Horror films have been a part of my experience and psyche for decades. Their pairing of suspenseful music and images has been part of my creative inspiration process for as long as I can remember, and they certainly inform some of the sounds I’m making today. I’d love the opportunity to score a horror film, and would be equally excited to score experimental films which are largely cerebral and seemingly plotless. I think my music would suit that well. Side B (“Carl Sagan”) is more experimental than Side A (“Slim Charles”)? Is this due to different creative environments for each piece? It’s not so much the result of different creative environments, at least not different physical environments. Both sides largely come from the same auditory and visual places in my brain, although I did want to create a clear distinction between the two sides of the tape and have both of them seem to be part of a larger whole. The overall concept of “Slim Charles vs. Carl Sagan” was developed very early in the process of making the actual music, and there are links between both sides that are deliberate, even though they have quite a different sounds overall. I’ll leave it to the listener to speculate what those links might be and whether or not the music fits any kind of actual narrative. If you were asked to select a color to fit your music, which color would you see as the best fit? It’s too difficult to simply identify one color to fit the music. One piece today may feel black, but tomorrow, it may have more of a purple-ish hue to it in my mind. As obvious at it is, I’m gonna go with white since that encapsulates all the colors of the spectrum. Are there any musicians you would be interested in collaborating with? I’m always interested in collaborating with different musicians, and have enjoyed collaborations with members of both bands I’m in – RandomK(e) and The Redbucks (bluegrass). There are some artists in Yan Jun’s Subjam fold that I’ve enjoyed working with and could see myself doing more interesting things with. I imagine Kodiak Island and I could generate some interesting sounds together. I’m pretty open in terms of collaboration, and would be happy to experiment with a wide variety of artists, musical or otherwise. My real interest would be to work with artists in other media to move beyond a simple musical performance into something more. The Chinese music scene is not as developed as it is in the West. Why do you choose to make music here in China? I moved to Beijing not for music exclusively, but for other work. I imagine I’d be making music wherever I lived, but I am particularly happy and lucky to have met so many great musicians here and to have been involved with a good number of cool projects and groups. And as I said earlier, Beijing has been a fascinating place to watch grow and develop, musically and otherwise. Please introduce your REVERSE<<<POLARITY release for us. My tape portrays Slim Charles and Carl Sagan rising out of the ethereal haze to wage battle for the future of the cosmos. |
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January 13, 2010
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As the dawn awakens on 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Tag Team Records provides you with a step-by-step guide for enjoying the inaugural release of REVERSE<<<POLARITY in the most proper and cerebral way possible. Now, would you dillholes PLEASE stop staring at that giant glowing fetus in the sky eclipsing the sun and hurry your ass up to humanity’s next evolutionary step?!?!?! | |||||||
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nuts, and since we individually dubbed and assembled all 120 copies in real time here at Tag Team World HQ, we’ve heard it a few times (in several different states of mind and body), so we strongly recommend you employ the following course of action before listening once it arrives in your snail-mailbox: 1) Purchase a one-way ticket to Arcata, California, nestled deep in the redwoods of Humboldt County on the North Coast of the United States of America. Pack nothing other than a copy of 'Fungi Perfecti', a Rambo survival knife, star chart, GORP, Dutch XL skins, Bose headphones, military grade flint, burlap sack and your GOLDYiP boombox + 'slim charles vs. carl sagan' tape and, of course, a shitload of batteries, cuz you’re gonna wanna listen to this shit more than once. Read the aforementioned literature on plane, bus, train or at rest stops along Highway 101. 2) Upon arrival at said destination, slip into something more comfortable and grab a 6 pack of Red Nectar at the Humboldt Brewery. Head to a payphone on the Plaza and call (707) 826-1051. Ask for Mike. 3) Ignore Mike’s Phish t-shirt/aroma + fight the innate urge to beat him up.* He’s providing an invaluable service, after all, despite his trustafarian dreads and interest in all things noodle-oriented/retarded. Make sure shit’s 'outdoor' and preferably local, not BC. 4) Exercise your thumb. 5) Take a long, leisurely stroll through the Arcata Community Forest, head up the hill and set up camp in a cove deep in Redwood Park. Build some kind of Bear Grylls-style sleeping structure and collect the makings of a potentially massive bonfire. 6) Mark your territory. 7) Take another stroll and put literature + burlap sack to good use, then get back to camp before dark. Optional: track and kill a wild, indigenous mammal if meat’s your thing. 8) Start fire. 9) "now it’s dark." 10) Take off your shoes and burn your bra, if you’re a chick. Clothing, also, is completely optional. 11) Insert 'slim charles vs. carl sagan' by jrg_one into your GOLDYiP boombox, place Bose headphones around your cranium and press 'play'. 12) Consume. 13) [Next step deleted by order of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Dept., but don’t worry, you’ll find out in due time what happens here.] 14) Donkey Kong! 15) .....[#@$%#@#$!]..... 16) Awaken groggily. Don’t be alarmed by the morning fog, it’s normal in these parts. 17) Clean up your shit. Make sure fire is extinguished. Put 'slim charles vs. carl sagan' back into its protective case. Hit up the Hole in the Wall sandwich shop on G Street to fortify yourself for the trip back down 101. 18) Repeat every 6 to 10 months. * You can beat Mike up if you want too, but keep in mind that Arcata is small and you’ll have to go back through there on your way out of town. Personally, I’d totally beat that kid up and take my chances, but that’s just me. |
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January 6, 2010
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Whatdoya Do If You’re A Progressive Indie Label In The Country That Has Taken Digital And Physical Piracy To The Next Level? Go Analog, Baby! Tag Team Are Tickled Pink To Introduce REVERSE<<<POLARITY: A Monthly, Limited Edition, DIY Cassette Ep Series!!! |
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Of course you do, that’s why Tag Team are launching REVERSE<<<POLARITY, a monthly, limited edition, collectible, DIY Cassette EP series, which sprints out of the proverbial gates with the January 19 release of "slim charles vs. carl sagan" by experimental artist jrg_one, that you can pre-order right now! Wait. Holy shit! Check this out, guys. We’re gonna use bullet points now in order to grab your attention even more. Behold: So listen, we’re well aware that our news items tend to get a tad lengthy here at TTR, so we’ve done you all a solid: look over to your left, see the button that says 'Tapes'? Click on that bad boy and you’ll get more information than you’ll ever need regarding REVERSE<<<POLARITY, including an honest-to-goodness, homeless-guy-style manifesto on why we as a label decided to do a cassette series + the detailed ins and outs on how everything, and I mean everything, in the REVERSE<<<POLARITY universe works. It’s all there for you. Now close that Bang Bus window you have open, hit eject on that Criterion copy of Fishing With John you got for Christmas and are sort of watching right now and get to reading about why you’re gonna want to pre-order the entire REVERSE<<<POLARITY series! Or, don’t read anything and just order it anyway. We’re told that’s how to best spend hard earned cash during an economic crisis…on tapes. Food and rent are completely overrated. Like, Duh?! |
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December 24, 2009
This Christmas Season, Tag Team Records Proudly Present: 'New Nativity For 2009' By jrg_one + 'Feliz Navidad' By Kodiak Island. Now Go Do Family Stuff You Losers! Really, Why Are You Reading This Site On Christmas?! Sheesh. Hug Your Mom Or Something!
Here at Tag Team, we strive not to bring you another half-assed rant about corporate commercialism and how the true meaning of Christmas has been hopelessly diluted and subverted thanks to, uh, corporations. And commercialism. And the invention of money. We’re full of the holiday spirit in these parts nowadays, and here’s what Christmas makes us think of: Avon. Or more specifically, the porcelain Nativity Scene that Avon produced throughout the 1980s that graced a small corner table in the home of every family that had an "Avon Mom" during that decade. This wasn’t just some Joe Schmoe Nativity set that you walked into Walmart or Pier One Imports to buy in a tidy three-minute transaction. This was an ongoing subscription set. Like a magazine, but with fragile porcelain sheep. It took years to complete the set, and when that last piece, the wooden stable that also came with the obscure sheep herder drummer boy intern that doesn’t really get a whole lot of print in the New Testament, finally arrived in the mail, angels sang from the sky the same way they do now when you win an ebay auction for that particular Tron action figure you’ve been wanting for fourteen years. In fact, we blame Avon for even making us want to collect action figures today.
So it’s in the spirit of an Avon Christmas that we give you the New Nativity For 2009. Created by experimental knob-fiddler/laptop junkie, jrg_one during an all-night binge drinking session of Swedish glogg, the New Nativity For 2009 re-imagines all your old holiday favorites with a zesty new twist of Hasbro-influenced freshness. It’s like if the guy who invented Nativity sets sequestered himself in a home studio in the woods with Rick Rubin in order reinvent his career. In fact, by latest count three of the figures in this scene actually did record with Rick Rubin sometime in their lives.
China is the world’s belching factory of pre-molded figurines. It rains action figures from smokestacks here, seriously. It increases particulate matter in the lungs, but that’s cool with us because we are unabashed toy geeks who love being close to the main supply when we need our re-up. Not to mention there are Santas and Charlie Brown trees on every Beijing corner right now So, feeling lubed up in the holiday spirit as we are, we invite you to bask in the warm glow of "Made in China and exported abroad only to be returned home" Nativity and hope you feel the subsequent yuletide wash over you in warm, soothing waves. Meanwhile, we’ll be sitting around the living room reading "A Christmas Carol" to each other from an old hardcover volume of Dickens while watching a flash animated yule log stream from the internet in hi def on our LCD widescreen TV. We’re traditionalists that way.
As you can tell, we at Tag Team Records like to give a little back when we can, and what better time to do so than December 25th. (We’ve bucked the party line and chosen to ignore all the historical and archaeological evidence pointing to Jesus actually being born on April 17th.) We contemplated climbing down your chimney tonight dressed in a scummy big fat red and white suit to leave a couple of little gifts for you in your sock, but we got drunk and never made it out the front door. Doesn’t matter anyway, since we lost The List of home addresses for those who have been naughty and nice this year sometime last week. Odds are that it’s somewhere near the general vicinity of a toilet at Babyface. So instead, we imbibe your holiday spirit with a rendering of "Feliz Navidad" by Kodiak Island that is best chased with a stein full of strong egg nog. We hope this little bit of holiday sweetness supplants that closing scene from "Die Hard" when "Let It Snow" rings out after Al Powell blasts that blond Amish guy in the chest as *the* ultimate auditory Christmas Experience. Feliz Navidad, hijoputas.
December 22, 2009
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YELLOW FEVER Put Maybe Mars’ Charles Saliba Through His Very Own Spanish Inquisition, Complete With Slurred Speech, Unreleased Tunes You’re Gonna Wanna Hear And Shitloads Of Indian Food You’ll Hafta Just Visualize. The Interweb Will Never Be The Same... |
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| has a really shitty internet connection or is deaf. Whatever, it’s simply good to know that everyone’s as retarded as we are once there’s stiff drinks in their bellies and a mic in their hands. Have fun with this one, kids. We sure did! | |||||||
December 20, 2009
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So You Think You’ve Got What It Takes To Work In The Chinese Music Industry, Huh? Well, We’re Tired of Making Our Own Coffee and Opening Our Own Beers, So Come Intern With Us, Already! |
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Are you willing to work for college credit and/or free shit/experience? Can you handle your liquor? Do you like cats? If you answered yes to all or most of the above, send a resume, writing sample and cover letter telling us a little more about yourself, other pertinent skills and why you wanna hang with us, to: heikek@tagteamrecords.com If you fit, we’ll get back to you. We’re good like that. Also, no psychos, hippies, junkies, wallflowers, emo-kids, couch surfers or disco-zombies need apply. Life’s hard enough, ya know?! P.S. All interns get a free ‘Fuck Aids, We’ve Got Interns’ t-shirt like the one pictured above. Now, you’re excited aren’t you?! Keep it in your pants, tiger. |
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December 14, 2009
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Arrows Made Of Desire Fly South For Winter...Shows, That Is. |
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12/18 Changsha: Freedom House, 9pm, 30RMB 12/19 Wuhan: Vox Bar, 9pm, 30RMB |
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December 6, 2009
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Go Ahead And Schedule A Week Long Stint In Rehab And A Visit With Your Proctologist For The Latter Half Of December, Cuz It’s Shindig Time Again, Nucca! |
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What else? Oh yeah, as this is the 'time of giving', Tag Team are donating all proceeds, after the bands are taken care of, to our friends at the Philip Hayden Foundation. Here's a blurb on the type of radness PHF are up to these days: The Philip Hayden Foundation works to help orphans with special medical needs. At the organization’s primary facility, Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village in Lang Fang, children receive 24-hour care, medical supervision by Western doctors, physical therapy, and education. PHF arranges surgeries and medical procedures for the children, and helps them find adoptive parents. Orphans? Xmas goodies? Rad music? Booze? What more do you want on a Friday night in December? Oh yeah, sex! Yes, people, the bathrooms all have locks. So there! Now there's no excuses... |
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November 5, 2009
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YELLOW FEVER Turn Up The ‘Folksy Charm’ With A MicroMu Special. Hijinks Ensue. |
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| banter coupled with Chinese folk, then head over to the ‘ol MicroMu site where you can download shit to your heart’s content. It’s excellent stuff, especially after lotsa booze and maybe a few jazz-cigarettes for good measure. Happy listening! | |||||||
October 31, 2009
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In Their Increasingly Maniacal Bid To Play Every Weird-Ass Festival The World Over, Lonely China Day Headline The London International Festival Of Exploratory Music. Fucking Mouthful, Right?! |
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have going for you is Radiohead, musically. Mumford and Sons? The Keiser Chiefs? The Cribs? Whatever. Oh, wait, Jonny Marr is in The Cribs now, but even he lives in Portland these days, so, yeah…your, ahem, ‘indie’ music scene pretty much blows at present, which is why you ‘chaps’ cum like fire-hoses over borderline Nickleback-esque shit like Kings of Leon and immediately stop fighting ‘pikeys’/ slip into a catatonic state whenever Jack White says anything into an NME tape recorder. We understand it’s hard to be English when bands like Hard Fi are allowed to keep (collectively) breathing. I mean, we live in fucking China and are constantly subjected to Canto-pop for goodness sake. We totally empathize. That said, don’t worry, blokes and, erm...blokettes! We’re here to help you and yours through these difficult, Coldplay ridden times! That’s why we’ve sent our flagship band, Lonely China Day over to London for the, I need a fucking nap before I attempt to type the following festival’s name, London International Festival of Exploratory Music. So, good people of London, put down that rumpled copy Q magazine, stop tying to squeeze in that fourth ‘wank’ and go see our boys do their thing on your turf, then write about it on whatever passes for a blog over there. I mean, you can’t write about Radiohead every week...or can you? Cheers! 5th Nov 2009, Lonely China Day @ Dublin Castle Time: 8:30pm Support by Maple Mountain, King and the Captives and the Cellar Family Address: Dublin Castle, 94 Parkway, Camden, NW1. 6th Nov, 2009, Lonely China Day @ London International Festival of Exploratory Music Time: 9:00pm Address: Hall One, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG |
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August 8, 2009
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YELLOW FEVER Hits The Interweb! Hi-jinks Ensue. Frack, Wish I Could’ve Somehow Gotten The Term 'Podcastration' Into This Headline As Well! Er, Wait, I Just Did. Party! |
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| either a band or the industry, hook them up to an IV of baijiu and see what happens. If anybody winds up in the hospital, we’ll throw a benefit show or whatever. So, prepare to right click and save, bitches! Fever*1 is ready to invade your earholes right the fuck now! Listen at your own risk. | |||||||
July 20, 2009
Ever Wonder What It Would Look Like If You Rotoscoped Arrows Made of Desire And Threw ‘Em Inside a Rubik’s Cube? Us Neither. But We Found Out Anyway...Sorta.
Every now and again, we come across a budding film-maker, buy them shitloads of drinks and dupe them into making a video clip for us. News flash, alcohol, aka panty remover, also works on arty-dudes who’s talent you want to take advantage of. Trust us. Our latest victim/hero is Gamal Istiyanto, who directed and conceptualized the video for Arrows Made of Desire’s Dependency! Gamal has worked on films like Kill Bill, John Rabe, and Kite Runner, so he knows what he’s doing. Even more importantly, the kid can fucking drink, and as far as we know, he didn’t hit on any of our female staff at the end of the night when we first met. Not that we would’ve cared. Oh, and the video he made is rad. At least we think it is. Hope you do too?
June 01, 2009
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Tag Team’s Catalog Now Available In China Via WaWaWa. 1.3 Billion Chinese People Can Now Potentially Access The Submissionaries. Scary. |
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So, we did. And in the process, we met some seriously web-savvy trailblazers over at the WaWaWa Music Store. These guys are so professional that we actually take the time to brush our teeth and put on clean underwear before we head over to their office for meetings and the like. If you live in China and you actually want to support indie artists and labels, you need to get jiggy with Wa3, stat! Don’t take our word for it though. Shit, we can’t even remember what we ate for lunch 2 hours ago. So, we decided to hunt down Wa3’s elusive man in black, Matt D and get him to step out of the shadows long enough to give all ten of you folks who actually read this site further enlightenment on Wa3 and how it can change your life. Matt’s a pretty clued-in dude who’s on a mission to make the good stuff available to all you nice people out there...ignore his words at the risk of abandoning salvation. TT: Why should anyone part with their hard-earned money to subscribe to Wa3? MD: For about the price of a beer (RMB 20), users can download 88 songs (that’s 8 albums worth) monthly on Wa3 – that’s even cheaper than the pirate CDs and also, why bother hunting various P2P and BT sites for odds and ends? It’s easier here on Wa3. As for those with time but no money...sigh, life’s tough sometimes - but for everyone else there’s Wa3 TT: And what musical gems can one find there? MD: There’s the Tag Team catalogue of course, plus another million or so tracks covering every genre known to man...not forgetting the good karma that comes along with it. TT: That’s a whole lotta shit to go through... MD: Yeah, tell me about it...being music fans ourselves, we keep on discovering so many great gems in the catalogue ourselves everyday. And we are making it even easier for more users to discover stuff...your know, like on some sites they have, “If you like Lonely China Day, you will like Black Sabbath and Backstreet Boys”….only that ours will be waaaay more accurate. TT: No Britney, No Christina and God forbid, Paris Hilton and their ilk on Wa3? Mock shock horror... MD: We’ll only sell our soul at the right price just as Robert Johnson did before so that we could enjoy the Devil Blues – which is available on Wa3, by the way! TT: We’ve been dying to ask you before, but what’s this weird WaWaWa name about? MD: Yeah, there’s WaWaWa, Google, Yahoo...that’s pretty good company we keep in the naming section, eh! But since you interviewer-types are in search of a good story, I can be pedantic about it. The first two characters "Wa" actually mean 'dig' in Chinese as in mining the vast catalogue of music we have, and the final "Wa" in the name signifies the discovery of some great music. But for ease, we simply call it Wa3... TT: And we’ll sign off in true talk show fashion... Matt, can you remind our entranced readers again, where they can find musical salvation... MD: www.wa3.cn baby! |
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May 16, 2009
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Arrows Made of Desire’s Songs That Sell Out Hits China May 29th With A Record Release Party The Same Day At MAO Livehouse! Everybody In Attendance Get Mad (Possibly Fictitious) Free Shit With The Price Of Admission! Scroll For Deets... |
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Bam! Check it, the AMoD–STSOSDRCMLBS was conceived and designed by the Franklin Mint in conjunction with Joewi Verhoeven and Tag Team Records and includes five pouter-embossed discs which contain: Oh, but that’s not all, AMoD-STSOSDRCMLEBS is impeccably packaged in a limited edition, individually numbered, 24 carat gold plated cube with different re-workings of the cover art by Ai Weiwei adorning all six sides! And here’s the kicker folks, everyone in attendance at the Songs That Sell Out Record Release Party on May 29th over at MAO Livehouse is gonna take home one of these bad-boyz for free! That’s right, for the admission price of RMB80, you not only get to see the band kill it live along with DJ Steve Barker, Oliver and Ziyo, you get to take home AMoD-STSOSDRCMLEB, while supplies last! And if you’re on the media guest list, in addition to the box set, you will also receive a coupon for a free hand-job at CHocolate...just, like, THAT!!! So, fire up Outlook folks, 'cuz now you know what you're doing on May 29th at 9pm. Word. |
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April 20, 2009
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Ian Sherman Died On April 8, 2009 And There Is Absolutely Nothing Funny About It. |
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tremendously interesting music, which most people don’t know. You should listen to a track or two. I’m pretty sure he would be into me posting these: Severed Head [Mayday Suicide Mix] Burial Part 4 More than all of this, Ian was our friend. He was my friend. And he was a real friend. He was the kind of dude you were constantly exchanging large amounts of cash loans with whilst watching a video of Lightning Bolt tour excerpts on mute as a Grateful Dead show from 1977 with Phil Lesh “killing Scarlet Begonias” blasted from shitty laptop speakers. That’s how Ian rolled. He was special and we’ll miss him more than I or anyone else at this label can put into words, or even wants too. Things will never be the same around here. |
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February 22, 2009
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Lonely China Day Set To Showcase At Canadian Music Week. Tag Team Script Politically Incorrect, Culturally Insensitive News Item And Post It Anyway, 'Cuz That's How Tag Team Do. |
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Strange Brew before (boisterously) uttering the words, "I'm going to Canada, ahhhh!" That's right Canadians, Lonely China Day will be showcasing on March 14 at the Cameron House in Toronto at 12am as a part of Canadian Music Week, which is kinda like SXSW, but in Canada, where it's cold as fuck and there's no free BBQ at day parties. So, if you're an industry douche like our label head, Kagler, or just a plain old Maple Leafs fan with a penchant for melodic, sweeping, intensely emotional Chinese indie rock, and you're attending the conference, you'll be stoked. Hey, do they make poutine in Toronto too, or is it just Montreal? That shit's tasty. |
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February 20, 2009
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RandomK(e)'s Long Awaited Debut Full-Length, Waiting, Streets China-Side On March 21st. Sweeeeet, Right?! BTW, It Should Be Noted That We Tried To Think Of A Pun Based Around The Word 'Waiting' For This Here News Item, But Fuck It, Can't Be Bothered. Suck It Up Folks. |
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evening? We do know that SUBS and Sulumi will be opening, which is rad and totally worth you showing up early for. And, and, and...everybody gets a copy of Waiting with the price of admission, which is why you're gonna show up in the first place, right?! Admit it! You know you don't have enough CDs. Or, at least you don't have this CD. Not yet anyway... |
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December 10, 2008
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Der Tag Team Christmas Shindig Ist Rad, Aber Nicht So Rad Wie Die Tatsache, Dass Wir Alle Gehen In Den Urlaub Der Darauf Folgenden Woche. Sweet Deutsch, Yeah?! What, You Don't Sprecken Zie Deutsch? You've got a PC, Right? Google Translate That Shit Then Bitch! |
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to coax her into financially green lighting the annual Tag Team Records X-mas Shindig. Tian Xi even lights her cigarettes for her. And guess what kids, she fell for it again! The fourth annual Shindig is on like Donkey Kong! Yep, we're busting out the Glühwein, 'baked' goods, full merch booth and Christmas lights once again over at the fabulous 2Kolegas on December 13. Local freak-show/drawer of neat pictures, Pupi, also designed a limited edition t-shirt specifically for the event (see graphic) and we're gonna give any and all profits from its sales to the Philip Hayden Foundation. Cool, right?! Oh yeah, there'll be music too, courtesy Lonely China Day, Arrows Made of Desire, Bigger Bang, Fire Balloon and Ourself Beside Me. Fyi, people at previous Shindigs always tend to get way too drunk, hook up with people they don't even like and eventually either hit them or puke on them. To put it mildly, we've seen a lot of nasty shit go down (literally) in the bathrooms over the years. Hmmmm. Again, whatever. It's a lot of fun, even if you're not into shit like that. We online pinky swear on it...für shizzle mein nizzles. See all you dudes and fraulines at 2K this Saturday! And if I don't, it's all good! Cuz i'm off to somewhere 100% more cheeseburger friendly, where I can wear one of those Pupi designed shirts without a jacket! Auf Wiedersehen deuchebags... |
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December 1, 2008
OMG, The TTR Vs. Syndicate Co-cast Is Like Totally LOL Funny, Dude...If You're In The Seventh Grade. Insert Massive 'Sad Face' Icon (Here). Actually, It's Not That Bad. Okay, It Is. WTF, Decide For Yourself Already! Sheesh.
Yep, Tag Team bro'd up with the clowns from Beijing's original Drum & Bass collective, Syndicate, and did a long, rambling podcast featuring acoustic performances from Arrows Made of Desire and a slammin' D&B set from Blackie! The one thing both parties discovered during the recording process at Syndicate World HQ is that we're all way to full of ourselves...but you should listen to this anyway. It'll make your auditory canals 100% more sheeny, smooth and younger looking. Thanks to Oil of Olay for their kind financial support!
November 2, 2008
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Dude! Remember Arrows Made of Desire? Turns Out Joewi Didn't Get That Modeling Contract In New York After All, Something About A 'Dutch Oven' Became...Erm, 'Probatory' (sp?) or whatever. I Dunno, We're All Getting Sick Of Homie's Good Looks Anyhow & Everyone Knows NYC Is An Unacceptable Place To Do Anything Other Than Say You're From There So Chicks'll Think You're Sophisticated or Something Like That. Anyway, Turns Out There's Some Pretty Happening Shit Pertaining To Young Joewi And The Rest Of Those AMoD Dorks! Opening For Jens Lekman?! Touring China With Moses Hazy?! New Album Out In March?! WTF, Brah?!
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Sometimes the title portions of stuff here on the Tag Team site actually eclipse any and all necessary text. Okay, actually, most of the time. Honestly, we do our best to entertain you folks. Well this time'll be different I suppose. I'm busy. Maybe you're busy too? I doubt you're on the way to a hospital to talk to a buncha dudes about the 'meaning of love', but I am. I actually took some notes earlier about what 'love' actually is, or at least what it means to me. Here's a few things I love unconditionally: 1) In-N-Out Double Doubles w/ grilled onions (no tomato). 2) The fact that I'm going somewhere better than here when I die... 3) and...wait for it...Arrows Made of Desire! There's prolly more, but Arrows are going off on tour around China with freak-show, classic rock officiators Moses Hazy and returning to Beijing, hopefully intact, and opening for the one and only Jens Lekman!!! Come on, you read Pitchfork, you know who Jens is? Yeah, of course you do. Here at Tag Team, we know him a little better. He's the dude who boned Kyle's ex-girlfriend back in Park Slope one |
11/15 Shenzhen @ Huaqiao Cheng Wenhua Chuang Yi Yuan, w/Moses Hazy
11/16 Guangzhou @ Xi Wo Bar, w/Moses Hazy
11/18 Changsha @ Freedom House, w/Moses Hazy
11/19 Nanchang @ Xing Kong Qi Bar, w/Moses Hazy
11/20 Wuhan @ VOX Bar, w/Moses Hazy
11/21 Nanjing @ Gubao Bar, w/Moses Hazy
11/22 Shanghai @ Live Bar, w/Moses Hazy
11/23 Shanghai @ Yu Yin Tang, w/Moses Hazy
11/26 Qingdao @ Red Star Magazine, w/Moses Hazy
11/27 Qingdao @ Xi Hai Guoji Julebu (West Lake Intl. Club), w/Moses Hazy
11/28 Beijing @ MAO Livehouse, w/Moses Hazy
11/29 Beijing @ 2Kolegas, w/Moses Hazy
11/30 Tianjin @ Mayflower, w/Moses Hazy, RandomK(e)
12/02 Beijing @ MAO Livehouse, w/Jens Lekman
September 28, 2008
Since Everyone At Tag Team Got Their Medical Degrees Whilst Serving Time In Various Prisons/Halfway Houses The World Over, We Have No Idea What Function A Spleen Actually Serves? But, We Know It Must Seriously Suck To Have One Removed…
All kidding aside, Johnnytwentythree bassist, Joe Maier, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident a couple of weeks ago and had to have his spleen removed shortly thereafter. Ouch, right! As a result, J23 have been forced to cancel all of their shows for the next couple of months, including a slot at the Midpoint Festival in Cincinnati and all opening slots for Lonely China Day’s current US tour. Like everyone else in America who isn’t a corporate lackey or trust fund kid, Joe doesn’t have an adequate health care plan and shit like…heavy duty surgery…is quite an expensive proposition over in ‘the land of the free and home of the brave.’ So, stuff for Joe just plain sucks all around at the moment.
If you feel like throwing a little cash Joe’s way in order to help him with the bills, or simply want to wish him well, please contact Stephen at johnnytwentythree@hotmail.com and stuff will get where it needs to go…
We at Tag Team wish Joe and his wife (and fellow band member), Brianne, all the best during this difficult time…you should too!
Also, Joe, now that you’re gonna live and all that good stuff, can you please tell us what a spleen does and why it’s actually necessary...erm...biologically?! Dayang, Kyle and Kagler have been watching shitloads of General Hospital on satellite here at Tag Team World HQ Beijing PRC in an attempt to gain some knowledge on this subject, but all the characters just keep having super-duper romantic sex with one another…then somebody gets stabbed or whatever? We’d all rather be watching porn with jackets on our laps, thank you very much. Sheesh. Throw us a bone, dude! Ummmm, lemme rephrase that…
September 23, 2008
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Lonely China Day’s Gone All International...Again. |
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she was pretty hot, so that’s cool. Maybe all the girls in Pittsburgh are that hot. Can I be kept updated about this? Supporting Lonely China Day at several points are label fellows J23 and Everybody. These bands are pretty awesome too, especially J23 which I’m told is cinematic. This is good because everyone likes the cinema. As an added bonus, they’re both American so that’ll go down well with the locals. Is it the Midwest that has those giant balls of yarn and shit? They’re cool too. Have you ever seen Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin? How awesome would it be to do a musical tour of the world. You could even stage is so there are bands waiting at different points on the globe for an amazing, international Tag Team – get it? So, Lonely China Day’s gone all international...again. That’s very cool, take lots of photographs and send 'em our way! If you have a camera...and like to take photos...and go to a Lonely China Day show...and are willing to send them to us. Erm, right. 9/26 Cincinnati,OH @ Midpoint Music Fest 9/27 Bloomington,IN @ The Farm (w/ J23 + Everybody) 9/28 Louisville,KY @ Ear X-tacy (instore performance) 9/29 Pittsburgh,PA @ University of Pittsburgh (Q&A + 20 min set) 9/29 Pittsburgh,PA @ Garfield Artworks (w/ sBACH!) 9/30 Bloomington,IN @ The Bluebird 10/2 Athens,OH @ The Union 10/3 Indianapolis,IN @ Radio Radio (w/ J23 and The Post) 10/4 Indianapolis,IN @ Indy CD & Vinyl (instore performance) 10/5 Nashville,TN @ The Five Spot | |||||||
July 1, 2008
Tag Team Are Always Up For Helping Out A Bro, Especially If That Bro Happens To Be M. Monroe. Sweet Rhyme, Huh?! Anyhoo, Here's Your CH+INDIE FEST III Photos Dude! Hope You Find Whoever Wronged You And Kick Their Ass Into Next Year, Even If 'They' Are You!
Dear Tag Team Records,
To make a long story short...Yes, I attended both days of CH+INDIE FEST III: The Search For Spock last June. Yes, it's July 14th today. Yes, I seriously just came out of a life-altering 23 day, (presumably) alcohol/mind altering substance induced blackout which I believe started at the CH+INDIE FEST on June 20th. At least, the last thing I remember was one of the DJs on the lawn at 2Kolegas throwing a whole zha-pi mug of beer on me then screaming, "Death Cab For Cutie gargle my balls!" after I asked to hear a tune off Transatlanticism. Is such an act even possible? Not in Canada. Seriously, yuck dude! Anyway, needless to say, I am beyond pissed at myself at the moment. Right, so check this out, after 'coming too' in a public toilet opposite 13 Club out in the Wu yesterday morning wearing the same pair of Teva sandals, Dockers khakis, Roots Canada t-shirt and knock-off Aviator sunglasses I'd worn to CH+INDIE on 6/20, I walked to Frank's Place sports bar in Lido and caught up with my (now former) colleges from The Wall Street Business English Institute who informed me, between tearful bouts of piercing laughter, that in the past three weeks I have:
Impregnated three separate female taxi drivers, Traded my passport for a bucket of KFC chicken to a bunch of Chinese dudes with gold teeth who spoke fluent Russian, Gotten a tattoo that says 'SASKATEWAN' in a Cholo-faunt [see Old English malt liquor] that forms an arch across my entire abdominal region, Hurled said bucket of chicken at a group of monks sweeping the grounds at the Llama Temple 'cuz they "looked fuckin' hungry", Participated in a 'performance art piece' at some gallery in the 798 Art District which left me with only one pinkie finger, Physically pissed all over a group of seven year old kids playing with a starfish at the mock-tide-pool inside the Beijing Aquarium + dug around in a dumpster behind the Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant for 48 solid hours looking for Nazi gold...
And that's just the shit they told me about! Fucked up, right?! Seriously, do you dudes have some CH+INDIE III photos you can post on the Tag Team site so I can sorta try and re-trace my steps that night? Pretty sure I saw Arrows Made of Desire and Cui Jian do a jam together? Fuck, I dunno. My smokin' hot Chinese wife of several minutes tells me that pictures tend to "jar lost memories" or some shit. We cool? By the way, I just sent you guys a 35 song album I recorded last night in my in-laws bathroom down in rural [insert shittiest province in China]. Interested?
Thanks, eh! See you dudes at the RandomK(e)/Wang Wen show at MAO on 7/24!
Your bro,
M. Monroe
p.s. I went to high school with one of the members of The Constantines. We had a chemistry class together and he punched me in the face one time at kegger.
June 30, 2008
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Pissing On The Bamboo Curtains Returns with episode 10! Now with 10000% More Ian Sherman! | |||||||
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wanted to A). Impress you’re friends with the coolest and most obscure bands in over five thousand years of unbroken civilization B). Get lost for hours in the dreamy sounds of Kyle’s bedroom fantasy’s and Ian’s corduroy-patched diphthongs C). Study American and British English at the same time or D). Equip your level 20 Night Elf Bezerker/Thief with Indie Cred (+2) and totally, like, smoke the world with the rock and roll... ...then you better click here. | |||||||
June 20, 2008
Venice Is Sinking’s Sorry About The Flowers LP Finally Drops Chinaside...Finally.
After much trial and error and a few more setbacks and delays than we care to discuss at the moment, Tag Team are pleased, and moreover, relieved to officially announce that Venice is Sinking’s (debut) orchestral pop masterwork, Sorry About the Flowers is now available in fine record shops throughout the PRC! If you’re a morbid shut-in, or wasting away in a Chinese prison for not brushing your teeth three times a day, or plotting world domination inside of a secret volcano base somewhere in Xinjiang, or simply hate dealing with record store clerks and prefer shopping online, feel free to order Sorry from our Taobao store. If you, God forbid, don’t live in China but have suddenly realized that your record collection just won’t be complete until you purchase the Chinese edition of Sorry About the Flowers, which (incidentally) comes with three snappy bonus tracks and a bilingual, hand written lyric sheet, then by all means, order it from the Tag Team online store and we’ll ship it to you along with a bunch of free goodies like customized chopsticks, and stickers, and newborn kittens. Lastly, if you dig the digital thing and think that actual CDs are like, sooooo 1997, jump on over to iTunes and score yourself some Sorry. Incidentally, if you’re an asshole and would like to illegally download the album off Soulseek or Bittorrent for free, click here. Now get to shopping people, we’re still trying to pay off the remainder of the tab that Kelso from The Submissionaries ran up at the Happy Endings massage parlor (Lido branch) back in ’05 and can seriously use the cash. Thanks in advance for your purchase and happy listening!
p.s. Feel like you would like to get to know Venice is Sinking a little better before committing your hard earned cash to Tag Team? We’re one step ahead of you folks! Check out this Pulitzer Prize award winning interview we did with ViS principle songwriter Daniel Lawson a couple days ago. A truly eye opening journey into the world of Venice is Sinking past, present and future, and definitely worth the mouse click...or not.
June 18, 2008
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CH+INDIE FEST III: The Search For Spock Will Melt Your Face Off (In A Good Way), Beat Up That Dude Who Boned Your Sister, Make Your Parents Proud Of You, Defeat John McCain In A Swing State Primary, Make You Breakfast In The Morning, Give You A Hug When You Need It Most, Enable You To Get The High Score On Donkey Kong, Give You A Rolling Paper When You Run Out, Wipe Your Butt, Score 1600 On An SAT Exam For You, Install A Mirror Above Your Bed, Load Your iPod With Every Roky Erikson Song Ever Made, Deport That Italian Chick Who’s Been Stalking You, Grant You A One Year Multiple Entry ‘F’ Visa, Introduce You To Hard Drugs Then Pay For You To Go To Rehab, Provide An Excellent Setting To Witness What The Local Beijing Music Scene Has To Offer Whilst Simultaneously Giving To Charity…Now, What Did You Say You Were Doing This Weekend? | |||||||
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Beijing has to offer (11 bands in total), we’re throwing in tasty vegetarian food, shitloads of booze, cage dancing Russian chicks, merch galore you’ll actually wanna spend money on, free newborn kittens (while supplies last) and a couple of DJs who’ll be spinning everything from The Carpenters to Lightning Bolt ‘til they pass out. That’s right people, CH+INDIE FEST II: The Search For Spock is GOING OFF at the fabulous 2Kolegas this coming Friday and Saturday! As per current government regulations, all band sets will be held indoors, but everything else will be situated out on the lawn, where there’s plenty of room to stretch out and make fun of Belgian dudes with a pint whiskey in one hand and an XL veggie kebob in the other. Bands will start by 9pm latest on both days, so get there early or else you’ll miss stuff. Oh yeah, a portion of all ticket sales will go to Souleiada, a low-key NGO who focus on the development of education and arts programs for disadvantaged children in different cultures throughout China. So essentially, while you get wrecked, listen to rad tunes and slobber all over members of the opposite sex, you’ll be contributing to a good cause. Does shit get any awesomer than that?! Probably. Whatever, see you all at 2K this weekend! Friday, 20th: Lonely China Day, Guai Li, Arrows Made of Desire, Linga, Nuclear Saturday, 21st: SUBS, Ourself Beside Me, iLoop, The Gar, The Scoff, Fire Balloon | |||||||
June 1, 2008
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Ian Sherman Takes All Consuming Need For Attention To Whole New Level By Contracting Very Serious Form Of Cancer. Beijing Music Community Throw Benefit, Act As Enablers. | |||||||
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all around decent time in the process, talking shit about Sherman and making out with teenagers in the bathrooms between sets. In other words, a typical night out. Hey Ian! Get better soon dude, or at least get your limey ass back to Beijing. I’m sick of writing fucking news items...and don't even get me started on the podcasts! |
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March 8, 2008
Tag Team Celebrate the Signing of RandomK(e) By Scripting Impossibly Retarded News Item…Band Begin To Seriously Reconsider Then Realize That They All Need To Go Home and Read ‘Yertle the Turtle’ To Their (Cumulative) 352 Children While We Eat Pizza and Listen To Godspeed On Repeat...Forever.  With the music industry in a flat out recession, labels scrambling to find new and interesting ways to make copious amounts of cold, hard cash/ take advantage of young, impressionable bands with a minimum of 1 million myspace friends/ use the internet for more than Google-ing their own names and streaming free porn trailers, we at Tag Team have decided to simply go for broke (quite literally) and celebrate the fact that we are about a week away from maxing out all of our credit cards and do what anybody else would do in these remorselessly dark times tempered by financial caution and gigantic, scary question marks…sign a new band! Seriously folks, we’re beyond excited to announce the official addition of the seemingly impossible to pigeon-hole RandomK(e) to our apparently ever expanding roster of musically talented chicks and dudes who buy us shitloads of drinks and wake up with gnarley hangovers and record deals hastily scribbled on cocktail napkins that they’re stuck with for life while we snicker our mornings away in posh Sanlitun cafés, waiting for our dealer to show so we can re-up on rohypnol...'cuz we're gonna sign another 5 bands next week, baby! Anyway, in between playing a whole bunch of gigs here in the Jing this month, including a very special Third Anniversary Show at Yugong Yishan on March 19, the band will be in and out of XLS Yilong Studios finishing up the principle recording of their debt album, tentatively titled (e), which will be released here in the PRC by, you guessed it, Tag Team Records, soon as we clear up those above mentioned credit card debts. While you’re here on the site, be sure and pop over to downloads and check out a couple of tasty demos the Randoms were kind enough to allow us to post. Beyond that, be sure and send 'em some love on their myspace page. Alright then, welcome aboard gentlemen, it’s all downhill from here... p.s. The other night we ran into the K(e) and kindly asked them to send us some info on their above mentioned Third Anniversary Show for promotional purposes. The next day, a beast of an email arrived in our inboxes and, well, we just had to print this smoldering piece of radness in it’s entirety for all of you to see/ appreciate for yourselves (plus, we needed a new excess bloggage entry). Click here for brilliance. Thought Tag Team were long winded and full of ourselves...ladies and gentlemen, meet RandomK(e)! |
March 6, 2008
ScienTagology. Team...Records.
Just when Tag Team had given up hope that we'd ever be able to become a non-profit ball-gargling religion while still making piles of cash and ass-exploiting a bunch of kids to go on retarded space alien crusades for us, we discovered Scientology.
Founded and co-designed by long time Tag Team associate Kendra Wiseman, www.exscientologykids.com explains in sexy detail exactly how to make people pay tons of money to exorcize traumatized alien-ghosts and never get busted by the government. Now all we need is a legitimate medical profession to demonize. Scientology has psychiatry, so we were thinking like, dentists. Or uh, bikini waxers. We know the chicks are with us on that one.
Seriously though. Scientology is fucking rad.
March 1, 2008
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Venice is Sinking Are Busy Doing All Kinds of Stuff…Tag Team Still Think It’s Christmas + Somehow Work Kenny Loggins and Boba Fett Into Below News Item | |||||||
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February 8, 2008
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Feed the Hungry, Clothe the… erm… Hip. | |||||||
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January 8, 2008
The 2007 Tag Team Records Top 5 Lists Are Now Available For Your Viewing Pleasure Courtesy of Our Personal Hero/ Animated 80’s Icon, Inspector Gadget:  Penny: Wowzers Brain! 2007 is already over, wish we would’ve posted the Tag Team Top 5 Lists on Excess Bloggage before Dr. Claw stole them right before Christmas…[sigh]. Brain: Arrf, Arrf…Arrrrrrfff! Penny: What boy? You say Inspector Gadget rescued the lists from the evil clutches of Claw and his derelict, faceless henchmen? Brain: RRRRRRRRRRuff! Penny: If I weren’t a child genius I’d say that’s ‘pretty fuckin’ rad!’, or something to that effect! Brain: Arrrrgh… Penny: What! I knew you were upset that Kagler, Ian and Kyle talked a lot of shit about all of our friends/ bands within the context of the list descriptions, but that’s no reason to not post. How could you have voluntarily given the lists to Dr Claw?! He’s evil and hates Uncle Gadget more than John McCain hates “Gooks”! That’s it Brain, I’m telling on you, this is total bullshit! [yells] UNCLE GADGET!!! Inspector Gadget: What’s that Penny, Brain gave the Tag Team lists away to John McCain? That guy’s nothing more than a senior citizen with a gimp hand, or is that Bob Dole? Whatever, Go-Go-Gadget Garden Shears! Penny: No Uncle Gadget! Don’t cut off Brain’s… Brain: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh!!! Dr Claw: Haaaa, cut off your own dog’s bullocks did you Gadget!!! I know Don Knotts does your voice and he was the star of Get Smart and all and is a complete moron who somehow seeped into the American zeitgeist in a time when things were a lot more simple, but we’re in Red China now and... To Be Continued... |
December 15, 2007
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Tag Team On The Wire | |||||||
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December 5, 2007
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We Told You Joewi Was Pin-Up Material...Why Is It That Everyone Always Thinks We’re Kidding Around Here At Tag Team?! | |||||||
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Those Dudes Are Going to Need a Catheter When They’re Old. Sometimes you have to wait for the good things in life. Green lights, a perfectly ripe pear, your French neighbor undressing in front of the window –these things just can’t be rushed. That’s why we think it’s grand that Tagteamers Kyle Page and Ian ‘power-drivel’ Sherman have emerged from their hobbit holes long enough to hand over a brand new installment of their Pissing on the Bamboo Curtain podcast. They mumbled something about ‘technical difficulties’ and ‘Kyle’s off his meds again’ and ‘nine audio vignettes of Asia’s fastest rising musical superpower’, but we gave their sophomore effort a listen and it was just 40 plus minutes of rad Chinese underground set to banter. Click on the button over there, and judge for yourself. |
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Tag Team X-mas Shindig Set To GO OFF This Weekend! Since it’s almost Christmas or whatever, we’re actually gonna get all semi-professional on your ass and let Time Out Magazine’s ‘#1 Critics Choice’ listing do all the talking about our X-mas bash for us, it’s just easier that way and you can blame them for length of text if you want to…out of our hands you see: “What, Christmas already? Third time around for Tag Team’s seasonal showcase, fast becoming a fixture on any hipster’s calendar. The spectacular, yet elusive, Lonely China Day headline. Everyone’s favorite indie rock pin-up savants Arrows Made of Desire make a rare foray out of the studio, Random K(e) always come ready to bring the [angst] rock, Sulumi bleeps his way into our hearts and FM3 drone their way into our bowels. Add in lashings of mulled wine, cookies and loveably cack-handed DJing from Los Britney Spears and you have – hands down – the gig of the night, if not the week.” So there you have it. If last year’s X-mas party was any kind of indicator, shit will get crowded, people will get hammered, there will be a fist-fight somehow involving TTR honcho Matt Kagler, the William Blake Society of London will show up to ogle quizzically at Arrows Made of Desire and Ian Sherman will meet the newest love of his life (again)…hope to see you all at 2Kolegas this weekend! |
Johnnytwentythree and Tag Team Join Forces…Attempt Ghangis Khan Style Takeover of Chinese Earholes  Tag Team are happy as clams to welcome Cincinnati, OH instrumental rockers Johnnytwentythree to our humble, though ever expanding family of nice people who proficiently strum guitars and beat on drums and stuff. Uhhh, in normal speak that means that we’re gonna put out a record from J23…cool right! The album in question, JXXIII, is a stunningly powerful collection of songs, complete with accompanying videos, which was engineered/ recorded by Paul Oldham (Palace Music, Bonnie Prince Billy) at his rural Kentucky home studio. Look for JXIII to street Chinaside in summer ’08 or as soon as we can figure out how to replicate the amazing packaging of the U.S. version of the record...let’s just stick with summer ’08 for now. If you can’t wait for the Chinese release, please feel free to purchase JXXIII directly from the band. We’re pretty sure they’d find that perfectly acceptable. Hey, while we’re at it, J23 are currently right in the middle of a pretty exhausting Midwest/ East Coast tour of the good ol’ USA. Seriously folks, these guys (and girl) are more a force of nature than a band, so if you have the chance, make sure and get out and see ‘em. If they were to roll through your town and you were, say, drinking beer and watching Curb Your Enthusiasm with your significant other while the band were slaying on stage it would…yeah, erm, you get the point. How did I get appointed to write this news item anyhow? Sheesh. |
Lonely China Day Tour China...Tag Team Draw Pictures
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10/20/07 - Velvet Underground Bar, Shijiazhuang 10/21/07 - Show Club, Zibo 10/26/07 - Castal Bar, Nanjing 10/27/07 - Live Bar, Shanghai 10/28/07 - 4-Live Bar, Shanghai 10/29/07 - Next Door Bar, Yiwu 10/31/07 - The Roda Bar, Quanzhou 11/02/07 - Base Bar, Shenzhen 11/03/07 - Club Cixi, Hong Kong 11/05/07 - 46 Bar, Changsha 11/10/07 - 2 Kolegas, Beijing |
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Pissing On The Bamboo Curtain Podcast Hey, it isn't all 'me, me, me' here at Tag Team Records, sometimes we like to give a little something back - spread our altruistic wings, so to speak - which is why we've given valuable webspace over to hosting brand-spanking-new podcast 'Pissing On The Bamboo Curtain'. Put together by long time Tag Team affiliates and supermarket-brand mouthwash spokespeople Kyle 'Kyle Page' Schaefer and Ian 'Doctor Chocolate' Sherman, 'Bamboo Curtain' deals in hard hitting reportage from the seamy side of Beijing's dental hygiene underworld or, alternatively, they play a bunch of Chinese tunes that you probably haven't heard before. Marvel at Kyle's deep sexy made-for-late-night-radio voice and flinch at the sound of Ian's weird, squeaky limey diphthongs, but most of all 'groove' to the fascinating world of sino-rock that they endeavour to introduce in the rare moments that they actually shut the hell up. When we tried to find out how frequently they were going to do this, their people refused to talk to us, but we're going to go ahead and use the word 'frequently' in the this context. Push that little button thingy to your left and see if this word fills you with hope or fear. | ||||
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