Category: Music

  • Sing My Song: Because You are Mavis Fan~

    So I’m late to the party (as always), and just started watching this year’s season of Sing my Song (中国好歌曲), which has been airing for a couple of weeks. It’s honestly my favorite of these many music contests because it’s new songs. I never ever stay through the actual contest, but… I do enjoy their blind auditions for the surprises!

    Episode one, so far, has given me that awkward moment when Laurence Larson 罗艺恒 sings better Mandarin than me… nobody turns for blues singer 黄晓宁 Huang Hsiao Ning which makes David Tao cry (and reminds me of my dad, hence also making me teary), and gives us the meta moment of the night (and probably of the season) when Liu Wei 刘维 sings Because You Are Mavis Fan (因为你是范晓萱), using many Mavis music and lyrics cues, to make Mavis herself cry.

    I’m a Mavis fan and I love I Want Us to Be Together to bits, so of course I loved it.

    The song is available for download over at QQ (apparently, officially), but you gotta download their APP, sign up for an account (maybe pay to get the 320kbps version)… and for sign up, it’s asking for a mobile number to send a verification code, and I don’t use a phone, so I can’t sign up [Hipster First World Problems]~~~ so I only got myself a 128kbps from somewhere murky on the net LOL. If you happen to get the 320kbps one, do share it with me pretty please.

    And it’s not like EVERYTHING is available on iTunes. On time.

  • Tan Wei Wei Slays for the Year of the Monkey!

    I really really enjoyed many of the performances in this year’s Spring Gala, which included a dance rendition of a Mo Li Hua (茉莉花) instrumental, the suspended dude on a mast on top of a digital display of the ocean (直挂云帆), and the Drum Dance in Prosperity Xi’an Terracotta Army, The Silk Road (丝绸之路), The Beauty of China (山水中国美). Also, my biases Zhao Wei and Sa Dingding (doing the Good Luck Song (吉祥吉祥)) were there! Donnie Yen showed up too! Dude! I even enjoyed the super Red Song, My Homeland (我的祖国), which was performed by Wang Li (王莉), Wang Qing Shuang (王庆爽), You Hong Fei (尤泓婓), Jin Ting Ting (金婷婷) and a special appearance by opera soprano Guo Lanying (郭兰英).

    I also enjoyed the Inner Mongolia [1][2][3] and minorities medley In the Great Embrace of your Hometown (在你伟大的怀抱里) numbers xD In turn into a bit of a Red Song somewhere there by the end, but it wasn’t even the Reddest song of the night. LOL But I enjoyed it.

    Tan Wei Wei’s (谭维维) number, though, featuring Zhang Ximin (张喜民) and Huayin Lao Qiang performers (“华阴老腔”演员) floored me. So much damn fun and energy. I loved it. The song was presented under the titled “the Huayin old tune in high tone shout” (华阴老腔一声喊, huayin lao qiang yi sheng han). It also teaches us all about Huayin Lao Qiang (Huayin Old Style “Chinese Rock’n’Roll)!

  • HAYA and the Wild Child

    Don’t ask me how I Am A Singer (我是歌手) elimination works xD, I thought I wouldn’t see HAYA again… but here they are with a version of Silent Sky (寂静的天空)… from their 2009 album.

    Also making a surprise appearance~ the Wild Child, Su Yunying~

    (more…)

  • HAYA Band Bids I Am A Singer Adieu

    Well, that was quick.

    And don’t give me that excuse that the voting audience doesn’t like World Music because Han Hong is pretty much World Music too. Shaking bad vibes aside, HAYA Band’s sound fills me with energy. It’s the show’s loss. CoCo loves them too, you can tell. Anyone who loves music could feel their passion and energy.

    I usually don’t watch the show myself, just the clips, and wait for the recap that just lists the final ranking~ but, my gosh~~~ is the ranking section annoying as f*ck! Why does that have to last like 30min?

  • HAYA Band + Daiqing Tana for I Am A Singer 4

    If I’m not mistaken, I’ve been listening to Daiqing Tana (黛青塔娜 / Дайчин Тана) for quite a few months, so total surprised to find out that they’ll be performing in the latest season of I Am A Singer (我是歌手). Strange on its own, because we all know that Chinese people’s music taste is all sorts of conventional love ballad. And I love LOVE LaLa with all my bobo heart, but come one~ COME ON!

    Now THAT’s a fuckin’ performance!

    Also~ the mysterious Guan Zhe (关喆), who performed that catchy Beijing, Beijing, Wo Ai Beijing (北京，北京，我爱北京) number, will also be participating. Both he and HAYA Band (HAYA乐团) placed last.

    If you’re interested, the performances (sans interruptions) are available on Xiami. Including the clean version of HAYA Band.

    Also check out HAYA Band’s albums Migration (迁徙) and Crazy Horse (疯马), which are available on Xiami and iTunes. Apparently, you can also buy Migration on CDBaby, and there seems to be an up-to-date-ish Facebook page. However, the best place -always- is Weibo + DaiQing Tana’s.

  • I’m Ready for Yeh Fitoor~

    You probably know I’m excited for Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, of course, mainly because of Tabu xD but also because of the whole tortured emo broken-heart soul of the story. Plus, it’s Amit Trivedi’s music. I was (and usually always am) less excited about the leads… even less with Katrina “I can’ts but I tries” Kaif. Like- I don’t even know why I sat down to watch Phantom, because that’s hilarious.

    But I’m always surprise to hear people saying that Katrina sucks at dancing… because I’ve never seen that. I think the first time I saw her was in YRF’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan, and — okay, I was mostly in love with Saans [clip] because that’s a damn good sexy song. LOL — but I don’t remember her sucking in the Ishq Shava [clip] number at all. In fact, I remember I actually said she wasn’t a bad dancer.

    And I know everyone EVERYONE loves to hate and hates to love Sheila Ki Jawani [clip], but it appears on so many movies I’ve come to accept its catchy qualities despite movie and content. And even then when it appears people say she’s not a good dancer, she dances alright.My Kaif knowledge ain’t extensive, but even in Dhoom 3 [Kamli][Dhoom Machale Dhoom], she does totally fine. I can’t picture her at all doing Indian dance, but she totally nails modern and contemporary.

    They looked pretty good doing this. Who choreographed it?

  • Top50 Songs of 2015

    It’s out, it’s out! You know what to do~

    yammag-amys-top50-songs-2015

  • Early 2015 Music Highlights!

    Yup, once again~

    Back in 2010, the YAM Magazine website was launched officially— it was my grandpa’s 5th death anniversary. Today, it’s his 10th year anniversary… also it’s the 5th YAM web anniversary! Numerology galore~~~

    Anyway~ I posted my 2015 music highlights~ early, once again. There were a few albums of my biases, but most of these picks are new people I’ve begun following this year. So… happy listening!

    amys-2015-music-highlights

  • Best Ayu Sound: Sexy Little Things

    I’m not a very big fan of Ayumi Hamasaki, but I remember when I saw this video (and her this song) for the very first time, it held a lot of promise. Sadly, it didn’t. At least from what I was able to listen to~

  • Brown Eyed Girls Got Away with Warm Hole~

    Yup~ no typo there.

    They do have indeedy a song called Warm Hole (웜홀, womhol), which everyone’s trying to pretend it’s Wormhole. Considering the song, I wonder how that was gonna fly on a ‘live’ performance, but they did.

    The only minus? Lipsync. I’m sure they can come up with a way that JeA doesn’t have to do a choreography and just focus on the vocals, no? Music Core performance of Hot Shot, anyone? She was even great with the Sixth Sense bit. Nothing tops that Music Core performance. Legendary.