JS Is Moving On
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14 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES BY AndreW C.C. HUanG MUSIC STOP JS is moving on MTV’s New Voice Competition with a knack for penning hits. Banquet (ROSSO-蘇菲亞的盛宴), in 1999. They signed with Sony His oeuvre includes The Moment the punk-driven Nero~SCREAM, Music and released their first (sung by Sun Yunzi, 孫燕姿), I Am and the folksy Bianco — I COMPILED BY David Chen album Say Forever under the Fine (我很好) (sung by Rene Liu, Know You Love Me (Bianco name GoGo&MeMe (哥哥妹妹). 劉若英) and Staying Put With — 我知道你愛我). kiss wasn’t just a kiss It wasn’t all smooth sailing Love (鎮守愛情) (sung by Power In May they made the for Chinese fans of Alan after that promising start. A Station, 動力火車). foray into electronica with Luo (羅志祥), aka Little Pig Little Pig’s wave of industry restructuring Justin and Sophia eventually the EP Somewhere. A(小豬), who has been in Hangzhou fans don’t like following the advent of the signed with Avex and changed “With electronica, you filming the CTS drama series Hi to see their idol MP3 and Internet-based music their band’s name to JS, under treat the vocals as one music My Sweetheart (海派甜心). smooching. distribution put their recording which they have released three instrument,” says Justin. “You Admirers watching the PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES careers on hold. albums over the past decade: break down the music and shoot got into a tizzy during “We were shooting the music Meeting the Future (遇見未來) reconstruct it.” one scene in which been at it again. video for our second album in in 2004, The Most Beautiful To support the EP, the group co-star Rainie Yang (楊 Last Friday, the Japan and we got a phone call Landscape in This Life (此生 performed as the opening act 丞琳) forces Luo into a Malaysian Mando- halfway through [telling us] that 最美的風景) in 2008, and Justin’s at this year’s White Party in passionate kiss. Some pop star was everyone on the team had been songwriting retrospective The JS Taichung and Taipei. of the 40 fans “wailed” reportedly banned fired,” says Justin in a phone Moment (THE JS MOMENT JS 的 “We were afraid of losing and started to cry as they from the posh interview on Thursday last week. 創作故事集) in early 2009. old fans who like our folk-rock watched Yang plant her lips Traders Hotel in In the restructured Sony, Recently they’ve broadened sound, but we have to move on,” upon Luo’s. The reaction Kuala Lumpur GoGo&MeMe became an their musical palate, releasing says Justin. “We see ourselves as startled Yang, who tried to for smashing orphaned act with no album three daring concept EPs: the a group that’s exploring different assure the distressed fans by a television PHOTO COURTESY OF JS release date. folk-rock ROSSO — Sophia’s styles in its second decade.” telling them, “We’re just like in a fit of rage During that period, Justin siblings, please during his stay turned his attention to writing don’t misunderstand.” there. is the rare Taiwanese name Chen Chi-hsuan (陳綺 songs for other music acts. PERFORMANCE NOTES: But it took Little Pig to bring But at least Kuala Lumpur music act that can 萱) — whose crystalline vocals “I completely loathed the 好朋友的歌 about quiet on the set. “Be good,” didn’t get it as bad as Hong Kong, succeed in both the waft across her brother’s folksy so-called balage (芭樂歌) [catchy WHAT: JS Songs for Good Friends ( ) he said. “Your husband [honey] (老 where Tsao got blind drunk and JSworlds of commercial pop sonic landscape. On Thursday ballad] back in college,” explains WHEN: Thursday at 8:30 pm 公) is filming right now. You can’t beat the daylights out of his friend, and edgy indie rock without night they will be performing Justin. “It wasn’t until I started WHERE: Riverside Live House (河岸留言西門紅樓展演館), 177 get upset with Rainie over this.” Canto-pop singer Justin Lo (側田), compromising its integrity. a themed concert titled Songs working in the industry that I Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路177號) That soothed his admirers, during a night out on the town. The group is comprised of for Good Friends (好朋友的歌), a learned to understand it. It’s ADMISSION: Tickets are NT$400, which includes one drink, who obediently fell silent, but not The bad publicity forced Tsao Justin — real name Chen Chung- retrospective of their signature the art of discovering freshness available at the door or by calling (02) 2370-8805 Yang. She was visibly “frightened” to cancel a string of upcoming yi (陳忠義) — who writes the songs from the past decade. within familiar terrain.” ON THE NET: www.wretch.cc/blog/justin0206; and made sure to apologize to the concerts and Hong Kong police songs and plays the instruments, The brother-sister duo got Justin has since developed into www.riverside.com.tw/livehouse fans before later kissing scenes, are investigating the incident. and younger sister Sophia — real its start by winning top prize in a highly sought-after songwriter according to the Taipei Times’ As for the smashed TV, Tsao’s sister paper, the Liberty Times. manager has denied the story, Rumors have resurfaced of while an exasperated Tsao BY Noah BUchan a romance between actress and remarked that even in Malaysia, high society belle Terri Kwan (關 “people were out to get me.” DRAMA 穎) and pop star heartthrob Jerry In other news, the Chairman Yan (言承旭), as the two were has died — once again, in a rumor. reported to have spent a romantic A tipster pointed the Liberty Prisoners of their own devices getaway in Koh Samui last week. Times to a Facebook group page Mobbed by reporters at with a discussion thread title Taoyuan International Airport that read: “Indonesian media aiwanese actors Fa (his stage name) admitted as much after the rehearsal — is last weekend, Yan only smiled reports that Jay Chou (周杰倫) has and Shih Ming-shuai (施名帥) were pacing. In a work that relies on delicate when asked if he and Kwan had died in a foreign country from a recently jailed for 42 days for wanting pauses and emotional tension, the actors “secretly met” in Thailand. Yan drug overdose.” Tto perform in a play. Well, kind of. rushed through it as if it were a prison and Kwan’s managers also dodged While it is true that Chou is in Their prison was in fact EX-Theater sentence that they couldn’t wait to finish. similar questions. a foreign country, says his record Asia’s (EX-亞洲劇團) rehearsal space and Linked to this is the problem of Speculation has see-sawed label JVR, he’s alive and well in they voluntarily confined themselves controlling their passion. All too often, about a Yan-Kwan relationship the US filming The Green Hornet, there to prepare for the psychologically the emotional register of the actors ever since the two met at the in which he plays the role of Kato. demanding roles of their characters in resembled the exaggerated melodrama beginning of the year as co-stars The hoaxers were only slightly The Island (島), which opens tonight as of a B-grade Taiwanese television soap of the TV drama series Starlit (心 more imaginative this time. The part of The 14th Crown Arts Festival (第 opera. It’s as if they hadn’t internalized 星的淚光). A Liberty Times report first time Chou supposedly died 14屆皇冠藝術節) at Crown Theater (皇冠藝 the predicament of their characters. speculated that Koh Samui was was in 2004, when a Chinese Web 術中心小劇場). Of course, I only saw one rehearsal. a “reconciliation” trip after a site claimed that the pop star had “They were just released last Friday,” But it seems that the 42 days the actors supposed break-up in June that been run over by a truck. joked EX-Theater Asia’s administrative spent behind bars wasn’t enough to culminated in a heated quarrel in And it’s official — A-mei (阿 director Lin Pei Ann (林浿安) after a liberate the feelings of confinement that Yan’s car. 妹) is dating. At least according rehearsal on Sunday night. the play requires. This wouldn’t be Kwan’s first to the Apple Daily, which Adapted from South African writer hot-and-cold relationship. She finally caught the pop diva and Athol Fugard’s 1972 play of the same dated male model Jerry Huang her boyfriend of three years, name, The Island follows the lives FESTIVAL NOTES: (黃志瑋) for more than four years basketball star Sam Ho (何 of two men serving life sentences on before their romance fizzled in 守正) on their first “public” South Africa’s notorious Robben Island WHAT: 14th Crown Arts Festival the midst of ongoing reports that date. One of the paper’s crack — a symbol of apartheid South Africa (第14屆皇冠藝術節) — The Island (島) her wealthy parents were urging photographers managed to sneak (Nelson Mandela spent much of his 27 They didn’t do enough time. PHOTO: NOAH BUCHAN, TAIPEI TIMES WHEN: Today and tomorrow at her to find a partner with a more his lens into the couple’s private years behind bars on the island) — for 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday respectable pedigree. dining room at a Japanese bar political crimes. at 2:30pm As for Yan, who knows? The and grill in Taipei’s East District. Obvious parallels could be drawn Instead, he wants them to focus on the illustrate the harsh labor conditions WHERE: Crown Theater (皇冠藝文 Liberty Times noted that he made Ho spotted the camera, and between Robben Island and Taiwan’s play’s physicality.