Come On, Feel the Noise

14 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES Come on, feel the noise hen it is windy, I can hear the sound of interview with the Taipei Times. when we play in Europe and [the] USA. It does not [a] train far away from my window. It is “Then my relatives [will] stop asking me when I happen in Japan.” “W nice,” said singer Yasuko “Yako” Onuki, will be on TV,” she said. The band’s show tonight, which was organized 回 dison Chen (陳冠希) Gillian Chung’s hangin’ tough. describing one of her favorite non-musical sounds. She also noted that the band sees less diversity by Taipei party crew Back 2 the Future (B2TF, But Yako’s band, Melt-Banana, sounds more like in ages at shows at home. “We sometimes see 到未來), marks its first time in Taiwan, and Yako is has been threatened PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES with a letter containing trains colliding at full speed — and that’s putting children like 6 or 7 years old and also expecting a lively crowd. E it mildly. people like 70 or 80 years old Yako said she met Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite at a bullet, a Hong Kong television at a press conference to promote a The Japanese four-piece, which the band’s Tokyo gig, who told her that Taiwanese station reported yesterday. jeans brand, her first endorsement performs at The Wall (這牆) in Taipei audiences are more energetic than those in Japan. For anyone who has been deal since Chen’s privates became tonight, is often described as a “noise “Japanese audience[s] are basically quiet unless it hiding under a rock or living in a public. The Canto-pop star wore rock” band. Their music has bits of is punk or metal show,” she wrote. cave for the past year, the Edison a purple T-shirt that said “tough” hardcore, thrash metal and punk Yako, who says she would like to visit Jiufen Chen photo scandal broke in and unveiled a billboard ad rock, but played at even faster and (九份) as its scenery inspired scenes in Hayao January 2008 when nude snapshots that showed her with a serious more furious speeds. Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away, said the band’s set of the Chinese-Canadian actor in expression, surrounded by models For many fans and patient listeners, noise tonight will mostly draw from their latest albums flagrante delicto with eight female wearing monster masks. is just part of Melt-Banana’s music. What Cell-Scape (2004) and Bambi’s Dilemma (2007). starlets — including Gillian Chung “This was a very long year. It sets the group apart is how it wields chaos: These albums are considered Melt-Banana’s (鍾欣桐), Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) was very hard to get through. I Yako’s vocals range from manic, rhythmic most accessible works. Songs like Chainshot to and Bobo Chen (陳文媛) — were was lucky to have many people barks to melodic chirps. Guitarist Ichirou Have Some Fun from Cell-Scape run at the band’s stolen off of his laptop and subse- who supported me,” she said. Agata, who wears a surgical mask on typical breakneck pace, but their chord changes and quently plastered all over gossip Also bemoaning the loss of his stage, looks like a mad scientist as he catchy refrains have a near-pop feel. rags and entertainment blogs. dignity this week was Taiwanese twists the knobs on a dizzying array But die-hard fans need not worry. Yako said the Hong Kong’s Cable TV said actor Jonathan Chen (陳俊生), of effects pedals, drawing out endless band will also play a few gems from its early days, an anonymous English-language who was photographed fighting variations of howls and screeches including some that run under 20 seconds. letter warned Chen not to appear with his 19-year-old girlfriend in from his instrument. While the band dabbled in improvisation on at any promotional events and Taipei. Highlights included Chen This penchant for sonic albums like 1994’s Cactuses Come in Flocks, threatened him with harm if he screaming, “That is not a real experimentation is not just some they prefer “designed structure” in their music. “I did. The station said it received apology! I’m not going to accept passing phase. Melt-Banana has been sometimes enjoy improvising, but I think I enjoy the letter on Wednesday. that! I want a real apology!” and his at it since 1992, and over the years has the process of building the structure of the song,” Hong Kong’s entertainment girlfriend accidentally smacking become associated with some high-profile said Yako. industry has long been tainted by him in the nose when she indie-music figures. For now, most of Melt-Banana’s fans in Japan are its connections with organized reached out to placate him before The late British DJ John Peel was a fan likely to remain at the college age, but Yako has a crime, and last year gangsters were collapsing to the ground in tears. and hosted the band on his BBC radio few keen listeners from a different generation. allegedly offering HK$500,000 for Reports of the brouhaha program; Jim O’Rourke (producer and “Yes, my parents have listened to my records. one of Chen’s hands. also delighted in reminding the musician of Sonic Youth and Wilco fame) They say it is getting better,” she said. The TV report yesterday did public that seven years ago Chen and recording engineer Steve Albini not say if the letter, which was was caught at the Core Pacific — DAVID CHEN have helped produce past Melt-Banana mailed with a gold-colored bullet, City Mall (京華城) dressed as a albums; the band has toured with explicitly linked the threat with “big-boobed hottie.” At the time, proto-grunge group The Melvins and the sex photo scandal, and did Chen said his gender-bending PERFORMANCE NOTES: Grammy-winning metal band Tool. not specify the type of harm Chen get-up was a publicity stunt for But despite having cultivated a could suffer if he ignored it. a film, but the incident led to loyal fanbase through repeated The envelope that carried the ceaseless speculation about his and extensive tours of the US WHAT: Melt-Banana of Japan; also appearing are metal band letter had US postage stamps stuck sexual orientation. In the last and Europe, Melt-Banana has Ashen and DJ Two and a Half onto it and the return address was few years, Chen has reinvented a less obvious following in in Pennsylvania, Cable TV said. himself as a businessman after Japan. Do they lament the WHEN: Tonight at 9pm Chen and the women featured developing a digital learning relative lack of enthusiasm in his homemade porno stash have system that is supposed to improve for experimental and noise WHERE: The Wall (這牆), B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei only recently started to resurface. users’ memories. His screaming rock at home? City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Tel: (02) 2930-0162 The 28-year-old testified two weeks match with his teenage lover, “It does not bother us, Big pretty much everywhere ago against a computer technician however, is one more incident he but it would be nice if more else except Japan. TICKETS: NT$800 accused of stealing the photos probably wants the entire world people know that there are many musicians who PHOTO COURTESY OF MELT-BANANA from his laptop, and he attended a to forget. When a reporter from play many kinds of music in the world [outside ON the Net: www.myspace.com/azap; promotional event at a Singapore the Liberty Times (自由時報) of] musicians on TV,” wrote Yako in an e-mail www1.parkcity.ne.jp/mltbanan; ��www.thewall.com.tw hamburger restaurant later that called for comment, Chen said in week. Gillian Chung and Cecilia exasperation, “Let’s stop talking Cheung, who are also 28, have about this, okay?” discussed the scandal in television Fellow Taiwanese actor interviews in recent weeks. Jamie Weng (翁家明) also had an Ball New troupe Rock In Hose Burlesque will make its musical performance, your body’s in there ... we’ve In a tearful interview with unforgettable but regrettable week debut this weekend at the circus. been together for five years and it’s not about ‘can I iCable earlier this month, Cheung after news broke that he’d been CONTINUED FROM P13 Lustsluts Burlesque, the Hualien-based troupe that play the drums or can he play guitar’ anymore. It’s raged at Chen for not personally caught diddling a flight attendant, Usually twins JT and JD Long have their mother help performed last year, has disbanded, but it was a huge about getting up there — we write songs together, apologizing to her after the photos which threw his marriage with out with producing their band T-shirts, but this year inspiration to the formation of this new, Taipei-based and it’s a feeling when we get on stage where you were leaked, even as he made a actress Grace Yu (俞小凡) into a the design is too risque — a sexy retro girl posing group (I know because I’m a member). completely get into the show.” somber public mea culpa to his crisis. The matter wasn’t helped — so they did it on their own. What is the obsession Copps said this year they worked on getting bands They want to do something different, said fans. Chen stated last month in a when reports surfaced that with the pulp fiction pinup girls that features with energetic showmanship.

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