One Day in May…

Well, yesterday was the big day for the Golden Melody Awards, and now I have a new theory. I’ve actually seen variations of this from assorted news commentary sites for the last few weeks and am just joining a (growing) crowd. The idea is that given the overall deterioration in the quality of Jay’s work, the GMA judges must have thought it a last chance to give him the overdue best Male Mandarin Artist award before the notion of Jay as one of the best Mandarin artists has grown utterly absurd.

The thing is, the idea that Jay has never won this award *is* pretty ridiculous, as he has for years reigned as the undisputed king of Mandopop, and whatever his failings as a singer, he has a history of excellent compositions. At the same time, though, the idea of him winning the honor on the basis of this latest album is equally ridiculous, as it is so far away from his best work. As a friend noted yesterday, though, it’s like finally giving the Oscar to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman - it feels more like a remedy for the oversight in the Godfather era than an independently earned honor.

I don’t buy the idea of “Fragrant Rice (稻香)” as the best Mandopop song of last year, but it is far less offensive than many of the other tracks on that album, and even a marked improvement over some other past picks (”Today I Marry You” with Jolin Tsai and David Tao springs instantly to mind). Moreover, the theme of soldiering on through tough economic times that comes out most clearly in the video is obviously quite relevant, though of course the video should have no real relevance on the judgment of the song. Most importantly, though, the GMA judges did not debase themselves to the extent of actually claiming Capricorn was the album of the year, which I confess had worried me.

Anyway, here are the winners (skipping again the Taiwanese, Hakka and other similar categories that I just don’t follow). (For reference, my post on the nominees is here.)

Song of the year: “Fragrant Rice,” Jay Chou
Mandarin album of the Year: Don’t Want to Let Go, Eason Chan
Video of the year: “Mr. Magician,” directed by Jay Chou
Best Composition: Crowd Lu, “100 Ways of Living”
Best Lyrics: Wu Yuxuan, “In the Trollycar”
Best Arrangement: Martin Tan, “As Love Begins to Mend”
Best Album Production:Chen Jiannian, Nanwan Sisters Self-Titled Album
Best Produced Single:Wang Zhiping, Guo Wenzhong “Gaze”
Best Male Mandarin Singer: Jay Chou, Capricorn
Best Female Mandarin Singer: Sandee Chan, If One Thing Is Most Important
Best Band: Mayday, Poetry of the Day After
Best Performing Group: Nanwan Sisters, Nanwan Sisters Self-titled Album
Best Newcomer: Crowd Lu, 100 Ways of Living

The lyrics prize is actually my greatest disappointment in these results. A lyricist award for Ashin is just as overdue as the best male artist award for Jay. I did worry that being nominated for two songs would split the vote for him, though, and I can’t help but think that could have happened here.

Now I’m back in the US for a while and soon, I hope, will even have regular internet access, so I should be back to much more regular posting soon.

Whoops, I forgot to post before I left, but within about 48 hours of finishing a week of round-the-clock grading at the end of the term I was up a mountain in Dali, Yunnan, reading a book and ignoring my computer. I’m still traveling (I promise to sing Leehom songs in Shangri-la), but I’ll catch up when I return to civilization in just a few days. I have a big Superband report to give too.

I’ve been listening to Daylight of Spring all day while revising a paper, so I thought I’d embrace the spirit of all things sodagreen and see what’s in the news.

First, it seems that the album has been selling pretty well. The band appeared on the program “Long Live Music (音樂萬萬歲)” to promote the album, singing some of the new songs. Qingfeng admitted that he’s always nervous before a performance, all the way until after he starts to sing. When asked about their worst reception for a live performance, Xinyi mentioned an early appearance at a restaurant when there was only a single table of dinners, all talking and eating and completely ignoring them.

This bit of news explains that the band’s “Vivaldi Plan” came out of the song on their last album, Unparalleled Beauty, called “Four Seasons Fantasy (四季狂想).” So now that they’ve begun from Taidung with Spring, the band will be off to London to record “Summer.” (Then winter is Beijing, and Autumn - the last stop - is Berlin.) The article notes that following up on 2007’s radio hit “Little Love Song” (which is surely wrong, as didn’t “Little Love Song” come out in 2006?), the band is using the song “One Thousand Fountains (一千座噴泉)” from the new album to promote the album.

While appearing on another promotional program, the band talked about being an “Invincible Army Band (天兵樂團)” [note: if there’s a secondary cultural reference here, I’m not getting it So it turns out that “天兵” is used sarcastically in Taiwan, meaning in this context the “Screw-up Band.” Thanks, Wenning, for the tip! ]. Within their ranks, the most avuncular figure who takes responsibility for caring for everyone is drummer Xiao Wei; band leader A-fu is actually a bit of a male chauvinist. Boo, hiss - shame on you, A-fu!

Qingfeng added that these days the band is looking to relieve themselves of their past burdens and be like a brand new band, starting with Daylight of Spring as their first ever album. When the program host asked what burdens the recently popular sodagreen could possibly have, Qingfeng replied that they have an 83 kilo burden - pointing at poor “steady” Xiao Wei (referencing the fact that he’s not only dependable, but holding steady at his present weight).

Talking about the last year and a half, Qingfeng admitted that he’d been in a place where he so didn’t want to compose new music that he rather wanted to just give it all up, but after a bit of traveling, the ideas came bubbling up to the surface, and they very quickly finished composing all four albums for the Vivaldi Project. In fact, he noted, he even wrote “Symphonic Dreams (交響夢)” in the shower. (Oooh, spooky - just as I typed that, the song came on.) “Daylight” itself was written by Qingfeng and Xinyi while traveling the Kinu River in Japan and it was the first song recorded for the album; “Before the Snow Melts (融雪之前)” was the last song completed (but the first track on the album). The video for that one, by the way, features the band playing in oil paints. They got pretty messy, but they were in high spirits given the success of their first single off the album on the Global Chinese Music Charts.　　

The band’s “Between Us” campus concert series began on May 16, so sodafans should take note of chances to see the band play. (If, like me, you will not be in Taiwan this summer, join me in lusting after the “on-site only sales” t-shirts posted at the website. Dammit, I want a sodagreen t-shirt. *sigh*)

Speaking of t-shirts, the band is promoting a line of t-shirts from French company Agnes b (Sport b branch) that they designed; there’s video at the link of them mugging for the cameras in them.

Anyway, we all missed it, but fans celebrated the fifth anniversary of sodagreen by celebrating May 30 as “sodagreen day.” (May 30 for me was actually “Superband Day,” but there’s always next year.) Fans commemorated the day at their Taichung campus concert, where there was nary a dry eye on stage or off (and certainly not to be found on the mothers of Qingfeng and A-fu, both at the concert. No word on whether A-fu’s mother had anything to say to him about his chauvinistic tendencies.)　

Okay, that’s what I’ve got for the moment. I’m sure there will be more coming out the closer we get to their big September concert (I remember seeing, but no longer know where, that either Mayday or sodagreen was asked about collaborating, since they’re both holding Taipei Arena shows in September; whoever it was didn’t rule it out, but noted that schedules for busy artists are always paramount).

Here commenter LT shares her stories of the concert and her series of close encounters with the band around Sydney, not to mention some great pictures. Be prepared to be impressed with (and just a bit jealous of) her marvelous timing, not to mention persistence, in catching the band all evening!

The aftermath of Mayday’s DNA Sydney concert left me with new found understanding and even admiration for the Chinese proverbs 可遇不可求 and 来得好不如来得巧 [both idioms stress benefits of things that happen by coincidence]. There are no English words I could possibly string together to describe the 29th of May without turning into an incoherent 6 year old. So bear with me during this guest post, I won’t subject you to another post of my ramblings and digressions (unless I miraculously meet them again in Sydney or Taiwan next month).

So a little about myself before we start: I love Mayday, though my love never bordered fanaticism (with age comes rational thinking, fan-girl days are way behind me unfortunately). I listen to their music, watch their DVDs, buy Ashin’s books and of course laugh with/at them on variety shows but I’ve never been to a concert before and NEVER EVER thought they’d EVER make a stop down under (especially just before my long awaited trip to Taiwan in hopes of catching them in concert or something). I was stoked and expected my life to be complete after seeing them live. How naive I was. Far from feeling complete, I possess now this empty void hungering for more concerts, more screaming, more jumping and more Mayday. This is why…

The CONCERT

Anyone who lives in Sydney would know that Cowboy Jay (borrowing a term here) is bringing his own troupe in July and has advertised earlier and more aggressively than Mayday for the past month and a half. For every little Mayday poster I saw, there would be a whole window of Cowboy Jay posters. Every discussion behind me in Chinatown has been about the Cowboy coming to town. So it is no surprise that many thought the Mayday turnout would be abysmal in comparison to acts like Twins and Jolin Tsai (like, seriously). Luckily this was not the case and the turnout was great, there were only two back sections on the second floor that were relatively empty. Otherwise, the hall was positively brimming with excitement!

Scheduled to start at 8.15pm, there was a 15 minute delay that left people eager yet extremely restless. Thank goodness the wait was soon over as the white sheath fell to the ground and our welcoming screams accompanied Mayday’s opening song 轧车 [Motor Rock].

Read the rest of this entry »

This hilarious and very comprehensive (!) report of Mayday’s recent DNA concerts in Hong Kong comes to us from commenter “L,” and can I just say, I don’t think giant white balloons would scream “nuclei” to me, either. I hope everyone enjoys reading this as much as I did!

My first Mayday concert experience started at around 7:00 p.m. on the day of their first Hong Kong show when I went to line up to buy concert goods with my cousin. The line was quite long, so we were waiting for a while. And while we were waiting, what do you know, the wind suddenly got stronger and it started pouring rain. Yes, I`m looking at you, Chen Hsin Hung you rainman. *Shakes fist* My cousin and I would have gotten soaked from head to toe had it not been for the super nice Mayday fan who lent us her umbrella. Anyways, since it was raining pretty hard, we were allowed inside the venue early, so my cousin and I went inside as soon as we finished buying goods. It turned out we had been waiting in line for nearly an hour already, and by the time we got inside it was almost 8:00.

The setup of the stage was pretty simple. It just went straight across with short extended runways on both ends. There were white balloons in different sizes hanging down from the ceiling. (I did some reading and according to the press release from B’in Music they’re supposed to be the nuclei of cells. Like, what? I went two nights and did not once think of nucleus when I saw these things. Hahaha.) The big screens started showing MVs from the last album at around 8:15 I think, and the show actually started around 8:30-8:45.

The show started of with the short film that they made for the tour. It introduced each member, and each one said a short line about DNA, how they`re the building blocks of life, etc. I think each line builds on from the previous one. (i.e., The first line talks about the number of dna strands, the next talks about the number of pairs of chromosomes, etc.) I don`t remember the exact lines; too busy screaming along with everyone else. I just remember how Ashin had a line about how “his dream is him,” and a photo of John Lennon flashes across the screen. The next part depicts a car chase. The five of them were all in a taxi, and in the backseat there’s a boy in a white hoodie with the hood covering part of his face. The car crashes, some fireworks explode, and the music to “Motor Rock” starts. Without stopping, they went straight into “Liver Bursting,” followed with “God of Gambling,” “Viva Love,” “HoSee.” After “HoSee” there was only a brief pause before the band began to play the beginning notes of “You`re Not Truly Happy” There were a couple places where Ashin did sound a bit off-key, but he did manage to hit the high note at the every end. Then the five of them went offstage for a costume change.

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This review of Mayday’s concert in Melbourne on May 28 was written by commenter monkee_appelz. The full version (with pictures and links) is available on her blog here. Anything I’ve added is in brackets.

I’ve heard them on CD, I’ve watched them on tv, I’ve seen them on VCD and DVD, but tonight was my first (of many more to come in the hopeful future) time to a Mayday concert, and the first time I’ve seen them live in person! Words really can’t describe the night that was the Melbourne Australia stop for Mayday’s DNA World Tour 09! A memory that will last a life time!

After reading several articles and blogs regarding their first stop in HK, I half expected Mayday to start off the performance with Hosee, but they welcomed the Melbourne crowd with another of their legendary Taiwanese classics ‘軋車’. They performed an array of songs new and old from including 春天的吶喊 [Spring’s Scream], Hosee, 瘋狂世界 [Crazy World], 人生海海 [People Life, Ocean Wild], 你不是真正的快樂 [You’re Not Truly Happy], 我心中尚未崩壞的地方 [The Yet Unbroken Part of My Heart], 夜訪吸血鬼 [Interview with the Vampire], 笑忘歌 [Song of Laughter and Forgetting], 生存以上生活以下 [More than Surviving, Less than Living], 叫我第一名 [Call Me No. 1], 離開地球表面 [Jump!], 雌雄同體 [Masquerade], 賭神 [God of Gambling], 孫悟空 [Sun Wu Kong], 約翰藍儂 [John Lennon], 天使 [Angel], 最重要的小事 [Most Important Trivial Concern], 知足 [Contentment], and their new song DNA. (NB: They weren’t played in that order, I just went down my iTunes list and picked out the ones that I could remember, so I think I may be missing a few, my apologies!)

Unfortunately I was seated in the furthest section(i.e. cheapest section-_-’), but fortunately we were at the second row of that area and were considerably close to the Guai Shou(left) end of the stage so the view was still excellent!

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, I’m really behind on the news. I had this epiphany last term that I needed to radically restructure how I assign papers so that I didn’t get stuck grading around the clock for the last three weeks of the semester. I did, but something went horribly wrong in the process because I’m still stuck grading around the clock for the last three weeks of the semester. Well, there’s always next term.

Anyway, that is not Mayday/sodagreen/Mandopop-related, just my excuse for why SO MUCH has happened and I haven’t posted anything about it. Now let’s get down to business.

As you are no doubt already aware, Mayday kicked off the DNA tour in Hong Kong last weekend. (I’ll be linking posts following the progress and news about the DNA tour here.) The original plan was for two shows, but the fans snapped up those tickets so quickly they increased it to three; if there hadn’t been other events scheduled for the venue, they could have easily held four. Ashin, naturally, tried to speak some Cantonese for the crowd, noting that he learns one Cantonese phrase a year, so in ten years he should have ten phrases, and in 100 years, perhaps a hundred phrases… so it’d be best for his Cantonese for the band to play more concerts in Hong Kong. Additionally, it was the first time in the history of the venue that a music act performed both the first and last song in Hokkien (okay, that’s not exactly an exciting accomplishment, but, well, we work with what we get) - the opened with “Motor Rock,” and closed the second encore [edit] of one show with “Nobody Else in My Heart” and “Peter and Mary.”

The downside of multiple encores, of course, is that the band got hit with some hefty fines for running over time - at the celebration party afterward, they worried a bit about being blacklisted from future appearances for playing so long and running so late. On the bright side, this article suggests that no matter how many people think the band does not play true “rock” music, clearly they have a “rock” attitude about breaking rules.

Just like with the Jump! tour, this time the band also has an opening video for the concert tour. Last time there was a strong love, peace, and anti-war theme; this time, the focus is on “dreams and ordinary people.” They imagine what the five guys would be doing if they hadn’t formed a band, and so in the film Ashin is a biology teacher, Monster is a businessman, Guanyou is a taxi driver, and Masa works as a promotions guy on the street, dressing up as a bear and handing out balloons. (Stone apparently does not exist is this alternate universe, but bear in mind that it has to be pretty far removed from reality for Ashin to be cast as a biology teacher - that strains credibility perhaps a bit too much!) Determined to change the world, the five guys (or maybe Stone is there but just unemployed?) set off to steal the DNA of people who have already had major impact on the world, setting off a chain reaction that I imagine we all need to go to a concert to see for ourselves, though in the process of filming they apparently smashed eight cars. Boys will be boys and all that.

Okay, I haven’t seen much about special guests at all, but I at least know that on the 22nd 21st, the special guest was Richie Ren (任賢齊). This naturally now has me sitting here humming to myself, “對面的女孩看過來，看過來， 看過來… (duimian de nvhai kan guo lai…)” That naturally led me straight to the dinosaur version (”對面的恐龍別過來…”), which in turn has me thinking about that dinosaur museum in Sichuan Province I’ve always wanted to visit, and realizing that my trip to Chengdu this weekend will not be long enough for that side trip. (*sigh*)

Anyway, beyond special guests, other stars also enjoyed the concert alongside fans, most famously Eason Chan, who almost got more attention than the band when he stood up near the end of one show:

Hey, the man looks like he’s enjoying himself! (He’s on the end in the t-shirt that says,”Music, Drama… Dance.) Ashin joked that he doesn’t know Eason that well, so he’s just like everyone else who admires him (including Masa, who was supposedly the most excited to see him there). The band was sorry not to be able to invite him up on stage, but they’d have been hit with doubled fines for running over had that happened.

Repeatedly asked to dance, the band played a video of them dancing, but was careful to stress that they still place music first. (Lots of pictures at that link.) Facing repeated requests, one night Ashin admonished the crowd, “If you want to watch dancing go see Fahrenheit; if you want to see handsome faces go see F4; but if you want to see terrible dancing then come find us. You guys are crazy for wanting such clumsy people to dance!” Yeah, don’t dance guys. Be strong and stay as far away from the boyband route as you possibly, possibly can. Most of us have not yet recovered fully from the horror that was the Time Machine-era dancing. (My eyes! My eyes!)

The next stop on their world tour will take them to Australia - they play Melbourne tomorrow and Sydney on Friday. I noted this with Jump! and got *no* takers, but if anyone attends one of these concerts and wants to “guest post” a concert review, send me an email!

overrated
-verb (used with object)
1. to rate or appraise too highly; overestimate
2. (Cowboy) Jay Chou

The 20th Annual Golden Melody Awards Nominations List

(Note: I skipped the Hokkien, Hakka, and Performance categories here; the full list is at the link in Chinese.)

Song of the Year:

“Hold You Tightly (甲你揽牢牢),” from Hold You Tightly, Jody Chiang
“The Next Dawn (下一个天亮),” from The Next Dawn, Claire Guo
“100 Ways of Living (100种生活),” from 100 Ways of Living, Crowd Lu
“You’re Not Truly Happy (你不是真正的快乐),” from Poetry of the Day After, Mayday
“South of the Border (国境之南), from the Cape No. 7 Soundtrack, Van Fan
“Fragrant Rice (稻香),” from Capricorn, Jay Chou

Album of the Year

If One Thing Is Important (如果有一件事是重要的), Sandee Chan
Don’t Want to Let Go (不想放手), Eason Chan
100 Ways of Living (100种生活), Crowd Lu
We All Lay Down in the End (最后只好躺下来), Stanley Huang
Capricorn (魔杰座), Jay Chou

Best Music Video　　

“Wind (风),” Good Man?! Abin, Abin
“The Happiest Thing (最幸褔的事),” Love’s Poetry, Rachel Liang
“Love’s Miracle Cure (爱情灵药),” ELASTIC ROCK, Josie Ho
“Spacebomb (太空弹),” Spacebomb, Wu Bai
“Black and White (黑白),” Orange Moon, Khalil Fong
“Morbid (病态),” Mystery, Yoga Lin
“Mr. Magic (魔术先生),” Capricorn, Cowboy Jay Chou

Best Composition

Crowd Lu, “100 Ways of Living (100种生活),” 100 Ways of Living
Khalil Fong, “Singalong Song,” Orange Moon
Jay Chou, “Fragrant Rice (稻香),” Capricorn
Li Quan, “Gaze (眼色),” Mystery
Chen Jiannian, “Memories of the Ancients (烙印祖灵),” Nanwan Sisters Self-Titled Album

Best Lyrics
　　
Wu Yuxuan, “In the Trollycar (电车内面),” Hold You Tightly
Ashin, “The Yet Unbroken Part of My Heart (我心中尚未崩坏的地方),” Poetry of the Day After
Ashin, “Like Smoke (如烟),” Poetry of the Day After
Yan Yunnong, “South of the Border (国境之南),” Soundtrack from Cape No. 7
Jay Chou, “Fragrant Rice (稻香),” Capricorn

Best Arrangement

Zhong Chenghu, Chen Bozhou, Crowd Lu, “Good Morning, Beautiful Dawn! (早安，晨之美),” 100 Ways of Living
Wang Leehom, “No Reason to Pay Attention to You (我完全没有任何理由理你),” Heart Beat
Martin Tan, “As Love Begins to Mend,” Start from Here
Khalil Fong, “Singalong Song,” Orange Moon
Zhong Xingming, “Mr. Magic (魔术先生),” Capricorn

Best Produced Album

Chen Zihong, Judy Chiang, Hold You Tightly (甲你揽牢牢)
Sandee Chan, If One Thing Is Important (如果有一件事是重要的)
Stanley Huang, Jae Chong, We All Lay Down in the End (最后只好躺下来)
Jay Chou, Capricorn (魔杰座)
Chen Jiannian, Nanwan Sisters Self-Titled Album (南王姐妹花同名专辑)

Best Produced Single

Lu Shenfei, “South of the Border (国境之南),” Soundtrack of Cape No. 7
Lin Qiang, “Bosom (交心),” CABACA
Huang Yunling, “Hope for Love (对爱渴望)” Aska Yang’s Dove
Wang Zhiping, Guo Wenzhong “Gaze (眼色),” Mystery
Lin Shengyang, “Drying the Fields (晒谷场),” Sweet Burden - Wu Sheng’s Poems and Songs

Best Male Mandarin Artist　
　　
Eason Chan, Don’t Wanna Let Go
Ricky Hsiao, I’m Ricky Hsiao
Leehom Wang, Heart Beat
Khalil Fong, Orange Moon
Jay Chou, Capricorn

Best Female Mandarin Artist

Sandee Chen, If One Thing Is Most Important
Tsai Chin, No Regrets
Fish Leong, Today is Valentine’s Day
A-Lin, Natural-Born Songstress
Tanya Chua, My Space

Best Band
　
Natural Q, Breakthrough
30 Band, Horse-Faced Sailor’s Summer
Mayday, Poetry of the Day After
The Chairmen, Spent All His Money
The Hohak Band, Rice and Love

Best Performing Group
　　
Big Mouth, Wanka
Y2J, Living for You
NyLas, /’nailes/
Nanwan Sisters, Nanwan Sisters Self-titled Album

Best Newcomer
　　
Rachel Liang, Love’s Poetry
Crowd Lu, 100 Ways of Living
Hsiao Hung Jen, Hsiao Hung Jen Self-titled Album
Joanna Wang, Start from Here
Jam Hsiao, Jam Hsiao Self-Titled Album
Yoga Lin, Mystery

I love seeing Crowd Lu all over this thing; I so loved his album. Ashin has never won a Golden Melody Award for his lyrics - all those years of writing, most years the award goes to Vincent Fang or Jay Chou for whatever Chinese-influenced piece they wrote. Clearly, the nominators couldn’t bear to leave Jay out of that category this year, but I really hope Ashin wins it instead.

Oh, this is bad. Really bad. So, so, SO wrong. The Association of Music Workers in Taiwan has released its annual list of the top ten Mandopop albums and songs released in 2008. The problem is that they’re really wrong. You’d think they’d know better, but apparently they’ve been paid off.

The albums:

Jay Chou, Capricorn.

See, stop right there. The fact that a music professional could think ANYTHING about this album is worth celebrating automatically destroys his or her credibility. Seriously, what does Cowboy Jay have on these people that they are so unwilling to pass over an album that does not deserve the award? What, did they get in trouble last year? Except this album is even worse than On the Run. It just is, I’m sorry to Cowboy Jay fans, but it just is.

ARGH. Well, on with the list:

Khalil Fang, Orange Moon
Eason Chan, Don’t Want to Let Go
Sandee Chan, If One Thing Is Important
Joanna Wang, Start from Here
Crowd Lu, 100 Ways of Living
The Chairmen, Used Up All His Money
MC Hot Dog, Mr. Almost
30 Band, Horse-Faced Sailor’s Summer
Xiao Yu, I’m Classmate Xiao Yu

Okay, I don’t have huge problems with the rest of the list, to be honest. I’m happy to see Crowd Lu, Joanna Wang, and 30 Band on the list (I finally bought Horse-Faced Sailor’s Summer in Taiwan… love it). But… if I was Leehom, I’d be seriously pissed off. I didn’t think Heart.Beat was the absolute greatest thing ever, but it was better than the Monument to Mediocrity that Jay halfheartedly threw our way.

Now, the list of the 10 best songs:

Jay Chou, “Mr. Magician”

Seriously. They must have been high. Either that or Jay has blackmail pictures of them. There is no other explanation for calling this yodeling madness good music.

Eason Chan, “Don’t Speak”
Eason Chan, “Mr. Rewind”
Mayday, “You’re Not Truly Happy”

Now, I love Mayday - you know I do - but that was by no means the best song on that album. I’m just saying.

Cheer Chen, “Wing of a Loser”
Crowd Lu, “I Love You”
Aska Yang, “Onion”

Oh, score two for Ashin, at least - he also wrote “Onion.”

Yoga Lin, “Color”
MC Hot Dog, “Mr. Almost”
MC Hot Dog, “Ocean”

Okay, if you’re not thoroughly indignant yet, might I point out that not only did Poetry of the Day After and Heartbeat come out in 2008, but so did 1976’s Asteroid and Backquarter’s World. Heck, I wasn’t over the moon over Jam Hsiao, but I thought his work was significantly better than the stuff bandied about by the likes of Yoga Lin and Aska Yang.

Okay, I’m seriously disgruntled, and now very much in fear of the Golden Melody Awards nominations.

While promoting their new album, sodagreen appeared at a press meet wearing the pajamas they sport in the “Sunlight” video. (More pictures here.)

The band is embarking now on their “Vivaldi Plan,” which will take them around the world to record their own version of “The Four Seasons.” All living things in this world follow the four seasons to live, so their plan encompasses four seasons, four cities, four feelings, and four albums. Spring came from Taitung (Taidong) in eastern Taiwan, and covers the warm ballads; summer is in London and covers “hot” rock, autumn is Beijing and sorrowful poetry, and winter is Berlin and stately classics. The first of the series, Spring, will be released on May 8, and it was for this album that Qingfeng dyed his hair pink - representing the spirit of spring and the feelings of fairy tales. (Not to mention Easter eggs, which are often that color pink….)

When asked if the idea of putting out four albums in two years gives them a lot of pressure in terms of sales, Xinyi replied that Will Lin probably feels the pressure a lot more. Asked about their pajamas, they said that making appearances this way was both comfortable and convenient - if only they could always wear pajamas. Of course, once you delve into what the band members actually wear to sleep, you realize they didn’t just roll out of bed and hit the stage. Qingfeng admits that he used to sleep naked, but once he caught a cold he started sleeping in shorts and a t-shirt. Basketball loving A-fu usually sleeps in sports clothes; well-muscled Jiakai claims to sleep in shorts, but the band asserts that he actually sleeps naked (there are no secrets in sodagreen, apparently). Poor Xinyi was asked if privately she wears sexy nightgowns to sleep, she replied with some embarrassment that she recently received such a garment, but because it’s so transparent, she doesn’t wear it. (And amazingly, there was apparently not a follow-up question as to who sent it! Who’s guessing Masa?)

Under duress, Qingfeng agreed that if their new album sells 60,000 copies, he’ll make Jiakai and Xinyi show off their sexy nightclothes. (That’s thoughtful of him - one boy, one girl, to appeal to every possible demographic. Now everyone go buy the album!) (Odd side note: Unparalleled Beauty still has not gone on sale in China… maybe it never will. I wonder if these albums will make the trip across the strait?)

sodagreen starts campus concerts to promote the album soon (here’s wishing them better luck than Leehom’s had with this….), and they’ll have a concert at Taipei Arena on September 19.

sodagreen appeared on Channel V’s “Circus Paparazzi” recently (wow, suddenly we’re all about Circus, aren’t we?). On their last appearance three years ago, Qingfeng had pretended to bite what was then their still very small dog; this time, he went for the dog looking to rekindle old feelings, but the dog seemed to remember him and ran scared.

Circus daringly raised the topic of netizens calling Qingfeng rather effeminate, and asked him if he’s done anything particularly manly lately. Qingfeng laughingly replied that his private life is quite manly, it’s just his public persona that’s kinda girly. Meanwhile, bass player Xinyi has been called rather manly by netizens (okay, what is it with these netizens and their obsession with fitting into stereotypical gender types?), so they asked if she’s done anything especially girly lately. Xinyi couldn’t think of anything offhand, growing increasingly embarrassed, but never imagining that Qingfeng would make it just that much worse, saying, “She’s done something girly lately - she’s had her period!” Xinyi couldn’t help but laugh and admit that that is indeed quite girly. Oh dear, but then, when she signed on to be in a band with Qingfeng, chances are she knew what she was getting herself into.