Punk Planet by Douglas Heaven
This week: Pairs
With the Eurozone gone to the dogs and its leaders making gold-digger eyes at China, it’s probably a good time to check out the best of Shanghai’s eclectic punk scene. Sure, there’s a whole Beijing vs Shanghai thing, but what Beijing has in the way of a distinct and cohesive sound, Shanghai more than makes up for in its DIY ethic.
Andy Best – one-time Scouser turned champion of the Shanghai scene and founder of the local Qu record label – says “It’s only since I came to Shanghai in 2001 that I found a music scene I liked again, one based around DIY culture and not sending tapes to A&R men”. But then, as he also points out, “people are in it for the love and not the money (there’s no choice)”.
Also holding the scene together is Shanghai’s mainstay venue, Yuyintang, and a lo-fi, stripped down aesthetic, to which western ears are most partial. It’s this that probably first got Pairs noticed by the likes of MTV and BBC Radio’s Tom Ravenscroft.
Taking the common line-up of just guitar and drums – this generation’s power-trio – drummer Rhys squawk-shouts along to F’s raucous and hurried guitar-chord melodies – fuzzy, happy melodies that bring on a smile like a Sonic Youth pop song.
Interviewed by We Live In Beijing, Rhys explained: “Our music just comes from our lack of talent, our inability to play up strokes on the guitar and from our personalities. We tried to write some slower songs, but I think we just got too excited and they sped up overtime. Maybe if we had a metronome we would be a totally different band.”
But in spite of this they still won Best New Band at the 2010 Shanghai Grammys, with one of the judges sensibly observing “[Pairs] are a lot of noise, but I like their noise, and they make sense ... They kind of invaded us during summer, and I’m happy they are there”. Andy Best hopes they “kickstart a bunch of similar bands who just go for it and don’t try to be polished genre acts”.
Pairs put out their first, self-titled album with the Qu label in 2010 and released their second Summer Sweat (2011) themselves. Pairs want you to stream both of them from pairs.bandcamp.com.
