Joyside
| Joyside | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Punk , rock |
| founding | 2001 |
| Current occupation | |
| Bian Yuan | |
| Liu Hao | |
| Guan Zheng | |
| Xiao Hong | |
Joyside is a Chinese punk rock band from Beijing .
history
Bian Yuan (vocals), Liu Hao (bass) and Xin Shuang (drums, later guitar) from Joyside initially only got together as a shared apartment . They'd moved into a cheap, damp basement apartment in a shabby suburb of Beijing , drank together, and listened to CDs from the Dead Boys , Sex Pistols, and Germs all day . When Bian Yuan's previous band broke up, he began to write his own songs about the lazy life of a drinker out of boredom. At that time he, who had come to Beijing from the far west of China, 40 hours away by train, had long since broken off his studies in anthropology . Sometime in the summer of 2001 he said to his roommates on a whim: "Let's start a great punk band": Joyside were born.
Just a few weeks after it was founded, Joyside had their first gig in September 2001 . Bian Yuan vaguely remembers that it was probably a big party with eight or nine bands performing. He was very excited - and quite drunk. Actually he only knows today that the band received a 50 yuan fee from the organizer after their performance , the equivalent of five euros . To this day, Joyside rarely get much more for their weekly appearances. Most of the time it is enough for a taxi and dinner.
In 2004 drummer Fan Bo joined the band and Xin Shuang took over the guitar. In 2005 Joyside were on tour in China.
Recently the band had to face another crisis. They had to part with their guitarist Xing Shuang. While they sorted themselves out, they occasionally gave concerts as "Johnny Thunders' Teeth" and covered rock 'n' roll songs from the 50s. Meanwhile there is Joyside again. It is said that you want to become more sober and faster. If you ask singer Bian Yuan about his future plans, he says that one day he will go to Africa to feed the lions there. Or that he wants to dance with the devil. If he is to summarize what he has done with Joyside in the last few years, he just says: "Just look at how lazy we all are."
Joyside are one of the five bands featured in the documentary "Beijing Bubbles - Punk and Rock in China's Capital" by Susanne Messmer and George Lindt.
In 2007, Booze at Neptune's Dawn was the first Joyside album, which was also released on the European market, on the Berlin label Fly Fast Records by the two filmmakers Susanne Messmer and George Lindt.
On the occasion of the cinema premiere of Beijing Bubbles , Joyside toured Europe for two months. The documentary filmmaker Lucian Busse was also on the tour bus and shot the road movie The JOYSIDE of EUROPE , a 90-minute film about Joyside's first European tour. In 2009, the EP 'Maybe Tonight' was released in China via Maybe Mars Records, with the film The JOYSIDE of EUROPE also included on DVD. In Europe, a long player called 'Joyside' was released in 2009, which contains, among other songs, five tracks from the Chinese release 'Maybe Tonight' on Fly Fast Records. However, the tracks are produced differently and therefore sometimes sound significantly different than on the Chinese original. The European release also includes the film The JOYSIDE of EUROPE.
Due to the release of the album 'Joyside' (European release carries "Maybe Tonight / My City Is A Desert To Me"), Joyside toured in an extended five-person line-up in October 2009 together with the befriended Beijing band Carsick Cars through Germany and Austria. A DVD with a big final concert was released in Europe in 2013 as a supplement to a new album by Fly Fast Concepts.
Discography
- Drunk is beautiful ( 2004 )
- Bitches of Rock 'n' Roll ( 2006 )
- Beijing Bubbles (film) ( 2006 )
- Booze at Neptune's Dawn ( 2007 )
- Wasted Orient (film) ( 2007 )
- THE JOYSIDE OF EUROPE - Documentary ( 2009 )
- Maybe Tonight ( 2009 )
- Joyside ( 2009 )