If you're a music festival fan, we hope you've been saving your pennies. After Summer Sonic Shanghai at the end of this month, there'll be three festivals in as many weeks. Ultra hits town on September 9-10, Storm has just been announced for September 23-24 and sandwiched in between the two EDM rivals is Split Works' Concrete and Grass on September 16-17.
Actually, even if you haven't been putting away a few extra kuai in your piggy bank you should be alright with C&G, given tickets are around half the price of the other aforementioned festivals, but who will you get to see for your money? Well, after weeks of speculation we finally have the first official line-up announcement for the Shanghai Rugby Club-based fest.
Psychedelic-edged Brighton-formed indie-rockers TOY will be making an appearance, possibly in black like in the above photo. Perhaps best known for their eponymous 2012 debut LP and not to be confused with the K-pop act of the same name, they've put out two records since, including last year's Clear Shot, plus garnered attention for their Sexwitch collaboration with Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan.
Nuyorican (New York Puerto Rican) rapper Princess Nokia is another name confirmed, and one who will be featuring high up on our don’t miss list. Her punchy tracks and global beats have being going down a storm with festival audiences of late; in particular her showing at July’s FYF Fest left the LA Times cooing over her ‘lucid, urgent vision’ and ‘undeniable charisma’.
The organisers have also pulled off a couple of alternative Chinese music coups, only one of which we're allowed to reveal here: the original line-up of Beijing noise-rock trio Carsick Cars will be performing their debut (and best) album together in full. Time to get those Zhongnanhai ready (the CSC classic of the same name sees them traditionally treated to a shower of the cigarettes as they play).
Of course, Split Works have a bit of history with CSC having booked them to open for Sonic Youth back in 2007. The powers that be deemed that an unsuitable match, but - who knows? - maybe one day Carsick Cars will get to appear on a bill here with the likes of Thurston Moore without such interference. For now, we know that frontman Zhang Shouwang's excellent White+ project will also be at Concrete and Grass.
Other notable names featuring on the first wave announcement include fantastic Chengdu post-punk act Hiperson, Texan shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr, Japanese 'death jazz' outfit Soil and "Pimp" Sessions, Do Hits head honcho Howie Lee, powerful instrumental rock returnees Gallops and... what's this? Boys Climbing Ropes? Yep, a guaranteed crowd pleaser for a certain segment of Shanghai old timers, the quartet are one of two surprise reunions to feature on the bill. The other one? We can't tell you just yet, but keep your eyes on our blog in the coming weeks for the full line-up, with some big names promised.
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