August 26,2008
2008 Taipei Biennial Opening Concert: Slurpee Revolt!
Date & Time:
Sep.12, 19:30-21:50
Sep.13, 15:00-21:20
Vanue:
Taipei Brewery
(No.85, Bade Road Section 2, Zhongshan District, Taipei, 10455, Taiwan)
Slurpee Revolt's Performance Schedule
2008 Taipei Biennial Opening Concert “Slurpee ReVOLT”
9.12 19:30- 21:30
Taiwan Beer Factory, 85 Bade Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei
Performance Schedule
19 : 30 ~ 19 : 35 Opening Words
19 : 35 ~ 20 : 05 Band – The Clippers’ Hsiao-ying
A comic emcee, karaoke singer, and actor of stage, skits and film, Hsiao-ying uses a mix of singing, variety-show-style hosting and comic dialogues with virtual characters to present some of Taiwan’s funniest and most biting social satires. He calls it “The Clippers’ Hsiao-ying Video Music Show.” The Clippers was the underground band Hsiao-ying headed for over a decade, and also where he forged his showmanship and sharpened his wit. Then and now, his finger has always been on the pulse of society. But it’s not just that Hsiao-ying’s critiques are cutting. His manner is playful and his commentary both sour and sweet. Lyrics are his specialty, and songs topics include an otaku’s frustrations and joys, hallucinating about five dollars in a fast food restaurant, a company boss who’s going bankrupt because society at large just doesn’t see things his way, and kids who exist in an industrial society but live in an fashion culture. When it comes to what’s happening in Taiwan, Hsiao-ying leaves nothing out.
20 : 20 ~ 20 : 50 Band – Kou Chou Ching
With so much penetration of outside music in Taiwan’s local scene, Kou Chou Ching has managed to forge their own unique sound out of hip hop rhythms and native sounds. They sample the traditional Hoklo music forms of nanguan and beiguan, Taiwanese opera, Hakka mountain songs and ba yin, traditional folk songs, and the music hall pop of 1970s starlets. On stage, the band fuses all this into something completely their own. Performances include both turntable scratching and music from a traditional south Chinese horn called the suona. In this seeming collision of worlds, Kou Chou Ching offers audiences a different style of playing music.
21 : 05 ~ 21 : 35 Band – Hohak Band
Established in 2003, the Hohak Band draws on a base of Hakka folk songs, then melds it with jazz and rock, throwing a bit of African drums in for good measure. It’s toe-tapping, lively stuff that’s fit for any ‘ol down-home celebration. But these are not just animated tunes. These songs speak with a social conscience, and when you’re humming them to yourself on the home, they may give you pause. Aside from music, Hohak’s members also engage in social activism. The band’s “Rice Public Creative Society” addresses problems related to the farming industry and land disputes. They have pushed for a system of direct purchasing from farmers and also worked side by side with farmers in organic rice paddies. The goal is to make the public think about what is appropriate when it comes to land use, and also work for new and more equitable market mechanisms.
Introduction of “Slurpee ReVOLT”
2008 Taipei Biennial Opening Concert “Slurpee ReVOLT”
9.12 19:30- 21:30
Taiwan Beer Factory, 85 Bade Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei
Introduction
The 2008 Taipei Biennial has extended itself outside of the museum and into a site that’s a local Taiwanese emblem, the Taiwan Beer Factory. The exhibition of art works there will display artists’ concerns and reflections in regards to local society. And in response to that spirit, we are holding a special concert of some of Taiwan’s leading creative musicians on that same site. This concert will elicit a tantalizing dialogue between the audio and the visual.
Slurpee ReVOLT!
The themes of globalization presented in the 2008 Taipei Biennial reflect a situation in recent years of Taiwan’s flourishing indie band scene, in which a tensions have developed between the sheer creative force of the West and the local desire to be Taiwanese.
Taiwan’s band culture has always drawn on influences from the US, Europe and Japan, and the speed at which Taipei absorbs information hardly lags behind New York, Paris or other cultural centers. But the depth of Taiwan’s historical and cultural foundation is a completely different story. Living in the global stream of high-speed information but without the tradition the West has accrued through the 50s, 60s and 70s, Taiwan faces inundation from the world’s major cultures without the chance of building itself up to an equal level. Having no sense of separation and too much information, Taiwan increasingly lacks a sense of both history and temporality. Globalization has not just created segmentation in the world economy. What’s more difficult to perceive and also more powerful is the way that media has come to subtly guide the global cultural system. Those who’ve established a right to express themselves can export culture, but those only able to gaze on must be content to merely receive it. In the face of these developments, Taiwanese bands must present their own voices and styles.
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