Ryan McLaughlin » music

How do you say August Rush in Chinese?

Ryan — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:00:51 +0000

I’ll let the video speak for itself:

For anyone who doesn’t know what August Rush is, check this out.

Playing For Change: One Love

Ryan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:15:29 +0000

My mom sends me LOTS of e-mail forwards. Some are hilarious, some are retarded, and some are just super fantastic. This is the latter.

Here’s the song that kicked it all off:

Be sure to check out Playing For Change‘s Web site. They’ve got a bunch more episodes.

ThruYou – so rad.

Ryan — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:21:17 +0000

As the site says, “What you’re about to see is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other words – what you see is what you hear.”

I’d like to add another “in other words”: It’s frigin’ awesome.

Be sure to check out the ThruYou site for more awesomeness.

‘Best Band in Beijing’ coming to Suzhou

Ryan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:05:21 +0000

Just got word that Woodie Alan, the band City Weekend calls the “Best Band in Beijing”, is coming to Suzhou for a one show performance on Friday night.

The show’s taking place at J&J Restaurant (No.5, Block 11, Horizon Resort II, SIP) and runs from 9 until 11. Tickets will set you back 60 RMB per 人, which seems a bit pricey to this laowai, but fits the swanky venue and up-scale expat crowd and that hangs around Horizon I suppose. Whether such a spot will fit the smokey jam-band blues of Woodie Alan has yet to be seen.

The band is comprised of three Chinese and two American musicians, including writer Alan Paul, who wrote an insightful and touching piece for WSJ about the band’s experience performing at the recent Xiamen Beach Festival.

Here’s the studio version of their original tune, “Beijing Blues”:

Tickets

Tickets can be ordered by calling (512) 6917 5111 or e-mailing jjcafe_bw@yahoo.com.

Suzhou Bookworm’s East & West Music Fest

Ryan — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:09:23 +0000

I swear, this town gets a little bit more livable every day.

I mean, we’ve got an Irish Pub that serves Guinness on tap, we’ve got one, two, three places that I can get a taco, we’ve a cafe/bookshop/lending library loaded to the rafters with English-language books, we’ve got an English-language movie cinema playing Iron Man, and now… well, now..

We’ve got a frigin’ MUSIC FESTIVAL!

This weekend, May 10-11, the aforementioned Bookworm is hosting the East & West Music Fest (has got a nice ring to it eh?). The event will host more than 150 musicians and 25 different sets. Multi-diciplined and multi-culture doesn’t cover it, the festival is going to have everything from Chinese punk to a children’s recorder ensemble will be performing.

The Line Up

Saturday 10th – 2pm to 9pm

Charlie bringing some good old American folk to Suzhou (America)
Suzhou’s own Tom Waits: William on guitar, piano, harmonica (America)
The Mysterious Weapons: Rock/pop/punk (China)
The Doctors Rock/pop: (Indonesia)
Rico: rock (Phillipines)
Jimmy and Robert: Rock (Phillipines)
Too Match Rock/pop (Phillipines)
Joe and Mike- Rock (America)
As Is: Jazz/Funk (band members from all over the world)
Sim: Blues (Korea)

Sunday 11th – 2pm to 9pm

Eton House Recorder ensemble and choir – Pop and Classical, (from all over)
Dulwich College Orchestra – classical (all over)
SSIS Orchestra -classical (all over)
Suzhou University Music Union – traditional Chinese instruments (China)
The Doctors – pop/rock (Indonesia)
Sonja and Mira on violin and piano – Classical ( Germany and Bulgaria)
Misha and Lupkieva – accordian and piano (Russia)
Joe unplugged – folk/rock (America)
Suzie and Boyd – guitar vocals duet- folk/rock (China/America)
张云鹏 (Zhang Yun Peng) Chinese rock/pop

What’s more, the festival comes complete with a BBQ. Now if it’d only stop raining.