Mr. Graceless is:

Amojo: guitar, vocals
元帅 (Yuan Shuai) : bass, vocals
官僚 (Guan Liao) : drums

How did you guys meet and form the band?
Amojo: I met Yuan Shuai at university, and he already knew Guan Liao from high school.

What colleges do you guys attend?
Amojo and Yuan Shuai: Beijing Transportation University.
Guan Liao: Beijing Aerospace University. (They are all engineers).

So, you don’t study music?
No.

Are you busy?
Very busy…

Beijing Calling Vol. 3
RMB 50, RMB 40 (advance).
8.30pm. Star Live (6425 5677)

There were a lot of shows to choose from the Saturday before last. What to do, what to do? ReTROS/Subs? Been there, done that. D-22? Please…again? It seems that the Beijing rock scene is doomed to repeat itself … well, not exactly.  I made it to Star Live to catch the 3rd installment of the “Beijing Calling” series. The audience, although pitifully small (especially when considering how large the venue is), at least was given a more intimate peek at some newer and lesser-known bands emerging on the scene.

Last Saturday, Yugong Yishan hosted local blues outfit Black Cat Bone’s album release party. It was a fun night, with dancers from Beijing Swing setting a frantic pace on the floor and special guests Abigail Washburn and Woodie Wu adding a bit of variety to the show. Jonathan Alpart caught up with band before the show and asked them about  how they got started, who's the biggest bad ass in the band and what Des is hiding in his beard.

For those who missed the rip-roaring show, the band is playing again tonight at Mao Livehouse along with Finnish rockers Moses Hazy and local rockabilly-ers extraordinaire Defy. See this week’s newsletter for more details.

Keep reading below for Jonathan’s expletive-ridden interview with the band:

Nov 14
New Pants Album Release Party
RMB 80.
9pm. Yugong Yishan (6404 2711)

New Pants, Old Hat
The New Pants CD release party started off unassuming enough - Yugong Yishan was packed, but for some reason the very front of the club had ample room for seating right in front of the projection screen. A new film by New Pants’ singer Peng Lei was being shown. The opening shots featured the keyboardist Pang Kuan prancing around the streets of Beijing with various gorgeous models. Funny. Through a series of seemingly random sequences, a very amusing and poignant story coalesced, poking fun at fashion trends, culture clash, male insecurity, young love, Japanese infomercials, Chinese idiosyncrasies and even the movie Titanic. The basic plot was about a poor pottery artist and his work, his down-and-out girlfriend and their romantic troubles. The funniest part was probably when “the American businessman” came to appraise the pottery (which, by the way, was a chamber pot intended for a wedding present). Any foreigner would appreciate and relate to the hilarious obsequiousness of the potter and his friends towards the American. I think the Chinese people in the audience appreciated the joke even more when the American bought the pot for seven million dollars.