It's amazing how much a place can change. When Room 101 closed its doors with a big bash at the end of October, the grungy 24-hour live music venue felt cramped and gloomy. Now, just over a month later comes Ginkgo, a stylish bar and restaurant split over two floors, that bears little resemblance to my blurred memories of the lovable dive.

James Pants will perform in Beijing this coming Saturday and thanks to the good people at FREE the WAX, we have quite a few copies of Pants' Rhythm Trax! CD to give away. To win these ten tracks of instrumental goodness, all you have to do is pretend for a moment that you too work for Beijing's expat press and are about to publish an interview with the popular Mr. Pants - what clever title would you use to headline the piece? Feel free to either leave a comment or send your ideas to blog@thebeiinger.com before 2pm on Friday Nov 21 for a chance to win a copy of Rhythm Trax! Keep reading below for the Beijinger's nightlife editor Jonathan White's interview with Mr Pants that first appeared in the Nov issue of the Beijinger magazine.

Nov 22
James Pants
RMB 70.
10pm. White Rabbit (133 2112 3678)
 

The James Pants story starts in Texas on the night of James Singleton’s high school prom. Eschewing the usual post-prom rituals, Pants sought out Stones Throw Records founder (and DJ) Peanut Butter Wolf at a gig he was playing in town and asked if he wanted to go record shopping. Pants may have missed out on kissing his date but that moment led to an internship at the label and, over time, he was put on the roster. Since then, his eclectic first album – think Too Short meets Cameo meets Serge Gainsbourg – and humorous videos have been winning over fans and critics alike.

the Beijinger: As the first artist from Stones Throw to come to China, do you feel a sense of responsibility for representing such an illustrious label? Do you feel like a trailblazer?

James Pants: Now you've made me nervous... I don't know if I'm a trailblazer, but I'm definitely the most excited artist on the roster regarding the dim sum.

As punk rock child prodigies and teenage electro-rockstars, it’s not so far out there to say that DJ brothers, Andi and Hannes, better known today as Gebruder Teichmann, have music running through their veins. The energy and finesse generated at their live shows no doubt come as a result of their life-long experience as musicians and performers. As Gebr. Teichmann prepare for their debut show in Beijing on Nov 15, I had a chance to ask the composer-musician-artist-visionary-siblings more about what-why-and-how it is exactly that they’ve come to make such innovative music, beyond just being born with a gift for it naturally.

Carissa Welton: Coming from a musical family, how were your artistic talents nurtured from a young age?

Way back in those pre-Olympic, pre-Financial Crisis days of summer, we wrote about the newly opened Solana Mall and what we considered its main attraction, the Tsingtao Beer Palace. Well, we're glad to announced that the Beijinger has teamed up with the Beer Palace and we're organized a tour of the establishment in late November. Paticipants will be able to sample freshly brewed Tsingtao draught, take part in a blind taste test to see if you can distinguish bottled beer from the draught and drink all the home-made beer you want.

Nov 22 Tsingtao Brewery Tour & Tasting
Limited to 220 people, e-mail Joe at marketing@thebeijinger.com to reserve your place. RMB 70, RMB 50 (advance).
7-10pm. Tsingtao Beer Palace (905 6018/19)

DJ Shadow
RMB 200, RMB 80 (advance).
9pm. Angel Club (6552 8888)

Friday night’s DJ Shadow show proved that when it comes down to it, standing room beats assigned seating any day of the week, even at a cramped and cornered place like Angel Club. Maybe it’s that big timers like Avril and Kanye require bountiful stage space and back up to perform; but two turntables, a mixer and a Serato-fitted laptop are all it takes for someone like Shadow to get a kick-ass party going (B-boy battles included).

Head over to the Beijinger Gallery to view some of the great images that we've snapped at various events over the past week. We've just uploaded pics from last weekend's Halloween Parties as well as images from Kanye West's show at Workers' Gymnasium. If you've got any images that you want to share with us, send an e-mail to blog@thebeijinger.com.

Above & Beyond placed as number six in DJ magazine’s Top 100 disc jockeys in 2007. Now they have risen to number four for 2008. They play at GT Banana on Friday November 7 and we were lucky to catch up with Tony from the trance trio for a chat before their debut set in Beijing about weddings, Radiohead and DJ teams.

the Beijinger: When did you start Djing, what made you start and who were your early influences?

Those already in the know about DJ Shadow don't need a reminder that he is a living legend in the world of instrumental hip hop/turntablism/electronica (yes, all three). Or that he was one of the seminal players in the founding of the California Bay Area hip-hop collective Quannum/Solesides Crew. Or that his musical wizardry – which will be only display this Friday night at Angel Club – landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records (2001). Or that he is amongst a very select few who’ve had their music brought to color by Wong Kar Wai - see “Six Days” music video below.

Australian author and Asialink Writer in Residence at The Bookworm Linda Jaivin, will be talking about and reading from her new book, A Most Immoral Woman (which is due to come out in March next year) at the Bookworm tonight. The book is a fictional recreation of a rather spicy episode in the life of the wonderfully complicated Australian journalist and adventurer George 'Chinese' Morrison (on a side note, Jane Macartney, The Times' correspondent in Beijing, delivered the annual Morrison Lecture two weeks ago - details here). The event marks the author's last public appearance as the writer in residence at the Beijing Bookworm. So, if you haven't had a chance to get down to hear Jaivin talk already - or even if you have - be sure not to miss what should be an entertaining and hilarious evening. If you're unfamiliar with her work, take a look at Fiona Lee’s interview with the author for some idea of what to expect. Personally, I regard The Monkey and the Dragon as one of the best China books around. Tickets are required, so it’s worth calling the Bookworm to confirm that there are still some spare seats.

While researching the historical novel that she'll be reading excerpts from tonight, Jaivin spent a lot of time peering into the journals of foreigners who lived in Beijing around the turn of the 20th Century. Given this, and her presence in Beijing as a foreign journalist for much of the 1980s, we decided to quiz her on the history of laowai life in the city and particularly about how various foreigners who lived in the capital during different eras amused themselves. Keep reading below for her replies to our queries about how laowai partied in Beijing during both the Legation Quarter days at the turn of the 20th century and the tumultuous 1980s. Jaivin also offers a few observations of how things have changed in today's "Olympic city."

Kanye West
RMB 280-2,000.
7.30pm. Workers' Gymnasium (6501 6655 ext 5033)

So Kanye West finally got his act together and made it to Beijing this past weekend, putting on an energetic, fantasmic, hour and a half light-show of a set at Workers’ Gymnasium Saturday night. The evening started off promptly at 7.30pm, with a rap group from Taiwan opening for his Westness, and receiving adequate applause at that. From what we’ve gathered here at the Beijinger, that group was not the originally advertised Will Pan.