Dirty Beaches , Forests

Read the GigGuide.tw interview with Alex Zhang Hungtai / Dirty Beaches here

Dirty Beaches

Alex Zhang Hungtai (b. September 4, 1980, Taipei), known by his stage name Dirty Beaches, is a Taiwanese-born Canadian musician based in Montreal, Quebec.

Dirty Beaches released a number of EPs and instrumental-focused albums on cassette-only labels, before releasing the full-length Badlands in March 2011.[1] Badlands was subsequently nominated as a long listed nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize. Dirty Beaches has also released singles including "True Blue"/"Sweet 17," "Lord Knows Best" and "Lone Runner," as well as videos, many of them directed by Zhang himself. Zhang has also recorded several original film soundtracks, such as for the documentary Water Park, by Evan Prosofsky.

Dirty Beaches began as a one-man band, sometimes employing sampling, inspired by Zhang's longtime love of hip hop. In addition to his own years moving between countries and on the road touring, films are one of Zhang's influences, particularly those by Wong Kar-wai. Zhang said Wong's movies are "usually about the passage of time, and how in relation it distorts your relationship with everything else in life. The central Dirty Beaches character is a product of those experiences. Of someone traveling long distances in search of something, in exile, misplaced, with no home to return to." Zhang has lived in Taipei, Queens, Etobicoke, Honolulu, San Francisco, Shanghai, Vancouver and Montreal, among other cities.

Dirty Beaches has released work on record labels throughout the world since his first album Old Blood came out on Montreal's Fixture Records in 2007. Dirty Beaches has recorded and toured with musicians such as Dum Dum Girls, U.S. Girls, Ela Orleans and Xiu Xiu. In 2011, Zhang was able to leave a kitchen job to play music full time. First touring solo, he then put together a live band with sax player Francesco De Gallo and drummer Jesse Locke. On tour, Dirty Beaches moved away from the sample-based rock n roll of Badlands to embrace a more improvised sound. In 2012, guitarist Shub Roy and electronic musician Bernardino Femminielli joined Dirty Beaches live.

In late 2012 Dirty Beaches recorded two new albums, one vocal and one entirely instrumental. Drifters/Love is the Devil will be released in May 2013. North American label Zoo Music will issue the album as a double LP and a single CD. Dirty Beaches will tour Europe and North America later in 2013. In early 2013 Dirty Beaches toured the Asia Pacific region for the first time.

http://dirtybeaches.bandcamp.com/

Forests

要用文字描述 Forests 森林合唱樂團是件非常困難的事，就像在面對一座真正的森林時，你不會說：「這是第一棵樹，左邊那棵是他的表哥，後面那一整排都是不好相處的鄰居。」你會瞪大雙眼，心中讚嘆著：
「哇。森林。」
他們是藝術家、魔術師，也是絕頂迷人的騙子。他們可以將一張塞滿巧思的專輯擺到你面前，然後面不改色的說「這張專輯是 No Fun，其實。」他們可以站上台就讓在場所有人回到六零年代，無論是否真的是聽著收音機長大，都開始緬懷那個從天線放射出熱門金曲的年代。他們可以在音樂停下來後，讓所有人在休止符中想通「原來沒有 Forests 的現實是這樣阿，無趣。」
No Fun 是一張誕生於，且屬於台灣的專輯；如果有任何相左的意見，都是低估了這片土地的奇異性。要享受 No Fun，無須熟稔衝浪音樂是怎樣在美國掀起熱潮，讓日本流行音樂改觀，再影響到台灣上一個世代的潮客，也不用了解低傳真實驗、海灘男孩合音，或是 Louis C.K. 的哲思，只要張開耳朵踏進森林就夠了.

http://foresting.bandcamp.com/