1
关于国内独立音乐人的介绍侧写或者是演出回顾，大家其实也都经常看到，但是来自于一个活跃于北京地下音乐圈多年的资深老外的观点一定显得更加特别。Josh Feola（赵识）住在北京，他既以乐手身份参与及组织摇滚乐和实验音乐演出，同时也是一位优秀的撰稿人，独立运营着音乐网站 pangbianr.com。
在每周的专栏［入耳 In My Ears］里，Josh 会以他的独特视角，讲述独立音乐场景中的种种故事，也许还会展示出音乐人、厂牌或是演出场地更加不为人知的一面。
For English Please Scroll Down.
2
撰文／Josh Feola
街道杀死奇怪的动物（下文简称为“街杀”）一直都是我最喜欢的北京乐队之一，同时也是最难以归类的乐队。街杀诞生于2000年代末的D-22场景之中，却从未像他们那一代的其他乐队一样敬业地仿效经典曼彻斯特后朋之声，或是更早从这个场地走出来的Carsick Cars和刺猬等乐队那样的噪音流行。尽管他们情绪化和旋律化的歌曲常常佐以噪音摇滚的猛烈混响，我还是觉得街杀和他们的吉他手冷枚，比起转向更噪或是更迷幻或者干脆非摇滚的领域的后期D-22乐队，具有更加注重创作的取向。
尽管把他们放在运作D-22和后来XP的兵马司厂牌里毫不违和，但街杀签约了路子更宽的摩登天空，并发行了他们的第一张和第二张专辑。其中，第二张《麦当劳少年》刚刚发行，是这支乐队迄今为止最有力的作品。这张录音又糙又有劲，同时清晰和富有音乐性，体现出制作人，驴（李炜宇）的个人特色。今年早些时候，他还担任了鸭打鹅的力作《未来俱乐部》的制作人。《麦当劳少年》扎实，令人吃惊：我反复听了一整个星期，都还不时发现藏在每一首曲目里令人惊喜的小细节。
随着街道杀死奇怪的动物的声音日趋成熟的还有冷枚本人。在乐队开始令人精疲力尽的新专辑巡演之前，我和他坐下来，聊起了他自己的地下音乐史，从南京到北京，同摩登天空和驴的合作经历，他通过在淘宝上开唱片店、和兵马司一起工作获得的深刻见解，以及“快餐文化”是如何渗透今天的中国社会的。
在你们的两张唱片《B计划：回到模拟时代》和《麦当劳少年》之间，你认为你们的声音发生了什么样的改变？
第一张专辑很多部分是分轨录音，而第二张专辑基本是同期的，所以听起来更直接、粗糙。
《麦当劳少年》的制作人是来自上海的驴，你们为什么选择跟他合作呢？他给专辑的完成过程带来了什么？
驴制作了兵马司的 Muscle Snog 和 Duck Fight Goose 的《运动》，很早就听过 Muscle Snog，在我心目中是一张很棒的噪音摇滚专辑，所以在我们录制第一张专辑的时候就联系过驴，他也很有兴趣，但是摩登天空没有给我预算来做，我们第二张专辑就坚持让驴来录音和混音了。这次录音过程很快，快得有点没有自信。初混的时候我们有点失望，感觉没有方向了，但是后来慢慢和驴沟通还是很好的完成了混音。现在看来驴的观点就是这张专辑应该简单，糙一些吧，他的直觉应该是对的，没有给我们音乐带来太多的修饰和改动。
都有哪些国外的音乐人对你们的写歌过程产生了影响？就我个人来说，开篇曲《麦当劳少年》让我想起 Psychic Ills，《困在街上》有点像是 The Men 的歌。
给我的音乐影响最大的是 Sonic Youth，虽然我现在很少听他们的专辑了。我想每一首歌都会让人想起另外一首别人的歌的，不是吗？其实调音师小包教了一个我没有用过的混响效果器连接方式确实让我的吉他声音不一样了，我一直也在用。我想乐队的每一个人都在进步。
那么中国的乐队呢？在你最早去看演出和弹吉他的时候，都有谁谁影响了你？
关于中国的乐队或者音乐人就比较复杂了，崔健、唐朝、窦唯、张楚、何勇等等我都喜欢过，刚开始在南京组乐队的时候，经常去看 P.K.14、七八点还有痊愈者十八的演出，后来就是在南京看了重塑雕像的权利，有一次徐峰的模拟噪音演出，来了北京最感动的一次就是小火车新的专场，还有后来的XP看到 The Yours 特别高兴，还有 Snapline 的一次演出，我觉得 Snapline 是中国的地下舞曲之王，虽然他们并没有特别电的配器。
在这些一长串的名字里面其实有的是受到了他们的歌词的影响，有的只是赞叹于他们的音乐。痊愈者十八后来去了武汉，变成了粪狗，王峻平是一个迷，妈的，我最近有点想采访他来着。中国摇滚乐对我影响最大的应该是崔健的《红旗下的蛋》。
回顾过去，最早你是怎么想到要做街杀的？能不能说说当地的一些乐队、场地或者促使你自己也玩乐队的演出？
我在南京开始学吉他，后来经常看 P.K.14、七八点还有痊愈者十八的演出，如意里的一个歌舞厅应该是当时P.K.14鼓手的爸爸开的，演出很多都在那里，我和最早的朋友都在那里排练。
你什么时候搬来北京的？为什么？
南京真的玩乐队的人太少了，我记得我组过的两个乐队都没有贝斯手，所以来北京试试吧。我记得第一次在北京看本地乐队的演出是2007杨海崧带我去的D-22，那次有 Snapline、刺猬和怪力。那天晚上感觉很兴奋，感觉那个酒吧太棒了，后来还和李维思搭讪了。
多年来你还作为唱片分销商非常活跃，你自己有淘宝店，也和兵马司合作。你觉得中国的年轻人购买唱片和听音乐的方式有什么变化吗？
我真的非常喜欢销售唱片，我在兵马司工作的时候弄了兵马司的淘宝店，认识一些特别忠实的兵马司粉丝。每次预售的时候都会有一个北京哥们第一个拍下，每次询问CD什么时候到货。还记得海朋森的CD刚开始销售的时候每天都可以在桌上堆一个小山丘。很多在北京做音乐的朋友会把自己的厂牌比如京味儿的 Michael Winkler 给我很多最开始的京味儿CD和免费的杂志，我放在自己的淘宝店卖，虽然卖得很少，但是还是有人感兴趣的，很欣慰。后来杨海崧自己的厂牌分享障碍开始出一些黑胶，我也帮着卖了一些，感觉现在买独立音乐的乐迷收藏黑胶唱片的越来越多了。
能说说这张新专辑的名字吗，“麦当劳少年”到底有什么含义？专辑的封面又有什么样的意味？
麦当劳少年是专辑的第一首歌的名字。这个歌有个小故事：有一天在麦当劳看见三个男孩在餐桌间游弋捡食别的顾客遗留下来的实物，他们非常忘我，如入无人之境。麦当劳可能是很多年轻人的品质生活的一个标志，所以这种快餐文化带给人影响也是潜移默化的，它渗透到了每一个人视觉和味觉当中，就像我们的媒体所想传达给每一个人那些“能量”。
专辑封面是我们的设计师选自《Beijing Silvermine》中的一张让她印象深刻的照片，这张照片在我们写出《麦当劳少年》之前她就一直很喜欢。她觉得这张从由 Thomas Sauvin 从北京的某个垃圾站中翻出来的家庭照片很有意思。这只猫被套上了什么东西，一个快餐袋子，但是猫粮也可以算一种“快餐”吧，看来不管是人类还是动物都对快餐乐此不疲。
街道杀死奇怪的动物
《麦当劳少年》
https://music.douban.com/subject/26890171/
Josh Feola 是一位音乐人/撰稿人，现居北京。自2010年起，他通过自己的平台“旁边儿”（pangbianr）组织音乐、艺术、电影活动，并先后担任 D-22 与 XP 的演出经理。他的长期项目有撒丽不跳舞实验音乐节（Sally Can't Dance）与北京电子乐偶遇（BEME）。他为以下出版机构撰写过关于音乐、艺术的文章：The Wire，Leap 艺术界，Sixth Tone，Tiny Mix Tapes，他也是纽约观察者报 Gulou View观点专栏的共同作者之一。作为音乐人，他曾在北京乐队吹万担任鼓手，参与首张专辑《白夜》的录音与巡演；目前他是乐队 Subs、迷走神经的鼓手，也化名 Charm 录音、演出。
3
Release: Streets Kill Strange Animals - McD Kids
In My Ears is a weekly music column by Josh Feola 赵识, Beijing-based writer and musician and founder of pangbianr.com
Streets Kill Strange Animals has always been one of my favorite Beijing rock bands, but one of the hardest to pigeonhole. Coming up in the D-22 scene of the late 2000s, Streets Kill never quite adopted their peers’ dutiful replication of the classic Manchester post-punk sound, nor the noisy pop sound popularized by some of that venue’s earlier veterans like Carsick Cars and Hedgehog. Though their moody and melodic songs are often seasoned with a liberal dash of noise-rock reverb, I’ve always considered Streets Kill Strange Animals — and their guitarist, Leng Mei — to be more composition-oriented than most of the late D-22 bands, which mostly veered off into noisier, or more psychedelic, or straight-up non-rock territories.
While they’d sound at home on Maybe Mars, the house label of D-22 and its successor, XP, Streets Kill signed with the bigger, broader label Modern Sky to release their first two albums. The second of those, McD Kids, has just been released, and it’s by far the band’s strongest material to date. The recording is raw and powerful, but also clear and musical, reflecting the touch of its producer, Lv, who was also behind Duck Fight Goose’s excellent CLVB ZVKVNFT from earlier in the year. McD Kids is solid and surprising; I’ve had it on repeat all week and still discover subtle details hiding in each track, yielding pleasant surprises with repeated listens.
As Streets Kill Strange Animal’s sound has matured, so has Leng Mei. I sat down with him near the beginning of the band’s exhaustive album release tour to discuss his own underground music history, which brought him from Nanjing to Beijing, his experience working with Modern Sky and with Lv, insight he’s gained working as a music distributor through his own Taobao store and with Maybe Mars, and how “fast food culture” is permeating Chinese society today.
How do you think your sound has evolved between your first full-length album, Plan B: Return to the Analog Era, and McD Kids?
For our first album we recorded a lot of it on separate tracks, but this one we mostly played together, all at once. I think it sounds more direct and a bit rougher.
McD Kids was produced by Lv from Shanghai. Why did you choose to work with him? What did he add to the process of completing the record?
Lv produced two Maybe Mars albums, Muscle Snog’s Mind Shop and Duck Fight Goose’s SPORTS. When I first heard the Muscle Snog album years ago, I thought it was a really great noise rock album, so when Streets Kill Strange Animals was getting ready to record our first album I got in touch with Lv. He was also very interested, but Modern Sky didn’t give us enough budget. For this album, we insisted that Lv record and mix it. This time the recording process was very fast, so fast that we weren’t that confident in it. At the beginning of the mixing process we were a little bit disappointed, it felt kind of directionless, but afterwards we slowly communicated with Lv and in the end he came out with a great mix. Now it’s clear that Lv’s perspective was that this album should be simple, rough around the edges. I think his intuition was correct. He didn’t embellish or modify our music much.
What foreign artists have influenced your songwriting process? To my ear, the opening track "麦当劳少年" reminds me of Psychic Ills, and "困在街上" sounds a bit like a song by The Men.
The biggest influence on my music is from Sonic Youth, though I rarely listen to them these days. I think any given song will remind someone of another song, right? Actually Xiao Bao, who does live sound mixing, taught me a method of connecting my guitar to a reverb pedal that gives it a different sound, I’ve been using that method ever since. I think everyone in the band is improving.
What about Chinese bands? Who influenced you when you first started going to shows or playing guitar?
With Chinese bands and artists it’s hard to say. Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty, Dou Wei, Zhang Chu, He Yong, etc, I’ve liked them all. When I first started to make bands in Nanjing, I would always go see shows by P.K.14, Qi Ba Dian (七八点), and Quanyuzhe 18 (痊愈者十八). Later I saw Re-TROS play in Nanjing, and one time I saw an analog noise set by Xu Feng. The most moving show I saw after moving to Beijing was Mini Train Heart’s show [at D-22 in 2011]. I was also really happy to see The Yours the first time they played at XP, and one Snapline show sticks out in my memory. I think Snapline is the king of underground dance music in China, even though they don’t have very “electronic” instrumentation.
Within this long string of names, some of them gave me influence through their lyrics, and others struck me with just their music. Quanyuzhe 18 ended up moving to Wuhan, and turned into a new band, Shitdog. Wang Junping from Quanyuzhe 18 and Shitdog is a mystery, fuck… recently I’ve thought that I want to interview him about those days. I would have to say that the Chinese rock album that’s had the biggest influence on me is Cui Jian’s Balls Under the Red Flag.
Going back in time — what made you want to start Streets Kill Strange Animals in the first place? Can you talk about a few key local bands, venues, or shows that made you want to start a band yourself?
I started learning guitar in Nanjing. Later, as I said, I’d often go see P.K.14, Qi Ba Dian and Quanyuzhe 18 play in a dance hall that I think was opened by the drummer of P.K.14’s dad. There were a lot of shows there. Me and my old friends would also practice there all the time.
When did you move to Beijing? Why?
forming two bands there, and neither had a bassist. So I came to Beijing to try it out.
I remember the first time I saw local bands in Beijing — it was in 2007, Yang Haisong brought me to D-22. That night was Snapline, Hedgehog and Guai Li. I still remember the excitement I felt that night, I thought the bar was so awesome, and I struck up a conversation with Li Weisi from Snapline.
You've also been active as a music distributor for many years now, both through your own Taobao store and working with Maybe Mars. Have you noticed any changing patterns in how Chinese kids are buying or listening to music today?
I just really enjoy selling records. When I worked at Maybe Mars I managed their Taobao store, and through that I met a few really faithful Maybe Mars fanatics. Every time I’d announce a pre-sale this one Beijing dude would be the first one to place an order, and he’d always immediately ask when the CD would arrive. I remember when we first started to sell the Hiperson album, every day a small hill of their CDs would pile up on the table. I also help friends of mine in bands in Beijing to distribute their albums. For example, Michael Winkler of the Jingweir label gave me a bunch of their CDs and zines, and I sold them in my personal Taobao store. I only sold a few of them, but there were still people interested in them, and that was very gratifying. Later, Yang Haisong’s label Share in Obstacles put out a few vinyl records, I also helped sell some of those. I feel that indie music collectors in China today are more and more interested in vinyl.
Can you talk a bit about the name of the new album? What does McD Kids mean? What does the album cover signify?
McD Kids (麦当劳少年) is the name of the first song on the album. It tells a short story: one day at a McDonald’s I saw three boys cruising around the dining area, picking up leftovers that other customers had left behind. They were so absorbed with this task, it was like there was no one else in the world to them. McDonald’s may be a sign of the quality of life of a lot of young people today, and this kind of fast-food culture exerts an almost imperceptible influence over people’s behavior. It infiltrates everyone’s visual field, everyone’s taste, just like the “energy” that Chinese media try to transmit to viewers.
The cover is a photo from Beijing Silvermine that left a strong impression on our designer. She already loved this image well before we even finished writing the album. This photo comes from a collection arranged by photographer Thomas Sauvin, of vintage personal and family photographs from Beijing recovered from trash heaps in silver mines, and our designer thought this one in particular was very interesting. What’s covering the cat’s head? It’s a fast food delivery bag, but you can also think of the bowl of cat food as “fast food”. Whether it’s humans or animals, we all are obsessed with fast food.
Streets Kill Strange Animals
McKids
https://music.douban.com/subject/26890171/
Josh Feola is a writer and musician based in Beijing. He’s organized music, art, and film events in the city since 2010, via his label pangbianr and as booking manager of live music venues D-22 and XP. His ongoing event series include the Sally Can’t Dance experimental music festival and the Beijing Electronic Music Encounter (BEME). He has written about music and art for publications including The Wire, LEAP, Sixth Tone, and Tiny Mix Tapes. He also co-authors the Gulou View opinion column for the New York Observer. As a musician, he formerly played drums in Beijing band Chui Wan, recording on and touring behind their debut album, White Night. He currently plays drums in SUBS and Vagus Nerve, and also records and performs under the name Charm.