On The Scene: Yugong Yishan 09-20-2013

Part two of my double stint, which began and ended at Wukan Hair Salon by Beixinqiao. Luckily I was able to dash over to Yugong Yishan for a short spell to check out post punk trio Streets Kill Strange Animals who I haven’t given the proper time and day to for some time now. They’ve been on the scene for some time now, and sadly haven’t gotten the notice thst a lot of bands of the same ilk have gotten. Shame shame.

As far as I’m concerned they’ve taken their sound to a whole other level, finding the soul in their dystopian rhythmic rock. Check out more below from the band as well as a quick video of London/South African singer-songwriter Mouth of the Wolf.

I’ve always been intrigued by their noisy, razor sharp, dark brand of post-punk of Streets Kill Strange Animals implore. Well a lot of lyrically-based post punk can formatted around song structures that leave a detached feeling – SKSA know how to really dig into a song rhythmically – a playfulness if you will that too few post punk bands achieve.

Of course it wouldn’t be SKSA if their sound wasn’t full of ragged edges, tight turns, and tempo changes, but instead of letting that become their bane, they use to propel their voice even further, with lyrics offbeat and sincere all at once.

Again, to me it sounds like they’ve lighten up, loosen up, giving their sound a bouncy quality that has only elevated their sound. I expect good things out of these kids in the near future. Perhaps it’s time for a music video.

Before I hail-tailed it out of the near empty joint (there’s nothing sadder than an empty smokeless Yugong Yishan), I doubled back to the stage to glimpse the acoustic guitar wielding Mouth of the Wolf.

Though he couldn’t of had a worse audience, Mouth of the Wolf gave it his all with a set of ethnic stoner folk that was smoothing if a bit muted. Dude knows how to work the guitar though.

I only managed to stay a moment but I’d be curious to catch the Wolf in action again in a smaller venue – his bandcamp output is pretty appealing stuff. Check it out.

 

So there you go – how you pull a double stint.