Lonely China Day

Last updated April 20, 2019

Lonely China Day (Chinese :寂寞.夏.日; pinyin :jìmò xià rì) is a Chinese indie rock band from Beijing.^[1]

Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases not mutually intelligible, language varieties, forming the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the ethnic Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China. About 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language.

Hanyu Pinyin, often abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, which is normally written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters.

Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, some indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

Music

The marquee band of the Tag Team Records label,^[2] Lonely China Day has a sound that has been compared to that of Sigur Rós, due to a use of methodical, droning guitars and non-English lyrics.^[1]^[3] Lead singer Deng Pei performs in Mandarin, drawing some of his lyrics from ancient Chinese poetry.^[3] Deng Pei was a natural left-handed guitar player, but as he was not initially able to locate and acquire a left-handed guitar, he performed from the opposite side until he sustained an injury to his little finger, necessitating a change back to his natural side.^[3]

Sigur Rós are an Icelandic avant-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and the use of bowed guitar, the band's music incorporates classical and minimal aesthetic elements.

Standard Chinese, also known as Modern Standard Mandarin, Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin Chinese (MSMC), or simply Mandarin, is a standard variety of Chinese that is the sole official language of China, the de facto official language of Taiwan and also one of the four official languages of Singapore. Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese.

The little finger, or pinky finger, also known as the fifth digit, or pinkie, is the most ulnar and smallest finger of the human hand, opposite the thumb, and next to the ring finger.

The band released their debut, an eponymous EP, with Tag Team in 2006, and followed up with their full-length debut, entitled Sorrow, in 2007. Allmusic gave Sorrow a largely positive review, awarding three stars out of a possible five.^[3] Reviewer Stewart Mason said that "fans of...ambitious neo-prog will likely find much to enjoy on Sorrow", but also noted that the album might seem inaccessible to casual listeners.^[3]

That same year, Lonely China Day performed at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.^[4]

South by Southwest is an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987, and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with SXSW interactive lasting for five days, music for seven days and film running concurrently for nine days.

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. It is the 11th-most populous city in the United States and the 4th-most populous city in Texas. It is also the fastest growing large city in the United States, the second most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona, and the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States. As of the U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2017 estimate, Austin had a population of 950,715 up from 790,491 at the 2010 census. The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan statistical area, which had an estimated population of 2,115,827 as of July 1, 2017. Located in Central Texas within the greater Texas Hill Country, it is home to numerous lakes, rivers, and waterways, including Lady Bird Lake and Lake Travis on the Colorado River, Barton Springs, McKinney Falls, and Lake Walter E. Long.

Their second album, This Readily Assimilative People, was released on June 19, 2010.

Members

Deng Pei - vocals, guitar
Wang Dongtao - guitar
He Feng - bass guitar
Luo Hao - drums

External links

The Beijinger is a free monthly English language listings and entertainment website and magazine produced by True Run Media in Beijing, China. It was launched in October 2001 as that's Beijing and began as a print magazine under the auspices of Mark Kitto, the then publisher of that's Shanghai, and a succession of local publishers and government sponsors, including the Yangzhou Cultural Bureau, China Newsweek and China Intercontinental Press (CIP).

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References

1 2 Pareles, Jon. "Singing and Doing the Hustle in Austin", The New York Times, published March 19, 2007, accessed February 15, 2008.
↑ Song, Berwin. "Up Front: Capital Records Archived 2008-01-13 at the Wayback Machine .", That's Beijing Magazine online, published September 2, 2007, accessed February 15, 2008.
1 2 3 4 5 Mason, Stewart. "Sorrow - Overview", Allmusic, accessed February 15, 2008.
↑ Beets, Greg. "Japaniversary - Japan, China, and southward along the Pacific Rim", The Austin Chronicle, published February 23, 2007, accessed February 15, 2008.

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[pareles-1] 1 2 Pareles, Jon. "Singing and Doing the Hustle in Austin", The New York Times, published March 19, 2007, accessed February 15, 2008.

[song-2] Song, Berwin. "Up Front: Capital Records Archived 2008-01-13 at the Wayback Machine .", That's Beijing Magazine online, published September 2, 2007, accessed February 15, 2008.

[mason-3] 1 2 3 4 5 Mason, Stewart. "Sorrow - Overview", Allmusic, accessed February 15, 2008.

[beets-4] Beets, Greg. "Japaniversary - Japan, China, and southward along the Pacific Rim", The Austin Chronicle, published February 23, 2007, accessed February 15, 2008.