Over four years, Round Eye has been terrorizing Shanghai audiences with a raucous live show that justified their self-proclaimed title as “the sexiest, hairiest and loudest band in the land of China.” Already staples in the city’s live scene, they’re eager to show off their serious side with their full-length debut album.
“Someone said that Round Eye was a party rock band and that sent (frontman) Chachy into a rage,” explains saxophonist Peter Jackson.
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Written and recorded over a year, Round Eye is 17-tracks of sax-driven freak-rock. Familiar genres like grunge (‘Meat and the Boys’), doo-wop (‘Wait and See’) surf-rock (‘Suntan’) and free jazz (the ‘HeShoRishima’ series) are filtered through the Round Eye blender, emerging as something wholly unique and deranged.
“We wanted not only to break out of the whole party band thing, but also try to reflect Shanghai’s colorful underbelly in a musical narrative,” the singularly-named Chachy explains.
“I liked the idea of us always moving forward with our own sound and wanted to make a record like Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica or the earlier efforts by Butthole Surfers and Flaming Lips.”
Steve Mackay (The Stooges, Violent Femmes) plays tenor sax on more than half of the record and New York Times-anointed lo-fi legend R. Stevie Moore also guests. The band also reached out to a few Shanghai standouts with Black is the Color of My Voice’s Apphia Campbell, J3 Trio’s organist Huang Jain Yi, former Goushen frontwoman Lenz and pipa player Yunnan Chen making appearances.
It’s an expansive disc that will do little to change their polarizing reputation. The group is surprisingly cool with the divide, admitting, “some people hate us.” However, they lament the accusations of racism levied to their name and the ‘Suntan’ music video.
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It’s a laughable charge, considering how much Round Eye has embedded themselves within the Mainland’s music community. They’ve toured the country several times, broken bread with SMZB’s legendary punk frontman Wu Wei in Wuhan and brought their “brothers from another mother” Bedstars to Shanghai for their first show outside of Beijing.
They’re currently recording their sophomore album with P.K. 14 frontman Yang Haisong – an honor bestowed to China’s top young indie acts like Hiperson, The Fallacy and The Yours. An ongoing goal for the group is to convince Beijing blues-punk institutions SUBS to join them on a North American tour.
“Realistically, we’re never going to be accepted as a Chinese band so we’ve always had one eye to the West,” Chachy explains. “Local bands respect that.”
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The disc was released in North America through Ripping Records accompanied by an extensive tour last summer. In addition to performing record release shows in Shanghai and Beijing, Mackay sent the record to friends and punk legends Dead Kennedys’ frontman Jello Biafra and The Minuteman bassist Mike Watt, a fact that Round Eye still can’t believe.
“We still have fun on stage,” Chachy promises. “But the party has to stop at some point. Now we have this record that exists apart from it.”
Shenzhen: June 10, 8.30-10.30pm, RMB60-80. Brown Sugar.
Guangzhou: June 11, 4pm-late, RMB100-120. SD Livehouse.
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