Apologies to my brothas out there, but February has become Asian appreciation month due to the emergence of one Jeremy Lin. This Taiwanese sensation has ignited the city of New York, revived interest in basketball and made some Asians proud. So what if he’ll probably regress back to some normal state in a few weeks? The damage is done.
Anyways, here are ten Asians in indie bands.
Morning Benders
Chris Chu and John Chu are members of the Morning Benders, and also, cousins with my friend Jocelyn. This Chris Taylor produced band had a massive hit two years ago with the track Excuses and should be back anytime now with a new record. Here is them covering Mark’s favorite song, Lovefool by the Cardigans
Bloc Party
Matt Tong is the drummer for English rock band The Bloc Party, which also features a black singer named Kele. England is so diverse! Not sure if Bloc Party will ever reform (until say 2013/4) but they had some good tracks back in the day. Here is my favorite track of theirs:
Cibo Matto
Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori form Cibo Matto, a band that blends hip hop, electronic, dream pop and any other genre you can dream of into a neat little package. They were quite popular in the late 90s with tracks like Know Your Chicken and Sci Fi Wasabi
Emmy The Great
Emmy Lee Moss is a popular (in indie circles) singer songwriter from England who was born in Hong Kong, my favorite city. She’s released two good albums and has done a bunch of collaborations including a recent Christmas album with her beau, Tim Wheeler from Ash.
Thao Nguyen
Thao Nguyen is perhaps best known for her work with Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Downs but she’s also collaborated in acts such as Thao and Mirah. Basically, if there’s a band with the name Thao in it, chances are high she is in it.
Blonde Redhead
This vaunted New York based dream pop band is fronted by Kazu Makino and has been making atmospheric and dark music for over a decade now. I listened to their 2004 record Misery Is a Butterfly quite a bit back in the day and here is a track off the record.
Dirty Beaches
Dirty Beaches is the solo project of one Alex Zhang Hungtai and the reigning Asian In Indie Music champion based on his highly acclaimed debut Badlands which also netted him a GQ photo shoot. He’s also achieved a great feat in creating music that is distinctively his. Good job, man.
The Go! Team
Chi Fukami Taylor and Kaori Tsuchida are two of the members of sample-rock meets high school cheerleaders outfit The Go! Team. I still remember when their debut record Thunder Lightning Strike came out. It was so original and unique, I don’t think many people knew what to make of it. The tracks still sound fresh today.
Hooded Fang/Phedre
Daniel Lee is one of the leaders of Toronto rock outfit Hooded Fang, who put out one of the better records last year. Look for Daniel as a member of the band Phedre this year. They put out a pretty raunchy video not too long ago.
In Media Res
In Media Res is a Vancouver based band with Andrew Lee on vocals and Ash Poon on guitars. Their 2011 release It Was Warm And Sunny When We First Set Out was picking up momentum when some heartbreaking circumstances forced the band to put their touring on hiatus. Hopefully they’ll be back soon.
There you go, ten Asians in indie music.
On a side note, did you know Jay-Z was half Filipino?
