BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition August 2019

TAIPEI, TAIWAN
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This is my second GMA and third
time talent scouting in Taiwan, and
the awards seem fresher and definitely
more political than previously.
Last year’s GMAs felt a little old
school, the show was a bit corny with
staged, sometimes awkward, flirting
among formally attired presenters.
This year’s show is definitely targeting
younger and the result is a
speedier, more upbeat and modern
event. As you might expect, production
is beyond first rate and the
show’s visuals and graphics are as
good as it gets.
The first politics creep into the
awards when a Hall of Fame presentation
is made for the artistic team at
Black List Studio who fought for freedom
of expression during the “dark”
times of Taiwan’s martial law years,
which ended the same time the Soviet
Bloc disintegrated in the 80s.
A handful of award winners mention
the Hong Kong street protests
against the Chinese government and
calls for solidarity with the protesters
are met by supportive roars from the
crowd.
My jaw drops, not from exhaustion
but surprise when one presenter declares
her desire to “Fight American
Imperialism.” And the big winner
and clear fan favourite is Taiwan pop
star Jolin Tsai who wins Song of the
Year for her track “Womxnly,” which
she wrote in support of a victim of
Taipei 101 Building
homophobic bullying, and Album of
the Year for Ugly Beauty. She underlines
her anti-homophobic message
in her acceptance remarks, a fitting
hit song for the first country in Asia
to legalize same sex marriage.
Her lavish performance featuring
32 dancers performing in “blocks”
stacked on stage is a show highlight
at an event that features tons of elaborate
staging.
A key part of the week of GMA
festivities are the showcases that
provide efficient talent scouting for
the dozens of festival producers and
programmers from around the world
attending.
Three of the most interesting I
meet host festivals in: Mongolia, just
outside Ulaanbaatar (Playtime Festival,
every June), South Korea, in Seoul
and performances at the demilitarized
zone (DMZ), on the border with
North Korea (Zandari Festa and DMZ
Peace Train, Sept 26-29) and smalltown,
really small, Burin, Newfoundland
(Live at Heart, Sept. 24-29).
PRO TIP
White Wabbit Records ,
No. 1-1, Lane 21, Pucheng Street,
Da’an District – Check out one
of Taipei’s indie music meccas at
this combination record label and
store. The label puts out great
indie music and has worked
with Broken Social Scene and
Canada’s Arts & Crafts Records.
This cool, cozy and bright shop
features friendly staff, most of
whom speak English with a great
selection of music, books and,
surprises. Worth dropping by.
GMA showcases are open to the
public and some are held free, outdoors
in the Xingyi district of Taipei,
a posh neighbourhood where the Gucci
logo is not only on the head band
of awesome Mongolian wrapper Ginjin
but on the storefront of the namesake
store, just one of the many ritzy
retailers in this hood near the 101
building, the tallest building in the
world from 2004 until 2010 when a
Dubai skyscraper grabbed the title.
The NBA store in Xingyi is bound
to warm Canadian hearts as their
window display features a huge tribute
to the champion Raptors.
But the main showcasing is held
at Syntrend Clapper Studio, a slick,
shiny, well-equipped room on the
fifth floor of an electronics mall in
the Zhongzheng neighbourhood
that’s jammed with tech stores. Taipei
has the heartbeat of a young city
and the music scene thrives in Live
Houses, surprisingly un-grimy rooms
dedicated to live music. Live Houses
tend to be relatively new, certainly
modern with great sound and tech,
often with great video walls which
most acts take full advantage of.
The sleek Clapper Studio is no
exception, which explains why the
knapsack-wearing fans, and they
almost all have knapsacks, are comfortable
sitting on the floor between
bands.
Top acts at the Studio include the
aforementioned Ginjin who called up
two local rappers, ThaEiht and YZ
to spit with him and who together
confirm my belief that hip-hop is the
most universal of music forms. Listeners
don’t have to understand the
literal meaning of lyrics when the attitudes
and emotions are so evident
and beats are border-busting.
The trippy, brooding and beat-driven
sound of Taipei’s dynamic duo
Astro Bunny is a highlight and their
vocal-driven EDM vibe is beautifully
showcased by dynamic video behind
them.
Fans of BADBADNOTGOOD will
love Taiwan’s Leo37 and SOSS who
wrap some blistering raps in a jazz
and soul-infused package that piles
highlight on top of highlight as a
sizzling sax solo makes way for R&B
crooning all pushed by relentless
rhythms. Taipei-based frontman Leo
Shia tells me backstage afterwards
that he was born in Saskatoon, did
some teenage years in Toronto and
was back in the T-Dot before the
GMAs to be part of the Raptors victory
celebration and to take in Taiwan’s
No Party for Gao Dong at NXNE. ,
Taipei Tips
Raohe St. Night Market
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LATE NIGHT EATS
Few will be surprised to hear there’s amazing street food in Taipei with
seemingly limitless supply of carts and vans dishing out noodles, dumplings
— try the ones filled with soup, but don’t burn your mouth — and
even Taiwanese fried chicken, it’s double-fried delicious.
There are plenty of night markets and they deserve all the hype with
an amazing variety of delicious food — deep fried chicken skin anyone?
— as well as cool clothes bargains and more. Shida Night Market in the
Gongguan neighborhood is great but my favourite is Raohe, although
the biggest is Shilin.
Ichiran Ramen
BEST BET
Ichiran Ramen, 11 Songshu Road,
Xingyi (City Hall Metro), open 24
hours – How good does a noodle
house have to be to have people
lineup, non-stop for 10 days
straight – a world record – to get
their slurps of delicious ramen?
This good!
I hit this soupy oasis, a Japanese
street stall that grew into
a small chain, the first time at 3
am and stroll in – to a weird and
thrilling meal. A somber host
hands me a pre-printed menu
with boxes to check to detail my
meal choices and says, “number
37” directing me into a room lined
with what look like sit-down voting
booths or those stalls people sit
in across from convicts in prison
on visitors day.
Parked in my number 37 booth,
I face a window-sized opening
and after checking the menu
boxes, slide it to the end of the
counter top where a headless
body snatches it away. I can only
see his or her torso through the
“window.”
Relatively quickly, a steaming,
beautifully aromatic bowl
of ramen is plunked in front
of me, the torso on the other
side of the window bows and
then drops a rattan curtain that
closes me off from the kitchen
to eat my meal.
Many call this the best ramen
in the world and I’ll have to
agree until I taste better.
GETTING AROUND
Taxis are cheap and Ubers are
everywhere but Taipei transit is
exceptional, like in much of Asia.
The subway system shames
Canadian ones as sleek, clean
trains run efficiently with low
cost tickets and barriers separate
travellers from the tracks.
And if you want to explore the
rest of the island, try the bullet
train system and cover a distance
equivalent of Montreal to
Toronto in an hour.
SCREEN TIME
DAVID
CROSBY
Director A.J. Eaton’s Remember My Name
turns an honest lens on rock and roll legend
David Crosby By DAVID MCPHERSON
T
ime is not on David Crosby’s side.
If this is indeed his final act, the legendary songwriter has
no plans to go gently into that good night. As a two-time
inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (The Byrds
and Crosby, Stills & Nash) with five decades of pop stardom
behind him, the reality is that musically he has nothing to
prove; yet, in the last five years, since the dissolution of Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young (CSNY), following the supergroup’s 2015 tour, he’s
had one of the most productive periods of his career, releasing four
records, with a fifth on the way.
This creative reawakening piqued the interest of filmmaker A.J.
Eaton. The result: the director’s first full-length documentary, David
Crosby: Remember My Name, which debuted at the Sundance Film
Festival this past January.
Honesty is the film’s central conceit. Twelve-step programs teach
us that honesty is all we’ve got. As a past AA member for 14 years,
the songwriter embraces these teachings. Rather than resort to a
puff piece or hagiography—like so many celebrity documentaries—
Eaton, co-producer Cameron Crowe, along with their main subject
Crosby, knew that to do this right, it had to be the most honest piece
on the pop icon ever produced.
BeatRoute: Why now? What
was the inspiration to create and
release this documentary at this
time?
David Crosby: Largely because of
this surge of work. It doesn’t make
a whole lot of sense to me. I was
supposed to be dead 20 years ago.
At the end of your life, you
should just wave and go off into the
distance gracefully, but instead I’ve
made four records and into a fifth
one. That is not how it is supposed
to go. This got AJ’s [director A.J.
Eaton] attention. He thought it was
“There were a
couple of times I
said to them,
‘Don’t put that in
the movie,’ and
they still put it in;
my only job in the
movie is to not lie.”
fascinating and said he wanted
to do a documentary about it. I
was like, ‘Yeah kid, sure, whatever!’
Then producer Jill Mazursky
mentioned it to Cameron Crowe.
He’s known me since he was 15.
You know the Almost Famous
movie, right? He was the kid and
we [CSNY] were the band.
Cameron said, ‘Let me ask him
the questions.’ Since he is my
friend, they knew I would open
up to him; he knows where all the
bones are buried. He was in the
dressing room when the bones
were being buried!
BR: As you told me when we
jumped on this call, some people
felt this film is too in-your-face,
that there is too much truth and
honesty to handle, but that’s the
point, right?
DC: Definitely. Cameron [Crowe],
AJ [Eaton] and I have all seen
how other people make documentaries
and we did not want
to do that. What I call a shine job,
where they say, ‘isn’t that great,
isn’t he cute, he is so lovely, etc.
CONTINUED ON PG. 38 k
David Crosby:
Remember
My Name
David Crosby: Remember My
Name is a frank feature about
a complicated soul seeking solace,
redemption and catharsis
as he lives out the final chapters
of his life. In this telling tale,
Crosby stars as the flawed human
being in his own melodrama.
It’s an in-your-face, no holds
barred bearing of the truth. Can
you handle it?
This intimate, honest portrait
of an artist as an old man is a
collaboration between director
A.J. Eaton and Oscar-winning
producer Cameron Crowe (Jerry
Maguire, Almost Famous); it’s a
raw and powerful piece of cinema.
Fear is the central theme
that weaves throughout the
93-minute drama. The septuagenarian
Crosby is afraid. What
does the songwriter fear? Death
of course. As he says when
prompted by Crowe (who has
known his subject since he first
interviewed him as an aspiring
teenage rock writer for Rolling
Stone), so can ask the most
pointed and difficult questions,
“I’m afraid of dying and I’m
close. I don’t like it … I want a lot
more time.”
Honesty is the film’s central
conceit. If you believe this chief
idea postulated by the filmmakers
and carried out through
Crosby’s heartfelt interviews,
you, like I, come away from
watching this movie moved.
Remember My Name leaves
the viewer with a newfound respect
for Crosby and a greater
understanding of the man and
his music. There’s no doubt,
when the final credits roll, I’ll not
forget Crosby’s journey. I’m sure
you won’t either.
By DAVID MCPHERSON
36 BEATROUTE AUGUST 2019
AUGUST 2019 BEATROUTE 37