Rustic

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Rustic
Rustic

Background Information
Name (English) Rustic
Origin Shijiazhuang / Beijing
Genre Fun Punk, Pop Punk
Years active 2006 - present
Members
Vocals + Guitar: 李岩 (Li Yan)

Bass: Ricky Sixx

Drums: 李凡 (Li Fan)

Preview

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Introduction

Rustic, 2009, in HK
Ricky Rustic, 2010, Maybe Mars Showcast in Shanghai, Photo: (c) Jenny Wong, link
Rustic in the Obiwan, Beijing, March 2010, photo: Beijing Daze

The Chinese answer (not to say copy) to The Toy Dolls. ;)

take from their myspace page:

We are three impoverished brethren from East Earth. In march, 2006, two friends of mine and I determined while at the train station in the city of ShiJiaZhuang to form a band called Rustic. I am 20 years old, my name is Li Yan (Lucifer) and I am the lead guitarist and the vocal. I am university freshman even i do not care about it! Drummer Li Fan is 19 years old and has already dropped out of school. He always keeps finding new jobs every day, because he has no money for his future. Bassist Ricky sixx is 20 years old and he is a incredible boy who just made everything rock and roll, and he is crazy about all the 80s hair metal bands! Our old bassist got in trouble and is in jail for four years. When he comes out we will meet him then get him drunk!!! Because we grew up in a very small town and are like farmers we called the band Rustic. In high school I used to be the top student but when I was fifteen I became a very bad student. I always feeling lonely and unhappy with my school and with the kinds of jobs my classmates want, and I think if I do not play music I will lose all of my joy. I cannot live like others are told to live. I think I was born like this. Rustic is my first band and my first try to live the life I want.

We have very little money to buy instruments and audiences cannot pay a lot to see a band or buy drinks in a bar, so sometimes we have to steal our equipment from the shops for the rich people. Also many people and businesses think very bad of rock musicians so they don’t like to help us. They look at us like thieves. But in some ways it is also easy. My foreign friends tell me that in the West there are many false people who are in the rock and roll scene, but in China no one wants to be like us so only people who really love music want to be part of it. Everyone in the scene is friends and we all help each other.

Despite our being inexperienced in rehearsal and performance as a band and our lack of instruments, we were rendered reckless by our exposure to Punk music. Soon thereafter, upon attending Shijiazhuang's fourth rock festival, we lay down musically the difference between quality Punk and imitation.

We couldn't organize ourselves for regular practice for some time, but enjoyed some popularity through casual Sunday performance at a bar called "The Velvet Underground" in Shijiazhuang. We found unifying inspiration upon discovering The Toy Dolls and found through study of their style a flavor we could call our own, as well as a means to advance our instrumentation.

Now, we are life in Beijing now, Beijing is the center of the Chinese music scene. The story continues...... Will it ever end?

Their music is their life attitude: chaos and self-recreation. All they have are nothing but poverty. They wear fake leather shoes that worth 15 RMB and yellow socks that 2 pairs charge 4 RMB. They wear the beautiful worker T-shirts from their mothers and shorts that are almost worn out. And these are really what they are always dreaming of——leading a life of the poor. If they have the chance to play in some bars or music festivals, they’d like to show you the exciting music that come from the poor.

[edit] 2007

On February 14th, they performed in Shijiazhuang's 地下絲絨 bar. on February 27th, they rocked Shijiazhuang's D12 bar. On March 11th, they performed at Shijiazhuang's 地下絲絨 bar as support act to Xiaomin is a Robot. April 1st, they rocked the 地下絲絨 bar in Shijiazhuang. May 5th, they performed at the 地下絲絨 bar as opening act for Blue Fog Color. May 13th, they rocked the 地下絲絨 bar as opening act for the band Dangaozhadan. May 19th, they performed at the Zhongshan Square. June1st, they rocked Baoding's 楽庫 bar. June 7th and 8th, they performed at Shijiazhuang's 裕西 Park during the 嘉年華遊楽場. June 16th, they performed at the 地下絲絨 bar, opening for Brainfailure. Further in June they signed with a record company. On July 21st, they performed at the 地下絲絨 bar. On July 28th, they rocked the 地下絲絨 as opening act for Camel. August 25th, they performed at the 地下絲絨 bar. October 5th, they rocked Beijing's Get Lucky Bar. October 25th, they performed at Beijing's D-22 as opening act for French band ANTI-CLOCKWISE. October 27th, they performed at Beijing's 合炫音楽工廠. December 30th, they performed at Beijing's Mao Livehouse.

[edit] 2008

On June 15th, 2008, they rocked the 太平洋 Sqaure in Shijiazhuang dueing the 6th Shijiazhuang rock music festival (石家庄第六届揺滾音楽節). June 20th, they performed in Beijing's What bar. August 9th, they rocked Beijing's D-22.

[edit] 2009

Rustic taking the GBOB BJ Award, Sep 2009, Photo: Voize
Rustic winning GBOB China Award, Nov 2009, Photo: GBOB

In April, 2009, they had been interviewed for German Ox-Fanzine, issue no. 83. Rustic had recently relocated to Beijing and they described the city as following:

For many years ..Beijing.. was the main city but there were many other good cities, but when D22 opened in 2006 ..Beijing.. became so important and now every band wants to be in ....Beijing...., so it has become very crazy here. When we came also that was the place we really wanted to play and from the first show they really liked us and supported us. For us and most of the young musicians it is like the home where we can have drinks, sleep, meet our friends, and see shows for free. There are lot of great punk bands in ....Beijing.... now, for example Demerit and Joyside are my two favorite, and they are in D22 all the time, so it is exciting for us to meet our heroes. So we play there a lot, and when a band is helped by D22 many other clubs in ....Beijing.... also give us shows. There are also many other clubs in ....Beijing..... There is also many other kinds of new bands. Carsick Cars and Ourself Besides Me are very great post-punk bands, and MaFeiSan is some crazy boys who smash everything and make noise. Snapline is industrial and very famous in ....America..... They all see our shows and we see theirs and everybody likes to do many different things.[1]

On September 20th, 2009, Rustic won the Global Battle of the Bands (GBOB) for Beijing, as per the band: Gibson China President, Mark Klingspon was on hand to present Rustic with a spanking new Gibson S.G. guitar. Lucifer, vocalist of Rustic, proceeded to wrap his arms around Mr. Klingspon in his delight, the whole band waved the guitar around in the air and the band’s joy was clear to see.[2] On September 25th, they performed at the D-22. On October 2nd, they rocked the D-22. On October 3rd, they ventured on for a concert to the 2 Kolegas. On November 7th, they won the GBOB China challenge, taking place in Hongkong. According to the band: The flamboyant rock/punk band, for whom the trip to the final was their first experience of flying, impressed the judges with their exuberant and entertaining performance. Rustic’s lead singer Li Yan(Lucifer) delighted the audience after the results were announced by jumping on stage to declare, “I was born on a farm. I moved to Beijing and chose rock ‘n’ roll because I don’t want to be a farm boy all my life.”. Chris B, GBOB China National Director said:

“Beijing has a thriving live music scene and with a Beijing band representing China at the World Final, the whole world will see what China has to offer. After months of heats & city finals, tonight’s China final was really exciting for fans of live music in China. The bands were all top quality with styles of music ranging from ethnic to rock ‘n’ roll.”[3]


November 21st, they rocked the D-22. November 28th, they performed at the 2 Kolegas. December 5th, they performed at the D-22. December 27th, they rocked the Yugong Yishan. Deember 31st, they rocked the D-22.

[edit] 2010

Rustic, Live in 2010, Photo: Rustic Douban Page
Rustic, Winning the World-wide GBOB in London, Photo: GBOB

On January 16th, 2010, they performed at the D-22. On January 22nd, they performed at the Mao Livehouse Shanghai. According to Andy Best: The audience seemed baffled by Rustic at first and the hall was still filling up but they ended with a flourish. With two more tracks to go, Rikki Sixx spat his beer up into the light stream creating a mist fountain, the guitars were pointed into the crowd and a dance broke out for the first time of the night.[4] On January 23rd, they performed at Hangzhou's Joy Luck Club. February 1st, they rocked the D-22. In the February 2010 issue of TimeOut Beijing, the Team Time Out named them as one of the top acts in 2010.[5] On March 4th, they rocked the Yugong Yishan. On March 12th, they performed at the D-22. On March 13th, they performed at the Obiwan. According to Beijing Daze: They wasted no time opening things up with a few screams and F-bombs before launching into a blistering set of punk rock. At some point, Lucifer (vox/guitar) just dropped his instrument on stage and walked away to grab a beer. At the same time. Rikki knelt next to said guitar using his tongue to play it while playing his Bass with his hands. To be fair, their music was more greeday-ish that 80’s but their attitude was a direct product of Motley Crue; when your bass player is named "ikki Sixx", you kinda expect it! This is not music that will change the world, far from it… but going to a Rustic show is guaranteed fun![6] On April 9th, they rocked the 2 Kolegas. On April 27th, Rustic won the Global Battle of the Bands (GBOB) 2009 Finals in London.[7] According to the official news release:

But after an entertaining evening of truly fantastic performances it’s a shame that only one band could take the title – and that honour fell to flamboyant punk rockers Rustic from Beijing in China (pictured). They were the unanimous first place choice of the judges just ahead of two Nordic contenders in the shape of Endless Dark from Iceland in second place and Explicit Licks from Norway in third. In fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively were Cousin Avi from England, Umlala from Israel and E.Quals from Nepal.[8]

[edit] Further Information

[edit] Official pages

[edit] Articles & Interviews

[edit] Other pages

[edit] Videos

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Interview with Oc-Fanzine issue no. 83, which can be read online at their MySpace Blog Post
  2. ↑ Rustic (2009-09-24). "Rustic Wins Beijing Global Battle Of The Bands 2009!". Retrieved on 2010-04-25.
  3. ↑ Taken from the band's MySpace Page Blog Post
  4. ↑ Andy Best (2010-01-23). "Maybe Mars Showcase @ Mao". Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
  5. ↑ TimeOut Beijing, Music - Eye of the tiger, Page 61, February 2010, issue no. 64
  6. ↑ Beijing Daze (2010-03-22). "what’s the story? Rustic Glory!". Retrieved on 2010-04-25.
  7. ↑ Beijing Daze (2010-04-28). "Hell Yeah: Beijing’s RUSTIC unanimously wins GBOB 2009". Retrieved on 2010-04-28.
  8. ↑ News release by GBOB


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