Monday, April 29, 2013

Ramblers at the Yilan Green Expo

Put on your best flip-flops and grab your douli! (That's the local name for the type of straw hat worn by the guy planting rice seedlings  in the photograph below). The Ramblers are heading to Yilan this Wednesday, May 1, 2013.

We'll be playing at the Wulaokeng Scenic Area (武荖坑風景區) in Yilan County. We will not be performing informally on the sidewalk, as we occasionally do in our own  backyard at the legendary Bitan riverside in Xindian, however.



Instead, we’re appearing at the 2013 Yilan Green Expo (宜蘭綠色博覽會), where this year’s theme is Return to Forest. You'll find the address at the bottom of this post. Sure, the Taipei Times was just a little snarky when it commented on the Green Expo back in March,

Finding a sustainable solution to preserving our modern lifestyles and conserving Taiwan’s increasingly threatened natural habitat tops the agenda, though you probably wouldn’t guess it from the host of fun activities, lucky draws, performances and DIY workshops to be found there.
but a tour agency (whose copywriter had obviously studied a press release carefully, but translated it rather carelessly) was much more positive when describing the expo on its website, 
Due to the trend of eco-conscious, Yilan hold a green expo annually to encourage the public to join such environmental protecting activities such as planting and recycling during their daily lives and nature power....visitors will gain more info of sustainable ecology, environmental protection education, green lifestyle and their combinations through 12 exhibits and hands-on experience zones, such as Ecology Hall, Flower Hall, Fishing Hall, Farming Hall, Atayal Native Hall, Shrimp Hall, Charcoal Hall and so on.
There's no telling which hall we'll find ourselves in, but it won't matter much (as long as we've got a roof -- Ilan is so very green for a reason). We're looking forward to the nature power; it's supposed to be even better for you than a forest shower!

We’re definitely ready to play for an audience, as the long days we’re putting in at Soundkiss as we record our second CD don’t offer much positive feedback. Sure, Alex and Crystal are appreciative of our efforts, but they don’t break out in dance when we play, nor do they project the innocent curiosity that the very young and the very old do when first listening to us raise a ruckus.

We’ll be playing two shows, at 11:30 A.M. and 3:30 P.M, so we’re going to have double the fun. Leaving Taipei at 7 A.M., so we can be on hand for a 9 A.M. sound check, won’t be quite so amusing, but the thought of an impending Yilan ramble will no doubt rouse us all from our dreams. Whether your day starts early or late, you'll have plenty of time to make it for at least one of the shows.

Wednesday’s a holiday, Labor Day, so most of you in Taiwan will have the day off. It’s easy to drive to Yilan, at least from Taipei, and Wulaokeng is near the end of Highway 5, not far from the Suaoxin (New Suao) Train Station. You could also take the train or a bus to Suao and take a taxi up to Wulaokeng. See? There's really no excuse not to come along.




The Wulaokeng Scenic Area (武荖坑風景區) is located at 75 Wulaokeng Rd, Suao Township, Yilan County (宜蘭縣蘇澳鎮武荖坑路75). You can use the map above (zoom in to see more detail) to find your way, however you choose to travel.

Admission to the Green Expo is NT$250 for adults and NT$200 for children 7 to 12 years of age. It's for a good cause -- Nature Power!




Saturday, April 13, 2013

Spring Scream Wrap Up

If you're looking for a wrap-up of the Rambler's Spring Scream weekend, you've come to the right place. No, it's not here, but I can point you directly to it, on Top Cat's blog. He covers all the good bits, flings a bit of mud (there was plenty to go around), but remains his inimitable, unflappable self.

He mentions that Thumper had a camera strapped to his head the entire show, and I'm sure he's dreading seeing what video might come of that.  Lest he wonder much longer, here it is.


Apologies to anyone who gets a headache, become nauseous, or goes blind from watching it. It's quite jittery in parts. Apparently ol' Thumper dances the whole time he's playing, and that involves a lot of head bobbing.

The audio was recorded live on stage, so what you're hearing is basically what it sounded like to us.

In his post, Top Cat mentions that we'll be busy in the studio working on our CD for much of the summer, but we've got a couple of gigs coming up in May. The first of those is on May first in Ilan. Check back here in another ten days or so to learn more about that event.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Rambling to Spring Scream 2013


The Ramblers consider themselves one of the older bands in Taiwan, not just because our average age is well above that of many groups, and much of our music is from the early years of the last century (or just sounds like it); it is to our longevity that the term older most accurately applies.

We got our start in 2003 when Dave brought us all together to jam to some of the nuggets of delta blues and jug band music, but our upcoming gig is at Kenting’s Spring Scream, which has been around twice that long. Founded by Jimi Moe and Wade Davis, Spring Scream has been a fixture in Kengting since 1995.

According to Rambler legend, Conor of the Harp attended the first one at Magic Studios, a pub on Kenting’s main drag (and next to a vacant lot where camping and stalls were permitted). Thumper claims to be at the next one, also at Magic Studio, although he couldn’t remember the name of the pub and had to rely on Spring Scream’s Wikipedia entry for that factoid.

Many of us, okay, five of us, have been to the Scream at least once, usually as attendees, but also as performers, and one of us operated a food stall there one year. The lone holdout would be Top Cat, who claims, nay, boasts, that he has never suffered the ignominy of frolicking with the unwashed at Taiwan’s premiere music festival. Sorry Formoz and Hohaiyan, you’re johnnies-come-lately on the scene.

According to an uncharacteristically long email from Conor, he played the “third or fourth or fifth one with the famousPsycho Xiaojie (still got pictures of that somewhere), the band that coined a term still in currency on the same island today.” Certainly, few of you are familiar with that band, and if don’t know what the term means today, well, ask around. You won’t find it on wiki. Conor also shared one of the miracles that sometimes occur at the Scream. “Another time we both lost our boots, then found them again out in the field, and that made us feel blessed and grateful all the way on the bus back to Taipei, celebrating with Taiwan Beer.”

Dave, on the other hand, was somewhat reticent to share his experiences of attending or performing at the Scream, with symptoms that seem to suggest PTSD from his time with band The Pocket Monkeys.  He did, however, write about the event while a scribe for one of the beautiful island’s English language broadsheets. A cursory goggle on the Internet reveals numerous articles introducing Spring Scream’s many attractions and penned by the Mucha Bard, but I couldn’t bear to read any of them. If you’ve been at least once, you’ll know that no introduction of Spring Scream does the event justice.

See, it’s not about the music as much as the experience of taking part. Just ask Sandman.

With probably the most posts of any Forumosa member (tell me I’m wrong), the Scottish mannequin pulled this nugget from his memory, “All-night drive suffering from the flu -- with both of the Fxxxx brothers in the back.” Half of that story is terrible, the other calamitous. You figure out which is which. Thumper remembers that show, but he wasn’t performing; he was prowling the already crowded stage to film the band. If memory serves, the quality of the mix coming out of the PA was atrocious, and the soundman should probably count himself lucky for not tangling with either of the twins. ‘Nuff said.

Sometimes the music is the last thing people talk about after spending a Scream at the southern tip of the island.

Loquacious Slim, veteran of many a Spring idyll in Kenting, the other tip town, wondered which of his many stories were suitable to share. Thumper was quick to jog his memory of time they spent at the Lioufu Farm, the home of Spring Scream from 1999 to 2006. The one event both remembered fondly was speaking with a Hari Krishna just before leaving Kenting for a relaxing week at the Sanyuan Campground, now illegally occupied by the Miramar Hotel, in Taidong.

For Thumper, the stand out Scream was 2001 (or maybe 2000), when he operated a food stand serving what he claimed was Mexican food with his wife and two friends. That was a particularly wet and muddy Scream, and with three 18-hour days of work, the crew only covered its expenses, but what a gas. The food was slow-cooked, delicious, reasonably priced, and available from noon to 2 AM. Truth be told, there wasn’t much Mexican about the food, but it was hot, spicy, and wrapped in a tortilla from Costco. With the Jaegermeister stall right next door, Screamers could sate their appetites in a fine fashion, and step under the canopy to escape the rain.

Just had a look through my keepsakes from long ago, and lo and behold, there is the fired clay medallion that served as the all-access pass for the Scream that year!

An earlier Scream memory for Thumper was showing films on the projector set up after the bands had knocked off for the night.  One was a short film about his neighbor that won an award in a Taipei District Court (long story, ask me later), and the other was a collection of scenes from one of the pan-blue demonstrations at the intersection of Zhongshan South Road and Ketagalan Ave. Had the good fortune of meeting Stan (of Si Bang-ah) at that one.

Thumper also attended one of the years when the Scream was held on a patch of land just off the beach (now a private beach – shakes fist at developers!) in Kenting. That year, he and his wife ventured south with friends of theirs from the Xindian community that had recently moved to.  He stayed at the newly opened Kenting Howard Plaza, or whatever it was called then, and remembers letting a (now departed) friend into his room to use the shower, and to replace the bathroom slippers he had lost somewhere on his journey.

Is it surprising that with all of these stories, the music plays such a small role? With a handful of bands at first, and now hundreds of groups, Spring Scream is required listening (anyone still have those compilation CDs with music from the previous year that they used to give away?) for any fan of indy music in Taiwan.  Thumper’s favorites from way back include Q (a comedic bluegrass band), Miracle Saru (from Japan), Mimi Chan (also Japanese), Milk (expats from Taichung, some still around, though the band has gone)  and the then unknowns MC Hot Dog and Dog G (from Taiwan).

According to journalista Alita Rickards, her top picks for Spring Scream 2013, Year of the Snake, include the following ten groups. “Post-rock soundscape masters Collider top my agenda, with the rest in no particular order: rock and rollers 88 Guava Seeds 八十八顆芭樂籽), pop-punk-garage group White Eyes (白目), rocker boys Liger Attack, who have a whole new roster of original songs I'm excited to hear, fun bouncy poprock grrrls No Money No Honey, Dr. Reniculous Lipz and the Skallyunz live hip-hop and funk, old-style jug band The Muddy Basin Ramblers, rock-funk-rap from Coach, psychedelic rockers Blind Acid Date, and live electro-dance act Kid Millionaire.” I doubt I’ll get a chance to see most of these groups, but I’ll definitely make one.

If you’re coming down for this year’s Scream, the Ramblers will be performing at 5 PM on Saturday, April 6, on the Green Leaf stage. Here’s a link to the map of Spring Scream. You can find all the pertinent information about this year’s event on the SpringScream site.

We'd love to see you in Eluanbi (near the lighthouse at the southern tip of Taiwan) for Spring Scream Double Snake. If you can't make it to this show, we'll be at the Green Expo in Ilan on May 1 and back in Taipei on May 11, opening for Bob Log III at Taipei Artist Village. Check back for details.

That's right. No photographs to accompany this post. After reading 1350 words, give your eyes a rest. Or, head over to YouTube to see what videos of performances at past years have been posted.