Talking Tunes: A Blinging Good Start to the Weekend Before the Big One on Wednesday

Quiza ft. BX - One Dream

Mongolian Bling should be good tonight. It's not strictly a music show, but a screening of a documentary about the hip-hop scene in Mongolia followed by performances from some of the film's stars and a Q&A session with director Benj Binks. We interviewed Benj earlier this week – check that out here.

Not a great deal going on musically elsewhere tonight. Music Soulz play at Temple in Gulou, but it's tomorrow when the weekend really hits its stride. JUE Festival brings us a number of interesting shows for the next couple of weeks, and that continues on Friday night (Mar 15) at MAO Livehouse when Golden Melody Award-winning reggae outift Matzka perform. That's followed on Saturday night (Mar 16) by a performance from Australian guitar maestro Jeff Lang at Yugong Yishan before Sunday's (Mar 17) Emerging Young Artists Showcase also at Yugong Yishan. A great lineup sees minimalist experimental rockers Snapline, Beijing indie darlings Residence A, and Mr. Graceless in line to play amongst others.

Elsewhere over the next seven days:

• The Beijing Beatles rock 2 Kolegas on Friday night (Mar 15)
• The Amazing Insurance Salesmen celebrate three years together on Saturday night (Mar 16)
• Seminal post punks Gang of Four play at Yugong Yishan as part of JUE Festival on Wednesday (Mar 20)
• Swedish pop princess Amanda Mair performs an intimate set at Jiang Hu Liveshow Bar on the same night (Mar 20)

We haven't received the confirmation from the promoters yet, but it looks increasingly like the postponed This Will Destroy You show will be held on May 24. That was one I didn't think we'd hear of again, but we'll confirm as soon as we hear anything solid.

Something that we did receive some confirmation of this week was that the Beijing Dongpai Folk Festival (née Ditan Folk Festival) will go ahead on May 4 and 5 at the much bigger Chaoyang Park. Organizers tell us they're eager to maintain the intimate atmosphere that many festival-goers enjoyed at the Ditan site. It's a bold move from the organizers, but as we noted last year, the festival seemed like it would benefit from a new lease of life. And with audio giants Sennheiser on board as audio sponsors, the sound issues that had long plagued its Ditan predecessor could be put to rest. The lineup is yet to be confirmed, but were on standby for one that will showcase some of Beijing's lesser known or newer talent. They'll also be introducing a second stage, and longer 40-minute performance slots instead of the traditional 10 minutes.

US darkwave outfit Cold Cave will be in Beijing this summer as part of this year's Midi Festival, but we've received word that they'll also play a show at Temple on April 29. Meanwhile, Kiwi post-punks So So Modern, also in town for Midi, will play Temple on April 30 before heading off.

To play us out this week, we opted for "Live Magazine" by Cold Cave.

You can check out a full list of our music events here.