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Omnipotent Youth Society
Studio album by
Omnipotent Youth Society
ReleasedNovember 12, 2010
Genre
Length51:56
LanguageMandarin
LabelIndependent Label
ProducerOmnipotent Youth Society
Omnipotent Youth Society chronology
Omnipotent Youth Society
(2010) 		Wuyundiandangji
(2013)

Omnipotent Youth Society is a self-titled debut album by the cognominal Chinese indie rock band Omnipotent Youth Society. The album, released independently on November 12, 2010, was the first studio album of the band since its establishment in Shijiazhuang, Hebei in 1996. After many personnel changes, the members of the band were Dong Yaqian, Shi Li, Ji Geng, and Yang Yougeng by the time Omnipotent Youth Society was released.

The album features a variety of genres, ranging from blues-style solos to folk-rock, progressive rock, alternative rock, hard rock, blues-rock, and elements related to free jazz. The lyrics deal with social issues, politics, depression, and the idiosyncrasies of the younger generation. Some brass instruments are used, such as saxophone, trumpet, and cello.[1][2] The trumpet played by Shi Li takes a large part in the album.[3]

Since its release, the album has received positive reviews from some music critics and mainstream media in Mainland China and Taiwan. The album helped OYS win the Best Band Award on the 11th Chinese Music Media Awards and seven nominations of other awards. The success of the album also popularized OYS in Taiwan and influenced the local music industry.

Recording

Actually (we) weren't particularly interested in studying rock music at that time. All we did was practice day and night. I even avoided playing rock n' roll and felt like playing jazz and blues more, like John Scofield.

Dong describing his time spent in Qinhuangdao in an interview by Southern People Weekly, 2000.[4]

Influenced by American rock band Blind Melon, The Nico was formed in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China in 1996. The band was named after the daughter of Shannon Hoon, the lead vocalist of Blind Melon at the time.[5] The initial members were Ji Geng (Bass), Zhang Peidong (Drum), and Dong Yaqian (Guitar and lead vocalist). They considered of writing lyrics in English at first.[6] In 2000, Dong Yaqian suffered a serious depression after his childhood friend and classmate, Ji Geng went to the south of China for further study. After a month of accompanying Ji Geng's study, Dong Yaqian went to Qinhuangdao to recuperate for a while. During this period, Dong was practising the guitar all the time and composed the melody of “Qinhuangdao“. Cui Xudong, the guitarist, was thereafter added to the band in 2000. In 2001, Zhang Peidong, the drummer, left the band to pursue further study in Japan. After the new drummer, Xun Liang joined the band, The Nico officially changed its name into Omnipotent Youth Society under the suggestion of Ji at the end of the same year.[4][5] Ji wrote the lyrics of The Less Than Omnipotent Comedy in 2003, and it was the first successful try on lyrics by OYS.[6] In 2004, Xun and Cui left the band, and Ji went to Hebei Normal University for postgraduate study in English. By the year 2006, Dong returned to Shijiazhuang, and Ji returned to OYS. They recruited Feng Yuliang (Saxist), Lu Zhi (Cellist), and Shi Li (Trumpeter).[5] Since 2007, OYS started performing some of the songs in OYS (album) in live houses like Mao Live.[7][8]

Before the official recording of OYS started, some demos recorded by band members in 2003-2004 had already been spread widely on the internet.[3] The recording work officially started in 2008. Band members were reluctant to go to studios for the work, so they planned to finish the job at home, which brought lots of problems.[4] In the beginning, OYS only had a U-87 microphone and purchased Fender deluxe reverbs, but the results were not satisfying. They later realized it was essential to use microphone preamplifier and then spent 16,000 RMB to get one. With the new equipment, OYS finally finished the recording of electric guitar part of “Ten Thousand Hippies” and “Qinhuangdao”. Then the band found that their room was too small to guarantee the quality of drum track recording, so they gave up the idea of recording all the songs and turned to rearrange current works. Dong got to know about multitrack recorders later and asked friends to buy two of them on French websites. By the time OYS went to Beijing, they obtained some pre-owned acoustic boards to reform their recording room. They finished the recording of flute, acoustic guitar, and jazz drum tracks there. Then they returned to Shijiazhuang, used multi-track recorders to finish recording tracks of the trumpet, vocal, and bass. The recording was finally finished after the audio mix.[6]

Songs and themes

If we replace the "pubs" with "squares", the message is more than clear. "They did drive the tanks to the streets" at that time.

Ji's explanation of the lyrics of "All the Pubs on This Planet"[6]

The song is about a family of three, about the tragedy happening in daily life. It's about an indifferent father, a desperate mother, and an untamed son. There were a lot of families like this in my neighbourhood. It's not a normal process of growing up (for a child); rather, it's a process of nibbling his passion and self-esteem.

Ji's explanation of the lyrics of "Kill that Man from Shijiazhuang"[4]

While Ji wrote all the lyrics for the OYS album, Dong composed them. And the other members were responsible for the arrangement of parts of their own instruments.[4]

Performance of trumpet and other instruments at the ending of "Big Rock Smashing on the Chest". Trumpet is featured extensively.
Guitar noise and free-jazz in "All the Pubs on This Planet"（A 30-second excerpt）

The first track, "The Hall of Dog's Urine", and the fifth song, "Summer Record of Foreign birds", are purely instrumental.

The second track, "The Non-omnipotent Comedy ", consists of only eight lines of lyrics throughout the song, and has a coda that accounts for the majority of the song's length. OYS released different versions of this song since, including an unplugged version, a pure playing version, and a trumpet-free version, which represent the traces of the band's experiment on music for almost six years.

The sixth track "Qinhuangdao" was composed by Dong when he was recuperating from depression in Qinhuangdao. Ji Geng's lyrics described Dong's depression at that time.[9][10][11]

The seventh track, "One Hundred Thousand Hippies" describes the characteristics of the younger generation and Dong, and sets Dong as the main character of the song.[6] For example, the lyrics "like to have a dog" and "Mr Dong, who dreamt a long dream " show the behaviours and characteristics that Dong had. The lyrics of this song not only have the harmonious nature of parallelism, but also interlaces long and short sentences.[4]

The eighth track, "All the Pubs on This Planet", is seen by some to have political implications, with lyrics such as "...singing only the love songs but seeing no tanks" and "All the pubs on This Planet..." which are believed to refer to 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Ji Geng, the songwriter, admitted that he replaced the word "square" with "pub" to make "cruel" things "relatively romantic". The arrangements of this song feature many instruments: starting with a blues slide, proceeding with a solo of early-style-blues, and ending with guitar noise and free jazz.[11]

The ninth track, "Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang," has sparked a lot of speculation and discussion about the laid-off waves and plight of the transition led by Shijiazhuang bombings. However, Ji explained that the song was to describe a particular kind of family in during that period.[4]

Release

In 2006, the mini-album “What are the Junkies up to?” was uploaded to the Internet, containing demos of "Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang", " The Non-omnipotent Comedy " and "Qinhuangdao", which were recorded by OYS between 2003 and 2004. Shi confirmed that a friend of the band uploaded it without the band's knowledge.[6] In 2007, a demo of the album " The Non-omnipotent Comedy (unplugged) " was released on Pocket Music Picks 01.[12]

Before the release of the official album, the band released several bootleg recordings while touring, including live versions of the album's tracks, such as " Omnipotent Youth Society @mao (2007)”, "Live at MAO Beijing 2008" (2008), "Live at MAO Beijing 2009" (2009), and "Live at SOHO 2010" (2010). These bootleg albums include live versions of "Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang", " The Non-omnipotent Comedy", "Qinhuangdao," "One Hundred Thousand Hippies," and "Big Block Smashing on the Chest" with some of the band's unpublished songs.[13][14][7][8]

The CD version of the official album was originally released on November 12, 2010, by the band themselves, and the signing was hosted at the Yuyintang bar.[15] This album has been issued three times by now. The first two editions are basically the same, and the third releases are printed on the back "third edition | March 2016".[16] In July 2011, the band released a CD version of the album in Taiwan independently.[17][18]

Influence

Li Guangping, from the Chinese Music Media Awards committee commented spoke highly of OYS: "(OYS) is the best dark horse in the end of this year. (OYS) features folk rock and unfamiliar melodies, leaping thoughts like poetry, dense, subtle, and twisting metaphors, young and lazy singing like moans. All these features let OYS stand out among a mass of rock bands which are struggling to survive. I love their profound and imagistic thinking, such as ' lived like this for 30 years; until the building collapsed!' it's so graphic and shocking."[19]

Ma Shifang, a Taiwan music critic also commented positively: "In just one night, you have conquered all Chinese music critics and become the saviors of Chinese rock music."[6]

"The band has miraculously presented a united front of aesthetic standards of rock music," said Zhang Xiaozhou, another music critic.[20]

Ifeng.com, Hebei:" In the context that Chinese rock music is gradually losing a say internationally, Wan Qing (an abbreviation of OYS) managed to restore people's faith in Chinese rock and roll, bringing back the initial feeling of being touched that rock fans once had.[21]
After its release, the album went popular with listeners and musicians from Taiwan,[22][6] and influenced the local music industry to some extent.[23]。[24] Many well-known singers have covered songs of OYS. Zhang Xuan covered "Qinhuangdao" [25] and "Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang,[26] Hebe Tien covered “One Hundred Thousand Hippies,[27][28] The indie rock band Lao Wang covered "Qinhuangdao" too.[29] The Taiwan band No Party for Caodong was referred to by some media as "Taipei OYS".[30][23]

The album won the Best Band Award at the 11th Chinese Music Media Awards and seven other nominations.[19][31]

Track listing

No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."The Hall of Dog's Urine (intro)" (狗尿馆(intro)) Dong Yaqian1:56
2."The Non-omnipotent Comedy" (不万能的喜剧)Ji GengDong Yaqian5:34
3."A Heart Wrenching Joke and a Long Daydream" (揪心的玩笑与漫长的白日梦)Ji GengDong Yaqian5:35
4."Big Block Smashing on the Chest" (大石碎胸口)Ji GengDong Yaqian7:03
5."Summer Record of Foreign birds" (洋鸟消夏录) Dong Yaqian1:10
6."Qinhuangdao" (秦皇岛)Ji GengDong Yaqian8:05
7."One Hundred Thousand Hippies" (十萬嬉皮)Ji GengDong Yaqian4:45
8."All the Pubs on This Planet" (在这颗行星所有的酒馆)Ji GengDong Yaqian9:09
9."Kill That Man from Shijiazhuang" (杀死那个石家庄人)Ji GengDong Yaqian5:44
Total length:51:56

References

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  2. ^ 艺术中国 (2012-07-11). "万能青年旅店乐队：希望80岁还能叫万青". 《东方早报》.
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  5. ^ a b c 滚石中国 (2006). ""当摇滚明星是小蛋仔儿的想法，我要当艺术家"——万能青年旅店乐队专访". 《滚石中国》. Archived from the original on 2019-01-28. Retrieved 2019-01-28.
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  14. ^ "Live at MAO Beijing 2009 (豆瓣)". music.douban.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  15. ^ Group, SEEC Media. "Interview: Omnipotent Youth Society". www.timeoutshanghai.com. Retrieved 2019-01-31. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ 《万能青年旅店》万能青年旅店.万能青年旅店.ISRC CN-A08-09-317-00/A.J6
  17. ^ "萬能青年旅店 (豆瓣)". music.douban.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-27. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  18. ^ 《万能青年旅店》万能青年旅店.摩登天空.4712702140422
  19. ^ a b 网易. "华语传媒大奖冬季十大专辑：万能青年旅店登顶_网易娱乐". ent.163.com. Archived from the original on 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  20. ^ sina_mobile (2011-05-26). "万能青年旅店乐队：我们宁可一直活得不太理性". ent.sina.cn. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
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  22. ^ "宋冬野、万青走红台湾：田馥甄刘若英秒变粉丝-搜狐音乐". music.yule.sohu.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-29. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  23. ^ a b "草东没有派对：一群怒已不争的少年用音乐对抗世界_有戏_澎湃新闻-The Paper". www.thepaper.cn. Archived from the original on 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  24. ^ 观察者网 (2018-07-31). "为什么越来越多台湾乐队开始唱大陆腔？|宋冬野|万能青年旅店|大陆_新浪网". k.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2019-02-08.
  25. ^ 爱奇艺-iqiyi.com. "张悬 秦皇岛 （原唱：万能青年旅店）". www.iqiyi.com (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  26. ^ "「万能青年旅店《杀死那个石家庄人》」怀念一下短发的董二千和13年的三甲港 "如此生活三十年直到大厦崩塌，云层深处的黑暗啊淹没心底的景观"送给每一个生于理想，死于欲望的人". video.m.baidu.com. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  27. ^ "十万嬉皮 (豆瓣)". music.douban.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-31. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
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  29. ^ "老王乐队：我还年轻，我还年轻…… - 大事 - 街声 - StreetVoice - 原创音乐资讯平台". dashi.streetvoice.cn. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
  30. ^ 民谣与诗 (28 February 2017). "他们被称为"台湾的万青"，不到20岁出道两年就火到一票难求". Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  31. ^ 南方都市报 (12 April 2011). "华语音乐传媒大奖提名名单揭晓 "万青"成大热". Retrieved 31 January 2019.
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