[10 years of web design and this is his crappy homepage??!]

Dave was in China from 1995 to 2003, working in Beijing's burgeoning music and advertising industry.
Dave was fortunate enough to be on the ground floor of several "Firsts" in China:
-was one of the first designers for Beijing Scene, the first indy foreign newspaper
-was "that white guy" who did the first punk rock concerts in haidian in 1996
-was the "other white guy" who worked for Peter Loehr's IMAR films, China's first indy film company
-worked for Rock Records / Magicstone, China's first label to take rock and metal seriously
-was the "first white boy" to enter China's national skateboard contest (I got in the top 10!!)

VIDEOS ON CHINESE PUNK ARE AT MY YOUTUBE PAGE: www.youtube.com/texasdaveodell

PICS ARE AT THE FACEBOOK PAGE: -- www.facebook.com/texasdaveohell (yes, OHell... it's a joke)

dave's latest paintings OFFLINE - picture system got hacked, it's all on facebook now... (since I can't find a new or renew my old musical lifestyle, I've returned to painting as a creative outlet - disappointing, but refreshing at the same time. My style is what I would call non-religious "iconography" where concepts of emotions, somewhat deadpan, are turned into metaphors of shape and color.) YOU CAN RATE THEM!

Chinese punk rock pictures OFFLINE -- please check my youtube page for videos. the picture system got hacked and spammed... (the original punk rock scene in china, 1995-2000) YOU CAN RATE THEM TOO!

Brain Failure was the old Chinese punk band I was in for a few years from 1999-2002. For a period of time we were the best live show in China, thanks to Xiao Rong's amazing energy and spirit. After their first incarnation dissolved, Xiao Rong and I started up the latest version that is un-officially the most traveled Rock band in the history of China (4 United States tours to more than 50 cities). They're now on Bad News Records out of Japan.

Chinese punk rock music videos from Brain Failure - probably the only ones ever online. There are two of them. 1) Living in the City [BIG 30 meg version - small tiny 2 meg version] - this one is the video I shot and edited using lots of footage from a bunch of our old live shows. It was included on our CD of the live show at CD Cafe in 2000. 2) Fucking Disco - done by some local director who basically copied my video (notice the subway)... Hey Director dude -- the song is about trashing a disco, not driving around Beijing in a truck...! This one actually made it to TV in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Brain Failure chinese punk rock mp3 collection -

CD CAFE live show with the Japanese punk band SOBUT (1999-2000, I can't remember. This was one of the best shows we ever had and luckily Yang Fan was able to catch it with a good mic).
Intro - Lick you baby (song about all the dumb pop songs out there) Poor Punk
Anarchy in the PRC (brainfailure's anthem) In the City
Bu Shi Wo (it wasn't me) Rainbow Time - Ska (song about the bar we hung out at where the african's, arabs and punks partied)
Gonna suicide (song for peter, knock knock knocking on heaven's door) Nuofu (coward) (my personal favorite)
Fucking Disco Panni shi weile ziyou (Rebel for Freedom)
Tuesday Morning (Pogues cover) Three Dirty Punks
Living in the City (get video from link above)
Women de leyuan (our playground)
My Simple Life  
Studio recordings (a few from early on)
Anarchy in the prc - studio Big head
living in the city - studio poor punk - studio
simple life - studio  

 

Brief history of Chinese punk rock (need to read this!)

Newsweek article, year 2000 (part 1, part 2) (huge files!!) with me and our old company Weiku (this was one of the 1st legal music sites on the web in China with a 20 year song inventory from Rock Records Taiwan).

Old newsweek article, one of the first ones about Chinese punk. Photos of course by Katerina.

Details punk article (1998! early one!) - one of the few we've recovered (thanks journalist dude!)

That's Beijing article about Beijing Punks by me. It was short, I was doing filmwork and was desperate for cash and luckily I had a great picture for it.

Politics Underlying the Arts Movements in China, 1997. 4meg PDF - this one is gigantic! This is my old undergrad thesis that has been cited by hundreds of other publications, join the club now! The whole beauty of it is that I took something like art, which is highly qualitative and corelated it with political directives, which are highly quantitative. You'd be amazed at the results! It was researched for over 2 entire years of intense studying in all areas of politics and art forms. I burned through 4 dictionaries and two laptops doing this thing! Most doctorate thesis' aren't this well-documented. If you've ever been slighty interested in China's art - modern or revolutionary, you must read this!! Plenty of new pics!!

Bodhran tutorial my love for irish music and drumming and writing got me to do a tutorial. (I started up the first trad. irish band in Beijing in 1997 - thanks to Brian Murphy's mom for the 1st drum I ever played)

If you're a reporter, the only interviews I can do are the ones over email. Calling internationally to my cell phone will probably cost you a fortune. Please just send the questions in it takes me several days to answer them, but I will. All I ask is that you provide me with a copy of the final piece for our collection.

If you're a student doing your thesis on chinese arts or alternative music, you can reference anything here, this is the real stuff, moreso than you'd find elsewhere. The group of punks on this site started the scene, they may not be around anymore, but they were the founders.

thanks, hope this stuff is useful and brings back good memories for those involved.

dave- my work history is found in this unique document called a resume in case you need further reference. My filmwork resume is here too.

dave@texasdavid.com is the email address.

Site design inspired by the default colors of the web -- that's a joke by the way...

check out this link to head-banging termites - this stuff is crazy, especially the slow-motion one.