Shanren To Perform At Canadian Music Week, Tour East Coast In March

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Queens, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) January 11, 2012 -- Beijing-based indie folk band Shanren (literally "Mountain Men") announce their selection to perform at Slacker Canadian Music Week, part of the 30th Canadian Music Week 2012 (CMW), held in Toronto, Ontario. Taking over more than 60 venues in the city's entertainment district, the festival will draw in more than 4,500 musicians – from local to international acts representing more than 40 countries – playing to 100,000 music fans.

Shanren's CMW showcase is part of their inaugural North American tour with performances along the East coast, including New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. To help finance the tour, Shanren is lauhcning a crowd-funding campaign through RocketHub, a launch pad and community for independent artists and entrepreneurs. Through the crowd-funding campaign, the band hopes to introduce new audiences to the rich culture of China's southwestern Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, a region that has been known largely through myth and inspired the Shangri-La of Hilton's classic novel, Lost Horizon.

"This is an amazing opportunity for the band's introduction to North American music lovers. Being accepted to do a showcase at Canadian Music Week is impressive in itself, but when you add the fact that it's the 30th Anniversary of Canadian Music Week, that makes it even more special. Only bands with the caliber of talent and unique sound that Shanren has are selected for such an honor. But they've earned it and will certainly prove that to be the case during the showcase and tour." – Sam Debell, Shanren manager

One of the most innovative bands to emerge from China's vibrant "new Folk" scene, Shanren seek to present a modern interpretation of the traditional folk music of Yunnan's many ethnic minority tribes with an energetic dose of rock, ska and reggae thrown in. Since forming in 2000, they've performed at Barcelona Festival Asia in 2010, MIDEM in Cannes in 2011, and Liverpool Sound City in the UK in 2011—but this North American Tour is their most ambitious outing yet!

For more information, please contact Jennifer Conrad (North America) at jenniferannconrad@gmail.com and +1-347-564-8137 or Sam Debell (Asia) at unitysam@gmail.com and +86 152-1027-0868. High-res photos and Chinese-language materials available.

Press Quotes:

"...known for its eclectic style—songs move fluidly from electronica to reggae to metal—and arrangements inspired by traditional music from the country's ethnically diverse southwest, a mélange of loose falsetto harmonies and twangy pentatonic lutes." –The New York Times

"Although the ethnic sounds of Yunnan are at the core of their music, their membership stretches out to Kunming and Guizhou, covers three ethnic minority groups, and incorporates a polyglot of world music and modern rock influences—Afro and Caribbean sounds, rock proper, reggae, even some death metal, 'cause why not." –Smart Shanghai

"These south-western boys, whose name means 'mountain men', mix minority instruments and perky plucking with a hippie-jam band feel." –Time Out Beijing

canadian music week     china     crowd funding     New Folk     world music