Welcome!
TLDR: this is a weekly music newsletter about Taiwanese indie music. Enjoy!
If you know me, you might or might not know that, for the past several months, I’ve been living in Taipei with the nebulous goal of “getting into” the indie music scene here. The vagueness of that goal has brought with it a lot of challenges I haven’t had to contend with before: how to structure my time without outside deadlines; how to strike a balance between venturing outside my comfort zone and doing familiar things that bring me joy; and, maybe most centrally, how to translate my experiences into something useful, for myself or others.
One thing that I’ve found myself wanting to do, while I’ve been consuming concert after concert here, is document. The music I’ve gotten to hear in my time here has been as varied as it has been inspirational, and I can’t help but want to share my thoughts on it. Making substack a dedicated space for this is partially a way to keep myself honest about writing, and partially a way to reduce the number of rants about the concert-of-the-week my friends have to hear from me. The plan is to post on here weekly with my thoughts on an album, EP, single, or other type of musical project, with links so you can explore the band further if you’re interested.
This isn’t the full extent of this year’s project; I don’t plan on doing much comparison or analysis here, just appreciation. For now, the recordings and music I make while I’m here will live elsewhere. While I’m at it —
Other things that this blog isn’t:
Proper reviews. While album reviews are a big part of the inspiration for approaching documentation in this way, traditional criticism is not something I am particularly interested in while I’m here. My aim is to share what aspects of different Taiwanese music I’ve loved or found exciting.
A journal. I might include some anecdotes as far as they relate to the band or album I’m talking about, but the goal is primarily to share the music! If you want to hear about my life here, you’ll have to call me on the phone :)
A release radar. Most of the music I’ll talk about will be recent-ish, but my focus is on what is inspiring, not what is new. If the band is still playing it at their live shows, it’s fair game.
Genre-specific. The word “indie,” like this project itself, is delightfully vague, and gives license to write about a ton of different music. Chances are, not everything I write about will fit everyone’s idea of what indie music is – that’s part of the fun!
With that out of the way, thank you for reading, and hopefully, listening! It would make me so happy if someone finds a new band to love from this substack.
you can read the first post, about up-and-coming indie rock quartet 庸俗救星 Vulgar Savior here: