Carsick Cars, Joyside and More Join "The Big Band" Season 2

The line-up for the second season of highly successful rock variety show, The Big Band, was finally released this week after months of speculation.

The list of 33 bands for the show on streaming platform iQIYI is again dominated by acts from labels Modern Sky and Taihe Music, who have 10 and 6 bands competing respectively, with a bunch of both expected and unexpected participants.

Beloved Beijing band Joyside, as netizens had already guessed, join the show, but wild cards such as Guangdong folk rockers Wutiaoren, Xi’an post-punks Fazi and glam rockers Rustic have also put themselves in contention of becoming one of China’s “Hot 5 Bands” for summer in 2020.

It’s a huge mix of bands, young and old, from all over the country, covering a wide range of styles, certainly more so than the first season of the show.

One of the first things that stands out are the amount of long-standing bands such as Gansu folk group 野孩子 (Wild Children), who were formed in 1995, Wuhan rockers Dada (1996), and Beijing rockers Muma (1998).

Similarly, legendary groups from the underground scene in Beijing, Carsick Cars (who once supported Sonic Youth on tour in Europe) and Rebuilding the Rights of Statues or Re-TROS (who have played in support of Depeche Mode and Xiu Xiu), will be looking to endear fans of the show with their noisy and weird music. As you can see below, they can barely contain their joy at joining The Big Band:

On first glance, the list of bands does seem somewhat weighted in favor of older groups making a final gamble, but there are a bunch of lesser known, recently-formed groups among the 33 acts too.

ETA伊塔 and 号外乐团HOWHY will be hoping to replicate the success of fellow funk band Click #15 last year.

Among the youngest groups to take part in the show are Mandarin, who were formed in 2019, and 白日梦症候群 (Daydream Syndrome) who formed earlier this year.

In terms of who we see winning, we’re putting our money on Beijing pop-rock act Queen Sea Big Shark to follow in the footsteps of New Pants in 2019 and blaze a trail through the show and onto some major stages (once major stages open up again, that is).

The actual release date of the show on iQIYI has yet to be announced, but stayed tuned to RADII for regular updates. To listen to some of the acts involved, hit "Read more" at the bottom of this message for our Spotify playlist.

Cover image by 编号233

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