Singer-songwriter and pastor Neah Lee performed her song “Possibilities” in November at The Newsong Church in Irvine. Lee is featured in the Spring 2011 issue of Bamboo Offshoot, “The Innovation Issue,” out on stands now.

By David Lau

Charlotte Kemp Muhl and Sean Lennon share the stage at the legendary Troubadour in West Hollywood. Photo by David Lau.

Unusual things have happened at West Hollywood’s Troubadour nightclub, explained Sean Lennon, frontman of indie duo The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.

“Elton John made his debut here … my dad [former Beatle John Lennon] got bounced out of here for heckling … and now The GOASTT has done a cowbell solo on this stage.”

Charlotte Kemp Muhl, the other half of GOASTT, agreed: “There’s so much history here … I think I saw Jim Morrison’s puke upstairs. Framed.”

With its dry wit and avant-garde songwriting, GOASTT made its own mark on the Troubadour Sunday night.

Fans ranged from gray-haired hippies to teenage hipsters, the former old enough to own the Beatles on vinyl and the latter young enough to first hear Abbey Road on iTunes.

Yet Lennon’s band moved beyond any Beatles-clone preconceptions and played its own brand of indie-folk.

When Lennon and Muhl took the stage with guest multi-instrumentalist CJ Collins, each member settled into a nest of microphones and instruments. Within the first five minutes Lennon was tap-dancing on kick drum and hi-hat pedals, harmonizing with Muhl and strumming his acoustic guitar.

The bearded Sean Lennon looked very similar to his Abbey Road-era father, while guest horn player CJ Collins resembled the Mad Hatter. Photo by David Lau

Each song took the audience on a new sonic adventure, from the delicate guitar arpeggios of “The World Was Made for Men,” to the upbeat accordion swing of “Jardin du Luxembourg,” with Collins’ horns alternating between smooth melodies and sharp blasts.

Weaving Muhl’s breathy soprano with Lennon’s strident tenor, GOASTT managed to put beauty and emotion into eccentric lyrics like, “Now the peas speak Chinese/and the moon’s made of American cheese” (“Dark Matter”).

The music traversed equally eclectic ground, meandering into jazz chords and Middle Eastern scales without losing its pop sensibility. Lennon demonstrated a penchant for sonic experimentation–perhaps inherited from his mother Yoko Ono, with whom he has toured– and he even incorporated an accordion/guitar interpretation of Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” into his set.

The band rounded out its set with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” simultaneously paying tribute to GOASTT’s folk roots while adding a glockenspiel twist.

Download a free song by The GOASTT here.

The Troubadour’s small, intimate setting served as a perfect venue for the duo as they traded jokes with fans and shared stories from their tour.

Lennon’s deadpan delivery complemented Muhl’s laughter as they described everything from their diets (“While I’m eating a sandwich, Charlotte says ‘Hold on!’ and looks for an animal to slaughter”) to their creative process (“This is the first song we wrote together, back when we made weird music in our pajamas … actually, it was one pajama that we shared”).

Muhl showed equal skill on bass, glockenspiel, accordion, melodica, and vocals. Photo by David Lau

Just as their songs exuded a strange beauty, Lennon and Kemp exuded a peculiar friendliness. It was as if they were playing a house show instead of at a historic nightclub.

They even eschewed the typical exit-and-encore ritual of most musicians, saying, “We don’t need that pretending business… we’re glad to be here.”

As the concert ended and the crowd spilled onto the sidewalk, conversations buzzed with words like “surprising” and “not what I thought.” Those expecting a John Lennon tribute band were pleasantly surprised to find that The GOASTT pioneered its own musical trail.

By Tiffany Banh

Korean American musician David Choi had the ninth most subscribed YouTube musician channel in June 2010.

YouTube has been the primary platform to the entertainment world for Asian American music artists such as David Choi and Legaci and also for entertainers such as Wong Fu Productions.

Because Asian Americans have struggled more to make it onto television compared to other Americans, they have claimed YouTube as the place where they will make it big. And they have lived up to this statement with their considerable presence on the internet.

“Asian Americans want to see people who look like they do, who reflect their lifestyle, who speak English the same way they speak English,” said Phil Yu, who runs the blog Angry Asian Man.

David Choi, a Korean American musician, is an example of someone who epitomizes the popularity of Asian Americans on YouTube. Even after landing a position as a staff songwriter for Warner Chappell Music, a music publishing company, Choi still posted videos of himself covering other artists’ songs on YouTube. Choi looked to YouTube because he lost his creativity and self-expression in the process of writing for other artists.

“It didn’t matter if I felt inspired or not, I had to write songs. It was a job… I became jaded with everything I was doing,” Choi said.

His subscriber base grew and he began showcasing original songs. This escalated to him one day landing a spot on the website’s homepage. His popularity grew so much that in June, he held the ninth-most-subscribed YouTube musician channel. Through his reputation on YouTube, Choi has appeared in various publications such as Koream Magazine, Music Connection Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Legaci, a group of four Filipino American R&B singers, has also found fame through YouTube. With its humble roots in Northern California, Legaci started by performing in clubs and college campuses. Its members auditioned for television talent shows such as “American Idol,” “The Sing Off,” and “America’s Got Talent.” However, the results were bleak.

“[T]hey all said the same thing, ‘You guys are great, you have great voices, but you’re not what we’re looking for,’” said Micha Tolentino, one of the founders of Legaci.

They knew that being Asian American held them back. That is when they turned to YouTube and posted videos of themselves performing Top 40 and R&B hits in their homes. Their collaboration with Cathy Nguyen and Traphik to cover Justin Bieber’s “Baby” brought them into the limelight. Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, was impressed by what he found.

“I really wanted someone to be in the band who was from YouTube, so that Justin [Bieber] could give something back to the community that gave so much to him,” Braun said.

Legaci immediately joined Bieber onstage at MTV. With this gig, they were exposed to a different audience. Thus their following increased as Bieber’s fans followed them on Twitter.

Breaking from this musical genre, Wong Fu Productions, an independent production company, was founded by three college friends (Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang) from the University of California, San Diego. They have attracted millions of views on their short videos posted on YouTube. The success of their videos on YouTube spurred Chan, Fu, and Wang to create wongfuproductions.com, an internet portal to showcase their independent films.

After starting their career on the internet, they expanded their fan base through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

“It’s leveling the playing field so that everyday people like us can get huge fan bases based solely on their talent and their personalities,” said Wang.

By Michelle Banh

A group of young girls prepare to perform a traditional Korean dance. See something similar at this weekend's Korean Festival. Photo: Flickr.

So your parents are in town for Parents’ Weekend… Even more reason to hit the town! Show them college has made you all cultured and stuff.

Oct. 1

1. Voice your opinion on censorship in Taiwan. At noon today, Taiwanese broadcast journalists Tao and Vicky Lee hope to encourage USC students (and anyone else who wants to join) in a dialogue with the current state of media in the Republic of China (commonly known as Taiwan). Hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the discussion questions the practice of journalism as censorship has dominated the scene since the time of martial law (1948-1987). The Lees personally felt the silencing hand of censorship when Tao’s news program on TVBS exposed former president of Taiwan Chen Shui-bian’s corruption before the television program could be shut down. So, what do you have to say?

2. Question your social values with some art. Make it to the REDCAT gallery by 6 p.m. to check out their latest exhibit “Not Only Time.” The exhibit, meant to challenge social customs and hegemonic politics, displays the most recent work from Hangzhou-based artist Zhang Peili and Beijing-based artist Zhu Jia. Both artists seem to draw inspiration from historic events like the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. While both Peili and Jia were professionally trained in oil painting, the two show new innovations in this exhibit as they experiment with video and photography. Take this opportunity to embark on a journey with the artists as they attempt to understand and reflect on the changes in contemporary China.

Oct. 2

3. Cure last night’s hangover with Thai drunken noodles. Completely kidding about the whole curing your hangover part, but Ayara Thai’s drunken noodles (rice noodles prepared with soy and fish sauce, meat, bean sprouts, chili, and basil – so there’s basically nothing alcoholic about them, sorry!) are seriously something to salivate over. The restaurant itself is definitely off the beaten path, which means free street parking/public lot and no wait! Now what makes this place a great Thai restaurant, as with any other ethnic-specific restaurant, is that it’s run and frequented by Thai people (Ayara is actually a routine stop for Thai Airways flight crews). Other recommendations include the jade curry and a dish known as “When Tigers Cry.”

4. Yoko Ono in concert… Need I say more? So, as many of you may not know – hey,, I didn’t – Yoko Ono, wife of the former John Lennon, is actually a musical artist. Now I’m not making any judgment call, but Ono’s musical style is definitely… unique, to say the least. However, for those of you still interested in Ono’s music, she will be performing at the Orpheum Theatre at 8 p.m. Make sure you purchase tickets ASAP because they’re already selling for anywhere from $57 to $147. But fear not if this ticket price seems to steep, this one is on me. Enjoy!

Oct. 3

5. To end this wonderful weekend, flock to where all the Korean foodies will be. Today will be the last day for the Los Angeles Korean Festival, a celebration of all things beautiful and delicious in Korean culture. On the schedule for today is a UCLA Hanoolim performance (a Korean cultural awareness group), Go! Line Dance, and a 3-on-3 dance battle, among other things. While you soak up some culture, don’t forget to indulge in all the food stands that will be peddling Korean staples like bulgolgi, galbi, kimchee and banchan. You will not want for more today with over 200 food booths, an international market fair, and talent shows with special performances. So head on over to Seoul International Park, I promise you won’t regret it!

By Jessica Men

Teriyaki Boyz, a hip hop group from Tokyo, are among the myriad talents who have performed at Kwon's Asian Hip Hop Summit. Photo: Sry85, Wikimedia

In recent years, Asian Pacific Americans have made surprisingly great strides in the entertainment industry. Just look around: We are no longer just the contestants on Jeopardy or the nun chuck-wielding sensei in straight-to-TV movies.

Shows like America’s Best Dance Crew and American Idol, as well as the viral memes of the web, have propelled APAs into the pop culture spotlight, providing to the rest of the world that we have more to offer than math skills and kung fu prowess.

The Asian Hip Hop Summit is an annual music festival that celebrates ethnic diversity. The 8^th summit toured North America from Los Angeles to Detroit to New York this year. At each stop, local artists are invited to perform, including Los Angeles-based artists such as Dumbfounded and Lyraflip. The first summit was held in 2002 in Koreatown in remembrance of the 10^th anniversary of the L.A. Riots and showcased young talent in rapping, DJ-ing, dancing, and more.

The mastermind behind the festival, Kublai Kwon, 32, organized the summit to empower APA artists and showcase the craft of poetry in hip hop lyrics. Kwon attended USC for grad school but did not compelte his degree. After disagreeing with the grading system for his Writing 140 class, he was moved to Thematic Option, where he could teach a corse of his choosing. Kwon designed Hip Hop as Poetry, an afro-centric course around transcribing and analyzing song lyrics.

“I was 21 years old at the time and free-spirited. But I often felt like I was always just seen as ‘the Asian guy,’” Kwon said.

Kwon left the Ph.D program and moved to Koreatown. Even there, within the hub of Asian urban culture, he was surprised at how meek of a presence APAs had.

“Our country has one of the biggest East Asian populations outside of Asia, but nothing ever was really going on with us,” said Kwon. “We don’t really have our own power movement.”

Influenced by an APA poetry summit that had spoken word performances, Kwon drew from his scholarly background and created a subculture of Los Angeles youth and a mass pan-Asian music scene. Funding the summit has been difficult. Kwon works a part-time job, pays for all expenses out-of-pocket, and doesn’t know how much longer he can keep this up.  But Kwon hopes that by giving APAs a venue for their voices, they will create original music that they can claim to be their own. African Americans have blues and jazz; Latin Americans have salsa and meringue.

“Our country has one of the biggest East Asian populations outside of Asia, but nothing ever was really going on with us. We don’t really have our own power movement.”
Kublai Kwon

The first summit took place in Seoul International Park, bringing out break dancers, rappers, singers, and even electric guitar players – all talents that Asian Americans aren’t usually perceived as having.

“Everyone expects Asians to do a certain kind of music, usually classical music,” Kwon said.

The summit aimed to change that perception and show the world how much talent the APA community had in various areas. Early performances were in parking lots, churches and parks.

Throughout they ears, the festival has boasted an impressive myriad of talents, including several now-mainstream artists such as The Black Eyed Peas, Fort Minor, and the Teriyaki Boyz. More recently, the tour has been carried by hip-hop regular Dumbfounded on the West coast and Lyricks on the East.

But there is more to the summit than the unification of APA hip-hop culture and providing an outlet of individual expression for performers.

“Of course, it’d be great to create a nationwide Asian movement. But to be more realistic, the tour is more about focusing on the art involved. It’s also great to get everyone connected through the music and make a statement,” Kwon said.

The tour has since expanded to 28 cities throughout the continent to great enthusiasm and feedback. Even states such as Minnesota, New Jersey and Texas boasted successful turnouts – not exactly the first places that come to mind when you say “Asian population.”

However, the presence of many non-Asian Americans was even more of a positive influence in encouraging interracial unity through the shared hip-hop culture.

“There’s Asian communities in all these places, and we’re trying to connect to them through music,” said DJ Zo, a member of the summit, according to Maroon, a University of Chicago newspaper.

Kwon took advantage of the universal power of music and its ability to break barriers to unite and celebrate different cultures. Thanks to this unifying spirit, relations between races have come a long way since the L.A. Riots.

By David Lau

“Daddy always told me only doctors & some lawyers succeed
In what we call the present day
Momma always told me I would never stand a chance in this world
Singin’ my life away.“
Tim Be Told, “Ordinary,” from the album Getting By

From the Inside EP, Tim Be Told's newest release. Photo: Tim Be Told, MySpace

Four years ago, Tim Ouyang was just another architecture student at the University of Virginia, feeling the pressure to succeed that many Asian Pacific Americans can relate to. But he put his worries into melodies, writing songs and jamming with classmates. By 2007 he and four friends had completed their debut album, Getting By, a genre-bending medley of soul, rock and pop.

Performing under the name Tim Be Told (a pun on the phrase “truth be told”), the five-man group dominated every scene in which they performed, from the mainstream club circuit (opening for OK Go and Parachute), to collegiate crowds along the East coast, to mostly APA audiences at Kollaboration New York. Now, Tim Be Told is traveling across the nation for its second West Coast tour, cementing its status as a well-loved band on both sides of the map.

On Jan. 20, Tim Be Told came to the University of California, Irvine, for an electrifying concert, one of four California colleges on their tour (the others being Berkeley, Stanford and Loyola Marymount). The venue was a lecture hall, lit with deep red floodlights that seemed out of place next to the wall-mounted periodic table.

But the audience forgot their surroundings the moment drummer Jim Barredo smashed into the first song, “Analyze.” Driven by distorted guitars and shimmering keys, the song’s chorus quickly soared and filled the room, reaching the vaulted ceiling just as Ouyang hit his highest falsetto.

Suddenly, the music quieted and Ouyang’s keyboard went solo, his now quiet voice holding his lyrics dearly, and each word heartfelt: “Hey you, could you analyze my state of mind/what did you recognize?”

Lead guitarist Andrew Chae slowly entered the mix, working his wah pedal with vocal-like soulfulness. With a gradual swell, the band came back in and ended with a crescendo of power chords, keyboard and bass that sounded more orchestral than indie rock.

As the room erupted in applause, my friend turned to me and said, “Man, I like that sound. It has that…that feeling…” He made some quick hand motions.

I smiled and replied, “That punchiness?”

“Yeah! But it’s not too much, y’know?” he said

Such is the magic of Tim Be Told: their ability to navigate highs and lows, driving anthems and poignant confessions while never sacrificing clarity. While some indie bands take shelter in their walls of noise and mumbled lyrics, these guys always keep their music accessible. The band knows how to balance its instruments without overpowering Ouyang’s voice, which has a transparent, R&B feel. Throughout the evening, the band morphed its way through Maroon 5-style funk, Ben Folds ballads, and John Mayer jams. Though the show was held in a lecture hall, the audience lost themselves in the music as they sang along to the rousing performance.

The unreleased song “The Lament” gave an insightful glimpse into want motivates these musicians. Ouyang prefaces the song by explaining how he had been struggling with a vocal cord infection for the last year. Despite the career-threatening illness, he maintained a “defiant hope” that he was meant to keep fighting on and living out his musical dreams.

Much of his songwriting comes out of such optimistic yet vulnerable circumstances, in the hope that audiences will take away more than just a good time. Ouyang and his crew have certainly come far since Ouyang’s days of singing in his dorm room. Tim Be Told is a band to watch in the coming year.

Check out Tim Be Told’s latest album, From the Inside, available on iTunes and MySpace.

Download TBT’s single “Analyze” for FREE here.

Bamboo Offshoot: What can someone expect when they come to a Tim Be Told concert?

Tim Be Told: Our live show is like a story with many movements. We try to take the audience on a ride, from rocking grooves to emotional power ballads. We hope to inspire the audience with spoken word, lyrics, and epic instrumental interludes. If the audience walks away with nothing else, we hope that they leave inspired.

BO: You’ve participated in Kollaboration NYC and many of your fans are Asian American. How does being Asian American influence what you do as a band?

TBT: We don’t really feel like we’re all that different. We all grew up in the US, and we are more familiar with American culture than any other culture. We make music, not Asian music, not Asian American music. It’s simply music. Being Asian American is a coincidence, not an intentional pursuit, and our hope is that music (regardless of who creates it) will cross the lines of ethnicity and social status. However, we are aware that there are some unique challenges in trying to break into an industry that has no significant Asian icons… That doesn’t deter us from our goal of reaching a diverse audience.

BO: You have connections with the Asian American Christian community but also play in

mainstream venues. How does your faith inform your music?

TBT: Our faith influences our music by causing our songs to be about issues that hopefully connect with people on a deep level… We feel that today, many songs don’t really address many of the issues people face and the problems that they deal with on a daily basis. Our hope is that the music we make will influence people in a positive way and bring even a small amount of hope to their lives.

BO: How have you guys grown and developed as a band and in what directions are you moving towards in your future?

TBT: When the band first started out, the songs were more singer-songwriter because Tim had basically written all the songs by himself. Since then, as new songs are written, everyone in the band develops their own parts, adding to the creativity and uniqueness of each song… For the future, we plan to continue writing new songs and touring even more.

Download up-and-coming APA band Tim Be Told’s single, “Analyze,” available on BambooOffshoot.com for free.

Be sure to check out BO’s feature on TBT, published in the Spring 2010 issue.