My Little Airport
Tomorrow and Sunday 7.30pm-10.30pm Youth Outreach Hang Out
Despite their saccharine vocals and simple, almost dreamlike melodies, indie band My Little Airport are about as dark and anti-Canto-pop as music gets.
Comprising twentysomethings Lam Pang, known as Ah P, and Nicole Au Kin-ying, the guitarist and singer tackle subjects usually off-limits to Canto-pop stars: homosexuality, suicide, sex. Their bilingual (though mostly Cantonese) lyrics are playful yet sinister, and often filled with double meanings - as in My Little Banana and Gigi Leung is Dead - and contrast with their twee-pop and punk-pop musical sensibilities.
Although well-known to university and hipster circles, My Little Airport's popularity spiked in March, when they released the nursery rhyme-like ditty, Donald Tsang, Please Die. The song criticised the chief executive for calling the Tiananmen Square crackdown an 'incident' and claiming he was merely representing the public's view.
Tomorrow and Sunday, Lam and Au will reunite for one of their increasingly rare performances - since Au moved to Beijing this year - to promote their fourth album, the 16-track Poetics: Something Between Montparnasse and Mong Kok. Songs include the Donald Tsang crack and some bolder, more personal songs. A Certain Romance in Kowloon Tong describes Lam's mixed feelings after sleeping with a girl at a love hotel in Kowloon Tong. Another new song, Divvying Up Stephen Lam's HK$300,000 Salary, questions the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs on democracy.
And the theme is timely as well. 'We're calling it the Save the Unemployed Concert,' says Lam. 'Three out of six of us playing are recently unemployed, so many of our songs are related to this.'
Lam and Au met in 2004 as journalism students at Hong Kong Shue Yan University.
They began co-writing and recording at Lam's home, and continue to do so, although nowadays they are often backed by a handful of other artist friends.
My Little Airport have fans outside Hong Kong. Their compilation Zoo is Sad, People Are Cruel, was released on Spanish indie label Elefant Records in Europe. They have also performed in Singapore and Malaysia. Last year, Scottish indie band BMX Bandits covered My Little Airport's You Don't Wanna Be My Girlfriend, Phoebe.
Save the Unemployed Concert, 2 Holy Cross Path, Sai Wan Ho. HK$60-HK$80. Inquiries: 2384-3531
