Round Eye "s/t," "Monster Vision," LHS/Round Eye split

(2013/2014/2016, Rhttps://roundeyeband.com/) This is a motley crew of American expats living in China and making music that isn't so much dissident or revolutionary in the Tiananman Square Tank Man sense, but more in the punk rock/Zappa/free jazz/Dr. Demento/R. Crumb/Moondog/GWAR/noise sense where everything is possible and often ugly and sometimes funny and always ridiculous. The most obviously impressive element of the ambitious act is that despite living in an ostensibly repressive situation they really don't know what they can't do. No one told them that you can't just ask Steve Mackay from the Stooges to be in your band, but they did, and the sax man recorded and toured with them until he passed. They don't know that Joe Bob Briggs doesn't host albums, popping in before tracks tracks on vinyl, so they booked him. They don't understand not to hang up near-pornographic band posters around Beijing (and that one almost got them deported or worse, so they may know that know). It is hard for legit weirdos to thrive as experimental nutjobs in a country where a cult of personality near-dictator curbs reasonable expectations of freedom and human rights. So it's a good thing these guys moved over to China where things are better these days.