Renminbi

The Renminbi is the Chinese form of currency, which may become the biggest competition w/ the US dollar due to China's large current surpluses, small budget deficit, much lower public debt than the United States, and solid growth.

Renminbi is a band from NYC consisting of Lisa Liu - guitar, vocals , "SMV" - keyboard, vocals, and a slew of drummers on various recordings and in live form.

I saw them at This Thing We Did Fest a few weeks ago in Sanford, NC when my band played right after them. They were nice people, and had apparently driven all the way from NY for the one show - pretty awesome. They killed it; Liu's fragmented, sonic palette on guitar carried the group, while "SMV" provided a solid framework of warm synth bass lines on a mini moog. The drummer was spastic and all over the place, but managed to keep it together, accenting the frantic dynamics of the 3-piece, reminding me of the drummer from The Dismemberment Plan (Joe Easley).

They just released an excellent 4-song EP called SURFACE. It's got hints of Sonic Youth's spidery melodic vibes and a more soulful Gossip. You can download it for FREE here: http://renminbi.cashmusic.org/surface/ While you're doing that, you can donate a "tip" to help them continue to make neat music.