Death to Giants

From Rock in China Wiki

Death to Giants, Yuyintang, June 2011, photo (c) Andy Best

Background Information
Name (English)	Death to Giants
Name (Chn.)	巨人之死 /
Origin	Shanghai
Genre	experimental, metal, punk
Years active	2011 - present
Members
Ivan Belcic - drums and vocals Dennis Ming Nichols - bass and vocals

History

Comprising Ivan Belcic of Moon Tyrant and Dennis Ming Nichols of Rainbow Danger Club, Death to Giants was formed in 2011 as an outlet for both members in addition to their other bands. The duo plays explosive, unpredictable music and has been praised for their willingness and ability to improvise as well as for their technical prowess.

On June 13th 2011, they performed at the Yuyintang as support act to New Zealand band Die Die Die. According to Andy Best: This was their second ever gig and the first time I have caught them. They were awesome. And they are pictured above setting up for the show. Death to Giants combine the punk, playful intensity of modern lo-fi duos with a dose of virtuoso technical playing and vocal harmonies. They've got it all. The real highlight of this was when they asked the audience to shout out two random numbers, from which they made a time signature, and a topic. Then they improvised an entire song called 'Monkeys and Popcorn.'^[1]

They've since performed with San Francisco's Two Gallants and Germany's The Ocean, and have collaborated with DJ B.O for "Death to Cinema", where they improvised soundtracks to accompany silent film selections from B.O. They've also merged with Shanghai's Acid Pony Club to form Death to Ponies, a four-piece improvisational group. Death to Ponies played their first show at Friend or Foe's CD release party in November of 2011.

Death to Giants were named "Best New Band" in the 2011 Shanghai Music Awards on Shanghai247. Bren Geringer, bassist of Stegosaurus?, referred to them as "Two super-skilled musicians making super-awesome noise."^[2] Belcic, who compiled the awards, swears the results were not fixed.