Taiwan’s First Underground Music Album, The Idiot’s Lie, Released

Source: Double X’s Debut Album
From: Between Heaven and Humanity
Date: February 13, 2009

Double X’s debut Lies of an Idiot, released in 1988, was Taiwan’s first punk record and is regarded as the founding classic of “underground music” and “underground rock.” In the Taiwan pop scene that opened up after martial law was lifted, new visions and possibilities gradually emerged. While the rare handful of rockers (mostly Hard Rock/Metal or Folk Rock) were still treading carefully, the four-piece/three-piece rock band Double X, led by vocalist Chao Yi-hao, had the audacity to smash every market convention: with a budget of under NT$50,000 and a bold, swift “studio live” single-take-all-the-way approach, they unleashed Lies of an Idiot like a thunderclap. Its raw, unadorned ferocity detonated a shockwave in the conservative, polished record industry.

XX Band album Lies of an Idiot, 1988, Crystal Records

 

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External Links

• Notes on Banned Songs in Martial Law-Era Taiwan (Li Kun-ch’eng)
• Youthful Memories of Double X (Music Notes, Lo Yueh-ch’üan)
• Pulling Out Lies of an Idiot (Warner Music)
• Taiwan’s Punk Forefather — Double X / Chao Yi-hao (Sissey) (Ta-kou-pong Music Studio)