Sure they both are hoping to land recording contracts, perform for lots of people, and hope their music is popular or at least well received. But only the bands in China have to worry about whether or not they will end up in jail, or waking up one morning to find all their venues closed down and them being forbidden to perform. It was only last year that one of them was told they wouldn't be allowed to open for Sonic Youth as originally planned when the group toured China.

Almost forty years ago a group of Czechoslovakian musicians formed a band because they wanted to play rock and roll music that reflected how they felt about the world. They found out the hard way how unpopular that can make you in a totalitarian regime. Listening to the bands and the music on Look Directly Into The Sun and Made In China I can only wonder what the future holds for them and hope they can at the least live the title of Rococo's song "We Just Free".

You can find out a lot more about these bands and the music if you go to Martin Atkin's tstouring.com website and Invisible Records.