CC: I’ve heard people comparing this world to CBGBs in the 80s, or saying it’s the 60s in New York all over again. It’s tempting to make those comparisons – but would you?

MN: I don’t know. I wasn’t in New York in the 60s or CBGBs in the 80s so I couldn’t call it. But this scene is definitely grounded in China. I think it’s easy to use these purely visual cues to try to draw such a comparison in a strange way, but if you live here there is also something definitely Chinese about the whole thing.

CC: Could you to describe what that thing is? Maybe we should say what’s ‘unique’ about it. It doesn’t have to be nationalistic.

MN: I guess if you want to compare it to something like New York in the 60s or CBGBs in the 80s there is a really creative flourishing going on here right now. There are a lot of people in Beijing right now who, in the past 6 or 7 years, have been exposed to an exponentially larger amount of art and international music – and it’s just been like a shock wave. People are experimenting and playing with possibilities. I’ve often described it as a creative orgy.

Read more about Matthew Niederhauser’s work via CDT here and here.

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The band is called ‘P.K. 14?, and its music has been called post-punk. But its lead singer says he’s been influenced by everything from Bob Dylan and Motown to the Beat Generation and French existentialism. Mary Kay Magistad reports from Beijing.

Watch a P.K. 14 video:

And read more about the band via CDT.

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TH: Can you explain why you have such a distinct singing style? What reactions has it gotten?

ZXZZ: I’ve always wanted to make art more intimate and use a singing style that’s relatively easy to communicate with and to distill my art. But you know, when it comes to the aesthetics, most people stop at the level of enjoyment or its purported educational value, so there are people who say they like what I do. Others admire it. Others are indignant. There’s all kinds of reactions.

TH: How did you meet Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies?

ZXZZ: We’ve never actually met, nor have we ever directly communicated because we speak different languages. For the last two years a rock critic named Eric Chen has been our go between and helped us communicate. I’m very thankful that Cowboy Junkies thought high enough of my work. Their cover of “I Cannot Sit Sadly by Your Side” has been better received than my own version.

TH: How do you compare their sound and style to other Chinese musicians? Who do they remind you of?

ZXZZ: Cowboy Junkies’ form is similar to Xu Wei. There’s just a touch of that in there. Xu Wei also does folk, but Cowboy Junkies do a different kind of folk. They can be fairly heady sometimes. They consider me a folk artist as well. I think I’m actually a bit more wild than that.

TH: Why did you agree to work with them?

ZXZZ: I heard a kind of benevolence in their music. They are very creative artists and their love for music is almost beyond imagination. They really know what they’re doing when it comes to making new music.

Later, Hathaway asks Zuoxiao Zuzhou, who is also an artist and writer, about his friendship with Han Han and Ai Weiwei:

TH: You said you had dinner once with Ai Weiwei and Han Han. When was this and what did you talk about? Can you compare your personality and work with theirs?

ZXZZ: Han Han and I have admired each other for a long time now but we never actually met until last summer. I introduced him to Ai Weiwei that day, and they admire each other’s work too. I thought I should let them do most of the talking. Han Han and Weiwei spoke mostly of social problems. I spoke with Han Han largely about domestic life and interests. We could have gone on forever.

I’ve known Ai Weiwei for 16 years. I met him when he came back from New York’s East Village and came to Beijing’s East Village to hang out. We have a really close relationship. I stayed with him the whole time in 2009 when he went to Chengdu to present evidence for Tan Zuoren. I’m the guy wearing the hat on cover of the documentary Laoma Tihua [老妈蹄花].

Ai Weiwei and Han Han’s thinking have very strong logic, and their writing is clean and agile. They conduct themselves a bit more rationally than I do. I’m more carefree and emotive. I rely more on my instincts to create and do things. I don’t use plans. Also my age is right between theirs. Weiwei is about 12 or 13 years older and Han Han is that much younger. I’m honored to have them as friends and we get along well together.

Listen to and download the Cowboy Junkies’ song A Walk in the Park, on which Zuoxiao Zuzhou sings back-up, via Amazon here. And watch a performance by Zuoxiao Zuzhou below:

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Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Han Han, musicians, punk, rock music, Zuoxiao Zuzhou
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It was the first day of summer in Beijing. It also happened to be the May holiday, when Chinese people had three days off in honor of International Workers’ Day. Holiday is a rare treat in the booming city, and the metropolitan youth poured into public parks to enjoy a new type of leisure activity: the rock festival. However, not everyone is there to hear the music. Instead, they give cool looks and are aloof, eyes gazing idly towards the bands. They dress retro, hip, bohemian, punk, creative, whatever. Consuming this “alternative” trend has become the mainstream fashion of the day.

There was a time when rock meant more. But twenty years have passed, and the first rockers — Cui Jian, He Yong — are now worshiped as saints of a bygone era and a more fashionable reason, namely having style, has sprung up and overtaken what the old rockers stood for — freedom of speech and liberalization. Bands now sing about material things, observing people’s opinions on money and the need for affluent lives. Not only this, increasingly more people on the scene need to have an outfit first — an outfit that befits the lifestyle.

For He Yong, allegedly China’s first punk (debuting in ’89), the legacy that he left was actually his dress code: a white and blue striped T-Shirt, sailor-like, coupled with a synthetic-looking red scarf originally seen on the necks of schoolchildren who were Young Pioneers (for school kids, this is the first time they pledge allegiance to the Communist Party). The symbolism of the red scarf has now disappeared, as adults walk around looking clownish. The fabric isn’t worn; instead, it looks mass produced and brand new.

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Post tags: Carsick Cars, PK14, punk, rock music
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While this is not the first time Chinese bands have played New York, heightened awareness of Beijing’s scene means this is the first time bands from the Middle Kingdom are arriving with expectations, which makes this trip a potentially landmark event for a scene courting international respect. “Chinese musicians are certainly much more confident about the quality of their own scene than they have ever been,” says Maybe Mars founder Michael Pettis, a former New Yorker who also teaches economics at Beijing University. “For most of our musicians, New York is the center of the world.”

Already, the three-year-old label and its flagship live venue, D-22, have attracted ink in numerous international publications. While much of the initial attention stemmed from Western interest in China’s counterculture, the caliber of musicianship and the experimental nature of these Beijing bands prompted some writers to admiringly liken the scene to that of downtown New York during the late ’70s and early ’80s. “China has no rock legacy that dictated the past and shaped the present,” Leijonhufvud says. “The kids are making their own sounds, and some really have an innovational knack for writing and performing without stigmas.”

Read more about Carsick Cars and PK14 via CDT.

Here’s Carsick Cars performing in Hong Kong:

And PK14:

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And a longer clip:

And an interview with Jefford on SPIN Earth, in which he says, “Beijing remains for me the land of great music, kindred spirits and unspeakable hangovers”:

How did you go about choosing the bands and music scene experts interviewed in the film?

A Punk in China? Not the first association you make so a lot of it was me charmed by the punks and them laughing at me laughing at them. But what really cemented the friendship, I think, is that I am a writer and I am a lyric person. I chose bands whose lyrics I was interested in and who said things that rang true to my sense of truth. And there is a lot of strident truth being sung in Beijing, let me tell you.

Demerit particularly is saying some heavy things, positive but heavy, punk and deep. The lead singer Spike has a hard core opinion in a police state. Songs like “Fight your Apathy”, “Voice of the People” and particularly “Live or Die” really make you think; “would I be singing this song and putting this CD out in China?” That takes brass balls. I really dig that Spike and Demerit are living the punk life and not just wearing it.

More information and clips about the film can be seen on the Beijing Punk site.

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[AH]: … My issue with the Western media is this idea that they take something, and if it’s hot and exciting, they’ll blow it out of all proportion. People are now expecting Beijing to be this melting pot of dynamicity and creativity. That concerns me, because these bands are still working their asses off to live up to this hype.

[MN]: That was also one of the things I’ve witnessed firsthand over the past two years. Seeing big sponsors get behind these bands, the international media attention. One of the things that drew me to this music in the first place is a sort of humbleness. They weren’t in a Brooklyn scene in New York that sucks. In some way it’s weird cause it’s a little bit early, especially looking at these younger bands playing college nights at D22 and other places. They still have to cut their chops for the next three or four years – I feel like they’re expecting some hype because they’re in Beijing and they’re in a band. Quite frankly, to sustain the Beijing music scene over the next few years there is going to have to be some new bands that step it up. I don’t think it’s gotten to the point where everything is being recycled, but it’s been reaching a zenith for a while.

[AH]: For years and years in this tiny scene there was no money, no hype. There was none of this current posturing, “we’re worth this”. For me, it doesn’t seem that the Chinese public has developed a love for the bands as quickly as the bands have developed a love for themselves.

[MN]: That’s the big thing that we’re going to see in the long run – the potential power in the Chinese scene is unlocking that domestic audience and acceptance.

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Just as the 100 Club and CBGB fostered punk movements in London and New York City, Beijing’s D-22 nightclub serves as the epicentre for its burgeoning alternative music scene. Michael Pettis, a Peking University professor who was once a fixture in New York’s East Village, founded the dive bar three years ago. Though the idea of an “underground scene” is often associated with punk, D-22′s small stage hosts a variety of acts, from glam rock to experimental electronic, classic rock ‘n’ roll and Mongolian folk music. Many bands have hard-rocking frontwomen in the vein of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; some sing in both Chinese and English. All eschew the country’s mainstream affection for saccharine pop.

“Sound Kapital: Beijing’s Music Underground” captures the scene in a collection of band portraits culled from thousands of photos taken in D-22′s basement over two years. The style, humour and energy of these subjects are both authentic and familiar. These kids have quite a bit to rebel against.

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The otherworldly sound of throat singing echoes through a small Beijing cafe. Singer Ilchi is producing two sounds at the same time. Just 28, he’s already undergone a musical odyssey. Once the leader of the punk band T9, he raged in profanity-laden songs about the frustration of modern life. But his direction changed, and he now serves as one of the leading forces pushing a folk-music revival.

“I felt we modern people need to understand more about our past,” Ilchi says.

For Ilchi, that means a pilgrimage into his own past. An ethnic Mongolian, he was born in Inner Mongolia, which is part of China. But he moved with his family to Beijing at the age of 12. Three years ago, on a journey of musical self-exploration, he returned to Inner Mongolia. There, he learned the traditional art of throat singing, and searched for old folk songs in danger of being lost. He started to write his own music for his band Hanggai, including a song about his tobshuur, a two-stringed Mongolian banjo.

Watch a Hanggai Promo Video:

And footage from the Shetland Folk Festival 2008:

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