I just completed a Domus Mixtape for Beijing. You can hear it over at Domus or on SoundCloud. I drew exclusively from Maybe Mars and Modern Sky for the music as well as a live recording of Zhang Shouwang/张守望 of White+ and Carsick Cars fame. There is a lot more music out there in China, of course, but this is definitely some of my favorite material. Sort of the soundtrack to my life over the past four years. Below is the accompanying text, track list and some portraits of the performers included on the mixtape from Sound Kapital:

The hardest part of the day in Beijing is getting out of bed. Gazing across a smoggy skyline and watching the hectic traffic below is reason enough to hide under the covers for a few more hours. It is a dystopia – maybe even a nightmare. That is why I embrace the night. The sky remains a muted black, and I can seek out sparks of life in the darker recesses of the city. Beijing’s mutating urban landscape can only be matched by its shifting artistic climate, especially in the realm of sound. Desperation breeds discontent, and voices are emerging to express it. Every weekend features full billings at a growing number of performance spaces across Beijing: dive bars near the universities, small coffee houses hidden amongst the hutongs, larger concert halls in defunct government buildings, or experimental enclaves adjoining fish farms on the outer edges of the city. Beijing’s erratic social landscape is now molded by the Internet and mobile phones instead of more closely controlled media channels such as television and radio. Those with idiosyncratic tastes readily connect with each other and access an exponentially broader realm of music from both home and abroad as they continue to pick apart the past fifty years of western pop, rock, jazz, punk, electronic, and experimental music with increased vigor. The performers on this mixtape constitute a formidable new wave of artists striving to expand their creative limits in an autonomous and compelling fashion. Even though it is too early to tell what may come of the innovative strides made by these musicians, there is no doubt that they will continue to break ground within Beijing’s nascent artistic landscape, helping to push the boundaries of an already expanding realm of independent thought and musical expression in China. In the end the city resists description. Outside the smoke-choked bars everything is layered in a fine coat of dust. Whole neighborhoods disappear and find their way deep into your lungs. That’s the problem. The city gets inside you – fills you to the brim – consumed by a monstrous flow of people and infrastructure. It’s savage but enticing. Six million people flocked here over the past ten years and half a million are expected each year for the foreseeable future. The implosion is just beginning. The nebulous heart of the middle kingdom skips along to ever irregular beats.

Tracks:

01. My Great Location - Rebuilding the Rights of Statues/重塑雕像的权利

02. Some Surprises Come Too Soon - P.K. 14

03. No. 6 Space Ship - AV Okubo/AV大久保

04. Sand Hammer - Hedgehog/刺猬

05. Sunday Girl - Ourself Beside Me

06. Flu - Snapline

07. You Can Listen You Can Talk - Carsick Cars

08. Golden Gate - Duck Fight Goose/鸭打鹅乐队

09. This Side Down - The Offset Spectacle/憬观：像同叠

10. To Die - Soviet Pop/苏维埃·波普

11. The Earthquake - 24 Hour/24小时

12. Hospital - Guai Li/怪力

13. Beijing is Not My Home - Demerit/过失

14. Intro/Outro/Transitions - Zhang Shouwang/张守望 live at D-22 on November 22, 2011

Queen Sea Big Shark/后海大鲨鱼 is so, like, HOT right now. I mean, for real. This past year they were featured in both V Magazine and the Vogue September issue where Mario Testino cued up on them for a big spread. Lead singer, Fu Han/付菡, is now the electronic dance rock fashion diva of China. During her packed show at Tango in Beijing earlier this month, she went through at least four different outfits in the course of the evening. More power to her. I still have a big soft spot for Queen Sea Big Shark, even if I’m not the biggest fan of the haute couture pop direction she is taking with the band. They still rock it out, and their early surf rock influences make an appearance here and there. I luckily caught Fuhan at UCCA during the Creators Project where I took a few photos and video footage for fun. Check the video below for some recent concert material as well. They are getting into very elaborate stage setups for the big concerts. Otherwise, here are some recent music videos for Let’s Play, Glow in the Dark and an awesome promotional video for their sophomore album Wave.

My portrait from Sound Kapital of Subs lead guitarist, Wuhao/吴昊, appeared on the cover of Courrier International. If you buy the magazine and speak French, please translate the article for me. The Subs are AWESOME. They are one of the first bands I saw when I returned to Beijing in 2007. Expect some big features next week, including photos in The New Yorker and Time Magazine.

Thanks to my new friend Alex Chao, who just arrived in Beijing to take over art direction at China Vogue, I was able to contribute for the first time to China Vogue this month. It was also a perfect match since the magazine was running a big music issue and decided to let me cue up on some of the old school rockers in China including Cui Jian/崔健 (the godfather of Chinese rock), Shen Lihui/沈黎辉 (general rocker and founder of Modern Sky) and Zhang Youdai/张有待 (the DJ who introduced rock to the masses). First of all, I was very excited to get a chance to shoot Cui Jian on the D-22 red wall. He really is a pillar in the history of Chinese rock and greatly influenced a whole generation of China with his anthem “Nothing to My Name” which became a rallying song for students in China during the 1980s. Although I might not be the biggest fan of some of Shen Lihui’s music, his importance as the founder of the Modern Sky music label and festival production company is undisputed. When other record companies refused to release his music in 1997, he went his own way and founded Modern Sky to support a new generation of Chinese rockers and then continued to take this music to larger audiences with the Modern Sky Music Festival and Strawberry Music Festival. Shen Lihui will undoubtably be a force in the future of alternative music in China for some time to come. Although I had never heard of Zhang Youdai before, he seems to be an instrumental character in the history of rock in China as well. He became a DJ and host on Beijing Music Radio back in 1993 and introduced a wide range of music to youth across China. He is a true shaker in China’s emerging entertainment market and is rocking out to an Eric Clapton LP in the China Vogue portrait. Mad respect.

The beginning of May is always the busiest time of year for music in Beijing. Bands flock from all over China, and increasingly the world, to perform at a growing number of festivals (see MIDI, Strawberry and CMV) and then rock out local venues late into the night. This May Day also marked the fifth anniversary of D-22, the now notorious dive bar featuring live music that pulled me into the underground/alternative concert scene back in 2007. My uninhibited relationship with the establishment and the musicians that called it home yielded my first monograph, Sound Kapital, and was one of the main reasons for my continued stay here in Beijing. Although I have directed the focus of my documentation to a growing number of music scenes in China, hip hop in particular, I always end up at D-22 for the anniversary shows as it showcases some of the best bands in China and becomes a reunion of sorts for musicians and other hardcore fans. Rowdy evenings are assured and the music goes late into the night. The following videos are highlights from the D-22 fifth anniversary including Carsick Cars, AV Okubo, The Offset: Spectacles, Snapline and selections from the experimental evening including White+, Birdstriking and Chuiwan. You should also check out the brief retrospective made in honor of D-22′s fifth anniversary put together by the Pangbianr crew. Enjoy.

Yes, I know. Everybody has been reporting on the breakup of Carsick Cars for a number of months now and many people have already seen the new lineup play at D-22 on New Years Eve and again with P.K. 14 at Yugong Yishan last month. Unfortunately I was out of town on these occasions but did manage to film them at their secret What Bar gig in December. Shou Wang is now joined by He Fan of Birdstriking on bass and Lin Banban of Boyz and Girl fame on drums. What Bar is still one of the best kept secrets for live music in Beijing. Many of the most talented underground acts in China first cut their teeth in this cramped little room along the west wall of the Forbidden City. The vocal mix isn’t the best, but hopefully this will prove to the rest of the world that Carsick Cars is still rocking out and ready to move on to new and better things.

Queen Sea Big Shark / 后海大鲨鱼 released their sophomore album, Wave, to a packed house at Yugong Yishan on the eve of All Hallow’s Eve. The eternally modish band keeps a permanent place in my heart with lead singer Fu Han’s unisuit-cladded-gyrating-stage-presence and lead guitarist Cao Pu’s hard-driving-surf-rock-riffs. Although I might not be the biggest fan of all their dips into electronica, if they are having a good night and hooked into a proper sound system, they will blow the roof off any club in Beijing. Their new album certainly represents a turn into the realm of synthed dance, but you can find their original rock core in tunes like “Back 2 the Future” and “Loop of the Sun”. For now Queen Sea Big Shark continues to move beyond their dive bar roots by headlining major festivals around China and accepting sponsorships from the likes of Converse. Modern Sky have constructed big plans for the band, and they will hopefully help lead a wave of previously underground bands to a larger domestic audience.

Guaili / 怪力 are definitely one of my favorite bands in Beijing. I am secretly obsessed with their lead singer Wen Jun who throws her angular, almost skeletal body around stage during performances all while chain smoking cigarettes and rocking out an incredibly powerful voice. This September they went on a 14-city “Hell Tour” around China in support of their first album, Flight of Delusion, which they released with Maybe Mars. I have listened to it a few times and even though it might not be as wild as their performances in dive bars around the city, there are definitely some gems. You can purchase the CD at the usual suspects around Beijing including D-22 and most music stores around Guloudong Dajie. Hopefully there will be a way to purchase it online soon.

The Generation 6 concert at Yugong Yishan featured all the young bucks in Beijing’s rock underground including Residence A, Lazy Camels, Me Guan Me, Mr. Graceless, Rustic, Birdstriking, and Flyx. Musicians in Beijing refer to a wave of new bands from a certain age group as a generation. The first came with China’s godfather of rock, Cui Jian, while the sixth generation is the youngest and still cutting their teeth. This was definitely a culmination point for many of them in so far as they are becoming the defining bands from a fresh crop of performers around the city. Rustic came in with the most momentum after securing the Global Battle of the Bands crown earlier this year – a major triumph for everyone involved in the Beijing rock and punk scene. Otherwise Lazy Camels and Mr. Graceless put on strong sets. The following videos feature outtakes from Lazy Camels, Me Guan Me, Mr. Graceless, and Birdstriking along with a full track from Rustic. Enjoy.

Two of my favorite rocker outfits are now working out of Shanghai. Duck Fight Goose, led by Miniless Records founder Han Han, and Booji are playing amazing concerts of their self-styled Death Ray Rock. Let it be known: Duck Fight Goose and Booji are officially killing it. Check out Dan Shapiro’s post on CNNGo for more information and other interesting facts.