“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
Maybe Mars, Snapline, Lolly Fan, Michael Pettis, Carsick Cars, Shanghai 24/7, Yugong Yishan, Hedgehog, Space Bitch, Live Beijing Music, Pacalolo, Baijng Daze, Badr, Andrew Field, Subs, Down, Residence A, D-22, Uptown Records, Sacco, Genjing, Rainbow Danger Club, Duck Fight Goose, The Song Dynasty
X is Y, Rock In China, Li Jianhong, China Free Improvisation, Carsick Cars, P.K.14, Hindustan Times, Variety, Li HongQi, PopMatters, Red Rock, Jonathan Campbell, Syyfal, Rainbow Danger Club, Guai Li, Jon Davis, Rocket To China, Snapline, Hedgehog, The Beijinger, Ricky Sixx, Rustic
Trash a Go Go, Shanghai 24/7, Andy Best, Kungfuology, Monkey Shoes, Color4, Chaile, Punkcast.com, Xiao He, Carsick Cars, P.K.14, Zhang Shouwang, He Fan, GetItLouder.com, Rock In China, Pangbianr, Old What Bar, Hedgehog, Beijing Gig Guide, Jake Newby, Latabozi, Maybe Mars, Proximity Butterfly, Chengdu, CNNGo, ArtSpace China, Beijing Daze
PRX, New Sound of China, Carsick Cars, Music Dish, Rustic, Maybe Mars, Global Times, Re-Tros, P.K.14, Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, Beijing Punk, Misandao, Demerit, Hedgehog, Reel Fanatic, D-22, Generation Six, Birdstriking, Flyx, Old Fashion, Pangbianr, Kwanyin, Sub Jam, Yan Jun
Rose Mansion, LuXinPei, Yan Jun, Sub Jam, Kwanyin, Bob Blunt, P.K.14, Pangbianr, tenzenmen, Music Dish, Carsick Cars, Hedgehog, AV Okubo, China Youth Tour, Nick Pedan, ChaosCS, Enovate
China’s experimental music scene spreads it’s wings. Beijing’s White play SXSW.
Formed by Shou Wang and Shen Jing, White has quickly become one of the most acclaimed outfits in the new Beijing music scene. White’s sound is ever evolving, spiralling outwards from the core stars of noise and minimalism to take in everything from the phase patterns of Steve Reich, the atonal chords of Glenn Branca, Throbbing Gristle’s aggressive electronic shimmer, Neubauten’s rhythmic invention, and the gu zheng masters of Chinese classical music. Their pieces can range from highly organized agglomerations of atonal chords that have an almost rock and roll ferociousness, to a completely anarchic attack of weirdly syncopated drum sounds derived from a chance encounter with old furniture or a dysfunctional machine.
Shou Wang, who plays guitar, organ, toys, analogue pedals, drums, and effects, is a founder member of the Chinese new music movement ‘No Beijing’ and is the guitarist/vocalist for Beijing noise band Carsick Cars. Despite his extreme youth he is considered at the very heart of the new generation of Chinese avant-garde musicians, in 2006 flying to New York to take part in Glenn Branca’s famous No.13 recording “Hallucination City” for 100 guitarists.
In 2005 he formed White No.1, a septet that paid tribute to the early work of Glenn Branca, and White 2J, in which he played keyboards. Finally he and Shen Jing, who had been admirers of each other’s music from afar and who shared the same passion for New York noise and kosmiche rhythms, formed White as an outlet for their more avant garde tendencies.
Shen Jing plays analogue synth, drums, percussion, sampler, vocals, tape manipulation, and effects; she has been deeply immersed in Beijing’s music scene since 1998, participating in the vibrant explosion it has undergone in recent years. Until 2006, she was the drummer in Beijing indie/punk legends Hang On The Box, but since 2003, her work has increasingly demonstrated her own unique form of cosmic industrial noise.
Cat #: 017TZM
Carsick Cars consists of Shou Wang (22) on vocals, guitar, and loops, Li Qing (23) on percussion, and Li Weisi (22) on bass guitar. The band was formed in March, 2005, when Shou Wang, a student at the Beijing Institute of Technology, met Li Weisi and Li Qing at the rehearsal space of mutual friends. By May they had performed their first concert at a party for a small group of friends and by the end of the year were performing in Beijing clubs. Their first CD was recorded in the spring of 2007 and was produced by legendary P.K.14 frontman Yang Haisong.
Their sound, influenced by the drone of Velvet Underground, Suicide and Sonic Youth as well as by the textures and structures of Steve Reich and Glenn Branca, is a combination of brilliantly-textured roar and hard open chords that are used to explore and tear apart their beautifully crafted songs. Amidst the explosive noise and feedback it sometimes takes a while to realize how well they write songs, although this has not been lost on the many Beijing musicians who are their fans – Carsick Cars is probably the underground band in China whose songs are most often performed by other local bands.
As befits what is one of the most admired Chinese underground bands in the world, Carsick Cars has performed widely in China and abroad. They have filled clubs in all the major cities in China and, in August and September of 2007, Sonic Youth, who has called them their favorite band in China, asked Carsick Cars to tour with them in Europe. Following their London show, the band was invited to perform at the Steirischer Herbst Festival in Austria in October 2007, and at All Tomorrow’s Parties in London in May 2008.
Along with their band, the members of Carsick Cars have been very active in a number of other music projects. Shou Wang is a founding member of experimental duo White, whose first CD was produced by Einstürzende Neubauten founder Blixa Bargeld in Berlin in May 2007. In February 2006 he performed on the recording of Glenn Branca’s Sym- phony 13, and has performed several times with composers Elliott Sharp and Alvin Curran. In July 2007 after performing at a festival in New York he was asked to join These are Powers in the recording of their second CD. Li Qing and Li Weisi are founding members of rock trio Snapline, whose debut album was produced by PiL drummer Martin Atkins for his Invisible Records label. They have both performed with Pigface and as part of White. In addition Li Qing has performed with Elliott Sharp.
The band has been extensively written up in the Chinese, English, Ger- man, Swedish and American press and has been featured in television shows in the US, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. In September 2007 they were listed by That’s Beijing as one of the top ten bands in China, and Shou Wang was listed in a June 2007, Rolling Stone China article as one of the country’s four most innovative guitarists.
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