Maybe Mars Presents: A Showcase of the Chinese Underground

http://www.maybemars.com/index.php/usa-tour-2009/

USA TOUR 2009

Maybe Mars Presents: A Showcase of the Chinese Underground

“Carsick Cars and P.K. 14 represent two of China’s most visceral new acts” – THE GUARDIAN

“The Ten Best Classical-Music Performances of 2008: the brilliant young guitarist-composer Zhang Shouwang (Carsick Cars & White) casting a minimalist spell in a Beijing rock club” – THE NEW YORKER

“Asia’s Best Bands, 5 Asian Acts to Watch in 2008: P.K. 14” – TIME MAGAZINE

“White’s first album… satisfyingly different… metallic beauty and resonant thunder of tuned machinery percussion” – THE WIRE

“D-22 and Maybe Mars… now the center of new music in Beijing, are also home to the city’s expanding counterculture…” – WALL STREET JOURNAL

Maybe Mars Presents: A Showcase of the Chinese Underground. A formidable new wave of musicians has taken China’s music underground by storm. Working well outside government-controlled media channels they have, in the process, turned the ears of the international music community towards Beijing.

Maybe Mars and its sister club, D-22, have found themselves at the center of the burgeoning scene. The artists signed to Maybe Mars represent a fresh, independent voice in a country renowned for creative conformity and saccharine Cantopop. For now, China remains in a tense state between the socialist idealism of old and a drive for wealth spurred by free-market reforms. These contradictions tear at the country’s social fabric, while simultaneously provoking and inspiring younger generations to greater artistic heights, especially in the realm of music.

Given the brutal industrialization, destruction and reconstruction of China’s rapidly changing urban landscapes it is probably no surprise that Beijing musicians are heavily influenced by the no-wave sounds of New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They have nonetheless reconfigured this vocabulary to fit with Chinese opera’s traditional delight with textural experimentation and a centuries-long history of infatuation with shimmering melodic structures. With the sound of broken-down machines cranking out lovely pop songs, the unique sound emerging from China’s music underground aggressively questions the moral and social basis of the fragile modernity on which it subsists.

Maybe Mars is the youngest of the two leading Chinese independent music labels. It was started by musicians who had found a home at D-22, the rock club that is credited with giving crucial exposure and support to Beijing’s exploding music scene. In its two years of existence, it has already signed 24 folk, rock, experimental and noise musicians and bands, including most of the artists at the forefront of China’s music underground.

For the first time, five Maybe Mars artists – P.K. 14, Carsick Cars, Xiao He,White & Snapline– will appear on American shores.

Artist descriptions:

P.K 14 – Ask any of the younger bands about their influences and it is pretty obvious that P.K.14 has had the biggest impact of any local band on the growing Beijing scene. However, their artistic intensity and the care with which they write their songs do not keep them from completely rocking out, and their shows in China and abroad regularly receive critical acclaim. Often referred to as China’s best underground band, P.K.14, more than any other band, set the stage for the Beijing musical explosion.

—–[download their Maybe Mars album: “City Weather Sailing” here]

Carsick Cars – One of the most widely admired bands in Beijing’s underground, Carsick Cars have played major festivals and concerts in China and abroad with the likes of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Ex Models and These Are Powers. Employing the ferocious aural attack of one of China’s most brilliant guitarists and composers, Shouwang, they tear through their beautifully crafted songs in a thrilling but almost religious orgy of violence. Carsick Cars, whose “Zhong nan hai” is considered the anthem of Chinese countercultural youth, just released their second CD this summer, which was produced by Wharton Tiers, who also produced CDs for Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca, and Dinosaur Jr.

—–[download their first Maybe Mars album: “Carsick Cars” here]

—–[download their second Maybe Mars album: “You Can Listen You Can Talk” here]

Xiao He – In recent years Xiao He started reaching deep into the surreal folk traditions of a fast-disappearing China in much the same way Tom Waits immersed himself in the apocalyptic Christian mythologies of the American Deep South. With his combination of southern Chinese mysticism and Beijing gruff he has created a strange, stirring vision of a 19th-century China crashing violently into a 21st-century China of boiling rivers and crumbling factories. Xiao He has released many CDs over the years but continues to astonish audiences, including one recently at the Barbican in London, with his progressively eclectic sound that draws upon traditional instrumentation and vocal arrangements looped within his live performances.

—–[download his Maybe Mars album: “The Performance of Identity” here]

White – Cold, intelligent, mechanical, minimalist, and among the most intensively creative bands in the world, White has toured Europe to wild acclaim and were one of Beijing’s first, important, experimental-musical exports to the world. Mixing New York and Düsseldorf minimalism with Chinese obliqueness and No Wave energy, they have consistently found themselves at the center of the noise vortex taking over particular corners of the Beijing music underground. They recently released their first critically acclaimed CD which was produced by Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten.

—–[download their Maybe Mars album: “White” here]

Snapline - One of Beijing’s most admired but most uncompromising young bands, Snapline’s music is dedicated to taking the sounds and ideas produced by the downtown Manhattan noise and minimalist movement of the 1970s and reinterpreting them in the context of contemporary Beijing, a city constantly being torn down and reconstructed in a maze of twisted steel, cranes, and huge holes in the ground, all manned by the dark and nearly-invisible army of migrant workers who flood into the city every day. Equally drawn to the dark, industrial music coming out of Manchester during the same period, the band performs strange, drum-machine-driven music over dark, minor chords.

—–[download their Maybe Mars album: “Party is Over, Pornostar” here]

Music, bio, interviews, art and more available upon request.

Confirmed shows:

Day of week	Dates	City	Venue	Lineup
Thurs	11/5/2009	Brooklyn, NYC	powerHouse Arena	Xiao He & Carsick Cars & P.K. 14
Fri	11/6/2009	Brooklyn, NYC	Glasslands	MyOpenBar presents These Are Powers, Soft Circle, Carsick Cars, White, P.K.14 & Xiao He
Sat	11/7/2009	Manhattan, NYC	WKCR: SOUNDS OF CHINA (10am)	Xiao He (live).
Sat	11/7/2009	Manhattan, NYC	SANTOS Party House	P.K.14 , Carsick Cars, Antimagic, & BJ Rubin, Knyfe Hyts (TBC),
Sun	11/8/2009	Manhattan, NYC	Columbia University	Xiao He
Tues	11/10/2009	Chapel Hill, NC	UNC – Chapel Hill	P.K.14 , Xiao He, Carsick Cars & White
Thurs	11/12/2009	Philadelphia, PA	941theater	P.K.14 , Xiao He, Carsick Cars & White
Fri	11/13/2009	Washington, DC	Velvet Lounge	P.K.14 & Xiao He, True Womanhood (TBC), & Hume (TBC)
Fri	11/13/2009	Amherst, MA	Hampshire College	Carsick Cars, White, Twin Stumps, & Pop. 1280
Sat	11/14/2009	Purchase, NY	SUNY Purchase	Carsick Cars, White, Twin Stumps, & Pop. 1280
Sun	11/15/2009	Pittsburgh, PA	Garfield Arts	PK-14, Xiao He, CSC, White, Snapline (TBC) & Surfer Blood
Thurs	11/19/2009	Chicago, IL	REGGIES	SNAPLINE, Carsick Cars, P.K.14 & Xiao He

Some Media Mentions:

Turning Japanese heads to China: The Shanghai scene Aug 4, 2009	Rocking Beijing: China’s underground music scene July 24, 2009	Alex Ross: The Ten Best Classical- Music Performances of 2008 Dec 8, 2008
Beijing’s Revolution Jul. 17, 2008	Symphony of Millions: Taking stock of the Chinese music boom. July 7, 2008	Asia’s Best Bands: 5 Asian Acts to Watch in 2008 July, 2008
Daydream Nation July 16, 2008	Destined: White Jan, 2007	For All the Rock in China Nov 25, 2007

Here are links to high-resolution publication-ready photos of all 5 bands:

http://www.mdnphoto.com/download/maybemars_carsickcars.zip
http://www.mdnphoto.com/download/maybemars_pk14.zip
http://www.mdnphoto.com/download/maybemars_xiaohe.zip
http://www.mdnphoto.com/download/maybemars_white.zip

http://www.mdnphoto.com/download/maybemars_snapline.zip

Please credit Matthew Niederhauser for all images or contact him atmdn@mdnphoto.com if more photos are needed.

For all other enquiries, please contact:

Charles Saliba

office: +86.10.6265.7351 x802

mail: 601 WENJIN INTERNATIONAL APARTMENTS
BUILDING 5 ZHONGGUANCUN DONG LU No. 1
HAIDIAN, BEIJING, 100084 CHINA

婚禮 Marriage Trap vocabulary and phrases

你走吧！ Leave!

好名字 Good name

你去吧 Go!

为什么没来？ Why didn't you come?

你说 What do you say? You say?

听不见 Can't hear

不可能 Not possible

我有困难 I have a difficulty

这个是大事 This is important

你快走 go quickly

我一看就知道他不是好东西 with one one look i can tell he is not good

有一点想家 i miss home a little bit

我们什么时候再见面？ when will we meet again?

那么多的压力 so much pressure

你找谁呀？ who are you looking for?

还要考学 still need to study -to go to school

China’s Next Stage: Spreading the Wealth

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/chinas-next-stage-spreading-the-wealth/

Economists often reject “Confucian” explanations for high savings rates and low consumer spending in China on the grounds that economic behavior is mainly shaped by government policies. But government policies promoting savings are effective as long-term policies partly because they cohere with cultural predispositions.

Policies designed to promote spending are more likely to succeed if they are in line with cultural predispositions.

Conversely, policies designed to promote spending are more likely to be successful if they cohere with those predispositions. For the Chinese, the key cultural value is the tendency to think of economic behavior not just as a matter of individual interests but as behavior shaped by concern for family members, including elderly parents. In fact, one Chinese economist, Sheng Hong, has studied the economic effects of values like filial piety.

In response to the financial crisis, the Chinese government has spent hundreds of billions on infrastructure projects, such as improving the rail network. Though these projects don’t empower consumers directly, they may improve consumption in the long term.

For example, the big spending bonanza in the Chinese calendar is the Spring Festival, the start of the lunar New Year. But many Chinese put off traveling home for the holiday because of overcrowded transportation systems. Improving the rail system will help increase travel and tourism, and boost consumer spending.

Read more…

From H-Asia listerv (conversation has been going on for months now)

Traditional vs Simplified Chinese (further response) ******************* From:   "David Schak"   I've been learning Chinese for 50 years now. My spoken language is quite good.  I've given several academic papers in Mandarin and have also taught graduate and undergraduate courses. I have often been mistaken for a  Chinese on the phone, and then the other party wonders where I'm from in  China that I use words strangely. That's my first point. The initial post in this recent thread claims that students can speak grammatically correct Chinese more quickly than they  can learn to speak a European language  with the same facility. Because Chinese grammar is not based of verb declensions and the like, it is easy to be unaware of one's errors. I still make errors far more frequently than I care to think about.  Second point: putting Chinese into characters with the click of a computer button? I hardly think so. There are far too many homophones. I find that  sometimes the Microsoft input tool will change a correct character that I  enter into an incorrect one after I've gone on to the next character. If  one doesn't read, how would one know?  Finally, and I brought this up early in the series of posts on this topic, from what I've read and heard, given a good education system, there's no  difference in learning simplified or full-form characters.  David Schak  International Business and Asian Studies Centre for Environment and Public Health Griffith University -- Ed. Note: This post raises several important points regarding foreign language learning in general, and Chinese in particular.  First, at the beginning level, when learning "survival" language skills, it is easy to be unaware of errors--and it is also likely that the communication does not require mastery of the sophisticated nuances of language and culture that comprise any true social interaction.  For an adult second language speaker in any language, error free "communicative competency" as the linguists would call it, is not attainable.  We are always learning.  Nonetheless, linguists remind us that the overall competency of a highly skilled second language speaker means that errors most often only serve to mark the speaker as one who is using a second language.  If one wishes to think in terms of Asian speakers of English, the occasional he/she confusion of a speaker with decades of experience in is easily overlooked in spoken context.  Similarly, an occasional missing article does not inhibit meaning, but might mark the speaker.  We do occasionally use a different turn of phrase, sounding bookish or even weird.  Thus, the ability to converse with linguistic and cultural competencies requires a different, but overlapping, preparation from that for literary competencies.  My students in Chinese 101 want to know why we don't solely read and write, as they did in high school when learning Spanish. It's because speaking is nested in culture and requires not only pronunciation skills, but an entire repertoire of paralinguistic skills. Students who learn only to read and translate are served inadequately in a language program.  In terms of writing Chinese, my own experience is that, for less commonly used characters, I struggle with writing in simplified script since I learned traditional first.  In short, I have to use a dictionary.  However, I remember that when I was an undergrad, a professor of Chinese literature once gestured to the bookshelves in his office stating that the deeper one studies the language, the more dictionaries one needs.  He regularly used five. My guess is that a Chinese speaker studying Shakespeare and Chaucer might comment similarly.  Which leads to my next point, someone who is a student of Chinese language and literature, or who wishes to study historical documents will need to learn not only traditional characters, but also classical Chinese. I am finding that overseas Chinese students are able to both quote and sing Tang and Song poetry and have an interest in their classical tradition.  We held a Mid-Autumn Festival a bit early this week, with moon cakes and song, and dipped into that Tang and Song repertoire for our Chinese language students.  Therefore, it may be that for even the contemporary period, those who are serious about learning Chinese may benefit from at least an excursus into the classical literature. Given the way that phrases from that literature, and even story line, has embedded itself in ordinary speech, it may be useful for even the pragmatic business student to have at least a survey course of Chinese literature in English. Cultural and linguistic competencies are interwoven.  Learning any language so that one might function with highest levels of competency is a lifelong challenge.  Yet, as David Schak reminds us, one can attain those levels in speaking with a native pronunciation, writing at professional levels, and presenting professionally in Chinese (and vice versa--from Chinese into English).  It isn't easy or error-free, but as we would all affirm, I believe, it's enormously rewarding. Linda Dwyer

Chinese told to watch party on TV

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8283299.stm

Many good links on right side.

Chinese American Museum

http://nytimes.com/2009/09/22/arts/design/22museum.html

Call for more babies as China turns to grey

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6841430.ece