Exploring the Underground Music and Art Scenes with Pangbianr

At some point, successful underground bands and musicians rise out of the rathskellers to play in mainstream venues, at which point they and their promoters leave behind the tatty bars and Monday night performances. As a result, there's always a need for promoters who truly hang out on the fringes in search for the next big thing.

Pangbianr is the latest promotion to do just that. Founder Josh Feola, who launched the bilingual website on June 1, is aiming for high-detail, low-volume promotion that highlights the city's experimental musicians and artists who really, actually deserve your attention.

Feola settled in Beijing last June working for a tech start-up, but his heart was always in music. He played in punk and hardcore bands when he was in high school in the States and has always followed underground and indie music. He estimates he attends five or six shows a week here -- only slightly more than he would if he didn't have a promotion to run. And his youth belies his ambition: just last month, he launched FILMxMUSIC, a project on Kickstarter that is seeking donations for the commissioning of five teams of filmmakers and musicians to create something truly creative.

We spoke to Feola recently about his projects and the music scene in Beijing.

How does the Beijing music scene compare to scenes in the U.S.?

That's a tough question to answer, but one of the main things I've noticed that's pretty interesting here and that makes Beijing very different is [many experimental sound musicians] come from a background of science and math, as opposed to in the U.S. where the stereotypical noise musician or sound artist goes to art school, they study design, filmmaking, media art -- something that's more obviously connected to doing this artsy type of music. Here, you have a lot of kids who are studying math or science or engineering, so actually on a daily basis they are involved in experimentation in a very rigorous sense, and then they apply that to the music maybe a bit more conscious of the experimental nature of music. They are running experiments in sound.

While you might get something very creative, you can also get something that can turn people off to the entire genre, right?

Yeah, that's definitely the case. Obviously I'm a pretty passionate advocate of Zoomin' Night, which is the every-Tuesday experimental night at D-22. I tell people to go without any kind of expectations because it's pretty hit or miss: you could see something you might perceive as totally mind-numbing, or you could see something that really blows you away.

What's the state of music promotion in Beijing right now?

I think it's interesting because obviously I promote music, and how I hear about shows tends to be through Douban or more expat magazines, like the Beijinger's weekly music roundup or Beijing Gig Guide, Beijing Daze ... as far as formalized promotion, I really kind of tune it out because the people who have the money to promote these big events are the ones that I'm already going to hear about through these other networks anyway, and what I'm trying to do with Pangbianr is to make more of a bilingual platform for curated promotion, and that's very much the experiment that's in progress. I can't say I've found a successful modus operandi for how to do that. I guess Douban is the best but it's also very much a self-selecting people who use it.

As far as venues, everyone knows D-22 and Yugongyishan and MAO ... what are some truly underground places you enjoy going to?

There's one called Raying Temple out in Tongzhou ... it's more underground just if for nothing else because it's so far out. It's an amazing space, and it's probably the best, most unique and coolest venue for live music in Beijing. It can go all night because there's really no one there to complain about sound, the space itself is really interesting, and they also have a bar, a recording studio and practice room in the hostel, so it's really kind of a self-sufficient enclave.

In the city -- I wouldn't say it's underground because it's still a very well known venue, but -- What Bar, the old What. It still gets pretty good traffic as far as people going there and it's quite small so you can easily pack it out. What Bar, I think, is very important in the social fabric of the Beijing music scene because it's one of the oldest among the currently existing music venues, and it's hosted a lot of bands that later got more notoriety -- that's where they played most frequently in the beginning.

What do you think of the Carsick Cars breakup?

I don't really know the factors that went into it and I don't know what's going through their minds so much, but I think it's good to shake things up like that. The drummer and bassist, Li Qing and Li Weisi, have been putting a lot of energy into this side project of theirs called Soviet Pop, and Soviet Pop is another one of these bands, they play at Zoomin' Night pretty frequently, that I've really seen become much richer and more refined over time. On the other hand, [singer/guitarist Zhang] Shouwang plays very frequently both with his other project, White Plus, and then as a solo performer, and his solo work is really dynamic, and it seems to be, for him as well, where he's putting most of his energy, into expanding some of his solo work.

How many times have you seen Soviet Pop?

Probably five or six times.

So you think they have potential.

Oh yeah, again, it's not the kind of music the average Carsick Cars fan will necessarily like, it's very ... minimal, kind of synth. Soviet Pop also changes their arrangement a lot, but I think if you can access that kind of music, which is a big if, I think they're a very interesting band. It's a band that's really grown on me. The first time I saw them I was really kind of put off, and over time I've begun to understand how they lock together a bit more.

Why should people pledge money for the FILMxMUSIC project?

If you go to screenings, if you're involved in this more artistic and cultural side of Beijing, this is an opportunity to contribute to that directly. The money you're paying is going directly to the artists, as opposed to when you go a show, you pay the venue, the venue takes the money and then pay the bands; you buy a CD and the label takes the money, then they give some to the bands. All the money for this is going to the bands and then directly into organizing the event series. We're not going to profit off this in any way. The minimum donation is one US dollar -- you're really contributing directly to creating new music and film in Beijing.

Pangbianr just started its "Third Thursday" series, where on the third Thursday of every month it will screen local student films and showcase young bands at D-22. You can find out more about this and other Pangbianr events through its events page, or sign up for the weekly newsletter.