Birdstriking

BIRDSTRIKING entered the last great chapter into legendary BEIJING underground venue D-22's book of lore. The band formed after college students He Fan and Wang Xinjiu met at a show by their favorite band, Carsick Cars, andthought — with timeless youthful bravado — "I could do this." He Fan picked up the guitar and Xinjiu got behind the drum kit; the duo auditioned a string of bassists, finally settling on Zhou Nairen as the third leg of the juggernaut. D-22, a rock'n'roll dive rooted in Beijing's Wudaokou university district, had by Spring 2009 launched the careers of many bands that are today household names among global underground rock cognoscenti: Carsick Cars, White, Hedgehog, Queen Sea Big Shark. Birdstriking started there, at the club's anything-goes, open-stage College Night. They quickly caught the eyes and ears of the very bands that inspired them to start, and were soon playing weekend opening slots ahead of their idols. Within two years, Birdstriking had inked a deal with Beijing's top indie label, Maybe Mars, and in February 2012 — just one month after D-22 closed its doors for good — released their self-titled debut to critical praise both within China and abroad. Though Birdstriking's debut LP received limited distribution in China due to its socially critical lyrics, it gained the band a diehard follo wing within their local underground. The record's inimitable mix of tuneful hooks, calculated psych-noise meltdowns, precision rhythmic structure, and brash lyrical frankness quickly cemented them as the frontrunner of a new generation of young Beijing rockers with an equal mix of heart, spit, and vision. It also carried their name abroad, where they were identified as kindred spirits by veteran California psych rock troupe Brian Jonestown Massacre. BJM gave Birdstriking crucial international exposure when they took them along as support band for a 2014 UK tour.

In 2015, after playing a headlining slot at major Hong Kong music festival Clockenflap and adding fellow Beijing scene veteran Wen Yuzhenon second guitar, Birdstriking has set their sight even more firmly on international expansion. They'll embark on their first American tour in late Spring, coinciding with the official international release of their album on US-based label A Recordings. Traveling a road first paved by Carsick Cars and their ilk, Birdstriking brings the new sound of Young China to American ears for the first time.