I've always complained for the longest time that Chinese rock (or 'crock', as I've seen it written) does not exist. BUT a friend nearly screamed in horror when I told him that, and proceeded to prove me wrong by bombarding me with loads of links to many underground Chinese (and other Asian) rock bands. There's even Chinese visual kei (=_=)''. Ok ok, I admit my mistake. Turns out that I just didn't know where to look after all~~~ :D

For those of you who know that I get hooked on things super easily, I've acquired so many instant obsessions overnight! Was up until around 4am this morning searching for music and videos on youtube, youku, imeem, 4shared. The thing about indie bands though, is that their material is so damned hard to find! And the quality isn't too great either, since few have released proper EPs and most of the recordings are taken from live house performances.

Anyway, the MOST DESERVING OF ATTENTION of all has got to be a band called 二手玫瑰 (Second Hand Rose). You can tell Wikipedia doesn't quite know how to characterise them. Actually, I don't really either. All I can say is that I've never in my life heard anything like them before. Picture a mishmash of hard rock, Chinese folk rock, electric guitar riffs, slow funk beats, ethnic singing/instruments, cross-dressing, stand-up comedy + other "WTF" influences all rolled into one strangely mesmerising package. Everything points to it being a recipe for disaster, yet it somehow comes out crazy cool.

It's not many bands that can make you feel "Seriously, can die. But OMG". If you possess any amount of curiosity, I suggest you give them a try.

http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f1035521o1p2.html