At That Moment I Thought, I Thought I Really Saw Music

From Rock in China Wiki

At That Moment I Thought, I Thought I Really Saw Music, by Pete DeMola

July 20th 2010 in We Live In Beijing (Group Post)

URL: http://weliveinbeijing.com/GroupNews/news2.rails?Nid=1000001615

BEIJING, JULY 20 -- On a warm weeknight in early-June, a kid set aside his guitar, dropped to his knees and began to moan -- pulling at strings and twirling knobs -- before losing himself in the squalls of ringing feedback, shifts in modulation and ambient noise that his band, Carpet of Let, concocted behind him.

"I'm nervous and shy," the kid later said. "I like to make noise like a zombie."

Zuo Wei, a mild-mannered 20-year-old chemistry student at Tianjin Normal University, is one of the most active figures working to nurture a new offshoot of Beijing's music scene, one that is embracing a more DIY, community-based ethic as the independent music industry enters a new phase of commodification.