Tookoo at Mao Livehouse

One of the great projects to do while in Beijing is to research the city's notorious "underground" live music scene. In fact, it is not particularly underground - clubs have for years openly operated and featured gritty Chinese rock bands.

One such band is Tookoo, which means "too cool" in Chinese. The lead singer and composer, Yan Shuai, has been a guitarist since he was 17. The rest of the band members are Xiao Chuan on guitar, Xiao Quan on bass, keyboarder Xiao Gan and drummer Liu Yang.

Eight years ago, when twins Xiao Chuan and Xiao Quan first started a four-piece band playing jazz, funk and various other genres, there was no real direction to their music.