Gold star and a cookie if you can name five Chinese Rock Bands. If you can, it’s likely 2 or 3 are on the Maybe Mars label.

Run out of Beijing, Maybe Mars started in 2007 out of a desire to see bands that were outside of mainstream pop and metal-core get a chance to succeed. They now boast a deep and strong list of bands, mostly Beijing based, that are creating waves both within China and beyond its borders.

At the recent Black Rabbit Festival I caught up with PK-14 and Carsick Cars, two of the most well known bands affiliated with Maybe Mars.

PK-14 is no new comer, being founded in 1997 by frontman Yang Haisong. They settled on their current line-up in 2001 and have been touring and releasing albums ever since.

Their sound is roughly Bob Dylan singing in Chinese and playing with a punk band. They put on furious performances and in 2008 were on Time Magazine’s top 5 Asian bands to watch.

The band is currently working on a new album and state, “For us, it is extremely important to be able to write and record our music as we want.” This makes them a good match for Maybe Mars, which has a strong belief in artistic freedom.

Despite their success, which has featured tours of both North America and Australia, the band members keep themselves artistically free by having some sort of other independent income. Yang Haisong, for example, runs his own music studio, where Shanghai’s Pairs recently recorded their album “Summer Sweat.”

Carsick Cars are another well-known and respected band working with Maybe Mars. This band, fronted by Zhang Shouwang is known for catchy hooks and noisy feedback interludes.

Formed in 2005, their current line up is rather new, coming together when Shouwang split with the original bass and drummer in November 2010 to add musicians from Birdstriking and Boyz and Girl.

Their performance at Black Rabbit revealed a band that has not lost a beat. They played with an infectious energy that got the crowd bouncing. The show revolved around Shouwang’s chant-able vocals, punctuated by rests, where Shouwang plays with his pedals and creates a wall of sound effect.

They are planning a tour of Australia and will also soon writing material for a new album. Because Shouwang seems to be directing the action on stage, one might think that he writes the songs by himself, but that is not the case. “We all write together at practice,” he told me, with a look that said other arrangement would be strange.

Also, Maybe Mars has an excellent download available that features one track from 18 different bands (Carsick Cars and PK-14 included.) How much, you ask? It’s free, free, FREE! Download it!.

Finally, Shanghai’s Duck Fight Goose will in early december become the first Shanghai band to release an album on the Maybe Mars. Keep your ears open for that