With their long-awaited first album in the bag, Beijing rockers Guai Li are cooler than you, and that’s OK, write Jennifer Conrad and Gissing Liu

Over a soundtrack of layered guitars and a bounding sing-along chorus, someone dressed up in a bunny suit goes on a killing spree with guns, axes and daggers and then dances triumphantly. This is art-punk at its finest, the blood-splattered video for Guai Li’s Devil Rabbit.

It’s a fitting introduction to the band: dark, focused but keeping a sense of fun. Guai Li, whose first album, Flight of Delusion, comes out this month, take their name from the Chinese saying ‘guai li luan shen’. “It refers to something that happens that can’t be explained by science,” explains singer Wen Jun, who along with guitarist Xu Sheng, are smoking menthols, drinking black coffee, and talking about the album and a 15-city tour of China that takes in our own Hidden Agenda on Saturday 11. “It’s related to the band because we like strange things. Among these things, you can find certain rules – you can’t explain them in a scientific way but the rules still exist.”

The band formed in 2003, although they’ve undergone some lineup changes. Today, Guai Li’s alchemy creates dark post-punk propelled by two guitarists (Xu and Liu Yue). Drummer Shi Xudong also plays for PK 14, while He Yifan is on bass. Up front is Wen, who is shockingly skinny for someone with such a powerful voice.

“What really stands out about them is the fierceness of their shows,” says Michael Pettis, whose Maybe Mars record label is putting out Guai Li’s debut. “They’ve got a great singer – sometimes she sounds like Patti Smith on a rage, great instrumentalists and strong songs.”

Through the menthol smoke, Wen’s dyed red hair slashes over her eyes. On her left arm, she sports a tattoo of an Indian deity. It’s one of Shiva’s sons, and brings wisdom and luck. Another tattoo came when she was “really young” and she doesn’t want to tell us about it. She cites as inspiration artists including Kate Bush and Japanese musician Jun Togawa – not to mention Ian Svenonius, the charismatic frontman of The Make-Up, a cult band that lit up the Washington DC scene in the 1990s with their mix of post-punk, gospel trappings and radical politics.

But while Svenonius’ previous band, Nation of Ulysses, released a debut album called 13-Point Program to Destroy America, Guai Li explain that their use of the term ‘left-punk’ to describe their style doesn’t carry any political overtones. “It’s just a joke, actually,” says Wen. “‘Left’ in Chinese has a meaning that’s ‘informal’,” adds Xu. “We call ourselves a punk band, but our music is not pure punk, so we call it ‘left-punk’.”

When you’re at a Guai Li show, you get the feeling that you’re hanging out with the hippest kids in town – they’re an indie insiders love, but they fly just under the radar of more casual followers of the scene. Among their famous fans is Beijing indie rock wunderkind Shouwang, who fronts Carsick Cars.

“Carsick Cars and Guai Li started around the same time, five or six years ago. We were both part of the ‘No Beijing’ movement,” says Shouwang. “Even then, I found them to be special. They sound very fresh and different, and the music they listen to is also different from ‘the scene’.”

Flight of Delusion features more prominent vocals and, at times, has more of a 60s rave-up feel. There’s psychedelic-tinged Be Cool, the slow whirling Laughing Gas and the slinking The Model. They like likeminded Chinese bands such as Carsick Cars, Zuo Xiao Zu Zhou, Ourself Beside Me and AV Okubo. Along with citing bands such as Acid Mothers Temple and Rammstein as favourites, they express nostalgia for a good pop song. “I think the Hong Kong pop songs from the 80s and 90s, and old Shanghai songs from the 30s are really good,” says Wen. “They are good musically and have a strong sense of social responsibility. I can’t bear pop songs now but you can’t avoid them – you hear them everywhere on the streets.” Xu continues: “You can tell that they took songwriting seriously…Pop music now sounds more like it’s set by a computer program, and it’s almost all the same.”

But they’re realistic about the prospects for indie rock ‘n’ rollers in China – they’ll never roll in the cash of those computer-enhanced pop stars. “We don’t expect that rock music will get a lot of recognition,” says Xu, who like some of the other members has a job outside of the band (he runs a small convenience store. Around his neck, he wears a jade dragon, intended to send wealth in his direction).

“We definitely hope we can have lots of money, but we never think about getting rich from our music,” says Wen. “Bands now are different from the old rockers. They might have more pure minds, thinking that they should maintain the rock spirit all the time and not have a routine day job that would interfere. Young rockers don’t only concentrate on music and think it’s the only thing they should do in their lives. It’s doesn’t mean we aren’t serious towards music – we’re more realistic.”

Guai Li play Hidden Agenda on September 11. Tickets: hiddenagendahk.com; 6335 6366.