Posts Tagged ‘split works’

things well done | benjamin steiger levine ::

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

:: Benjamin Steiger Levine is a wickedly talented filmmaker and music video director from Montreal, Canada.

This video for Socalled’s “You Are Never Alone” is an example of his charming, quirky, wonderfully cinematic style. Given his surrealist aesthetic and love of special effects driven storytelling, it’s not surprising that Steiger Levine has been drawing Michel Gondry comparisons of late.

[The video above loads quickly in China, but for a higher quality version, click here.]

Steiger Levine joined Toronto-based Spy Films in December 2008. On the company’s blog, there’s a short Q&A with him — about a recent video for Beast’s Mr. Hurricane. See more of his reel here.

For those in Shanghai, Socalled is performing tonight (Saturday, May 2) at Yuyintang (along with ) as part of the series presented by Spli-t Works and transmitCHINA. Other visiting bands from the Great White North include (yesterday), and and Hollerado (tomorrow). Local support from and Crazy Mushroom. All the bands will also be playing in Zhenjiang this weekend for the MIDI Festival. Support those crazy Canucks, eh? Bravo, well done.  // PL

[Panthea Lee is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]

Posted in cool hunting, events, music, shanghai, things well done, video | Tags: , , , , , music videos, , socalled, ,  | No Comments »

neocha.com | josé slideshow ::

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

:: a slideshow of photographs taken by Abram Deyo in Shanghai during José González’s China tour. From Split Work’s Neocha page. One last time, hats off to and his team at Split Works for bringing José to China.  // AjS

[full disclosure: 56minus1 is a partner at Neocha.com]

Posted in music, neocha.com, photography, shanghai | Tags: , , , , photographs, ,  | No Comments »

shorts | teardop ::

Friday, February 20th, 2009

:: following up on Jon’s post yesterday about the José González’s show at the Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre, I went to his second performance in Shanghai last night at Glamour Bar. José again put on a great show, with an intimate stage arrangement that allowed for everyone to get up close. One highlight of the night was José showing off his Chinese and saying “牛逼!” (niu bi) to the crowd, something he must have picked up in Beijing a couple nights earlier. Below is a video I took on my phone of “Teardrop,” his last song of the night. Again, kudos to and his team at Split Works for bringing José to China. // SL

[Sean Leow is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]

Posted in music, shanghai, shorts, video | Tags: , Glamour Bar, , , , , ,  | 2 Comments »

snaps | renaissance man ::

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

:: last night, I took in a Jose Gonzales performance at the Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre – a perfect venue. It was one of those so-intimate-that-there-are-zero-bad-seats kinda places. Below are some snaps from the show. Also, see here for a short video Sean posted from Jose’s second Shanghai performance at Glamour Bar (2/19/09). Hats off to and his team at Split Works for making it all happen.  //

Jose Shadow

Jose Purple

[ is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]

Posted in music, shanghai, snaps | Tags: , , , , renaissance man, , ,  | 3 Comments »

chats | archie hamilton ::

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

archie hamilton:: listen below for a conversation between Archie Hamilton, head of Split Works, and Louis Yu, from the U of Victoria’s CFVU 101.9. Among other things, Split Works brings foreign bands (Sonic Youth, Jens Lekman, Go Team, Jose Gonzalez) to perform in China. Split Works is also involved in promoting / developing local Chinese independent musicians. In the interview, Archie discusses at length the music industry in China. Follow him on Twitter at , or Split Works at . See here for another in depth interview with Archie.

Posted in chats, china, music, people | Tags: , , , louis yu, ,  | 1 Comment »