MAYBE MARS presents THE CHINESE UNDERGROUND INVASION TOUR
in collaboration with the ARTS INITIATIVE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NOVEMBER 5 - 19, 2009
A formidable new wave of musicians has taken China's music underground by storm. Working well outside government media channels they have, in the process, turned the ears of the international music community towards Beijing. Independent music label Maybe Mars and its sister club D-22, - led by Columbia alumni Michael Pettis ('81SIPA, '84BUS) and Charles Saliba ('00CC) - have found themselves at the center of the burgeoning scene and are bringing it to American shores this November. Hear the first live US performances of Chinese artists - P.K. 14, Carsick Cars, and Xiao He - this November during The Chinese Underground Invasion Tour.
PRESS:
NYTimes Popcast - Ben Sisario interviews Carsick Cars and PK 14 band members
Village Voice - Andy Beta reviews 11/6 concert at Glasslands
Smart Shanghai - Experience of Shanghai-based photographer Tim Franco with bands in NYC
MTV IGGY - Review of show at powerHouse Arena on 11/5 with more photos here
China Music Radar - Interviews Matthew Niederhauser
JUMP TO: ARTIST AND ALUMNI BIOS | UPCOMING EVENTS
IN NEW YORK NOVEMBER 5 - 8, 2009
MATTHEW NIEDERHAUSER ('05CC): SOUND KAPITAL
OPENING NIGHT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 | EXHIBITION OCTOBER 28 TO NOVEMBER 29
POWERHOUSE ARENA
37 Main Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Missed opening night? Visit powerHouse during the exhibition run weekdays from 10:00AM - 7:00PM or weekends 11:00AM - 7:00PM to see the exhibition or order Matthew's album online here. An exhibition preview will also be on display at the Columbia University Club of New York on Friday, November 6 following the Columbia Alumni Association panel led by President Lee C. Bollinger titled From the "Me Generation" to the "We Generation": The Future of Service.
A new wave of Chinese musicians is taking Beijing by storm. Revolving around four venues spread across the city, these burgeoning groups of performers are working outside government-controlled media channels, and in the process, capturing the attention of the international music community. They constitute a fresh, independent voice in a country renowned for creative conformity and saccharine Cantonese pop. In Sound Kapital, photographer Matthew Niederhauser ('05CC) captures the energy of the personalities and performers of Beijing's new underground music scene. Join fellow Columbians at powerHouse Arena for an exhibition opening, book launch, and concert featuring performances by some of the best acts from Beijing's music underground - Carsick Cars, P.K. 14, and Xiao He - who will be making their first appearance ever in the United States. For more information about Matthew Niederhauser ('05CC) visit http://www.mdnphoto.com/.
THE CHINESE UNDERGROUND INVASION TOUR: BEIJING VS. BROOKLYN edition
9PM | $7
GLASSLANDS
289 Kent Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
White portrait by Matthew Niederhauser
CARSICK CARS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
7PM | $10.00 | PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE HERE
SANTOS PARTY HOUSE
100 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10013
Carsick Cars, Antimagic, BJ Rubin, and Knyfe Hyts.
Carsick Cars portrait by Matthew Niederhauser
BRUNCH WITH MICHAEL PETTIS AND CHARLES SALIBA
Sunday, November 8
12PM | $65.00
$50.00 FOR COLUMBIA ALUMNI ARTS LEAGUE MEMBERS, CAA ASSEMBLY ATTENDEES, CBSAC/NY MEMBERS, AND ASIAN CULTURAL COUNCIL LEADERS
BRASSERIE 8 1/2
9 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Michael Pettis at his club D-22 by Mark Leong/Redux
Join Columbia alumni Michael Pettis ('81SIPA, '84BUS) and Charles Saliba ('00CC) to discuss current events in China, from financial markets to rock and roll, over a private brunch with an intimate group of fellow Columbians and Asian Cultural Council guests. Click here to read their bios.
NATIONWIDE NOVEMBER 10 - 19, 2009
P.K.14 , XIAO HE, CARSICK CARS AND WHITE Tuesday, NOVEMBER 10
UNC - Chapel Hill
CHapel hill, NC
P.K.14 , Xiao He, Carsick Cars AND White
Thursday, November 12
941theater
Philadelphia, PA
P.K.14, Xiao He, True Womanhood, AND Hume
Friday, November 13
Velvet lounge
Washington, DC
Carsick Cars, White, Twin Stumps, AND Pop. 1280
Friday, November 13
Hampshire college
Amherst, MA
Carsick Cars, White, Twin Stumps, AND Pop. 1280
Saturday, November 14
SUNY purchase
Purchase, NY
PK-14, Xiao He, Carsick Cars, White, Snapline, AND Surfer Blood
sunday, November 15
garfield arts
Pittsburgh, PA
Michael Pettis - One of the world's top economists and foremost experts on the mainland's financial markets today, Michael Pettis is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a finance professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, where he specializes in Chinese financial markets. He has taught, from 2002 to 2004, at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management and, from 1992 to 2001, at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. Pettis has worked on Wall Street in trading, capital markets, and corporate finance since 1987, when he joined the Sovereign Debt trading team at Manufacturers Hanover (now JP Morgan). Most recently, from 1996 to 2001, Pettis worked at Bear Stearns, where he was Managing Director-Principal heading the Latin American Capital Markets and the Liability Management groups. He has also worked as a partner in a merchant banking boutique that specialized in securitizing Latin American assets and at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he headed the emerging markets trading team. Besides trading and capital markets, Pettis has been involved in sovereign advisory work, including for the Mexican government on the privatization of its banking system, the Republic of Macedonia on the restructuring of its international bank debt, and the South Korean Ministry of Finance on the restructuring of the country's commercial bank debt. Pettis is a member of the Institute of Latin American Studies Advisory Board at Columbia University as well as the Dean's Advisory Board at the School of Public and International Affairs. He received an MBA in Finance in 1984 and an MIA in Development Economics in 1981, both from Columbia University. Read the recent BusinessWeek profile of Michael Pettis here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121050739249.htm
Charles Saliba (’00 CC) is a founding partner of Beijing music club D-22, and Maybe Mars Records, the second largest independent music label in China. He spent four years working in technology consulting in New York and London after Columbia. He moved to Beijing in early 2004 at the insistence of his friend and business partner, Michael Pettis. In early 2006 he helped open D-22 and it quickly became a home for Beijing's underground musicians. Within a year of opening it started receiving accolades and international recognition. As a former New York resident, Saliba enjoys the frequent comparisons to the old CBGBs. D-22 is credited by many, most recently by The Economist, as being the epicenter for Beijing's burgeoning alternative music scene. Maybe Mars was started by artists who had found a home at D-22. In its two years of existence, it has already signed more than 20 different rock, experimental, noise and folk musicians, including most of the acts at the forefront of China’s music underground. Despite their youth, several bands on its roster have collected an impressive list of accomplishments including extensive tours of Europe and Asia, opening for Sonic Youth, and being chosen by Time magazine as 'one of the 5 bands to watch in Asia'. Charles Saliba graduated from Columbia College in 2000 with a BA in Political Science and is pursuing a Master's in International Development at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
ARTIST DESCRIPTIONS:
P.K 14 - Ask any of the younger bands about their influences and it is pretty obvious that P.K.14 has had the biggest impact of any local band on the growing Beijing scene. However, their artistic intensity and the care with which they write their songs do not keep them from completely rocking out, and their shows in China and abroad regularly receive critical acclaim. Often referred to as China's best underground band, P.K.14, more than any other band, set the stage for the Beijing musical explosion.
Visit their MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/pk14
Download their Maybe Mars album: "City Weather Sailing" here: www.teanyc.com/Pk14-CityWeatherSailing.zip
Carsick Cars - One of the most widely admired bands in Beijing's underground, Carsick Cars have played major festivals and concerts in China and abroad with the likes of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Ex Models and These Are Powers. Employing the ferocious aural attack of one of China's most brilliant guitarists and composers, Shouwang, they tear through their beautifully crafted songs in a thrilling but almost religious orgy of violence. Carsick Cars, whose "Zhong nan hai" is considered the anthem of Chinese countercultural youth, just released their second CD this summer, which was produced by Wharton Tiers, who also produced CDs for Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca, and Dinosaur Jr.
Visit their MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/carsickcars
Download their first Maybe Mars album: "Carsick Cars" here: www.teanyc.com/CSC-Carsickcars.zip
Download their second Maybe Mars album: "You Can Listen You Can Talk" here: www.teanyc.com/CSC-YouCanListenYouCanTalk.zip
Xiao He - In recent years Xiao He started reaching deep into the surreal folk traditions of a fast-disappearing China in much the same way Tom Waits immersed himself in the apocalyptic Christian mythologies of the American Deep South. With his combination of southern Chinese mysticism and Beijing gruff he has created a strange, stirring vision of a 19th-century China crashing violently into a 21st-century China of boiling rivers and crumbling factories. Xiao He has released many CDs over the years but continues to astonish audiences, including one recently at the Barbican in London, with his progressively eclectic sound that draws upon traditional instrumentation and vocal arrangements looped within his live performances.
Visit their MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/pekingxiaohe
Download his Maybe Mars album: "The Performance of Identity" here: www.teanyc.com/XiaoHe.zip
