I somehow think that making lewd comments about large breasts would be inappropriate now.
Yonhap news is reporting that singer, 유니 commited suicide by hanging herself in her room in Incheon around 12:50 in the afternoon on January 21st. She was discovered by her grandmother. She had been living in Incheon with her maternal grandmother, uncle, and mother since wrapping up promotion of her second album last August. The police report states that she had signs of depression.
I was never a fan of her music, but I was a fan of her. 유니 you were the sexiest thing on television here and you will be missed. Especially with Hooters opening up here. Who are those waitresses going to look up to now? God speed 유니!
I should probably put a picture of my lion that I always draw here, but I’m not going to. Yesterday Jinhui and I celebrated one year of being successfully married with a trip to the theater…to watch a musical. A musical called Lion King, or maybe it was The Lion King. Anyhow, I believe the last time I attended a musical was in middle school, and that time I was actually performing as opposed to simply being in the audience. Oh you didn’t know that? It’s true! In middle school I played a cop and a court stenographer in my school’s production of Hello Dolly! I even had a line. But I’m really off on a tangent here.
Back to the Lion King. I’m a rock guy so I can get away with, “This Band was awesome! They sounded like Billy Idol battling Louie Armstrong,” but somehow things like that don’t really work with musical theater. What does work is something like, “Lion King was totally awesome!” Even that doesn’t really convey how out of control the entire thing was.
Some of you out there might have seen this show in the US or China or even here in Korea, but for those of you that haven’t let me briefly describe it. They started with the plot of the cartoon, The Lion King. To that they added puppets, and dudes in elephant suits, and dancers, and some dudes in a mask that looked like some sort of alligator with ram horns that seriously popped up right in front of me when the show began. The entire thing was so over the top, I’m a little sad that photography was prohibited. But thanks to the internet there are a whole slew of pictures are up on Korea’s offical Lion King musical website.
The entire thing was nuts! I’ve seen Lion King probably 100 times at least, due to the fact that someone in my household (other than me) was obsessed with it in the early 90s (I’m not naming any names), but even still I was still totally stoked. I mean there were dudes in huge elephant costumes coming down the aisle next to me, and guys with birds on ropes that were swung out over the audience. It was outstanding! Also there were some child actors. Child actors normally bug the hell out of me, especially here. Every kid that gets put on a “drama” here in Korea sounds like a robot…even when they are playing characters other than robots, but these kids were different. They spoke like normal people, not that halting, “Hi. My. Name. Is. Simba. I. Swear. I. Am. Not. A. Robot…” kind of delivery that every other Korean child actor uses. Awesome!
And speaking of vocal deliveries, the way in which Mufasa and Scar were portrayed or perhaps just my interpretation of their portrayal seemed a little odd. Maybe I’ve lived here too long, maybe it was scripted that way in Korea, or maybe it was scripted that way everywhere, but those two dudes reminded me a lot of the actors in the various historical dramas that are always on TV here. It was also weird the way some of the lyrics were changed when translated to Korean. The song, “I Can’t Wait To Be King,” became, “멋진 왕 될거야!” (”I’ll Become An Awesome King”).
Even if you don’t understand Korean you should go check it out, since it just looks so awesome. The story is easy enough to follow especially if you’ve seen yourself some Lion King before. If you’ve never seen Lion King, rent the video but definately check out the musical. It was deluxe!
So after the show we went to a Chinese restaurant named Ho Lee Chow’s. Ho Lee Chow’s does American style Chinese food, so there’s General Tso’s Chicken but no 자장면. We ordered some set that came with two bowls of hot & sour soup, some spring rolls, Mongolian beef, a platter of fried rice, and some deal that was called Sichuan Special (it was meat, chicken, shrip, squid, and vegetables in some sort of sauce). This was allegedly a set designed to feed two people, but we ended up taking a lot home with us.
Following dinner we had wine and cheese and then called it a night. That about does it from here, I’m going to go now because I want to play the Lion King Super Nintendo game we had when I was a youth. Before I go, there’s one last thing: When we got off the bus near our apartment, we saw a girl with a hairstyle that looked just like a lion’s mane. Make of that what you will.
There are many a way to celebrate a seemingly pointless event such as the passing of a year. Some people throw private parties with their friends or family which inevitably involves watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year on television. Other people trek to some pickpocket rich party at a public venue (ie. Times Square). Some people, realizing that a successful orbit around the sun by the earth is not a truly monumental achievement, elect to celebrate by doing nothing…aside from going to sleep at a reasonable hour. There are those that spend New Year’s Eve like they spend every other evening…trying to level up in (insert your online RPG here). Others spend the night alone, drinking, and cursing humanity. I’ve partaken in my share of those New Year’s celebrate styles, but one thing I’d never done was ring in the New Year doing what Dick Clark only claims to do. Rockin’!
This year, if you couldn’t tell by the title, Jinhui and I elected to say hello to 2007 by attending a rock show featuring Side-B and Veil with guests! The show began at 9:00 pm 12.31.2006 and was slated to go till 1:00 am 1.1.2007. That’s like 4 hours of rocking, which seemed like it would be totally awesome, and believe you me it was!
I said that the show was totally awesome, though you wouldn’t have known that based on the first act of the night. To begin, I might have their name totally wrong, and for that I am sorry since you will not be properly warned to avoid them due to this mistake. Anyhow this group consisted of two women who apparently really loved Whitney Houston. Their set consisted of not one, but two songs made popular by Mrs. Bobby Brown: “I’m Every Woman” and “Greatest Love Of All” to be exact. Anyhow I thought that they were terrible if simply for the reason that one of the two women did that Mariah Carey style way too high singing, and she made my head feel like it was going to explode. The other lady wasn’t that bad, but I really don’t need Whitney Houston cover songs to complete my life. Also the lady that had a voice like a bomb was also sporting a pony tail that came out way too high in the back of her head…kind of like that really minor belly dancer character from the Simpsons. Thankfully they only did the two songs and then bid us a Happy New Year and exited stage left.
I wanted to like Funky Brown. I really did. I mean they came out with guitars and a drummer and everything, but they were just so boring. Imagine if you will a band that’s approximate sound is a melenge of the following musical styles: “What A Fool Believes” era Doobie Brothers, Scatman style vocals, slap bass, and a bass player with a mullet. Somehow when put this all together it did not equal total awesomeness. They played three songs, one of which I liked until they decided to go into “jam band” territory and play the same riff for like 6 minutes while everyone solos and the singer “sings” stuff like, “Boo boo doop dee doo bop doo,” and the mulleted bassist summons the powers of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and does some bass slapping. Somehow when they went into this territory I kind of changed my opinion of the song. It was like, “This song’s not that bad…” “Blap dee doop da doo dap dooo!” “Oh wait…yeah it is that bad.” It was during Funky Brown that I was glad this concert was being held in an auditorium and therefore had chairs. So I could sit down in passive resistance. “No Funky Brown…I will not dance! I am going to sit right here thank you very much.” Oh also everytime the guitarist played a guitar solo he also did the solo with his mouth. So it was like (insert smoking guitar solo here), “Blap bleep boo de boop doo!” I almost thought that he had one of those Frampton Comes Alive! talk box deals, but he was not…he was just scatting to his own solo, which was even lamer than if he had been using a talk box…
Following the mediocracy that was Funky Brown was a woman named 리아 (Lia). She came out and did a quasi-ballad tune. During this song, my wife informed me that Lia had been popular in the late 90s due to the song she was singing at that very moment. Following her big hit, Lia launched into a cover of the Frankie Valli tune, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” during which she ripped off her hair revealing a buzzcut. My jaw dropped. I was totally shocked, much like that dude from Hootie & The Blowfish claimed to be when he learned that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. My wife at this time turned to me and informed me, “Oh yeah, I was going to tell you in the 90’s she used to always have a buzzcut. I thought she grew it out. I guess I was wrong.”
Out of control hair removal and crew cuts aside, Lia was pretty awesome. Her voice kind of reminded me of Yoojin from Cherry Filter, and she had decent stage presence. So she was alright in my book. Plus “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” with quasi-industrial intro? Thank you, Lia. Thank you.
I’d seen Side-B before. Hell, I got on television for doing so. Therefore the awesomeness of Side-B this night did not come as a shock. I knew that they were going to kick ass before they even hit the stage…and unlike trips into wine tunnels, which also should theoretically kick much ass, Side-B really delivered the goods.
The thing that made this particular Side-B show even better was the guy sitting in the row infront of us. To say he was a Side-B fan would not be doing him justice. Let’s put it this way: prior to Side-B taking the stage, he had been sitting next to my wife, but once Side-B hit the stage, he lept over a row of chairs to get a little bit closer. The dude was totally into it, which somehow made me more into it. I was screaming stuff and jumping, and basically telling Side-B how much they rocked. It was awesome! And I think Side-B knew that our section was all about them.
Anyhow the set was good. We got some awesome party jams, some of which featured break dancers and fire. Then there was the slow jam where they pulled a lady out of the audience ala that Bruce Springsteen video with Courtney Cox. There was also a short set by the groups DJs which was totally awesome. The dudes had crash helmets and sampled Mario Brothers, and Dig Dug and played cowbells and bongos. It was great, though not as great as when it was revealed that this night was not only New Year’s Eve, but one of the dude’s birthday.
Some people in the front row gave him a cake. The dude in front of me was going apeshit. He had some loot that he apparently wanted to give the birthday boy. It looked like a DVD and some photos, but I wasn’t really sure. He was jumping up and down, yelling, “Ohh OHH OHHH!!!” like that dude on Welcome Back Kotter attempting to give the dude his birthday present. He was not, to my knowledge, successful. Anyhow Side-B rocked it well, they gave us candy (we had gotten one piece, yet some how it doubled while in Jinhui’s coat), and the one dude had a huge Mickey Mouse hand of a glove on (see the photo at right). Awesome! And the Side-B superfan? He disappeared when they left the stage.
This was Veil’s show, so they were played the longest of anyone. Their set was pretty much perfect. They played some old tracks (stuff off their debut, and from vocalist Kim Won Jun’s days as a solo artist), new tracks (stuff from an EP to be released later this year), and of course some covers. The covers performed were out of control as well. I swear that I am not making this up, but they covered both, “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party” and “YMCA,” (these two tracks were played back to back if memory serves correctly). I think one of the reasons I like this band, aside from the fact that their tunes are alright, is the fact that they put on an entertaining show.
They had costume changes which included a singer dressed as a cowboy (maybe that cover of “YMCA” makes a little more sense now). The singer had some laser pointer shaped like a gat which he pointed into the audience. There were scantily clad females brought out during the song, “Girls, Girls, Girls” (which is not a cover of the Motley Crue song). The dude from Side-B made a cameo in some mask. There was pyro. The bass player’s mom and dad and younger sibling were in front of me…and his mom was totally rocking out which was pretty awesome. The entire thing was out of control.
And since it was New Year’s Eve, Veil also counted us down and rang in the New Year. In Korea, or at least at Veil concerts in Korea, New Year’s thankful doesn’t feature “Auld Lang Syne,” but rather some other song that every Korean person in the room seemed to know, but I had never heard before. So we rang in the New Year with hugs and kisses (as Veil commanded…and what Veil commands we must do), and they band played the afore mentioned not “Auld Lang Syne” and the vocalists handed out 복조리 (bokjori). I did not get one, but it was still pretty awesome.
The show was outstanding and they played past 1:00 am. Since we live far away, and the subways were scheduled to stop at 2:00 am we hurried out of there, but we unable to make it home, so we stopped in 잠실 and had dinner, and then went to a PC방 until 5:30 when the trains started running again. By 7:00 I was in bed and asleep. It was an awesome New Year. Pictures from this event can be seen here.
Korea has MTV. I’m not talking about M-net or KMTV…I’m talking straight up MTV, and the other day I went to their studios to see a concert. A concert that was filmed to be put on television. Also it was free and they gave me beer, but I’m really getting ahead of myself here now aren’t I? Let’s be backtracking…pistol packing and get it going on!
Last weekend I took Jinhui to her first rock concert which was kind of like My First Sony only not as red or as plastic. Inspite of the lack of red plastic, Jinhui really enjoyed the rock show and wanted to go rock out again. The group she most wanted to see? Jaurim! And as chance would have it, a meer five days later Jaurim was putting on a show at MTV Studio, and it was free, and since it was sponsored by Budweiser there was free beer as well. “Cool! Let’s rock it like a robot!” was pretty much my response.
And that’s just what we did! We got there early since it was free and there were a limited number of tickets. So we grabbed our tickets and then had dinner at Kimbab Nara (김밥나라) or Kimbab Cheonguk (김밥천국) and did word search puzzles. Finally it was time to go and rock out and get recorded doing so.
This was the first time I’d ever been to something being recorded for television save for that time that my journalism class in high school went to the local NBC station to see the news at noon get recorded, but that was very different. Before any rocking commenced a producer came out on the stage and gave us some rules. Photos were okay, but flashes were not since sometimes flashes cause people to make zombie faces which makes for poor television. We had to watch out for our personal belongs. And I think that was about it, but I wasn’t really paying attention since I just wanted to rock! Then it was time!
Heritage
This was a band that prior to this event I’d never heard of. When they first hit the stage I noticed that there was a lack of a singer. “Ah…this must be due to the fact that this is being taped for television. The singer’s probably going to come out when they start filming,” I thought to myself. And I was right…kind of. The singer did come out when the filming began, only they weren’t one singer there were seven of them. That’s right ladies and gentlemen a group with seven singers that were not a boy or girl group. This group instead hijacked soul, funk, gospel, and from time to time hip-hop in an effort to get the party started. I had a couple problems with them though. First of all the one dude sounded like he was trying to be James Brown except when he sounded like Heavy D from Heavy D and the Boys. Everyone else sang as though there were a member of MC Hammer’s posse on the song, “Don’t Pass Me By.” Heritage, you might have had a live band and a girl with a head shaped like a lion, but you can’t fool me into thinking shoddy covers of “What’s Goin’ On” make you a real soul group!
진희曰: They were too confusing. There were so many singers I didn’t know where to look. Also I couldn’t tell who was singing what so I didn’t know who was a good singer and who was bad.
Side-B
I thought that I’d never heard of this group either, but apparently in the spring of 2005 I included them in a rant about how bad braids look on white people and Asian people. At this point I would like to ammend said 2005 article by stating that Side-B may in fact have horrible hair but they sure know how to rock the party. Also I want to add that it’s really difficult to try and take pictures of rappers while they are performing. At least with a rock band they are attached to instruments that impede their ability to move quickly. These guys were like superballs…flying and jumping all over the place. Jesus God Damn it was difficult to take pictures! But that’s alright, I was rocking out anyway!
진희曰: They were out of control.
Veil
Veil was another group that I truly had never heard of, but apparently everyone else in attendance had since they were all weilding Veil hand towels (as a quick sidebar this seems to be a common item for Korean bands to sell. I have personally seen No Brain towels, Crying Nut towels, and now Veil towels, but never in my 23 years of dwelling in the US did I see any band selling towels. There are no Les Savy Fav or Pearl Jam towels). Anyhow I really rocked out on a tangent there. Veil were a pretty decent rock and roll combo. Basically there were the group Transfixion (aka pretty boy rockers) only they had a rapper also. It was the oddest form of rap-rock or rock-rap I’d ever heard in my life, but somehow it was a little bit awesome. Also during the show the singer that wasn’t a rapper attempted to explain what Veil stood for. It was apparently “Various Elements In Life,” or something akin to that which he said in English which sounded like he had marbles in his mouth. He than spotted me in the crowd and asked me if I could understand. I said I could…though in reality I couldn’t until the rapper (who I’m pretty sure either lived or studied) in an English speaking country explained it again. Luckily the cameramen all recorded this exchange increasing my chances of appearing on television about 48.2%. Radical!!!
We later discovered that the singers in Veil had a secret past which kind of explained their level of fame. The singing guy was apparently a former teen idol dance singing in the early 1990s (진희曰: 1992) and the rapper was a one time member of Koyote who apparently got into some drug related trouble and was sacked from the group. Anyhow that’s why they were famous, but we didn’t know it at the time.
진희曰: They are fun to watch. It was interesting: rap and rock…rap-rock! I’ve never seen that. I wish I got a stick or towel or something that they threw after the show. I almost got a sticker but someone took it. I was scared. (Wyatt 曰: There was some middle aged 아저씨 that was way to into Veil and would throw himself into the crowd of female fans to snag stickers. This was the guy that got the sticker 진희 attempted to grab.)
Jaurim
Apparently the members of Jaurim have rocking out gear, since they were all sporting the same gear that they had worn to the concert some 5 days before. Also I am now under the impression that Jaurim’s singer, Kim Yuna (김윤아) must be told that she is pretty before they can start rocking…at least that’s what the mens in the audience would leave me to believe. As soon as she come out it was all, “오~아! 예쁘다!” (Wo~ah! She’s beautiful!) In all honesty she’s good looking, but she doesn’t need to be told that. Pretty girls already know they’re pretty and telling them so only gives them a swelled head, like Peter Brady in that episode of the Brady Bunch where he saves some kid from getting crushed in a toy store and then gets a trampoline and assorted other junk…including a swelled head! What was I talking about? Oh yes, rock and roll!
So Jaurim played some rock and roll jams. Most of the tunes they played were off their latest album, which makes sense since this was a televised event and they probably wanted to use it to oh I dunno…promote the fact that they have a new album. Anyhow new songs sounded really good. That Kim Yuna sure knows how to sing and jump while wearing high heels! Also do you remember “Freebird?” Did you ever see Lyyard Skynyrd on VH1 behind the music? Remember the part where they talk about “Freebird” having a triple guitar attack? Yeah?! Well Jaurim at one point had a triple keyboard attack which was almost as bad ass.
진희曰: She had the same clothes and you (Wyatt) wanted to yell that, but I stopped you. That’s not a good move.
With Jaurim finished, so was the show. We exited the building and again were handed free Budweiser (thanks dudes!) and then headed home. Anyhow it was taped and will probably air sometime soon on MTV in Korea. If you happen upon the True Music Live show on MTV featuring any of the bands mentioned above, keep your eyes peeled. I’m the white guy in a yellow sweatshirt. And in the meantime if you want to look at pictures of rap rock and roll, check out these pictures here at this site. (link)
Married life is awesome. I always have someone to talk to. Housework is divided evenly and therefore takes much less time. The menu choices regarding home cooked meals increased ten-fold. But there was one thing I missed, and that was rock and roll shows. It wasn’t really so much that they were outlawed or declared off-limits, but with my marriage and subsequent move out of Seoul, I kind of stopped going to rock concerts. That all changed this past weekend when Jinhui and I trekked to Jamshil to bear witness to the 2006 Bud Rock Concert. This was the first concert we attended together and well…her first concert period so this time around instead of doing this thing old school I’m going to write up my take on the bands and then offer up some piece of information my wife proclaimed about each group. Since there were nine bands at this bad boy, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Let’s take it away!
First things first. We arrived at the Olympic Park (where this event was going down) and quickly encountered mobs of middle school girls. Apparently at another stadium in the park the Korean version of the MTV music awards were being held (the M-net Awards if you want me to get all technical and junk), and due to this gangs of middle school girls with different colored balloons had congregated to scream at the appropriate time…only they didn’t get to go into the arena because it was already filled with other girls…so they sat outside on the grass and screamed while watching the event on a big television on the side of a truck. I don’t really know why I am mentioning this let’s get on with the rocking and the rolling.
Crying Nut
Crying Nut was the first band of the evening which I thought was pretty odd, since they were like the second or third biggest band performing that night in terms of popularity. But who am I to say what band should come out at what time? Anyhow they played a few songs off their new album (an album which I own yet didn’t listen to much) and then closed out there set with the two songs I knew they’d play: “밤이 깊었네” and “말달리자.” They were pretty outstanding if simply for the fact that the bass player was wearing a tuxedo. He totally looked like he was going to the prom after they finished their set…which might have been the reason they went on first…and were chugging Budweisers.
진희曰: They were really fun. (It should be noted that this was one of two bands she had actually heard prior to the event…and she actually knew several of their songs).
Transfixion
I’d never seen or heard of Transfixion prior to this concert and I know why. They are kind of a hair metal band…or visual kei or some other genre of rock music that basically boils down to pretty boys with way too much makeup with wailing vocals and guitars. Now I’m going to be honest and say they didn’t suck that much. The lead singer (who I thought was only partially Korea…though later investigation disproved my theory) had some decent rock dude moves. He had the Axl Rose spins down. He mastered Steven Tyler-esque mic stand twirling. And he even had that Jim Morrison / Kurt Cobain detached rock star thing where he never spoke and left introducing the songs to the bass player. So what else was there to say about these guys? Oh! They did a cover of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” And the bassist had an awesome fro. It was so rocking he could have easily joined At The Drive-In back in the day.
진희曰: The lead singer’s face was the only one they put on the screen. He looks like a clown / mime.
Super Kidd
This was another band I’d never heard of, but about 30 seconds into their set I realized that they would have been the opening act had this show taken place in the United States. I couldn’t even begin to describe the weirdness that was Super Kidd. For starters they all came out in matching uniforms: cargo shorts and a blue t-shirt with a modified Superman logo (use your imagination as to how it was modified). They also had two singers or rappers or guys with a gym coach’s whistle and a megaphone. The drummer only played disco beats. They did syncronized dance moves. And the guitar players would randomly play Van Halen style wailing guitar solos. They were a total party band…kind of like the Beastie Boys before they learned that there was a place in the world called Tibet and got really old looking. Wow I did manage to describe them. They were awesome. I want to go see them again.
진희曰: I thought they were DJ Doc at first…then I thought maybe DJ Doc’s brothers. They were fun though.
Nell
It was kind of good that Nell came on after Super Kidd because my ears need to relax a little. Nell apparently released a new album in which they continued to get more mellow (or at least that’s what the tunes they elected to play would have me believe), which like I said was not a bad thing at the time. I for one miss the Nell that from time to time would rock out, but the world needs mellow rock jams as well.
진희曰: He sings really well, but they look like normal guys. Their clothes are not outstanding. Also that guy (bass player) talked too much about stupid things like the weather.
Tacopy
I’ve heard some Tacopy jams before since they show up on pretty much every punk compilation CD I own, but for whatever reason I never really got into them. Their tunes aren’t bad, but they aren’t really anything special either. Tacopy (or at least the Tacopy I’ve heard) rock out doing the same skate punk countless other bands do, and many other bands do better. Still after Nell slowed things down it was good to have someone rev it back up again.
진희曰: He (the guitarist) was good.
Deli Spice
Deli Spice hit the stage and were all business. I seriously don’t think any of them talked at all. They just power slammed it through some indie pop jams and then were out of there. They played the songs everyone knew they would and that was good enough for the audience.
진희曰: They were ok.
Jaurim
Jaurim was next, and they were awesome. For starters the lead singer, 김유나 (Kim Yuna) was beautiful or at least she was according to various audience members of both sexes. Also the set was tight. With nine bands everyone was doing pretty truncated sets, so there wasn’t a lot of room to mess around. They rocked out and rocked it out hard. My wife did pogoing and threw up the rock hands during it. It was awesome!
진희曰: Jaurim was my favorite! (This was the other group she knew of, and in this case was a group she actually liked as opposed to just being familiar with.)
Peterpan Complex
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this band now. Maybe four or five, and each time they’re awesome. Much like Nell, Peterpan Complex have a new album I am less than familiar with and on this night decided their whole set was going to be composed of songs off this new album. The tunes were rocking and I now must go purchase their new album…even though it is called I Am A Beautiful Man. A lot of critics, and probably me as well, compare Peterpan Complex to Radiohead which makes the next band that came on even more out of control. But first a word from my wife.
진희曰: They look so poor. Look at their clothes.
Powerman 5000
That’s right kids! Korean Radiohead was followed by Powerman 5000! Now I knew Powerman 5000 was going to perform at this event, but the entire time leading up to them taking the stage, I was confusing them with another band of that ilk: Static X, so when Powerman 5000 came out I was all like, “Oh…Powerman 5000!” Besides learning the true identity of Powerman 5000, I also learned that some Korean people need some pointers in how to deal with American rock musicians. So allow me to help.
First off if the singer is a male and you are a male, it’s best not to yell, “I love you (insert rock singer’s name here)!” Something like, “(Rock singer’s name)! You rock!” is probably a safer bet. Secondly it is devil horns not the American sign language sign for “I Love You” when dealing with heavy metal or hard rock bands. If these two symbols are too difficult to remember, a simple fist in the air is good enough. This concludes the how to rock lesson for the day.
This seems like as good a time as any to be completely and totally honest.
I’m not a Powerman 5000 fan. And unlike some of their other hipster credibility ruining late 90s nu-metal brethern I can say with 100% honest I have not even downloaded one of their songs. But. But when they hit the stage I was totally into it and somehow I knew like a good 50% of the songs they played. Again it was a case of, “Ah…Powerman 5000!” I was digging it. There was fire. The lead singer was ordering us to “Fuck it up!” The bass player was giving nods of approval in my general direction. And there was an explosion and streams came shooting out of the ceiling. It was unsane! And then it was over. Powerman 5000 exited the stage and we all began exiting the building.
진희曰: He has really good charisma. Even though he can’t speak Korean and many people here can’t speak English he made everyone enjoy the show.
Perhaps the most awesome thing about this show was the fact that because it was sponsored by Budweiser, we were handed a can of brew as we departed the venue. Kind of like those goody bags you used to get at birthday parties, but instead of having a pack of Batman trading cards and Jolly Rancher candies this goody bag was a can of beer , and beer trumps even Jolly Ranchers and Batman. Anyhow that’s pretty much the end of this rock and roll adventure. If you want to see more pictures, you can click the link here and look at pictures of bands.
No Brain is a band that I like. They sometimes do things like cover the Sex Pistols or record theme songs for sporting events. And sometimes they rock out on their own shit. This is No Brain rocking out on their own shit. The song is called “”넌 네가 반했어.” Enjoy!!!
And now because we care about you all so much, here’s a live version of the same tune…done by the same band. Enjoy!
On Sunday evening, Jinhui and I traveled to Seoul to witness the 8th annual Seoul Drum Festival. We had gone together last year, and had enjoyed ourselves greatly. We were therefore looking forward to seeing it again. So after a quick dinner at Lotteria, we hopped on a bus and head for Seoul.
Last year, the event was held on the grounds of City Hall, which was pretty decent. This year the event was held at Kyunghui Palace (경희궁), and I for one was not please with the change. The seating at Kyunghui Palace wasn’t as awesome, and in addition the stage seemed to be much lower than the stage from the year before. This made things like seeing what was happening or taking photographs a little bit difficult.
Anyhow, my gripes about venue changes aside, we had an awesome time. Jinhui and I had some beers and saw six percussion groups (or teams as they were refered to as in Korean). Now in the style of my rock show reports of old, I’ll give you a rundown of exactly what it was that we saw.
First up was a group called New Dimension from Belgium. New Dimension were one of those percussion groups that rocked out on trash cans and chairs as opposed to actual drums. While they put on a decent show, I’m kind of over the trash as a percussion instrument gimmic…I saw STOMP and Skeleton Key do the same kind of junk like 10 plus years ago. Do we really still need to be doing to garbage can thing? Anyhow New Dimension, if you want to rock out on trash at least rock out on some unique trash that others haven’t already done to death. Oh and one other thing, while I was watching this group perform, I couldn’t help but wonder if they brought their trash cans and chairs with them or if they picked them up when they got here.
Following New Dimension was the group Jamstick from Korea. Jamstick rocked out on all sorts of drums, xylophones, and at one point crash helmets. They also had a keyboardist that accompanied their drumming. I kind of liked Jamstick mainly due to the fact that they made outstanding use of xylophones and / or glockenspiels, both of which are excellent instruments.
Unfortunately Jamstick fell into the trap so many Korean musicians (indie rock bands, pop stars, rappers) seem prone to fall into: incredibly longwinded explanations between songs. Maybe this is because I grew up with anti-showmen like Kurt Cobain and that dude from Stone Temple Pilots, but I find these verbose monologues to be tedious and pretty much ruin the flow of the entire set. But enough ranting, they played “Devil In A Blue Dress” as a marching band so they were pretty alright in my book.
Next up was the band, Safara, from Senegal. These dudes (and ladies) were awesome in all kinds of ways. For starters everyone in the group was sporting face paint and robes, which made them look way more awesome then guys that took the stage in black t-shirts. Secondly they had these two ladies who busted out the most insane dance moves the entire time. These women were rocking the kind of moves you’d see in a film featuring “witchdoctors,” and it was totally awesome! And as a quick aside, one of the dancing women from Senegal was white, which at first struck me as odd, but in reality isn’t any weirder than Seo Taiji’s white drummer…or me for that matter. Safara were also the only group of the evening to feature singing which was pretty awesome. But the thing that was the most awesome about Safara was the fact that they had the most phallic looking instrument I’ve ever seen in my life. Awesome!
Following Safara was a Korean group known as Drumcat. Drumcat were pretty decent, but they probably would have been better if I weren’t a married man that had to feign complete and utter disinterest in the fact that Drumcat consisted of six sexy ladies in tight pants pounding drums and rocking out. And oh how they rocked out! I mean they did a cover of “Du Hast” for crying out loud (here by cover I mean that the song played over the PA and the ladies smashed big ass drums during it)…and they had pyro! If I had to complain about something I guess it would have to be the fact that they all had really bad 1970’s shag haircuts. Yet even with that massive disadvantage they still managed to look hot.
Next up was the Korean group 하타 (Hata). These people took traditional Korean percussion instruments (including that huge ass drum) and mixed them with silver jumpsuits and big plastic hazardous waste drums. I guess they were pretty ok, if only for the silver jumpsuits and the use of that huge drum (see the photo at right). As a quick aside, when they hit that thing you can feel it in your guts…it’s that deep! Anyhow, like New Dimension, I found their choice in garbage to hit kind of boring. Dudes, there’s other garbage in the world!
The final group of the evening was 풍장21 (Poongjang 21). v 풍장21 was your standard issue 농악 (nogak…aka farmer’s music) group. I’ve seen this kind of group so many times in my three plus years of living here that I’m kind of bored of it. I mean the first time I saw this kind of band I thought they were awesome, and I still think that it is awesome, but it’s got to be totally awesome for me to get into it. These guy were alright, but they weren’t awesome to the point that I wanted to get up and do some ass-shaking dance moves. However for some reason the only thing I am able to take decent pictures of is 농악, so of the pictures I took that evening, 70% of the good ones were of this group.
Anyhow with the drumming done for the evening, we got on the bus and headed home again. It was a nice event, even if we were stuck sitting behind some dirty hippies.
Click here for photos (if you care about crap like that).
Dooly is a cartoon baby dinosaur. He is very famous in Korea, and I have mentioned him before (as well as provided a drawing of a cement mixer with human features and a killer flame job) in this here post. Anyhow, like I said Dooly is famous. He was in some movies and some television shows, and on lunch boxes, and pretty much had all the perks awarded to the Smurfs (or GI Joe) in America in the 1980s. That being said, this is his theme song.
However, Dooly, unlike either the Smurfs, or GI Joe, or the Transformers for that matter had something attached to his name that no American cartoon will likely ever have associated with it. Dooly has a 판소리 (pansori) tune written about him.
I’m taking a break from the normal rocking jams I hit you upside the head with to bring you a Korean pop video. Now before all the fans of BoA or H.O.T. start going ape-shit and proclaiming their love for various dudes, I should warn you that thie is 1980’s Korean pop music. For those of you old enough to remember pop music from the US or Europe in the 1980s take that and move it to Korea and add shirts with frills…then you’ve pretty much got the jist of this video.
The song is called “어젯밤 이야기” (”Last Night’s Story”) and the group is 소방차 (Firetruck). Take it away boys!
I now know what K-1 fighter, Mr. Shark does to train for big matches…he beats up on members of Korean boy bands. This here is the music video for the song, “별책부록” by the lads in NRG featuring Mr. Shark…and underground fighting.
Editor’s Note: And as a quick aside, my family is arriving in Korea in like 8 hours, so posts of any sort of substance are going to be far less frequent for the duration of their visit.
For those of you that have studied Korean, the name Kim Min-su (김민수) should instantly be recognizable. For those of you that don’t study Korean, allow me to quickly explain. Kim Min-su is sort of a Korean everyman. He’s featured in most Korean textbooks geared at teaching the language to non-native speakers, and is always doing things like going to birthday parties, worrying about test scores, attempting to make phone calls, and telling guys with names like “Mark” and “Steve” things like “This restaurant is famous for bulgogi.” Apparently this fellow somehow also has the time to compete in mixed martial arts competitions.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon watching K-1 with my father-in-law. He’s all about it. I know of a couple of fighters, and have occassionally watched some matches on TV, but I’ve never really been all about it…until I learned of the existance of Kim Min-su: Professional Fighter. I’m not sure what it was about him that made me totally about him. It might have been the fact that he had a totally awesome theme song and came out to the ring with members of Korean hip-hop group DJ DOC. It may have been the fact that he had a sweet nickname: Mr. Shark…I mean how badass is that?
But I think the real reason I was all about him was the fact that like his Korean text book counterpart, he was just a pretty average guy. He wasn’t 7 feet tall like some fighters or a 500 pound monster. Nor was he the fastest or most powerful fighter. He kind of just seemed like a guy. But somehow he kept winning, and made it to the championship round in his division. I was seriously on the verge of being a sports fan with the amount of “Hit him Mr. Shark!” and “Crack his bald skull!” I was shouting. Unfortunately Mr. Shark came up short and ended up getting KOed in the second round. But thanks to him and his antics, I’ll be sure to check out further K-1 matches with the hope that one day Mr. Shark will become a champion…much like fellow Korean Choi Hong-man did yesterday (though neither my father-in-law nor I were quite sure how he did).
Here we have a music video for Crying Nut’s best known tune, “말달리자.” How well known is this song? It’s the kind of song that even girls that only like sappy ballads, and middle aged men that listen to trot know. Anyway, this song is super fun, and super easy to learn, so everyone study up and then the next time you are made to go to 노래방 you can rock out on a tune other that “Hotel California,” or other “pop songs.”
Drunken Tiger - 뿌리 Rating: 7.9 Label: Doremi Media Co. Release Date: February 25, 2003 Relevant Links:Buy it here.
Life seems hard for Korean rappers. Between all the drinking, battles, and ladies discussed in the lyrics of tunes contained on this album, it’s amazing that Tiger J.K. and DJ Shine found the time to make this album at all.
While the themes may not be all that complex or deep, the flow and rhymes that Tiger J.K. and DJ Shine deliver them with are simply amazing. And the fact that they can go from busting serious rhymes to sound like the frontman to some band that could be performing at Ozzfest all while sampling a piece of classical music (”우리 그리고 너 하나”) is totally awesome.
The tunes might be solid, but this is clearly a hip-hop album. This is made abudantly clear by the inclusion of several completely pointless “skits.” Particularly cringe worth is the track in which the lads do their best “ching chong me chikee Chinee…” imitation. Classy…real classy.
But these few low points do very little to detract from the album as a whole. Tunes I particularly enjoyed include the song, “굽혀진 9자로,” which for some reason reminds me of any of those songs with a message off the M.C. Hammer album 2 Legit 2 Quit (”Brothers Hang On,” I’m looking in your general direction).
Other stand out tracks include “Fist of Fury,” which is awesome for a multitude of reasons, the most obvious of which is the title, and “엄지 손가락,” which has such a dopeass beat (this is a review of a rap album…I’m allowed to, neigh required to use such phrases) it would cause even the whitest fool to put his hands in the air and wave ‘em like he just don’t care…God knows I was.
In conclusion, with the exception of pointless skits, 뿌리 is a totally satisfying album from begining to end, the creation of which seems to be nearly impossible in the world of mainstream Korean hip-hop. Drunken Tiger prove not only to the listeners, but to all other “hip-hop” artists in Korea that Koreans can make a hip-hop album without needing to have crappy techno tunes, or love ballads, or back-up dancers to make it listenable.
공부벌레 - 공부가 제일 쉬웠어요 Rating: 6.1 Label: Bissan Trophy Records Release Date: April 19, 2006 Relevant Links: Download It Here
공부벌레 sound like they had a blast making this recording. They do parodies of the Metallica song, “Enter Sandman,” and Green Day’s song, “Basketcase.” They have two tracks that are about 30 seconds long. There’s some quasi-funk riffs. Vocals sound like Danzig thrown into a blender with Cookie Monster. The entire affair seems like it was really fun to make.
But what about listening to it? How fun is that? The biggest problem this album has is the quality of the recording in particular the vocals. Songs like “신나는 야자시간,” and “흥미로웠던 그해의 고려대 논술,” (both 30 second grindcore tracks) low quality recording doesn’t really matter all that much. On songs like “Enter Jesus!” and “사랑하는 주님 앞에,” the poor recording quality makes it hard to determine if they are doing legit covers of “Enter Sandman,” and “Basketcase,” or if they have altered the lyrics like a Korean grindcore version of Weird Al.
Either way, if you’re the kind of person that likes their rock and roll to feature more screaming and less singing, or you are a self-proclaimed (or perhaps board certified) indie rock snob, check out 공부벌레. Even if you don’t fall into either of those categories, still check them out: it’s a free download for god’s sake. If you don’t like it, delete it.
Have any of you ever seen a Korean music video (aside from the hard rockin’ nonsense I’ve posted here)? Quick…what’s a common theme that runs through each and every music video (again excluding the mighty hard rockin’ nonsense I post here)? “Someone dies?” Who said that? That’s absolutely right!
Korean music videos tend to be fairly melodramatic affairs, and chances are that someone is going to die. While the odds are someone is dying in the video, the cause of death is not always so obvious. In the 3 years or so that I have been exposed to Korean pop, I’ve seen some pretty insane causes of death depicted in various pop singers’ music videos.
So odd were some deaths that I had no choice but to create a game around it. I call it “The K-pop Cause of Death Game™.” The rules are fairly simple: at the onset of the music video players declare who in the video will die, and what their cause of death is going to be. At the close of the video players that correctly guess the cause are rewarded a point. Play ends when players are bored, and the player with the highest score wins. The game also works as a drinking game. The rules are similar except under these rules, players correctly guessing cause of death are not required to drink during the next video.
“Wyatt, this is all well and good for those of you living in Korea, but what about us in ?”
Fear not readers in Kenya, The Czech Republic, Sweden, and Cameroon! The internet is here to hook you up! Youtube has a vast array of Korean pop videos just waiting for you! When using youtube (or watching Korean MTV for that matter), performance videos (PV) or anything with a disco beat are not worth playing during, since no one is going to die.
So there you have it kids! The K-pop Cause of Death Game™. Enjoy!
The K-pop Cause of Death Game™ is a trademark of Kimchi & Me Enterprises. Kimchi & Me does not promote or encourage The K-pop Cause of Death Game™ to be played as a drinking game, and any death, damage, or legal woes which may arise from improper use of The K-pop Cause of Death Game™ are the responsibilty of the parties involved. Also don’t blame us if you have to hear some seriously god awful tunes!
I’m lazy, and really busy today, so you’re going to watch this video from No Brain and like it! I don’t want to hear any complaints…you got that?! Anyhow like I said before, this video comes from those loveable, Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols-covering scamps, No Brain. This song, “미친 듯 놀자” (Let’s Play Like Crazy) comes to us from their most recent album, Boys, Be Ambitious. For those of you that have knowledge of other underground bands in Korea see if you can spot cameo appearances from people in other bands. Anyhow, perhaps I’ll be back tomorrow with some more indepth, hard hitting A Current Affair style reporting from the Land of the Morning Calm.
Hey hey! It’s music video time again kids! Today we have the latest video from Korean indie band Sugar Donut. This video is the first single of their second full length album which is either coming out shortly or perhaps already out now…since I got married and moved out of Seoul, I have not really been keeping up on things such as rock and or roll. Anyhow enjoy some rockin’ from the lads in Sugar Donut.
If one were to ask me who my favorite Korean celebrity was I would not answer Boa, or 이효리, or (insert other sexy lady here). Nor would I respond 박찬호, or Jae Seo, or any other Korean athlete. No friends, my favorite celebrity would have to be 김흥국 (Kim Hong-guk).
There was a time when all one needed to become a major celebrity in Korea was a white jumpsuit and a mustache. It was at this time (the early 1990’s) that 김흥국 was the height of masculinity…his sexy mustache and even sexier dance movies would cause the women to all swoon…or buy ice cream treats. 김흥국 was a man all the women wanted and all the men wanted to be.
Sadly those days seem to have passed, and now 김흥국 makes a living appearing on random television shows mainly as a throwback to another era…kind of like Dee Snyder on all those VH-1 specials in the United States. He’ll show up on a program, bellow, “Look at my mustache,” and perhaps do a goofy laugh or two.
The following video serves as a reminder to the greatness that 김흥국 once possesed. Never forget!
Long time readers of this here webpage, or residents of Korea may already know of Mr. Lee Jun-gi (이준기), and how handsome he is. So I don’t really find it odd at all that companies want to get him to endorse their products. I mean he has an army of middle school aged girls waiting to obey his every command. What I don’t understand is why the producers of this commercial elected to have him sing. His voice is pretty awful. So awful is it that I can accurately immitate it (I am a horrible singer as well), and my wife cringes and either immediately changes the channel or leaves the room when it comes on the television. Anyhow…the commercial might be horrible, but the juice is not that bad. Apparently I am a pretty girl.
And here are you vocabulary words of the day. Be sure to study them as there will be a test next week.
미녀 (美女) - a pretty woman
석류 (石榴) - a pomegranate
좋아하다 - to like
Sample sentence: 미녀는 석류를 좋아해. Pretty girls like pomegranate.
There is a singing group in Korea known as Jewelry. In all honesty I can’t tell them apart from the myriad of other girl groups that exist (or have existed) in South Korea. Like all girl groups here they consist of good looking ladies singing and dancing to fairly vapid pop songs. Today we have a short “live” video from the afore mentioned group.
Live performances here are often little more than the singer dancing around to a pre-recorded track in front of an audience of screaming middle school girls. I suppose this lack of an actual singing performance could be excused by saying these performances are to highlight something such as an artist’s dancing skills. Well, get a load of the dance skills being highlighted here, and join me as I laugh at the misfortunes of others like the jerk that I am.
The Trax - Rhapsody Rating: 1.4 Label: Avex Release Date: April 20, 2005 Relevant Links:
Seriously Japan, what is wrong with your music industry? Do people honestly pay $11 for two songs? That’s right kids, Korea’s favorite (or perhaps second favorite after Buzz) boy band with guitars are back with this single. The lads apparently have had more sucess in Japan than their native land, and therefore released this Japanese language single for their fans in Japan. Two songs, more than $11 US…these tunes better be the most awesome songs ever! Let’s check it out.
The very second the first of the two tracks, “Rhapsody,” kicks in it becomes painfully obvious that this is a rock ballad. The riff in the begining of the song isn’t that bad, but the song goes on far too long for my tastes. Rock ballads, if properly executed, can be decent, but this song is just over wrought and boring. Overall the song is very similar to the rock ballads of the hair metal bands of the 1980’s, only with Japanese lyrics.
The second track, “Vampire,” starts off sounding like something off a crappy Batman soundtrack with rediculously arranged “creepy” strings and someone announcing something that sounds like, “Ladies and gentlemen thank you for choosing vampire, but don’t do anything you’ll regret,” before they turn up the heavy metal knob in the production booth and kick out the jams rock and or roll style.
The song features some woman (or perhaps a really feminine sounding dude), proclaiming, “I need your love,” in the first verse while Jay Lee busts some crappy rap-rock lyrics. The chorus seems to have been written with that “screaming is good” mentality in the mind of the composer. As a whole the song does not really get that far away from something that would show up on a crappy superhero movie soundtrack, which is not a good thing.
All in all this CD is no where near worth the price of admission. $11 bucks for a couple of mediocre songs? Sorry kids no dice!
So after providing you with some random crap music from North Korea yesterday, today I thought it would behove me to present to you some South Korean tunes. No, this is not like other times when I presented videos that were nearly painful. Today I present unto you some fine Korean indie rock brought to you by the lads (and lass) of 몽니 (Monni). The following video was recorded at the 2005 Ssamzie Sound Festival. Enjoy kids!
Do you ever find yourself at karaoke night in Pyeongyang, North Korea, with no idea what to sing? Perhaps you are the kind of music fan that must stop liking a band the minute more than three people have heard of them, and at present have no artist to follow. Today we here at Kimchi & Me offer solutions to both these problems. Enjoy, “림진강” as sung by 조청미. For those of you looking for a tune to impression your communist hosts in the North, the tune comes complete with sing-a-long lyrics. For those ironic indie music fans, I can promise you in all certainty that no one you will ever encounter has heard of this tune (unless of course they too are Kimchi & Me readers…or former North Korea residents). So anyhow…Comrades, let us sing for a strong nation!
Good lord, that title looks like it should be attached to some horribly boring academic piece appearing in a stuffy academic journal about Asia! For those of you that could not tell by the frequent profanity and use of such expressions as “get my grub / eat / chow on,” we here at Kimchi & Me are far removed from the academics, peer reviews, and more often than not, reality. So what we are presenting today is something completely different.
As regular readers are already aware all Korea pop groups have to have some sort of gimmic. According to my friend, who is currently a law student at a university in Seoul, this is required under Korean law. Again, regular readers already know my stance on these gimmics, but for those of you that did not click any of the links above, let me give a brief review of my stance: I think all these gimmics are stupid. At this time I would like to modify my previous stance.
I recently became aware of a new singing group known as LPG. LPG stands for Long Pretty Girls (I don’t know what it really means either). This group first caught my attention not because they could sing particularly well, or their song was particularly memorable, but because I was informed that all the members were former Miss Koreas. While this report seems to be slightly exaggerated (two were in the Miss Korea contest but didn’t appear to win, another was in some unrelated beauty pagent, and the fourth seemed to be from some alternate reality Miss Korea contest), all the members are / were beauty queens and that’s what’s really important isn’t it?
See? There’s not a hag in the bunch of them! I can here you dissidents in the audience already, “But Wyatt, there are a lot of other singing groups out there…do we really need singing beauty queens?”
Yes, yes we do, especially when they are attempting to bring the can can to Korea! That’s right kids, in a world where most actor / singers stay in either the light weight pop song or the “I’m a total skank,” musical genres these women (or their musical overlords) are attempting to bring in a foreign style of dance / music that is nearly 200 years old. You have to give them some credit for that especially when the can can presents such awesomeness as this:
孔子曰: When dancing the can can in hotpants be sure to wear underwear with a smaller surface area that of the shorts you are wearing.
That’s right kids, these ladies are bringing the can can out of burlesque houses of 19th century France and into the living rooms of 21st century South Korea. For those of you that actually want to see and hear this all nonsense in action I present unto you, LPG bringing you 캉캉 (Kang Kang)! Enjoy!
I don’t watch much television these days, but on occassion I will scan my television and promptly get thrown into a fit of rage by the crap I see, and then promptly smash my television up with a pair of nunchucks. Last week I bore witness to something that not only caused me to smash my television, but always jam chopsticks into my ears in an attempt to render myself deaf.
I give you i-13!
If this picture turns you on and you are over the age of 16 get the crap outta here!
Here in Korea it seems that for mainstream artists, it is more important to have a gimmic than any actual talent which is why there are groups with names written in 漢字 (東方神起 I’m looking in your direction), groups made up entirely of transsexuals (Lady), and groups consisting of kindergarten students (7 공주). I-13 has not one, but two gimmics. Gimmic number one is the fact that there are 13 fucking people in this group. Gimmic number two is the fact that they are all under 18 years old…kind of like Menudo I suppose.
Both of this gimmics are completely horrible. There might be 13 people in the group, but they sound no different for a group with 5 people…meaning they all suck and are pro-tooled to high hell, but that is pop music in general so I don’t really hold much against them. Except that there are 13 of them, probability would have it that at least one of them would have some talent…guess not.
The second gimmic is more horrific to me. All of these girls are elementary, middle, or high school students…yet here they are attempting to act “sexy.” If Jenny Jones taught me anything it’s that girls attempting to act sexy while in middle school are totally beat. I don’t totally blame these girls for this though. No, I blame the parents. Like I said, these girls are all underaged, so they need their parents to sign off on this nonsense. What kind of parent thinks that it’s a good idea to let their 10 year old daughter dress like a stripper and dance around on television.
So anyhow, I hate i-13. If you want to see why I hate them, check out this here video. Just be forwarned, it’s awful. Oh and check out the intro where they introduce all 13 members of the group, complete with their special 漢字 like they are some kind of Power Ranger or some nonsense (”It’s Morphin’ Time! 丑!!!). The intro is almost longer than the actual song, which doesn’t really surprise me since there are 13 fucking people in this group….
Wow, it’s been something like two months since I last saw a show. Being a holiday, no one is about so I headed out to go rock out. Off I went to Ssamspace to check out Moombatrap, Mongoose, and 3rd Line Butterfly. It being Chuseok, the venue was fairly empty. It was me, some Japanese reporters / photographers, some Korean American girls who were really loud and sounded like Valley Girls (”Like oh my god are you kidding? Oh totally oh my god! Oh my god get out!”), and a couple other people who looked like they had nowhere to go.
The first band of the evening was Moombatrap. I knew nothing of them, but I was throughly impressed. The band consisted of two ladies that sat on the floor and seriously rocked out. The one girl played quasi-heavy metal riffs on an acoustic guitar while the other girl played crazy jazzbo drumming on a bongo drum (and in one song a snare drum on the floor). They were amazing!
Next up was Mongoose. I’ve seen these guys a couple times before, and I think they are my favorite band. Their jams kind of sound like the soundtrack to some oldschool Nintendo game with crazy disco-beats. Anyhow apparently while I was in America they released a new album, so most of the jams they played were new. Holy crap are the new jams awesome. If you have the means to do so, check out Mongoose’s new album, “Dancing Zoo.”
The final band of the evening was 3rd Line Butterfly. They kind of had a shoegazing indie rock thing going on. The thing that impressed me the most about this band was the singer’s shoes. She had some incredibly high high heels on, and was somehow able to still work effects pedals, jump, dance, and rock out. Oh and she was super hot. Their guitar player on the other hand was not super hot. He was chunky, looked to be in his mid-30s, and had a crustache. He rocked out pretty hard though.
Anyhow the show was pretty dope ass. There are more pictures to be seen here.
Wow two posts in one day about crappy mainstream Korean music. Flipping through the television I came across a performance featuring five decent looking ladies doing some standard issue light weight pop music. I mention my low tolerance for boybands…well I have a slightly higher tolerance for girl groups. Their music videos are the reason God created a mute button.
So the video comes to a close and I see the group’s name for the first time: Redsox. I rubbed my eyes. “Are they serious? Are they baseball fans? Are they Bostonians? Wait, am I drunk?”
I decided to check it out online and see if there was indeed a group known as Redsox. Naver quickly confirmed what I had seen. But wait that’s not all!
Lee Hye-rim
This is 이혜림 (Lee Hye-rim), one of the members of the aforementioned Redsox. Like all good Korean websites, the Redsox website gives critical information about each of the ladies. The stats of Miss 혜림 were clearly the most interesting. Let’s examine them shall we?
생년월일: 1986년
신장: 172cm
체중: 44kg
특기: 포즈, 운동
학력: 명지대학교 재학 중
So lemme break it on down for those of you with no knowledge of Korean. The first item is her date of birth. She is apparently too cool for school and only provided the year of her birth (1986 if you are slow on the draw). Next up is her height. She is apparently 172cm tall, but I wonder if this height is taken while wearing high heels, since 172cm is really tall for a woman in this country. Next up her weight…44kg, damn metric system causing me to have no idea how much this is in pounds…all I know is it’s damn light. Since professional wrestlers being announced as weighing 215 pounds are subtitled as weighing 90 some-odd kilograms. She’s clearly less than a hundred pounds. 특기 is speciality or talent…or skill. 운
