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.
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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!
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. 운동 is sports or exercise. Alright maybe she’s athletic, likes jogging, or shootin’ hoop. It’s something some people are good at and others are not. It’s a skill. But 포즈?! Oh, I’m sorry “pose.” Yup, she’s good at posing….that’s her talent. She’s highly skilled in getting ready to have pictures taken. Oh and the last part is boring, it just says that she’s currently attending Myeongji University. But posing?! Seriously…how is that a skill?
Now if you ever need to argue with a Red Sox baseball fan you can just be like, “At least no one on (insert your team here) lists posing as their talent!” Oh wait I’m confusing the baseball Red Sox with the singing Redsox. Whatever, go away I need to practice my poses!
I don’t often watch MTV here in Korea, and it’s not because I hate the Real World. Unlike in America, Korea’s MTV actually shows music videos and concerts and uh…music. No, the reason I don’t watch it is I have a very low tolerance level for things like ballads, crappy techno beats, and boy bands (which is pretty much what the mainstream Korean music industry is made up of).
But I digress, for some reason yesterday I watched an hour or so of music television. I came to the conclusion that being a singer in Korea must be the easiest job in the world. All you have to do is get some backing music featuring piano and sappy orchestras and then sing the following words and phrases in the “I want to be a large black man” r&b voice: 사랑해요 (love [as a verb]), 눈물 (tears), and 영원히 (eternally). From there all I’d have to do would be toss in a few lines of nonsensical English, or on occassion toss in one English word into a line that is otherwise completely in Korean (this word is usually “baby” or something dealing with time).
I then changed my plans again. I decided to simply do the flipside of what these Korean singers are working with, and write some songs in English and then include complete bullshit Korean passages in the song. So today for no reason what so ever I give you the lyrics to the song, “I Want To Be A Singer In Korea.”
I want to be a singer in Korea.
Then you’ll love me.
but you don’t love me.
Eternally!
맥주 한잔 주세요.
조폭 안이야.
김밥 좋아해요!
You have some tears.
Cuz my songs are weak.
But don’t cry baby.
I love you enternally,
and maybe I’ll write some better tunes.
The Korean in the song is literally, “Give me one beer. I’m not a gangsta. Kimbab is delicious,” and 매일 is Korean for “everyday.” Now if you’ll excuse me I have some shitty techno beats to assemble before pianists arrive.
On Saturday afternoon I met up with my friend, Shane Jones. Since I came here he moved from the suburbs into the city (I use that term loosely) of Albany. So we picked up a case of beers (a variety pack of random Vermont brewed…uh brews), and drove out to his new place.
He’s living with a lady, but she was out of town for the weekend, so the evening was ruled by testosterone…oh wait it wasn’t. We listened to way too much indie rock and drank beers while talking about life…but I’m getting way ahead of myself.
Since the beers were warm, we put a bunch in the ice box and decided to head out to get our chow on. My friend, Shane Jones, told me of an outstanding Mexican place near the pad so we headed out to go eat Mexican food on a balcony. After a short walk we arrived at a venue named, El Loco.
“I don’t think this is the place,” my friend, Shane Jones, proclaimed.
“Hi guys inside or patio?” the friendly host asks us.
“Patio,” we answer in unision.
After being lead out to the patio, and given some menus, Shane Jones informs me that this is definately not the place he thought it was, but it was too late now, we already had Corona’s on the way. So we ordered up some Mexican food (I know chimichangas and enchilladas were involved), drank Corona’s and talked about life in the hood.
After getting our grub on we headed back to his homestead to drink some beers and listen to jams. Shane played me a couple CDs that he claimed were awesome (note to self, get myself Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah, and Death From Above 1979) and then we moved on to random mix CDs.
Both Shane Jones and his lady friend are all about creating mix CDs…they are not however all about labeling them, or puting them in any kind of case, so we had no idea what we were going to get into. Like all mixes these all started off pretty strong, but went on too long and kind of lost their steam by the end of the disc. Among the CDs the song, “Maps,” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was the most frequently featured jam.
Anyhow after listening to tunes, we watched some mid 80s Frank Zappa on a debate show verbally beating some dudes down about censorship, and drank more beers. The we drank more beers, and drank more beers, and got a slive of pizza, and then called it a night.
I have a class consisting of three kindergarten aged girls, and for some reason last week I taught them the chorus for the classic 80’s hard rock tune, “We’re Not Gonna Take It!” by your friends and mine, Twisted Sister.
He’s not gonna take it! No! He ain’t gonna take it!
Today, we here at Kimchi & Me enter the fast pace world of the late 90’s internet technology. I bring you a 6M Mpeg file of Korean girls bellowing about fighting the power 80’s hard rock style (with some vocal cues from me).
So enjoy the vocal stylings of Alice, Sammy, and Kate (featuring Wyatt).
The weekend the venue known as Ssamspace had a series of concerts dubbed Big Star Show. Not being interested in the Friday event, and getting drunk with English teachers from Japan on Saturday, Sunday eve (hey that’s tonight) I headed over to check out some bands I’ve seen before. Arriving at the venue the whole place had been redone inside (it looks way more space aged now), and the powers that be changed the name from Ssamspace Baram to Love Club Ssam. Anyhow enough talk about the new aluminum foil wall paper…on with the rocking!
No Brain were up first. They hit the stage with their singer noticably missing. Their bassist explained that the singer was sick (or injured) since you can use the same word in Korean, but they promised to play tonight and play they would. So the singer from Ghetto Bombs, the singer from Rux, and even drunken audience members helped out on vocal duties. It was like punk rock karaoke.
Following the punk rock karaoke that was No Brain’s set was Ghetto Bombs. First off I have to tell you how much respect I have for their guitarist. The venue was about a million degrees, he was onstange under inferno like stage lights, it’s the middle of July, and the dude still was sporting his leathers. Anyhow Ghetto Bombs recently released a new album, so their set was mostly new stuff, which seriously kicked ass. The new tunes are so mighty I had to pick up the album right away.
Sugar Donut were up next. They are quickly becoming one of my favorite bands to see live. They really rock out. I think I’ve seen them three times now, and the dudes are always in the middle of the bill. Sugar Donut need to be headlining more…they are far more awesome than the band that ended up headlining this eve.
The headliners of the evening were Lazybone (I would have prefered any of the other bands). They have a couple of alright jams, but they are not really my cup of tea, for you see, Lazybone is a ska band, and long time readers will know my overall opinion of ska. The ladies really seemed to dig Lazybone since they were the only band during which the girl behind me didn’t grab my ass. Anyhow they played the couple of songs of theirs I like, and then it was time to go home.
Anyhow in addition to getting to rock out, I ran into Nathan’s friend Ian at the show which was kind of odd considering the large number of people in this city and the sprawling size of it. So aside from that I picked up some wicked cheap CDs, including what would have the be the single most insane CD I’ve ever purchased (look for a review of that on the next slow / no news day). That’s about it…if you want to look at more pretty pictures of rocking out, you can do so here. Peace out kids!
So today is my two year anniversary in Korea, and to celebrate I head out to check out a record release party for the band Sixteen. I had seen this band once before, but aside from remembering that they had several decent looking ladies, I couldn’t remember how they sounded. Whatever! Anyhow this being Sixteen’s night, they were the stars of the show, but there were some special guests. These guests all hated bass guitar. First up was Tearliner. They played some mellow two guitar, keyboard, drum rock. Pretty awesome.
Somehow Sixteen hit the stage next. The last time I saw them they were a five piece band featuring three decent looking Korean ladies. Today they hit the stage as a three piece (with no bass player) and only one sexy lady. Aside from playing some rock and roll jams they conversed with their audience about their new album and played a cover of an Oasis song (”Wonderwall” if memory serves me correctly…damn you alcohol). But alas only one beautiful lady…
Sixteen left the stage, and Slow 6 (that’s Slow June not Slow Six) took to the stage with his acoustic guitar. Like all previous bands he too had an adversion to low end (unlike the other bands, he also had an adversion to drums and keyboards). He played some a couple acoustic folk songs, cracked a couple jokes, and then departed.
Next up in the parade of guest stars was 이아립 (Earip). She had a laptop computer and an acoustic guitar and played a couple jams for us, while wearing black and white striped stockings. She was / is in a band called Sweater. This solo work, surprisingly sounded a lot like the Korean band, Sweater. Like Slow 6 she played a couple jams, had some technical difficult, and then left the stage.
After a couple of special guest stars, Sixteen return with a different guitarist (the oringal guitarist had a bass now), and different clothes. The played a bunch of more rocking tunes (their first set was more mellow acoustic jams) like a cover of Green Day’s “Hitchin’ A Ride” arranged in a fashion that Ben Folds could have done. They played some tunes, talked about their new album, talked about how their drummer had hamburger 눈치 (really hard Korean concept to translate…something like “foresight” or “intuition”), and pretty much rocked out. All in all it was not a bad way to celebrate the end of my second year in Korea.
So this evening I headed over to Baram to check out No Brain, Sugar Donut, and Schizo. For some reason the bulk of the audience was composed of ladies (not that I’m complaining). The first band up for this show was No Brain, who incidently, are probably the most famous of the three bands. They used to play punk rock, and now play more straight ahead rock. In that regard they’re kind of like Green Day.
Next up in this odd lineup was Sugar Donut. They play kind of power pop. Sounding something like Weezer, but like older good Weezer, not newer suck ass Weezer. They really rocked hard, and the kids ate it up. The best song of the night was “Spinner Jump,” played by these fellows. Everyone was going nuts, including one really drunk girl (I think she was a highschool student) who did this really odd move in the pit. She would lean forward and walk into people headfirst into their midsections. Whatever, it’s all well and good, since she didn’t puke.
The last band of the evening was Schizo. Schizo are a metal band. They play metal music. Among their set were covers of Rob Zombie (”Dragula”) and Rob Zombie’s earlier work as White Zombie (”Super Beast”). Anyhow they had this bass player who was totally hot in a heavy metal sexpot kind of way.
They show was totally awesome and I learned something about Korean rock music fans; for the most part they are women, and they are ruthless. These girls would go totally aggro during the heavy parts of songs jumping, kick, headbanging with fists pumping in the air. At one point I turned around and saw a girl behind me had a bloody nose, but wasn’t letting that stop her. She was still jumping and flailing about like a dervish.
The other thing was the venue was about a million degrees, but that didn’t stop anyone from going totally apeshit during the show. By the end of the night my clothes were drenched with sweat as were the clothes of everyone else at the show. I kind of had the same feeling after the show that I had after a sparring class from back in the days when I did tae kwon do: I was hot, sweaty, on the verge of puking do to overwork, and had been hit in the nuts…you gotta love out of control rock shows. With the final notes having been played, it was time to go home.
I stepped outside into a torrential downpour, and realized my umbrella was gone. So journeyed home without an umbrella for 20 minutes. When I arrived I was completely soaked, only now it was rain water and not sweat. All in all not a bad night.
Oh and in case you have not realized it, I now have Flickr, and more pictures from this show can be seen here.
This morning during my pre-work, stare at random crap on TV while I use the internet time, I came across a odd Korean music video. The song itself was nothing spectacular, some random Korean techno-pop brought to us by 신지 of Korean techno-pop group Koyote fame, but some of the images displayed in the video were pretty bizarre.
I’m not sure what the video is for, it kind of looks like some soundtrack work for some cartoon, but that’s not the issue here. The biggest question to arise out of this video is what “yogurting” is. Seriously why is a noun being treated as a nominalized verb? It’s like, “Hey Wyatt can you come out to the club tonight?” “No sorry, I’m really busy tonight.” “With what?” “I’m busy yogurting.”
So I’m in the midst of a four day weekend. Awesome! My “girlfriend,” (who I haven’t seen or talked to for more than 10 minutes in the past week) is “so busy” with her family and work, and can’t see me until Monday at the earliest. Not Awesome / Extremely Sceptical! So what’s a guy to do? Well if you’re me you travel to 이태원 (Itaewon), the foreign district, with Darrell and check out a blues jam session.
Those of you who have given this website more than a cursory glance will realize, blues jam session doesn’t fit with the shows I usually attend, and here are my drunken realizations about blues and live music in general.
The first band was kind of doing that AOR dentist office music (Sting, John Mayer, [insert other non-offensive artist here]), but they were playing it way too loud. That kind of music is background music. It’s the kind of music that is supposed to be played at a low enough volume that your dentist can carry on a one-sided conversation with you.
(Sting’s “Desert Rose” playing)
DENTIST: (checking for cavities) So how have you been Wyatt?
WYATT: MRRHGHH…MRRG GRRRGM MMEHRR.
DENTIST: That’s good. That’s good. So how’s school going.
WYATT: GOHHH. GHHRR SEHHHMMMESRRR GHHH….
But this guys were rocking out on some flaccid office rock like they were playing Led Zepplin or The Ramones, making carrying on a conversation nearly impossible, and this was without the added disadvantage of a dentist’s fists on my mouth.
After this first band, it was blues jam session time. It was during this that I realized the more technical prowess a musician has the more boring they are to watch. Look at an orchestra playing some classical music…they just sit there. They are technically sound in what they are doing, but there’s no stage show….then look at someone like The Choke Slammers. They were not talented musicians, but they knew how to put on a good show. Mexican wrestler masks and suplexes trump intricate guitar noodling any day.
Anyhow we bailed in the midst of the blues jams and somehow were able to catch trains back home without getting kicked off in a random station to find other means to get home. Once home I ate a microwaved hamburger, and then called it a night.
Note to self: Don’t piss of the nation of Korea or someone in the country will write a crappy song about how evil I am and name said song, “Fuckin’ Wyatt.”
Hot on the heels of the chart topping “Fuckin’ USA,” comes “Fuck Zapan.”* Brought to us by K-rap superstars, DJ Doc, this tune eloquently explains the angry Korea has towards Japan…oh wait no it doesn’t. It makes fun of how Japanese people speak, and proclaims that Japan is Korea’s toilet.
To make this song even better they use my (sarcasm)favorite(/sarcasm) Korean Romanization style of writing a J sound with a Z…awesome! Well, with this song in addition to the epic, “독도는 우리 땅” it’s pretty safe to say who’s winning this conflict…
* note: The only copy of this tune I could find online was a wmv file that features WWF superstars getting beat down with the faces of Japanese politicos superimposed on them. The file is over 8meg…just so you know.
I think I would be remiss if I never mentioned “Fuckin’ USA.” The subtitles reveal this as a North Korean produced video, and while the visuals may in fact be North Korean in origin, I’d have to say the song is a product of my current nation of residence.
The first reason for this assumption comes from the dialectic differences between the language of North and South Korea. In addition to having different pronunciations, the two nations have different words for many things. Take “Korea” for example.
In the South, people use the word, “북한 (北韓)” when talking about North Korea. In the North, people use the word “조선 (朝鮮)” instead of “북한.” “Fuckin’ USA,” makes use of the word “북한,” a term no self respecting North Korean would to refer to their home country.
The second reason I believe the song to be from the South is the mention of the USA stealing “our medal.” This is a reference to the Apollo Ono debacle of the 2002 winter Olympics. The medal in question was “stolen” from a South Korean, and is something most North Koreans wouldn’t even know about.
The lyrics and sheet music for this sure to be classic song.
But the main reason I believe this to be a product of the South is the music itself. Listen to that quasi-hard rock sound. The use of the English language. The instruments used. All these things point to a South Korean creation.
For a point of comparison I present you with this, the mother load of North Korean music. That’s roughly 200 North Korean tunes there, none of which come anywhere close to sounding like “Fuckin’ USA.” The bulk of All of the North Korea songs sound like something out of a different time (or universe). While “Fuckin’ USA,” is not the most modern sounding track, it does not sound like something out of the 1930s or 40s (with 1970s instrumentation).
El - Soft Breezes Rating: 7.2 Label: Fish Eye Studio Release Date: September 4, 2004 Relevant Links:El’s Homepage
El has a dreamy pop-rock sound that some might label as “emo,” but since I think that term is dumb I’m not going to do that. The majority of the tracks on the album feature both acoustic guitar playing jangley chords and electric guitar playing reverb drenched leads, with rocking bass, drum, and keyboard support.
Vocalist, Kyo, has the sensitive “heart on my sleeve” guy delivery commonly found in a lot of “emo” bands, but he can also give some epic, intense performances (think Bono from U2), without venturing into the realm of screaming.
As for the tunes, this album as a whole, is pretty laid back and mellow. Nothing found here is going to the soundtrack to a high speed chase, but these are good tunes to listen to while having coffee on a Sunday morning. Tracks like, “캥거루를 위하여,” in particular sound like the kind of tunes that a guy at a coffee shop would play.
Sonically the band has some similarities to the more mellow Jimmy Eat World (”For Me This Is Heaven” as opposed to “Bleed American.”) The is especially true on “Hotel Africa,” (both versions), which mix drum machines and synths with the guitar, bass, and drums.
But the band these guys sound the most like is the Korean band Nell. El is basically Nell without an N and L, and aside from the similar names, the two bands have very similar sounds. It’s not a bad thing, just don’t be looking for either band to really rock your socks off.
Lazybone / Johnny Royal - Our Nation Vol. 4 Rating: 6.4 Label: Drug Records Release Date: June, 2000 Relevant Links:Buy it here.
Drug Recoreds are back with another installment of the Our Nation series. This installment pairs ska-punk pop band Lazybone with the unstoppable fury that is Johnny Royal.
Lazybone kick off the album with a bunch of craptastic ska influenced jams. Ska has never really been my thing, and the tunes Lazybone have to offer are nothing to really get excited about. That being said, they aren’t really bad songs either…they’re just kind of bland. A few of the songs have decent parts, but these are quickly aborted. For example, one of the riffs in “비상구,” is close to being rocking, but the rest of the song is boring paint by numbers ska. The laid back, jazzy verses of “Why Don’t You Smile?” (complete with Bobby McFerrin whistling) transitioning into manic punk with wailing guitar solos is pretty decent as well, but the song is entirely too long, and I for one was bored by the end of the song. That’s the problem with the bulk of the Lazybone tracks: they are just far too long. I really don’t care to hear a ska riff for five minutes before moving on to a different track that has a “different” ska riff (again being played entirely too long).
Additionally these songs feature a ton of non-ironic 1980’s style wailing guitar solos. Not since Van Halen 1984 has there been a higher concentration of wailing guitar solos (and guitar face) in an album.
Johnny Royal can be summed up with one word, and that word is “Awesome!” There seem to be Johnny Royal modes of rocking: hardcore and rap. When in rap mode (on tracks like “로보트 나라 [Robot Country]”) they sound kind of like the Beastie Boys. When in hardcore mode they are fucking insane. “빈대부랑자의 격파차기,” starts off with a sample of a woman singing in a traditional Korean folk style before off the wall drums and guitars come in assaulting your ears like the Kool-Aid man bursting through a brick wall.
One of the best things about this band is that they have three singers. In rap mode they trade off verses like, well the Beastie Boys. But in hardcore mode, the singers work like 1980s tag team wrestlers. They bellow until they can’t bellow anymore and then someone else comes in with fresh bellowing.
Rarely do the the rap mode and hardcore style meet, but when they do (like the track “Homeless”) the asskicking fury delivered is as intense as it is unstoppable. This is not to say Johnny Royal are over the top Macho Man Randy Savage style hollering. The largely instrumental track “동해바다” calms things down briefly, and “파괴지왕” has some outstanding Tom Morello style guitar solo.
Overall, the Johnny Royal tracks are a lot better than the Lazybone track, and are almost mighty enough to make up for the fact that they are on an album with ska.
