I’d been meaning to post about this guy for a while — he’s a Korean “folk” musician that’s been around for a while. I think he’s well outside the mainstream, and the few Koreans I’ve asked about him hadn’t heard of him. But I came across his music on a download site a while ago and nabbed it because it was described as “acid folk.” I listened to it quite a bit last year on my iPod, deleted the original files, and then couldn’t listen to it once I bought a new iPod.

Then yesterday I came across this post on Ask a Korean!, which is about a musician that goes under the name of Lucid Fall. The song is in a similar vein as Kim Doo-soo… a little folky, but with a slightly jazzy edge that reminds me of one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters, Nick Drake (downloads in the comments).

Anyway, when I post about Korean music it’s usually about K-pop, which I do enjoy from time to time, but my enjoyment of the music (like most) is often fueled by my enjoyment of the women singing it. But Kim Doo-soo is an exception and it’s nice to find some Korean music that I enjoy as I would any other music. I generally like Korean folk, but often don’t like the politics associated with it. Korean classical isn’t bad in small doses, but as with most “classical” music, I have trouble relating to it.

Kim has a number of albums, three of which can be found at the bottom of this category via download. This is my favorite song by Kim, called Deja-entendu. You can find a live performance of the song (and many others) on YouTube here.

Here’s another good one called Free Heart.

Really intriguing fight developing between Sony ATV (publishing) and YG Entertainment (wikipedia entry here), who are one of two major Korean pop music conglomerates, over what Sony is calling copyright infringement. First, the tunes in question, then my completely unbiased opinions.

This is G-Dragon’s “Heartbreaker,” which as far as I know is still the No. 1 song in the country. It’s not bad, in the way the song that it’s charged with copying isn’t bad. And I can deal with G-Dragon’s current look, which reminds me of early 70s David Bowie and is at least a little on the odd side (for Korean pop music).

He’s also supposedly doing Soo-hee from the Wondergirls, which bothers me for reasons I don’t need to get into. Anyway, here’s “Heartbreaker”…at least watch until 0:50 when the chorus kicks in. That’s the core of the “offending” sections.

Now, before we hear Flo-rida’s “Right Round,” which I’m sure the majority of you living the states have already heard a billion times, I should express that this song is/was probably the most popular foreign song in South Korea over the last year. I base this not on sales or airplay or any of that jazz that record companies take the time to make up to justify their existence, but purely on the number of times I heard it in bars and stores here in South Korea.

Actually, people are creating YouTube clips comparing G-Dragon’s stuff to the other Sony ATV artists. So here are the two in short clips, side by side.

I like this because it really forces people to explore what copyrights are and what they mean in modern music. Flo-rida’s song “samples” Dead or Alive, and a lot of people would take issue with that. However, I’m sure Flo-rida had to pay royalties to use it.

Here’s the second offender, G-Dragon’s “Butterfly,” paired with Oasis’s “She’s Electric.”

There’s actually a much worse rip off of “She’s Electric” in Korea, but I’ve only heard it around town and don’t actually know who sings it. Say what you will about Oasis, but “She’s Electric” is a terrific song…in my opinion its best ever…so I don’t mind hearing recreations of it in Korea. Here’s another thing on YouTube that actually layers the songs on top of one another and adds a third song, by Katharine McPhee, which I won’t get into.

Here’s another, 2NE1’s hit “I Don’t Care,” a song so terrible that it’s caused me to go back on my original reversal of hating 2NE1 but then thinking they were ok. This song sucks and reminds me of what little girls do when they sing a madeup song but then run out of lyrics. But I digress, it’s charged with ripping off the Lionel Ritchie, who as PopSeoul (where I’m getting a lot of this news) notes, is the father of Nicole Richie, song “Just Go.”

Here’s the layer YouTube of that:

After a few days YG Entertainment responded to the accusations in a statement (in Korean). The statement amounts to a big “fuck you Sony,” and charges that Mariah Carey’s song “Standing O” actually sounds similar to 2NE1’s “In The Club.” I took the trouble to listen to half of “Standing O,” so I could compare the two, so you ought to do me right and do the same. Don’t you think you owe me that much?

Mariah_Carey- Standing O

And 2NE1’s song. It should be noted this song is not a single and was not a hit. So at least, um, we can determine that Mariah Carey’s producers were looking to “alternative” hits when finding a 2NE1 song to rip off.

Not as similar in my opinion. YG Entertainment went as far to claim that it had never heard the Sony ATV originals that the company is charged with copying. I should also mention that “She’s Electric” is also disproportionately popular in Korea. I know that because I was always happy to see its inclusion on Norebang set lists, which I sometimes performed it as a follow-up to “Wonderwall,” which I also do a very nice version of.

I’m a little torn here, because while I’d like to see a Korean music company embarrassed publicly, especially in light of its belated and heavy retort, which I find to be a little classless. At the same time, I’ve got no love for Sony and big American record companies, whose fall from grace due to illegal online file sharing as been one of the more pleasant developments over the last half decade of my life. I actually think G-Dragon’s song is better than Flo-rida’s, and I’m sure G-Dragon is, at heart, a better person and has better taste in hoes.

But at the end of the day I’d like to see YG get nailed here. The songs are unmistakably rip offs and they should pay royalties if they’re going to continue to profit from them. I think they will pay something eventually, but it won’t happen until these songs are long gone from the Korean charts. It’s not very cool and it shows no respect for the artists YG clearly enjoys.

Actually, I think some of the negative reactions of other Korean talent has been a good sign on this. Comic Park Myung-soo called G-Dragon a “national humiliation” on a recent radio interview. I think that’s a bit strong as G-Dragon is only the front. There’s no way he writes a note of his music or even chooses his wardrobe. YG Entertainment is the national humiliation, and as other entertainers on the same radio show Park appeared on said, “It makes foreigners ask, ‘Are you a country with no originality?’. This situation is a wake-up call to other Korean musicians that they should create their own music.” ”

Sometimes I want to post a song I like just for the heck of it. I don’t normally do it, because I think people don’t actually care whatever dumb song I’m liking. But if I can somehow connect it to the site, I’ll do it. I first heard the Box Elders “Hole in My Head” during the spring. I’m not exactly sure what the song is about, but I like to think it’s about trepanation, which, according to Wikipedia is:

the antiquated medical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, thus exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases.

There’s also something called voluntary trepanation, which is practiced by some today, and is believed to increases brain blood volume, which enhances cerebral metabolism, which, is probably feel good. Don’t try it at home like these two chaps from Utah did.

Box Elders first release is called Alice and Friends, and is named for a vegan Korean BBQ restaurant in Chicago. So you see, lots of connections to me and EWC here.

Box Elders — Hole in My Head

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IefLGxcpv6k

My wife was watching a repeat of this this music program last night — MC Mong doing his current single “Indian Boy.” I knew about the controversy surrounding the song, mostly as it’s reported by the Korean media, and haven’t really have time to get into it on here, but after seen the above live performance last night I can’t resist.

By in large, I’ll admit that Native American caricatures like this don’t anger me as much as caracatures of blacks and Jewish people. That might come off as insensitive and I realize it’s not politically correct, but I think at this point there’s enough separation between what Native Americans were and are today, to know that the Cleveland Indians mascot doesn’t have much to do with it.

On the other hand I probably dislike MC Mong more that any other Korean celebrity. I find him smug and can easily envision him slobbering and throwing whiskey bottles around room salons. Koreans sometimes take a certain pride in not being politically correct, especially when dealing with things that Americans think ought to be politically correct. Even the KBO recently handed out an anti-MLB pamphlet at a tournament that had a cartoon with a black baseball player drawn as a monkey. There are the Nazi bars, that, take some heat if it’s really turned up high, but not until it becomes a public problem that extends outside Korea.

The funny thing is, if you believe the Asian land bridge theory, and I don’t really see how anyone can’t, then you also believe that so-called Native Americans were actually originally from Asia via the Middle East and Africa. So, with that in mind, you can say Native Americans are also Native Asians and most likely Native Koreans and Native Japanese as well. I’m sure if you suggested that idea to Mr. Mong he’d freak out and start telling you the story of Dangun, the first Korean, who was the offspring of a heaven-sent tiger and bear couple who ate garlic and became human. This is where I run into big problems with “culture” and arguing about who is and what was, especially as it pertains to who was first.

I do wish MC Mong would get called out on “Indian Boy,” not so much because I’m offended, but because I dislike him. As my wife pointed out last night, if someone did a pop song with a similar caricature of, say, turn of 20th century Koreans, Koreans would be beside themselves.

Gary, Indiana’s finest. Dead at 50. Thanks for the memories — for being The Beatles of the 80s, and for being one of the strangest, truly unique characters pop music has ever seen.

I’ll admit I was quite smitten when I saw the publicity shots for the new Girls Generation album/single/whatev’. Again, G.G. aren’t meant to be a flock of hotties, rather, they’re meant to represent a panorama of cute Korean women — the kind of girls you or I could actually meet while walking down the street in, say, Seomyeon.

However, there’s a catch here. These aren’t your average, everyday happy-go-lucky Girls Generation. These are Nazis, and Korean woman into Japanese colonial period Kamikaze airplanes. At least, that’s the recent news according to PopSeoul, which has a post on the ugly truth about the girl’s recent publicity shots:

Ok, enough with the tabloid annoucer writing voice. Apparently the photog who did the shots didn’t realize what the props he was using represented. Unless it was a Japanese person, in which case they’re probably having a good laugh about the whole thing as I write this.

But it doesn’t stop there. There are also individual profile shots of each member that are apparently being used as promotional posters. When I first saw these I thought they were great — but, oops, he did it again — these are pins that resemble those worn by Nazis, and the design of the eagle pins on the hats and breast resemble the Parteiadler, which is the insignia for the Nazi party. Damn.

and

The Girls Generation entertainment company has already issued a statement, claiming it was the ignorance of the photo shoot designer and that the girls aren’t to blame. I can go for that and thus will not be putting it in the Hitler Bars etc. category, even though it probably belongs there. It might even be a publicity stunt.

I might be a little offended if it weren’t Girls Generation we’re talking about. I couldn’t blame them for much of anything…unless one of them stood me up on a Saturday afternoon after I brought her a big white teddy bear for White Day and was planning on buying her a Cajun Shrimp & Chicken Pasta lunch special at TGI’s…or something like that.

Here’s the full set of marine girl promo pics. Here’s the MV to the new single:

Not the group’s best work in my opinion, but I’ll live.

Actually, its not touring with Dinosaur Jr., but I just can’t allow myself to focus any attention on truly barfworthy Jonas Brothers, who the girls will actually be touring with. Besides, Dinosaur Jr. has a new album out with it’s old lineup and it’s absolutely fantastic…hence the purposeful mix up.

Actually, this is a big coup for the Wondergirls, who will spend much of the summer touring with a proven teen multi-million dollar selling commodity. It doesn’t gaurantee a breakthrough by any means — I think it still remains to be seen if a Korean pop act can truly be embraced by millions of Americans (Boa’s success still looks like manufactured hype to me), but this will put the Wondergrils in line to do so. 

Here is the tour schedule — DJ will host an EWC event at the July 28 show at the Tacoma Dome. And here’s a song from Dinasaur Jr.’s new album Farm:

Pieces

One of the big marketing schemes with the Wondergirls latest album in Korea was their 60s style get up, a la The Surpremes. Judging from the photo on the tour schedule and the one above it looks as though that’ll carry over to the U.S. It’s a good ploy because part of appealing to this kind of teen market in the states is appealing to the parents who will be taking the kids to the shows. While most of the kids going to these shows aren’t the children of baby boomers, it’s still a comforting, familiar image. I don’t know if it’ll work, but its very clever marketing, no doubt about it.

Ok, I have to admit — the 2ne1 (pronounced “twenty one”) group I bagged on a week or so ago is starting to get into my head a little. I was at a Wa Bar with my wife the other night and I did one of those –hey, this is kind of good…who is this?– deals where you vaguely recognize a song, kind of like it, and then turn to find it’s something you’ve already trashed on your Asian baseball blog? Damn. 

I think once you do that, once your heart tells you a song is pretty good, it’s a little false to turn back on that. I’m trapped. I like the song, ok? I even considered asking my wife to help me download it for my ring tone. Damn.

Funny though, at the War Bar they played the video for Fire, the song in question. I remembered reading and seeing some photos from a while back that a Korean girl group had ripped off some images from a M.I.A.’s “Jimmy” video. I dunno, what do you think?

That would be M.I.A., who is Sri Lankan, at bottom. Still, I doubt M.I.A. and 2ne1 are the first artists to put a Hindu goddess in their video. Although…. check out the photos at the bottom of this reel. I won’t try to defend that one. 

The group apparently got a write up on Prez Hilton, who I think Jackson mentioned as a big blogging influence at one point or another, and have released both Street and Space versions of the song. Trip out. P.S.: the Space version is the video that rips off M.I.A.

Personally, I’m most interested in the story of member Sandra Park, who has her own Wikipedia page. Apparently she’s from Busan, but her family moved to the Philippines when she was young. She became a minor TV star there, and even appeared on a show where she pretends to be married to someone (note: while that sounds dumb and weird, this format is currently very popular in Asia). That’s stirred up a little controversy in Korea due to some photos of her in bed with a Filipino guy. Interesting, but not nearly as interesting as this photo layout she did for Uno, which looks to be a kind of Filipino version of FHM. Word. Again, and I feel I always have to say this with Korean female pop stars — here’s to hoping she’s not getting whored out to CEOs, their sons, entertainment managers, and other rich guys all over Korea.

Fire is currently No. 3 on the Korean pop charts, behind 2 a.m.’s ” A Friend’s Confession” and 2 p.m.’s “Again and Again.” So the chart looks something like this:

1. 2 p.m.

2. 2 a.m.

3. 2ne1

That’s some sick shit. Word.

Guess what? It worked!

I happened to walk into the room as my wife was watching this next one — a very pro-wrestling style introduction of a new group called 2NE1. When I saw this I couldn’t help just bursting into laughter. I realize this is Korean pop music and shouldn’t be judged too harshly for what is. But then again, I’m not judging it. I just thought it was hilarious. Hopefully these girls aren’t already being whored out to CEOs and government officials — because this ride won’t last past July. 

The real fun starts at 0:14.

Both via PopSeoul.

Quick music plug here, since I get to see music I enjoy in Korea once every 5 or 6 years. Bill Callahan, someone I’ve increasingly liked over the past decade of so, has a new album coming out Tuesday called Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, and it’s just killing me. To support his new release he’s doing a tour of record stores that’s taking him through Nashville, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Philly and New York City during the next week.

So if you live in one of those cities I’ll recommend you go check him out. Dates and locations here. My guess is that Callahan doesn’t like baseball, but ask him if you get a chance.  

For those not familiar Callahan is a singer/songwriter, I guess originally from Maryland, but now living in Austin. I came across him when he was living in Sacramento, when I was a student at UC Davis. I’d rather not describe him and just let you listen to this which is from his last album (and was #27 on Repoz of BBTF’s Top 75 for 2007), and is a nice introduction. But the new one (this one is Eid Ma Clack Shaw) is what I’ve been annoying the woman with a newborn next door with today. 

And if that really floats your boat check out this interview/performance from 2008, on radio station KUT in Texas.

I’m going to lose some serious cred here (as if I had any) but I actually like the two songs I know by Girls Generation, and while the idea of super groups with nine people running around jumping on stage, lip syncing, dancing and not playing instruments, doesn’t sound like it would add up to much, it becomes somewhat palpable when there’s not a man or boy in sight.

Here’s the current smash Gee:

It’s not like I’ve ever had to seek the song out…it can currently be heard playing on almost any Korean telephone, in any coffee shop, and in front of any store doing any sort of sale or giveaway.

Even better is one of their earlier hits, Kissing You:

In fact, Girls Generation was started as a “rival” to The Wonder Girls.

I know it’s baseball. It’s not life or death. But if you are American, and you would just as soon see the American team put a product on the field that’s worth your time, I have to ask you…

Are you satisfied?

If you don’t like Team USA you are most definitely satisfied. The team is now 2-2 and on the edge of being knocked out of the WBC early in the second round for the second straight time. I doubt the team will lose to The Netherlands, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

Are you disappointed in the U.S. team?

There are plenty of baseball fans who don’t care about the WBC. I’m not asking them. And there are a number of people, including a lot of Americans, that are perfectly happy simply watching an international baseball tournament they consider to be an exhibition. They’d just as soon the Americans win, but might also enjoy seeing Puerto Rico or an underdog winning.

But I’m sure they’re are a lot of people who want the American team to win. If you’re American and like baseball you’ve probably been in this group at one time or another. Of course it’s easier to flee this group than to be dissatisfied or be (lazily) labelled a patriot or nationalistic. 

Look me in the eyes and tell me…are you satisfied?

Hey, this post turned into a a classic Replacements song. Now that the parameters for this discussion are set, please ask yourself the question found in the title once more. Are you satisfied with the American team’s performance? Do you think the team was well-prepared to play Saturday’s game against Puerto Rico? Do you think the manager arriving during the second inning had any effect on the outcome? Are you bothered by the fact that a number of the players, upon losing by mercy rule, had no idea the game was even over? Do you think the players are bothered by the losing?

Again, this is the WBC. I don’t mean to make it sound like life and death. But if you’ve spent any of your life watching or following this stuff you can’t be satisfied. In fact, you might feel somewhat cheated. And if you live in another country, a country where this sort of stuff can somehow be both directly and indirectly held as being representative of your culture, your history, your desire, your ego, and your being…well, then, you’re probably somewhat ticked off.

I’m not a fan nor a hater of the Wondergirls, so I’m not about to get bent out of shape when they make complete asses of themselves on recorded media. But from a general perspective of humanity, I cringed when I saw this video of them being interviewed in English at an art exhibit called The Worlds on Fire.

The exhibit was created by the illustrious Will.i.am, who is (apparently) riding high after cashing in (I’m guessing) on on “Yes, We Can,” a song that had (apparently) something to do with the Obama campaign. I’ll plead ignorance on this one and file it in under Glad I’m Not Around an American Television. Too much of that sort of thing might have me looking to reclaim my vote. 

Just for a reference of what we’re dealing with here, here’s some of the press release for the “event.”

Will.i.am presents Worlds on Fire, a pop music and pop art collaboration. Worlds on Fire will be the first art exhibition of its kind featuring portraits of 2009 Grammy nominees as drawn by pop surrealism artists. The exhibition’s opening night celebration will take place on Monday, February 2 from 7:00 PM – 1:00 AM at the Pacific Electric Loftsin downtown Los Angeles. Entertainment to be provided by live D.J. sets from Will.i.am and special guests. Worlds on Fire: Grammy-Nominated Artist Exhibition will be the premier event to kick off Grammy week.

Worlds on Fire was conceived by will.i.am, one of pop music’s most creative, socially conscious and influential artists today, in conjunction with his popular social and political networking site, Dipdive.com. Focused on innovation and creativity, Worlds on Fire will be the only event during Grammy Week bridging the gap between the once separate mediums of performing/recording arts and modern art.

Ok, hopefully you’re done throwing up. Like I’ve always said, nothing says surrealist art like The Grammys. The interview was done by and posted on Dipdive.com, so I think it’s fair to say, nobody is watching this besides fans of Wondergirls and the smattering of people still doing searches on Obama.

Ah, but the interview. Right. I know I’m flying off the handle a bit here, because like I said, if the Wondergirls fall on their faces in the U.S. (the girls are there to play a couple shows) I get a certain amount of enjoyment equal to any pleasure I get from their music over here. Win win. You might remember I posted something about the song Nobody when it came out, and did like it for a week or so.

But this interview, which reveals that the girls have all chosen dumb porno English names for their assult on American shores, is something I can’t watch again. I tried to show it to my wife and she lasted 15 seconds. Not only is their English bad, and rehearsed dumbness, but their interactions with the dweeb doing the interview are beyond phony, embarrassing, and would likely set American perceptions of Korea, Koreans, and specifically Korean women, back 50 years…if any kind of mass audience were watching this.   

Having lived in Korea for five years and knowing how how much Koreans enjoy sharing the love (ie. hugging complete strangers like I’m sure Will.i.am does with every fool he comes across on the street) the ending is particularly nauseating.

Why do I care about this? I can’t explain. Maybe I’ve lived in Korea too long and I’m feeling some kind of silly older brother protectionism, the kind that would lead me to pick a fight with a white guy hitting on a Korean woman at a bar while we study abroad in Australia. I don’t get it. 

Signed,

Confused in Ulsan

Ed Note: Alight of Night by Crystal Stilts was one of my favorites of last year — you might remember them from my first EWC Fresh Tunes. I recently did an interview with Andy Adler, who plays bassist. As it turns out Andy is a Red Sox fan, and better yet, hates Red Sox fans that wear pink Red Sox hats. He reads sports blogs, name checks Bill James, Billy Beane, and Jonathan Richmond, and is into Asian art films. Sounds like an EWC kind of specimen.

Crystal Stilts — The Dazzled

EWC: What do you think about baseball?

Andy: I’m a pretty big baseball fan, though I must say in the sporting world basketball will always be my true love. That isn’t to say I don’t love baseball, just a bit of perspective– I grew up in Boston so in all my sporting passions I root for Boston teams across the board (The Celtics being my favorite team, their championship this past season being perhaps the most rewarding to me of any of the bountiful 2000’s).

I must say, as pleasing and fulfilling the Red Sox World Series win was in 2004 it didn’t come with perhaps two slight pangs. One being the shattering of a world view informed by being a long suffering Red Sox fan, leaving me wondering what next? Having lived my whole life informed by the failures of coming up short, in such painful ways, it took some time to get used to a world in which the Red Sox actually win and the ways in which that shifted an outlook highly informed by such moments of loss in increasingly amazing ways when so close to victory.

Second is those obnoxious Boston fans one gets lumped in with. Believe me, no one hates the annoying pink hatted and “ya dude” yelling Boston fans more so than those of us who root for the Red Sox and are not part of that culture. (There is also a difficulty in rooting for a team so high up on the payroll charts. I have many problems with the salary cap free world of MLB, though it does lead to the fascinating Bill James, Billy Beane, etc aspects of player analysis and valuing.)

Similarly the world is a worse place for no longer having Fire Joe Morgan to read alongside the baseball season. A true loss. At least in the basketball world we still have Free Darko.

EWC: What do you think about Asia?

Andy: I have, nor has anyone in the band, ever been so all thoughts are from afar. As a bit of a filmnerd I would say my thoughts are very much in that world. Attentive to and thankful for Ozu, Mizoguchi, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Ming-Liang, Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil, Naruse, Jia Zhangke, et al and the lax copyright laws of Japan that allows one to find dvd’s of otherwise unavailable Philippe Garrel films amongst others.

EWC: Is there any kind of baseball influence on Alight of Night?

Andy: That is perhaps a question for Brad more so than myself though I can’t say that I think that would be too strong in the sphere of influence. Perhaps the world view described above has some crossover with ideas on the record but that would simply be coincidence. Maybe in the future this will impress itself more upon our writing. There are many great songs about baseball, be it Jonathan Richman’s “Walter Johnson” or Rasco’s “Major League”.

Crystal Stilts — Prismatic Room (video here)

EWC: Any Asian influence on Alight of Night?

Andy: Hmm, again not so sure but maybe something of some bands from Asia or maybe even the prog supergroup Asia. They’re no Traveling Wilburys as far as supergroups go, and though he may not admit it, it is hard to ignore their presence in his unconscious when JB picks up a guitar.

Crystal Stilts MySpace with tour dates and other songs can be found here. A full preview download of their (great) early singles can be found here.

These are just things I’ve been listening to over the past month or two. Some are old, some are new. Some people will like this and others will be wondering why I don’t just get over myself and focus on writing about baseball.

There was an amazing article in The Economist last month entitled Why Music?, which is an evolutionary perspective on what it dubs “one of humanity’s strangest attributes.” I wanted to extrapolate some quotes from it and do the whole blogin’ thing, but due to time constraints, I’ll just beg you to read it while listening to my selections.

You can play these individually or hear then in order by playing the first.

Pepe Merto and the Expo ‘70 All Stars — Shina No Yuro

Exotic Filipino interpretations of Japanese classics.

Arthur Russell — Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart
Hands down my favorite of release 2008. 

Nodzzz – In the City (Contact High)
San Mateo represent!!!

Crystal Stilts — The SinKing
Subject of the first (and last) EWC music interview. Forthcoming.

Laura Nyro — Stoney End
One of my all time favorite voices. Careful, the sound on this one is a little low.

The Beach Boys — Good Viiiblaaaations
Featuring a very drunk (or very possibly tripping) Carl Wilson at a concert in Australia…from a bootleg called Endless Bummer. Everyone’s drunk except Mike Love. Brutal.

Onra — My Comet
Posted about Onra here. Forgot to mention he’s a Secret Asian Man.

Koushik — Be With
Made in Canada

Tenniscoats & Secai — Touch On
Made in Japan

Jeremy Jay — Beautiful Rebel
Made in L.A. 

Fuck — Fuck Motel
The guitarist from this band used to come into a record store I worked at in college. Sadly, I think this 90s band is largely forgotten for the moment.

I randomly came across a single by Onra, a half-Vietnamese Paris-based producer/DJ type, called 7×7. While clicking around through some info on him I found he released an album earlier in the year called Chinoiseries, that was made mostly with records he’d picked up on a trip through Vietnam the year before.

I downloaded that and lo and behold it’s a great album. I’m a little partial to old Chinese pop and exotica. This is kind of a refresh of that. I’m hooked. Tunes after the jump

Onra — The Anthem

Apparently the above track was nicked by Coca cola during the Olympics for a Yao Ming/Lebron James commercial. Here’s the real commercial:

And here’s the commerical again with Onra’s “The Anthem” dubbed over. 

I’m not sure what the full story was, but Onra ended up getting a “co-credit” on the commercial. It’s the age old question — what is sampling? Kind of ironic a DJ would end up getting ripped off like that, but it sounds like he did get some money out of the deal. Apparently part of the problem is that Coca cola is an American company and Chinoiseries hasn’t been licenced in the states. 

Here’s another track:

Onra — The Vallee of Love

Here’s a review and Onra’s MySpace page.

This is a Japanese metal band called Maximum The Hormone. The song is “Bikini Sports Ponchin.” Don’t get too excited. In that way.

The director has a Web site called Yellow Brain found here. It’s equally interesting.

However, the offending lyrics this time around aren’t as overt as Rain’s “my magic stick is spinning in your shivering body.” According to PopSeoul the song is “Mirotic,” which contains the line “….flowing through you are millions of my crystal…” which the government argues is meant to represent male sperm flowing through a woman’s body. Hmm. The song was also flagged for its use of “red ocean,” which the government says is a reference to a woman’s period.

I actually grew to like the song (includes English subs) shortly after my wife watched the video for the 1,000th time. Or rather, I like the grindy synths during the chorus (who know we’d be hearing Nine Inch Nails in Korean pop songs 20 years later). The song has already gone up and down the pop chart, but now if you’re a Korean under the age of 19 you can’t buy the album. 

Curiously, the song itself, which was written by Mikkel Remee Sigvardt, Lucas Secon and Thomas Troelsen, was also sold to an American artist named Sarah Connor. Sorry to do this to you. 

Note the song’s lyrics are not the same and note there are no references to “crystal” or a “red ocean” in Conor’s version. However, if you go to 1:20 in the video you’ll see she has a Chinese tattoo on the back of her neck. 

For their part Dong Bang-shin-ki’s record company has filed a lawsuit to lift the age restriction on the album. A Korean opinion columnist from the JoongAng Daily has chimed in with a brief history of music censorship in Korea.

I don’t want to say I’ve nearly been killed for hogging the Karaoke mic (or as we call it here in Korea, norebang) but I am a 2-for-everyone-else’s-1-song kind of guy. I guess you could say I’ve killed the mic.

You’ll find my top 5 songs at the end of this post.

From BBC News:

A Malaysian man has been stabbed to death for refusing to stop singing and hand over the microphone at a karaoke bar, police say.
Abdul Sani Doli, 23, reportedly angered some of the customers when he hogged the stage at the bar in Sandakan town on eastern Borneo island.

Witnesses said he was attacked, and the fight spilled out on to the street.
He was punched before being stabbed to death with a knife. His body was found a short distance from the bar.

There are a number of people — mostly guys — who will always avoid the mic from coming their way. Thye’ll never sing. This is unfortunate. The culture behind singing, at least as it stands now, is to relieve stress. It more than does that.

Aaron Shinsano’s Top 5 Karaoke Songs

5. 거리에서 (on the road) — 성시경 (Sung Si-kyeong)
4. About a Girl — Nirvana
3. Michelle — The Beatles
2. Daydream Believer — The Monkeys
1. Just the Way You Are — Billy Joel

There are many more, but those are the favorites. The selection isn’t the greatest in Korea. There’s a great Filipino singing room in Busan that has the best selection of pop songs I’ve ever seen.

Readers are invited to put their own Top 5 lists in the comments.

One of these days I’m going to record myself performing one of these songs and post it on here. Then you’ll know.

The Korean song is a ballad that was popular a couple years ago. My wife really loved it so I secretly learned it and surprised her with it on our first anniversary.

Tears. I’m telling you. Tears.

Story via Japundit.

His first album came out just a few months before I moved to Korea and I’ve liked pretty much everything he’s done. Musicians I like him don’t come to Korea. In fact, when my friend Jon called me Thursday night and said “Guess who’s playing in Seoul Saturday and Sunday night” I quickly, and sarcastically, shot back “Billy Joel,” because I’d seen commercials on TV about it. Nothing big against Joel, whose early stuff I kind of like and who I saw and kind of liked in the late 90s when it was my job to write about music, but I sure as heck wouldn’t take a trip to Seoul on a moment’s notice and pay $75 to see him. In fact, I wouldn’t go if you paid me $75*. 

*Unless you paid my room and transportation.

But the chance to see Lekman was something I couldn’t pass up, even though it was kind of a pain to convince my wife to go. We’d had plans to get one of our cats fixed. I’d more or less assumed I’d have to catch him by chance while on vacation in the states. Very unlikely that that could happen since I’m usually too busy visiting people and places to go to a show.

As it turned out Lekman (and his backup “band,” Victor) stayed at my friend’s apartment Friday night because Jon is friends with the co-owner of the club he played at. I’m really digressing into some lame fanboy kind of shit here, I know, but bear with me. I’ve said a number of times I dislike the dynamic of “celebs” and “fans.” Again, to go back to my pop critic past life — two bands I really enjoyed at the time, Stereolab and Tindersticks, became almost unlistnable after interviewing assholes from each. Frankly, I’m not beyond being a fan, and my fanship of Jens Lekman has always been kind of childish and irrational. His lyrics and music, which are above all else, romantic in a teenagey kind of way, demand it. I like the fact that I can still enjoy music in that way, but but meeting someone is sure to color your perception of their work, whether they’re musicians, athletes, politicians, or porn stars. It can be a bad thing.

Anyway, both Jens and Victor were great guys. I’m sure for Lekman meeting fans can be a bit poisonous as well. People are passionate about what he does and that must produce a wide spectrum of experiences for him. It likely helped that my wife, who doesn’t know Jens Lekman from Michael Jackson, and one of Jon’s colleagues at Yonsei University, a history prof who didn’t know him either and is prone to long digressions into obscure early British history anecdotes, were on hand to balance out Jon and my relative goofyness. But everyone had a nice time. I always like showing people Korea. We drank at a food tent (pojang-macha) until the early morning and in general had some good, clean, drinking/eating/laughing fun.

The show itself was at Freebird, which is a club in Seoul’s infamous Hongdae area. If you don’t live in Korea and are wondering why I’m calling it infamous go ahead and search it (or read this intro). I like Hongdae, but I don’t have to exist there, and have been there just a few times a year since Jon moved to Korea. I usually see a few idiots there, and there were plenty of people who paid 25,000 won to come and talk at a club while Jens Lekman played background music to their dumbass ramblings. But the only jerk I saw breaking a bottle was me (by accident).

In the end Jon got the real treat because Lekman played a whole rehearsal in his living room while we were on the train up to Seoul. But I had a great time too and I like Jens as much as ever. I doubt he’ll ever come to Korea again, but my memory of the weekend will suffice. That’s about all I could have asked for.

A Higher Power – Jens Lekman