My earliest conscious memory of Korea was in 1982, when the Korean boxer Kim Duk-Koo fell into a coma after being knocked out my Ray Mancini. Kim died five days later. I was a kid at the time and remember being startled by the idea of someone dying while playing some kind of sport.

I was rather shocked when years later, I came across a song called “Kim Duk Koo,” by Sun Kil Moon, a moniker used by a San Francisco-area signer/songwriter Mark Kozelek, who I was familiar with as the frontman for The Red House Painters. He used to occasionally shop at a record store I worked at in Berkeley, California, and if I’m not mistaken, also did a live performance there. I worked at the record store between graduating from college and getting a job at a newspaper.

The name Sun Kil Moon is also a Korean boxing reference — to the boxer Sung Kil-moon (still living) who recorded a professional record of 20 Wins and 2 Loses, 15 of which were by knockout.

What’s the point of all this? Well, Sun Kil Moon just released a new record called April and it’s fantastic. There are no further Korean references (that I can come up with) but I’ve been listening to this constantly for a couple weeks now.

For those not familiar with his work the closest reference point to Kozelek is Neil Young. The timber in their voices is a little similar, though Kozelek’s is much deeper and his subject matter more bleak. Here are a couple tracks from April to whet your whistle…or whatever else you do when you listen to music.

Lost Verses

Harper Road

Here are a couple reviews as well:

Crawdaddy Magazine

Village Voice