Korea,rock and Huckleberry Finn

What do the three things have in common? Apparently one of Korea’s top rock bands is called Huckleberry Finn, which I just discovered recently on Youtube.

I lived in Pusan, South Korea for a couple of years as an English teacher, and at the time I just couldn’t find bands I was into (unlike when I lived in Taiwan as a teacher). It was hard to escape the nauseating pop songs, girl bands and banal hiphop acts that seemed to permeate Korea and the rest of Asia in the ‘Korean wave’. There were a few punk and ska groups and the odd indie-jazz band, but nothing that captured me. It’s only recently that for some reason I am finding some interesting indie/alternative/rock acts.

One thing that struck me about Huckleberry Finn is the sheer number of live gig vids up onYoutube -these guys have been around and they’ve got a good live performance happening. Of course, having an animated show-woman up front is a winning formula.

But the reason I chose to embed the following vid clip wasn’t because of the sound quality, the songwriting or the tightness of the rhythm section but because of the way the singer interacts with the audience and has them all grooving to her hand moves. I don’t know if they were all avid fans who knew the moves, or she taught them just before the song, but it works and gets the crowd involved (except for one girl with the glasses, she didn’t seem like a team-player). This just had me fascinated.

I’d love to see them love, but I might not be into their albums so much. However, another Korean band grabbed my attention: Frenzy (not to be confused with another English-speaking band of the same name). They’re shoegaze, which I’m starting to acquire a taste of.  So for me, the hunt is on for more Korean indie…

Strugmo Series ii Episode 2

Links:
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(Click here to start from Episode 1 this series)

Wubai returns to rock on a one-way ticket

 

The Taiwanese indie rock album I’m listening to now is Wubai’s latest album ‘One Way Ticket’… Wubai and China Blue have been around since the 90′s and really could be considered ‘mainstream rock’ for their success with consecutive hits such as ‘Wanderer’s Love Song’ and ‘The End of Love’ that impacted the whole Chinese speaking world.

But now in the age of Facebook, Youtube and the Korean pop wave they seem to cater more to a faithful indie-rock niche, albeit Chinese style. And I’m somewhat of a fan, having seen him twice in concert (once last year in Sydney) and I think I pretty much have all his albums.

I like Wubai’s attitude -he just writes what he wants to write and unashamedly claims to never cater to the record execs or even his fan base. So, naturally I don’t dig every single song but every album seems to have its gems (this album no exception) and he has a knack for infusing his songwriting with great sentiment and he searches for interesting melodies. And there’s a consistancy of style having kept the same band members since way back with drums, bass and keys.

One Way Ticket seems to be the ‘single’ of the album but my favourite tracks are perhaps more off-beat, such as ‘Knot’ and the dreamy opener ‘Blue Moon’. Anyways, I’m still absorbing this album but I think I’m liking it more than his previous record ‘Space Bomb’ …

 

Just bought sea slugs…

I’ve recently been getting into local Sydney band Only the Sea Slugs -just got their mini LP at iTunes…

http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/street-music/id470491396

Rock meets local Chinese opera

Probably one of the three most influential independent rock bands from Taiwan is The Chairman (董事長樂團 or ‘dongshizhang’ in mandarin). They’re certainly one of my favs, and I’ve collected five of their studio albums now.

And they don’t just record album after album, they infuse each one with a different theme or slant without sacrificing their down-to-earth songwriting style.  For example, one album they mixed electronic while another album they reflected a kind of local ‘gangster’ theme. In my mind they really reflect the local flavour of Taiwanese rock, with A-ji’s gutsy vocals, a tight and steady rhythm section and well-crafted twangy guitar jingles and counter melodies.  You can tell their music is a labour of love and not just part of the Taiwanese music factory that churns out dross for profit.

So since 2011 was an auspicious year as the 10oth anniversary for the Republic of China The Chairman have taken inspiration from the local Taiwanese theatre and opera culture by infusing their songs with local instruments and painting their faces for a visually exciting show as well. I can’t say I love all the songs on the album and I was disappointed there were only 9 tracks but I think they did a great job of infusing instruments and percussion of traditional music with their songs.

Happy New Year…

It’s a bit late, but I’ve had a bit of a break over the last few weeks. I took off and left old Sydney Town for the urban jungles of Taipei, Taiwan where I topped up my Taiwanese indie record collection. Over the next few posts I’m going to share some of the albums on this blog…

And speaking of this blog, I’ve rethought my blogging strategy. I have blogged on a couple of other sites -Blogspot and Myspace to be exact, but not very frequently. Now I’ve decided to just mirror what I have blogged here on those sites as well in order to spread the net a bit wider… I don’t get many hits on those sites anyways. Here’s to a happy 2012!

In Taiwan for second half of December…

I’ve just booked a seat that was relatively inexpensive and since work restraints have made it difficult to get away I’ve taken the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in Taipei. I hope to check out a few of my favourite indie bands if they’re playing. Will see…

Myspace, down but not dead…

I’m still on Myspace, and I’ve noticed many bands still on myspace even though they’re not updating or they’re mainly focusing on other sites like Facebook or Tumblr… The thing is, for many bands, the Myspace is still up their on the google search, and when people are trying to check them out, what they”ve left on Myspace will leave an impression, even if their last song uploaded was 6 months ago and their last post was 2 years ago… So if you’re a band and you’ve decide to focus on Facebook, it still might be worth while updating your Myspace page with latest info like up and coming gigs etc… The last band I was going to see, I googled to confirm they’d play in a certain place and their website was down, the only other sites were Youtube and Myspace, none of which could confirm the gig for the night. I went to the venue site, and they had another band on the bill, so I had to assume they weren’t playing… My advice is, check google for how your band comes up. If Myspace is at the top, still make it a priority.

note about illegal downloading

I was out with some friends at Sydney beer restaurant called Red Oak (delicious beers with different styles to match the food -try the Bock)… Anyways, I was chatting with one bloke about favourite TV shows and dramas such as The Wire, and talked about the latest torrent, which doesn’t just work peer-to-peer, but automatically searches other torrent sites around the world, allowing whole series of shows to be downloading in a relative short period of time. It seems the torrent sites are always one step ahead… my friend said he still should be careful because the ISP will send a ‘Cease and Desist’ if they catch on, but he doesn’t need a login to access the torrent site…

Keep on Dancin’s MV

I have no cartoon this week -too busy at work and no inspiration. Also, I’ve been busy with my project “White Noise”, which I blog about at http://donakrv.blogspot.com.

Anyways, I referred to friends in bands in Brisbane, and here’s another  indie band called the “Keep On Dancin’s” -they have a kind of slow surf, dreamy, reverby, nostalgic kind of sound. They’ve just released an album, but when I saw them in Sydney they seemed to have lost the batch or something. Couldn’t find them on iTunes yet…

 

Along with the Butcher Birds there with some label in Brisbane called Mere Noise Redords as far as I can find out on the net…

http://keepondancins.tumblr.com/contactpage

 http://www.merenoise.net/