A new weekend has come, and while some may be looking for activities other may be looking to catch up on a bit of reading. Let’s start with some things taking place tomorrow, April 16:
For starters: if you’re in the vicinity of Chicago don’t forget that you’ll have a chance to check out charming indie flick Pleasant People at Chicago International Movies and Music Festival.
Primarily of interest if you happen to actually be in Seoul this weekend, but I really like the idea of bringing musicians together across borders – one country at a time – behind this event: Seoul! Pop Planet – April 16-17! Korea Gig Guide promoted the event here: A Korean and Japanese Pop Planet. And for something that took place already today, there’s a small piece of rock history in this other Korea Gig Guide post that you may want to pick up: The Devil You Don’t Know — Korean Classics This Friday
This year’s edition of Coachella started today, and tomorrow time has come for intriguing total art performance act EE to show their worth in the Gobi Tent from 11:50 am to 12:35 pm. If the prospect of seeing EE in action alone isn’t enough The Creators Project throws in an extra goody: Coachella 2011: Intel and Aldebaran Robotics’ Nao Robots Dance To EE [Video]. Turns out that Lumpens – the artist behind some of EE’s fantastic music videos – too will have some of his work showcased at Coachella: Projection, Piano, And Breakdancing: The Latest From Lumpens.
While EE are awaiting their first US performance, the Seoulsonic bands have now returned to Korea. Not without leaving an impression, however. Galaxy Express was one of the favorite discoveries at this years SXSW for some: Sophia’s Rock Beat: SXSW 2011 edition!; 2011 SxSW, The Afterglow of Its Mind-Boggling Diversity. Vidulgi OoyoO too made an astonishing first impression: SXSW 2011 Report 1: The Words. The popularity of Idiotape has already been mentioned on this blog, but here’s a video interview (running for the first 9 minutes or so) for more on the band: Austin Underground 4/3/1.
Onto something more news like: in what seemed like an obvious case of plagiarism, a court has now ruled that the composers behind CN Blue‘s 외톨이야 did in fact not plagiarize YNot?‘s 파랑새:
– Seoulbeats: Loner NOT a Blue Bird
– allkpop: Court rules that CNBLUE’s “Loner” was not plagiarized
– allkpop: CNBLUE’s Yonghwa & Minhyuk express relief over court’s decision to toss out plagiarism suit
More concerning the issue here.
Other recent news items:
– Mimi Sisters’ request for lyrics review denied by KBS
– Deok-won of Broccoli, You Too? Gets Married
Another recommended piece from Niels Footman in Yonhap was brought to my attention by Mark Russell: Gilded rockers feel the allure of Korea. Related in a way here’s something from Daejon Access on Korean music scenes outside of Seoul: Korea’s Second Scene: Passing the Torch From Cheong-ju to Busan.
From scenes to bands, Soompi offers a chance to get to know Monni better following the band’s recent Sketchbook appearance: Modern Rock Band Monni Performs on Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook. Also at Soompi, a profile introducing One More Chance: Under the Radar – One More Chance. And a bit on Daybreak: Indie Band Daybreak’s New Digital Single “Mr. Rolling Stone”.
A chance to learn more on Whang Bo Ryung – the strong woman behind SmackSoft is offered through an interview in the latest episode of Korean Homesick Blues. For some rock history of a different kind, The Korean offers some interesting trivia on Sinawe: 50 Most Influential K-Pop Artists: 30. Sinawi. And for a personal story concerning another band with a lot of years behind it here’s a nice read on Delispice, inspired by refresh_daemon‘s recent review series: Delispiced memories.
I’m sure many with me are happy to find Widhi writing again. The other day she shared her expectations for a couple of spring festivals, Beautiful Mint Life and Greenplugged: [Wiz News] Spring… Spring… Spring….
And finally, it seems there’ll be a chance to catch a glimpse of Hongdae through an upcoming movie: Kim Byul plays rock guitarist for new film.