After what turned into more than a month of focus on academia rather than music I’ve fallen behind with the blogging again. Here are some interesting reads and more posted during that time that may keep you occupied over the weekend.
First up, a story from when I visited Berlin end of April and, among other things, met up with wassereis and had a talk with Jane Ha, aka Pika, at a super cozy venue where Marc Senda was playing (which btw was one of my favorite gigs ever – I particularly liked that he upon request played Pardonne twice). Much like the lovely people from Seoul Sub→urban graced Indieful ROK with a guest post on Ally I provided a guest post for fellow Nanoomi blog The Chosun Bimbo: IndefulRoK Interviews Pika
Speaking of wasseries, over at Violet Sweets she offers the story behind various Korean band names:
– Indie Band Names’ Meaning
– Indie Band Names’ Meaning Part 2
Over at Korean rock is real Lightinthemind is keeping track of the Musician Search episodes from Arirang Radio‘s Music 180, featuring both studio lives and interviews with various artists:
– Arirang Radio Project: Musician Search programs from 13 to 1
– Arirang Radio Project: Musician Search #14: Yellow Monsters
– Arirang Radio Project: Musician Search #15: Smacksoft
– Arirang Radio Project: Musician Search #16: Copy Machine
– Arirang Radio Project: Musician Search #17: Began Who
The May edition of Groove Korea saw Indieful ROK’s favorite bellydancer Eshe on the cover and of course also featured an article based on an interview with her: The Magic Hips of Eshe Yildiz. Korea Gig Guide offers some bonus material: Eshe Gets Her Groove On.
Other more or less recent interviews/articles:
– An opportunity to practice French while learning more on Lala Sweet: Interview : lalasweet (랄라스윗)
– Ninano Nanda talks about mixing traditional Korean music with Western elements: Pansori duo aims to break boundaries
– Daejeon Access has interviewed The Rock Tigers: A big year for The Rock Tigers
– And more on The Rock Tigers is offered by the fine people over at subject object verb: Rockabilly: Born in the West, Travels East, Returns to the West
– Poetic band Wings of the I Sang talk musical inspirations: Korean Emo Music
Last weekend the 2011 Street Party took place in Busan with Trampauline, Wagwak, and Lhasa. Paula of noona blog: SEOUL and Banana Milk went there and has since offered both some behind scenes stuff as well as a live photos:
– Great Weekend in Busan
– Busan Street Party
Last weekend was also the final weekend for Live Club Ssam – a favorite venue for many, bands and fans alike (including myself). Mark Russell offers a bit of the Ssam/Ssamzie history over at Korea Gig Guide: Ssamzie Ssend-off — 11 Yearss of Great Music
And while on the subject of clubs in Hongdae, here’s a Joongang Daily article I came across via Korean rock is real mentioning my second favorite venue, Club SPOT: Indie spirit lives on in Hongdae’s cafes and clubs.
Just outside of Spot is the Hongdae playground which is a popular place to just hang around, and from what I’ve heard also serves as a pretty good pick-up place. Emmy of I’m A Blog But That’s OK has shared a set of photos: “The Park”
Onto something else, Daejeon Access recently shared some insights regarding Korea’s hardcore scene: Hardcore Kids rejoice!
On a less positive note, relating to something covered before and, as Widhi pointed out reminising the articles following the death of Moonlight Nymph here’s a post from allkpop: Are artists receiving their fair share of the expanding profits?
Back to something more fun, the editor behind Korean rock is real decided that Korean indie artists too deserve to be ogled as much as any kpop idols and posted a series of photos of My Aunt Mary vocalist Thomas Cook: Thomas Cook (Jung Soon Yong)
Finally, some recommendations:
– Seoulbeats writer Johnelle rejoiced over “More from Mate“: 5 Things I LOVED in Kpop This Week
– MTV Iggy has taken a liking to Galaxy Express: Bands We Like: Korea’s Galaxy Express are Noise on Fire
– Project Obangsaek introduces Vanilla Unity: ROK with Vanilla Unity
– Koreaboo.com shares some names from Korea’s rock scene: EDITORIAL: A little bit of K-rock
– And via Korean rock is real, some picks from bluettbeats’ diary: top korean indie groups