Randomness #32

Lots of things going on everywhere right now. Modern Sky Helsinki is coming up this weekend and with the time table out I*m getting all the more excited about it. If only there was more time–to see all the artists at the festival and to write about them beforehand–that’d be all I could ask.

Recent Listening

One of the posts I look forward to making the most every month are the Music Alliance Pact posts. A lot of great songs have been featured over the years and this month was certainly no exception. More than 2 weeks since the release Floating Island‘s “Parade” still pops up in my head. Extremely catchy. Not sure whether it’s the sound or all the English lyrics, but it seems rather European to me and I keep mistaking it for one of the typical summer hits we get around here. Except more awesome.

 
The past week, when I’ve needed a break from all the Modern Sky music I’ve been digging into Hello Rookie history. So many great bands have participated throughout the years. Mostly I’ve been watching the final performances where bands team up to make covers together. The results are sometimes questionable, but I can’t get enough of this “Billie Jean” cover from 2013 with Round Heads, Asian Chairshot and Squash Vines. A fantastic melancholic rock ballad arrangement, perfect pairing of Round Heads’ female vocalist with the grungy male vocals from Squash Vines.

 

Random News

It may not be autumn just yet, but as far as I’m concerned there is never a wrong time for Autumn Vacation. The duo will release its third full-length album 세번째 계절 on September 1st. Digital single 이별 앞으로 was released yesterday and the song with the same name will be included on the album. Also on the album will be album versions of “베스트 앨범은 사지 않아” and “아이보리”. “베스트 앨범은 사지 않아” was first released as a b-side to single 첫사랑 in 2013 whereas “아이보리” was first released in 2012 as a joint single with Epitone Project for Pastel Music’s 10th anniversary.

 

Yesterday Jambinai announced that session drummer Ryu will leave to focus on his very successful clothing brand BRATSON and the other bands where he also drums–there among Hollow Jan, that I now hope will be able to play more often. At first I was sad to hear the news, but it wasn’t much later before Jambinai announced that the new session drummer will be Choi Jaehyuk and there was reason to be happy again. Choi Jaehyuk is the drummer that first made me think of drums as something other than a nuisance. I became a fan when interviewing him about Omega 3, but of course also appreciated the music he made as part of Delispice earlier as well as with Yellow Monsters later. Jambinai has been my favorite live band for the past few years, but now I’m looking forward to next time I can see them live even more.

Blog Stuff

Many things to blog about still. There should be a few more Modern Sky Helsinki oriented posts coming up ahead of the festival. There’ll also be a series of Hello Rookie history posts showing up during the autumn, but I haven’t decided on a schedule yet.

Distracting me from producing blog posts, however, is the theme. After upgrading to WordPress 4.3 and clicking the “Customize” option out of curiosity the front page layout was broken and I haven’t found a way to fix it. I do have another theme lined up already, but need to do some tweaking before I’m comfortable to do the real switch. Things will have to look as they do around here for the time being.

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