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This week’s K-Crunch Indie Playlist is a special edition in lieu of the South by South West concert happening in Austin, Texas next week. The reason why this is important is because a few Korean Indie bands are playing at the festival, so we thought it would be perfect timing to talk about them!

A lot of people who move to Korean and aren’t into kpop feel frustrated and claim that Korea has no good music. It is really unfair to say that, since Korea has tons of talented musicians that play almost every genre of music, but it’s still true that it’s not easily accessible, partly because Cyworld, Naver, and Daum (the Korean search engines and blog sites) aren’t open to be browsed by outsiders. Search for a wildly popular K-indie band and you’ll get like five good hits on Google, and those hits are often not even related to the band’s real website. On top of that, the radio is pretty much dominated by either trot music (new and old) or kpop (new and old) but there isn’t really K-rock or less popular Korean hip-hop playing. Even when you go to coffee shops, they play English speaking jazz or an easy listening cover of classic Top 40 songs. I always imagined that when I came to Korea I would hear Korean jazz and Korean Top 40 hits, but I was very mistaken.

That’s why I’m so happy for YouTube! It has really opened up Korean music to the rest of the world. I can search korean rock music and get a bunch of random bands, even fan cams of these bands playing in Hongdae. But still, a lot of these bands don’t have their own page nor have they added tags with their names in Korean and English to help in being found. Unless you’re music geeks, like us, who love to actively seek out new music all the time through browsing other nerdy music websites (like Pitchfork or Korean Indie) it’s pretty tough to discover Korean music outside of kpop. I’m hoping this will change over time, and more people will be blogging about their favourite Korean indie bands that they found easily on iTunes, myspace, and wherever.

Ok, enough of that. This week we have a special playlist for the Korean Indie bands playing in South by South West. Hopefully they’ll get boatloads of recognition, come back to Korea praised as gods, and crack open the mainstream to get some K Rock in there. YES! Well, maybe that won’t happen, and maybe you’re not into K-Rock that much, but we don’t talk about it all too often. So…yeah! On with the videos! Check out the videos in the playlist above, or check them out below, if your playlist won’t work!

3rd Line Butterfly - A Heavy Night Fog

Galaxy Express – Jungle The Black

Bonus: Check out their super fun Noraebang version here.

Yellow Monsters – Riot!

Crying Nut – 말달리자

For the original post on K Crunch Indie Playlist: the SXSW Edition!, or for our kpop and Korean Food videos, check out our Korea blog!

1) The Pony “Goodbye”

Hands down, our favorite song on the list. There’s something so…Lost in Translation-ish about it. Not that you get the feeling of being lost in translation. It just sounds like a perfect fit for that movie (or for a similar movie). Not sure what it is. Probably because Kevin Shields has some tracks on the Lost in Translation soundtrack, and this song does remind us of My Bloody Valentine a bit. Well, whatever it is, this song is totally awesome. Hopefully you like it as much as we do. You can read more about them over at Korean Indie, and check out some of their live performances there (one of which was at Club FF, which – if we didn’t mention it by now – we love)

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It’s time for the Indie Playlist for the week of February 26th 2012. We got rock, ballads, and acoustic guitars.

1) OKPUNK – Not the End

We’re starting with OKPUNK which sounds like they should be a punk band but they’re not…but now that I think about it, I suppose Daft Punk is also not a punk band. Anyways, this band is a kind of TV project which puts an actress named Kim Ok Vin as the lead singer of a rock band. The band is made up of famous indie musicians that already have successful bands. We got GoGo Star vocalist Lee Tae Sun (bass), The KOXX vocalist Hyunsong (guitar), Devin of N.EX.T and Dr.Core911 (guitar), Toxic‘s Kim Seul Ong (drums) and Kim Hyun Woo of Dick Punks (keyboard). While I’m really happy to see these epic indie musicians getting an awesome chance to advertise their skills and thus promote their own bands, the lead singer of OKPUNK just doesn’t do it for us, and yes, I know she isn’t a trained singer, but considering the vast amount of good singers out there in Korea who aren’t getting exposure, I just can’t grasp the concept of the show. Put an actress who likes punk as the lead singer of a super talented band and watch her flail? Simon likes basketball, but that doesn’t mean they should put him on an NBA all star team and film him get crushed by Jeremy Lin. We all know that Kim Ok Vin is not a trained singer, and I suppose that is the point of the TV program (but why?) Read the full story

Picture taken by Sei Rhee

The first experimental rock band in Korea was Yellow Kitchen and the band soon became something of a pioneer in electronic music. The split album they did with Crying Nut, Our Nation, was the first Korean punk album. Almost a decade after I first came across the band I still find myself coming back to the 1998 album Mushroom, Echoway, Kleidose, playing Toves in particular over and over again. It’s been many years since I last heard something from the band, so I was more than a little excited upon learning that main songwriter Swann was about to release a brand new album. I reached out with an interview request and Swann kindly agreed to share a little something about himself and his music:

Who is Swann?
Swann is a sound artist and researcher. Music is a part of the universe of sound and I would love to explore the whole universe rather than to enjoy the small planet. So I regard myself not as a musician, but as a sound artist. As a researcher, I am currently interested in topics such as music technology, history and theory of the electronic & experimental music, sound archive and acoustic communication.

How does the music you make relate to the research you do?
For me, art is for art’s sake, it is valuable in itself. Therefore, the aesthetic value is the first and most important concern when I compose music or manipulate sound objects. But, in some cases, I get some inspiration or help from my research. For instance, several pieces in Dispersion Temporelle have been composed automatically by rule-based algorithms which I am studying.

Why did you decide to release an album as Swann instead of reviving the old Yellow Kitchen name?
Basically, Yellow Kitchen is a band which was composed of several friends and it no longer exists. The attitude towards music and sound at the moment is quite different from those days, although the style of music in Dispersion Temporelle is similar to Yellow Kitchen.

What does Ornamental Accessory Music for the Revenge of the Velvet Gentleman sound like?
It could be beautiful, embarrassing, unusual, mysterious, sarcastic, confusing, schizophrenic, tranquil, ridiculous, rich, boring, eccentric, nostalgic, distracted, lunatic, sad, or aesthetic. I think, the way it sounds depends on the way you listen to it.

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Although Swann’s Dispersion Temporelle made it on to my to-buy list the moment I spotted it, the urge to pick it up as soon as possible is even stronger now.

Swann’s Dispersion Temporelle was released yesterday. (October 6)

I first learned of the existence of Mighty Coala when Janet made an artist overview for the band. Always one to enjoy some sweet pop, I’ve been waiting for a release since, and a couple of weeks ago I learned that Mighty Coala had a full length album coming out. Seizing the opportunity I approached the band to see if I could learn some more about them and Seungsu swiftly returned with answers to my questions:

What is the Mighty Coala?
Mighty Coala literally means mighty koala, powerful koala. When we named the band, Hyejin (key, voc) wanted “mighty” and I wanted “koala”. So we simply put them together.

The reason why we took “Coala” instead of “Koala” is just because it looks much cuter. It’s a little embarrassing since we named it when we were young. For now we are too old to being cute.

How would you describe the sound of Mighty Coala?
Hmm… We don’t really have a philosophy here. It would be dirty, tough, rude and violent. I mean I would like to be.. haha.

In reality, However, I never can be. I just enjoy watching movies like action, noir, horror and perform cool scenes from those movies when I am alone instead of directly expressing anger. I believe there are lots of girls and boys like me out there. The sound of Mighty Coala is about the feelings of those girls and boys.

Playing post rock music looks cool to me, but actually I can’t listen to music without lyrics for over 3 mins. It’s so boring. The songs of Mighty Coala are short to keep me awake while I play. =)

When we mixed For Bright and Healthy Mornings with Yeol Park from Pigibit5, The Boy Least Likely To and Go! Team were mentioned for reference. However, it turned out that reference is nothing but reference.

We never thought that Mighty Coala is unique, but we cannot come up with any similar artist.

What can you share about For Bright And Healthy Mornings?
I think Mighty Coala’s music is neither bright nor healthy, but forbright and healthy.

When you have a hard time in you life, you can seek comfort from slow music. I prefer bright music unconditionally. I will be really pleased if people have bright and healthy mornings or even if just one person dances and moves his/her shoulders up and down on the way to school or work with our tunes.

What is your best recommendation for bright and healthy mornings?
I want to recommend every track!

If I really should pick one, the answer is Bab which means steamed rice or a meal with a very simply reason. It’s not over 3 mins and fun to play and listen to.

Hyejin recommends Seoul just because she loves Seoul, the city, and it’s also fun to play and listen to.

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I always love it when I know nothing about a band and it turns out to be just like what the band’s music had me imagine. The email with the interview answers brightened my morning and what little I’ve heard of the album has the same effect.

Mighty Coala’s 밝고 건강한 아침을 위하여, or For Bright And Healthy Mornings got a digital release on September 29 and right now it looks like the CD will be out on October 6.

Find more Mighty Coala to listen through by following the links in this post.

September 19:

After starting with three digital releases on August 8, S’s Record now offers the same in CD format.

The first release from pop band Portmans is a single called 변하지 않아 / Five Girls, which in addition to 변하지않아 and Five Girls comes with a track called Spring come, Rain fell. Get a better look at the members of Portmans through this video.

Home recorded electronic dance music influenced by New Order, Pet Shop Boys and other 80s music as well as 90s j-pop is what is offered by Soo Eui Job, the solo project of Portmans keyboardist Lee Sang Soo. The first EP is simply called 수의잡 vol.1. Check out the music video for EP main track 물맛매니아 here.

Portmans guitarist Yoon Dal also has a solo project going, namely Leap month. The first mini album is called Miscasting and it has more of an indie rock sound than the music of Portmans. The mini album comes with a Leap month mix of Portmans song 변하지않아. Check out the music video for 눈빛 here.

September 21:

It looks like the fourth full length album from Humming Urban Stereo is coming up shortly, but first we’re treated to digital single D.D.D. This time Lee Jeereen’s other project, Instant Romantic Floor is featured, with rapper YeSlow having participated in the writing of the lyrics and together with Sugar Flow contributing with the vocal parts.

September 22:

Asian Beat is an amateur band competition arranged by Yamaha. Broken Valentine took home the price in the 2008/2009 competition and this year’s 10 finalists in the Korea heat can soon be heard on the Asian Beat 2011 Korea Final compilation. See Daegu band Poly perform Run Away With Me here; get a taste of nu-metal band Crimson Butterfly Ensemble through this promotion video; and watch Quartz’s Nothing But A Lie performance from the competition here.

Rock band Orange Plane released first digital single Go in January this year with digital single 유리병 following end of April. Now time has come to introduce seven new songs through the release of EP 현실적인 모험동화. Check out a year-old performance of EP closing track Ocean Flight here.

September 23:

With three years since the latest full length album, rock band Vanilla Unity is just about to reveal third full length album We Are Rising. It includes a remix version of last year’s Hey Monster single as well as Be The One from the same release.

You can read IndiefulROK’s original post here.

Lucia with Epitone Project joint album coming up

Lucia (aka Shim Kyu Sun) will release an album together with Epitone Project on September 7. 고양이 왈츠, 부디, and 꽃처럼 한 철만 사랑해 줄 건가요? from the three singles the two have previously released together will all be included, 고양이 왈츠 also in an acoustic version. 안녕, 안녕 from the album was made available online today, August 25. Check out the 안녕, 안녕 teaser here.

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Anna of IndiefulROK recently asked me to write about Dear Cloud. As I am a very big fan of them, I was super duper excited. So, I decided to contact Dear Cloud for an interview.

They just released their 3^rd album, Bright Lights, last month. It’s an album that legions of 구름들 (“clouds”, a word used for their fans) everywhere have definitely been awaiting. Nine (vocals), Yongrin (guitar), Elang (bass), Junga (keyboard), and Kwangsuk (drums) welcomed me and two friends of mine, Indri and Rain, at their base camp in Hongdae just before they had their regular practice session.

I’ve been a fan of The Black Skirts since the very beginning and as so many others I’m very excited about his second album coming out in just a matter of days. Of course I was curious to find out more and Bryan quickly agreed to follow up our first album interview with one covering the new album:

In spite of your initial hesitation 201 and The Black Skirts did turn into quite the success. What are some of the most exciting things that have come out of it?
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