This post is a couple of days late (sorry)… But I just caught a surprise show by the Japanese band Marble Sheep at the club DGBD on Tuesday. I had never heard of the band before, but got an email from Sato Yukie and decided to check it out on a whim.

And what a great whim it was. Marble Sheep call themselves a “super psychedelic” band, but they are so much more than that. I gather they started 20 years ago, when they were much more of a psychedelic style group, but now they have much more of a modern rock sound (a lame description, I know, but I’m doing my best). With two drummers, they can really pound out the percussion — and do they ever pound it. Wow. The show was non-stop, wall-of-sound noise. Blew out my ears, but it was worth it. If you are interested, there is a much better description of the band here.

Anyhow, it is a pretty decent time for music in Korea. After years of sputtering and limping along, I think there are more good bands playing at more clubs in the Hongdae area than there have been for quite a few years. Take DGBD, for example. For the past couple of years, it has been a so-so merger of Drug Club and Blue Devil. But a couple of months ago, Drug Club solds its share in DGBD to Mac (Matt? Sorry, but I have forgotten his English name), a 48-year-old computer guy who suddenly quit his job and decided he wanted to run a rock club. Hell of a nice guy, and he seems to be working hard to improve the place. I’ll report more, about bands playing there and other plans, as I learn it.

Sorry this first post is kind of lame… but it is a first post. Takes some time to get into this. But I will try to talk more in the future about the cool things (and not-so-cool things) going on in Korea… or wherever I may happen to find them.