Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

Category: Music (Page 3 of 7)

Five Songs I Totally Remember the First Time I Heard

August 22, 2012 / / 0 Comments

For me, it usually takes a while for me to decide how I feel about a song, and most of the songs I love the most I did not like much when I first heard them. Maybe because instant enjoyment tends to equal entertainment, while art takes time to understand. Or maybe I’m just difficult. Who knows?

That said, there are a few songs that are amazing and that I totally remember the first time I ever heard — the first one being  “The Girl From Ipanema.” It was on a Frank Sinatra TV special, and even though I was too young to know much about Sinatra, I was totally mesmerized by his version of that song — especially the lilting, syncopated phrasing that was so uniquely Sinatra’s.

Because this is the 50-year anniversary of “The Girl from Ipanema,” I thought I would write a quick list of the other songs that I similarly remember.

  • “Girl from Ipanema“, the Frank Sinatra version. How frickin’ amazing is it that we live in a world where I can track down video of a half-remembered TV special watched when I was a kid?
  • “Take a Walk on the Wide Side”. I was sitting on the backyard patio one summer, when I was around 16 or 17, listening to the radio, when this song came on. I immediately called in the radio station to tell them I thought the song was brilliant and that they had a sure-fire hit. The annoyed deejay told me the song was 15 years old and already a classic. Erp.
  • “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – from Nirvana’s first Saturday Night Live appearance. I never listened to the band before that, but from the opening chords, I knew this was a band I wanted to hear more. They may have become a mainstream symbol of grunge and gotten overplayed, but that first listen for me was without marketing hype or anything like that. I just heard it and loved it.*
  • “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen. Of course Leonard’s original is most important to me (I used to listen to the LC best-of collection in the art room in high school, together with the other art nerds). But Nina Simone’s jazz version is pretty awesome, too. As is Roberta Flack’s 10-minute magnum opus. Even Neil Diamond’s MOR version has its place. Here’s the Roberta Flack live version:
  • “Nae Maeume Judaneul Kkalgo” by Sanullim. (Aka, “Spread Silk on My Heart”). I’ve talked about the first time I heard that song before, over at the Korea Gig Guide. It was terribly late on a cold winter night in Hongdae, stumbling into a random bar with a couple of friends that turned out to specialize in classic rock, Korean and Western. And hearing that amazing opening bassline, thumping away, with a distorted lowfi guitar coming in on top. It’s the song that started my Korean classic rock fixation, and I still totally love it.

Oh, and here are a couple more versions of those songs. First, a great TV version of “The Girl From Ipanema” from the 1960s:

And Nina Simone singing “Suzanne” in Rome in 1969, in yet another totally different version:

* (Note: I don’t much like Nirvana anymore. But hearing that song for the first time was very memorable).

South Korean Dreams, North Korean Rocky, and Spanish Nightmares

July 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

– I’ve talked a few years ago about the end of the Dream Cinema, the last old-style, single-screen cinema left in Seoul. Well, after stumbling along on life support, Dream Cinema (aka Seodaemun Art Hall) finally screened its last movie yesterday, Bicycle Thief. Theater head Kim Eun-ju was apparently so upset, she shaved her head at the screening.

Dream Cinema opened in 1964 and for many years was one of the nicer theaters in Seoul. But that was quite a while ago, and it was terribly run down when I first went there in 1998-ish. Sad to see the theater go, but, still, considering it was supposed to close in 2007 or so, it had a pretty good run. Besides, who isn’t excited about a new high-rise hotel filling the Seoul skyline?

– Not only is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apparently dating a famous singer and incorporating Disney characters into its stage performances, but now Kim is reportedly using the theme from Rocky, Sinatra’s “My Way”, and “It’s a Small World.”  All that is, of course, in addition to the North Korean accordion version of “Take Me On”:

– Meanwhile, over here in Spain, the torpid Rajoy government seems intent on running down the struggling economy any way it can. Remind me again why Spain has to undergo this sort of pain when its debt-to-GDP ratio is lower than in Germany, France, the United States, or Japan? What a crock.

 

And Not in the R-O-K Again

May 22, 2012 / / 1 Comment

That was a fast couple of weeks. I cannot believe my trip to Korea is over already. But at least I was able to travel to a lot of places and see a lot of people that I had long wanted to, but had not. Even was able to take in a couple of concerts in between all the running around.

It was great being able to see Korea with fresh eyes. Having lived there for so long, there was a lot I took for granted and many changes that had happened that I did not notice because I was in the middle of them. It really is amazing how much and fast Korea is constantly changing — from the new subway cars (very nice) to the new high rises and developments, the great Wifi everywhere (whatever happened to DMB?), and so much more. Even Itaewon continues to grow nicer and classier, which just boggles the mind.

Music

I did make it to a few shows during my trip and do some music-related interviews. I talked about Telepathy and an FF show I went to here, if you are interested. Of course, I went to Gopchang Jeongol a couple of times, as well as a very fun oldies bar in Apgujeong that was quite similar (I think it was called Electric Shoes, but I’m not sure). Oh, and at Electric Shoes, I was drinking with the singer of Byul.org, which was terribly good fun. I was also able to meet Brad, the drummer from Busker Busker, along with his girlfriend Dani, both of whom had a whole bunch of fascinating stories. Best of all, I managed to meet Kim Choo-ja, perhaps the best singer of the 1970s — I could hardly believe that meeting.

Travel

Sometimes I get embarrassed by the many cool places around Korea that I never visited. Luckily, this trip helped put that right. I was able to visit the Boseong tea fields, down in Jeolla Province, which really is ridiculously beautiful.

I also went to a great traditional makkeolli brewery in North Chungcheong province called Sewang Jujo. I’m not a big makkeolli fan, but this stuff was some of the best I’ve ever had. And the owner took a lot of time out to talk to my friend and I about the building and his brewing methods and the like.

But, dear lord, what a ridiculously huge city. It’s amazing anything gets done, there, as it takes so long to get around. They really need some more high-speed, express train lines (like the No. 9 subway).

Anyhow … overall, a really good trip. Surprisingly free of “micro aggressions“, but filled with micro and macro niceties. Oodles of great food (thanks in no small part to the wife’s mom).

BoA, Strange Voices, and Messing Around on Soundcloud

April 18, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Apparently I am procrastinating. But in doing so, I swung by Soundcloud and started link hopping and came across some interesting music.

First fun discovery was Mimyo, who has apparently continued with his BoA obsession. Last year, he and Byul.org inspired a whole bunch of indie musicians to record a bunch of BoA covers and put them up on Soundcloud, calling the whole project Model B. I guess that was not enough for Mimyo, though, because he also recorded a shoegazer version of BoA’s “Game”–and quite a good version, imho.

Plenty more Mimyo here on Soundcloud.

That led me (eventually) to the singer/group Hoegidong Danpyunsun (회기동 단편선, aka Park Jong-yoon).

You can read an interview with Danpyunsun here:

Oh, and just for fun, here is Byul.org’s “Idiots”.

And a Jambinai dance remix? Really? How did I miss that? Not sure if I like it, but I certainly like knowing it exists.

UPDATE: Nearly forgot to mention Foundation Records is up to Vol. 20 now on its F.ound Tracks series.

Brother Louis, Sister Choo-ja

April 12, 2012 / / 1 Comment

I just found out that Kim Choo-ja recorded a version of “Brother Louie” on her 1974 album 가는 길 (Going Road). So much fun. If only Louis CK would open his TV show with it … just once!

(Sadly, this is the only version I could find on the Internet. The album version was much better, imho).

I should probably mention that Kim Choo-ja’s version is called “청개구리 사랑” — or “Green Frog Love.” I assume it is a reference to the famous Korean folktale about the frogs who don’t listen to their mother, except for one time after she dies, to terrible results (“Gaegu! Gaegu!”).

Science of the Pop Business
or the Business of Pop Science?

March 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

There’s a great look at how American pop hits are made these days in the New Yorker article “The Song Machine.” Of course, this sort of behind-the-scenes look at the sausage factory of pop music has been done before. But at the same time, pop music has never quite been how it is now. With hip hop having been transformed from into mainstream party anthems, the rise of “smart” pop (a la Phoenix, Peter, Bjorn & John, or Robyn), and rock mostly changing into party-rock, dance-pop has basically grown blob-like to absorb all of its former foes. Screw Goldman Sachs, today’s pop music is the true vampire squid.

Not that that’s a bad thing. Seriously, I think a lot of really good pop music is being made these days. It may not be Cole Porter, but it’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.

Great graph here:

Rihanna is often described as a “manufactured” pop star, because she doesn’t write her songs, but neither did Sinatra or Elvis. She embodies a song in the way an actor inhabits a role—and no one expects the actor to write the script. In the rock era, when the album was the standard unit of recorded music, listeners had ten or eleven songs to get to know the artist, but in the singles-oriented business of today the artist has only three or four minutes to put her personality across. The song must drip with attitude and swagger, or “swag,” and nobody delivers that better than Rihanna, even if a good deal of the swag originates with Ester Dean.

What a paradox, though, that in the most diverse musical age humanity has ever had, that one form should rise to rule them all.

No wonder K-pop is doing so well. Pop in the West is more uniform than ever, so how else can one exert one’s independence and rise above the crowd (and still be dance-friendly)? K-pop is like salsa for the next generation — catchy, danceable, and different.

But what do I know? I was at a Catalan bluegrass concert last night…

Billboard Overboard

March 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I can’t say I’m very surprised by the latest reports of trouble at Billboard magazine. Louis Hau (a big Korea booster who in fact preceded me in Korea with Billboard and several publications, although we never met) is out, along with publisher Lisa Howard and several top editors. Billboard Pro, the DIY-indie sub site, has been closed. Although for me, the most surprising thing is probably that the industry anachronism journal has lasted this long without the brutal bloodletting that The Hollywood Reporter has suffered (sure, Billboard suffered, just not as badly). I always liked my editors at THR, at least on the international side of things, even if the magazine was an out-of-date business model. But at Billboard … well, not so much.

The cronyism with the industry that the Billboard editors were supposed to be covering was much deeper and more endemic. It felt like they were constantly trying to turn the clock back to 1998, before that nasty Internet came along and ruined everything.

If there is a major takeaway I hope people have to my writing in general (and today’s story in the International Herald Tribune), it is that the Internet and globalizations have fundamentally changed the power relationship between artists (or “producers”), fans (or “consumers”), and the music industry (“who knows?”). Gatekeeping isn’t what it used to be.

Oh, a bonus chart from Digital Music News about singles sales, just for fun:

This .gif animation mapping changes in music sales over the past 30 years is pretty cool, too.

K-Pop Fun

March 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I just had a new story about K-pop — “Bringing K-Pop to the West” — appear in the International Herald Tribune (first page of the business section) and New York Times (last page of the biz section, or so I’ve been told). It is kind of interesting to be running in the business section, instead of my usual Arts & Culture, and interesting to co-write a story with someone. I mean, having written for Billboard and other trade magazines for so long, I am quite familiar with culture business writing; but getting into the IHT‘s business pages felt a bit different. Anyhow, I’m happy with how the story turned out and the feedback it has been getting.

There have been a lot of stories appearing in the Western media asking “What is K-pop?”, but for this story I more wanted to ask “Why now?” Artists from all over the world are constantly trying to break into the American and Western market, and usually they don’t have much to show for it. Even Korean pop labels have tried several times.

I also talk a bit more about my thoughts and music in general over at Korean Indie, if you are interested. But there is so much more to address, especially about how the world’s music and culture markets are changing these days. Hopefully I should have some more stories coming soon talking about globalization and other big trends.

Out of This World

February 1, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Apropo of nothing, but I just cannot stop listening to the old song “Space Vacation” (우주 여행), by the Bunny Girls — identical twins Gho Jae-sook and Gho Jung-sook. They performed it on Shin Joong-hyun Sound Vol. 1 (1971), their first recording, a very good Shin record that was filled with a variety of new singers. On “Space Vacation,” the Ghos sing all these strange echo and flanging effects … and no one knows whether they did it for fun or because they did not know how to make the real effects in the studio. Either way, it’s just too much fun.

And if I’m going to get musical on today of all days, I guess I have to include Girls’ Generation’s appearance on David Letterman last night:

There was a “Woah” from Regis Philbin and a “Kamsahamnida” from Letterman himself. As for the quality of the Girls’ performance … well, it was standard lip-syncing K-pop. Well done, of course. My wife thought they looked nervous, causing their dance moves to be a little weak. I assumed they were just hungry.

Meanwhile, we have a rainy day today here in Spain; I’ll be on the lookout for falling frogs.

Oh, and The Atlantic had a piece on K-pop the other day, asking “Does Korean Pop Actually Have a Shot at Success in the US?“. It is not a bad article, as these things go — a tad long-winded, but I think he notes the important thing, that K-pop this time is aiming for the Tween market, where it has the best potential for success. But he really should have discussed the Kim Sisters, a Korean group that did very well in the United States for years, albeit more on the live circuit than in the charts. Here is an article titled “Kim Sisters Can — and Do — Just Anything” from Billboard in 1964.

Anyhow, no signs of Girls’ Generation on the iTunes charts (yet … although they are doing well on the Billboard Heatseeker chart). Not that it matters so much. I think SNSD is getting their name and sound out quite effectively, regardless of how they do on the charts.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Mark James Russell

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑