Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

Category: Random music stuff

Death of a Ladies’ Man

November 11, 2016 / / 0 Comments

ladiesman

I just heard that Leonard Cohen has died. I’m usually not one for mourning celebrities, but Leonard was a big one for me. I’ve been listening to his music pretty obsessively since high school, when I’m Your Man was a big hit back in 1988.

It took me a while to get the point of his music, to be honest. The Toronto radio and music-TV programs really flogged I’m Your Man when it came out, and I couldn’t understand what was so special about the old guy with the lousy voice and the sparse, synth production style. But there was a girl (of course) that I liked at the time who loved Leonard, so hanging out with her in the art room meant listening to his music. She alternated between I’m Your Man and The Best of Leonard Cohen, which I found more accessible. Gradually I became a fan.

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And not long after becoming a fan, I became a rather obsessive fan. I read and re-read The Favorite Game and Beautiful Losers. I bought every Leonard Cohen album I could find and listened to them all to death. I got all excited when his music turned up on movie soundtracks, like Pump Up the Volume and Natural Born Killers (or McCabe and Mrs. Miller). Finally, I crossed over to the dark side and learned to love Death of a Ladies’ Man. Even stranger—it became my favorite Leonard album.  And “Death of a Ladies’ Man” is still my favorite song (sadly, it doesn’t seem to be online anywhere).

I’m happy to say I was able to see him in concert twice over the years, once in 1993 in Philadelphia and again in 2009 in Barcelona. The Barcelona show was pretty amazing, as it was in a big arena with 15,000 people or so.

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Some other favorite Leonard-related notes:

  • After the Philadelphia concert, I managed to briefly meet him behind the concert hall. There were a hundred people or so waiting for him by the exit, but he left the building through a different doorway, right where I was standing, so I got to shake his hand and exchange a couple of words before he was mobbed.
  • Oh, and at the Philadelphia concert, he spent most of the show hunched over the microphone, stiff and tired-looking, like he was a broken down old man. But as soon as the concert was over, he skipped off the stage, full of life. It was just an affectation. Funny, though.
  •  My friend Carter set up a Usenet discussion board for Leonard, way back in 1994-ish. Pre-World Wide Web! (Well, almost)
  • Hanging out in the old Norihaneun Saramdeul bar in Shinchon with a friend and his new girlfriend who were tripping hard on LSD.  The bar was empty that night and it had a surprising good Leonard collection, so we started listening to one Leonard song after another. When the owner played “Where Is My Gypsy Wife Tonight,” my friend and the girl started laughing uncontrollably.


“Hallelujah” can kiss my ass, though. Wow, did people crush the life out of that song. Anyhow, at least his last album was really good. It’s nice to know he went out on such a strong note.

People often talk about how depressing Leonard’s music is, but I never felt that way. His mix of longing, beauty, religion and the profane always delighted me, and his lyrics were endlessly fascinating and meaningful. I’m going to miss him.

LC

Talking music on the radio

September 13, 2016 / / 0 Comments

My good friend Shawn left Korea last year after seven years there, most of that spent immersed in the local indie music scene. Since moving to Hamilton, Ontario (that would be Canada), he’s had a weekly radio show about Korean indie music on McMaster University radio, CFMU.

As I am currently visiting family nearby, Shawn invited me to join him on last week’s show. It was good fun. For an hour, I shared some of my favorite Korean music, and we chatted a bit about music things. You can listen to the results on Mixcloud. (I also briefly wrote about it over on the Korea Gig Guide).

 

Be steelpan my beating heart

December 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

So, it’s winter. It’s dark and cold. China keeps farting out its pollution onto us in Korea. How to chase the blues away? Steelpan drums!

Okay, maybe not to everyone’s taste. But here are two songs that I have been finding irrepressibly cheery lately. First, Duke Dumont’s dance song “I Got U”:

And here’s “Flying White Pillow” by Korean indie band Telepathy (the version of the song they recorded for Fred Perry Subculture, which is much more interesting than the original, thanks in part to the steelpan sound):

That’s all. Nothing about The Interview, Nut Rage, or politics or any of that annoying stuff. I just like these songs and have been listening to them together a lot.

Music’s changing soundscape in Korea

February 16, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I was poking around some old files the other day, when I came across an article I wrote for Billboard nearly a decade ago about MP3 players in Korea. The magazine ended up merging it with a similar story by Steve McClure about the Japanese MP3 player market, but most of my stuff made it into the published version.

Given the huge success of Samsung smartphones and other Korean devices around the world, not to mention the rise of Apple products in Korea, I thought people might be amused to read it:

The picture shows a model taking a bite out of an apple. It is part of an advertising campaign to promote the latest iriver-brand digital music player, the H10, by South Korean audio company ReignCom. The tag line is “Sweeter one.”

This ad illustrates the tough fight Apple Computer faces in Southeast Asia’s digital portable audio market.

Japanese and South Korean electronics companies are meeting the challenge posed by the extraordinary popularity of Apple’s iPod–in their home markets and elsewhere–with a new generation of portable players.

<snip>

In South Korea, the primacy of flash-memory digital music players made it one of the few territories in the world where the iPod did not dominate, until this year. At its peak, in 2003, ReignCom claimed to have more than 50% of the South Korean portable-music-player market.

But like other South Korean electronics firms, ReignCom saw its market share slide when the low-priced iPod shuffle arrived.

Now these firms are slashing prices and adding features to their portable players to win back consumers.

ReignCom went so far as to run high-profile ads in local newspapers March 1–Korean Independence Day–calling for a “patriotic war” against the iPod.

“Our overall branding strategy is based on product innovation,” iriver director of brand marketing Hanna Young says. The H10 is still about $30 more expensive than the iPod mini, but it has a built-in FM tuner, color screen, voice recorder and digital-photo slide-show capability.

Joining the fray is South Korean heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which has declared its ambition to be the world’s top seller of portable music players by 2007. Samsung sold 1.7 million MP3 players worldwide in 2004 and is aiming for 5 million this year.

The whole story is here.

Strangely, though, Billboard took out my original lede, which mentioned Reigncom’s ad campaign that used porn actress Jenna Jameson. Maybe they were shy?

Anyhow, walking around Seoul these days, you can’t help but notice all the music stores. However, unlike in the 1990s, when they all sold, you know, music, now music stores mostly sell headphones and DJ equipment. So I guess young people are still spending as much as ever on the music they love, but they’re just spending it in totally different areas — in the tech instead of the content.

 

Shin Joong-hyun’s Fender Guiter, Other Random News

December 27, 2009 / / 0 Comments
  • Jason Strother has a fun and interesting article about Korean rock great Shin Joong-hyun getting honored by Fender with his very own guitar. Apparently it was the first time Fender has given that honor to an Asian artist. There is a longer audio version of the story, too.

  • The Korea Times just published a surprisingly thorough look at the year ahead in movies. The article lists a lot to look forward to, from big names to long-time-coming sequels.
  • An interesting article on Asian-American hiphop, particularly in the Los Angeles area.
  • Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) is producing The Wondergirls’ new album? (Okay, apparently this was announced a couple of weeks ago, but I just noticed it. And am rather stunned).
  • Hey, Darcy Paquet’s book, NEW KOREAN CINEMA, is out at last. Very cool. Looking forward to reading a very different take on the Korean film industry than I wrote about. Hope to get some sort of review up here before too long.
  • You have undoubtedly heard plenty about Korean TV dramas and other entertainment doing well all over Asia and beyond… But here is an intriguing story about the old MBC drama JUMONG becoming a bit hit in Iran.

    With the country being rocked right now by a democratic uprising, it is fascinating to learn a little bit about the changing going on these days to popular culture in Iran. I have met with several Iranian filmmakers and poets over the years (and regular folk, of course), and I am constantly intrigued at how different life is there compared to how most people in the West think it is.

    • Real Pop Wars: Episodes 1 and 2 — The Fans Strike Back

    January 26, 2009 / / 2 Comments

    Two interesting music stories in the news that seem very different, but that both revolve around the issue of audience power fighting with the powers-that-be.

    The first and more fun one is about the latest battle between rival fans clubs, as fans of Big Bang and the Wondergirls teamed up to screw over fans of Dong Bang Shin Gi (aka DBSG, aka Tohoshinki, aka Tong Vfang Xien Qi, aka TVXQ). It seems that fans of Big Bang and the Wondergirls got together and reserved nearly all the 1,700 tickets to a DBSG concert. Then, at the last minute, they released those tickets, so they went unsold, the seat unoccupied. Impressively bitchy maneuver.

    The more serious story I came across was a talk by Ian Rogers (CEO of Topspin and former head of Yahoo music) about how the CD business is dying and that “I don’t care.” The key point of his argument is that CD sales are down, but that is hurting the record labels much more than it is hurting the artists. In fact, for many artists, the new business model that is emerging is better, with a much broader middle class of artists who can support themselves through Web sales, touring, merchandising, etc.

    I suppose his thesis is not groundbreaking these days, but it was a happy thing to think about, as applies to the Korean music industry. Korean music moguls have for the most part recognized this change for some time. After all, the Internet destroyed Korea’s CD sales quicker and more seriously than anywhere else on the globe (that I know of). Which is why almost all musicians in Korea have been signed to 360 deals for ages — the money is in the celebrity, not the music itself.

    One thing Rogers recommends, though, is instead of signing 360-deals with record labels, artists should create their own 360 deals with themselves. Labels can help artists, but they are no longer the be all and end all.

    I wonder if (and hope that) we are going to see these effects in the Korean music industry? Korean young people have had so little choice for so long, most are sadly unaware of what music can and should be. Not that teen-pop and ballads are terrible, but there are a lot more options in the world.

    When are Korean independent bands going to grow more assertive about challenging the status quo? When are Korean music fans going to assert themselves more, and take advantage of the limitless options the Internet age provides? I would like to think that one reason the live music scene has been improving so much over the past couple of years has been because of these very issues.

    Symphony for the Devil

    October 14, 2007 / / 0 Comments

    This is an interesting development — the New York Philharmonic is debating whether to play in North Korea. Apparently the orchestra will be playing in China in February 2008, and since they would be in the neighborhood, they could potentially swing by Pyongyang for a show.

    Bizarre, you say? Or worse, endorsing an evil regime? I hope that is not what you are thinking, because the idea has some interesting possibilities.

    The State Department supports the trip and has helped guide the orchestra in planning. Orchestra management calls the visit purely musical and apolitical, but Korea experts say a concert in Pyongyang by a major American orchestra would be a publicity coup for North Korea.

    “This is going to be a major media event, particularly on the Korean peninsula,” said Frederick F. Carriere, the executive director of the Korea Society, a nonprofit organization that seeks closer ties between the United States and both Koreas. “You couldn’t get that from Ping-Pong, or whatever.” He said that in the view of North Korea, normalizing relations with the United States was “absolutely key” to improving ties with South Korea.

    Besides, if there is anything an orchestra understands, it is following in lock-step to the whims of a madman.

    Okay, I joke. But seriously, though, classical music still has real power to shape people’s thinking. I’m reminded of Glenn Gould’s trip to Russia back in the 1957. But do the North Koreans take their classical music as seriously as the Russians do (or did)?

    I just talked to Andrei Lankov (the obvious go-to guy for comparing North Korea and Russia), and he said that the North Koreans do take their classical music seriously. They have not politicized it the way the Soviet Union did (although they did ban the public performance of classical music for about 15 years, in the 1960s and 70s), and it is probably the least controversial part of high culture, accepted in a way that painting and the other Western fine arts art not.

    So if classical music is relatively accepted in NK, how can performances by the New York Philharmonic help? Well, it is always good to show Americans in a positive way publicly in North Korea. If it could lead to a North Korean orchestra playing in the United States, so much the better. Since so much of NK is built in propaganda and lies, the more channels you have to bring in outside information and influences the better.

    UPDATE: Thanks to the Marmot for the link. I also have written something of a follow-up.

    Music Execs Killed the Radio Star

    April 20, 2007 / / 1 Comment

    Okay, so the movie industry can be pretty dumb at times. But why is the music industry so actively and aggressively evil? And stupid. So very, very stupid.

    I complain based on the decision in the United States to dramatically raise royalty payments on Internet radio. Over the last couple of years, I would say that well over half of my CD purchases have come from acts I have heard via Internet radio. No Internet radio means no purchases, and no money for the record labels. How is that equation difficult to understand?

    Time to re-listen to Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”….
    Everybody knows that the fight is fixed
    The poor stay poor, the rich stay rich,
    That’s how it goes…
    Everybody knows.

    Btw, there is on online petition to save Internet radio over here.

    (UPDATE: I don’t seem to have “Everybody knows” on my computer. So instead I listen to “My Secret Life”. Which is apropo of nothing… but it is a good song.)

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