A few days ago, Annie Ko of the band Love X Stereo, wrote a column in the Guardian about her favorite Seoul-related songs. It’s a pretty good list, too, and includes Cho Yong-pil’s “Seoul Seoul Seoul,” He6’s “Come On Baby,” and Lee Sangeun’s “Secret Garden” (not to mention smartly adding her own “Soul City”).
So that got me thinking about other Seoul-related songs. Of course, Byul.org put together a CD last year featuring indie bands singing about Seoul, called Seoul Seoul Seoul (I assume in reference to the Cho Yong-pil song).
But, to be honest, most of those songs did not excite me terribly much. I guess it is hard to write songs about a city (even if Jay-Z makes it look easy). What other Seoul-related songs are there?
There’s Yang Hee-eun’s “Road to Seoul”:
And Yang Byung-jib’s “Seoul Sky 1” (a cover of Woody Guthrie’s “New York Town” that starts this video) and “Seoul Sky 2” (a cover of Phil Ochs’ “Lou Marsh”, at 21:17):
Add4’s “Seoul Square” (starting at 05:00):
And I supposed you could include Neon Bunny’s entire album Seoulight, if only because of its name (and because it is so catchy). Here’s “Falling” from that album:
I’m sure there’s plenty more that I’m missing, but those are some pretty good ones.
UPDATE: Okay, I suck — I totally forgot about Hyeuni’s “Third Han River Bridge.” One of the most iconic Seoul songs of all time. HA!
Last year was a great one for Korean pop music, but it was also excellent for indie music and other non-pop stuff in Korea. I only spent a couple of weeks in Korea this year, but it was clear from the shows I went to and people I talked with how vibrant the scene is these days (not to mention the music I downloaded and listened to). Back in 2008, when I started the Korea Gig Guide, I had this feeling that the indie scene was growing and getting stronger, like it was in the late 1990s. These days it is stronger still, continuing to grow bigger and more interesting.
Sadly, though, I don’t have a big list of my favorite new releases. For yet another year, I focused my energies in older Korean music, thanks to a huge batch of old records a friend digitized for me. I’m pretty proud of my collection of Korean rock, folk, and pop from the 1960s and ’70s now (thanks mysterious friend!). A related highlight of my year was meeting the great singer Kim Choo-ja. She and her husband nicely opened their home to me, and so I was able to absorb several hours of stories and good stuff.
As for new releases, the best of the year was probably Jambinai’s first full-length release, Différance (iTunes, Amazon). While not a fan of their more hardcore-tinged experiments with electric guitar, their core sound — driving postrock played on Korean traditional instruments — was as great as ever.
There was plenty of fun electro-based music last year, such as Glen Check (I particularly liked the single “84”) and Neon Bunny (her new EP Happy End was all quite fun). Love X Stereo is pretty good, too.
I am not a huge Telepathy fan, but their new version of “Flying White Pillow,” recorded for Fred Perry, was really intriguing, showing signs of growing into something more (a live show I saw of theirs in May backed up that impression).
And there were new released by 3rd Line Butterfly, Galaxy Express, and other big names.
But, as I said, I spent more time listening to old music, so I’m sure I missed a lot.
One of the coolest stories in 2012 was definitely Busker Busker, the Cheonan trio that appeared on an American Idol-esque TV music contest and somehow overcame all the producers’ preconceived notions of how the program was supposed to run, becoming perhaps the most popular group of the year. Yes, K-pop still dominates Korea, but the success of Busker Busker — a real band, playing real music — was one of the brightest rays of sunlight to shine through the bubblegum clouds in a long time.
(Not that there is anything wrong with bubblegum … I just value diversity).
Much more authoritative than my opinions, though, are the smart folks at Weiv, Korea’s longtime online music publication. They have put together another solid (and eclectic) list of the year’s top Korean music:
UPDATE: Oops, looks like I was wrong; Neon Bunny is on iTunes. Or back on iTunes? I don’t know what happened, but I am pretty sure her music was not there for at least a couple of weeks.
ORIGINAL POST: Neon Bunny (aka Lim Yoo-jin, aka “one of my favorite groups these days”) has just come out with a fun, four-song EP called Happy Ending. If you are a fan of catchy electro-pop (like Phoenix or Royksopp), you really should be listening.
Just four songs long, the EP is all upbeat and dancy (unlike Seoulight, which, while excellent at its best, did drag at times). There are elements of Roller Coaster and that Korean tradition of mellow funk-pop in Happy Ending, as well as a bit of ’80s New Wave (particularly in “Plastic Heart”). But mostly it is just first-rate, adult pop.
“Soap Bubbles”:
“Plastic Heart”:
“Prince”:
“First Love”:
Sadly, Happy Ending does not seem to be available at iTunes or any other online sites. Nor is her last album Seoulight, even thought I bought my copy at iTunes a few months ago. Maybe the original online distributor was one of those jerks who were selling albums online without a proper license (there were a bunch who got shut down). Anyhow, for now you will have to make do with Youtube and other streaming sites.
(NOTE: As I said up top, both Neon Bunny albums are now on iTunes).
Oh, and I just found this cool subtitled version of Neon Bunny’s “Come a Little Closer” — great for practicing your Korean:
Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away — until her little brother is kidnapped by a goblin. The only way Young-hee can save him is by finding a magical plant called a pullocho, but little does she realize the fate of a whole world hangs in the balance.
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