Getting a general feel of what “…whatever that means” actually means >>>
Friday, May 29
Introducing Seoul Punk Band “…Whatever That Means”
“The pop-punk face of the Korean music scene” >>>
Galaxy Express Prove They Are Not "Walking On Empty"
Fans of the Korean rock scene will know of Galaxy Express for their high octane, runaway bullet train escapades. A scintillating tour de force trio, Park Jonghyun, Lee Juhyun and Kim Heekwon wildly whiplash audiences with a centrifugal forging of raw, sweaty, psychedelic rock’n’roll. Their new album “Walking on Empty” was released on 6 August and pays homage to their past as well as paving a new future of strength with their growth into new adventures.
The band had toured the UK back in 2013 – just as the hype for the Korean indie scene began to make a stir, and with a mix of explosive performances accompanied by their garage rock, punk, and psychedelic sounds, the trio have wowed audiences all over the world by holding gigs in Canada, the US, Taiwan, France, China, Japan and Russia. MTV Iggy wrote about the band, describing how, “With their amped energy and stage exhibitionism, they’re the best live act to come out of Korea since… well, maybe ever.” The group’s unique sound, which is pretty far from mainstream, means they stand out from the crowd, and for all the right reasons.
On 1 April 2010, the members announced that they planned to write, record and release an album within just 30 days: this was rightly titled “Wild Days”. True to their word, a month later the album was released and went on to win the band “Musician of the Year” at the 2011 Korean Music Awards. The trio went on to perform at a multitude of stages at some big events, such as South by Southwest (SXSW), Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival and they were even the opening act for Linkin Park when they toured South Korea.
Skipping forward to 2014, their new album “Walking On Empty” was recorded over a year, with the music being recorded in May 2014 and the vocals recorded in April 2015. Recorded and mixed by Adrian Hall, known for his work with Black Eyed Peas, Depeche Mode and Ray Davies, it was mastered at the famed Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, who has worked with legends such as Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Underworld.
Of the new album, guitarist and vocalist Park Jonghyun says, “We took a lot more time making this album than we have with our past albums. I think having no set deadline to meet gave us more time to think about what exactly we wanted to do and allowed us to create an album that is a lot calmer and more detail-oriented than our previous offerings. With ‘Walking on Empty’ all ten of the tracks have their own unique feel and character. We’re really happy with how the album turned out and we think it’s really good… but then we think all of our albums are really good.”
When asked about why he chose to work with Adrian Hall and Miles Showell, Jonghyun happily replies, “We wanted to try something different that we’d never done before. We’ve made some rough recordings in the past but this time we thought it would be cool to try and make a more polished, professional-sounding album. And we have wanted the chance to work with renowned engineers for several years now, so it seemed like a good time to finally do it with this album. When we started Galaxy Express, we never imagined that we’d one day have an album that was associated with Abbey Road in any way!”
If you are in Korea between 2-4 October, the Zandari Festa will be taking place and is a chance to see Galaxy Express as well as a whole plethora of acts from around the world performing along the streets and inside the famous indie clubs of Hongdae.
Galaxy Express are also interested in returning to Europe. Says Jonghyun, “We are hoping to play abroad again soon. It’s always a blast getting to travel and share our music with different people around the world. Hopefully we can visit some more new places and get back to some of the great countries we’ve played already again in the future.” So keep your eyes peeled.
Be sure to keep checking back to MCM Buzz for more coverage of the band, as well as other great music from all areas of the Korean music industry. If you have the chance, be sure to check out Galaxy Express on iTunes and show your support for the band’s latest album “Walking on Empty”. In the meantime prepare to tap your feet and nod along to their latest music video release “Time Keeps Rollin’ By”.
Galaxy Express Prove They Are Not “Walking On Empty”
Fans of the Korean rock scene will know of Galaxy Express for their high octane, runaway bullet train escapades. A scintillating tour de force trio, Park Jonghyun, Lee Juhyun and Kim Heekwon wildly whiplash audiences with a centrifugal forging of raw, sweaty, psychedelic rock’n’roll. Their new album “Walking on Empty” was released on 6 August and pays homage to their past as well as paving a new future of strength with their growth into new adventures.
The band had toured the UK back in 2013 – just as the hype for the Korean indie scene began to make a stir, and with a mix of explosive performances accompanied by their garage rock, punk, and psychedelic sounds, the trio have wowed audiences all over the world by holding gigs in Canada, the US, Taiwan, France, China, Japan and Russia. MTV Iggy wrote about the band, describing how, “With their amped energy and stage exhibitionism, they’re the best live act to come out of Korea since… well, maybe ever.” The group’s unique sound, which is pretty far from mainstream, means they stand out from the crowd, and for all the right reasons.
On 1 April 2010, the members announced that they planned to write, record and release an album within just 30 days: this was rightly titled “Wild Days”. True to their word, a month later the album was released and went on to win the band “Musician of the Year” at the 2011 Korean Music Awards. The trio went on to perform at a multitude of stages at some big events, such as South by Southwest (SXSW), Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival and they were even the opening act for Linkin Park when they toured South Korea.
Skipping forward to 2014, their new album “Walking On Empty” was recorded over a year, with the music being recorded in May 2014 and the vocals recorded in April 2015. Recorded and mixed by Adrian Hall, known for his work with Black Eyed Peas, Depeche Mode and Ray Davies, it was mastered at the famed Abbey Road Studios by Miles Showell, who has worked with legends such as Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and Underworld.
Of the new album, guitarist and vocalist Park Jonghyun says, “We took a lot more time making this album than we have with our past albums. I think having no set deadline to meet gave us more time to think about what exactly we wanted to do and allowed us to create an album that is a lot calmer and more detail-oriented than our previous offerings. With ‘Walking on Empty’ all ten of the tracks have their own unique feel and character. We’re really happy with how the album turned out and we think it’s really good… but then we think all of our albums are really good.”
When asked about why he chose to work with Adrian Hall and Miles Showell, Jonghyun happily replies, “We wanted to try something different that we’d never done before. We’ve made some rough recordings in the past but this time we thought it would be cool to try and make a more polished, professional-sounding album. And we have wanted the chance to work with renowned engineers for several years now, so it seemed like a good time to finally do it with this album. When we started Galaxy Express, we never imagined that we’d one day have an album that was associated with Abbey Road in any way!”
If you are in Korea between 2-4 October, the Zandari Festa will be taking place and is a chance to see Galaxy Express as well as a whole plethora of acts from around the world performing along the streets and inside the famous indie clubs of Hongdae.
Galaxy Express are also interested in returning to Europe. Says Jonghyun, “We are hoping to play abroad again soon. It’s always a blast getting to travel and share our music with different people around the world. Hopefully we can visit some more new places and get back to some of the great countries we’ve played already again in the future.” So keep your eyes peeled.
Be sure to keep checking back to MCM Buzz for more coverage of the band, as well as other great music from all areas of the Korean music industry. If you have the chance, be sure to check out Galaxy Express on iTunes and show your support for the band’s latest album “Walking on Empty”. In the meantime prepare to tap your feet and nod along to their latest music video release “Time Keeps Rollin’ By”.
Exclusive Interview With Korean Indie Hybrid Punk Rockers PATiENTS
The Korean music industry is forever growing in size and expanding into new genres. While K-pop and hip-hop still dominate the Korean music scene, K-indie is gaining international fame, with many Korean punk and rock stars now becoming as well-loved as mainstream performers. I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview PATiENTS when they performed in the UK during a mini tour in May, and got to know the band a little bit better whilst exploring a whole new world within the K-indie scene.
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Hi guys, could you please introduce yourselves?
Hi there, I’m Sumin Jo and I play bass and handle lead vocals in PATiENTS. Hyuckjang Kwon is the keyboardist and Jaehyuk Lee is our drummer. PATiENTS is based in Seoul, Korea and we play a style of music we like to call “hybrid punk”. In April, we released our second full-length album, called “18.” And last month we did a UK tour, playing concerts in London and at Liverpool Sound City.
This wasn’t your first time playing in the UK: is there anything that was particularly memorable for you from your previous visit?
Our 2014 UK tour went great. We got to play for some great crowds in London, Liverpool Sound City and at WTFest in Southampton, we met some really cool bands, and made some new friends. Things went even better during our shows this past May. It was great to catch up with some of the friends we met in 2014, and some people who saw us play in 2014 came back again to see us this year. We’re so grateful for their support. One really cool thing about our second UK tour was that we actually sold out of the CDs we brought. We filled a suitcase full of copies of 18, but we sold them all during our first two concerts. I thought I had packed more than enough albums, but we didn’t have any for our final gig in the UK! Thanks to everyone who bought our new album. You guys made my luggage much easier to carry on the way back to Korea! Next time we come, we’ll definitely need to pack a lot more albums.
Korean Indie music is becoming a hot topic, not just in the UK, but throughout the whole of Europe. Do you feel the market growth as performers in the middle of the bustle? What impact do you feel PATiENTS has on the way Korean indie music is portrayed in Europe?
We’ve definitely noticed an increase in the international attention Korean indie music is receiving, and we’re very happy about this! The market is still very small, but it’s cool that more and more bands are getting to share their music with a worldwide audience. As for PATiENTS, we’re trying hard to make a good impression on audiences with our music and our performances. Hopefully, if someone likes us, they’ll check out more Korean indie music too and discover the wealth of talent in our country’s indie scene. We’re learning lots every time we tour outside of Korea. We’re trying to share this information with other bands so that the whole indie scene can grow together.
My personal favourite song of yours is “Hybrid”. Which song is your ultimate favourite to perform?
I really love playing all of our songs, but if I have to choose favourites, I’ll say “Sipalsegi” and “Let’s Drive, Let’s Go!” I think the hardest song to perform is “High Level Darling”. When we wrote the song, we wanted to make it great so we made it kind of difficult. But thanks to lots of practice we’ve gotten used to it and we think we’re performing it well.
Unfortunately, other kinds of music besides K-pop, K-ballads and K-hiphop are not promoted a lot (if at all) within the Western Korean music scene. So when people hear your Korean punk music, what are the initial reactions? What do you feel could be done to change people’s preconceptions about Korean music?
We toured in Korea, the UK, and Taiwan and the reactions to our music have all been very positive. I’m not sure what can be done to change people’s preconceptions of Korean music. I guess Korean bands doing more tours and getting more media attention would help. It would be great to have more people know about PATiENTS’ music, but that’s not our goal. We just want to share good music and a positive attitude with anyone around the world who wants to listen. Even if the number of people is small, that’s okay. The most important thing is being able to do what we want, having fun, and living happily.
You’re pretty unique to the scene. Who are you inspired by when creating your music? And if you could collaborate with anyone at all, who would you chose?
Yes, our keyboard, bass, and drums set-up is definitely different in Korea’s indie scene. And each of us has different taste in music, which adds even more variety and colour to PATiENTS’ sound. If we could collaborate with anyone, I’d like for it to be Beethoven. It’s obviously never going to happen, but that’s still my dream pairing for us.
What can your fans in the UK expect to see from you in the future? Do you have any special plans for the rest of the year?
They can expect us to keep getting better and better. Our ultimate goal is just to be a band that has lots of awesome songs and puts on awesome live shows. Our plan is to keep working hard to make this happen. But this is actually a really good question! We’ve never thought much about fans’ expectations, but maybe we should. We’ve always just wanted to bring lots of fun to stages to share with them. If fans want PATiENTS to try to do other things in addition to that, please let us know! We love talking to people and are open to suggestions.
If you could say anything to your fans what would it be? Do you have a message for the readers of MCM Buzz?
Thanks so much for reading about PATiENTS. We’ve had a blast playing in the UK in 2014 and 2015 and want to try to come back again next year. We hope to see you in Korea, the UK, or somewhere else in the world soon!
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If you get the chance to check these guys out live, I definitely recommend it! They know how to make a crowd move, and they rock it out pretty hard! As you can see from the interview, this band is a little different in terms of why they do what they do: it’s not always about the fame and the money, or the lavish lifestyle and the travelling. For PATiENTS, it’s all about conveying a sound, a song, or a movement to people around the world and introducing them to unexplored areas of the music industry. Yes, we all love our K-pop, but when you find bands like PATiENTS who are a whole new ball game both musically and personality-wise, it leads you to wonder what else might be out there.
PATiENTS’ latest album 18 is available to download from iTunes for $9.99 and is also on Bandcamp, priced at $5. Be sure to show your support to the band by following their Facebook page, or check out Sumin Jo on Twitter. A big thank you to Shawn Despres for his help.
Check out the video below of the band playing “Sipalsegi” and “Spanking Jenny” live at the Liverpool Sound City event:
Korean Indie Band "Juck Juck Grunzie" To Feature At Glastonbury
For people interested in Korean music but looking for something a little different from your usual K-pop or K-HipHop, the Korean Indie scene is possibly one of the best places to look. Seoul has a lot to offer for music fans, but one group that seems to be making leaps and bounds in the Western music market is the psychedelic noise rock quartet “Juck Juck Grunzie“.
Originally, Juck Juck Grunzie was formed as an all-female band back in 2007, but along the lines things got mixed up and male drummer Kyung Hyun Lee joined vocalist and synth player Ah-Reum Lee, guitarist Jee-Hye Ham and bassist Hyojeong Shim. Capturing the attention of many within Seoul’s indie scene by wearing only lingerie for their first performance, the group came second place at the 2012’s Hello Rookie finals in Korea. In November 2013, the group to released their first full-length album, “Psycho”, which brought them worldwide success, highlighting their progression from post-punk roots into noisier and more psychedelic sonic terrains. In the summer of 2014, the band was featured as one of the central subjects of Van’s “Off the Wall” documentary series about South Korea’s indie scene and captured the attention of the British Glastonbury Festival organizers.
Juck Juck Grunzie’s music can only be described as marrying irregular rhythms with chaotic soundscapes, where the sounds explore the boundaries between dreams and nightmares to create something dark, mysterious, and hauntingly beautiful. Several major outlets have praised their work. Said MTV Iggy: “This is a band that I’ve hoped and prayed would some day exist — four (now three with the addition of a guy drummer, but still) bitches in fishnets and leather jackets who birth Le Tigre post-punk fed through a Nirvana machine.” Meanwhile, Asian music leaders Daum Music described their music as, “Noise rock that is both dreamy and limitless. Mixing genres (Juck Juck Grunzie) has created music that is at once improvisational, creative, and unique.”
The band with be gracing Europe with a tour that will start at the biggest live music events in the UK, including Glastonbury Festival on June 25th. The tour will end in Berlin on July 3rd. Below are a list of places to grab a chance of seeing the band perform live, and if their previous live performances in Korea are anything is to go by, you can expect exciting shows featuring pajamas, footballs and lingerie.
June 25th
Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival (Pussy Parlure)
June 26th
Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival (Gully Outernational)
June 30th
London, UK @ Windmill Brixton
July 1st
Berlin, Germany @ Kantine am Berghain
July 3rd
Berlin, Germany @ Trixster
If you don’t get the chance to see them live, be sure to follow Juck Juck Grunzie on Facebook and Twitter, or check out some more of their songs on Soundcloud. “Concrete Jungle” and “Meth-Od” are particularly recommended – be prepared for something a little out of the ordinary!
Korean Indie Band “Juck Juck Grunzie” To Feature At Glastonbury
For people interested in Korean music but looking for something a little different from your usual K-pop or K-HipHop, the Korean Indie scene is possibly one of the best places to look. Seoul has a lot to offer for music fans, but one group that seems to be making leaps and bounds in the Western music market is the psychedelic noise rock quartet “Juck Juck Grunzie“.
Originally, Juck Juck Grunzie was formed as an all-female band back in 2007, but along the lines things got mixed up and male drummer Kyung Hyun Lee joined vocalist and synth player Ah-Reum Lee, guitarist Jee-Hye Ham and bassist Hyojeong Shim. Capturing the attention of many within Seoul’s indie scene by wearing only lingerie for their first performance, the group came second place at the 2012’s Hello Rookie finals in Korea. In November 2013, the group to released their first full-length album, “Psycho”, which brought them worldwide success, highlighting their progression from post-punk roots into noisier and more psychedelic sonic terrains. In the summer of 2014, the band was featured as one of the central subjects of Van’s “Off the Wall” documentary series about South Korea’s indie scene and captured the attention of the British Glastonbury Festival organizers.
Juck Juck Grunzie’s music can only be described as marrying irregular rhythms with chaotic soundscapes, where the sounds explore the boundaries between dreams and nightmares to create something dark, mysterious, and hauntingly beautiful. Several major outlets have praised their work. Said MTV Iggy: “This is a band that I’ve hoped and prayed would some day exist — four (now three with the addition of a guy drummer, but still) bitches in fishnets and leather jackets who birth Le Tigre post-punk fed through a Nirvana machine.” Meanwhile, Asian music leaders Daum Music described their music as, “Noise rock that is both dreamy and limitless. Mixing genres (Juck Juck Grunzie) has created music that is at once improvisational, creative, and unique.”
The band with be gracing Europe with a tour that will start at the biggest live music events in the UK, including Glastonbury Festival on June 25th. The tour will end in Berlin on July 3rd. Below are a list of places to grab a chance of seeing the band perform live, and if their previous live performances in Korea are anything is to go by, you can expect exciting shows featuring pajamas, footballs and lingerie.
June 25th
Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival (Pussy Parlure)
June 26th
Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury Festival (Gully Outernational)
June 30th
London, UK @ Windmill Brixton
July 1st
Berlin, Germany @ Kantine am Berghain
July 3rd
Berlin, Germany @ Trixster
If you don’t get the chance to see them live, be sure to follow Juck Juck Grunzie on Facebook and Twitter, or check out some more of their songs on Soundcloud. “Concrete Jungle” and “Meth-Od” are particularly recommended – be prepared for something a little out of the ordinary!