by plateaux

Following is the intro of the article I posted at koreanpop.org. Click here for the full text.

Kite Operations: (from left to right) Jie, Joe, Sung, Dave

Kite Operations is an independent rock band based in the New York City. All four members are of Korean-American origin, sprung up from the Korean immigrant community in New York. Joseph (Joe) Kim (g, v) and David (Dave) Yang (g, v) were born in the states, while Jie Whoon Kang (b) and Sung Shin (d) belong to the ‘1.5 generation’ who came from Korea at an early age. Kite Operations is about five years old, but the actual history is longer than that as Joe and Dave formed a band named Theselah along with two other – now departed – members way back in 1994.

Theselah recorded three albums between 1999 and 2002, all under their own label, K.O.A. records. After recruiting Jie and Sung, they released two EPs under the new band name, Kite Operations, in 2003. They embarked on their full-fledged flying mission with the first Kite Operations LP ‘Dandelion Day’ (2005), followed by ‘Heart Attacks, Back to Back’ (2007). Over the past few years, Kite Operations has frequently played live gigs around the New York area, toured the Midwest and the West Coast areas, and participated in Asian American rock festivals. For more information, as well as the music samples, visit their website.

Their ‘ethnic connection’ to Korea owes a great deal to Sung, the youngest member of the band who had been immersed in Korean indie music before coming to the states. His reaching out toward the Korean indie music community started bearing fruit as the Kite Operations LPs were licensed in Korea. Finally, the band earned an invitation to play at the 2007 Korean Festival in Seoul along with other overseas ethnic Korean musicians, including the Chinese rock legend Cui Jian. Kite Operations took full advantage of the opportunity, booking a mini-tour of three Korean clubs before the festival gigs.

When I heard the news that they were going to Korea, I asked them to write a tour diary for online publication. In response, they sent me Joe’s diary accompanied with a bunch of photographs and audio-visual files. Many thanks to Kite Operations for putting them together and sharing with us, and I hope readers to enjoy their unique experiences as much as I did.

by viriya

Hello all, it is local news of members from Thailand. On January 11th, 2008 at 10^th international conference on Thai Studies, Thammasat University, Bangkok Aj. Ubonrat was a chair of “Thai rock music and its culture” panel which was organized by me. The theme of panel is to discuss of Thai rock music and its culture since the 1980s within the perspective of class, gender and generation. We have 4 panelists (including me) in the panel; (1) “Which Boat is Rockin? : Rock Music and Mass Politics in Thailand” by Viriya Sawangchot, Wathansala Centre for Cultural Studies. (2) “Not Anyone Can Play My Guitar: The Study of Thai Guitar Heroes since the 1980s” By Kachachai Wichaidit, Music 499 Academy (3) “Chiang Mai ‘Indie’ Music: Local Space and Its Changing Mind” by Viparat Panritdam, Chiang Mai University (4) “I Wanna Shout but Who Is Listening?: ‘Thai Female Rocka’ and ‘His’ World” .by Siriporn Somboonburana, Walailak University.
Exactly, all panelists never attend this conference before but Aj Ubonrat mentioned that it was the first time of pop & rock music panel in three decades of Thai Studies conference. Anyway, on October 27^th, 2007, we had a prior one called “For Those About to Rock” were co-organized by Wathanasala and Music 499 Academy. In this informal meeting, we had a forum discussed by cultural researchers, music business men and professional musicians on rock music scene in Thailand since the 1970s and also had a live performing at the end of the day. Aj. Ubonrat was there and had a speech on opening as well.

by angel_lin

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=6023471F46C10450

hi all, pls go to the above site to download freely MC Yan x Yellow Peril’s new mixtape; it’s mainly a cocktail sampling of MC Yan’s old songs plus some sampling of recent news-speak by public figures in Hong Kong… have fun :)!

by vidieho

HELLO everyone,

Long time no see.

Attached picture is the cover of latest journal Fountain issue on Taiwanese popualr music. This Journal is semi-offical , which means a ‘speaker’ for ‘Green’ governments, from former president Lee Dung-hwai to current Chen Shui-ban .

I helped as a consultant before its execution, as the chief brain is an American named David Frazier, who is free-lanced music writer for various journals and newspapers, (including Wire) who knows more about indie msuic scene but little about Taiwan’s music hisotry.

Basically he uses my PhD Dissertation as grounded reference. Although the journal does not show a criticial viewpoint, it nevertheless, would provide you good information about postwar Taiwanese popular music hisotry.

I do not know if you can get this copy in your country, please let me know if some would need a copy of it

Best

Tunghung

Ho