by homey81

Although it has already been more than one month since I began to stay in the Netherlands, nothing interesting happened. So I post what happened one month ago.

On 23 January, I visited Yiufai’s beautiful 3 storey house in Amsterdam where a part was held. There I had good dinner whuch Yiufai cooked. Please see the picture of Yiufai and Jerone, when they distibute the dishes.

I could also see Yiufai’s CD, not the one he has bought and owns, but the one titled his name. It is “CD book” which contains 18 songs and written lyrics penned by him. The title of the CD is “Eighteen Changes” (as far as I know). You can buy it online at http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-c/section-music/pid-1005167818/

On the next day, 24 January, there was an experimental music concert at STEIM, which is, in their words, Center for research & development of instruments & tools for performers in the electronic performance arts. Laboratory, workshop, international meeting place, artist hotel, production office, live electroacoustic music, DJ’s, VJ’s, theater and installation makers, video artists and nomad studio. [http://www.steim.nl]

There my friend Byungjun, who now studies in Royal Music Academy in Hague but used be one of the leading figure in Korean underground indie-electronica-experimental music scene. You can hear some music samples about his recent works at http://byungjun.pe.kr/. For those who are interested Korean indie music in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Please watch the video by Pipi Longstocking produced in 1997.

Hope you enjoy…

HJ (a.k.a. Homey)

by angel_lin

Hi All,

Hong Kong’s reputable indie hardcore rock band, Kinglychee (literally “King of Lychees”; lychee is a tropical fruit :)) has just released its new CD, freedownload of all songs and lyrics from the following webiste: http://www.kinglychee.com/ Kinglychee consists of mainly South East Asian artists in HK… they do their songs mainly in English; a very good indie hardcore band :)!  Enjoy! cheers, angel

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

by terebikun

On Sunday, Nov. 25, I went to the first Taiwan Band Festival held in Huashan Cultural Park. It was drizzling lightly but overall it was possible to enjoy the event without umbrellas, which was what most people did. I ran into Tunghung and several old friends. He could probably provide more context to the logic of the festival, which certainly seems to resonate with the “creative agenda” discussed in the previous posts and comments. Basically, the Government of Information Office has this fund to support independent bands in order to prove that Taiwan could produce more than idols and the “Star Light Gang” (basically a televised singing show which has generated gangs of idols. My students can’t stop talking about them). At lease this is the logic in the promotion.

The result? Two days of bands performance, each band given 25 minutes (or three songs). Not very long. But enough to get a taste of different band styles. http://www.taiwanbandfestival.com.tw/bandlist.htm. Attaching a photo of the wild act, “Fish and the Bedroom Riot,” composed of various musicians who performed in Tunghung’s pub, Underworld, doing visual and performance experiments. On Sunday’s case, they were in various animal costumes and having way too much fun and too soft volume–due to the police (Taipei City) writing tickets for the “noise” sponsored by central government.

by sonicscape

I noticed that Eva and HJ were discussing the concept of creativity in the East Asian context. How about this? Singaporean bureaucracy is trying very hard to promote the creative city state.

Recently I am thinking over the notion of creativity and its policies in Korea too. Still very confused, but I am thinking what might have been positive effects when this notion was introduced in public policy. I am sure that some scholars including Austrailian groups think that creative industries policy is a means of progressive intellectual intervention. I am not sure about that and thinking about the conditions under which it can be considered in that way.

Nonetheless, in practice things might be very uninteresting. I am almost inclined to think that creative industries policy in Korea ends up being a small happening without much substantial effect when significant policy measures are rolled back as a result of the governmental change.

by angel_lin

hi all, just want to share with u below a song written by high school students in HK; it’s the theme song of a Net-drama project of the HKRSS secondary school, a working class school located in the rural area in HK.  The music, the lyrics, the vocals, the MV were all done by students… (except for the English lyrics, which was written by a teacher)…  it’s in the Cantopop genre, but showing much of the talent of the young students in HK…

by angel_lin  hi all! i just came back from the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, where Anthony organized the Opening Ceremony for a series of activities (exhibtions, talks, seminars) on the history and development of Cantopop in Hong Kong.  I attach some pics here: Anthony with Allan Tam: a HK Cantopop icon :). And then we chatted with Poon Wai-Yuen, a lyricist who wrote the lyrics of many good songs for Anita Mui in the 90s (the Catopop diva who passed away a few years ago)…  i had written a paper on his lyrics (and presented in Hyunjun’s conference in Yonsei 2 years ago), but didn’t have chance to meet the lyricist until today… 🙂 the touching moment is when Sam Hui’s son, Ryan Hui, sang Sam Hui’s early Cantopop song with Sam Hui’s guitar… that’s a touching moment for those who grew up with Cantopop…  Sam Hui almost started Cantopop as an indigenous music form for HK… http://www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk/english/exhibition.htm