a very magical place where the beer tastes so fresh

probably not the safest idea but yea

we thought it could only end 1 of 2 ways…1) take an amazing picture or 2) end up beneath a couple million taiwan beer bottles.

sorry for the lack of updates lately. we’ve been in the studio for the last few weeks recording our first official EP, or “first mini album” if you’re in korea, haha.  originally we wanted to take some time off of performing to record the EP, but The Wall had called us to play last week, which was really cool. never thought they would ever call us!  anyway, here are some pictures that wes snapped:

w/ my classmate amy and iki’s gf, agnes

i’m sure i’m not the first to say that i definitely prefer performing rather than studio recording.  it’s almost like, no matter how many times you play the same song over and over again, you can almost never do it perfectly in the studio.  we finished recording bass tracks last night which was really cool.  we now have guitar, drums and bass tracks completed.  next on the list is synth, then vocals.  after all that is done, it goes to mastering where it’ll take quite some time to mix.  hopefully the EP will be done by, let’s say, late june?

let’s see, what else is there.  here are some pictures i jacked from leslie…

heaviest rain this year right after class, and i didn’t have an umbrella…good thing calton had one

ktv is never, not fun

eric you qtpie

probably singing backstreet boys or something

hrm, well that’s about it.  getting kind of homesick these days.  sometimes i wish the states was as close as hong kong is to here.  if that were the case, i’d go home like, once a month.  i really miss the food back at home, but more importantly, i miss all my best friends.  annie and i plan to be back in august, for about a month!  so that’ll be awesome, except i’ll be totally broke the whole time, haha.  kbye!

korean pop. where to begin?  i don’t understand korean and i sure as hell can’t speak it.  why does it seem that i listen to it more than chinese music? actually, nowadays it seems that i listen to it more than american music.  this post isn’t really intended to make me sound like some sort of pro when it comes to kpop, because i’ve only really been exposed to the super popular groups.  a few of them have seen fame outside of korea (wonder girls, girls generation etc.) but a lot of them will probably only be big in their home country (which is still cool).  so on to the first question: when did i start listening to this stuff?

it started back in 2002, first year of college at UCR.  i had never really listened to anything foreign other than tokyo ska paradise orchestra (from japan, obviously) and i didn’t have any real interest in music i couldn’t understand.  anyway, it was first year of college, new life and new experiences.  rommel and i lived next to a girl named michelle, and a few more doors down lived these 3 other girls, elisa, jessica and jen, all 4 of them being korean.  on top of that, i had a good friend named loni and her roomate mina, who were…surprise, surprise…korean.  it started with hanging out in each other’s rooms, watching korean music videos.  now, i have no idea where they came from because youtube didn’t exist back then, but somehow we had them.  as i recall, the first video they showed me was H.O.T – Candy.  i guess they knew we all had a weird obsession with boy bands.

even for 2002, this video was considered “old school.”  after this video, i think the 2nd one i was exposed to was that really really sad one.  i believe it was called “because i’m a girl.”  keep in mind that i’m typing this entry as i think it so i’m kind of just writing down my train of thought.  gonna search for it on youtube…

ah, found it. it’s long, but i think it’s worth the watch.  if you cry easily during movies, better grab some tissue.  don’t say i didn’t warn you.

anyway, the girls were always telling us about this girl named hyori, who, apparently, every dude had a thing for. she was in a girl group called Fin.KL, with 3 other girls.  the first video we ever watched of them was from their 2nd album, and the song was called “forever love.”  i guess you can say that this is what started my current interest in korean girl groups.

now, i’ll have to admit, we only watched these MV’s because these girls were incredibly cute.  like, “the kind of cute that you just want to hug, put in a box and bring home with you” – jenny wong.  my good friend, elisa, actually let me borrow one of their albums which i have yet to return to this day, haha (sorry!).  there were more groups too, like SES, BoA and all those groups that were associated with SMtown.  here’s a video/song that basically reminds me of every event that happened during first year of college. the video WAS my first year of college.

*edit* thought i’d throw this video in as well

there was something about korean pop that made it so damn good.  it had this formula that i still can’t, to this day, quite put my finger on.  i’ve only come to conclude that it is a combination of the super catchy hooks, chord structures and beat, oh and of course, the fact that every single singer/group/band is incredibly good looking (even the dudes).

unfortunately, after we all moved out of the dorms, my supply of kpop came to a halt.  throughout the rest of college, i basically just listened to the same 20 songs over and over again without any real way of discovering new music.  so between 2003 and 2007, i know almost NOTHING about what happened in the world of kpop.  it wasn’t til around 2007/2008 that i started getting back into it.  hello wondergirls.

my bff (boyfriend forever), james park, started listening to this super catchy song called “nobody.”  we always heard it from his room, catching ourselves singing the chorus because that’s the only thing that was in english.  it wasn’t before long that we would hear this song blasting over the speakers at our favorite bars in koreatown.  since youtube existed (thank god), it was only a matter of time when we discovered that the wondergirls had started a new sort of trend in korea, the super well choreographed catchy song trend.  so good.

in addition to the wondergirls, we were also VERY into girls generation.  the first video i ever saw of them was for “gee” but i think my favorite video at the time was for “genie” i’m sure we weren’t the only ones that said “DAMN LEGGGSSSS” when seeing it for the first time.

now, korea is not short on amount of enormous girl groups.  apparently, back when i stopped listening korean music, all the big record companies started these training programs for pop groups that started kids as early as 12 years old.  i guess it makes sense now why there are so many now.  i won’t go too much into girls generation because i’ve already dedicated a post about them already. all you have to know is that they are by far my favorite korean group.

another song/video we came across at the time was super junior’s “sorry sorry”  we never really thought anything special about it, but when annie and i moved to taiwan, it was apparently the biggest dance crazy to ever hit taiwan.  everyone knew it.  you can ask anyone on the street here to dance “sorry sorry” and they’ll at least know to put their hands together and start rubbing them as if they were trying to light a fire with a stick.

like “nobody”, this song has been waaaay overplayed over here.  but it’s still a riot when they play it at clubs and everyone instantly knows the dance.  we don’t know what any of the lyrics mean or how they’re even supposed to be spoken, but we somehow know all the words to these songs, haha.

last winter, annie and i met up with our homies in korea for the first time and it only furthered our obsession with korean pop.  i think the most fun i had in korea was in our hotel room, drinking soju and watching live music performances on tv.  the first song of the new year was sung by girls generation.  we were introduced to such groups as 2am, SHINee, brown eyed girls and t-ara.  this song super reminds me of our time in korea:

after we got back, we spent the new few months just keeping up to date with a select few groups that we liked.  we mostly still only paid attention to girls generation though.  the other girl groups were good, but none of them even came close to our beloved girls generation.  this school semester though, i met a girl from korea in my class.  taiwan’s only knowledge of korean music is basically the wondergirls, girls generation and super junior.  upon telling her that i liked korean pop, she kind of rolled her eyes and assumed i meant “nobody” and “sorry sorry.”  she then asked me who i liked and i basically told her everything that i’ve written in this post.  the next day, she came to school with a flash drive full of the newest music and also said that she would update me whenever something new came out.  since then, i have found my runner up to girls generation.  they’re called after school.

there is so much synth used in their songs that i can’t NOT like them.  AHHH so good.

well, i think that basically sums up everything.  i think i’ve made this post longer than it needed to be.  so i’ll end it here!

hooray for good music!

cool flyer that annie made for our show tomorrow

if you’re in taipei, come check us out!

annie got some more film developed…here are some of my favs!

on our way to the factory

taiwan beer factoy

jacky with his future wife

hooligans

in the middle of devouring 40 nuggets

red house

city villains at vicious circle

our show at underworld

late night eats, or as calton says,”it’s the best part of KFC in a bag with garlic, msg and basil”

first time that cantonese and left handers make the majority

mos burger!

still working out some focus issues but they all possess a certain quality that digital can’t produce!  anyway, we’re currently in the studio working on our first mini record, or EP.  recording should be done in the next week or so and then add another month for mixing and mastering and it should be all ready to go!  we have a show at the wall this wednesday which i’m pretty excited for!!