Category Archives: Music

The Beautiful People – HBC Fest, May 2011

Posted on by under 2011, HBC Fest, life, Music, South Korea

This is the another of many photo-diaries to come from the recent May edition of the HBC Fest. I thought I’d do something different and show as many crowd pictures From the Fest as possible. Plenty of music to follow, don’t worry.

I like to use the three-fingered-claw method for holding my phone. You?

Early days

I thought this was a music festival...

It's a ...em... candle. I was impressed.

Mike after three hours sleep...or was it two?

Is this the judging panel?

They're not queing for pitas.

Maybe they don't taste as good as they look...

A fish...a real one, not someone who drinks like one. Afuckingmazing.

Another judgin panel. At least try to smile Trevor...

Perfect festival weather - makes me fell kind of homesick.

To keep dry one must drink more - Phillies

To keep dry one must drink more - Orange Tree

To keep dry one must drink more - VFW

To keep dry one must drink more - Family Mart

Helping you stay dry since...

Yours truly doing his best to stay dry!

Dry?

More Orange Tree frolics!

 

Outside The Local circa 8pm

Please feel free to share this around. Don’t forget where you got the photos from 🙂

More photos to follow soon!

 

 

HBC Fest – A grainy and blurred photographic reflection on the musical event of the summer!

Posted on by under 2011, HBC Fest, Music, South Korea

Yesterday was, of course, the HBC Fest. It was very colourful, especially if you consider the busfuls of cops that turned up to help us out with crowd control. It’s good to see that our taxes are eventually getting their money’s worth, especially when it comes to the 5-O. Anyway, I’m sure that the prominence of the cops has well advertised on the Korean blogosphere. This suits this post perfectly as I don’t intend on sharing any pictures of the cops – although I did see one great picture of some guy standing in and helping out the cops as crowd control which was hilarious… Anyway more about the cops later…

In my Groove article about the HBC Fest I advocated for people to go into the venues and enjoy the music, and for some reason everyone – or at least a lot of ones – did so. All the venues were packed and the music benefited and rose to the occasion! At the start of the day it pissed rain and I think this encouraged a lot of people inside where they found that it was a lot cooler than the previous May Fest and also that the standard of music, entertainment and good vibes was of a high standard. Kudos to everyone who took part in the festival; musicians, bar owners, bar staff, restaurant workers, Kobawoo supermarket, Lance, and of course all the wonderful people who turned up on the day to drink and be merry, and of course spend enough money to make all the hassle from the cops – if there was any – worth it in the end for the organisers.

Here are some of the photos that I took yesterday with my iPhone and shared on twitter throughout the day.

Phillies at the onset

My good friend - Mississippi Dave ... who's actually from Winnipeg but that's beside the point, he's a wonderful performer and I'll miss him when he returns to Canada after fifteen years in Korea this September.

Yes they are jello shots and yes they were all gone the next time I looked at the tray!

These guys were called Language of Shapes (I think), very cool sounding group.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of this guy 😦 But it's nice photo, right???

Mikey from the VFW mopping the floor before the Fest started. Why did he bother???

Great festival weather - actually made me a little homesick. That crowd is gathered around the Frills and Thrills Burlesque Show which nearly caused more car accidents than the entire festival!

Magna Fall! Good band and worth checking out in the future!

The always spell-bindingly wonderful Mia Zepeda!

Mikey in the VFW still shouting for everyone to get fucked up - as if they needed any encouragment!

Two guys playing The Local - I think they were called Backus. Good stuff!

The Drunk Democracy - I'm not sure if this was before or after the 30 other Irish people had to be pulled down from the lights (myself included) when they started playing Horse Outside - if you haven't heard of this song just look for it on YouTube.

Johnny Red in Le Vert

LRD and a strange bald ex-editor or Groove trying to steal his guitar...I think

Angelic me

The Two Guitars in The Orange Tree well past my bedtime...

...and also this fella's!

Photos are, admittedly, a bit grainy. Oh well.

When I was coming back through Haebangchon the next morning in a taxi there was someone passed out in front of the Family Mart – unfortunately it was only hindsight that had the good idea to stop the cab and take a picture. Maybe next time!

I didn’t take many pictures of the police presence at the festival. For me, this was probably the most significant thing that you can interpret as you will. It was certainly unique. However, as far as I could work out everything went well. There didn’t seem to be any problems and all the interactions seemed to be good natured and respectful. Most people realised they weren’t there to break up the party and people just go on with having a good time. The guys forming the line along the street were all young military service aged kids who didn’t want to be there any more than any of us would have liked to be there, but I could see that they were taking it in their stride and enjoying the madness of the situation, while a few were even taking the opportunity to practice their English. I’m pretty sure no hagwon or text book in the world will have a lesson on ‘drunk at a music festival’, so they can be happy about that. While their may have been some bad things that happened, all in all, I think it passed off – for want of a better word – trouble free.

Thanks to everyone who came out, performed, drank, smiled, danced, ate, kissed, and/or held hands. This was certainly a HBC Fest worth remembering!

I should have more less grainy photos up somewhere soon!

Being a Rock Star in Korea

Posted on by under 2010, Korea, Music, South Korea

For a while now I have been musing with writing a very accusatory article about musicians in Korea, in particular western English teachers who come here and find out that they can also be rockstars whilst filling in their 30 hours a week in a hagwon – I was one of these two. So instead of actually losing a lot of friends, I’m going to try and raise awareness and encourage people that music in Korea is a great opportunity to become something else, to build talent, to learn mistakes, and of course to just make the music scene better.

Of course, problems with the music scene in Korea don’t just start with westerners who are trying to have a bit of fun, they go much deeper than that. I’ve reposted an article from Yonhap News, the Korean news service, that highlights the significant problems that Korean bands suffer from in an industry that is full of publicity for one particular kind of music, pop music or K-pop, and leaves all others struggling to find their own way of publicity. By ignoring other genres of music, the media (not in this case obviously, I meant the broader scheme) creates the impression that Korean people only listen to K-pop! Which is like say that Irish people only eat potatoes – which is ridiculous because I remember having rice once when I was nine.

Hardships of being an indie musician in Korea

By Niels Footman
SEOUL, Dec. 10 

When singer Song Eun-jie made a shock admission about her life as a musician in Korea, it was sadly unsurprising to people familiar with Korea’s indie scene. “I’m 30 and I make around 600,000 won (US$520) a month, which leaves me just enough to buy a little make-up. My parents say I should get married, or tell me to find a proper job,” she said.

   Speaking in a cable TV documentary in January about Sogyumo Acacia Band, for whom she is the lead singer, Song provided a stark reminder that however vibrant Korea’s TV shows and pop culture have become in recent years, life for the country’s indie musicians remains extremely onerous.

   Nor was hers the only tale of hardship among Korea’s indie musicians to make news this year. Following the death of Lee Jin-won, the singer with indie band Moonlight Nymph, from a heart attack in early November, stories soon emerged of the serious financial difficulties he had reportedly faced toward the end of his life.

Perhaps you will hear more from me on this subject in the future.

Keeping the Whole Gig Local: HBC Fest, the Street, and the Reason We Can Afford to Put the Thing On in the First Place!

Posted on by under 2010, HBC Fest, Music, South Korea

For as long as I can remember the HBC Fest has been seen as the next Glastonbury or Woodstock (the original one of course) with oceans of people, great bands, free love, and a safe environment in which to experience the acts on show. Of course the HBC Fest provides all of these, however the festival’s biggest problem these days is that most people aren’t particularly interested in the environment provided and tend to congregate on the streets.

Now, never let it be said that I’m not a fan of banter, believe me I love it! You will see me, that is if you recognise me, enjoying plenty of banter on the day on the street or in a bar or wherever it is you may find my self to be. How and ever, it has become a bit of a problem this whole globalised banter addiction phenomenon, especially when there is a loads of open space nearby which is actually in fact, an busy street. I’m talking about the quantity of punters who do be on the streets having ‘a laugh’, and as I said in The Three Wise Monkeys article, trying to raise their chin’s higher than the person they are talking to. The HBC Fest is turning into a street party more than a music festival. Continue reading →

Venurama – Where Shit Goes Down at the HBC Fest

Posted on by under 2010, HBC Fest, Korea, Music

In a previous article I made a comment on the venues and the fact that they really aren’t that bad. I mean it believe it or not. The venues are crucial to the HBC Fest and without them there wouldn’t be much of the Haebangchon we all know, let alone a festival to celebrate.

Over the years the venues have chopped and changed, some have been in and some have moved out, but these neighbourhood venues that rely on your day-to-day business happily pay out for this festival twice a year. The HBC Fest has brought a lot of business to Haebangchon, putting it more on the map than previously expected at the time. It is reasonable to suggest that the HBC Fest has brought the spotlight on Haebangchon as a home away from home for many westerners who live in and outside of Seoul.

So what of these venues? Continue reading →