Punk > Ballads

In Korea most of the music you will hear is obnoxious. The pop songs are blatant rip offs of current hits from the states. The rap all sounds the same and is pretty tame. Everything else resembles some sort of Ballad. Most Koreans love ballads. When I ask the students what kind of music they like they usually say pop or ballads. I guess this makes sense, it's not called pop because it's unpopular. This is a problem because this music does not chuff me. I love to ROCK and you don't hear rock music on the radio or in public that often. This is why I got stoked a couple of weeks ago when I met a Korean guitarist named Hyuk. He was wearing a Chromeo band T-shirt not because he liked the picture-although the picture is pretty rad- but because he actually listens to the band. He has traveled around Canada and possibly the US and speaks great English for a Korean. He is in a Korean punk/ska band and invited me to see one of his shows. After I flaked on the first one I felt obligated to go last night, and I'm glad I did.

There were 8 bands playing in an uncommonly cool basement venue called Moo Monk. 7 bucks later I was actually listening to some music I could bear. I've never been a huge punk fan but anything is better than foreign ballads, especially when leather pants and boots are involved. The bands all had their own niche of the punk sound. Hyuk's band plays feel good ska/punk with a little Social Distortion mixed in. Some were hardcore and screaming (which I like), some even played solos which is rare for a punk band. There are many times that I have felt strange and out of place in Korea but somehow in the midst of mohawks and tattoos I felt more at home than ever.

Afterwards we went to a soju bar. By we I mean myself, another foreign teacher from Daejeon, and every member of every band that played. There were Korean friends and girlfriends thrown in too, but I think I was one of about 4 white faces in 30-40 people. We took over this little soju place and had an awesome time. It's great to see a guy with a red mohawk and a full arm sleeve tattoo run around hugging people. That was my Saturday night, here are a couple crappy cell phone camera pics. I never have my camera when I actually want/need it.

I've also included a picture of the worst tattoo ever. That's how it was introduced to me by it's owner's friends. If you can't make it out it's a cartoony punker kicking a zombie thing (I think it's some kind of metaphor about being against the establishment and white collar jobs). We were all cracking up at it and his excuse was "It was free!" haha. Also there is a bonus pic from a tram in the mountains above (B)Pusan.

Bonus trivia: The Korean letter/symbol for P and B is the same which is why Busan can also be written Pusan. There are a couple of letters like this in Korea, this leads to some pronunciation problems. I think R and L are the same too.