change.

i failed this blog. i’m taking up a tumblr. check it out at http://firks.tumblr.com/.

new caribou video, “jamelia”

the video for “jamelia” came out today. it’s one of my favourite songs from caribou’s swim, where luke lalonde begs and questions his cheating lover.

the video is one of those slow ones in which not much happens, but it’s nice to watch anyway (like this video from interpol. this one takes place outside in a hazy, dreary wilderness. i kind of wish it just featured shots of luke but that’s because i’m a creep. when did videos stop being literal depictions of song lyrics? maybe that never was the case. anyway. i kind of enjoyed that.

check it out.

dear musicians, come tour in korea.

Last night as I laid in bed at 1 am, I once again was struck with the thought “Why does NO ONE (no one I want to see) come to tour in Korea?” This was provoked by my friend Kate’s Facebook message about Born Ruffians doing a special concert in Guelph with her brother’s friend’s band. Of course, I wanted to go. But I’m 10,000 km away in Seoul and that just isn’t possible.

Concert options here have been limited to:
Jonsi
Mary J. Blige
Eric Clapton
Taylor Swift
Elvis Costello
Santana
Iron Maiden
Eagles
Far East Movement…

and not many others. Now I just noticed that MGMT are coming as well as Azure Ray, but that’s beside the point!

At home there have been too many concerts for me to list that I would have wanted to attend. WELL over 15. Sure they’re slightly overpriced, but not hugely. Around $30 maybe on average. But here that is certainly not the case. I wanted to see Jonsi. I didn’t LOVE Go but I thought, well, Sigur Ros never tours so this could be my chance. I paid 100,000 won for that concert. And then as the time drew near, I realized I had zero dollars and needed the money more. Luckily for me, you can RETURN tickets here! So I did so. And didn’t attend. I mean really. 100,000 won? That’s almost $100 CAN for a concert. This is certainly the trend here. MGMT? 99,000 won. Azure Ray? 55,000 won. REALLY?! Anyone who is coming here (if they’re even coming) is charging LOTS of money (well known or not) to be seen. Why is this?

1. Korean culture
Koreans are known for cancelling things. It is not unusual for a musician or band to show up to find the venue completely different than what they thought. Or perhaps no one is coming to the show. Or perhaps the show was cancelled and no one told them. Sorry! This would certainly be a problem for lots of musicians especially if they travelled all the way to Korea and are depending the money. Which brings me to point 2.

2. Distance and cost.
Korea is FAR. It’s a 14 hour flight from Canada (no stop over) and can cost over $1000 for a roundtrip ticket. It was $1500 for me to fly home in January. This would seem like a waste when you can fly to Europe for much cheaper and more quickly too. HOWEVER, plenty of artists travel to Japan. So just head on over after. Thanks.

3. Ignorance
I hate to say it, but I think this is actually true. People don’t know what Korea is like and furthermore don’t even think of it as an option. Before I had interest in coming here, I might have even placed Korea in the ‘developing’ country category and I don’t think I’m alone. Artists might not realize that Korea is a wealthy, developed country with lots to offer. Unfortunately the question of “Wait, North Korea?” will be brought up in any conversation about Korea. I was asked if I was teaching in the North and am often questioned about what it’s like living near it. This really shouldn’t be a boundary, but I think it is.

4. Taste in music
Koreans LOVE K-Pop. They love J-Pop too, but not as much. My students barely even know who any other artists are, save The Beatles and Justin Bieber. Oh, and Michael Jackson. However, they’re 11 years old. University age Koreans have a more varied music taste, but perhaps the interest doesn’t seem that strong from far away.

So, this list probably didn’t accomplish anything other to exist, but at least now there’s some reasons out there for why we’re in a musicless wasteland. Of course, if you LOVE T.Swift and Mary J., then get out there and spend hundreds of dollars to see them. But I just don’t want to do that. What are some solutions to this?

1. Lower concert costs
Concerts are SO expensive. I know it’s not completely the artist’s fault, but come on. There might be a lack of interest because it’s too damn costly. Plus, once you’re here, Korea is really cheap. On top of this, MORE promotion! I only find out about concerts because of going on a website. There are rarely any posters anywhere. Of course, I don’t understand Korean, so I don’t know what’s being put on the radio or TV, but postering is a cool way to promote too.

2. More binding contracts
This is something that might never happen due to Korean culture at large, but it needs to. Artists who come to Korea to find out their concert has been cancelled leave super pissed and vowing to never come back again. With some steadfast rules, maybe this wouldn’t be the case.

3. Awareness
Korea is working hard to improve it’s image as the ‘Soul of Asia’ and they should continue to do this. The fact that I’m typing this in my bed on one of the fastest internet systems (?) in the world with FLOOR HEATING (hello!) should tell you that I’m not living in squalor. Korea is a vibrant, wealthy place.

4. See new music
There are lots of Korean groups. LOTS of them. On Saturday I am going to a Round Robin concert where I will see numerous Korean bands play for only 15,000 won. That’s what I’m talking about people. Yes, I would love to see my favourite bands perform but sometimes it’s nice to branch out.

So. That’s it. HOLY smokes. The Radio Dept. are playing in Seoul. I’m getting my paws on a couple of those tickets. It seems like people are already listening to this post. Hm.

new (questionable) strokes single.

the strokes came out with a new single yesterday called “under cover of darkness.” it’s from their upcoming release, angles.

their most recent cd, first impressions of earth, was just bad news. too much electronic, too much like tron or something (which was apparently an inspiration). anyway, this new cd is supposed to sound still like first impressions, but also like the older stuff.

it’s not terrible. it’s not that good. it’s fun, i suppose. springy. i’ve listened to it three times. it’s just missing some sort of edge, plus the lyrics are kind of lame. “slid back, out of whack, and your past, it’s a nightmare. so I’m joining the army.” are they developing from earlier stuff? not really. julian has been complaining about ditching friends and being tired (also having simple rhymes) since 2001. although i do wish this was more like their 2001 release. sigh. anyway.

julian made the song available for free download for 48 hours, but you can get it here.

oranges.

my friend kate finally discovered how to tag on facebook today, and tagged me in a post about a sweet playlist she found on 8tracks.com which is an awesome site where people post…playlists.

so one of the songs i liked on the playlist “now get to work” was called o valencia by the decemberists.

i’ve never been a huge fan of them but i thought this song was quite nice. i can only assume it’s about oranges. enjoy!

look at what the light did now.

in 2009 (?) i saw a free broken social scene concert at harbourfront in toronto. it was just so good. what made it even better was that lots of artists from arts and crafts showed up- including feist.

before that point i didn’t really care about her much, but after that i began to see her as the talented singer/songwriter she is. plus she’s pretty much as close to toronto rock royalty as you’re going to get. and that voice? gorgeous.

my boyfriend (once again) gave me some great music the other day. he gave me “look at what the light did now,” the soundtrack for the documentary of the same name, about feist and her collaborators. the first song that caught my eye was called “look at what the light did now.” i noticed it because my friend alicia had an album on the old fb, which i just recently creeped. i assume it’s from this song, but i don’t know what version.

anyway. this is a beautiful duet with little wings. check it out and fall in love with it. it’s simple, beautiful, folksy. all those good things.

also, i hadn’t even heard of this documentary. has anyone seen it?

well i suppose…

so today i got an email from wordpress reviewing my year using this blog. apparently i got over 3600 views on here over the time i was actually posting. considering the amount of effort i put in (not much) i thought that was kinda cool! maybe it’s not a lot…but wordpress rated me as “you’re on fire” so that has to mean something.

as well, i have missed music. i think that recently i’ve just stopped trying to find as much new stuff and that makes me sad. this weekend for new years i went to this bar, the social club, in seoul and the first dj was playing some sweet tunes. and i was like, “man, i know all of this music. i could do this probably.” so that was interesting. and then i realized that he wasn’t playing anything new, so it was up to me to find new music for myself….am i up to the challenge? who’s to say.

so. anyway. here is a tune for the new year.

remember a long time ago when i was all into this beachy stuff? well my boyfriend gave me this tune (i cannot take the credit) and it has brought me back to that. this is probably classified as like….indie beach pop or something along those lines (it’s not) and it’s catchy and sunny as it should be, but also sad, ironic and kind of defeated.

this is the bonus track from best coast’s crazy for you and it’s a bit different from the rest of the album. her vocals aren’t so prevalent in this song, which they are in the others. she reminds me of courtney love or something here, since she’s all raspy and rough. her voice is actually really clear and unembellished in the other tracks, but “when i’m with you” does well without that focus. also, the video has in ‘n out burger in it, which is just delicious. so overall, good.

if you liked that song, i also really enjoy boyfriend from the same album.

i think this is a nice start to the year.

non profit+music=possible life dream.

i came across this website called weathervane music which is a non profit org which supports independent music and helps them record some stuff and all that. hellooo! that is so good. so good. i haven’t looked into it fully yet to find out if i completely support them but currently i’m on board. hire me for something.

so they have this thing called “shaking through” which is a bunch of episodes of independent bands recording a song. i’ve only watched one so far but i’ll probably watch more. anyway. here’s the one i watched. it’s good. and it’s by twin sister. they wrote and recorded a song in two days so it kind of reminded me of the “novels” project i mentioned awhile ago. except it’s not in black and white. and luke lalonde isn’t in it. however. still worthy of a listen. check out the rest of the stuff too.

this is the video of them talking about the recording.

the actual song.

missing all concerts.

being in seoul has its ups and downs. an example of an up would be watching drunk korean men in subway stations try to make it onto the subway car (note the subway is only like $0.90 per ride–another bonus). one down is that people i want to listen to rarely tour here. caribou came recently. of course i saw them in hamilton so that doesn’t matter. vampire weekend were here i think but i’m not sure how i feel about that anyway. so anyway, there are about 15 concerts happening in toronto in september and october like caribou, land of talk , first aid kit etc. etc. i’m pretty pissed overall about that.

so basically here’s a ratatat song called “bare feast” from LP4, their most recent release. ratatat has an upcoming show too. on like sept 22. gosh durnit, huh? is that a balalaika playing? no. but the song reminds me of turkey/greece/romania combined or something. obviously in the middle ratatat does the same thing they always do, which is some slowed down chords wailing for a bit. i wish they’d stop that once in awhile. either way, good tune overall. plus that woman (?) at the end is wonderful.

if you’re in toronto you have no excuse to not see like 10 shows this fall.

i’m baaaaaaack!

some could say i’ve been a bad blogger. that’s probably due to the fact that i haven’t posted in like a month. whoops! well i do have an excuse, which is that i’ve moved to south korea for the year. i’ve been here for 3 week so …that’s my excuse.

ok ok ok stop talking and post some music!

i can’t actually attribute any of these finds to myself.

1. sunburn- beat connection
my mate (in the truest sense of the word) found this great duo. i’m not sure how. anyway, it’s made up of two guys- jordan koplowitz and reed juenger and they make these wonderful summery, beachy tunes. i think they are nice to listen to at the end of august when summer is coming to a close. of course, in south korea it’s still 30 degrees and extremely humid but i’d like to imagine myself sitting somewhere with a nice breeze and this is playing in the background.

anyway, you can download the entire album for free from their website here.

2. lucifer- 샤이니 (shinee)
obviously no post from south korea can be complete without some k-pop. i am NOT an expert at this kind of music (yet) but maybe soon enough? it’s so damn catchy. this song actually sounds like broken bones by love inc. i swear. listen here.

3. lolliphone 2- big bang vs. lady gaga by some person called masamixes? i have no idea.
anyway, this is a big bang song (k-pop) mixed with lady gaga’s telephone. pretty great.

here’s a picture of big bang. dreamy?