Guckkasten's new EP

Most of you probably know already about the new EP which has been released yesterday, December 7. Next to the instrumental 'Tagträume' it contains the 2 songs 'Manicure' and '붉은 밭', additionally with respectively an electronic and acoustic version.

A music video of 'Manicure' has been pre-released as a 'Performance Version', the full version with day and night performing, story part, VFX effects and 3D(?) will be released December 11.



Besides that, a kind of background description of the two songs has been brought up. I tried to translate it here. But be warned, it's a hell of confusing which may be partly due my translation skills.

Broccoli You Too applies for reexamination for the song ‘졸업’(Graduation) from KBS

October 25 Broccoli You Too released their 2nd album 'Graduation', asking for an examination concerning broadcast possibility from each broadcast station. Contrary to all the other broadcastings which judged the 12 tracks (including hidden track) fitting for broadcast, KBS rejected the one song 'Graduation' with the reason the lyrics being sex-appealing. On November 26, the band Broccoli You Too requested a reexamination without special changes in the song.

Following the article from Kukinews reporter Lee Sun Hee, the part of the lyrics with the sexual appealing problem is '꿈에서 아직 덜 깬 아이들은 내일이면 모든 게 끝날 듯 짝짓기에 몰두했지' (roughly translated to 'when it becomes tomorrow, the children that are still half asleep in their dreams, will be absorbed into copulation(짝짓기)') and '우리들은 팔려가는 서로를 바라보며 서글픈 작별의 인사를 나누네' (roughly translated to 'looking at each other, selling (ourselves), we say our lonesome farewells'). The KBS committee for examining songs reported that "With the word 'copulation'(짝짓기), meaning the pairing behavior of animals, it associates with the sexual act of humans. And, 'selling'(팔려가는) associating prostitution and human trafficking, [the song] is not advisable."

Broccoli You Too can't agree with the quested part being seen as 'sexual appealing'. The expression 'copulation'(짝짓기) means, following to the Standard Korean Language Dictionary of the National Institute of the Korean Language, a pairing behavior of animals and sexual act of humans, but can also have the meaning of 'people who like each other pairing up or being paired up'. Broccoli You Too thinks that connecting this word with the sexual meaning out of those two, was because of a simple analysis, not considering the context of the lyrics. Also at the second problem considering 'selling', the lyrics have not been taken in context properly. It has to be understood, that this is a metaphor of the state after graduation, choosing a workplace you don't want, just to earn money. Understanding that, it is impossible to connect this line with prostitution or human trafficking.

source: boonga boonga records (very rough translated)

Live THEY 2010 Compilation (missed updates)

There have been a lot of updates on the Live THEY 2010 performance and compilation on the Happy Robot Blog, that I've missed.

The compilation will be given first this weekend at the performance itself and be sold then in official stores starting November 30. There will be a limited edition which will contain so called 'heart cards' (not sure if it’s a name or a weird translation, simply cards expressing someone's heart) with signs and new year's greetings of each artist in a random order (one card each CD). As a special, the about 20 original Polaroid that are used for those heart cards will be randomly put into the CDs too.

The track list looks as following:

01. 추억을 머금은 그와 희망을 보듬은 그녀 (He who keeps the memories and she who clasps the hope) – Tearliner
Tearliner provides the opening and ending for the THEY 2010 compilation ‘Night Train’, serving as entrance and outlet
02. 크리스마스 약속 (Christmas promise) – THEY 2010
written and composed by EZ Hyung; The Koxx’ Saron on drums, Daybreak’s Kim Sun Il and Jung Yoo Jong on bass and guitar, Lim Young Jo on keyboard and strings; vocals are No Reply’s Sungwan, Naru, Daybreak’s Lee Won Seok and Jung Yoo Jo (usually guitar, makes his singer debut here.) and EZ Hyung
03. 들었다 놨다 feat. ROBO(apls) (DJ Schedule1 SNS Remix) – Daybreak
the loved track from Daybreak’s 2nd album, remixed with a hip hop rhythm, using a break beat(?) as base; ROBO keeps with his witty rap lyrics the song’s context of a cowardly man’s heart
04. 밤의 열차 (Night Train) – Naru, Oh Ji Eun
to the soft electronic song Naru made (of course all alone, composing, instrument play, arrangement), Oh Ji Eun put the lyrics to it in 10 minutes.
05. 시야 (Shaun Remix) – No Reply
The Koxx’ Shaun remixes No Reply’s at live performances well received song with a strong electro beat and gorgeous synthesizer arrangement
06. 얼음땡 feat. Joe Brown (Toy Rock remix) – The Koxx
Joe Brown adds his essay-like lyrics in a solid rap
07. It’s You – Daybreak, EZ Hyung
composed by Daybreak, lyrics added by EZ Hyung; guitar pop; sung in a duet
08. 누구라도 있어줘 (whoever you are, be with me) – Serengeti, No Reply
Serengeti’s Boss nova track with Sungwan’s loneliness, touching lyrics telling of the everyday life of an insignificant man
09. Arch – LOZIK(apls), Shaun, Naru
reminding of Havard’s works in the latter half of their activities; English lyrics written and sung by Naru, also contains Shaun’s composing abilities
10. Your Body (Shaun remix) – Joe Brown
Shaun changing the Hip Hop House track to a strong rock sound
11. 사랑하는 나의 악사들에게 (To my dear musicians) – THEY 2010
composed by Daybreak’s Lee Won Seok and Kim Jang Won, lyrics added by Oh Ji Eun; Serengeti playing each their respective instruments, Sooryun playing guitar, Shaun on synthesizer and Daybreak’s Kim Jang Won on piano; vocals are Oh Ji Eun, Serengeti’s Yoo Jung Gyun and Jang Dong Jin, Daybreak’s Lee Won Seok and Lee Hyun Song; following Oh Ji Eun’s words, the lyrics are about a fan who sees his/her favorite musician’s performance
12. 너를 보며 (두번째 이야기) - Tearliner

Trailer and such have been uploaded too a lot on youtube.

Another short-shorter-very short Short News Compilation

Phonebooth will have their last stage on November 28 before the band will head to the army. Guests will be Haneumpa and Bye Bye Badman. The acoustic live performance and supposedly everything that will happen there will be recorded and released as a special album.

Guckkasten’s new EP is in work and Ruby Salon stated on their block November 10 that it is planned to be released November 30.

DoT, the guitarless female band releases her first full length album at label Soundholic November 26th

Mongoo and Han Hee Jung will star together in a movie called ‘Dancing Zoo’ (춤추는 동물원). It will have its release December 2. You can watch an English (by me) subbed trailer here.

December 22 KBS Music Window will broadcast a ‘Moonlitght Nymph Special’ and is currently searching for material like interview and performance videos.

Moonlight Nymph Deceased

Moonlight Nymph (37), who was brought into hospital due cerebral hemorrhage November 1, passed away November 6 at 8.13 in the morning. His mortuary has been prepared at Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital.

Jaejoo Boys disband

Yesterday, November 1, Jaejoo Boys announced their disbandment on their homepage. Park Kyung Hwan and Yoo Sang Bong stated that they will go their own ways and that their 4th Album, which was released August 18, will be the last album of them as Jaejoo Boys.

Pastel Music said that there were absolutely no troubles between them and that they decided to go their own ways for showing a better image not as Jaejoo Boys, but as Park Kyung Hwan and Yoo Sang Bong.

Even though the announcement may be surprising, they stated that “since after the 2nd album in 2005, we talked about that ‘for making music we will go with our whole life, let’s try alone at a good time’ and ‘if there’s music we just have to release as Jaejoo Boys, let’s think about Jaejoo Boy’s path again’. After a long meeting, that time has been set for this year’s autumn.”*

Jaejoo Boys attended the ‘14th Yoo Jae Ha Competition’ November 27, 2002, released their first album November 27, 2003 and will have their last performance November 27, 2010.


*rather freely translated.

Sources: Jaejoo Boys homepage, several news articles (ㅠㅠ), Whidi♥

Moonlight Nymph in critical state with cerebral hemorrhage

Moonlight Nymph’s Lee Jin Won collapsed yesterday, November 1, in his own house due cerebral hemorrhage and was transferred into the ICU.

It is known, that he is currently unconsciously hospitalized at the Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital. The hospital stated that he was brought yesterday 11pm into the emergency room and moved to the intensive care unit at 4.30am today.

Jang Yoon Jung, an acquaintance of Moonlight Nymph, twittered under the ID ‘Lilydiaa’: “If there are people who know Moonlight Nymph and like his songs, please pray in your heart, even if it is just once. He has a lot of pain right now. He is struggling for his life in the ICU.”

Moonlight Nymph was supposed to guest at Hi Mr. Memory’s performance November 13, but it’s unclear if he will attend or not.

October 31 he left a message through twitter saying ‘cleaning anchovies while watching the World Series*’. That such a seemingly active and healthy Moonlight Nymph suddenly collapses, is still a shock for the fans.

*talking about Baseball.

sources: Hankyung, Herald

Horan appears as MC

Horan takes over a reality program as MC for first time in her career.

Singer and actress Horan has been chosen as MC for the new program 'Extreme Survival Racing Queen' on cable channel XTM starting November 5.

Horan appeared in various programs of different genres, but it's the first time she has the role of a MC. Her abilities as MC have been acknowledged when she showed her individual proceeding with her fantastic charm through tvN's 'Real Story'.

Ha Jung Seok PD, who is in charge of the direction, said that "Horan is the best Entertainer who lives her life more intense than anyone else." And "Her passionate image that fits the program will be the best role model for the challengers who will enter in order to create a new image racing model."

'Extreme Survival Racing Queen' is a project to create a new image of 'Racing Models'. It is a new idea of creating a new value as professional models in the industry related to motor sports and cars. The show will be led by singer Horan as MC, stylist Chae Han Suk and automobile specialized editor Shin Dong Heon will participate as judges.

source: Newsen

MPMG to release THEY 2010 compilation

It has been posted on the Happy Robots blog that the Master Plan Music Group* will release a compilation of THEY 2010.

It will contain the songs that have been introduced already through Serengeti Jang Dong Jin's personal radio show 'Night Train', means EZ Hyung and Daybreak's 'It's You', The Koxx Shawn's remix of No Reply's '시야' and Naru and Oh Ji Eun's song with the same title 'Night Train'. The last episode of 'Night Train' guests No Reply and Serengeti, who are also working on a new boss nova styled song. Besides those there will be some new songs and one song featuring all MPMG musicians.

Another interesting point at this year's live THEY is, that Serengeti's Jang Dong Jin and Naru became team leaders and will separate the MPMG musicians. What exactly stands behind that will be seen when the event starts with a video October 18.

The live performance live THEY 2010 will take place November 27 and 28 at Sang Sang Madang.

* Master Plan Music Group (MPMG) consists of Master Plan, Happy Robots, The Park Studio, Mintpaper and Live Paraid.

Short News Short

*After their performance in Nanjang October 26, Guckkasten will rest for a day and then start October 28 with the recordings for their new EP.

*Ruby Salon’s new band Gate Flowers (Hello Rookies of October 2009) will release their first EP October 20.

*Oh Ji Eun and the Wolves are also working hard on their full length album, updates on that can be seen at the homepage.

*For this year’s upcoming THEY 2010 compilation, Tearliner will do the opening and ending song, which can also be heard at the THEY performance.

The present situation of Jang Gi Ha and The Faces

Having not much of activities, Jang Gi Ha receives questions about what he’s actually doing and answers that in an entry at Boonga Boonga Record’s blog.

The reason for leaving for a vacation was the abruptly increasing schedule that got hard to handle. So the first half of the year they didn’t do any performances in order to take care of their bodies and hearts. In the last half of the year, starting with Jisan Valley Rock Festival they will slowly start to have performances.

What changed at Jang Gi Ha and The Faces is the member constellation. First, the Mimi Sisters left the band. They will continue activities in future as an independent duo and not as a part of Jang Gi Ha and The Faces.

Keyboard player Lee Jong Min joined the band. Lee Jong Min is a part of the band ‘Kingston Rudieska’ and has beside that a lot of session performances. He was originally also a session musician for Jang Gi Ha and The Faces, but as he has been participating in songs and the need of a keyboard became bigger, especially in the 2nd album, he has been made a formal member.

Hasegawa Yohei (aka Kim Yang Pyung), the guitarist of Kim Chang Wan Band, became a guest member to bring more variety into the band’s sound.

Jang Gi Ha and The Faces will have their performances in Japan November 22 and 23, and the release of their 1st album ‘별 일 없이 산다’ November 3. They are currently at making their 2nd album, more than half of the songs being finished. Maybe end of November they will start recording. Until the result will be released it may take over a year though. He excuses himself for that and asks for your understanding that it needs that time to make an album that just deserves to be heard.

Besides other appearances on TV, Jang Gi Ha himself will be in ‘Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook’s corner ‘만지다’(touch) as the ‘Singer Of The Month’ of October.

Music Travel Lalala discontinues

Yesterday, September 28, MBC announced their plans for re-arranging their programs for the upcoming autumn season. It has been said that 6 new program shows will be established and that 9 programs therefore will be discontinued. Under those 9 programs is 'Music Travel Lalala' that got appraisal for their music-concentrated content and artists that are hard to catch on TV. But the in 2008 started program couldn't surpass the low average ratings of 2~3% and has been decided for MBC's strengthening competitiveness to be discontinued.

Live-Planet.Net

A new website called Live-Planet.Net has been started. It is a studio live project, letting artists perform at a studio at the Welcomm Theater for a better sound and different visuals, for a live that can't be seen at broadcasts.

The first episode contains Galaxy Express, the next episode will be viewable October 3.

Broccoli, You Too 2nd Album

Broccoli, You Too?’s 2nd album ‘졸업’(Graduation) is said to come out October 20. It will be produced by the bands own label ‘Studio Broccoli’ and distributed by Boonga Boonga Records distribution label ‘Boong Boong Pacific’. The band will also hold a concert from October 29 until 31.

Oh Ji Eun and 10cm for Anime

Yesterday started the new animation series ‘Kimi Ni Todoke’ (in Korean 너에게닿기를) in korean TV. The opening song therefore has been sung by 10cm (original song sung, written and composed by Tanizawa Tomofumi). It has the same title as the series and is called ‘너에게닿기를’.

네에게닿기를 Opening korean version (10cm) from wassereis on Vimeo.

And Oh Ji Eun has been in charge for the ending song for the series (original song sung, written and composed by Chara). Also the title has been taken from the Japanese original, ‘짝사랑’(One-sided Love).

너에게닿기를 Ending Korean version (Oh Ji Eun) from wassereis on Vimeo.

[Infocorner] One More Chance

One More Chance is a project group consisting of vocal Park Won and composer, writer and singer Jung Ji Chan, both winners at the Yoo Jae Ha Music Contest (respectively 19th and 8th Contest). They want to release an album or single about every 3 month, starting with their single ‘시간을 가슬러’ May 18 and a mini album September 14. The single consists of two songs, ‘시간을 가슬러’ and ‘Luxury Bus’, both also being on the album. With a 2 month interval they also hold concerts at Hongdae Rolling Hall, their next dates being September 24 and November 26.

Their name forms from Park Won’s ‘Won’ (One) ‘plus’(More) Jung Ji Chan’s ‘Chan’(Chance). They found together through the motto ‘Music is a play’(음악은 놀이다), worked hard for 2 years and recorded and re-recorded in a repeat to perfect the title song of their mini album ‘자유인’(Freeman)

The cover of their single ‘시간을 가슬러’ is a hand holding a 3-leaved clover. It has been drawn by Park Won who explains that when he thought of what would fit best to ‘One More Chance’ he first thought of a hand holding a 4-leaved clover. In the language of flowers a 4-leaved clover means ‘luck’, a 3-leaved clover means ‘happiness’. Park Won thought that the meaning of ‘holding luck’ is nice too but in the end liked the meaning of ‘holding happiness’ more.

Profiles of both and youtube links under the cut.

The Behind Story of Lee Juck’s ‘Laundry’

Lee Juck’s song ‘Laundry’ from his upcoming 4th album was made public on several music sites. It shot up to high ranks and even reached rank 1 on a popular music site the time it has been published.

The song talks about ‘laundering’ his hurting heart, not knowing how to deal with the hollowness after a separation. It starts off with “I have to do the laundry. It may be raining in the afternoon.”

Now he revealed the story to that introduction part: “When I was talking with Lucid Fall on the phone, I asked ‘What are you going to do now?’ ‘I want to do the laundry. Did they say it will rain in the afternoon?’ That moment suddenly. ‘Can I write that down as lyrics?’”

His 4th album will have its release September 30 and be called ‘사랑’(Love). It will consist of 10 songs and the title song will be ‘그대랑’(With You).

src: Lee Juck's Twitter, Arts News

Han Hyo Joo makes her debut as singer together with No Reply

Currently busy with her Drama ‘Dong Yi’, Han Hyo Joo is the festival lady of this year’s Grand Mint Festival. Despite her murderous schedule, she had the shooting for the poster and the official trailer. She even participated as main vocal in the GMF song ‘Don’t You Know’.
The song has been composed and performed by No Reply, who are currently at their 2nd album activities.

At the recording September 14, she showed skills as good as a singer and did the prepared part flawlessly in a short time. At the drama set, Han Hyo Joo practiced and memorized the lyrics in the car every free time she had for a smooth recording.

No Reply and Han Hyo Joo’s single ‘Don’t You Know’ will be available on online music sites September 28.

src: The Star Chosun

New Hip Hop Duo DOZ

New Hip Hop Duo DOZ (Yoo Joon Sung, 26, and Lee Ki Wook, 26) uploaded their UCC music video to their self-written song ‘Arigatou Gozaimasu’ and gained a lot of attention through it. The lyrics are about a girlfriend who goes to Japan for studying and breaks up with her boyfriend. It consists mostly of the words ‘arigatou gozaimasu’ and ‘sumimasen’, still finds some place for stuff like ‘Dokdo is our land desu’. Despite the title and the overflow on Japanese words, the narration still stays Korean. The music video has been shot and edited by themselves, mostly through camera or mobile.

Reaching over 310.000 watchers they released a digital single August 23, with also a Korean version called ‘긴 생머리의 처음 봤던 그녀 모습’ or –how they translate it themselves- ‘Very long magic straight perm girl’.

They are signed under Sniper Sounds since 2 years, and were preparing for an album release when they published their UCC videos.

thanks to vyeol for the tip~

Casker changes to new album

Some time ago I wrote that Casker are working on a new singe.

The songs on the single changed a lot, the number of songs increased and the single became a full length album.

Lee Juck's Solo comeback

Lee Juck will release a new full length album September 30. Tomorrow, September 10, the song '빨래'('Laundry') will have an on-line pre-release. That song is not the title song though. The title song is a ballade song said to have a high level of perfection, exceeding even the 3rd album's title song '다행이다'.

An unexpected band at Music bank: Galaxy Express

3 Member band Galaxy Express will perform on Music Bank coming September 10 100% live.

For all the musicians who appeared on Music Bank, it was difficult to play 100% live due equipment and system problems. That’s why most performers used MR (Music Recorded) and had just to sing. Galaxy Express are the first ones in the last 5~6 years to play 100% live.

Searching for bands that can play well live, Galaxy Express has been discovered. They impressed with their outstanding abilities, and for their high musical level. But the problem was the live, as Galaxy Express’ music wouldn’t come out well using MR. It has been decided that Galaxy Express will record their live performance in a prerecording September 10 in the afternoon.

This week’s concept is ‘Autumn Band Special’ and also features bands like Boo Hwal, Rumble Fish, FT Island, Trax, Shinee etc.

More Infos on No Reply's 2nd Album

News about No Reply's 2nd Album have been posted on the Happy Robot Blog.

The album release has been pushed back to September 15 and the current schedule for the album is a photo shooting on August 30, mixing finishing on August 31 and mastering September 1.

Photo and art direction will be done by Saeng Seon (ifishcamp), design by Hong Hwa Ki and Joe Brown, Song Yoon Ik (balance our eARTh) and Yoo Kyung Woo will be in charge of the video recording.

The album title has been decided to be ‘Dream’ to 70%. It will contain 11 songs (including one instrumental) and the title song is slowly settling for ‘내가 되었으면’.

No Reply did all composing and writing, except the lyrics of one song that was written by a high sunbae artist. Beside the ‘family’ (like Daybreaks Kim Seon Il and Kim Jang Won, Serengeti’s Jang Dong Jin and Jung Soo Wan, The Koxx’ Shaun and Naru) also strings, a choir and a brass band has joined No Reply at the performing of instruments.

There will also be a ‘listening event’ at Yes24 starting August 25. The winners will take part at the ‘listening event’ September 9, which will consist of a full listening of the 2nd album, an explanation by No Reply to their album, a small acoustic live (1~2 songs) and a question-answer session.

Another event will be a fansign at Hot Tracks in the Kangnam Kyobo Store September 18.

They will hold their concert for the 2nd Album September 25/26 at Sang Sang Madang. It will be a standing concert, 2 hours full of No Reply, as there will be no guests.

K-League dedicated album

For the '2010 FC Barcelona – K-League All Star match' the K-League Supporter Alliance decided to make an album called 'INTO THE K-LEAGUE'. 6 month later the album has been produced by Rokstarr Music and published on August 4, the day of the match. 13 bands (No. 1 Korean, Super Kidd, Sugar Donut, No Brain, Galaxy Express, Yellow Monsters, Lunatic, The Strikers, Yellow Puffer, Napoleon Dynamite, GoGo Star, Sweet Revenge, GoGo Boys) participated with songs about friendship and dedication to the K-league. The intro 'Here is the Glory' by No Brain's drummer Hwang Hyun Sung was also made the entrance song for the K-League All Star players and decided to be used as the 'K-League Anthem'.

The 13 songs plus intro can be downloaded for free at the K-league website here.(continues on page 2).

Decide for Jaejoo Boy's 4th Album Cover!

Jaejoo Boy's 4th album has been finished and is to be released August 18.
Just the cover of the album is yet to be decided.

In spring they went to Jeju-Do and shot here and there photos without any goal (and played soccer with kids at school and met a child at the bus station that carried a bag larger than their body). Out of the hundreds of photos that have been made there, 5 were filtered out and make possible covers.

Now you can choose which one you like the most and give them your opinion. Look at them and write your answer here. (You don't need an account for that.)

Bye Bye Sea takes a fictional 5th member and goes Drama

Next to some U-Kiss members and a special performance by Teen Top in the 'Inkigayo' studio, Indie band Bye Bye Sea had a surprising appearance at SBS' new drama 'I am Legend'. The drama is about a divorced woman who forms a band and Bye Bye Sea plays here the role of an idol band that's been taken care of by Manager Kang Soo In (played by Jang Shin Young).

The usual 4 member band got an additional 5th member in the drama, Ha Min Gyu (played by Kim Jin Hyoung).

They were chosen to play this role because of the positive recommendation by music director Lee Jae Hyuk. It also has been searched for a talented rock band that's currently active. Producing company A Story thinks that "with the sudden appearance of a real band that's active, the degree of perfection of the drama 'I am Legend', which is centering around music, is raised a lot." And "even though it was their first time acting, they all are looking secure. Please look forward to Bye Bye Sea's high level performance and fresh acting."

Also watchers were surprised by them, saying "Bye Bye Sea's acting is so fresh", "I want them to be regulars in future", or "them acting looks so cute"

On another note, bass Myung Je is giving private lessons as a teacher to actors Hong Ji Min and Lee Joon Hyuk, who need abilities in performing.

The drama will be subtitled by B.O.N. subs.

[Infocorner] 10cm

Trying to find out more about some artists, I decided to make an infocorner. Starting with 10cm. Unexpectedly it was easier to find infos than pictures.



10cm, consisting of Kwon Jung Yeol (vocal, percussion) and Yoon Chul Jong (guitar), became a trend. On a list of 'bands that had the most performances in Hongdae Clubs in 2009' they reached the 2nd place.

They describe themselves as 'expressing music full of sexiness with the smartness and arrogance of the NY Manhattan style'. But asking what exactly the Manhattan style is, you'll always get the answer 'it's just a bluff'. Never having been in Manhattan, not knowing where it is, Jung Yeol explains that it is just to make it look as if there's something; it's just the coolest word he knows.

They are lazybones who just do what they want, enjoying coffee and cigarettes. They search for 'the new world where you can pay monthly rent, communication bills, price for coffee and cigarette, PC bang and Date expenses through making music.'

Warning! CUT~

Soran working on their first EP

Modern Rock/Pop group Soran, which has been once introduced in Janet's Videophile at Indieful ROK, are working on their first EP. The songs that will be recorded for it are 잊어야해, 타임머신(feat. Monni's Taewoo), 가을목이, 그때는 왜 몰랐을까, 이렇게 행복해, 너에게(feat. 10cm's Jung Yeol, Serengeti's Soo Wan). They will have an album release concert August 6. You can watch a kind of music video of 너에게(feat. Jung Yeol, Soo Wan) here and listen to 잊어야해 here (not sure if this is already the album version though).

Band Soran was formed in autumn 2009. Even though it's a young band, every member has its experiences. Vocal Go Young Bae studied Classic composing at Chugye University For The Arts, guitarist Jun Hoon is currently guitarist at Lee Seung Hwan's band and active as a session artist for the musical 'Legally Blonde', bassist Seo Myun Ho is active as session artist for Beautiful Days and drummer Pyun Hyu Il won the first prize at 'Seoul Drum Festival Drum Contest' in his High school time.

The KOXX' Shaun models

While fashion manufacture uglybros goes for the 2nd Season, they have chosen The KOXX' Synthesizer Shaun to be their main model. There have been some photos posted on the Happy Robot Blog, the real advertisement will be out in August in the magazine 'Scooter n Style' and on the official homepage of uglybros.

Besides that, Shaun has opened a new MySpace for his remixes: http://www.myspace.com/djshauun

Ruby Salon's new MCs

Cha Seung Woo from The Moonshiners got a new radio program on iTVFM (90.7MHz). His music program (consisting of Korean and foreign songs) will go from 12 in the night until 2. His first broadcast will be on August 2.

Guckkasten's Ha Hyung Woo got a position as a MC at OBS' TV program '꿈 꾸는 U' ('dreaming U'). He will join announcer Kim Won Kyung, film director Jang Hang Joon and Kim Eo Joon from website ddanzi. Starting today (July 22) he will introduce short films in his own unique manner every Thursday night at 12.30.

[New Albums] Musicians at work

Some news about albums I caught on.

On her 2009 travel in Hokkaido Oh Ji Eun started thinking about making more lively songs. She gathered her session musicians Jung Joon Yeob(guitar), Park Min Soo(keyboard), Park Soon Chul(bass) and Shin Dong Hoon(drum) and formed 'Oh Ji Eun and The Wolves' (after 'Oh Ji Eun and The Blockheads' was disliked by the members). Their digital single '미리듣기' came out yesterday, July 21, and consist of the title song '너에게 그만 빠져들 방법을 이제 가르쳐줘타이틀곡' and '아저씨 미워요'. They also have an official homepage.

New team Yellow Monsters decided their first album release to be June 22. The self-titled album consists of 10 tracks.

After Yozo postponed the release of her album due performances, cf, broadcasts etc, she's working now on it next to her radio broadcast. If everything goes well, it may be released beginning of next month already.

Super Kidd are coming back with their 3rd album. No release date yet, an event will take place at Kubrick in The Forest August 1. They'll talk about their 3rd album and it will probably be released after it.

Also Jaejoo Boys are at finishing their 4th album (mixing process is said to be finished) and it will be released after Jisan Valley Rock Festival.

After 3 years Daybreak will release their 2nd album. It is called 'Aurora' and has already a full track list and title song here. There is also a full concert planned for August 29 at Sang Sang Madang.

Han Hee Jung started the recording of her new single. It will probably consist of 5 tracks and be released around October.

Casker is also working on a new single, seem to have some troubles and a lot of worries though. For the first time, they take external lyrics and work in an outside studio for a longer time.

Listen to Naru's 2nd Album

Two days ago Naru released his 2nd album after working for 2 years on it. Like the 1st one, he composed, wrote, played the instruments and recorded all himself. There even has been a music video release, made by a friend of him, for '키'(height).



On Happy Robot Nina's youtube account have been also uploaded teaser videos (him playing on a balcony) and full songs from the new album.

Little update on Delight's current work

Delight's dk posted on twitter that '절름발이' is a digital single being released tomorrow, June 24. He also said that they finished preparations for a promotional CD, promotional stickers, a music video and some special event.

No Reply's Keyboard Sungwan gets a guitar

During their concert Road 4, No Reply's Sungwan and Wookjae changed instruments on request of the fans. Even though Sungwan said he don't like to play guitar, because his fingers hurt, he just bought his very first electric guitar.
He wanted a guitar for simple recording, but after all his desires grew and he spent more money than he thought he would. Nevertheless he has no regrets about it, he loves his guitar and its icetea color.



No Reply is currently working on their 2nd album that is supposed to have it's release September 9. Besides that Sungwan is appearing in Lee Seung Hwan's music video '완벽한 추억'. He composed the song himself and it is the 2nd(or new?) titlesong from Lee Seung Hwan's 10th album.

Music Travel LaLaLa brings Indie and Idols together

Today, June 23rd, one day after South Korean football team got into the 16s, MBC will boradcast a new (already recorded) episode of Music Travel LaLaLa, bringing a new variety of collaborations. Those are Super Junior and Park Sae Byul, Guckkasten and f(x), Jung In and Zitten, IU and tomtom.

List of songs is as following:
Super Junior & Park Sae Byul - 그대 내게 다시 (from Park Jin Sup)
Super Junior & Park Sae Byul - 사랑인가요
Super Junior & Park Sae Byul - 미인아 (BONAMANA)
IU & tomtom - Slow Motion (from Karina)
IU & tomtom - 1994년 어느 늦은 밤 (from Jang Hye Jin)
Jung In & Zitten - TV Show
Jung In & Zitten - 미워요
Guckkasten & f(x) - Vitriol
Guckkasten & f(x) - Don't Speak (from No Doubt)
Jung In & Zitten & Kim Chang Wan - 내가 갖고 싶은 건 (from Kim Chang Wan Band)

You can watch a preview here.

Guckkasten and CN Blue performing live on Music Core

Idol band group CN Blue and Hongdae Indie band Guckkasten prepared a special live for Music Core. Due problems with time and technical specials, it has been prerecorded June 16 and will be broadcasted in the live show June 19.

Representatives said that it has been a worry to not have enough genres and to be not able to satisfy the audience with just ballads and danceble tracks. They hope to fill the watchers needs through this.

One article said that CN Blue performed Guckkasten's 'Mirror' (other articles are not going further on who played what) so a guess is that Guckkasten performed CN Blue's 'Love'.
Everyone performed their own songs.(thank you rina)

[New Albums] What’s Coming Up?

After 5 years Modern Rock Band Monni brought out their 2nd album yesterday, Monday June 14. The album has been produced by Jaurim’s Guitarist Lee Sun Gyu and mixed by Bassist Kim Jin Man. The title song of the album ‘This Moment’ is 나를 떠나가던 and there is also a music video for it. At the same time of the release, their official homepage www.monni.co.kr has been opened.


Today, Tuesday, June 15, the KOXX’ very first EP ‘Enter’ will be released. Happy Robot gave some head ups on the band and the tracks. The Electro Rock band started through at the 2009 Hello Rookie and their average age is 21,5. They gathered around drummer Shin Sa Ron at the end of 2008 and before they had the current line-up, vocal Lee Hyun Song was also drummer and Synthesizer Shaun was also a guitarist. They appeared on festivals and performed in small and big clubs and received attention not just from national clubbers but also foreigners with their Daft Punk medley.
The first song on their EP ‘531’ is an intro to the 2nd track ‘ACDC’, 531 being the number of days from their forming to their first mini album release. ‘ACDC’ has nothing to do with the band AC/DC, it is simply the name of notes, like ‘Ra Do Re Do’. The next song ‘Over and Over’ is a new song they didn’t perform that often. Under the members it’s called ‘super song’; it’s based on garage rock, but has a relatively popish sound. ‘A Fool Moon Night’ is a ballad; the members explain it is best to listen to during a jogging in a bright moon night. The song ‘얼음땡’ is a love song to the expression ‘Koxx’. The last song ‘Trouble Maker’ is a danceable number that represents the Koxx with its dynamic sound and at every performance it made the audience enjoy to their limits.


A lot of you may already know, Zitten releases their new EP ‘Wonderland’ June 17. Yesterday, June 14, Pastelmusic released next to a two part reality video, a music video for ‘TV Show’. A live version of this song will be posted June 22.
After Yoon Hyung Ro came back from army last autumn, they worked on the EP and it looked like they’d be finished in winter, but Sung Yong Uk got sick and it had to be delayed an uncertain time. Yong Uk recovered and they finished the work. The album art will be done by Japanese illustrator Marumiyan, who already worked for the 1st album.


Naru’s 2nd album ‘Yet’ is set to be released on June 29th. A track list and cover have been revealed. You can also listen to 3 previews on Hyang. ‘Yet’ has, compared to the first album, more electronic elements. So is for example the interlude ‘Spring!!!’ that can be compared to ‘Take Off’ a more electronic arrangement.
Even though there have been made plenty of jacket photos, it is still not sure if there will be actually photos in it or if the album will consist like the first one just of Naru’s own drawings.

A new formation called ‘Yellow Monkeys’ has been brought up, consisting of GumX’ Young Won as lead vocal and guitar, Delispice’s Choi Jae Hyuk as drummer and vocal, and My Aunt Mary’s Han Jin Yeong as bass and vocal. Han Jinyeong wrote on his personal blog ‘see you in July’ and some time ago he posted that recording has been finished. They have performed already at the Time To Rock Festival though. Their homepage is yellowmonsters.net


Delight’s dk gives his fans a new mistery announcing that Delight is working on something(a new record) called ‘절름발이’(cripple)

[Misty Blue] Last Performance

Pastelmusic's twitter announced that Misty Blue will have its last concert 'Goodbye Misty Blue' June 20th at club ta. This will be the last performance under the name 'Misty Blue'. Bass Kyung Hoon wrote at his blog "During the first performance in 2003 there was just one person watching; that we could come until here was a generous happiness. Thinking of it, there are so many people I'm thankful to. Thank you to all the people who took interest in us."

[Lala Sweet] Interview with Mintpaper

Lala Sweet consists of guitar and vocal Kim Hyuna and keyboard Park Byul. April 29th they released their first EP and made their song ‘good bye’ known through the Mintpaper compilation LIFE and the 1Night 2Days preview on next episode with Kim C leaving the show. They made their debut with ‘나의 낡은 오렌지나무’ winning silver at the University Music Competition.
Growing up with listening to rock music, they met in their teens at a place where they went to learn instruments. After some time they decided to make their own music that is just made of guitar and piano and they started Lala Sweet.
When they were traveling to India, they discovered a store called ‘Lala Sweet’. They found the name cute and wrote it down. When they were searching for a name for them that was ‘easy to say, pretty in Latin letters and Hangeul and without any embarrassing meaning’, they remembered it.

Mintpaper had a little Interview with them that I thought was interesting (and easy) enough to translate.

[Sogyumo Acacia Band] Free Down for New Album

Sogyumo Acacia Band put their album for download on their official homepage www.sogyumo.com.

The album, consisting of 7 tracks, carries the title '저녁, 아이들' (Evening, Kids) and stands under the theme 'children's songs'. They are Songs that are good to listen to or to sing with children, but after all, made for the grown-ups to listen to, they are made as a 'present'. So everyone can go to the homepage and enjoy the songs.

Going onto the homepage, you get on a fairytale like picture, clicking on the right items (the title will come up when you hover it) you get to another page where you can listen to and download the songs.

The 7 tracks are following:

01. 생각
02. 룰루랄라
03. 보고싶은너
04. 개나리본부
05. 노래
06. 안녕슈퍼맨
07. 숲

[10cm] Restricted From Broadcast

Mintpaper 3rd Compilation LIFE's titlesong '오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요'(tonight the darknss is scary) from 10cm didn't get through the controls of TV broadcast stations MBC and SBS. Besides indicating criminality, there have been various other reasons.

Nevertheless it passed the controls of KBS. 10cm will have a recording June 8th for 'Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook' which is to be boradcasted 11th in the evening. They will perform said song '오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요' and 'Americano'.

[Delight] Working for Maplestory

Following Delight dk's Twitter, Delight wasn't just busy with helping Norazo for their 4th album, but also made some logo songs for radio broadcasts, you can listen to here.
Also they've been active for Nexon, making the opening song for the Nintendo DS game Maplstory. The full and short version of this song are downloadable on the left side at the Maplestory DS homepage(works just in IE). They(especially dk and yumi) also did the dubbing for a new Nexon community game's teaser videos. There is a Beach Version, Cafe Version and PC Room Version and also a short kind of making of for the Beach Version here.

The plan for a single to come out in beginning of June has been mentioned too, and dk is also posting new profile photos of him and the photo shoot, so some new song from Delight as 'Delight' may be not too far.

Not so new news

I have been away from blogging for a while, I'm sorry for that.
I didn't really kept up on the news that time, so I will just try to summarize what got under my nose.

- Younha and Super Kidd filmed a CF for chicken together. Younha's 'Password 486' lyrics have been remodeled a bit and Super Kidd changed their positions. You can watch it here.

- There have been lots of updates on Mintpaper's LIFE. Mainly about the A-Live Concert, preorder and such stuff. I uploaded the teaser here. I just want to count up some background stuff that has been mentioned and I thought may be (more or less) interesting.
Besides the Artists of the 16 songs on the track list, a lot of performers(playing the background instruments and chorus and such) and 10 labels participated on this compilation. In the case of 10cm, Lala Sweet and Serengeti, the songs have been discovered at performances and decided to be on the compilation. So it was not easy at first to decide on one theme that fits to them all.
Sweet Sorrow's Sung Jin Hwan worked for the very first time together with Serengeti.
No Reply's Wook Jae worked for the first time as a producer for Lala Sweet.
Joa Band was the very first team that got in mind of the organizer when they decided for the compilation LIFE.
Earip's song 'our house singer' are episodes about her all day life with her cat 'Nawa', so the cat sounds in the song are not recorded accidentally.
Omega3's Go Kyung Cheon participates at Lonely H's Band's song playing the keyboard.
For a better feel for the lyrics, Autumn Holiday's song has been simplified compared to the demo.

- 10cm got Model Jung Hye Sun as their stylist. As she liked the band from the very first time, she decided to try out as their stylist. You can watch her 'challenge' on the Elle homepage, here.

- Some Musicians of Happy Robots are currently working on their 2nd album, which includes Naru (who finished his mixing process, bought a new guitar and will have a haircut soon and a profile photo shoot tomorrow), Daybreak (rumor has it that it will come out around July), No Reply (who are at the preparing status) and Tearliner (who also works on his Travel Essay).
Besides that, No Reply's Sungwan also participated with '완벽한 추억' at Lee Seung Hwan’s 10nd album and Joe Brown will be the director for KOXX’ music video ‘Trouble Maker’.

[Mintpaper] LIFE 5th Update

Due to a delay the mastering has been pushed a bit forward and the day of release has been decided on May 4 (TU). (It will be still pre-sold at Beautiful Mint Life)

The tracklist that has been revealed is 70% sure, the 100% sure tracklist will follow April 14.

01. 10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요(The darkness tonight is scary)
02. Daybreak - 팝콘(popcorn)
03. Sung Ji Hwan - 포근해(cozy)
04. Lala Sweet - Good Bye
05. Lee Neung Ryong with Im Ju Yeon - 없는끝 이야기(Endless story)
06. Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다(Today is holiday)
07. Dalmoon - 구제불능(hopeless)
08. Lonely H's Band - 고향에 살어리랏다(survive in hometown)
09. neons - 달빛 스쿠터(Moonlight Scooter)
10. naru - 무지개(rainbow)
11. Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑(hobby is love)
12. Earip - 우리집 싱어(our home singer)
13. 달빛요정역전만루홈런(Moonlight Nymph) - 주성치와 함께라면(being together with Stephen Chow)
14. Joa-Band - 유통기한(expiration date)
15. Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침(Winter Morning)
16. Serengeti - Hakuna Matata
(*do not take 100% on title translations)

Serengeti's Hakuna Matata is said to be a follow up to 'We Are The World' with No Reply's Gwon Sun Gwan, Oh Ji Eun, Daybreak's Lee Won Weok and EZ Hyung participating in the chorus.

The track that will be released before the CD comes out will be one song out of Sung Ji Hwan's '포근해', Lonely H's Band (still pronounced like Lonely Husband) '고향에 살어리랏다', or Serengeti's 'Hakuna Matata'.
The title song will be decided by the staff in a meeting.

Due to high expenses for the merchandise, it has been decided that there will be no merchandise for the limited edition. Instead there will be no limited edition with being both the same. But they will work hard for a nice package.

The booklet with photos and lyrics is organized with 32 pages.
The photos fitting to the LIFE concept will be done mostly by Starry-Eyed's duck and a little by Kathrin Jin(head of Mintpaper) and Sombrero(head of Master Plan).

[EE] Marriage

Singer Lee Yoon Jung (33) is going to marry her EE colleague Lee Hyun Joon (27) coming June.
Place and date are not announced yet, but planned is a wedding ceremony with parents and family, and after that a party at a club in EE-style.

They met for the first time at a House Rulez music party and developed a lover's relationship during their activities as duo EE. Especially their interests in art got them together.
Lee Yoon Jung currently works as a fashion stylist whereas Lee Hyun Joon works as installation artist and sound producer.

[Seoul Electric Band] Going to Beatball

Seoul Electric Band goes with Beatball Music starting April 2010.

After making the 1st album together with Mezoo Music, they did released everything themselves without a label.
It is planned to produce and promote Seoul Electric Band's 3rd album and member Shin Yoon Chul's Solo album.

While Shin Jung Hyun, the father of members Shin Yoon Chul and Shin Suk Chul, had a re-release of one of his older albums at Beatball in 2003, contact was made through the participation at the soundtrack of the movie 'Go Go 70' and the performance 'Rock sounds of the youth'.

[Galaxy Express] Making a Record in 30 Days Project

April 1 Galaxy Express starts their project to make an album in 30 days. No songs are recorded or organized, the project started at point 0.

The members made an extra blog for it, galaxy30.tistory.com, where they stated that the recording, mixing and mastering will not proceede with normal methods. They rather want to put their basic sound, just as it is, on it.

Until the project is finished, Galaxy Express updates their blog with their songs they are working on.

[Mintpaper] LIFE 4th Update

Planned on 14 songs first, then decided to 15 the number of songs changed now again to 16 songs. The last 4 added songs are following:

01. Sung Ji Hwan - [title to be announced]
02. Serengeti - Hakuna Matata
03. Daybreak - 팝콘(popcorn)
04. naru - 무지개(rainbow)
05. Earip - 우리집 싱어
06. Lonely Husband - 고향에 살어리랏다
07. 달빛요정역전만루홈런(Moonlight Nymph) - 주성치와 함께라면
08. Dalmoon - 구제불능
09. Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다
10. 10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요
11. Lee Neung Ryong (feat. Im Ju Yeon) - 없는끝 이야기
12. neons - 달빛 스쿠터
13. Joa-Band - 유통기한
14. Lala Sweet - Good Bye
15. Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑
16. Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침
*order of songs is not related to the final tracklist. correct tracklist will be announced after the mastering April 5.

Sweet Sorrow Sung Ji Hwan's Solosong. The recording has been finished a while ago but he is uneasy as he has no title for the song now. He did the song together with Serengeti.

It has been decided that the full band version of the song Hakuna Matata, which gained much applause during Serengeti's first arthall concert, will also be recorded.
It will also be fun to see who participated in the chorus.

The song Daybreak is going to record for LIFE has been changed 3 times. The other two songs that got almost on the compilation, '머리가 자란다' and '에라모르겠다', are now playing a role in Deb's album recording.

The last song that has been decided on is Naru's '무지개'. He did all the performing, vocal, recording and even the 1st mixing alone. It will probably the song that boast the most powerful decibel on the compilation.


7 songs have been mixed, it is planned to have 10 songs finished(mixing) this week and have all songs by thursday next week.
Mastering will be finished April 5 and after ten days from today on the correct tracklist can be announced.

Changes have been made to the schedule:

4.02(FR) | Finishing mixing
4.05(MO) | Finishing mastering
4.06(TU) | Announcing correct track list
4.10~11(SA~SU) | Releasing as entrance music for live ICON audience!
4.14(WE) | First Design release
4.19(MO) | Open for preorder
4.26(MO) | MINTPAPER RADIO special LIFE release broadcast - first release of full songs
4.27(TU) | Pre-release of a part of tracks online
5.01~2(SA~SU) | First sale of limited amount (Beautiful Mint Life)
5.03(MO) | Release in shops in the whole country
5.06(TH) | Opening radio publicity
5.28~29(FR~SA) | MNET 'AURA' - LIFE Release Concert @ Timesquare CGV Art Hall

[Mint Paper] LIFE 3rd Update

A new update on LIFE has been made on the Mint Paper homepage.

The 3rd line up of songs+artists has been revealed and the list looks like this now:

01. Earip - 우리집 싱어
02. Lonely Husband - 고향에 살어리랏다
03. 달빛요정역전만루홈런(Moonlight Nymph) - 주성치와 함께라면
04. Dalmoon - 구제불능
05. Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다
06. 10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요
07. Lee Neung Ryong (feat. Im Ju Yeon) - 없는끝 이야기
08. neons - 달빛 스쿠터
09. Joa-Band - 유통기한
10. Lala Sweet - Good Bye
11. Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑
12. Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침

Kim C (Hot Potatoes) and Lee Sun Gyu (Jaurim) work together as the project band Lonely Husband to record a song with fabulous sound.
Sweater vocal Earip's small and lovely solo song after a long time.
Moonlight Nymph' humor and resolution about seperation.
Dalmoon's song about self-reflection and gloomy confessions.


12 songs have been official announced by now, but the whole song number to be recorded is 15. The 3 left songs and artists will be probably announced sometime during the next 2 weeks.

A schedule for the LIFE release has been announced:

4.02(FR) | Finishing mixing
4.05(MO) | Finishing mastering
4.06(TU) | Announcing correct track list
4.10~11(SA~SU) | Releasing as entrance music for live ICON audience!
4.14(WE) | First Design release
4.19(MO) | Open for preorder
4.26(MO) | Pre-release of a part of tracks online
5.01~2(SA~SU) | First sale of limited amount (Beautiful Mint Life)
5.03(MO) | Release in shops in the whole country
5.06(TH) | Opening radio publicity
5.28~29(FR~SA) | Album Release Concert

This is the program but it also may change a bit.


Other Infos about the album say that the normal album will have a 'digipack' with illustrations and photos. The first limited print will be produced with a special bag and will even include some kind of Merchandise.

The limitation of the first print is not decided yet but will be at least 3,000 and max 5,000 CDs. It is also planned to procede an event at the BML where the limited first press will be sold to a normal price. The normal album and the limited version will have a price difference and it will be possible to buy them in every store.

[Guckkasten] 1st Album Re-Release

Ruby Salon announced that the 1st album from Guckkasten will be re-released in the first week of April.
The re-release has the songs from the 1st album re-recorded plus an acoustic version of '꼬리'. Also the CD jacket will have a new design.

[Phonebooth] Guitarist leaves

Phonebooth' guitarist Lee San Mi left the band due personal reasons. He had his last performance March 12.
Thus he will not participate in the activities for the 2nd album. Kim Tae Woo announced that they will have a new guitarist.

[Naru] New Infos on 2nd Album

Happy Robot twittert new infos about Naru's 2nd album.

Naru's 2nd album will be out soon and it contains 11 songs, under it a huge song that goes over 8 minutes. The title of the album will be 'YET'.
Naru performed the song 'YET' at Soundholic's 'Holiday - Promenade' at February 7. A video of that has been posted at the Happy Robots blog, but it has been taken down again to raise the anticipation for the 2nd album.

[No Reply] In Interview with Kim Ki Ja

The Kim KiJa Daum Cafe (which revolves around Indie) has a new corner "Alive, Deep Inside", showing other sides of the artists to the fans. Their first artist was No Reply.
At first a video was released with cuts from the interview and a live performance.



Later the full interview has been revealed (click on 'Read More'), followed by snapshots, to look at here and No Reply's favorite music, see here

[Mintpaper] 2nd Update on LIFE

There has been news about Mintpaper's 3rd compilation LIFE.
To the first list of 4 artists and songs, new 4 songs have been added.

Han Hee Jung - 오늘은 휴일입니다(Today is holiday)
10cm - 오늘밤은 어둠이 무서워요(The darkness tonight is scary)
Lee Neung Ryong - 없는끝 이야기(Endless story)
neons - 달빛 스쿠터(Moonlight Scooter)

없는끝 이야기 is the first solo project of Lee Neung Ryong, guitarist of Sisters Barbershop.
neons is the solo project of MONGOO, keyboard and vocal of the Mongoose.

There have been changes to the 1st Line-up though and some explanations were added:
Joa-Band - 유통기한 (song has been changed)
Lala Sweet - Good Bye (together with No Reply's Jung Wook Jae as producer)
Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑 (Gyepi and Boby Chung's new unit)
Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침(Winter Morning) (worrying a bit as spring came so early, but...)

A big staff meeting is planned for March 2nd and the exact schedule will be settled there. As for now, the planned progress looks like following: in 15~20 days a sparta recording, end of March/beginning of April mixing parade and album design and in mid of April the release!(would be awesomeㅠ)

[Phonebooth] Vocal Laser to Stop Smoking?

Laser, Vocal of Phonebooth, wrote February 17 that he stopped smoking. But already after 15 hours, he wrote, he feels like dieing. One day later, February 18 about 7pm he gives up.

Seems giving up on smoking is quite hard and it is questionable if he will try it again.

Stay tuned, Violet Sweets keeps you up on this serious issue.

[Serengeti] Soowan in a Documentary About Pama

In an epiode of the series '30 Min Docu' on 19.September 2009 Soowan had an appearance. The Episode was about pama hair and of course Soowan had to be there too.

[Lucid Fall] Mintpaper Interview

As Lucid Fall is Mintpaper's Person of the month February, they did an interview with him.

It is a rather comfortable one and nice to read. I didn't gave his radio appearance a listen yet though.

[Pony] Guitarist found

A short while after the first guitarist left it seems Pony found a new one. They also had already a performance, but as there are no pictures from that, there's only one picture Sang Min uploaded unto the fancafe:



with their new guitarist Pony are currently preparing their new acoustic EP that's supposed to come out in May.

[Serengeti] Digital Single

Serengeti has been working on a new digital single which will be released today, 3.February.

The first track of the single, 'Hello, Bye...' is a 'remake' of 'Hello' which was released on the Mintpaper compilation 'Man and Woman ... and Stories' together with Yozoh. The new track is said to go deeper into Soul and contains more of Serengeti's feelings. Also the lyrics have been extended.

The second track 'Fly Higher' is a new version of the first track 'Fly High' from the second album Oasis. It has been new remixed and recorded by DJ Schedule1 who currently receives much attention as party DJ. The added rap of rapper Joe Brown makes it an even more powerful track.

Serengeti holds a concert 1.March where the visitors will get a copy of the digital single. Guests for the concert have not been published yet. Tickets can be bought at Interpark, and there are still a lot of seats. To preorder go here.

[EZ Hyung] New Minialbum

7 month after finishing his activities for his 2nd album 'Spectrum', EZ Hyung comes back with a new mini album called '봄의 기적' (Wonder of Spring) and a concert to it.

The mini album, filled with warm and simple melodies, comes out 23rd February; the concert is 13th March.

EZ Hyung's first mini album 'Coffe&Tea' came out 2007 in a limited amount.

For people who have a cyworld account, there is currently (27.01.~08.02.) an event where you can listen for free to full songs of several Happy Robot artists here ^^;

[9 and the Numbers] Who are they

Or rather who is 9.

Through a Interview from Mintpaper with 9('ku') and some internet articles I found out a bit about 9.

9 is Song Jae Kyung, the President of Tune Table Movement and he also was the guitarist in a band called '그림자 궁전'(Shadow Palace).
He started to freely write and compose songs about life and started like this a band that was totally different from Shadow Palace, calling his music electro folk or guitar synth-pop.

A music video for '말해주세요' is in work, planned is a music video with the feeling of an old Korean movie. 9 and the Numbers also have their first concert 27th February at club ta, guest is Oh Ji Eun.

9 also informs about the album of a new band called ‘Miracle of the Hangang’(한강의 기적) in mid of March, an album from Frenzy, a new album from Heureun and a remix album from Loro's.

To read the whole interview and get to know much more about 9, go here.

[Zitten] New Album in March

Reading Pastelmusic's retweet on Twitter, Zitten came together for a meeting on their next album today. The album is supposed to be released in March already and a concert will follow in April.

[MaryJane] First EP Coming

When I picked up a photo of MaryJane today with a sticker on the back saying that their first EP will be buyable at the Label Market in January, I was disappointed that I couldn't find anything. But going into their cyworld club it offers already a beautiful album art, a tracklist and the words that the release of the first EP isn't far.

On the tracklist there is also 'Super-Showman', which has been on the Beyond compilation, as Indieful ROK reported.


tracklist:

So Well
Super-showman
The Answer
Feeling... Over You
Breakout
Love Of Century

[Guckkasten] Japanese Album

I can't say for sure how far the process is, but Guckkasten are releasing a japanese version of their first album. This album won't be just a japanese version; songs from the first korean album will be/are sung in japanese. It seems that there will be also two new songs,'붉은밭' and '매니큐어', and an acoustic version of '꼬리'.

On 17th Vocal Ha Hyun Woo states that 5 songs have been finished and went into mixing, making 6 songs left to be recorded.

[Mate] New Minialbum

Mate's new Minialbum comes out tomorrow (20th January) and brings even a short trailer with it. As Mate said that they want to show different colors I am curious what they will bring this time.


메이트 (Mate) - With Mate (MINI ALBUM)

Tracklist
01. It's all about love
02. Better
03. 이제 다시
04. Go
05. Dear my mate
06. 긴 시간의 끝
07. 이제 다시 (again)

[Amado Lee Jaram Band] Working on Album This Year

The band around Lee Jaram announced that they won't have any activities for the next 10 month. Their goal is it too release their first album in mid October. They are also preparing for a concert 25th April.

It also has been announced that drummer SaengSeon, who is currently on a travel in Island, left the band. He apparently rather wanted to be a writer. (But I think he is still making photos for Mintpaper.)

[Midnight Stitch] New Single

The designer, cafe owner and musicians in one, Midnight Stitch, posted info on a third single on their homepage. The track 'Deadman Walking' isn't uploaded on myspace yet, but this may change.

It was originally planned to be the last single before the full length album, but Midnight Stitch says that they will now have one more song released in February.

[Lee Han Chul] becomes Professor

Singer Songwriter Lee Han Chul(38)has been assigned as a professor at Dong-Ha Institute of Media and Arts for the 'singer songwriter major'.

Lee Han Chul, who stepped into the world of singers through winning the great price at the 1994 MBC Campus Song Festival, won 3rd place at the promising YooJaeHa Music Competition and made several hit songs like 'Superstar'.

Lee Han Chul says "I will give my best to teach the singer songwriter juniors with the curriculum that is made up by my own personal know-how which I gained through a lot of music activities."

[Mintpaper] New Infos about LIFE

Mintpaper has been updated with some infos about the 3rd compilation 'LIFE'. More updates will probably follow at the beginning of February.

Artists that are currently recording or will start soon are

Joa-Band - 안부
Oh Ji Eun - 겨울아침
Lala Sweet - Good Bye
Autumn Vacation - 취미는 사랑

It has been said that Sisters Barbershop's guitarist Lee Neung Ryong (이능룡) will participate with his first solo song.
All in all 13 artists will participate.

The release date has been pushed from 'end of March' to 'mid of April'.
SaengSeon, who is in charge of the photos, will soon travel for a while to Island...

[Annyeong Bada] Interview

In an interview from 24th December 2009 (that I got to translate just now u_u) it turns out that 'Annyeong Bada' or 'ByeBye Sea' is not the full name of the band but 'I cross with you the sea' (난 그대와 바다를 가르네) and was shortened for an easy use.

They also reveal a little story behind this huge balloon.

In a part that was not interesting enough to be translated, the journalist mentions that ByeBye Sea will start to work on a full length album that is supposed to come out this year(2010).

To read the interview click 'Read more'

[Pony] Guitarist left

Pony's guitarist Kim Won Jun left the band for personal reasons. They are now searching for a new guitarist. Sang Min and Won Jun started the band with two other members first, taking in Seung Bo and Woo Suk later.

Nevertheless, Pony plans to bring out a new EP with a new feel during the first half of the year.

[Happy Robot] 2 Newbies

Now it has been made official. The new bands that are joining Happy Robot this year are Daybreak and The Koxx, both have been participated at the GMF through Hello Rookie.

Both bands join the MPMG-'party' in the Live Club Ssam on Clubday January 29th together with No Reply and Serengeti. Daybreak is releasing their EP 'NEW DAY' under Happy Robot January 19th.

Daybreak
The Koxx

[Mate] Joon Il and Heon Il taking over 푸른밤

Mate's Heon Il and Joon Il have been active every sunday as DJs for the MBC radio program '푸른밤'(blue night). Moon Ji Ae was DJ of 푸른밤 over the other days, but due to the death of her father she is taking a break and Heon Il and Joon are taking over her place until the 10 January. With their soft voices and flowing way of speaking they show a not-rookie-like appearance and get good comments from the viewers.

At the same time Mate is busy with preparing the last part of their 5~6 track minialbum that is supposed to come out at the end of January.

[Daybreak] Daybreak's Name

Like EZ Hyung said, first you search the name, something that sounds good and think of the meaning at the very last. Daybreak started with their abbreveation. They found that 'db' was looking nice and it looked like headphones. So they started to think of names that could be abbreviated with 'db'. After suggestions like 'Daebak'(big success) or 'Dubu'(Tofu) they finally came to their name 'Daybreak'. But before that another name with in discussion, 'Kangnam Boys'. At EZ Hyugs question who of the five came from Kangnam it turns out that noone comes from there.
Daybreak is the time when everyone sleeps, but like people who are already preparing for work or the daily life, Daybreak is the name with the thought of them wanting to sing about this daily life they're living silently.

Daybreak is going to release their EP this month (probably 19th) which contains 5 tracks including an intro, new versions of 사진, 범퍼카 and Urban Life Style, which were already on their first album, and the song 좋다 which they promoted during 'Hello Rookie'. In the broadcast of Mintpaper radio on 3rd December they also said that they plan to release a 2nd album in midst of 2010.

[No Reply] Narration job from 2008

2nd July 2008 the spanish group La Casa Azul, lead by producer Guille Milkyway, releases their Album 'La Revolucion Sexual'. The title song with the same name is a spanish song with japanese narration. The album contains several versions of this song, also a korean one with Yeongene on vocals. The japanese narration has been replaced by a korean one by No Reply's Jung Wook Jae.


cr:kosymo

His voice can be heard around 1:38 and 2:46.

[Dr. Core 911] New Bassist?

- Not really.

At a broadcast of SBS' 'Bae Ki Wan, Choi Young Ah, Jo Hyung Gi's Nice Morning' from 30th November actress Lee Ji Ah was shown on the concert of Dr. Core 911 on 29th November. That day she said that when she was little she also played 'a bit' bass and went up to the stage, playing. Dr. Core 911 Leader and bassist Shogi said about the surprising performance "When she first said she'll do it I thought she would do just a bit, but she played a lot. She played very well" he didn't spare with compliments.

Lee Ji Ah is mostly known through Dramas like 'Style' and 'Beethoven Virus'.

[Naru] The Name 'Naru'

As I was asking myself how Naru actually came to his name, as it is usually translated with 'ferry, ship', I found accidentally an article (from may 2008) where he explains it.

"You ask why 'Naru'? Friends called me 'Kkangnaru'. When I wrote on the Ssamji Sound Festival Board, I left without thinking the 'kkang*', which is the last name, away and wrote as 'Naru'. At the end this became my name. It really has no meaning. It's a bit boring, isn't it?"

* His real name is Kang Kyung Tae, Kang being the last name.

When Naru was in a school band in High School, playing the guitar wasn't more than a hobby, but listening to friends he participated at the Ssamji Sound Festival (which takes place every year), uploading two of his home made songs (meaning he did all - guitar, bass, drums, singing). Even though he didn't came through, Happy Robots who heard his songs was calling him and taking him into their 'family'.

Next question that has to be solved: How did the friends come to call him 'Kkangnaru'.