Lala Sweet to release an album

Female duo Lala Sweet (Kim Hyun Ah, Park Byul) announced their first album 'bittersweet' to be released December 6th.

The title song '우린 지금 어디쯤에 있는 걸까 (Where are we now)' displays the character of the album the best as a ballad with a rock basis.

'파란달이 뜨는 날에(on days the blue moon rises)', adding to the rich imagination through poetic license, '태엽감기(Spring Cold)', making feel the bursting suspense between the powerful arrangement and the contrastively flowing melody, 'Blind Eyes', performed by Kim Hyun Ah, and others, 11 songs are included on the album.

As bonus track, they re-arranged '나의 낡은 오렌지나무(My old Orange Tree)' with which they won second place at 2008 MBC 'Campus Song Festival'.

Lala Sweet comes from the name of a dessert shop called 'lalasweet' they saw when both traveled together to India.

Having won second place at the 2008 Campus Song Festival, they released their debut mini album 'Lala Sweet' last year and were also selected as EBS 'Rookies of September' that year.

The album will be available on online music sites on 29th.



Translated at 5 in the morning. Song titles are just a vague translation and not final.

source: MEWSis

Guckkasten changes to major label

This article is actually some weeks old. I thought it's interesting and tried to translate it. But I failed and tried instead to type it up myself, fitting in some lines from the original article. I'm sorry for the weird.

Popular indie band Guckkasten recently made a contract with major label Yedang Company. The reactions in general were positive, since it gives Guckkasten a chance to get known more broadly and the conditions of the new contract seem to the band’s advantage too. The label won’t interfere with the musical parts and will also support the band’s advance overseas. Guckkasten’s leader Ha Hyeon Woo says that “We wanted to concentrate on music under a more systematic support as the band is growing, so we decided for a contract with a new label.”

Despite that, the process of the transfer is seen with critic eyes, as Yedang did not contacted Guckkasten’s original label Ruby Salon even once. Popular music critic Park Eun Seok said that “in foreign countries, when a band enters a major label, it is common that each of the labels have a smooth agreement and grope the way of harmony, Yedang ignored this process.”

Guckkasten and Ruby Salon kept a verbal contract for one year. Ruby Salon president Lee Gyu Young is frustrated that “Because there is no contract itself, we have no way to oppose.” A large majority of Indie labels has no documented contract or earnest money and even if there is earnest money, it’s actually at a level below 5 mil Won. Indie music industry professionals point out that ‘the indie scene too has to set up a system’, but they can’t come up with a proper measure.

Also between the colleague bands the opinions cross. One leader of a main indie band, who doesn’t want to be named, says “Looking at the contract conditions, it has positive points since they seem to change to a major label preserving their pride and music” and “That they excluded Ruby Salon, whom they grew with since their debut, completely from the transfer process, seems not a good pattern.”

source

Thomas Cook - Mintpaper Interview

Thomas Cook was the Artist Of The Month June at Mintpaper's and 3 month after starting, I finished the translation of the interview that came with it.


T/N: I realized while proofreading, that my english is still awkward and fail. I'm sorry for that. If there is something you don't understand, ask!

Highlights:
- talking about the time before his comeback and his search
- talking about producer Kim Dong Ryul
- My Aunt Mary's future (the reason I translated the whole thing, actually)
- the lovely that is Jeong Sun Yong.

Mintpaper Compilation vol. 4 is coming

Just today there has been an update on the fourth Mintypaper Compilation 'cafe: night & day'. A rough translation of one part:

The night and day of a café, starting with busy talk and laughter and ending with quiet thoughts and preparation, carries for us the meaning of a ‘scenery and space to share culture and communication’. The stories and connections, followed by sometimes serious, sometimes futile episodes, and the countless crowds of thoughts are delivered once again with a plain touch.

While the new arisen ‘duos’ and ‘acoustic’ become the centre in ‘café: night & day’ with a tendency to Mintpaper related artists, we will also introduce rare collaborations and rising artists whose growth makes looking forward to.

10cm's new song '안아줘' from the compilation will be pre-released in a digitial single Augutst 16.

The Koxx' performance, talk at Sketchbook

I'm sorry, I kind of went hiatus without saying a word. This is an inbetween-hiatus work.



I'm sorry for mistakes, which I'm sure of being there. Also, got kind of rusty at doing this.

Kangto's Interview with Mintpaper

Through Mintpaper's newsletter I came across this interview and translated it. (I may be lazy, but feel free to drop me something.)

T/N: Sorry about weird english


Kangto Interview – A guitarist singing with his heart

In the field I am there are a lot of people who want to make their own original thing. But it’s not easy to enjoy what I do unflinchingly to the surrounding circumstances.

“Becoming happy is my dream. Currently, the closest thing to happiness seems to be the music for me. So I’m making music.”

A young man who grew up with music, playing his guitar since he was little, and even though there were times he worried ‘is this the right path?’, he never let go of the guitar, performed joyfully und raised his dream. Then he met a good mentor coincidentally and finally he was a newcomer releasing his first album under his own name. Listening to his story, it doesn’t seem the ‘coincidence’ simply came. After playing guitar and singing somewhere for a long series of time, how is the feeling of holding the album he finally released under his own name? His name is still unfamiliar, but we met the newcomer, singing with a pure heart, Kangto.

Indie Band Names' Meaning Part 2

This was quite confusing and at times I thought making a part 2 had been a mistake, some parts turned out quite weird.

This time: Dear Cloud, Yellow Monsters, The KOXX, Galaxy Express, Monni, Guckkasten, Sister's Barbershop, No Reply and Gajami Boys

T/N: Names are again romanised on a whim. Cookies for people who can give me romanised name for 가자미소년단. Sorry for weirdness.

10cm's Americano doesn't die

10cm and Ha Ji Won acted together in a cf for coffee where 10cm's hit song 'Americano' had been rearranged with Ha Ji Won joining them. Even though it was their first time appearing in a cm, 10cm performed without a NG.

Indie Band Names' Meaning

Yesterday, I was searching for Achime(as searching with this name one finds everything but the band), I stumbled upon an article explaining the meanings of names from indie bands. Probably interesting to know that most of them don't have a real meaning, I did a quick translation.

This had been called 'part 1', so I hope there comes more. The first part contains Gloomy Monkeys, Soran, Daybreak, Munk, Neon Bunny, Broccoli you too, Oyster Boys and Joa Band. Please excuse me if there are names romanized wrong, I write them simply as I feel like.

The KOXX, No Reply and 2 new artists at Happy Robot's

Happy Robot posted some news on their blog today, also mentioning a new albums from No Reply and the KOXX. No Reply plans on gather new, unpublished songs and make an album out of them. If I understood it right, it's supposed to be released before their performance at the Olympic Hall in July.

The KOXX will release their first full-length album with the title 'Access OK'. It's supposed to come out in the beginning of June.

Happy Robot has also signed two new bands, Soran and Lala Sweet.

Something small Mintpaper-ish

By chance I stumbled over a blog entry by Sombrero (head of MPMG) about the plans of the 4th Mintpaper project album. He writes that it will maybe be released in September, latest before GMF 2011 in October. There are still no songs, but the participants have been decided to a certain extent. Also, there will be a lot of new faces, he says.

On another small note, No Reply's song '낡은 배낭을 메고' that had been on the digital single '끝나지 않은 노래', has been used for a cuckoo rice cooker advertisment with Won Bin.