Wednesday, December 10, 2014

[MV] DIA - PARADISE


A bit odd, but this sounds like a contemporary pop take on a Gaelic waulking song.

"Hope" version (with English CC):

[MV] TeenTop - Snow Kiss

[MV] Kanto (feat. As One) - Before the Snow

[MV] yoonsang and Davink - Waltz

[MV] Emon - The Avenue With Goodbye

[MV] Eric Nam - Melt My Heart

[MV] Kim Na Young - As You Told Me

[MV] Han Dong Geun - Unread

Monday, November 24, 2014

[MV] SALTNPAPER - Moja (Hat)

[MV] Park Hyo Shin - Happy Together

[MV] Lucia - Melt Me

[MV] Baek Ji Young, Na Won Ju - Whenever it Rains

[MV] Loco (feat. Jay Park) - Thinking About You

[MV] BIGFLO - BAD MAMA JAMA

[MV] G.Tiger - Father from Behind



Super low budget, but I love when artists feature in MVs.

[MV] Zest - All My Official

[MV] Kim Dong Ryul (feat. Lee Sang Soon) - Those Days

[MV] Lim Chang Jung (feat. LE and Dr. Lee - Shall We Dance



More hilarity with almost every cameo imaginable.

[MV] Arboh (ABO) - Pheremone

[MV] ANDS - Oppa, where are you?

[MV] T-ARA & Chopsticks Brothers - Little Apple

Ummm... explosive nosebleeds?

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

[MV] Ulala Session - Best Girl

[MV] 10cm - Missing You

[MV] Nicole - MAMA



Good to see Nicole back to work after leaving KARA!

[MV] HI SUHYUN (feat. Bobby) - I'm Different


Love this track. I'm glad an MV was made for it.
They sound fantastic together.

[DEBUT] Pritz - Sorasora


Pretty clearly the Korean version of Babymetal.
I'd be super down for this, but the Nazi-esque armbands ruin it for me.

[MV] Nu.D - Insane

[MV] QUEEN B'Z - Bbi Bbi

[MV] Toy (feat. Sung Si Kyung) - Three People

[MV] Asteroid186 - 10:40

Thursday, November 13, 2014

[MV] Kyuhyun - At Gwanghwamun


Another MV shot like a wonky Wes Anderson film.
Glad to see Kyuhyun with a solo. Very deserving after all these years.

[MV] Freestyle (feat. Skull) - One Way

[MV] T.L Crow - Zombie Killer



Interesting genre fusion.

[MV] Maboos (feat. Swings) - Audacious

Warning: Lots of women gyrating while not wearing very much.

[MV] 10cm - Caress

This has to be the gentlest, most subdued song about sexy times. Kinda cute.

[MV] Ju Yoon Ha - Saying Goodbye To You

[DEBUT] Damiano (feat. Mina) - Skyfall

[MV] Natthew (feat. Son Ho Young) - Love Will Be OK

DEBUT

[MV] BADKIZ - BABOMBA

Thursday, November 6, 2014

[MV] Urban Zakapa - Self Hatred

[MV] ZICO (feat. Don Mills) - Tough Cookie

Oh boy. I'm sitting here wondering if I even want to post this.
I suppose I will.
WARNING: If you could put every single possible trope from every American 'gangster' rap video into a single music video by a Korean dude. This is it. It would be comical if we didn't know Zico is completely serious about adopting this image. So, there is a whole lot of cussing, middle fingers, grills, 'bling' faceless women shaking their asses, guys riding around on bikes with ski-masks, confederate flags, gambling, very obvious and offensive slurs, and... much more.

I understand that this kind of image is often literally only a 'concept' to a native Korean, no different from 'cute' or 'sexy' or 'steampunk'. It's just a costume to try on. But the lack of cultural understanding for what any of this means and what is being appropriated... well, problems arise.

In this case, Zico is trying to gain credibility and wants to be taken seriously as something like an underground hip-hop artist, by pure mimicry: gestures, clothing, posturing, language, accessories, and locations. It comes across as naive and disingenuous.

To me, it makes him look like a fool. But that's just me. You be the judge.

[MV] Cho Eun - Love, such a coward thing

[MV] HELLO VENUS - StickySticky


I can't help but think the choreography during the chorus is an interpretive dance of being overwhelmed by intestinal discomfort.

[MV] HanHae, Kanto, Champagne&Candle - High

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

[MV] Standing EGG - I Like Hanging

[MV] Nunco Band - Future Luv

[MV] Crush - SOFA


Not that it's anything outrageous, but I love that beat!

[MV] The Legend - LOST


Official channel link

[LIVE] Epik High (feat. Younha) - We Fight Ourselves

Does this count as an MV? Heh. No idea. Karaoke/Noraebang version of We Fight Ourselves. Whatever it is, it's lovely. I'm totally on-board for unconventional MVs.

[MV] 2AM - Over the Destiny

[MV] RAINSTONE (feat. Brian McKnight, San E, Verbal Jint) - Rainstorm



McKnight? Oh, okay... sure! lol.

[DEBUT] HOTSHOT - Take A Shot

[MV] B.face - Hello, A Day

[MV] GOGOBOYS - The Great Journey

[MV] Brick - Thank You

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Saturday, October 18, 2014

[MV] Epik High - Born Hater

EPIK HIGH IS BACK
With a ton of features: Beenzino, Verbal Jint, BI, Bobby, and Mino.



El-fucking-Greco. Tukutz's salmon suit. Pizza Mithra. The color. The vertical format, which I'm going to call "Shoebox Format" from now on. LOVE. ALL THE LOVE.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

[MV] Seo Taiji - Sogyeok-dong



Here's the other half of the IU/Seo Taiji collaboration. Chilling and beautiful.

[MV] Red Velvet (feat. SR14B Taeyong) - Be Natural



Huge shift from Happiness for their second single. It's pleasant. Maybe too pleasant? The rap part feels too tacked on. And it's a little too much burlesque imo.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

[MV] Song Ji Eun - Don't Look At Me Like That


Gave me goosebumps all the way through. Really beautiful.
LOEN's upload has the lyrics. It was promoted as a message supporting 'less conventional' relationships, like interracial or LGBTQ relationships, which is pretty great.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

[MV] SPICA.S - Give Your Love?



SPICA's new sub-group with 4/5 of the members. Boa will have a solo effort soon. I like that it's a 'sexy' video, like so many others lately, but there's a subversive element of humor in there and only a few brief shots of body parts. Nice to see.

[MV] John Park - U

Slight warning: Some stalker-ish imagery, an 'unconscious' woman being dragged around, and a noose.

[MV] LYn - Thank You My Dear

[MV] LiVii - C'mon

[MV] CROSS GENE - Billion Dolla

I'm not sure what to make of this. The song is in English (barely), it's a zombie apocalypse dance-off, and the last third of the video is a Japanese version with dancing zombie kids? I don't know if it's supposed to be intentionally hysterical.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

[MV] T-ARA - SUGAR FREE

Well, it's Kpop, so spastic/flashy videos are the norm, but I'll still warn for this one. The strobe effect is strong with this one. Brace yourself for frantic cuts and flashing lights. Lol.


Version 2 is more of the same.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

[ADMIN] Tragic news



When I went to bed last night I saw that the group Ladies' Code had been in a car accident and they were all okay. Watching the story unfold today has been brutal.

One member of the group, Go Eunbi, has passed away. All of the members were hospitalized and it appears that a few are still in critical condition. Absolutely terrible news. My thoughts go out to the girls, their families and friends, and everyone affected.

Car accidents seem to happen pretty frequently to Kpop groups. They travel together in vans around the city and on tours, often at very odd hours, when everyone is tired. I've dreaded the day when a car accident caused permanent injury or worse to these idols who work so hard under difficult conditions. I'm heartbroken that today was that day.

Rest in Peace, Go Eunbi. We can only hope that the rest pull through.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Monday, August 18, 2014

[MV] Jang Beom June - Difficult Woman



I won't call this a debut even though it technically is. Busker Busker has disbanded as a couple of the dudes no longer wished to make music. So here we have Jang Beom June carrying the torch as a solo artist.

[MV] Billion - SALANG SALANG

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Friday, August 15, 2014

[MV] TAEMIN - Danger



Seems like it was just yesterday that Taemin was debuting at 14. I can't help but see him as a kid still, but it's cool to see how far he has come as a performer.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Thursday, August 7, 2014

[MV] SPICA - I Did It

SPICA is attempting the oft-tried, always-failed, push into the US market. The song is decent. The MV is okay. It's just not anywhere near what I know they're capable of. Some of the best pronunciation overall compared to all the other artists who have done this.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

[MV] LYn, LEO - Blossom Tears

I feel like I'll be perpetually putting gore warnings on anything VIXX related. Ha! Generally kind of dark subject matter here. It's vague enough that you don't know if a murder or suicide occurred, but there is some blood/heart(organ) imagery that could bother you if you're squeamish. Pretty song!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

[MV] San E (feat. Bumkey) - Body Language

I've seen waaaay too many gratuitous shots of boobs, crotch, and ass this week in Kpop, but at least this one is humorous in the end.

Friday, August 1, 2014

[DEBUT] 4L (Four Ladies) - Move

I'm almost cringing too hard to post it.

Soooo, I thought Stellar's video for Marionette was bad. Well, we have a new contender. This is the single most gratuitously over-sexualized MV I've seen... and it's incredibly awkward. Fair warning?



Editing later for the record...

52 00

Thursday, July 31, 2014

[DEBUT] Red Velvet - Happiness



UPDATE: SME took the video down, edited out the gross bits and reuploaded it.

I'm really hoping SME takes down this video to edit it. At around 33 seconds in, there is a collage of newspapers from WWII full of headlines and content about dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. Multiple ethnic slurs about Japanese people are clearly visible.

This is inexcusable and reprehensible as far as I'm concerned.

Later into the MV there are collaged images of buildings from the New York city-scape with stock images of billowing smoke behind and two toy airplanes. One can only hope that this is an unfortunate coincidence and not a reference to 9/11.

Take it down, SME! It's not fair to these girls to have their debut tainted by your lack of quality control and insensitivity!

Red Velvet is SME's brand new girl group. Considering that f(x) cancelled the rest of their comeback promotions and Sulli is possibly leaving the group... Red Velvet seems to be replacing them. We'll see what happens.

[MV] Sunny Hill - Once in a Summer



I'm so accustomed to Sunny Hill having great lyrics with important social commentary and an interesting sound that this is downright jarring. Lol. Seems unlike them to do something so trite, cutesy, and saccharine.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Friday, July 11, 2014

[MV] g.o.d. (feat. Megan Lee) - The Story of Our Lives



g.o.d. has had a fantastic comeback after forever. This is perfectly aligned with their classic sound. Good stuff.

[MV] Henry - Fantastic



I was hoping for a little more BAM IN YOUR FACE VIOLIN since it's really Henry's forte... still fun though.

A week and a half later EDIT: Henry posted a string quarter version!

[MV] Kim Hyunjoong - Beauty Beauty



This is a polar opposite style to Unbreakable. Lol. I kind of dig the look of the video. Reminds me of Hyori's U-Go-Girl. I'm terrified to imagine what a "Blacky Line" is though...

[MV] Ailee - I'm in love (2LSON cover)



Another Ailee MV with no Ailee in the MV. Heh. Just for clarity... the actress 'singing' in the MV is not Ailee.

[MV] BESTie - Like a star

[MV] Parc Jae Jung - Stalker

Nice melody and beautiful MV... it's age-restricted due to flashes of creepy/disturbing stalker-ish imagery at the very end.

Friday, July 4, 2014

[MV] Clazziquai Project - Love Satellite

Great track from Clazzi, as usual, bit of a warning on the video though. It's strange. Dude has a pig-nose. And the characters voice is digitally altered in such a way that sounds very eerie and potentially disturbing. Fair warning... though I'm just particularly sensitive to certain kinds of sounds and this one is hitting all the wrong buttons. Maybe it wouldn't bother anyone else.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

[MV] Younha - Umbrella

This is kind of a 'remake' of Epik High's 'Umbrella', which featured Younha on the chorus. Here we have all Younha. One of my favorite Kpop songs ever and I adore both versions. Just gorgeous.

[MV] So Ji Sub (feat. Soul Dive) - Boy Go

[MV] FIESTAR - One More

[MV] Junweather - I Stand Alone

[MV] Ra.D - Fly Away

[MV] g.o.d. - Sky Blue Promise

[MV] Zizo - Run

[MV] HYO MIN - Nice Body

Ugh.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

[MV] CROSS GENE - Amazing - Bad Lady

Gentle NSFW: Lots of crotch-rubbing... lol.

[MV] PSY (feat. Snoop Dogg) - HANGOVER



ROFL. Some of the teaser pictures and info that came out when they were making this made me think it would be FAR FAR cringe-ier than this. Turned out alright! It's ridiculous and there's not much to it, but... not terrible! Nice little cameos from G-Dragon and CL.

[MV] ToppDogg - TOPDOG

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

[LIVE] Zion.T - Madame

The music industry is almost entirely at a standstill. Lots of comebacks are delayed well into May or are altogether cancelled. For updates of the status of the Sewol Ferry disaster, check this Google Doc.

As someone who leans heavily on music when terrible things happen, my attention was gratefully brought to an excellent YT channel called 'onstage' or 온스테이지 in Korean. Fantastic live performances.

 Zion.T was recently featured...

Thursday, April 17, 2014

[ADMIN] After following the ferry tragedy...



... for the last few days...

Guh.
Pretty gutted and agitated and just really really really sad.
Not much more to say that hasn't already been said. Heartbroken.

The typically steady cadence of Kpop business has screeched to a halt. Lots of media, shows, music companies, etc, are postponing releases of all kinds for a little while. I'll get back to posting in a day or two.

Desperately hoping for some resolution for the waiting families.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

[COVER] MUST-SEE performances from SPICA and Kiss&Cry

The common thread through my favorite bands and artists, Kpop or otherwise, is vocal ability. I wanted to make a post in praise of a couple recent performances by Kpop lady groups, showcasing some excellent singing. SPICA debuted in 2012 and Kiss&Cry just this year and they both maintain my rapt attention with their voices. I hope they stick around for a long while and get to promote some great tracks.

SPICA have the advantage of singing more comfortably in Korean here, but gotta respect Kiss&Cry for not letting the awkward English be too much of a burden on their performance. Enjoy!

SPICA - It's Raining Men (Korean remake)



Kiss&Cry - Lady Marmalade

[MV] Toheart - Tell Me Why

[DEBUT] Akdong Musician - 200%



YAY! So happy to see these guys 'debut' finally. Akdong Musician won the 2nd season of K-pop Star. They're a brother-sister duo and I love their sound! Looking forward to the album which should be out April 7th.

[MV] BTS - Just One Day

Monday, March 31, 2014

[MV] NS Yoon-G - YASISI

[MV] Crayon Pop - Uh-ee



Lol. So it's a trot throwback for Crayon Pop this time around. Not sure it's a strong enough song or concept to keep people interested. I still think they're refreshing. Live performances will probably be fun... and they're opening for Lady Gaga during part of her US tour this summer!

[MV] Jinx - Seesaw



Really pretty. Love this sound.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

[MV] Bro - That Kind of Guy



A little context. This track has gotten a lot of attention in the last few days. If you don't understand Korean it will sound like your average lovely ballad. But the lyrics are kind of hilariously dissing women who are only after Prince-like, tall, handsome, wealthy men... while unaware that they themselves are pretty crappy people.

[MV] MBLAQ - Be A Man