The Cockrasher
Kids Return Now
Skunk Label 2007
Jon Twitch
One of the golden oldies bands of the Korean punk scene, The Cockrasher has been crawling up urethras before you could find Korea on a map. They had one of the least forgettable songs on the ¡°We Are the Punx in Korea¡± compilation in 2001, ¡°Not Your Business.¡± It opens with the chords to Cock Sparrer¡¯s ¡°Argy Bargy,¡± and just when you¡¯re thinking ¡°Aw, not this shit,¡± they switch streams into an original song. This song is on the new album, and it serves as a reminder that before The Cockrasher was a great band, they were Cock Rasher, a pretty cool band. But what I admire about this album are the first three songs. It kicks off with ¡°Lust for Life,¡± a frenzy of guitars and people shouting stuff which seems more like a 58-second intro than a full song. Then track 2 is ¡°Victory?¡±, probably the best song on the album. Rather than give up after two songs, the album transitions into ¡°Turning Point,¡± which has smartly been augmented with organs. This album has 13 great songs that are stacked up in a wellthought out way. It¡¯ll be hard to find a better album in 2007.

Suck Stuff
City Rebels
Skunk Label/Seoul Records 2006
Jon Twitch
We¡¯re all in agreement: if you didn¡¯t think City Rebels was the best album of 2006, you¡¯re either crazy or you don¡¯t like punk. This album marks the start of a new Suck Stuff, after the singer Chulhwan had to find all new members. He got Paul Brickey, a Korean-American with his own engaging songwriting style, and fresh-faced members Kiseok and Jeongjae. Paul and Chulhwan molded Kiseok and Jeongjae in their image, and everything came together for this album. Over 16 songs, Paul and Chulhwan take turns on lead vocals, one supporting the other. I felt a few songs were missing, such as ¡°One Unity¡± and ¡°Why Do We Have to Respect Him?¡± which both define the new Suck Stuff very well. They are supported by an army of guest singers worthy of a rap album, but everyone pulls off their role well and adds to the total product. For English parts, they brought in English speakers to sing the chorus, including me, so that kind of compromises my objectivity. So anyway, how¡¯s the weather over there?

Ska Sucks
Hip Twice Hep Crew
independent 2006
Jon Twitch
This album starts off on a sour note: they get their name wrong. Ska does not suck. Normally it would be enough for me to pass them over completely, but they are tenacious kids. They haven¡¯t quite figured out their sound yet, oscillating between straight-up ska and ska-punk, two sounds that are very much in conflict. Fortunately Ska Sucks doesn¡¯t fall into the Prozac-fueled peppiness and frat-boy mentality of ska-punk. Their songs are laced with anger and pain and could be the start of something much better. The lead singer is going into the army this spring so we might have to be patient on these guys.

Downhell
At the End of Death
Dream On Records 2006
Jon Twitch
Family dinners got a lot more interesting last year. My sister-in-law met a nice man and married him in the spring. It turned out the guy I have to call Hyung-nim--a nice, quiet, gentle dude--is the lead guitarist/ songwriter of the metal band Downhell. He¡¯s one of those guys you can just put a guitar in his hands and he¡¯ll do something cool with it, and Downhell is his attempt to play the music he wants. Since this CD was put out, these guys have been getting a lot of attention. Normally I don¡¯t like metal because I hate rapmetal and I can¡¯t stand James Hetfield¡¯s guttural vocals, but Downhell plays a refreshingly awesome metal sound right out of the ¡®80s, like a Korean Judas Priest. If you want to hear some good metal with a Korean guy wailing on the vocals, this CD is the thing for you. And I¡¯m not just saying this because he¡¯s my brother-in-law.

One for All
Rock Love Roll
Tiger Hole Choice/Loft Records
Jon Twitch
I know I¡¯ve seen these guys before. But every time I look at this CD, I get a little mixed up. Weren¡¯t they all skinheads? Why is there a girl holding a clover? It reminds me of the old Gum X album cover to ¡°You are so Beautiful,¡± which was just a Canadian girl they thought was hot. Uh, okay. Most of the time you can judge a CD by its cover, but this is not one of those cases. Just a couple songs in and you know you¡¯re in for another album of balls-to-the-walls anthems with laughable lyrics ¡°Strong wind blow me all the time. My spit splashed against my face.¡± Or in ¡°Proud of Here,¡± I don¡¯t know what they mean by ¡°One day blue eyed soldiers came over my town. It¡¯s Biggest news! Responded to their fire with our special weapons and passion.¡± Maybe if they sang in Japanese, then at least their Japanese fans would be able to figure it out. With One for All, you¡¯re getting what you¡¯ve come to expect from Japanese skinhead bands. At times it¡¯s hard to distinguish between One for All, Oi! Valcans, and Raise a Flag, but they¡¯re quality nonetheless, even if there are no surprises.

The Waking Party
Fear Not the Storm Icarus! EP
Asah Records 2006
Jon Twitch
I moved away from my hometown to escape moptopped hipsters taking over the music scene. Then I came here and saw the Waking Party. Finally I realised: those hipster fops with their sweater-vests and perfectly mussed up hairstyles weren¡¯t trying to be cool: they were trying to be like Alex...and not doing a good job. This EP features six power- pop songs that are heavy on the adrenaline and low on the bells and whistles--it¡¯s seriously lacking in the pretension you¡¯d expect from an indie rock album. The production is a little spartan, but if you were expecting Pulp, you deserve a kick in the eardrums that this EP provides.

Galaxy Express
At that Side of Outer Space of Dusk
Sangsu City Rockers 2006
Jon Twitch
It¡¯s difficult to come away from this EP with much more than a reminder they¡¯re good live. The sound quality is poor, even for a live recording, but you can hear and recognise the songs. Let¡¯s hope this is a preview of a better quality album they¡¯ll put out soon. It would be quite a chore producing an album for Galaxy Express. The Buster Don¡¯t Stop Dream of Youth POGO Drinkin¡¯ Like a Animal Independent 2006 Jon Twitch This album is raw, cheaply produced, immature, and too loud--exactly what I was looking for. For a new band, and for a live recording, it¡¯s an impressive demonstration. The guitar sounds great and the vocals are full of energy which even Couch doesn¡¯t reach most of the time. Buster is exactly what every scene needs--kids who are full of energy and want to play music. They¡¯re no Couch yet you might say, but where was Couch when they were this age? Buster is one band that gives me hope for the future of Korean punk. We need more cheap recordings like this which are thrown together by some recordable device that fits in your pocket, and which cost less than a buck to produce. Someday Buster will release a full-length and we can look back on this recording and laugh, but for now it¡¯s a good start.

The Geeks
What¡¯s Inside EP
Townhall Records/ Think Fast Records 2005
Jon Twitch
The Geeks are probably Korea¡¯s most successful band abroad. With one US tour finished and a world tour on the way, they¡¯ve put their name out there more than any other single punk or hardcore band in this country. They¡¯ve been recording a lot of small releases lately, and even had a 7¡± intended for the foreign market. And through all this, Kiseok¡¯s voice still hasn¡¯t gone through puberty yet. He¡¯s kept his voice in great condition, but I guess that¡¯s what you get when you don¡¯t drink or smoke. This CD delivers five very fast Geeks songs captured very true-tolife. The only problem with it is how quickly they go by, coming in somewhere under eight minutes in total. It would be nice to have a full-length recorded at this quality.

League of Noise Attack vol 1
The Bootbois Anthem Presents, 2006
Jon Twitch
Every punk band starts on a compilation like this. It¡¯s poorly recorded but gives you a fair look at the band. Some bands sound better than others at this style. The Patients could sound a lot better because I can imagine them releasing a higher quality recording. The Buster and Explode sound perfect with this level of technology. Bad Idols sound a bit garbled as they¡¯re just too loud for this release. Bootbois Anthem and Reanimator turned out better than I expected, but it¡¯s nothing I¡¯d show to my mom. The Maze song at the very end doesn¡¯t sound like a live recording and caps off the album more professionally with their one minute and 13 seconds of rage. This recording is good to find out about the band, but it would be hard to get into any of these with the recording alone. Let¡¯s hope they all get around to recording decent albums soon.

Shorty Cat
I ain¡¯t be Controlled
Skunk Label 2006
Samuel Melzner
So now we got the first full length of Korea¡¯s cutest punk band. I became quite a fan after watching a few of their really fun live shows and was looking forward to finally hear some more material than the handful of songs they used to play beforehand. It¡¯s good material, too. While most of the songs share the same catchy ¡°whatever let¡¯s get more fun¡±-attitude, they usually don¡¯t fail to stand on their own, only with a few exceptions: Maybe it¡¯s the one flaw of this work that it¡¯s just a little bit longer than it should be. So in the beginning of the second half it becomes a bit repetitive for a while, and I get the impression that it wouldn¡¯t have hurt the album when one or two of the less interesting songs just would have been left out. Luckily, this really is a minor complaint in the end, because there are enough great songs left anyway, and before you have a chance to get bored, they throw in gems like their obligatory encore sing-along All the Time, or the outstanding Feminine, one of the fewer songs which at least kind of support the Riot Grrrl image the band seems to identify with to some extent, as well as the bonus track (alias the track not listed on the back cover), the X-Ray Spex cover I Can¡¯t Do Anything. The latter I think is even better than the original, though it is a shame that they didn¡¯t get a saxophone player for this one. Aren¡¯t the Kingston Rudieska brass players featuring anywhere anyway? I¡¯m not 100% happy with the recording, though. Don¡¯t get me wrong: I¡¯m not complaining about the technical execution, which is good and especially compared to their previous recordings released on the 2006 Skunk Label Sampler I¡¯m quite happy that I can actually hear the bass now (OK, that is a bit exaggerated, but the sound is much clearer now). But: Why the hell did they play ÆãÅ©¿Í ÇÔ ²² (With the Punk) so slow? I like it so much more in ¡°normal¡± speed and especially when you listen to the album version shortly after for example visiting one of their live shows it sounds like someone took sleeping pills. But that also doesn¡¯t prevent this album from being a great and entertaining one overall, and while the cute, girlish approach to punk rock is well tested in Japan, it offers a welcome diversion from all the tough guy stuff right here in Korea.

Strikers
Untouchable Territories
Samuel Melzner
From all the punk bands in Korea I¡¯ve heard so far, The Strikers sound the most pop, even more so than rock star bands like No Brain. Almost all the songs on ¡°Untouchable Territories¡± (maybe I¡¯m spoiled because of what¡¯s always in the news these days, but the time I bought it I actually thought it was called Untouchable Terrorists) are perfectly straight forward, perfectly entertaining and perfectly forgettable. I¡¯ve seen them live one time, and while they played a great show, I didn¡¯t recognize a single song from the album. I might even fall for it if they¡¯d put the name of one of those American bands who have a number in it on the CD and have me listen to it again. There are a few songs that get some profile if you listen to them multiple times, but the only one that really stands out is the last track, and that one significantly isn¡¯t a punk rock song. It¡¯s not bad music, though, just lacking a bit of individuality. I understand they have some success in Japan and I could imagine they would even do well in the west, not at least because all of their lyrics are in English. Strangely enough, the booklet doesn¡¯t give the whole lyric text but just the chorus, sometimes not even complete. Anyway, this CD is good listening to when you¡¯re in for some easy American Pie soundtrack type music and don¡¯t want to pay too much attention. Nonetheless, I can see no real reason to choose this over any other well done pop-skate-punk album.