Issue 14 - Daehanmindecline

Broke in Korea
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국보법 반대
Issue 14
this zine is
FREE
박정근
Letter from the Editor
Issue 14
June 2012
This zine is published at
random intervals. Can’t
wait for the next one?
Go curl up in a snowdrift
and I’ll wake you when
it’s ready.
Founders
Jon Twitch
Paul Mutts
Editor
Jon Twitch
Contributing writers
Paul Mutts
Verv
We also used a bunch of
Park Jung-geun’s writing without his permission. However, it is publicly available online.
Translators
나선생님
Haru
Frida Lay
Yumi Lee
YJ
Photos
Jon Twitch
Layout
Jon Twitch
Contact
jon_dunbar@hotmail.
com
Previous issues available for download at
daehanmindecline.com/
broke
Contributors are
always welcome.
Yarr, this zine be keelhauled using ye olde
pirated copy of Adobe
InDesign CS, matey.
Yes, this is issue 14, even though we’re
on our 15th issue. I decided not to count
the Best Of Broke in Korea as part of the
series.
I originally wanted to do this one oldschool, using scissors and photocopiers rather than InDesign. Then the sheer
amount of work required for this one became apparent and I went back to digital. Sometime in the near future I’ll do a
smaller issue DIY style.
This issue marks the return Jonghee
from Rux, Yongjoon of Banran, the Something Fierce guys, Sharon from Couch, and
Ryan and Jess of moshing with abandon.
And last but not least, Broke co-founder
Paul Mutts is back in Korea. In 2007 Paul
caught us all by surprise by enlisting in
the US Army. He’s done his time in Iraq
and spent a few years in the US with his
wife, and now he’s back in Korea for the
next two-odd years. I wasn’t sure what to
expect from him but he returned with the
same productive enthusiasm I know him
for.
Korea has changed a lot in the five years
since he left, and I invited the members of
the Korean Punk and Hardcore Page to tell
him how it’s changed.
The spirit of Broke has always been
about cultural exchange, engaging Koreans and foreigners in dialogue rather than
simply encouraging foreigners to come to
shows, and I think more often than not we
fail. But we’re always working toward the
ultimate goal of dialogue.
I think you can say that Broke, as well
as my photo site Daehanmindecline and
the Korean Punk and Hardcore Facebook
page are all working toward the same
goals, even if the former two are filtered
by my own eccentricities. Jesse and a team
of Korean translators have been working
their hardest to advertise Korean punk
shows on Facebook with weekly show
listings, and they’ve done their hardest to
make sure the listings are bilingual.
We just had that MBC show warn everyone of the “shocking reality of relationships with foreigners,” and while the foreign community (and their girlfriends and
wives, and to a lesser extent boyfriends
and husbands) went berserk, I just thought
it was kind of amusing. To me, being foreign is not part of my identity; it’s a blank
space in my identity where I’m free to
write in what I want. And random foreigners are not my people -- punks, skinheads, hardcore people are.
And one of our own is in serious jeopardy. Currently, the trial of Park Junggeun is ongoing. Park was arrested early
this year and spent two months in prison.
As of now he’s out on parole and going
through a lengthy trial that flip-turned his
life upside down. His crime? Twitter. And
something something National Security
Law. Essentially, this law was introduced
in the ‘50s by President Rhee Syngman to
control public opinion and quash dissent
while he tried to rig an election. It forbids
communism, recognition of North Korea
as a political entity, organizations advocating the overthrow of the government,
the printing, distributing, and ownership
of “anti-government” material, and any
failure to report such violations by others. Rhee was overthrown, but the law still
remains to this day. It was almost repealed
by the more liberal political parties in the
early 2000s, but the right wing prevented that from happening. Ever since Lee
Myungbag took power, the law has been
increasingly used against critics of the
government, leading to Park Jung-geun’s
arrest.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but as a famous
Korean politician said on June 6 this year,
“Upholding the will of all fallen heroes
who devoted themselves to defending
liberal democracy, the people of the Republic of Korea will never tolerate anyone
attempting to deny liberal democracy.” I’ll
leave you to guess who said that, but I will
hint that he is half the man that 4MB is.
Although Park Jung-geun is on trial and
had to deny my interview request, I am
reprinting three letters he wrote while
in jail, with the approval of his translator, Frida Lay. I stand behind that because
he’s our friend, it’s a worthy cause, it’s bilingual, and it’s interesting. I want to emphasise that this is not a two-way street:
neither of them endorse any other part of
this zine.
This is the most political issue of Broke
I’ve done yet, and I have to reconcile
myself with my long-standing scorn for
foreigners getting too deeply involved in
Korean politics. We’re not here to figure
things out for Korea. On the other hand,
there have been periods in Korea’s recent
past in which the foreign media has played
a very important role in getting the word
out and recording history when Korean
citizens were too suppressed to talk, be
informed, or fight back. Ultimately, this
is about supporting our friend, not a politically slanted partisan cause we should
stay out of. In fact, even firmly right-wing
people such as Verv are on Park Junggeun’s side. This is an attack on one of us,
a fellow member of the punk family, and
I’ve decided to throw the support of Broke
behind him, for all the good an obscure
photocopied punk zine will do.
The stuff about Park Jung-geun eats up
a sizeable chunk of this issue, but there’s
plenty more going on.
Also, I’ve had a second complaint about
the font size being too small, so I’m working on making it more readable. That unfortunately means I need to resize columns. Thanks a lot, Mike and Ryan. Maybe
invest in a pair of bifocals. Does anyone
else think the font is too small? I also decided to switch away from Batang to Myeongjo, which looks like it makes more
solid characters with thicker lines. I always use a Korean font to minimise the
risk of accidentally scrambling any of the
Korean characters that may pop up in the
middle of an article. Anyway, typefaces
are fun, right?
By the way, this issue contains all sorts
of materials that violate the NSL, and you
are in violation of it for having a copy.
Sorry to ruin your day.
존 꿈꿔
Jon Twitch
Broke in Korea Editor
CROSSWORD
ANSWERS
ACROSS
1 TBS
4 PRE
7 SAD
10 TALC
11 RUX
12 NICO
13 OMAR
14 AMP
15 ABET
16 REHASH
18 RAVER
20 WHATEVER
22 AMBLE
25 TSARIST
28 LIU
29 UES
30 AOI
31 SAPPORO
34 TINCT
36 YANGKYUN
38 TEPEE
39 EXCUSE
43 WHOA
44 NRA
46 OSAN
47 HANS
48 CUT
49 MADD
50 ONG
51 YES
52 EGO
DOWN
1 TAME
2 BLAH
3 SCRAWL
4 PRAHA
5 RUM
6 EXPRESS
7 SIBERIAN
8 ACER
9 DOT
10 TOR
12 NAVER
17 SHE
19 AVA
21 TTEOK
22 ALS
23 MIA
24 BUPYEONG
26 SOC
27 TIT
29 URGENCY
32 PAPAS
33 ONE
34 TUX
35 INCOME
37 YEATS
38 THAN
40 USAG
41 SADO
42 END
43 WHO
45 RUE
Pity the poor salaryman
Paul Mutts
When I was in high school
and friend of mine named Matt
Cuddy and I were buying beer
at a Family Mart. He didn’t
drink then but I sure did and
we were going to take some
beer and drink under the train
tracks that used to cross the
galmaegi street near the site
of the original Skunkhell.
As we were walking out of
the door we noticed at the little ‘bar’ where people typically eat ramen a man in a
white shirt and loosened tie,
black slacks and grey socks.
He was drinking soju. No, he
was pounding soju like it was
all about to be outlawed the
following day. His jacket was
discarded on the empty stool
next to him and he had been
there a while evidenced by the
empty bottles and ramen bowls
in front of him.
Matt turned to me and said
“How depressing does your
life have to be when you say
to yourself ‘It’s friday night.
Time to live it up. I’m getting
drunk at motherfucking Family Mart!’”
Matt’s typical sarcasm gave
way to perfect lucidity of the
state of this poor guy and so
many more that we see daily in
the ROK. What does your home
life and your social circle have
to be like before you say ‘fuck
it’ and get lit at Family Mart?
Maybe he was making a point
of the empty state of like that
work can instill or maybe it was
an acute juxaposition that here
was this guy getting drunk at a
shitty ‘supa’ while our plan
for the night was similar with
the venue a little different all
the while we were pitying him
for it.
That one snarky comment
has always stuck with me as
an absolutely brillant and accurate observation. It seemed
to us, young kids who were
constantly told to study and
go to school if we ever wanted
to ‘be somebody.’ Here we
saw one man, who I am sure
Program note for USFK personnel
attending punk shows in Korea:
Don’t be a dick. I see it every
weekend where Servicemen decide
to show off that their reputation as
sex-crazed retards is well earned.
Korea is a fantastic place and y’all
are certainly more than welcome but
treating Koreans as second class citizens/possible semen repositories is
disrespectful not only to our Korean
hosts but also to you and your profession and your country.
Act like someone that actually deserves to be thanked for their service and considered to be a hero by
many Americans.
Failure to abide by simple commonly held decency and courtesy
standards may result in you having
to explain away injuries to Top and a
spot on the MP Blotter.
Sincerely,
A fellow serviceman
was told the exact same old
song and dance about life, and
the possible end state of that
lifestyle. We saw where taking
those words of wisdom to heart
could lead you.
Drinking beer in an abandoned tunnel suddenly seemed
like the most prudent and sensical decision for our future we
had ever made.
내 고등학생시절 Matt Cuddy라
는 친구와 나는 페밀리 마트에서 맥주
를 샀다.그는 그때 술을 마시지 않았
지만 나는 마셨고 우린 맥주를 홀짝이
며 (처음) Skunk Hell 근처의 갈메
기살 거리를 가로지르는 기찻길 아래
로 걸어가려는 참이였다.
마트에서 나오는 길에 보통은 사람
들이 라면따위를 먹는 바’(페밀리 마
트 앞 테이블)에서 한 남자가 넥타이
를 느슨히 한 정장 차림에 바지 아래
로 회색양말을 보이며 앉아있었다.
그는 소주를 마시고 있었다.아니,
다음날은 생각지도 않는 사람마냥 퍼
부었다.자켓은 옆의 빈 의자에 놓여있
었고 테이블 위 빈병들과 라면 그릇
들이 그가 그곳에 얼마나 오랫동안 있
었는지를 말해주었다.
Matt은 갑자기 나에게”오늘이 금
요일 밤 이라고 스스로에게 말해야 한
다면 인생이 얼마나 우울하냐. 즐기
자.난 빌어먹을 페밀리 마트에서 취하
고 있잖아!”라고 말했다.
Matt은 이 삶에 찌든 이 불쌍한 남
자에 대해 명쾌하고도 날카롭게 풍자
를 늘어놓았다.가정이나 사회 생활이
씨발 페밀리 마트에서 진탕 마시자
라고 말하기 전과 같을 필요가 뭐가
있나?
아마도 그는 먹을 수퍼마켓에서 술
이 취하도록 마시는 이 남자나 장소만
달랐지 우리도 그와 별 반 없었고 우
린 그를 동정했다.
그 멋진 말은 진짜 훌륭했고 정곡을
찔렀다는 면에서 항상 기억에 남는다.
어린 아이였던 우리가 우리 자신에게,
만약 커서 ‘누군가’ 가 되기를 원했
다면 공부하고 학교나 가라고 끊임없
이 말하는 것 처럼 들렸다.
여기에 쳇바퀴 위의 반복되는 삶과
그 삶의 종착점이 확실했던 한 남자
가 있다.
당신을 이끌어줄 그 지혜로운 말들
을 우린 거기서 보았다.
버려진 터널에서 마시던 그 맥주는
우리가 한번도 생각하지 않았던 인생
을 위한 신중하고도 의미있는 결정을
하게 만들었다.
Ring in the New Year with Hollow Jan
Hollow Jan: 충분하다고 생각한다.
장르를 구분해서 말하자면 스크리모
라고 말하는 것 외에 어떻게 표현을
못하겠다.
I think that’s good enough.
To speak about genre divisions, screamo is good enough.
Broke: What is the greatest
strength of Hollow Jan, in your
opinion?
어떤 것이 할로우젠의 가장 큰 힘 인
가?
Hollow Jan: 절망적인 희망. 우리가
음악 외에 사회생활을 하면서 겪은 많
은 상황에서 가져야만 했던 희망을 절
망적으로 노래하는 것.
Hopeless hope. When singing we must take hope that we
are experiencing social life
beyond music.
Hollow Jan comeback show on 9 June 2012.
Jon Twitch
Translated by Haru
I confess that until the Rux/
Hollow Jan Comeback Show
was announced, I wasn’t
aware that Hollow Jan was
broken up. They’re a great
band I hold in high regard, but
our paths cross infrequently
enough that I’m not too aware
of what they’re up to.
Hollow Jan is one of Korea’s
top hardcore bands, performing in a style that more closely
resembles screamo than anything else, and winning converts even among those who
would never imagine liking
anything called screamo. They
have the best of both worlds:
strong ties to the local underground music scene while
also a finely tuned, meaningful
sound that seems to resonate
with domestic audiences.
I interviewed Jung Dongjin,
or Sayid, the bassist of Hollow Jan. He’s an interesting
guy in his own right, a Korean
Muslim who has a very cute
four-year-old son, but we’re
going to talk music today.
Broke: What does the name
Hollow Jan mean?
‘할로우 젠’ 의 의미는 무엇인가?
Hollow Jan: 공허한 1월 (Hollow
January)이란 뜻이다. 보통 매해 1월
은 ‘시작하는 해’, ‘새로운 계획을
세우는 해’로 인식하고 있다. 하지만
우리의 1월은 늘 공허했다. (적어도
음악적으로는) 우연의 일치일 수도 있
지만 2004년 결성 이후, 우리밴드는
매해 1월은 거의 공연을 한 적이 없다.
It means ‘Hollow January.’ Usually we consider each
January as ‘the start of the
year’and ‘the time of year to
make new plans’but always
January is empty to us (at least
musically). Since starting the
band in 2004, maybe by coincidence, almost every January our
band doesn’t have any shows.
Broke: Why did you go on hiatus?
왜 공백이 있었나?
Hollow Jan: 멤버들이 모두 Job을
따로 갖고 있고, 서로 거의 모든 면에
서 취향과 성격이 다르다. 유일하게
공통적으로 좋아하는 음악이 있다면
할로우잰의 음악이다. 멤버 간의 불화
가 근본적인 문제였다.
All members have other jobs
and in nearly every aspect, our
taste and character is different. But if we have one thing
in common, it is Hollow Jan’s
music. A fundamental matter
is disputes between members.
Broke: You guys were building
a lot of momentum before the
break. Do you think that it will
be harder to get back to where
you were before, or will it be
an advantage to start afresh?
휴식이전에 꽤 많은 기반을 쌓아왔
다.당신들이 생각하기에 그것이 전으
로 돌아가는 것보다 힘들게 하는 요소
일거 같나 아니면 새롭게 시작하는데
좋은 장점이 될거 같나?
Hollow Jan: 솔직히 우리가 어떤 대단
한 위치에 있었다고 생각하지 않는다.
우리는 우리가 좋아하는 음악을 하기 위
해 모였다. 부끄럽게도 많은 이들이 우
리음악을 높게 평가해 줬다. 하지만 우
리 스스로 우리 음악이 어떤 모멘텀이나
대단한 의미를 갖는다고 생각하지 않는
다. 한국 인디씬에는 우리보다도 더 어
려운 환경에서 더 놀라운 결과물을 갖고
살아남아있는 아티스트들이 많다.
우린 다시 출발선에 선 기분으로 준
비하고있다. 누군가가 우리음악이 누
군가에게 영감을 줄 수 있다면 그걸로
족하다. 과거에 우리가 어느’위치’
에 있었다고 생각을 하지 않는다.
Actually we do not think as
important person.we are gathered to do our favorite music.
To my shame,many people
have high assessment of our
music.but ourselves,our music
have not momentum or great
meaning.There are many artists who surviving with re-
markable results in a more
difficult environment.
We consider our situation as
that we stand at the starting
line.We are sufficient if our
music inspire to someone.we
do not think that we had some
important position in the past.
Broke: Did you miss playing
shows and writing songs during that time?
공연하고 곡을 쓰던 그 시절을 그리
워 하는가?
Hollow Jan: 죽도록. ㅋㅋ
TO THE END!! kk
Broke: Why did Hollow Jan
decide to return?
Hollow Jan: That happened at
the time of our last show -it was supposed to be the last
show of our band. May 2011,
when Ssamzie Space shut down
their entire facility, there was
a show to wrap up their whole
history. We’re part of that
history because that was the
first place we started bringing
our music to the audience. The
original member of Hollow Jan
was gathered for this last show.
After I left Hollow Jan in 2008,
actually I almost forgot about
this band. We’re all busy living
-- work, raising kids, and other
stuff, but still I love the songs of
Hollow Jan. This very last show
reminds me of the feelings, Joy,
Sadness, Anger and pleasure of
playing Hollow Jan’s music.
All the memories of the band
refreshed, and we’re ready
to accept any price to get together. Eventually we got back
together.
Broke: How would you describe
Hollow Jan’s music? Is it fair
to call it a screamo band?
할로우 젠의 음악을 어떻게 설명해줄
수 있나?.스크리모 밴드라고 불러도
괜찮나?
Broke: Hollow Jan has gotten a
large amount of foreign attention I think. Have you noticed
much of a response from overseas? What do you think of it?
내 생각에 외국인들의 할로우 젠에 대
한 기대가 큰거 같다.외국으로 부터의
많은 기대를 알고 있나?.이것에 대한
당신의 생각은 어떠한가?
Hollow Jan: 외국에서 공연 요청은
몇 건 있었던 것으로 알고 있다. 우리
가사는 한국어다. 그래도 외국에서 좋
아해 준다면 감사할 따름이다.
I know that we got some concert requests from overseas.
Nevertheless our lyrics are Korean, so if foreigners like our
music, we just appreciate it.
Broke: Now you’re doing a
show with Rux. How did that
happen? What’s your relationship with Rux?
럭스와 공연을 할 예정이다.어떻게 같
이 하게 된건가? 럭스와 어떤 개인적
인 친분이 있나?
Hollow Jan: 개인적으로 친분이 있
다. 한국 인디씬은 재미있다. 오래된
밴드들은 아는 사이인 경우가 많다.
특히 소위 강한 음악=펑크나 코어류
를 하는 밴드들은 특히 그렇다.
We have a personal relationship with Rux. The Korean
indie scene is interesting. Old
bands are often acquainted
with each other. Especially
so-called strong music such as
punk or hardcore.
Broke: What’s in the future
for Hollow Jan?
할로우 젠은 앞으로 어떠하길 바라는가?
Hollow Jan: 계속해서 우리가 좋아
하는 음악을 만들고 공연을 통해 알리
고 싶다. 음악으로 가족을 부양하는 것
은 어느 나라나 힘들다. 특히 한국에서
는 K-pop star가 되어도 힘든 일이
다. 그래서 별도의 Job을 갖고 있다.
아들 (지금 4살이다)이 커서까지도 계
속해서 음악을 할 수 있길 바란다.
We want more people to see
us live. Supporting a family
with music is so hard in every
country, especially in korea.
Even K-pop stars have the same
problem so they have a second job. I want my four-yearold son to continue in music if
that’s what he wants to do.
Jonghee returns to Korea
Jon Twitch
“I’m faggin’ for a dolly
mate,” says Won Jonghee,
lead singer of Rux. “Let’s go
out and have some piss.”
Normally I would take that
as an invitation to a watersports threesome, but Jonghee
is recently back from Australia, where they speak some
bizarro version of English, and
he picked up a bit of the local colour while he was down
under.
In fact, the previous issue of
Broke ran an interview with
him about his sojourn, which
lasted almost a year. He was
there to work in Inksanity, a
Brisbane tattoo shop (or “taddoo” as he now pronounces
it).
“It’s an extremely busy
shop,” he tells me as we sit
outside Rolling Hall right after his comeback show. “I was
working full-time, like ten
hours a day.”
Inksanity is located in Milton, an inner suburb of Brisbane. As Jonghee describes it,
it’s “the kind of place that
has rich people and a lot of
bikies and banditos.”
Bikies
is
the
Australian name for biker gangs, and
many of Jonghee’s customers were bikies. “It was really
interesting,” says Jonghee.
“It’s a like totally different culture which South Korea
does not have. There were a
lot of bikies who were really
kind and nice to other cultures
and they were really open.”
I was curious to hear more
about some of the weirder tattoos Jonghee’s done, but he
was a little resistant. “You
can’t really say any tattoos
are weird -- they’re special,” he explains. “I really
like interesting tattoos.”
So, what are some of the
more “special” tattoos he’s
done?
“This guy came to get a tattoo on his butt,” Jonghee recalls. “He wrote ‘if you’re
looking at this, I’m probably not wearing my pants.’
I don’t know why he got it
but he was kinda interesting.
I liked him -- he was a really
funny guy actually.”
So Jonghee rolled up his
sleeves, fired up the tattoo
gun, and tattooed his butt.
“I’m like warning him not to
fart,” he laughs.
As the shop’s Asian employee, Jonghee received many
requests for Oriental tattoos
such as koi fish and dragons.
A few people wanted tattoos
of Asian characters, which is
always a risk unless you’re
fluent.
A typical day at the office in Australia (photo courtesy of Inksanity)
“This one girl wanted
‘loyalty’ on her back in Chinese language,” Jonghee recounts, “and instead of ‘loyalty’ she did ‘friend.’ It’s
very similar but in Chinese
it’s totally different characters, ‘friend’ and ‘loyalty.’
And she said ‘I have loyalty
on my back’ and I was looking at it and I’m like ‘Uhhhhhh yeah...that’s loyalty.’ It
happens sometimes.”
He also got a chance to do a
Hangul tattoo for an Australian girl who wanted her Korean
boyfriend’s name tattooed on
her skin.
While in Australia he tried
to go to punk shows whenever
they were on. “I wasn’t part
of [the scene] but every time
there was gigs I really looked
into it,” he says, “and maybe twice a month I went there
and checked out all these nice
people, talked with them,
hung out, drinking and having
a piss.”
His coworkers at Inksanity were aware of his punk
background as the lead vocalist of one of Korea’s main
punk bands. “All my working
mates -- all the people in the
shop -- they all knew about
the band and they were interested in my music,” he says.
“In fact we had parties every
Friday night at our tattoo shop.
We had an open mic with a DJ
set and we actually did some
shows. I’d improv vocals with
a drum and bass beat, playing
our own music, like for example ‘Knock You Down.’”
Jonghee’s the kind of per-
son who probably would’ve
made a pretty good slacker,
but instead he has a tendency
to fill his life up with all sorts
of productive activities: singer, drummer, label owner, club
owner, show promoter, fashion
designer, and now tattoo artist. How can one guy jump into
it all?
And also, how did he get into
tattooing in the first place? It
goes back to 1999 when Rux’s
bassist was Lee Juhyun (later
of Captain Bootbois, Ghetto
Bombs, and Galaxy Express).
“Back then, 1999, no one
had tattoos in the Korean punk
scene,” Jonghee explains,
“so I was like ‘uh I want tattoos so how should I get it?’
and Juhyun was like ‘How do
you buy the machine?’ I’m
like ‘uh let’s check on’...
was it ebay back then? So I
was checking on the web and
I bought these machines which
I didn’t know how to use. I
tried it out on Juhyun’s body
and he was just like ‘Ah fuck
stop that!’ We noticed we
were really bad tattooists so
we had to stop.”
To this day, he still has a
few tattoos from Juhyun, and
Juhyun has some Jonghee
originals too.
He was left to fantasise about
leaving his boring punk rock
career behind and run away to
become a tattoo artist for the
next decade until 2009 when
he visited Washington, DC and
met Bad Brains singer HR.
“And when I met him I
was with SJ,” says Jonghee.
“SJ was at this tattoo shop in
Washington and there weren’t
enough tattoo artists there, so
why not me do the tattoos?
And we started it.”
So now he has tattoo artist to
add to the many hats he wears.
“For me tattooing is just like
doing a band,” he explains. “I
don’t put myself into any certain kind of genres. Other than
that I’ll just do anything that
people would like.”
Although he does admit it’s
fair to pigeonhole Rux as a
streetpunk band. “I wouldn’t
mind though, I like the sound
of it, street punk,” he admits.
“I just don’t want to put us
into any small boxes.”
So do we get to keep him,
or is he going back to Australia now that the comeback
show is over? Turns out we get
joint custody. “I shouldn’t
say I’m gonna be here permanently because I’m gonna be
back and forth,” Jonghee explains. “I was really surprised
cause I made lots of friends in
Milton and I really enjoyed it.
Still they’re checking me out
on Facebook, ‘when are you
coming back Jonghee when are
you coming back?’”
He plans to return this July
for a couple weeks, and again
in September for a month.
“I’m planning to take some
good Korean artists to the
shop so they can work and we
can have some kind of link together,” he says.
“The whole time [I was
there last year], I just faggin’ missed my bludy old
mates back in Seoul,” he told
me.
Mukymukymanmansomething
And as always, I was exactly
right.
Broke: Can you please explain
the band name to me? I know
it’s a combination of both
your names, but are Muki and
Mansu really your names?
Mansu: Yeah Muki and Mansu
are our nicknames. The name
Muki comes from a Bae Myung
Hoon novel, and Mansu was a
random one given by folks at
the unversity.
Broke: How did you two originally meet?
Mansu: We went to the same
campus and met at the student
newspaper. We weren’t close
back then, but after quitting
we discovered we shared the
same hatred toward somebody
and quickly got along.
Photo courtesy of Mukymukymanmansu
Jon Twitch
There’s something about
the name 무키무키만만수 that
reminds me of a centipede,
something living with too
many parts that even my cats
are too terrified to kill. But
this duo is actually some pretty
sophisticated music stripped
down to its essentials.
If you haven’t seen them,
picture two girls singing,
screeching, and screaming out
of tune and out of sync, backed
up by a mutilated janggu drum
and miscellaneous other instruments.
The first time I saw Mukymukymanmansu, I was too
hung over to “get” what
they were about. I’m pretty
up front with them about that
in the interview. But gradually I decided there must
be more to them than just
throwing a tantrum on stage.
Broke:
How/
when
did
Mukimukimanmansu start?
Mansu: We ended up in a student group named “Dolgoji
Vista Social Club,” Dolgoji
being the name of the area
around school. We and friends
there decided to organise a
local music event. The band
was just a one-time thing for
the gig in front of the subway
station, so we didn’t think
much and just put our nicknames together. But then our
video spread on Youtube and
we started to get contacted for
shows, so we kept on.
Broke: On the Korean Punk &
Hardcore show listings, your
band is classified as “acoustic/folk.” Is this accurate?
Mansu: Muki wants Mukimukimanmansu moving on grindcore, hopefully. Mansu thinks
Mukman’s currently a punk
band, despite using a Korean
traditional drum.
Broke: The first time I saw
you play (Stretching Journey
reunion), I was really hung
over and I really, really didn’t
enjoy it. There was lots of
loud screaming and banging on
drums. What is the main idea
behind your performances?
Mansu: When we started this
Muki was taking drum lessons,
but we figured we wouldn’t
be able to place a drum set in
front of the station; instead
we rotated a janggu and modified it by attaching a kick
pedal. Playing that thing while
standing and singing was quite
exciting, so much that we ended up screaming and continuing the band.
Broke: But now I really enjoy
your CD. And it’s not because
the liner notes have pictures
of both of you in a 목욕탕. Although I am curious how that
design theme was chosen..?
Mansu: It was Mansu’s idea.
Thought of it as a rare opportunity, to have nude pictures
taken by a photographer while
young. And we really did want
to take a real bath too, since
we only take showers nowadays, you know. As you have
probably noticed, the idea
wasn’t really about showing
off our slim figure(which is by
the way nonexistent).
Broke: How do you choose
what to sing about? Where
does your inspiration come
from?
Mansu: We just write the songs
and words out of our daily life.
In “Andromeda” we sing
about bugs, that came out just
randomly while spitting out
things coming into our minds.
“I’m a Taxi Driver in Paris”
was inspired by the book with
the same title by Korean activist Hong Se Hwa. And we
covered Sanullim ‘cause we
really like that song.
Broke: How did you train to
become musicians? Or did you
have any training, or did you
just lose your inhibitions and
perform?
Mansu: Mansu majors in music
theory and has been playing
piano and composing since 5,
but it didn’t have much influence on Mukimukimanmansu.
As you might know if you’ve
seen our gig, we don’t actually do any real training; we
just practice a little before
the shows and let go of ourselves.
They performed in sniper camo for the Rhee Sung-woong show at Art Sonje.
Broke: What are your future
plans for the band?
Mansu: We’d really like to
know that too!
Flower Power!
Jon Twitch
As soon as I heard that
Yunggi was in a band, I booked
them for my next show. Actually it was a pretty impressive collection of musicians;
along with Yunggi who used
to drum for Dirty Small Town
they had members from Spiky
Brats, Cock Rasher, and the
Patients, though the latter
two being former members.
Basically, this was like a Korean punk superband.
I’ve since put on a couple shows for them, and they
proved themselves dependable. I finally decided it was
time to find out what they’re
about, especially since they
releaesd their first EP.
Broke: Can you explain the
name 백화난만조? 백화난만조의
뜻을 알려주세요.
100B: 백화난만조는 ‘온갖 꽃이
활짝 피어 아름답게 흐드러짐’;이라
는 뜻을 가진 사자성어 ‘;백화난만 (
百花爛漫)’;에서 영감을 얻어 지은
이름입니다. 즉 청춘의 가장 찬란한
시절을 의미하는 것입니다. 또한 불
교에서 기독교의 휴거와 같은 개념을
표현할 때 백화난만이라는 이름을 사
용하기도 합니다.
It means “every flower in full glory beautifully”
and is inspired by the fourcharacter idiom 百花爛漫 (100
flowers in bloom everywhere). So it means the most
splendid moment of youth.
And also in Christianity, and
Buddhism, 百花爛漫 is used
when they express the concept of ‘rapture’ too.
Broke: How was the band
created? 어떻게 밴드를 결성하셨
나요?
100B:
백화난만조는
2008년
Cockrasher에서 활동하던 이승
한과 Patients에서 활동하던 하상
현이 의기투합하는 것으로 시작되
었습니다. 각각 베이스와 보컬을 맡
은 두 사람은 ‘;온갖 꽃이 활짝 피
어 아름답게 흐드러짐’;이라는 뜻
을 가진 사자성어 ‘;백화난만 (百
花爛漫)’;에서 영감을 얻어 밴드 명
을 백화난만조 (百花爛漫組)라 명명
하고 멤버 섭외에 나서게 됩니다. 이
후 RUX의 이현희(현 13Steps)와
Dirty Small Town에서 활동 중
이던 최영기가 각각 기타와 드러머로
합류했고 클럽 Skunk Hell을 중심
으로 활동하기 시작합니다. 하지만
곧 베이스를 맡고 있던 이승한이 대
학원 문제로 밴드를 떠나게 되고 이
공석에는 극도와 Spiky Brats에서
활동 중이던 서재석이 합류하게 됩니
다. 이후 밴드는 GMC 레이블을 통
해 간간히 활동했지만 기타를 맡았던
이현희가 밴드를 떠나게 되고 잠정적
으로 활동을 중단하게 됩니다. 하지
만 대학원 문제를 끝낸 이승한이 밴
드로 복귀해 기타로 포지션을 바꿨
고 밴드는 새로운 출발을 하게 됩니
다. 현재 백화난만조는 하상현 (vocal), 이승한 (guitar&vocal), 서
재석 (Bass), 최영기 (drum)로 이
루어졌던 기존 라인업에 파렴치악단,
Return Bois 등에서 활동했던 김용
수가 세컨드 기타로 참여해 보다 강
력하고 다채로운 사운드를 만들어가
고 있습니다.
It began when Lee Seunghan from Cockrasher and Ha
Sang-hyun from Patients met
and hit it off in 2008. Lee
was a bassist and Ha was a
vocalist. They started looking for band members after
they chose their band name
inspired by ‘every flower in
bloom everywhere.’
After that, Lee Hyun-hee
(now in 13 Steps) from Rux
and Choi Young-gi from Dirty
Small Town joined as guitarist and drummer. And they
started playing mainly at
Skunk Hell. But bassist Lee
Seung-han had to leave the
band because he had to study
for grad school. At that time
Seo Jae-seok from Spiky
Brats joined. After that, the
band played through GMC Label, but guitarist Lee Hyunhee had to leave the band
so we temporarily stopped
playing. But Lee Seung-han
finished his grad school and
came back to the band and
played as guitarist. So we
made a fresh start. Now we
are comprised of Ha Sanghyun (vocals), Lee Seung-han
(guitar and vocals), Seo Jaeseok (bass), Choi Young-gi
(drum), and Kim Yong-soo
(second guitar) from Paryumchiakdan and Return Bois. So
now we are making a stronger
and more colorful sound.
Broke: Is this band similar to
those bands, or completely
different? 이전 밴드들과 비슷한
가요? 아니면 완전히 다른 스타일인
가요?
100B: 각각의 멤버들은 스트리트
펑크, 하드코어 펑크, 77 스타일,
포고, 스킨헤드 앤썸 밴드들에서 활
약했었지만 지금은 전혀 다른 스타
일을 연주하려고 노력하고 있습니
다. Ramones, Sham69 등 7~80
년대 펑크록을 기반으로 Thee
Michelle Gun Elephant, Rosso
등의 개러지 로큰롤, 銀杏 BOYZ,
Stance Punk 등의 청춘 펑크 사
운드가 믹스된 음악 스타일을 지향
하고 있습니다. 간단히 말해 ‘청춘
펑크’라고 하면 될 것 같습니다.
Each member was into
streetpunk, hardcore punk,
‘77-style, pogo, and skinhead anthem bands. But now
we are trying to play a whole
different style now. Based on
‘70s/’80s punk rock bands
like Ramones and Sham69, we
are aiming for a mixed music
style like garage rock & roll
bands Thee Michelle Gun Elephant and Rosso and youth
punk bands 銀杏 BOYZ Stance
Punk.
In
short,
‘youth
punk’ will be proper to say.
what the picture means?
새 EP에 The Passionate Eve
of the Loss.” 라는 이름의 그림이
수록되어 있는데요. 그 그림의 의미
를 설명해 주세요.
100B: “The Passionate Eve
of the Loss.”는 앨범 타이틀 <뜨
거운 상실의 전야>의 영문명 입니다.
또한 <뜨거운 상실의 전야>는 이번
ep의 타이틀 곡이기도 합니다. 동경
했던 존재로 인해 다가오게 된 상실
의 순간에 대한 청춘의 고뇌를 담은
곡입니다.
It is the English version
of the album title <뜨거운 상
실의 전야>. Also it is the title
song of the EP album too. It
is about the agony of a youth
who has a moment of upcoming loss by the admired presence.
Broke: Oops, I didn’t notice
that was the name of the EP
too. Why did you choose that
as the EP name? What does it
refer to? 하나만 더 묻겠습니다.
“The Passionate Eve of the
Loss.” 가 EP이름인지 몰랐는데
왜 선택하였고 어떤 의미인지 알려
주세요.
100B: 멤버들이 가장 좋아하는 노
래였기 때문이다. 또한 백화난만조의
색을 가장 잘 보여줄 수 있는 노래였
다고 생각한다. 하지만 다음에 발매
될 2nd ep는 보다 공격적이고 강한
노래들로 채워질 것이다.
It has been chosen because
it was the favorite of all of
us. And also it can express
our color best. But the next
EP will be blended with more
aggressive and strong songs.
Broke: Meanwhile, do you intend to continue playing in
Spiky Brats? 스파이키브랫츠에
서도 계속 활동하실 예정인가요?
100B: 물론입니다. 현재 기타리스
트 박병선의 일본 유학으로 잠시 쉬
고 있지만 스파이키 브랫츠는 결코
해체하지 않을 것입니다. 카우치가
그렇듯이 말이죠. 비지니스, 콕 스페
러, 콕크니 리젝트같이 오랫동안 활
동하는 밴드가 되는 것이 스파이키
브랫츠의 목표입니다. 많은 것을 이
루지 못한다고 해도 함께 있다는 것
만으로 행복합니다. 결코 해체하지
않을 것입니다.
Yes of course. Now guitarist
Park Byung-sun is off studying in Japan. But Spiky Brats
will never disappear. Just
like Couch never did. Just
like Business, Cock Sparrer,
Cockney Rejects never did,
we want to play as long as we
can.
Broke: Is there a message
that people should receive
when they hear your music?
백화난만조의 음악을 들을 때 사람들
에게 들려주고 싶은 메시지가 있는지
궁금합니다.
100B: 듣는 분들은 백화난만조를
통해 청춘의 아름다운 순간, 살아있
다는 것, 그리고 함께 살아가는 사람
들이 있다는 것을 떠올렸으면 합니
다. 또한 백화난만조는 청춘이라면
누구나 한 번쯤 느껴봤을, 경험해봤
을, 토해내 봤을 이야기를 들려드리
고 싶습니다. 그리고 무엇보다 펑크
록!
We want listeners of our
songs to realize the beautiful moments of youth, being alive, and the people we
are living together with. And
we’d like to tell you some
stories about what anyone
would’ve felt, would’ve experienced, would’ve ripped
out when they are young. And
more than anything, runk
rock!
Broke: In your new EP,
there is one picture labeled
“The Passionate Eve of
the Loss.” Can you explain
Broke: Last, why do you wear
band uniforms? 유니폼을 입는 이
유가 있나요?
100B: no comment ^^
Something Fierce this way comes
Jon Twitch
One of the many returnees
is Jru of Something Fierce
(as well as bandmate and siamese twin Ian Gallagher). I
met them several years ago
when they were both back in
Korea, and then they disappeared again.
Jru is definitely one of the
people in the Korean punk
scene with the longest memory, although he hasn’t developed his own legendary
status to the extent of some
of the others because he lived
outside of Seoul. I was curious to hear more of his experiences, and learn what the
current status of the band is.
Rather than edit the hell
out of his article for style,
I decided to leave it mostly
intact so as to preserve his
“e.e. cummings” voice.
Broke: Can you explain your
band name? It’s very misleading grammatically. How
did you choose it?
Jru: unfortunately we both
agreed on the name a long
time ago. we recently tried
to change it but received
heavy criticism, needless to
say we are still SOMETHING
FIERCE. its nothing more
than a name to us now, a decision we will forever live
with. a reminder that we were
once young and foolish. i suppose it represents our sound
to some degree. weve both
come to an agreement that
just like our music not a great
deal of thought goes into it.
this method suits this project
best for us, so i surmise its a
fit.
Broke: When/where did the
band start?
Jru: we started the band at the
end of 2003 in Seoul Korea as
Unroot was doing some of our
Jru Frazier
Ian Gallagher performs in Skunk Hell.
final shows before the end.
we were getting ready for our
“big” move to america (the
land of dreams...) and needed
some material we were excited about, and an outlet for us
to lyrically and musically be
at peace with one another and
ourselves.
Broke: It seems the band is
you and Ian Gallagher, but
I swear I saw you guys as a
three-piece once. Do you and
Ian follow each other around
the world?
Jru: you are not mistaken
on either account. we recorded our first EP with Cho
(MOL Studio) as a 3 piece
and tried that suit on for a
couple of live shows as Cho
did play on the first record.
Ians brother Tim made a few
debut yells.
the whole thing was super
lax as we wrote it and and
recorded it all in the studio in a couple of weeks.
we then devolved into 2 as
Ian and i found ourselves in
Nashville TN (early 04). we
both found the writing process much more simple and
enjoyable as a duo. it also
bodes well with our erratic
moving schedules, plus we
have no delusions of grandeur and long breaks have
never posed a threat to the
existence of the band.
Broke: Tell me about your
life in Korea. When/how long
have you lived here?
Jru: i came to daejeon korea
with my family in 1993 where
i spent my school years completely unaware of the advantage i may have had by growing up outside of my birth
country. therefore squandering the treasures at hand like
any normal fat child would do.
started playing shows around
korea in 1999 and left in
2004. ive come back for visits and shows as all of my immediate family still live here
as well as all of the wonderful friends i made playing in
bands through the years.
Broke: Who was Unroot,
and when were they active?
What’s the difference between Unroot and Something
Fierce?
Jru: Ian and I started riffing around with each other
in ‘98 when we first met, we
played a few shows at school
and collected a few members
and friends from the university next door, one being seungjae (no excuse). Unroot
actually started coming together as a group in 99, we
played mostly in Daejeon at
a rock club called “bop”
that year. I suppose bands
and crews from cheongju and
seoul and daegu started getting wind of us after a little
while and we started working the circuit and becoming
friends with MFcrew, GMCrecords, etc. The band was
a revolving door of members through the years but
when we actually started to
see a glimpse of success the
band was comprised of; seung jae, tim gallagher (ians
younger brother) min young
(vassline) ian and i. the band
came to an end in 2003 when
ian and i decided to move to
the states and seung jae began his army service. SOMETHING FIERCE became a
band shortly thereafter. I
suppose the difference is we
grew up a bit and had gotten the 1st band and all those
fresh experiences out the
way, we were yearning for a
new project, heavier, faster,
louder, more fun.
Broke: You started playing in
1999, and I’ve heard that it
was illegal at the time to have
live shows. How were they
put on then? What happened
when the law was changed to
allow live shows?
Jru: i actually never knew that
was an issue. it was a regular
rock club that held shows in
a basement in downtown daejeon. we were more concerned
with getting caught by teachers from the school we went
to who would sometimes be
lurking about looking for kids
from school breaking rules.
most of us were living in and
under the ruling of the school
dorm. we would always have
to lie and say we were going
to a friends house instead of
being little shitkickers out
playing rock shows and sleeping in pc bbangs or on the bar
(literally) the best club owner ever. he knew our situation
and would get us super drunk
and feed us after the shows
then let us sleep there. also
spent a night or 2 sleeping in
a comic book store.
Broke: Where have you been
the last few years?
Jru: Nashville most recently,
prior to that and in reverse
chronological and formative
order i was in Brooklyn, NY,
Atlanta, GA, Hamilton, ON,
and Knoxville, TN.
Broke: Has Something Fierce
ever been active outside Korea?
Jru: SOMETHING FIERCE
has toured the east coast and
into Canada a few times. our
2nd release was recorded and
mixed at my prior home in
Nashville TN. We had moderate success in DIY standards
and substantial fun. we met a
lot of incredible people, slept
in a lot of wallmart parking
lots, and played in a lot of
very strange places.
Broke: There’s this band
online that calls themselves
“Something Fierce, the punk
band.” I’m taking a wild
guess that’s not you?
Jru: in all honestly and modesty we were first.. they are
probably way more active
than us which matters not
because we will win the battle of fierceness and weve
actually talked to eachother back when we used myspace. they seemed like jolly
folk. very unfitting of their
name. but i wish them well
and i hope they get super famous and buy the name from
us because we make nothing
and money sucks but its necessary to survive and i hate
them and want to take their
money...
Right up your alley
Jon Twitch
I still remember the first
time I liked a foreigner band
in Korea. It was Tear Jerks,
and right as they were starting to go somewhere, they
broke up. Shortly after that,
some of the members made
First Round Heroes, and right
when everyone was starting
to get comfortable with them,
suddenly they underwent another makeover and became
Chanter’s Alley. Hopefully
this band will stick around.
Chanter’s Alley builds on
the experience and goodwill
among music listeners of the
previous two bands while
also taking the opportunity
to build something new. Despite the heavy use of bagpipes, they insist they’re
not a Celtic punk band, just
a streetpunk band making
the use of an instrument that
isn’t so common in Korea.
Though if you really wanted
to press the issue, most of the
American bands playing socalled Celtic punk are pretty
well doing the same thing
only with more delusions.
I passed an interview to
lead guitarist/vocalist John
who included bagpiper Trevor
and bassist Bryan. And yes,
they took a long time to get
back to me, but fortunately
I’d given them a sufficiently
long time to finish it off, so
they made it in with extra
time to spare.
Broke: First, a quick question. What does the name
Chanter’s Alley mean?
John: Thinking of a band
name is quite easy; however,
a quick search of the interwebs reveals that every name
you think of has been taken.
When I was brainstorming
up an original name, I simply combined a part of the
bagpipe (chanter) with our
style of music (street punk).
Chanter Street didn’t sound
great, so it was finally turned
into Chanter’s Alley.
Broke: So...how did this band
come into being?
John: It started with some of
the members of First Round
Heroes, including Bryan and
myself, leaving to form a new
band. Then, the first piper
went back to Canada to be a
father and he was replaced
by Trevor. The two original
Korean members now play in
a college rock band together
and have been replaced by
Ray, a drummer from New
York, and Dmitriy, a guitarist
this group though, I’m having a lot of fun.
Trevor: I wouldn’t really
say there is much history of
Celtic punk in Korea. And I
wouldn’t really say Chanter’s Alley is a Celtic punk
band. We are related, but we
are more of a street punk
band. We feature the bagpipes, but we try to use them
more like a regular instrument and less like a gimmick.
We also focus on having a fun,
high-energy sound and a relatively upbeat message.
John: The only Celtic punk
bands from Korea that I know
of are Nachopupa (from Busan) and The Tear Jerks (my
first band in Korea). Punks
everywhere are receptive to
a high-energy show where
the band looks to be having
a great time. I think people also enjoy simple, catchy
tunes that can be sung along
with during the first listen.
And now here’s Chanter’s Alley...in an alley.
from Russia.
Broke: What makes this band
different from its predecessors?
Bryan: Two things: first,
we have a few new members
that have kinda brought back
some of our punk rock roots.
We have a bit of a harder edge
in some of our songs, but still
maintain that catchy swing
that helped make First Round
Heroes
popular.
Second,
we’ve taken this opportunity to go a little farther in
terms of what we can do musically. We’ve incorporated
more complexity into these
songs, especially in terms of
arrangement.
John: It is a bit easier on the
ears.
Broke: So, John sings. Why
didn’t anyone think of that
years ago?
Bryan: ‘Cause John’s a
pussy and he didn’t wanna sing... No, John doesn’t
like singing and playing at
the same time, so he avoided
it for a long time. Plus, for a
long time, John’s band had a
singer, one who he was really
good friends with. There was
never any reason for a long
time.
John: I think the live show
looks better with a singer/
frontman running around. We
had auditions, but nobody
fit well. Basically, I am the
singer by default.
Broke: Can you talk about
the interest in and history
of Celtic punk in Korea? It
seems kind of worlds apart,
but the Korean punk scene
always seems to have been
receptive to it.
Bryan: For me, Celtic rock
has always had a certain allure to it, especially because
of the potential to experiment
with all kinds of traditional
instruments, but I never pictured myself playing in such
a band. Now that I’ve joined
Broke: What are the logistics
of having bagpipes in a band
here?
John: Tuning is a pain in the
ass!
Trevor: It’s about the same
as back home in the Southern US in that there’s really
no “bagpipe shops” around
so I rely on importing reeds,
parts, and accessories from
specialty shops in the Northeast US. Other than that,
bagpipes pretty much maintain themselves, right until
something goes wrong, like a
moldy reed. That one lasted
two years so I basically had to
re-learn how to tune, which
is probably the trickiest thing
about the instrument.
Broke: What’s been your
best show so far? What are
your hopes for the band?
Trevor: The St. Patrick’s
Day show in Busan was probably the best. That show had
the whole package of what
you enjoy about performing,
from the trip to Busan on the
KTX, singing in the party van
between the station and venue, the show itself, the other
bands and their performances, then all of the bands going
out after to eat and drink together. The punk scene down
there was really fun, so we
had a great time.
John: I really enjoyed the
New Year’s Eve show at
Spot. As far as my hopes for
the band go...I’d really enjoy
doing an actual tour of other
countries or playing a festival
with a killer punk lineup.
Super Tuesday Punk Rock Show
Paul Mutts
Translated by Yumi Lee
A little over ten years ago a
club in the back end of Hongdae offered fledging punk
bands a chance to play at a live
club on Tuesday nights.
I was still in high school and
had a band made up of some
schoolmates of mine who really weren’t too into punk
rock but I had pressured them
into playing a handful of terrible songs that I wrote mostly
influenced by Offspring and
Green Day.
I had never really played before in a club outside of irregular gigs in Itaewon to drunk
soldiers.
A couple years before, in my
freshman year of high school
I had a summer job at a small
military post near Uijeongbu
and had a KATUSA co-worker.
As many of you are aware, in
Korea all males must complete
two years of service, typically
armed forces. English profiencey and a lottery system
could land you a US Army Augmentee, thus KATUSA (Korean
Augmentee To United States
Army... or something). That’s
a sweet gig because you avoid
much of the hardships of the
regular Korean Army. You
work for the US Army but still
answer to the Korean Army.
This co-worker, Corporal Chae, and I were terrible
workers. I volunteered for that
position so I had no excuse. He
was forced. We were lazy, frequently late, fucked up the filing system that may have taken years to develop and took
long smoke breaks.
In no time we found out we
had similar taste in music.
Roughly. He was really into
Phish. Not my thing.
He told me about a club
called Drug and underground
music in Korea. Instead of
working he showed me how to
download Dead Kennedys and
Operation Ivy. We also played
tons of Civilization 2 on the
government computers.
Over the next year I sought
out this club Drug with a few
friends of mine. I had some
rough directions I got from
some of the older kids at my
school that smoked and wore
band T-shirts and were otherwise admired. The first time I
looked I couldn’t find it and
ended up drinking White Russians (at the time my favorite
drink) at a bar and then getting
a hotel room. The second time
my buddy Kenny Lee and I actually found it. We caught the
last one and half songs of Crying Nut and I believe I broke
his glasses. Me breaking his
glasses later became a theme
whenever we went to shows.
Over the next year I went
to Drug every opportunity I
could. Drug was located were
Skunk was located and where
머리에 꽃을 now stands. The
shop on the ground floor was
where the band hung out and
the front window was covered
in post cards some crazed fan
wrote to Crying Nut expressing a desire they die in horrible ways. I was thrown out
once for moshing a little too
enthusiastically but I was generally well tolerated.
Kenny Lee and I decided to
start our own band. We had
messed around playing at the
Moyer Receration Music Room
(or ‘jam hut’) on the USAG
at Yongsan for years playing
God-awful Korn type music
with whoever we could find that
wanted to play. Two bucks an
hour got you the room and all the
equipment you needed and was
probably instrumental in me not
getting into too much trouble.
By about my sophomore year
we had discovered punk rock:
this music spoke to me and I
related to it in a way that metal or hard rock never did. Led
Zep was amazing but sang about
women and Tolkien Lore, two
things I had zero exposure to.
Metallica made me want to
play the guitar but their war/
quasi-religious material however cool was a far cry from
what I knew. Korn could get
that teenage angst thing down,
in a really commercial way,
and I had seen them live by accident and largely not knowing
who they were in Washington
State but it still did not quite
have what I was looking for. It
was bands like Offspring and
Green Day that had music that
a generally angry and confused
kid could relate to.
I wanted angst, anger, sympathy, simplicity and most of
all honesty in music. And it
had to fucking rock. I guess
I was asking for a lot. Fans
of Suck Stuff may recognize
a few of these themes in the
song I wrote called ‘Where
I Belong’ from the Rough
Times Ahead EP. Specfically
the lines ‘Anger comes to fill
that void / Hated what I once
enjoyed’ addressing my disillusionment with the music
I used to listen to and ‘Hey
man where ya going where
ya headed I ain’t seen ya in
so long’ in the friends that I
used to associate with that I
then did not after discovering
punk rock in Korea.
So yes, I had terrible taste
in music at one point or another. Some punk rockers claim
to have sprung from the womb
with a Crass LP under one arm
and a P-Bass in the other but I
did not. Living in Korea I could
only listen to what was accessible to me before the MP3 explosion and what was dictated
by record companies and Korean Government Censors to be
fit to release in Korea. Someday
I may look back on this whole
punk rock thing and cringe that
I was ever so stupid to actually
think there was anything to it
like I do at some of the bands I
listened to years ago.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to my old friend Kenny
Lee. He was always introducing
new music to me, some great
and some terrible but he was
always much more technologically astute than I. I used the
Internet for porn and he would
research bands. He kept me
in check when my head would
get too big and though he was
a few years younger than I he
was light-years ahead of me
in maturity. He saved me from
jail more than once and served
as my drummer.
Kenny, if you somehow ever
read this those rumors about
me and your girlfriend were
mostly not true. I was just
young and stupid. We had fun
and never really hurt anyone.
Except for that one guy at the
park near Samgakji, I think we
went a little bit too far that
time. And I am sorry about
your glasses.
We tried to play at Drug. We
had an audition and never got
a call back. That year an allgirl Japanese punk band called
Lolita No 18 came to Korea and
played at Slugger. Somehow
Kenny knew the owner and
found out that they had punk
shows every Tuesday night. We
went in one afternoon and had
an audition and we were asked
to play a show. It was myself on
guitar and vocals, Kenny Lee
on drums and my girlfriend at
the time on bass. We were absolutely terrible. Kenny and I
had roughly the same taste but
he liked the more pop punk as
I was getting into American
street punk, my girlfriend at
the time was into emo so we
were all over the place. We
named ourselves ‘Merge’ after a vulgar T-shirt that was
and still is for sale in Itaewon.
Later, I added a 77 just to make
it a little bit more ‘punk.’
The Tuesday night shows
were interesting. The audience
consisted of other band members and occasionally some of
their girlfriends. Everyone sat
along the shadowed walls of
the club so that when you were
performing you had no idea if
anyone was watching. As with
many clubs, the lighting made
sort of a halo effect in front
of you so you couldn’t see a
thing except for what was going on onstage. The dance
floor was absolutely empty. We
played with bands like Torpex and Half Brothers there. I
met some of the same people I
still know today at the Tuesday
night punk rock shows.
Your first band is a lot like
your first girl/boyfriend. To me
the illusion was amazing, like
we would get picked up by Epitaph and tour with bands all over
the world just because we started one of our own. I had no idea
how much work was involved in
it at all. I am fairly sure our set
list never changed and we made
a half assed attempt at recording
a demo tape which I mailed to
Nitro Records and actually got a
very polite rejection letter from
them that I wish I still had. Your
first show is a lot like your first
sexual experience. It’s nothing
like you imagined. TV and movies made a bigger deal out of it
that bore little resemblance to
reality. You are elated that you
did it and dissapointed that it
didn’t live up to your expectations all at the same time.
The only promotion that the
owner ever bothered to put
out was writing the names of
the bands on the back of other
event posters and taping them
to the sidewalk with arrows
roughly pointing in the direction of Slugger. Kind of like
seeing you name in print for
the first time, it was something to see my band’s name
in scrawled marker on the back
of a flyer taped to the ground.
My parents were rather understanding that I was always
out late on Tuesday nights
even though I was failing virtually every class at school.
Even if they weren’t, it
wouldn’t have made a blind
bit of difference. One night in
my senior year I came home
after a Tuesday night show
and my father and mother
were still awake and watching TV, odd for them because
it was late. I saw the World
Trade Center burning and the
planes crash into the building
live. The defining moment of
my generation where kids will
one day ask “Where were you
on 9/11?” and I can honestly
say I was playing terrible punk
rock at a shitty club in Korea
to an almost empty room.
Sidebar: I was so moved by
the attacks of 9/11 I rasied
over 16,000$ for the families
of the victims, mostly in cash
just by asking everyone I saw. I
also threw a benefit show at a
biker bar near Seoul National
University (and spoke to Jonghee on the phone about playing well before meeting him)
(You’ve come a long way baby)
to raise money. I wrote and
played a tribute song about the
9/11 attacks and performed it
at my school for the students
and faculty and the commanding
general of the USFK. After the
show the general called me back
up on the stage and gave me his
coin and we had our picture
taken together. There was me,
in torn jeans, combat boots, and
red hair shaking hands with a
commanding four-star general.
Unreal. I saw Korean schoolkids
laying flowers on the walls outside the US Embassy in Seoul
to show their solidarity with
the US in that time of tragedy
and national pain. The suits in
power promptly took that sympathy and solidarity and fucked
it up to the point that I wonder
if another attack on the level of
9/11 were to occur now would
the world respond the same
way? I am dubious they would.
I was not overly emotional or
demonstrative so I felt a little
weird about the whole terrorist attack thing. Was I supposed to cry like some people
I saw when they showed the
planes hitting the buildings on
TV? I knew I was a little weird
but I was fucking bizzarre not
to demonstrate outrage and
sadness when the culprit was
finally revealed to the world. I
didn’t understand the nationalist fervor that arose from the
ashes of that day but we’re
living in that age now and it
has shaped my generation. I
reacted in a most unusual way.
I wanted to do what little I
could to help those most affected. Enough of that for now.
The relationship and therefore my band broke up in the
winter of 2001 and I kept going to shows mainly at Drug. I
started to research more and
more bands via the Internets
and eventually started to find
the music I had been looking
for for years. One night after
the show at Drug I was drinking on the sidewalk with a really cool Korean guy and we got
to talking, mostly about bands
like the Unseen and Oxymoron.
He told me about another punk
rock club that played harder
stuff. Stuff more like the music that we liked. He told me
he’d take me there. We bought
some beer and started walking
in the direction of Shinchon.
Down across the train tracks
and tucked in an alley this Korean dude named Minju led me
to a tiny ‘club’ called Skunk
Hell. Again, I caught the last
few songs from a band, a band
called Rux who was fresh out
of the Army. After the show we
all hung out on the still damp
floor of the club drinking soju
and eating chips.
It’s all a process. Music
taste is so dependent on exposure, culture, and geography.
Maybe even more important
is technology or at least profiency with it. That is why the
underground scene is so vital. There is and always has
been an untapped reserve of
kids that would only love punk
the way I do or maybe the way
you do if they only ever heard
it and grew to understand it.
Imagine if all of them started bands, wrote music, wrote
zines, booked shows or whatever themselves. It doesn’t
take much at all.
For me, it was absolutely
revolutionary that ordinary
kids could write, produce and
play music that they created.
It’s easier now than it has
ever been but that also means
there is a high noise to signal
ratio these days.
I always find it exceptional
that there are people who will
say that I am a good songwriter. I don’t really think
so. I’m a medicore guitar
player and can hardly string
two words together in a manner that makes any amount
of sense in the harsh light of
day. But even I can manage to
throw together a band and play
some decent music. I only really write what I would like to
listen to and I am limited by
my meager guitar/songwriting
ability and lack of creativity.
The Tuesday night shows at
Slugger were a petri dish of
ideas and bands just starting
out and getting their feet wet
playing. Many of the folks that
play now got their start playing to a largely empty room on
an off night in a club tucked
way back in Hongdae. They
have come a long way.
Many more I am sure, disillusioned with playing live,
hung it up and went the way of
the salary man. I am sure many
would have gone on to have
awesome bands had they stuck
with it and played the empty
clubs and off-nights but that
is a lot to ask of someone.
대략 십여년전쯤의 홍대 클럽씬으
로 돌아가보자면 그땐 매주 화요일 밤
마다 펑크 밴드들이 라이브 클럽에서
공연을 했었다.
난 여전히 고등학생 신분 이였고 내
동급생들과 펑크락과는 거리가 먼 밴
드를 만들었지만 난 그들에게 오프스
프링이나 그린데이에 영향을 받은 내
갖잖은 곡들을 쓸만하게 연주하게끔
밀어붙혔다.
전에는 이태원의 술에쩔은 군인들
앞에서 가끔하는 공연 말고는 클럽에
서 공연한적은 결코 없었다.
몇년전 고등학교에 갖 입학했을 무
렵 난 여름방학기간 동안 의정부에 있
는 작은 군부대 안에서 카투사 한명과
함께 일하게 됐다.
당신들도 알겠지만 한국에서 성인
남자는 반드시 군에 입대해 2년동안
복무를 해야 하는데,
영어실력과 복권추첨식의 운을 더
해 미군 소속,즉 카투사 (미군에 소속
된 한국군인 이건 뭐건간에) 가 될수
있다.
일반 한국 군대식의 좆빠지는 일은
별로 없기때문에 달콤한 복무가 아닐
수 없다. 한국 군인의 신분이지만 미
군을 위해 일하는 것이다.
최 상병 이라는 이 카투사 동료와
나는 최악의 일꾼이였지만 변명꺼리
는 충분했기에 난 이 일에 지원했고
그는 강제 복무였다.
우린 게을렀고 지각은 밥먹듯 했으
며 아마도 몇년에 걸쳐 힘들게 만들어
졌을 파일 시스템을 좆으로 만들었다.
즉각 우리는 음악적 취향이 비슷
하다는걸 발견했다.적지만서도.그는
Phish에 빠져있었지만 그건 내스타
일은 아니였다.
그는 나에게 드럭이라는 클럽과 한
국 언더그라운드 음악들을 알려주었
다. 일하는 대신에 그는 나에게 Dead
Kennedy와 Operation Ivy 곡들
을 어떻게 다운로드 받을 수 있는지
를 알려주었다.
또 우리는 미국 정부의 컴퓨터로
Civilization 2(문명전쟁 이라는 컴
퓨터 게임)를 엄청 해댔다.
그 다음해부터 난 내 친구 몇명과
드럭이라는 클럽을 찾아나섰다. 다른
면으로 날 감복시칸 대마를 하고 밴드
티를 입고다녔던 상급생들에게 줒어
들은 위치는 알고 있었다.
처음 찾아가던 날은 드럭을 발견할
수 없었고 바에 들어가 화이트 러시시
안을 마시고선 근테 호텔방을 잡는 것
으로 여정을 끝냈다.(화이트 러시안
은 그당시 내가 즐겨마시던 술이다.)
두번째로 찾아나서서야 나와 케니
리 는 드디어 드럭을 발견할 수 있었
다. 늦은탓에 우리는 마지막 밴드였던
Crying Nut의 마지막 노래의 절반
만을 들을 수 있었고 내 기억으론 그
때 케니 리 의 안경을 부러뜨렸던거
같다.
그사건은 언제건 우리가 공연을 갔
던날 언제나 화두로 떠오르곤 했다.
그 후론 기회가 되는 대로 매일 드
럭으로 갔다.
드럭은 지금 “머리에 꽃을”이라
는 술집으로 바뀐 옛 스컹크 자리에
위치하고 있었다.
1층에 위치했던 샵에선 밴드들이
어울려 놀았고 앞 유리창엔 어떤 광적
인 팬이 크라잉 너트가 끔찍하게 죽어
버리길 바라는 욕구따위를 적어놓은
포스트 카드들로 도배되있었다.
한번은 지나친 모슁을 하다 내던져
진적도 있었지만 그런것쯤은 보통 상
관은 없었다.
케니 리 와 나는 우리만의 밴드를
만들기로 결정했다.
우리는 몇년동안 용산 미군부대 안
에 있는 Moyer Receration Music
Room (혹은 “jam hut”) 에서 빌
어먹을 최악의 Korn 타입의 음악이
던 어떤 밴드건 우리가 할만하고 하
고싶었던 노래들을 연주하며 미친듯
이 즐겼다.
한시간에 2불이면 빌릴수 있던 방
과 합주에 필요한 모든 장비들과 악
기들은 문제아였던 내가 좀 잠잠해 질
수 있게 해 주었다.
고등학교 2학년 무렵이 되서야 우
린 펑크락에 대해 알게 됐다.:이 음악
은 내가 더 이해하기 쉬웠고 메탈이
나 하드락에서 느끼지 못한 친숙함을
주었다.
Led Zeppelin은 대단한 밴드지
만 노래들은 당시 내 관심밖인 여자
나 톨킨 책에나 나올법한 트롤 따위
내용이잖아. Metallica는 나를 기타
의 길로 인도한 밴드였고 그들이 말하
는 전쟁이나 종교스러움 같은건 멋
지긴 하지만 그때당시의 날 감동시키
기엔 무리였다.
Korn은 반항적인 십대들 취향엔
맞았을런지 모르지만 지극히 상업적
이였고 그때까지 Korn이란 그룹이 잘
알려지지 않았던 와싱턴 주 에서 우연
찮게 공연을 보게 됐지만 여전히 내가
찾고 있던 것과는 거리가 멀었다. 오히
려 Offspring 이나 Green Day 같은
밴드가 질풍노도 시기에 혼돈을 겪던
아이에게 더 가깝게 다가왔다.
나는 불안,분노,연민,단순함과 솔
직함을 음악에서 찾길 원했다. 그리고
그건 빌어먹을 락 이여야 했다. 까다
롭기도 하지.(어쨌든) Suck Stuff 팬
이라면 아마 이런 주제들을 ‘Rough
Times Ahead’ EP에 수록된 노래
중 ‘Where I Belong’ 에서 찾아
볼 수 있을것이다. 특히 “’Anger
comes to fill that void(분노로
공허함을 채운다.)/ Hated what I
once enjoyed(한때의 유희를 증오
했다.)” 라는 라인은 내가 들었던 음
악에서의 환멸감이 나타나고 ‘Hey
man where ya going where ya
headed I aint seen ya in so
long’ (이봐 넌 어디로 가고 있고 어
디에 있고 널 못본지 오래 됐어.)라는
라인은 한때 가깝게 지냈으나 내가 한
국에서 펑크락을 알아 가면서 부터 그
러지 못한 친구들에 관한 것이다.
그래 뭐, 난 어떤면에선 까틸스런
음악취향을 가지고 있었다.몇몇 펑크
락커들을 본인들은 Crass LP 따위
의 언더그라운드 에서 태어났다고 말
하지만 난 아니였다.
한국에 있었던 나는 MP3열풍이 일
기 전 오직 접하기 쉬웠던 음악이나
한국 검열기관에서의 심의를 거쳐 발
매된 음반만을 들을 수 있었다.
언젠가 이 펑크락 들과 몇년전에 들
었던 그 음악들이 얼마나 엄청난 것
이었나를 생각하지 못했음이 얼마나
바보같았는지에 대해 돌아보게 될것
이다.
난 내 오랜 친구 케니 리 에게 고마
움에 대한 빚이 있다. 그는 항상 나에
게 새로운 음악을 알려줬고 비록 어떤
건 최고였고 어떤건 최악이였지만 서
도 그의 기술적인 통찰력은 언제나 나
보다 한수 위였다.
나는 인터넷을 포르노나 보는데 이
용했지만 그는 밴드들을 검색했다.내
머리가 커지면서 그는 날 항상 그의
통제안에 뒀는데 그는 나보다 몇년 어
렸음에도 불구하고 나보다 몇광년은
성숙했다.
그는 나를 유치장에서 여러번 구해줬
고 내 밴드의 드러머로서도 연주했다.
케니, 만약 네가 이 글을 어떻게든
본다면 너의 여자친구와 나에 관한 대
부분의 루머는 사실이 아냐.난 그냥
어린 얼간이였어. 우린 즐거웠고 절대
누군가를 아프게 하지 않았어.
삼각지 공원의 그 남자만 빼고.내
생각에 우린 그때 우린 너무 멀리까
지 갔어. 그리고 너의 안경에 대해선
미안하다.
우리는 드럭에서 공연하려고 시도했
다.오디션은 봤지만 연락이 오는 일은 없
었다. 그해에 Loitia 18 이라는 여자들
화요일 밤의 펑크 락 쇼 (지금 까지 잘해 왔어, 자기들)
로만 이루어진 일본 펑크 밴드가 한국에
방문에 클럽 슬러거에서 공연을 가졌다.
어찌어찌 해서 케니가 슬러거 사장
을 알게 됐고 그곳에서 매주 화요일
밤 마다 펑크 공연을 한다는걸 알게
됐다. 우리는 오후에 오디션을 봤고
공연을 할수 있는지 물어봤다.
내가 기타와 보컬을 맞았고 케니가
드럼을 쳤으며 그당시 사귀던 여자애
가 배이스를 쳤다. 우린 진짜 최악이
였다. 케니와 나는 취향이 비슷 했지
만 내가 미국 스트릿 펑크에 빠졌던
데에 반해 그는 팝펑크쪽을 더 선호
했고 당시 내 여자친구는 이모쪽이여
서 우리는 중구난방이였다.우리는 예
나 지금이나 여전히 이태원에서 팔리
고 있는 천박한 티셔츠가 나온 후에
밴드 이름을 ‘Merge’라고 지었
다.(남녀가 뒹구는 그림의 그 셔츠에
도 Merge라 써 있었다.)
후에 나는 좀더 ‘펑크’ 스럽도록
뒤에 숫자 77을 붙혔다.
그 화요일 밤의 공연은 흥미로웠다.
관중들은 디른 밴드들과 가끔 그들의
여자친구들 뿐 이였다.모두들 벽쪽 후
미진곳에 붙어 가만히 서있는 탓에 공
연을 하면서도 그들이 보고 있는지 알
턱이 없었다.
모든 클럽들이 그렇듯 조명으로 앞
에서 후광을 만들기에 무대 위에서 어
떤일이 벌어지는지만 보일뿐 무대 밖
은 볼수가 없다.
공연장 가운데는 그야말로 텅 비어
있었다. 우리는 거기서 Torpex, 배
다른형제와 함깨 공연했다. 난 그 공
연에서 지금까지도 알고 지내는 사람
들을 몇 만났다.
당신의 첫 밴드는 당신의 첫번째 애
인과도 같다. 나에게 있어 Epitath
에 산택되어 다른 밴드들과 세계 투
어를 도는 상상은 대단한 것 이였는데
그건 우리가 우리만의 것을 시작했기
때문이였다.
난 얼마나 많은 일들이 복잡한지 알
턱이 없었다. 난 꽤나 우리의 셋 리스
트에 확신이 있어서 절대 바꾸지 않았
고 수박 겉핥기 식으로 데모 테입을
녹음해서 Nitro 레코드 사에 보냈는
데 지금 생각하면 계속 가지고 있었으
면 좋았을껄 하는
정중히 거절한 답장을 받았다. 당신
의 첫 공연은 애인과의 첫 관계와 닮았
다. 상상했던것과 별반 다르지 않다.
텔레비젼이나 영화는 약간의 현실
에서 벗어나 더 과장되게 다뤄진다.
당신이 해낸것에 우쭐하거나 기대
에 부흥하지 못해 실망하는건 항상 같
이 일어난다.
우릴 떨어뜨리는것을 골칫거리로
여겼던 사장이 한 공연 홍보는 다른
행사용 포스터 뒷면에 밴드 이름을 대
충 매직팬으로 휘갈겨 쓰고 슬러거 방
향으로 난 화살표 딱지와 같이 거리에
테이프로 붙혀놓은게 다였다.
우리 부모님들은 비록 내가 모든
학과목에서 사실상 낙제위기에 쳐했
을지언정 화요일 밤마다 항상 밖에서
늦게까지 어울리는걸 꽤 이해해 주셨
다.설사 그분들이 날 이해 못했을지라
도 크게 달라진건 없었을 거다.
어느날 밤 내가 졸업반이였을때 화
요일 밤 공연이 끝나고 집에 오니 아
버지와 어머니께서 그때까지 잠들지
않고 티비를 보고 계셨는데 시간이 꽤
늦었기에 이상한 기운을 감지했다.
그때 티비에서 생방송으로 세계 무
역센터가 불타오르고 여객기가 충돌
하는걸 봤다. 어린 아이들이 언젠가
자라나서 “911 테러가 났을때 어디
있었어요?” 라고 물어오면 난 정직
하게 난 그때 거의 텅텅 비여있던 한
국의 한 개똥같은 클럽에서 최악의 펑
크 공연을 했다고 말할 수 있을 내게
있어 결정적 순간이였다
보충: 난 911 테러로 인해 바뀌였
고 16,000달러가 넘는 기부금을 내
가 봤던 모든 사람들에게 부탁하여 거
의 현금으로 모았다. 또 기부금을 모
으기 위해서 서울대 근처의 바이커 바
에서의 자선공연도 했다.(그리고 종희
(Rux의)와 만나기 전 전화로 공연에
대해 이야기 했다.) 난 911 테러에 관
해 헌정 노래를 만들어 연주했고 우리
학교 학생들과 학부,주한미군 참모장
에 홍보했다. 공연 후 그 참모장이 무
대위로 나를 불러 개인적으로 후원금
을 지원했고 둘이 같이 사진도 찍었다.
찢어진 청바지,전투화 그리고 빨갛
게 물들인 머리를 하고 별 네개 짜리
참모장과 악수를 하는 사진이라니.믿
어지는가?
미국 대사관 밖 벽들에는 한국 학생
들이 그 당시 참사와 전국민적 아픔에
대한 연대감을 나타내며 놓아둔 꽃들
이 있었다.
힘있는 정부 권력자들은 재빠르게
공감대와 단결력을 앚아갔고 엉망으
로 만들었다. 911 테러와 같은 일이
지금 또다시 일어난다면 이 세상 모든
사람들이 그때와 처럼 똑같이 반응할
까? 내생각은 아니올소이다.
난 지나치게 감정에 동요되거나 하
진 않았기에 테러리스트들이 공격하
는 것 따위에 미묘한 기분이 들었다.
티비에서 비행기가 빌딩으로 충돌
앴을 때 눈물지었던 사람들 처럼 나도
울어야만 했을까?
나도 내가 좀 괴짜인건 인정하지만
테러범이 드디어 세상에 까발려 졌을
때 조차 분노와 슬픔 같은건 나타내
지 않았던 존나 이상한 놈이였다.테러
의 잿더미에서 들고 일어나는 민족주
의자들의 행동을 이해할 수 없었지만
우리가 지금 같은 시대를 살고있고 이
런것들이 내 세대를 형성했다는건 사
실이다.
난 가장 보편적이지 않은것에 반응
했다. 난 가장 타격입은 것들에 대해 조
금이나마 내가 도울 수 있기를 바랬다.
그리고 지금으로선 충분하다.
2001년 겨울에 밴드를 해산하면서
관계도 흐지부지 됐고 난 여전히 대부
분의 시간을 드럭에서 보냈다.
난 인터넷으로 더 많은 밴드들을 검
색했고 내가 몇 년동안 찾아해맸던 음
악들을 찾기 시작했다.
어느날 밤 인가 드럭에서 쇼가 끝난
후 난 어떤 겁나 멋진 한국인 한명과 거
리에서 진탕 마셨고 우린 Unseen 이나
Oxymoron같은 밴드들을 주제로 대화
했다. 그는 좀더 강한 것들을 연주를 하
는 펑크 락 클럽을 소개시켜 줬다.우리
가 진짜 좋아했던 것들 말이다.그가 나
에게 같이 가자고 했다.우리는 맥주 몇
병을 사들고 신촌을 따라 걸었다.
그 ‘민주’ 라는 이름의 한국인 친
구는 신촌 갈매기살 고깃집길 아래 좁
은 골목을 따라 ‘Skunk Hell’이
라 불리는 작은 ‘클럽’으로 안내했
다.드럭에 첫날 갔을때와 마찮가지로
난 또 한 밴드의 마지막 몇 곡들만을
볼수 있었는데, Rux라는 이제 막 군
제대를 한 밴드였다. 쇼가 끝나고 우
린 축축한 클럽 계단에서 소주에 과자
를 안주삼아 마시며 진탕 놀았다.
모든것이 진행중이다. 음악적 취향
은 이미 들어난 것 들 이나 문화적,지
역적 영향을 꽤 받는다. 아마도 가장
더 중요한것은 기술이나 적어도 이것
들과 함께 진보해간다는 것이다.
이런 것 들이 왜 언더그라운드 문화
가 중요한지를 말해준다.
내가 그러한 것 처럼 펑크를 사랑
할 어린 친구들 혹은 지금 이 글을 읽
고 있는 여러분처럼 펑크를 듣고 이해
하는 사람들이 언제나 있어왔고 지금
도 그러하다.
만약 그들 모두가 스스로 펑크 밴
드를 시작했고 곡을 썼고 펑크에 관
한 잡지를 만들었고 공연을 했다고 상
상해 보라. 그리 어렵지는 않을꺼다.
나에게 있어 평범한 아이들이 그들
이 만들어낸 곡을 쓰고 연주하고 기획
하는것 들은 정말 혁명적인 것 이였다.
예전보다야 이런 일을 한다는건 쉽겠
지만 또한 그만큼 요즘은 전보다 괜찮
은 곡들을 만들어 내긴 어렵기도 하다.
난 언제나 의례적으로 내가 괞찮은
작곡가라고 말하는 사람들을 본다.난
절대 동의하진 않지만. 난 그럭저럭
기타를 치고 감각은 쥐뿔도 없는 상태
에서 그럭저럭 곡을 쓴다. 그래도 꽤
찮게 하는거 같긴 하지만 말이다.
난 부족한 나의 기타 실력이나 곡을
쓰는 능력 그리고 부족한 창조력을 염
두하고 내가 듣기에 꽤 괜찮다고 생각
하는 곡들만 쓸 뿐이다.
슬러거 에서의 화요일 밤 펑크락 공
연은 발가락의 때만큼에도 못미치는
발상과 열정만 대단했던 풋내기 밴드
들의 조합이였다. 그 옛날 많은 밴드
들이 화요일이라는 최악의 날 밤에 커
다랗고 텅텅 빈 공연장에서 연주를 했
다. 그들은 그렇게 함께 걸어왔다.
그중 다수는,확신컨데,음악을 연주
하는것에 환멸감을 느끼고 그만 두거
나 직장인의 길로 갔다. 많은 밴드들의
그 최악의 화요일 밤의 공연을 계속 이
어나갔다면 지금쯤 멋지게 성장했을꺼
라 확신하지만 그들에게 그래주길 부
탁하는건 너무 큰 요구다.
The Ban Came Back
Jon Twitch
If you’re too new to remember, Banran was once
one of Korea’s most promising new hardcore bands. They
started under the name Join
the Circle, obeying strict laws
that all hardcore bands must
be named after a sentence or
at least sentence fragment,
but as their sound evolved and
became darker, they changed
their name to Banran.
Last issue of Broke was depressing indeed, as it was a
sendoff for not only Jonghee
but also YJ, vocalist of Banran.
He moved to the US for a year,
and now he too is back, albeit
with considerably more facial
hair than I remember. Or have
seen on any Korean outside
period dramas.
Although Banran hasn’t yet
planned a reunion show, it’s
inevitable, and I figured that
doing an interview might light
a fire under him. Oh, and note
that he provided the translation himself.
Broke: So, are you glad to be
back?
YJ: hmmm. yes. I`m glad to see
my good friends and banran
mates again.
at the same time, I miss my
past year in USA so much.
ah.yeah I miss my texan punks.
흠...네. 몇몇의 좋은 친구들과 반
란 밴드 멤버들을 다시 보게되어 기
쁩니다.
동시에 지난 1년 미국에서의 생활
도 그립습니다. 나의 텍사스 펑크 친
구들이 그립습니다.
Broke: What exactly were you
doing over there anyway?
YJ: I worked at a cell-phone
refurbish company. it was an
internship.
I got to experience how
boring a warehouse job is in
america.
저는 핸드폰 리퍼비쉬 회사에서 인
턴쉽으로 일했습니다.
미국에서의 공장일이 얼마나 지루
한지 경험하게 되었지요.
Broke: Were you involved in
the local music scene? Did you
ever join or start any bands?
YJ: Yeah, I was truly involved
in the DFW (Dallas-Fort
Worth) hardcore punk scene.
Now the DFW scene is really active. I learned so many
things from them. How to play
more intense, DIY punk scene,
destroy assholes and bastards,
friendship, yeah so many real
things.
I played with Dan Granado
from Wild/Tribe and Eddie
Hoyos. We were a three-piece
swedish d-beat hardcore (TOTALITAR, HERATYS. style)
Here’s YJ with Banran, before growing the most legendary
working vacation beard in Korean history.
inflenced band. It was called
“Piratejoe missiles attack
from north.” We played only
once at my going away party.
We had two original songs and
played two covers.
It was a totally awesome experience for me.
Dan is the best drummer
I’ve ever seen in my whole
life, Eddie is also a truly fucking awesome country sound
based guitarist.
Eddie did not use a guitar
pick even though we played
fast songs, and he played the
solo in it.
전 DFW 하드코어 펑크 씬에 있었
습니다. 지금의 DFW 씬은 진짜 활기
찹니다. 정말 많은것들을 그들에게서
배웠지요.
어떻게 밴드에서 강력하게 연주할
수 있는지,DIY 펑크 씬, 개씨방새들
과 병신새끼들을 개박살 내는것, 우
정,
정말 많은 진짜의 것들을 배웠습니
다.
저는 Wild//Tribe 출신의 Dan
Granado와 Eddie Hoyos와 함께
밴드를 했습니다. 우리는 3명의 스웨
덴산 디-비트 하드코어(Totalitar,
Heratys 스타일) 영향의 밴드
였습니다. 이름은 “북으로 부터
의 Piratejoe 미사일 공격” 이었습
니다.
우리는 한번 저의 굿바이 파티에서
공연을 했습니다. 우리는 2개의 오리
지날 송과 2개의 커버를 했지요.
정말 엄청난 경험이었습니다.
Dan은 제가 지금까지 본 드러머 중
최고의 드러머엿으며, Eddie 또한 컨
트리 음악 기반의 존내 짱인 기타리스
트 였습니다.
Eddie는 우리가 빠른노래를 연주
하고 그는 쏠로 까지 하는데도 기타피
크를 사용하지 않았습니다.
Broke: Introduce a couple of
the bands from there.
YJ: Spazm151 (Texas fucking
style hardcore)
Wild/Tribe (Texas fucking
style + burning spirit hardcore)
Oust (Raw Destruction punk)
Deadline (The Execute (‘80s
Japanese
hardcore
punk)
styled raw punk)
Wiccans (Black Flag, SSD inflenced with modern rhythm)
completely fucked (fastcore)
Tolar (black metal + raw hardcore punk)
Kegcharge
(fuck
military,
Christian bastards raw DBeat)
porkeria (Straightfoward latino hardcore punk)
Broke: Did you introduce that
much Korean punk music to
the people there? Did they end
up having a sense of where you
came from?
YJ: I spread the BANRAN 7”
that few left. I also introduced
some bands from Korea. They
reacted to Scumraid. and some
guy from Denton already knew
about Gukdo. And I think Dan
from Wild//Tribe liked the
Couch.
We mainly were willing to
talk about hardcore punk from
Japan and Scandinavia and
USA.
Natually they asked me about
the Korean punk scene’s
shows, bands, issues but they
seemed not to be interested in
the imitations of Sid Vicious,
nationalists, and corporate
sponsored bands or shows.
I think they have a sense of
where I came from, exactly.
The Couch is awesome.
Their lyrics are so golden.
since I saw the Couch, they
have been my favorite punk
band in Korea. It’s not only
because the singer stripped his
pants off during a live broadcast but also, the songs are just
awesome. Probably I was about
to go to the Addicts show in
Dallas. Couch just came into
mind.
I want to see the Couch
again!
저는 좀 남은 BANRAN 7” 를 나
누어 주었습니다. 또한 한국 출신 밴
드들도 소개해주었구요.
그들은 Scumraid에 반응을 햇고,
Denton이라는 동네에서 온 어떤 친
구는 이미 극도를 알고있었습니다.
그리고 제 생각엔 Dan은 카우치를
좋아하는것 같앗습니다.
당연히 그들은 저에게 한국 펑크씬
에대해서 물어보았습니다. 공연이나
밴드나 어떤 이슈들에대해서도.
하지만 그들은 시드비셔스를 따라
하거나, 민족주의자거나, 큰 기업에
스폰받는 밴드나 공연에는 관심이 없
어 보였습니다.
그들이 제가 어디서 왔는지를 정확
히 알게 되었을 겁니다.
카우치는 정말 짱입니다. 가사도 존
내 좋고
카우치를 본 이후로, 카우치는 제가
가장좋아하는 한국 펑크밴드 입니다.
생방송에서 바지를 벗은 이유때문만
아니라, 노래가 진짜 너무 좋습니다.
아마도 제가 달라스의 어딕츠 공연
을 가려던 차 였습니다. 카우치가 그
냥 딱 떠올랐었습니다.
카우치를 다시 보고 싶군요!!!
Broke: Punk aside, how was
living in the US? What was
hard about it? What was easy?
YJ: Transportation is awful,
cops are fucking rude. The
jock minded are fucking annoying. Most of them are so
polite and kind to me tho.
Really easy to get records
and see shows. I miss gravy a
lot. I still think the best invention in USA is gravy, and
tabasco sauce.
대중교통이 엉망입니다. 경찰들도
존내 거칠구요.Jock minded 된 사
람들은 존내 짜증납니다.
대부분은 저에게 친절했습니다 만.
레코드와 공연을 접하기는 정말 쉽
습니다.
Gravy sauce 가 정말 그립습니
다. 저는 지금도 생각하건데 미국 최
고의 발명품은 그레이비 소스와 토바
스코 소스인거 같습니다.
Broke: Now that you’re back,
will we see Banran active
again?
YJ: I guess it would be in September. I want to show what I
learned from Texan punks to
people.
아마도 9월이 될 것 같습니다. 텍사
스 펑크들에게 배운것을 사람들에게
보여주고 싶습니다.
What a stupid question!
Jon Twitch
I learned this long ago: musicians are not that interesting. Or at least, if you put
them on the spot, most of them
don’t have much to say at all.
Then, I discovered, it’s the
job of the interviewer to bring
out the musician’s personality by drawing out the right
answers that make the musician seem interesting.
I spent years doing boring
interviews with boring musicians. “How did you guys become a band?” “So, what are
your influences?” “Do you
have any interesting stories
about being a band?” Then I
met Nardwuar the Human Serviette. Nardwuar is an amazing Canadian punk musician
who built up quite a career appearing on mainstream music
channels interviewing all sorts
of famous people, from Gorbachev and Dan Quayle to Jello Biafra and Quiet Riot, who
roughed him up and destroyed
the recording of the interview.
The number one trick Nardwuar taught me was to do research. Dig up everything you
can. When Fishbone came to
town (they seemed to visit
our remote northern city four
times a year), I was representing one of many media outlets
covering them. I looked them
up online and followed every
lead, including a confusing
credit that they’d provided
the soundtrack to a porn film.
When I asked bassist Norwood
Fisher, he launched into a
magnificent tirade about how
they wanted to merge punk
music with pornography.
Next, and I think this is more
what I got from Nardwuar than
what he told me, ask questions
that inflame the band. You’re
not trying to get them angry
or even put them on the defensive; you’re just looking
for a way to get them to speak
honestly about something they
feel passionate about that can
be put into words (which music often can’t). I asked John
Feldmann, the frontman of
then-ska-punk band Goldfinger and the biggest idiot I ever
interviewed, about what he
thought about one of his songs
being used in an Olson twins
movie. It got him to open up
about the indignities of working as a professional musician
in the mainstream music industry and all the damage control he did.
Last, I cannot discount
blind luck. A few interviews,
I stumbled across some amazing replies to the most inocuous questions. Like the time
I asked Epitaph band Osker,
coming to Canada for their
second tour, what it was like
on their first tour. I can’t remember the exact quote, but
it went something like this:
“It was weird being in a foreign country where they speak
another language.” He was
referring to a show in Vancouver. I guess he must’ve been
in Richmond and seen all the
Chinese people or something.
In Broke I’ve interviewed a
lot of musicians in Korea and
heard some pretty interesting
things. I do interviews either
in person or by e-mail; usually
if it’s printed as a Q&A dialogue it was done online, and if
it’s in actual article form I sat
down and interviewed them.
Usually I prefer the former because it’s far less work for me
and it gives the band a chance
to consider their answers and
craft them well. A live interview can easily bomb and leave
you empty-handed, and you’ll
either be furiously scribbling
notes during the interview or
typing out a transcript after.
But both can be used well to
make good interviews.
Now, here are some of my
favourite quotes that I’ve
collected over the years.
Broke 1 - Couch
I interviewed Hyunbum of
Couch (we called him Urchin
back then) about a commercial
endorsement offer he received
from Casio. He got the sense
they just wanted the band (minus Sharon for some reason)
in the commercial to cash in
on their image, so he turned it
down furiously.
Urchin: I don’t hate the commercial, but if that commercial makes us clowns, I don’t
want it. But, if that commercial owner gives Couch the
chance to speak real truth, we
will make it. But nobody will
make that.
Ironic given what he chose
to wear (or not wear) when
he appeared on TV later that
year.
Broke 2 - King Lychee
I interviewed Riz Farooqi of
the Hong Kong hardcore band
King Lychee. Knowing virtually nothing about them, I
turned to the Internet, where I
learned the not-so-promising
fact that their biggest show
was opening for Korn. Ouch.
So, I let loose with this fact,
and the answer I got was remarkable.
Q) I heard you opened for
Korn. How did you feel about
that?
A) Yeah we opened up for Korn--we collectively have always hated this band. The reason we did this was because for
the longest time Hong Kong
labeled all nu-metal music as
“hardcore.” Since 1999 we
were fighting an uphill battle
with all of HK’s music media,
huge music chain stores, and
radio DJs about getting them
to redefine this garbage music
as “nu-metal” not hardcore.
They have nothing to do
with the hardcore scene, culture or purpose. Since we’re
considered one of the biggest
heavy bands in Hong Kong,
we were invited to open for
Korn. We thought it over for
a good 2 or 3 weeks before we
agreed to do it. Our rationale
was that there was no better
way to show people the difference between hardcore and
nu-metal than actually putting
the two styles together on one
stage so people can hear the
fucking difference loud and
clear.
It was rad dude! There were
over 4000 people there and we
blew Korn right off the stage.
Radio DJs the next day were
all like, “Wow! King Ly Chee
was amazing!” and then went
on to shit on Korn because
honestly, they sucked live.
The Korn dudes didn’t even
talk to the audience--just the
regular insincere thank-yous
in between the songs. They
were so lame...but we accomplished what we set out to do.
It was such a great feeling to
show up
an American band that
we’ve always said sucked and
we’d do it again to any of the
other shit bands that we’ve
never been fans of. Bring it on
Limp Bizkit!
Broke 4 Attacking Forces
Okay, for this one, I knew
that Park Jongo of Attacking Forces had won a boxing
trophy for something like all
of Chungcheongbuk-do. I had
an inkling it involved some
last-minute weight loss, but
wasn’t aware the significance
of that one shit.
Broke: Can you tell us about
your boxing championship?
How did you win?
Park Jongo: Ah, that was a really tough fight with myself.
The most difficult thing for a
boxer is when you fail in controlling your weight. No mat-
ter how good you are, if you
fail, everything is just a waste.
Stories of famous boxers in
magazines mostly talk about
how they struggled to lose
weight. I had to lose weight
also because I wanted to be in
the ‘fly’ division (49 to 51
kg). I trained every day, and I
spat as much as possible because I had to get water out of
my body. My trainer said they
used to be forced to spit eight
yogurt bottles worth of saliva
out every day. On the day of the
match I measured my weight
and I was 500 grams over, so I
went to the washroom and took
a dump, so I passed the weighin, and then in my division
there was nobody else but me.
In small city matches it happens sometimes.
Anyway, I won the championship, and there is still a trophy
in my house.
Broke 6 - Skasucks
Back when I interviewed
Skasucks, Jinseok had some
issues with me because of my
outspoken hatred of ska-punk.
He took issue with a lot of my
questions, criticising me for
calling the band “Ska Sucks”
rather than “SKASUCKS”
(which itself isn’t supposed
to have any coherent English
meaning). He got all the questions by e-mail, so every issue
of ska sucking or of ska-punk
got a strong response from
him, such as this one:
Broke: Most ska-punk bands
aren’t interested in the roots
of ska or reggae, but on your
myspace page you list some
very traditional bands, from
the Slackers to the Upsetters.
Are traditional ska and reggae
music an influence for your
band?
Jinsuk: I don’t like this question. If I speak English well I
would ask you if you’re snubbing us.
First, we are not a ska-punk
band. We are SKASUCKS. We
respect and are influenced by
not only authentic ska like
Skatalites,
Prince
Buster,
and Rico, as well as two-tone
bands like the Specials, Madness, Bad Manners, as well as
reggae bands like Bob Marley,
Symarip, Upsetters. But does it
mean we should be like those
bands if we respect and listen
to them? I’m wondering why
you’re asking this. To me,
you seem to snub SKASUCKS
and people who like us. I want
you to hear a part of our lyrics, from our song “New Generation of Ska,” “You must
remember our sounds. We are
The best Broke in Korea interview answers
SKASUCKS, We are new generation of SKA.” Ha ha, I’m
ruder than you.
Broke 8 Nabiya Cat Shelter
For
the
one-and-only
Christmas special issue of
Broke, I interviewed Nabiya,
a shelter for cats. The answer
I got was actually pretty maddening.
Broke: Where do you rescue
cats from?
Nabiya: There is an online
community called KOPC (Korean Organization for the
Protection of Cats). The runner of Nabiya and Korean volunteers are members of this
community. Most of the cats
are brought from the neighborhoods of the members of
KOPC when they ask for help.
As Nabiya is in Seoul we accept most of those cats in
need from Seoul area.
We take friendly cats or little kittens who can be saved
from becoming wild.
These days as Nabiya is becoming well known, lots of
foreigners bring their cats
because they give up taking them back to their home
countries. Quite a few of our
shelter cats once adopted by
foreigners come back as well
because their housing status is
no longer pet friendly or they
realize it’s too costly to take
the cat back home.
Prolly they didn’t study
enough how much it would
cost and what the process will
be to take the cat back to their
home country.
Broke: Is it much of a problem
with foreigners adopting cats
and returning them?
Nabiya: Yes, it happens a lot
and we got 4 cats back from
those foreign adopters during
the past week. We are very
disappointed that happens
when they promised us to
take them back to their home
countries. We are going to be
more strict and straightforward on adoption from now
on.
Broke 9 Paryumchiakdan
Here’s another great example of getting under a band’s
skin. I interviewed Paryumchiakdan by e-mail, and all
members responded. Considering how angry it made Ahn
Akhee, I’m surprised they
bothered finishing it at all.
Little did he know, I was hoping for a response like that,
although I don’t think Broke
is culpable in this. Everything about this question was
intended to distance them
from all the Ass Rashers and
Ska Stuff and Cock Sucks out
there.
Broke: Most other Korean
bands I see sing in English, or
at least partly in English. Why
did you choose to have Korean
lyrics?
Kim Yungsu: Then using Englishin Korean songs? Using
French? Or using Japanese?
I guess we didn’t even need
to agree to use Korean lyrics
when we first started the band.
Yang Sejung: There are Oriental philosophies and cultures that cannot translate to
English. For instance, Han.
Even the closest English word
“Infamous” cannot fully describe the meaning of Paryumchi. I remember us worrying
whether to use “Infamous” or
“Outrageous” for Paryumchi.
Ahn Archy: Because we are
Korean. Why did you ask this
question? Then why do you
make a fanzine in English?
Broke 8 - Mateo
Definitely Never Daniel (정
진용 now of Christfuck) is one
of the easiest people to interview. I got a very interesting
answer out of him by asking a
simple question that I hoped
would appeal to some part of
him.
Broke: Why did it take so long
for you to start a band?
Never Daniel: Originally I decided not to start a band ever.
There’s a saying in Hongdae, “You should be in a band
to be a punk.” I hated that
and I wanted to prove you can
be a punk without being in a
band, and I hated seeing just
anybody being in a punk band.
The most important thing was
I was worried I wouldn’t be
able to purely enjoy punk music.
Broke 10 ...Whatever That
Means
I did a long interview with
Jeff, who had recently married
Trash and officially formed
the band. A lot of interesting things were said, but I’m
most fascinated by this answer, which you can tell by
how I start it that it was only
asked as a fleeting thought.
Also, it revealed Trash’s real
name to a lot of people for the
first time.
Broke: By the way, how do you
feel about calling her Trash?
Is that how you introduced her
to your family? “Mom, Dad,
this is Trash.”
Jeff: I don’t mind calling her
Trash. It seems totally normal to me. Sometimes, when
we’re having a really serious
talk, I’ll call her Jeong-Ah,
but for the most part I call her
Trash.
My parents, on the other hand, REFUSE to call
her Trash. It was actually a
touchy subject for a while.
My parents are pretty conservative and they were really worried at first when they
heard that I was dating a girl
named Trash. I told Trash
that she needed to tell my
parents her real name when
I actually introduced her to
them (via webcam). This was
back when almost nobody
knew Trash’s real name so it
was kind of a big deal to her,
but she agreed and won over
my parents within days...but
even though they love her
now and always mispronounce
Jeong-Ah, they still refuse to
call her Trash.
Broke 12 - Dooriban/Bamseom Pirates
For this issue, I interviewed
Jang Pyha of Bamseom Pirates
about two separate things: his
band and the closing of Dooriban. I knew that the closing was a huge victory which
would hopefully set a precedent in future urban renewal
disputes, but I also knew that
we’d see the disappearance
(or as it turned out, migration)
of one of the strongest music
communities in Hongdae since
Skunk Hell. Here’s what I got
from Pyha:
Pyha: This is victory and we
feel sad.
I had previously interviewed him by e-mail about
his own band, and he skipped
the question. Once I had him
in person, sitting inside Dooriban, I asked him again. I’m
glad I did.
Broke: First, what does the
name Bamseom Pirates mean?
I know it’s a small island in
the Han River.
Pyha: In the 1960s, the government destroyed Bamseom
to rebuild Yeouido, and about
30 years later, Bamseom was
recreated by sediment from
the river. The ecosystem of
Bamseom is now brilliant,
with birds around there because no one lives there. We
chose Bamseom Pirates because Yeouido is kind of a
symbol of the development of
Seoul, so we’re pirates exploiting Yeouido.
Broke 12 - Tremors
I met up with Mike and Matt
from the Tremors in Roots
Time, where we did an interview that ran long and got us
both wasted. Mike basically
told me his life story tracing
his activities back in the US.
At one point, he mentioned
being introduced to Bruno,
who he would start the punkmambo band Babaloo with.
Gotta love having an audio recording of an interview.
Mike: We ended up fucking a
couple of times, me and him
went down to, uh... (he trails
off as he realises what he’d
just said) A couple of times
we ended up...having a couple
menages a trois.
Broke 13 - Hahn Vad
This was an interesting interview I wasn’t sure how
to approach, just because of
how many directions I could
go and how little I knew him
personally. A simple question
about his clothes turned into
one of the most powerful images I’ve gotten in an interview.
Broke: I’ve noticed you seem
to always wear unusual costumes. Why do you dress up?
Where do you get them?
Vad Hahn: The homeless had
an influence on my gaudy
clothing style. They have no
limits to what they wear. One
day, I saw a homeless person
wearing very colorful clothes.
They were so bold and sharp
that I even dreamed of the
guy in them. When I started to
hold concerts, I didn’t care
about stage clothes much. As
time went by, I felt that people were paying attention to
me and thought about clothing and accessories to have a
visual impact on the audience.
Regarding this, I started buying colourful and conspicuous clothes like the homeless people’s. I usually buy
1000 or 2000 won used clothes
from street vendors in front of
Dongmyo Subway Station on
line 6.
Five Years of Changes
In anticipation of
Paul’s
return,
the Korean Punk
& Hardcore Facebook page asked
members what has
changed in the five
years since his last
visit. Here are the
answers.
Contributors
최종철
유선화
(Michelle)
Boris Jesseoff
류진석
박병진
Kevin 영정김
안악희 Sidney
Minjae D Koo
박종오
한영웅
강현민
Victor Ha
Young Kim
Jung Eil Huh
신현주 666
황정익 (or 중
익?)
Rui Suyeon Lee
Yuying Lee
리화
김성준
천기종
Hanearl Shin
Wolly Han
이동원
송지욱
Jon Twitch
Every genre other than standard punk has grown.
Many Korean punks play different types of music.
흠... 몇
몇 밴드
는
밴드가
생겼고.. 사라지고 또 몇
. 어떤친
몇
고 또다
구는 사
른
라지
2007년 이들이 나타났
고... 뭐
이면 홍
...
대가 얼
기도 하
추 변한
고..
후이
듯...ㅋㅋ . 뭐... 그래도
난 안변
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
한
A few
bands
a
re gon
few ba
e and a
nds ar
e
friend
s are g born. Some
one an
strang
d some
er
2007 w s have come
. Arou
as whe
nd
n
started
to cha Hongdae
nge...
didn’
but I
t.
Dori has arrived.
without
ne are getting older
the people in the sce
them.
young kids replacing
new bands pop up
e
hav
to
e
rar
re
-a lot mo
rs
n with dirty hipste
-the park is overru
펑크가존~나재밌는데
시덥잔은데
눈돌리고 있느라 알방
법이없죠잉
I know punk is
fuuuucking fun but they
are looking at something
useless,
so how would they
know it?
제시가 말한 최
근 5~ 6 년의
펑크하드코어의
도 없을 것 같은
변한 것들은 앞
데 예전하고는
으로
다르게 너무 많
이 한꺼번에 홍
은 밴드들이 중
대씬에 나와서
심없
진정 멋지게 음
르게 TV이나 메
악하는 친구들과
스컴에 더욱 빠
는다
른 것이겠지? 그
와 어릴때부터
래도 나는 지금
같이 음악 해온
나
친구들이 제일
되? 내 생각 이
멋있어. 제시 다
야기를 했는데
이해
만약 이해 안되
The last five
겠
으
면
or six years
얘기해줘~^^
of punk and
haven’t seen
hardcore
much change
. Unlike befo
bands are co
re, too many
ming out with
out any poin
ferent from
t. They are
the bands in
difHongdae wh
with passion.
o play great
So they reac
music
t really quic
mass media.
kly to the TV
But I think m
or
y friends wh
together with
o played mus
me when we
ic
were younge
r are the best
.
젊은애들은 더
자극적이고 재미
있는거리가 많아
을돌릴수 없는
서 거기서 눈
반면 펑크들도
먹고살기힘들어
거죠잉....
지니 살길찾는
Young people
have a lot m
ore interestin
sational stuf
g and senf to enjoy so
they can’t
eyes off it. A
keep their
nd punx are
having a hard
so they find
time living
other ways to
live on.
-Taco Bell
-Less punks in the park
-Most of the punks who
are now over the age of 30
stay home now
-Not many younger punks
-Less punk shows because
fewer people come to
shows, fewer people come
to shows because there are
less punk shows
크씬은 스
간 한국펑크씬은 스트릿펑
개인적인 생각으론 지난 5년
팝펑크 밴드는
대신
..
느낌
진
작아
가
규모
컹크헬이 없어지고 좀
대표적..^^
...ㅎㅎ 유니온웨이크루가
좋은 밴드 더 많어진거 같고
years, the
five
last
the
for
n,
In my personal opinio
l closed.
shrunk after Skunk Hel
street punk scene has
ds. Unban
nk
-pu
pop
at
gre
y
But there have been man
representing one.
the
be
ld
wou
w
cre
ionway
하드코어나 메틀씬도 마찬가지지만
새로 나오는 젊은밴
드들이 점점줄어 드는거 같습니다
, 현재 활발히 활동하
는 밴드들도 모두 씬 초창기의 밴드
들이 대부분인거 같
고..좀더 젊고 어린밴드들이 많이
생겼으면 하는바램..
(Though it is the same in
the hardcore and
metal scenes) New there are
fewer bands. Active bands are almost original
bands. Wish that
more young bands come out.
바.... 전세계
물론 이게 한국만의 문제는 아닌
지 않고 있지
적으로 ';새로운'; 펑크록이 등장하
도 얼터너티
요. 90년대 중후반 한국의 펑크씬
거니까요.
브/그런지/네오펑크 붐으로 시작된
a’s probOf course it is not only Kore
w’ punk
lem. All around the world ‘ne
s middle/af‘90
g.
arin
appe
not
is
rock
inates from
ter Korean punk scene orig
boom.
it
.
sad
r.
eve
n
alternative/grunge/neo punk
tha
the
ers
be
re
mo
y
bu
ad
ste
s,in
.
cd
ore
the
anym
nobody buy
y the recording fee
not afford pa
se
means label could
L than punks. Becau
ention to the META
att
y
pa
els
most of lab
of it
SKASUCKS not dead now.
hahahah
nk Hell was a
Closing of Sku
n. Less bands
nail in the coffi
nue, etc.
have a label, ve
션피플이라고
패피(소위 패
겨
단
보
커
락
크
클럽으로 옮
홍대엔 펑
럽에서 홍대
클
트
이
2007년부터
(나
버
신들)과 클러
야할까나.
거처럼
불리우는 병
이졌다고 해
밀려 쫒겨난
많
이
)들
들
자본주의에
나
이
과
들
온 병신
들
트
피
스
거리의 아티
밀려 이젠 패
뉴욕의 소호
헬의 붕
게,술집들에
크
가
컹
,옷
스
럽
럽
클
숍과
크록 클
홍대도 커피
게 없는듯. 펑
인듯.
들 외엔 남은
잃은건 사실
이
많
를
이먹은 로커
리
자
sses’
설
ba
도
m
들
du
드
n
밴
ed ‘fashio gdae clubs from
괴와 더불어
ll
ca
so
e
7, th
Hon
Since 200
o moved to
s artists in
ubbers wh
ongdae. A
H
in
d
se
and idiot cl
ea
m, Hongcr
is
in
al
e
it
av
p
) h
ed out by ca
k
nightclubs
ic
othes
k
cl
t
s,
go
York
coffee shop
Soho, New
ith clubs,
people and
w
n
io
ed
ll
sh
fi
fa
ly
dae is now
ere are on
of Skunk
d bars so th . With the collapse
stores, an
ae
gd
s in Hon
s to stand.
old rocker
e few place
bands hav
y
an
m
l,
Hel
마지막공연, 씨코빗올
서는 99앵거, 럭스
스컹크헬 문닫고나
새로운 펑크밴드
10년이상 된 밴드말고
유행이 지나
공연 밖에 안봤는데
크의
잇펑
스케
,
. 네오펑크
인지 댄스락
는 잘 못본것 같네요.
닉락
트로
이지나고 이젠 일렉
데
간후에 이모의 유행
같은 가봐도 요
. 팻렉코드나 에피탑
이 유행이라 그런지.
되고ㅎ
게
아듣
안찾
즘 나오는 애들은 잘
I only watched
g,
sin
clo
ll
He
I
After the Skunk
ck of it All. But
s final show, Si
than
re
mo
99Anger, Rux’
in
s
nd
ba
y new punk
haven’t seen an
punk, skate
the boom of neor
te
Af
s.
ar
ye
ten
electronic
is
it
w
no
,
o punk
punk and then em
. I visit Fat
in
is
ck or whatever
ro
e
nc
da
or
ck
ro
t enjoy new
d Epitaph, I don’
Wreck Chords an
e.
bands anymor
1. 음악적 다양성 결여. 2. 다양한 음악의 결여.
3. 결여된 음악적 다양성 = 등신같은 밴드들이 너무 많음.
1.Lack of musical variety. 2. Lack of variety of music.
3. Lack of musical variety = too many stupid bands.
just old punks liv
e in Korea.
but that guys no
t play many
show and less pu
nks unite.
엘
닫고 공연장
음 스컹크 문
ㅠ
ㅠ
네요
가본적이 없
been any
I haven’t
ce Skunk
shows sin
osed.
cl
l
el
H
Hongdae is covered with
far more graffiti now.
There are more venues
outside of Hongdae thanks
largely to the Independent
Musicians' Collective.
Actual punk shows are
relatively rare, and the
most active bands are
probably Swindlers and the
Patients.
The reggae scene rose and
fell, and there are many
reggae-themed bars across
Hongdae, particularly This
is Chicken and Roots Time.
Tattooing is much more
visible in Korea now, with
more people showing
visible tattoos and more
tattoo shops advertising
more freely.
More highrises, fewer small
buildings.
Everyone has smartphones
now.
던지 같
뭔가 크루의 개념이라
모이
그때의 펑크씬에는
들이
사람
많은
꽤
하고
이 모여서 공연을 기획
엔 꽤 북적였
주말
도
BD
DG
도
고 스컹크 헬도 스팟
홍대 클럽
역시 점점 죽어가는
또주
는데 하지만 그때도
들이
밴드
의
했었고 주변
들이 문제가 되기도
싱글앨범
퍼도
어설
하고
을
공연
:)사
변의 밴드들과 기획
과 다른 것 같은 느낌
막무
을 내고 하던것이 지금
의
예전
을 거의 안보는데
실 지금은 홍대공연
것 같다는
않는
지지
느껴
지가
가내의 열정과 에너
이 술이
재밌었어요. 물론 매일
느낌입니다. 그땐 꽤
었지만 ㅋㅋ
ople who
e were many pe
Back then, ther
t of the
ep
nc
and the co
promoted shows
gether
to
ed
er
th
ga
le
crew. Many peop
were
BD
DG
d
an
Spot,
and Skunk Hell,
were probs
ay
alw
e
er
th
filled. But still
ere used
dying clubs. Th
lems related to
similar
th
wi
oting shows
to be bands prom
es even
gl
sin
ed
as
le
re
also
So it
bands and they
kward to do so.
though it was aw
altu
Ac
.
en
nt from back th
use
ca
feels so differe
be
ys
da
e
es
th
shows
n and
ly I rarely go to
stubborn passio
I can’t feel the
Though
n.
fu
ite
qu
s
wa
It
energy anymore.
th alcohol.
it was always wi
나에게 또는 내 주변 친구들에게 제일 큰 변화는 "결혼"인 것 같다. 펑
크, 하드코어 키즈들도 나이를 먹어감에 따라 자신만의 직장, 직업 경력
을 쌓아 나가고, 결혼을 하고 아이를 낳고..... 내게 가장 큰 변화도 역
시 결혼이었던 것 같다. 결혼을 하고 아이가 생기다 보니. 내 생활의 가
장 큰 부분을 차지했던 음악이라는 부분이 항상 "두번째"가 되었다. 이
건 정말 내게 주어진 어쩔 수 없는 상황인 것 같다. 아무리 음악이 좋고
거기에 미쳐도 사랑하는 사람들 곁에 있어야 할 경우가 생기더라. 미국
하드코어밴드 Bane 과 Ceremony 가 내한 했을때에도 갑자기 딸아이
가 아파서 병원에 입원하는 바람에 Things We Say 공연이 잡혀있었
지만 공연장 근처에도 가볼 수 없었다. 밴드 공연 뿐 아니라, 합주도 잡
기 힘든 상황이 자꾸만 생긴다. 이제 한국의 하드코어 펑크 씬은 나에게
facebook 에서, youtube 링크에서, 내방 깊숙히 잠자고 있던 2000
년대 수집해 놓았던 음반들에서 찾게 된다. 공연장에 더 자주 갈 수 없다
는 것이 가장 아쉽다.
To me or to my friends around me, the biggest change is
marriage. As they age, punk/hardcore kids have their own
careers and get married and have a baby. Even for me it was
marriage. After I got married and had my own child, music,
the biggest part of my life, became second. It is not a situation that I can handle. Though I like music so much and am
crazy for it, now I need to be with people I care for. When
Bane and Ceremony came to Korea, I had to go to the hospital because my daughter was sick so I couldn’t go to near
the show venue even though my band Things We Say was
scheduled for the show. Not only the show, but also I can’t
make it to practice. So now I find the Korean hardcore punk
scene on Facebook, through youtube links, and in the CDs
that I bought in the 2000s which are sleeping deep in my
room. I’m so sorry that I can’t go to shows that often.
외국인이 미
친듯이 많아
졌습니다 .
Foreigner
s have be
en increa
sing way
too much
.
1. 새로운 밴드가 나타나지 않고 있다. 그만큼 펑크록이 옛날 음악이 되었다는 증거.
1. No new bands are coming out. It proves that punk is old-fashioned.
2. 스컹크 헬이 사라졌다. 사람들이 모일 수 있는 공간이 없어졌다. 공간의 중요함이
증명되었다.
2. Skunk Hell is gone. There is no more place for people to gather.
This shows the importance of space.
3. 한국식 포스트펑크, 노 웨이브, 개러지 밴드들이 나타나고 있다. 이 밴드들은 옛날
펑크록 밴드들과 다르고, 서로 섞이지 않고 있다.
3. Korean post punk, no wave, garage bands are showing up. Those
bands are different from old punk rock bands, and they aren’t blending into each other.
I, Jesse Borison, have
become +500%
more handsome. But the
women are
scared of me.
고 종잡을수 없었
옛날에 나를 감동시킨 펑크는 남 달랐고 재밌었
인다는 생각
뻔해보
해도
뭘
고
재미없
똑같고
는데 지금 펑크는 다
재밌게 잘 하고
이 자꾸 드네요. 밴드들은 합주를 열심히 하면서
열심히 하던 형들은
싶다는 생각 없고 잿밥에만 관심 있는것 같고.
하고있고....... 그
복귀
부대로
지금
열심히 일 하고 계시고.. 나는
라고. 펑크를 다시
빨리오
이나
8월
년
2013
는
전역하
내가
러니깐
깐!
재밌게 만들어줄테니
fun, and sort
The punk that moved me was different,
same and not
the
just
is
it
now
But
d.
pose
-pur
of cross
icing hard and
fun and just obvious. Bands aren’t pract
best. But they
their
do
to
want
they
that
think
t
don’
did play hard
care about other stuff. And those who
back to the
are now working hard. Now I am going
st 2013! I
Augu
day
g
argin
disch
my
come
So,
army...
fun!
punk
will make that boring
?
으뜩하지
.
.
.
가
빠져
ir...
머리가
my ha
g
n
i
s
I am lo hould I do?
What s
Some of them got married some of them has gone for good.
No one care about punk anymore and bloody hipsters blingbling electronica sound took the place instead.
Difficult to find spike hair or skinhead but easy to find boys long hair which looks like toilet mop with
smells like sweat, urine and shit cocktail from their groin.
It’s still difficult to find out proper (love)motel in Hongdae venue.
It’s almost impossible to get proper socalled “one room” with reasonable price around Hongdae.
CD and gig ticket price are hardly changed. Especially CD price is almost same as when I was teenager
20years ago! Fuck yeah!!
나요
한몫하지않
원,신촌화도
on or
w
ae
It
e
홍대의 이태
k
became li
that.
r
ae
fo
gd
ed
on
H
am
can be bl
It
.
on
ch
Sin
5years.. many people lea
ving korea, many people
leaving seane, I don't kno
w. but still changing.
The old location of Skunk Hell is now a bar, and they have an emergency
exit.
Suck Stuff is an adult contemporary band.
Korean hardcore seems to have a much higher international profile.
Expensive programs like Seoulsonic allow for underground bands to tour
overseas,
and the Korean government has started putting money into it.
조
금더정
치적이 되
A little
던지 조금
bit mor
e politic 더 무관심해지던
indiffe
rent.
지,
al or a
little b
it more
그냥 한국이란 인디
씬의 토양은 죽었는
데 거기서도 잡초처
럼 뻗어나는 가능성
있는 밴드들은 많이
나요. 근데 사람들
은 그 잡초에 관심을
가지진 않고 그냥
밟고 지나가는게 문
제 인거 같아요 입
만 뻥긋거리는 아이
돌 신드롬에 실증을
느끼다보면 언젠가
는 대중들도 인디씬
에 관심을 가지지 않
을까요 모두 열심
히하고 있으니까요
.... 아오 간질거려
The soil of Kor
ea’s indie scen
e
is dead, but ther
e are so many
bands with pote
ntial just like
weeds. But peop
le don’t care
about the weeds
and just step
on them. That’
s the problem.
Someday people
will be interested when they
get sick of
stupid babbling
idols syndrome.
Everyone is doin
g their best.
어린이 땡깡같은 순
수한 반항심은
사라지고, 그저 방방
뜀-간지에 귀결
되어 가는것 같아요
.
우릴 괴롭히는 사회
적 시스템에 좌
절하고, 그래서 분노
하고, 근데 굴복
하지 않겠다는 다짐
과, 하나되어 힘
을 합치자는건 다 옛
날말이고 이제
다들 살기 좀 편해졌
나 봅니다.
It seems that th
e childlike
grizzling pure re
bel disappeared, and only
got concluded to the bounci
ng sapidity.
Being frustrated
by the social
system that is bu
llying us, we
get angry, but we
won’t ever
yield and let’s
unite is just
an old saying. I
think everyone is now com
fortable with
their lives.
예전보다
사람들이
많이 없어
There ar
졌다
e fewer
people th .
an before
.
전 대구가 본진이고 라이브는 2000년부터 다녔는데요. 여기
저기 지방에 공연보러 많이 다녔고, 서울은 06년부터 왔다갔
다하면서 10년부터는 아예 눌러살고 있죠. 서론이 좀 길긴 하
지만, 과거와 지금이 다른 점은 옛날만큼 다양한 색깔을 가진
음악을 하는 밴드가 없단거에요. 예전엔 지방마다 특색이 있
어서 부산은 펑크, 대구는 뉴스쿨하드크어...어디지역에서 온
무슨 장르하는 누굽니다. 이런말을 공연할때마다 거의 대부분
의 밴드들이 했던 것 같아요. 장르가릴 것 없이 다 같이 모여
놀고 그랬었죠. 공연을 본다라는 개념보다는 즐긴다라는 개념
이 더 컸던 것 같아요. 지방 작은 도시에도 클럽이 꽤 많았잖아
요. 진주에도 다다라는 클럽이 있을정도였고. 그 씬에서 활동
하는 밴드가 있었죠. 제가 아주아주 좋아했던 밴드 중에는 상
주출신도 있고요. 전체적인 퀄리티나 다양성은 언론매체에서
보도하는 것처럼 화려해보일 수 있겠지만 제가 생각했을 땐 다
들 너무나 비슷한 음악을 해요. 그리고 너무 같은 라인의 밴드
들만 묶어서 나오는 경우가 많고요. 스컹크헬에 고속버스 타고
한달에 한두번 왔다갔다할 수 있었던 건 되게 많은 팀이 나와
서 공연을 해도 모두 다 달랐다는 점이 재밌었어요. 지금은 돈
을 내고 공연을 보는 유료관객도 별로 없는 것 같고 그리고 정
말 공연을 좋아하고 많이 보러들 오셨던 분들이 결혼이나 취
업등의 문제로 찾아오지 못한다는 점도 있고. 새로운 관객들이
유입되지 못한다는 점도 있죠. 너무 밖에서 보면 꽁꽁 쌓여있
단 느낌이에요. 그리고 이건 좀 뻘 소리지만 그때당시에 관객
으로 있던 사람들이 너무 많이 밴드를 하고 있다는 게 많이 달
라진 거 아닐까요?
My hometown is Daegu and I’ve been going to
shows since 2000. I went here and there other than
Seoul. I first visited Seoul in 2006 and moved there
in2010. Anyway, what makes the present different from past is that there are not as many diverse
bands now. Before, each city had their color so it
was like Busan=punk, Daegu=new school hardcore,
I am xxx from xx city. Almost every band said that.
We used to hang out without distinction of genre.
It was more for enjoying than watching the show.
There were lots of clubs in little towns. There was
this club named Da Da in Jinju and bands played
in that scene. One of my favorite bands was from
Sangju. General quality or diversity could be impressive as the media announces. But I think most
bands playing are just similar to each other. And
too many similar lines of bands played together
too. I could go to Skunk Hell once or twice a month
because there were lots of diverse bands playing
together. Nowadays there are not many people
willing to pay for the shows. And those who loved
and enjoyed shows now can’t come out because
they are married and work. And there are no new
audiences too. It seems too dense from an outside
point of view. And I think it is irrelevant to say but
the audiences back then are now making their own
bands now. So that is the difference I think.
A Letter to His Excellency
Park Jung-geun
Translation by Frida Lay
I’ve got his letter from the
jail to President Lee Myungbak. Despite being detained in
jail, he is still a great satirical
artist! ;-)
Below is my translation of
his open letter.
(I added footnotes to explain
some culture-specific stuff of
Korea)
Greetings, Your Excellency
Mr. President Lee Myung-bak.
I once wrote a letter of
thanks to soldiers as an elementary school kid, but I have
never written one to the president of Korea. I came to write
this letter to Mr. President,
because something happened
to me last year.
Let me introduce myself
first. I am Park Jung-geun, a
23-year-old Seoul citizen, activist, and photographer who
faced six sessions of police
investigation and has been
detained for violation of National Security Law (That is, I
am being accused of “praising
and/or supporting an enemy of
the state” and posession of
anti-government material).
I need to explain more. I was
born in Seoul in 1988, enjoyed
school life, unusually studied
hard in high school and raised
my mock K-SAT test scores
every time, thinking to myself,
“to survive in Korea, I must go
to college, despite the expensive tuition!” But, in 2006 I
had a terrible disease and was
hospitalized. My leg was badly hurting and I could barely
stand up, but chanting to myself “You can do it! Just do it!
Let’s try it!” I studied hard
in the hospital bed, had the
KSAT test lying in the bed of
the school nurse’s office, and
managed to go to a Seoul-based
college to study social work.
But I hardly enjoyed the
school, quit, and guess what I
did? I became a photographer,
which was my family business.
There was always a camera in
my home, I enjoyed taking pictures of everything as a kid.
Unlike Mr. President, I grew
up in an urban ghetto, photographing what you might have
never taken a closer look at,
what you might’ve never seen,
and what is stuck in the ghetto
and totally invisible to the 1%.
Hence, some of the pictures in
my hard drive may look offensive and make you uncomfortable. However, no one could
judge what I had to see in my
life. Photography can’t lie.
That is how I came to own a
local microbusiness of a small
photo studio I inherited from
my dad in Amsa-dong, Gangdong-gu in Seoul.
I was deeply impressed when
one day a policemen brought a
search and seizure warrant,
and that document had a very
detailed record on what I had
done in recent months, because
I am careless and wouldn’t
take notes of myself like that.
Let me introduce a part of
the list.
1. Led a photography lesson called “A Soviet Photographer” and organized the
Duriban
Protest
One-Year
Anniversary Event in a sit-in
protest area of Duriban Noodles near Hongik University,
where they were protesting
against the government’s urban development policy and
demolition of old buildings
2. Supported campaign for
residential rights of Poidong
Shantytown dwellers
3. Joined “Halve college tuition!” protests
4. Supported Hongik University cleaners’ strike
5. Joined illegal protests and
marches of groups like Hope
Bus, which were protesting layoffs at Hanjin Heavy Industries
It was amazing that whoever
in prosecution, police, or the
Police Security Agency managed to keep track of what I
did, but the important fact is
that I was accused of violation
of the National Security Law.
In detail, the search & seizure warrant said I retweeted
tweets from @uriminzok, a
twitter account managed by
the National Peaceful Unification Committee of North
Korea - whoa, did I spell it
right? I could barely remember
this name. It even said that I
used “a formidable social network tool called TWITTER, on
which having only four friends
could lead to a tremendous
impact,” in order to praise
North Korea and disseminate
its propaganda.
It is hard to exhaustively
describe what they said of my
charges, so I would like to
kindly ask Your Excellency to
be caring enough to search recent news articles about me.
Most of my tweets that might
appear to be praise of the North
Korean regime were jokes, but
I am not going to decrypt all
the jokes and metaphors of my
tweets, because you’re not
doing justice to your satire if
you end up making an excuse
for it, and a decoded metaphor
is not a metaphor anymore.
Let me be bluntly honest. I am not talking about my
charges of violation of the National Security Law. I am telling you that I am a young man
tormented by the government.
Here are the reasons:
1. The investigation sessions
were held in the Gyeonggi
Police Security Investigation
Office in Suwon, getting to
which takes me an hour and a
half, and as I faced six-hourlong investigations every time,
I had to close my photo studio
and my income shrank.
2. Ever since my home and
studio were searched for seizure, I cannot work functionally there.
3. I don’t know why, but once
my home was searched for seizure, I just can’t sleep in my
bedroom.
4. I am getting treatment from
a psychatrist because of insomnia started on that day.
5. My personal information
was completely leaked.
6. My friends are suffering too,
because I cannot sleep in my
bedroom since then and have
been asking them to let me
sleep over.
7. During the search, policemen damaged one of my films
permanently, which was a very
important one to me, that had
not even gone through any
photographic processing yet.
8. Since the police raid, my libido died! Look! This is a very
important issue to me. I feel
like I am as weird an asshole
as a corrupt politician hitting
on a bluffing socialite.*(1)
9. When I talk to my psychiatrist of the suffering mentioned above, he just nags like
“Just don’t bother to trouble yourself like this,” which
makes me even more frustrated and rant at my parents.
10. My business isn’t doing well because of the issues
mentioned above.
11. Because of the issues
mentioned above, I ended up
meeting funny people like
organizers of the New Town
Communists Party.
12. Prosecutors and judges
ended up detaining me in South
Suwon Police Office Detention
Center, even though they are
implying that they admitted
they know my pro-North-Korean tweets are jokes.
There’s more! Could you
imagine how many tweets I
posted? Seventy thousands! I
find it enormously regrettable
that the Police Security Investigation Team had to read
my 70,000 tweets. Yes, they
worked tremendously hard. But
I felt sorry that they were bothering to do such a menial job.
One of the inspectors even told
me he had wrist and neck pains
because of it. It was hard for me
to watch them suffer. I heard
the investigation record of Supreintendent Kwak Nohyun of
the Seoul Education Office on
his alleged bribery scandal was
up to 1,000 pages. I bet mine is
as long as 150 pages.
Your Excellency! I am just
23 years old. I still have a long
way to go to end this investigation and court procedure.
More people are saying I am
not guilty and I suppose so too.
During the investigation I
was wondering what my crime
was, if I was ever guilty.
But, no matter how deeply I
comtemplate it, I just could not
ever find anything I did wrong
that could consist of a criminal
act. If you could convince me I
am guilty after reading my letter, I would be OK living seven
years in jail. But that would
not solve any problems.
I am not going to work in
my photo studio for the rest
of my life. I have many things
to do, many people to meet. I
am able and willing to get a job
and contribute more to society, if Your Excellency were
capable enough to create more
jobs. Plus, I must recover my
shrunken libido. I wish I can
have a great love affair with a
woman like Monica Lewinsky
or Erica Kim*(2).
I wish I can live in a beautiful mansion in a beautiful
untouched former green belt
area just released by a government influence, like Naegok-dong*(3), I mean. I wish I
could become powerful enough
to make Guus Hiddink greet
my son and take a picture with
him*(4).
Mr. President Lee Myung-bak
But this case ruined everything. Many people are watching me, and I’ve already got a
social stigma as an offender of
the anti-communist law. I am
a law-abiding, hard-working
man who deserves support and
protection from the state, but it
labelled me as a nasty criminal.
To finish this letter, let
me quote one good old saying
written decades ago. I am not
sure who wrote this, but I suppose he became a very important figure in Korea.
“If a young man is willing to
be on his own and the government stops him, it owes him an
irretrievable debt.”*(5)
I suppose this quote is very
true, and if Korea does not
consider this as true anymore,
I may want to forget about
what it owes me and leave this
country, because it hurts me
so badly that how I have been
suffering gravely contradicts
what I would expect from a society admiring good old famous
quotes like that.
But, I still hope I live happily ever after in Korea. I am
just like the young man whoever has credit for that quote.
I hope Korea is as kind to me
as it was to the writer of that
quote, Your Excellency.
Thank you for taking time
to read my letter. I am waiting
for a kind response.
Park Jung-geun, a photographer
In South Suwon Police Office Detention Center
January 16 2012
Footnotes
1 He is talking about Pyun
Yang-kyun, a former top Presidential Adviser who had an
extramarital affair with former
professor and celebrity curator
Shin Jung-ah, whose degrees
(BA from Seoul National, MBA
and PhD from Harvard) were
found to be fake and was convicted of influence peddling.
(She openly bragged that she
got her PhD from an “Internet
course” at Harvard University,
and major Korean newspapers,
universities, art galleries, and
all major clients that once
hired and/or respected her believed that for years!)
2 Erica Kim is a famous Korean-American lawyer and bestselling author, and was known
to be an old friend of President
Lee Myung-bak. Her brother’s
businesses, which were found
guilty of stock market manipulation, were alleged by some
media commentators and politicians to be related to thenpresidential candidate Lee.
3 Naegok-dong is an area
where President Lee Myungbak’s son bought some land
to build his dad’s house after retirement, but some of
the procedure of obtaining the
land was illegal, so they gave
up buying the land.
4. A very well-know picture
taken when then Seoul Mayor
Lee Myung-bak lauded soccer
coach Hiddink with a honorary
citizenship medal.
5 Yup, that quote was from
young Lee Myung-bak’s own
letter to then-President Park
Jung-hee. He wrote this letter
when he could not get a decent
job after serving a jail term for
protesting against the establishment of diplomatic relations with Japan.
안녕하십니까 이명박 대통령 각하.
초등학교 시절 군인 아저씨한테 위문
편지를 보내본 적은 있지만 대통령님
께 이렇게 글을 올리는 것은 처음입니
다. 지금까지 살아오면서 그럴만한 일
도 없었고, 생각해 본 적도 없었고, 누
가 시킨 적도 없었기 때문이겠죠. 이
런 제가 대통령님께 이렇게 글을 올리
게 된 이유는 작년에 어떤 일을 겪었기
때문입니다.
먼저 제 소개부터 좀 하겠습니다. 저
는 올해 25세의 서울 시민으로 국가보
안법 위반 혐의(찬양, 고무 및 이적표
현물 소지 혐의)로 현재까지 구속되어
총 6차례의 경찰조사를 받은 활동가이
며 사진가인 박정근이라 합니다.
제 신상을 조금 더 자세히 설명해드
려야 할 것 같습니다. 저는 1988년 봄
에 서울에서 태어나 이런 저런 학교생
활을 즐겁게 하다가 한국에서 ‘살아
남으려면’ 등록금이 비싸더라도 대학
은 입학해야 하니 안하던 공부도 열심
히 하고 모의고사 등급도 신나게 오르
던 중, 2006년 가을 다리에 큰 병이 생
겨 몸져눕는 바람에 사경을 헤메게 되
었습니다. 서 있을 수도 없었지만 병
상에 누워 “할 수 있다! 하면 된다!
해보자! 하는 긍정&도전 정신”을 생
각하며 병원을 살짝 나와 양호실에서
수능을 보고 그럭저럭 서울에 있는 모
대학 사회복지학과에 입학해 다니기도
했습니다.
하지만 학교가 딱히 재미가 없어서
때려치고 굶지 않기 위해 뭘 했냐면,
사진을 찍게 되었습니다. 사진은 집에
서 해온 가업이거든요. 방에 굴러다니
는게 카메라였다 보니 어릴 적부터 이
것저것 찍는 게 놀이였거든요. 대통령
님과 달리 어릴 때부터 구석에서 커온
저는 당신께서 들여다 보지 못한 것들,
안 본 것들, 구석에 있는 것들을 많이
찍고 다녔을 겁니다. 그래서 제 하드디
스크엔 당신이 보기엔 불온해 보이고
심기가 불편해지는 사진도 몇 장 있을
겁니다. 하지만 제가 살면서 본 것들을
찍은 것을 누가 뭐라고 할 수는 없을 겁
니다. 사진은 거짓말을 못하니까요. 그
렇게 지금 현재 아버지가 물려주신 서
울시 강동구 암사동의 작은 사진관을
운영하며 동네장사와 이런저런 활동들
을 하고 있습니다.
저는 덤벙대는 성격이라 기록같은
건 잘 못하는데 가게에 찾아온 경찰의
압수수색 영장에 제가 어떤 활동을 했
는지 기록이 잘 나와있더라고요. 하나
하나 읊어보면 다음과 같습니다.
1. 정부의 개발정책에 반대하는 철거
농성장 홍대 두리반에서 ‘소비에트
사진사’ 등의 사진강의, ‘두리반 1
주년 기념 행사’ 기획 등을 맡았다.
2. 서울시 강남구 포이동판자촌 주거
복구 공대위 활동을 하였다.
3. 반값등록금 집회에 참여하였다.
4. 겨울에 홍대청소노동자 농성 투쟁
에 연대하였다.
5. 한진중공업 정리해고에 반대하는
희망버스 등 기타등등의 집회에 참여
해 불법 가두시위 및 행진을 하였다.
검찰인지 경찰인지 보안수사대인지
여튼 제 이런행적들을 어떻게 찾으셨
는지 정말 신기하지만 이건 영장의 주
내용이 아니고, 주 내용은 앞에서 설명
했듯이 국가보안법 위반, 찬양 및 고
무, 그리고 이적표현물 소지였습니다.
세세하게는 트위터에 북한 조평통인
지 뭔지 이름도 헷갈리는 @uriminzok 계정의 글을 리트윗하고 “트위
터라는 4명만 구독해도 엄청난 파급효
과를 불러일으킬 수 있는 무시무시한
SNS매체”를 이용해 반국가단체인
북한을 찬양하고 선전선동을 유도했다
는 내용이 주 내용이었습니다만 일일
이 다 설명드리긴 좀 제가 게으른 성격
인지라 각하께서 직접 지난 기사들을
검색 해 주셨으면 합니다. 체제찬양으
로 보이는 글들은 대부분 농담이었으
나 저는 이 편지에서 농담을 일일이 설
명하진 않을 것입니다. 농담을 변명하
는 건 농담에 대한 예의가 아닐뿐더러
그렇게 하면 농담이 더 이상 농담이 아
니게 되니까요.
솔직히 말하겠습니다. 저에게 지금
중요한 건 제게 씌워진 국가보안법 위
반 혐의 자체가 아닙니다. 저는 이 편지
로 대통령님께 제가 국가로부터 고통을
받고 있는 청년이라는 것을 말하고 싶은
것입니다. 그 이유는 다음과 같습니다.
첫째로는 조사장소가 수원에 있는
경기보안수사대인데, 여기까지 제가
편도 1시간 반을 이동해 여섯 시간 조
사를 받고 와야 하기 때문에 가게 문
을 닫아야 한다는 것. 그래서 매출이
뚝 떨어진 것.
둘째로는 집과 가게를 압수수색한
이후로 집과 가게에서 제대로 된 업무
를 보기 힘들다는 것.
셋째로는 제 방을 압수수색한 이후
로 왜 그런지는 모르지만 제가 제 방에
서 잠을 거의 못 잔다는 것.
넷째로는 이 불면증으로 인해 신경정
신과에서 약물치료를 받고 있다는 것.
다섯째로는 이 일로 인해 모든 제 신
상정보가 털려버렸다는 것.
여섯째로는 제 방에서 잠을 못 자기
때문에 주위 사람들의 신세를 지게 돼
서 주위사람들에게 민폐를 끼치고 있
다는 것.
일곱째로는 보안수사대 경찰들이 제
방의 물건들을 압수수색하는 동안 제
필름 중 하나를 훼손했는데 그 필름이
저에게 아주 소중한 아직 현상도 안한
필름이었다는 것.
여덟째로는 제가 이 압수수색과 경
찰조사 이후 성욕마저 감퇴되었다는
것. 저에게 아주 중요한 문제입니다.
신정아에게 추근대는 변양균 같이 변
변치 못한 남자가 된 기분입니다.
아홉째로는 이런 고통을 병원에 호
소하면 “그냥 이런 짓 하지 마세요
~” 하는 잔소리만 의사에게 듣고 낙
담하고 집에 가서 고통을 호소한다는
것.
열번째로는 이상의 이유 때문에 장
사가 안된다는 것.
열한번째로는 이 사건 이후 막 이상
한 활동, 예를 들면 ‘뉴타운 간첩파
티’ 같은 걸 하는 사람들과도 연계되
어버렸다는 것.
열두번째로는 판사와 검찰조차 저의
트윗이 ‘농담’인 것을 알면서도 저
를 고향땅에서 수 시간 거리에 있는 수
원남부경찰서에 구속 한 것 등입니다.
그것만이 아닙니다. 저는 경찰조사
를 받으면서 경찰들에게 무한한 미안
함을 느꼈습니다. 제가 트위터에 몇 개
의 글을 올렸냐면 무려 7만 여 개의 글
을 올렸습니다. 이걸 다 보느라 애쓴
보안수사대 경찰님들, 정말 일 많이 하
셨구요. 경찰 수사관 분들 정말 수고하
셨는데, 너무 하찮은 일을 하신 것 같
아서 보기가 너무 안쓰러웠습니다. 오
죽하면 조사 중에 조사관이 저에게 손
목아픔과 목결림을 호소하겠습니까?
이런 모습을 보는 것도 정말 고통스
러웠습니다. 뉴스보니 곽노현 조서가
1000페이지 정도였다 합니다. 제 조
서도 150페이지는 족히 되는 것 같았
습니다.
존경하는 각하! 저는 이제 25살입니
다. 그런데 아직 조사가 많이 남았으며
여론은 이미 저에게 죄가 없다는 쪽으로
가고 있고 저도 대충 그런 생각을 가지
고 있습니다. 수사를 받으면서 정말 제
게 죄가 있다면 어디에 있을까 곰곰이
고민해 봤습니다. 아무리 생각해도 제
고민으로는 죄가 될 일은 하지 않은 것
같습니다만, 만일 이 글을 읽고 제가 죄
를 지었다고 생각하시면 그냥 한 징역
7년 정도 살 생각도 있습니다. 하지만
그렇게 해서 해결될 일은 아니겠지요.
저는 사진관 운영 몇 년으로 제 인
생을 끝낼 생각은 없습니다. 아직 저는
해야할 일도 많고 만나야 할 사람도 많
고 해야할 사랑도 많고 각하께서 일자
리를 잘 창출해주시면 회사에 입사할
능력과 의지도 있습니다. 그리고 이 사
건으로 인한 성욕감퇴도 어떻게든 기
필코 해결해야 합니다. 에리카 김 같은
멋진 여성을 만나 일생의 사랑을 해보
고도 싶고, 내곡동같은 천혜의 자연으
로 둘러싸인 멋진 녹지 안에 집을 짓고
거스 히딩크에게 제 자식을 소개해 주
고 싶기도 합니다.
하지만 이 사건으로 지금 많은 이들
이 저를 지켜보고 있으며, 이미 이 사
건으로 인해 저는 국가보안법 위반자
라는 낙인이 찍혀버렸습니다. 저같은
청년을 국가가 보살펴주지는 못할망
정 범법자로 만들어 버린 것입니다. 아
래 글귀는 누가 말했는지는 모르겠는
데 참 좋은 글귀다 싶어 집에 붙여놓은
것입니다. 아마 수십년도 더 지난 글귀
일 것입니다.
“한 젊은이가 자신의 힘으로 살아
가고자 하는데, 국가가 그 길을 막는다
면 국가는 젊은이에게 영원한 빚을 지
는 것입니다.”
저는 이 글귀가 진리라고 생각하며,
이게 진리가 아니라면 그냥 국가가 저
에게 진 빚 그냥 잊어버리고 이 나라
의 국적을 포기할 생각도 충분히 가지
고 있습니다. 저에게 지금 현재 가해지
는 일들을 바라보면 저 글귀를 보며 꿈
꾸던 조국의 현실이 얼마나 먼지 통탄
을 금할 수가 없기 때문입니다. 하지만
제가 이 나라, 내 조국 대한민국에서
살 날이 아직 많다고 생각합니다. 저는
제 자신이 저 글귀 속의 젊은이와 똑같
은 젊은이라고 생각합니다. 저 젊은이
가 청운의 꿈을 펼치던 조국이 대한민
국이듯이 저에게도 그러하기를 바라고
또 바래봅니다.
긴 글 읽어주셔서 감사합니다. 좋은
답변을 앙망합니다...
2012년 1월 16일 수원남부경찰서
유치장에서
사진가 박정근 드림
Park Jung-geun’s Letter from Jail
Park Jung-geun
Translated by Frida Lay
Park
Jung-geun,
who
was jailed and indicted for
retweeting
North
Korean
posts, has sent a letter to the
Socialist Party, of which he is
a member.
Amnesty International and
Freedom House called for his
immediate relase.
This is my English translation of his letter.
I am Jung-geun Park.
I am quite okay, just killing
time.
Didn’t get solitary confinement; I am in a shared cell.
One of the cellmates is my
age, and the others are old
enough to be my father. I have
few major problems, other
than some patronizing like
“Give up activism and become
a Christian” - with which I
am not happy, but I couldn’t
help it.
I wish I could get a solitary cell; I’d requested a few
times, but they rejected.
I have no trouble with the
food - feeling okay with the
regular meals and occasionally buying snacks. They are
not great, nor horrible; please
don’t bother to pay for special meals for me.
Yesterday, a fellow Socialist
Party member Ms. Kwon Soojung visited me.
She came very early in the
morning, and talked to me for
12 minutes - a bit longer than
the ten-minute rule of the jail.
It’s been three days passed
since she got her job back*,
so I was relieved by her face,
which was happier than when
I met her at the protest site.
Thanks to Defense Attorney Minseok Lee who always
brings copies of printed news
articles and Twitter messages;
I’ve enjoyed reading them
and got encouraged.
I’ve
read
international
news reports covering my case
including AP, NYT, etc, and I
think I am luckier than other
political prisoners and victims
of the National Security Law. I
feel sorry for them and really
wish they’d get more attention.
When I feel depressed, I read
copies of the Twitter messages that my friends sent to me
when I was detained in South
Suwon Police Cell.
The Suwon Detention Center
I’ve recently moved to is like
a big old apartment building;
little sunlight gets in, I could
hardly see outside, even exercise time is allowed only inside, and I feel more confined.
This is not good for the mental health of detainees waiting
for their trials.
In the visitation area in the Suwon prison, he
looked like he’d been trapped inside a North
Korean propaganda painting (courtesy of Frida
Lay).
Now I really feel the Korean
detention system must improve, now that I’ve gotten in
and experienced it...
I miss my friends badly.
There are so many things I
need to do when I make bail.
I need to smoke - I heard
some prisoners blackmarket 8
packs of cigarettes at 1 million won (USD $1,000), but I
wouldn’t join such stuff.
My lawyer Mr. Lee says he’s
going to apply for my bail to
the court next week; I think
it will’ve been filed already
when this letter arrives. I need
to take care of my photo studio, and visit my psychiatraist
for counseling. I really really
hope the court grants me bail
this time.
I heard the trial was scheduled for March 9th; I am trying
not to panic, but it is not easy.
But I am fine; it’s getting easier to endure, as I am
getting more used to this way
of my life every day; oh no, I
know I should not get used to
this way of life...
I tried to contemplate over
and over again -- I really
tried to put myself in the law
enforcement guys’ shoes -but I just can’t understand
why I need to be detained for
a month; not to mention why I
need to be indicted.
First, the law says they can
detain a suspect when he/she
could run away or eliminate
the evidence -- bullshit.
They’ve got all the evidence -- copied Twitter messages -- and if I’d been willing to run away, I would’ve
done so months ago when the
police first summoned me.
Their paranoia that I could
write another pro-North-Korean tweet is NOT a legal reason to detain me months before the trial.
Second, you know about the
very unfair and absurd confiscation of my stuff when the
police raided my photo studio
months ago -- I mean, they
took my personal photos with
friends, some best-selling
books I’d just bought from a
downtown bookstore, my photography lesson books, my
dad’s pictures that he took in
North Korean mountains at the
official permission of the government...
Third,
they
selectively
chose my Twitter posts out of
context and used them as evidence that I was supporting
North Korea.
You know Twitter is like
everyday instant conversation.
Indicting me of the tweets is
like indicting me of recorded
slips of the tongue.
Nevertheless, they selectively and sporadically picked
my Twitter posts out of context to charge me -- anyone
could be charged if you were
targeted like this. It’s not
fair at all.
If they still really want to
charge me, they should analyze all 70,000 of my tweets.
Fourth, the prosecutors are
so irrationally jumping to their
own conclusions.
They maintain “How could
anyone think such pro-NorthKorean tweets are jokes?!”
“No third party would take
this as sarcasm,” blah blah
blah.
Who is their legitimate
“third party?” Even if someone did not find it funny, how
could they distinguish jokes
from the serious and charge
the latter.
They are doing nothing more
than a 1980s slapstick comedy.
Lastly, their accusasion that
I wrote and possessed pro-enemy materials... needs to define what is really pro-enemy
(North Korea). You know how
absurd it is.
I miss you so much.
Jail will not really change
me.
I will stay healty and read
many books. Meet happily
soon.
Bye for now.
Feb 4 2012
Park Jung-geun
PS) After I am released, I
don’t think I would use Twitter again. Got fed up with
this government. I am really
scared.
Footnotes
* Ms. Kwon Soo-jung was fired
from Hyundai Motors just because she reported sexual harassment by her coworkers. She
and other victims protested in
front of South Korean Gender
Equality Ministry building for
its failure to deal with the case
at all; after months of protest
she finally got her job back.
박정근입니다.
저는 그냥저냥 지내고 있는 것
같습니다.
독거실이 아닌 혼거실에 있습
니다.
같이 있는 사람들은 한 명은 제
나이또래고, 나머지는 다 제 아버
지 뻘이라 별로 불편한 일은 없습
니다.
다만 가끔 “정당을 탈퇴하고
신앙생활을 하라” 는 둥의 흔한
소리를 듣는 것이 조금 마음에 안
들기 하지만 어쩔 수 없지요.
될 수 있다면 독거실에 있고 싶
습니다.
실제로도 몇 번 요구했는데 잘
안받아주더라구요.
입맛은 그냥 저냥 주는 밥 먹고,
가끔 과자 먹는 게 전부입니다.
좋지도 않고 나쁘지도 않아요.
먹을 것은 따로 안넣어 주셔도
될 것 같습니다.
어제는 권수정 동지가 접견하러
왔어요.
엄청 일찍 오셔서 10분 면회시
간인데 12분 하고 갔어요.
복직한 지 사흘 째라고 들었는
데 확실히 밖(여가부)에서 봤던
얼굴보단 밝아보여서 마음이 놓
였고 반갑기도 했습니다.
바깥소식은 이민석 변호사님이
이것저것 프린트를 항상 가지고
오셔서 덕분에 잘 보고 기운을 내
고 있어요.
AP, NYT, 기타 등등 언론에
나온 것들을 보고 확실히 난 복
받은 경우구나 하면서 한편으로
는 주목받지 못하는 다른 국가보
안법양심수들을 떠올리며 숙연해
집니다.
기분이 우울할 때는 유치장에서
받은 트위터 멘션들을 보며 마음
을 가라앉혀요.
여긴 아파트형 구치소라 햇빛도
많이 안들어오고 바깥도 잘 안보
이고 운동도 실내에서만 하고 많
이 폐쇄되어 있어요.
수용자 정신건강에 별로 좋지
않은 공간 같아요.
수용시설 개선은 정말 시급한
문제 같습니다. 들어와보니깐...
다른 친구들이 몹시 보고싶네
요.
나가서 하고 싶은 일들이 많습
니다.
일단 담배도 태우고 싶고.
뭐 어디서 들어보니 모 교도소
에선 담배 여덟 값에 백만원이라
던데 그런 건 하고 싶지 않구요.
보석신청은 다음 주에 할 거라
고 이민석 변호사님이 그러시네
요.
아마 이 편지를 받을 때 쯤엔 신
청이 되어 있겠죠.
가게도 다시 돌봐야하고 신경정
신과 가서 상담도 받아야하고 할
일이 많아요.
솔직히 얼른 보석신청이 받아들
여졌으면 좋겠어요.
첫 공판이 3월 9일이라는데, 마
음을 비우고 있지만 쉬운 일은 아
니죠.
그래도 생활엔 하루하루 적응하
고 있으니까.
견딜만 해요.
적응하면 안되는데...
아무리 생각해도, 백보 양보해
서 생각해봐도 구속의 이유를 찾
지 못하겠어요.
재판은 물론이구요.
첫째로 구속 요건 중 도주와 증
거인멸의 우려는 개뿔.
증거는 다 있고, 도주는 하려면
진작에 했죠.
재범의 우려는 구속요건에 안들
어가요.
재범의 우려라고 하면 그냥 저
를 있지도 않은 일어나지도 않은
일 때문에 집어 넣는 거고 완전 순
억지예요.
둘째로 압수수색 당시 불공정하
고 말이 안되었던 자료...
이건 다 아시니까 말 안할께요.
셋째로 트위터 기록을 주관적
으로 선별 캡쳐해서 소명자료로
쓴 것.
트위터는 언어생활의 연장선상
이라 일종의 녹취록 같은 거예요.
그런데도 불구하고 수사에 유리
한 자료만 띄엄띄엄 써서 죄를 묻
는 건 확실한 표적수사고 공정하
시도 않아요
자료로 쓰고 싶다면 전부 다 써
야해요.
7만개 전부를...
넷째로 검사의 억지예요.
이게 어딜봐서 농담이냐는 둥
제3자가 보면 그렇게 받아들여지
지 않는다는 둥 억지주장을 펼치
는 거예요.
제3자는 도대체 누구며 농담인
지 아닌지를 어떻게 판단해서 위
법을 따질 수가 있는지...
결국은 검찰이 코미디를 그것
도 슬랩스틱코미디를 하고 있다
는 결론 밖에 안나와요.
마지막으로 이적표현물.
즉 이적의 개념이예요.
이건 뭐 다들 잘 아시니깐...
뭐....
여튼 빨리 보고 싶네요.
확실이 절 가둔다고 뭐 제가 달
라지거나 하진 않은 것 같습니다.
책이나 열심히 읽고 있을께요.
부디 밝은 얼굴로 만납시다.
P.S 나가서 트위터는 안할 것
같아요...더러워서, 무서워서 못
해먹겠음. 가끔은 하겠죠...뭐...
An enemy of the state in his high school uniform
(a few years back).
그럼 안녕....
2012. 2. 4
박정근
Park Jung-geun is currently on parole and
preparing for trial. If you are a recognised
expert on sarcasm, parody, and satire, please
contact his attorney about testifying on his
behalf. --Broke editor
He photoshopped himself into a North Korean
propaganda poster and replaced the rifle with a
bottle of Jack Daniel’s. This image was used by
the prosecutors as evidence that he’s a North
Korean sympathiser.
First Draft of a Court Statement
Park Jung-geun
Translated by Frida Lay
Below is Mr. Park’s third
letter from jail to his friend.
which is his own contemplation on what to tell “Your
Honor” in court.
I am really really glad this
was my LAST translation of
his letters from jail.
Your Honor,
I solemnly notify my acknowledgement of my obligation to say only the truth in
court.
I do not know how Your
Honor feels about this Court,
or how significant Your Honor finds this case, but I could
clearly picture how this proceeding would deteriorate your
authority. I think Your Honor
must know this: this case is
about the National Security
Law which has manipulated
South Korea for more than
half a century, and is especially about “Article 7. Praise
and Support of the Anti-State
Group” (translator’s note:
i.e. North Korea), which is the
most unconstitutional part of
the draconian law. I am sure
this court will reveal every
dirty part of it.
First, I need to explain the
absurdity of the police raid on
my workplace and home. At
10:30 on September 21, policemen from Gyeonggi Security Agency seized my cell
phone, computer, CDs, and
books, which took about eight
hours. Finally, what they took
away included my dad’s CD
of pictures of old North Korean Buddhist temples, where
he visited and took pictures
legally with official permission from the government.
They took it just because the
title of the CD said “prints of
the North.” Yes. They took
almost EVERYTHING which
looked related to North Korea. They took my friend’s
picture given to me as a present.(Because there was a
centimeter-long tiny North
Korean national flag in it. But,
you know what? A copy of that
flag with a red star is NOT an
enemy-benefitting material,
legally.) They took a legally
published South Korean book
called “Contemporary North
Korea,” and the best-selling
book “Progressive Election
Plan” written by Profes-
sor Kuk Cho. They took very
many items other than those,
most of which were returned
in three days. And they kept
less than six items including the hard drive for longer,
which is completely pointless,
because my hard drive did not
even have a proxy server to
visit banned websites anonymously, and I know no useful
evidence was found there, because I do not really use those
confiscated items.
What the policemen and
prosecutors took seriously at
first was a North Korean book
named
“Socialist
Culture
Construction,” which I heard
was not even included in my
indictment letter. Why? Because, after investigating my
friend who lent it to me, they
found no evidence to make it
an enemy-aiding item. In conclusion, the raid was useless,
but there must be one reason
to do that.
So, secondly, I am going to
discuss the absurd reason of
the raid.
Your Honor, I am hereby
summoned to the court, because, as the prosecutor already said, I was accused of
possessing-and-sharing (retweeting) posts from @uriminzok, the North Korean Twitter
account, video clips on North
Korean revolutionaries, and
writing
enemy-supporting
posts. But, as I mentioned earlier at the prosecutors’ investigation, I need to tell you
again, I had no intention to
support North Korea. I could
simply say, “Believe me, what
on earth could make a critic
of North Korea who compared
Kim Jong Il to ‘cancer’ have
genuine intention and willingness to support North Korea? I
did not even join a pro-North
group or student activism.”
But, that’s not enough. I
need to let Your Honor know
this: the Gyeonggi Police Security Agency had secretly
watched me since late 2010.
They have collected copies of
my Twitter posts since then,
and finally raided my home
and workplace on September
21 2011. How do I know that?
Your Honor needs to understand one feature of Twitter
- Twitter is not an online database where you could browse
old items whenever you want;
it is impossible to print out old
posts that had been written
months ago -- which are now
10 000 tweets away. So, it is
fair to say that the policemen
just chose and targeted me
and began to search/save my
tweets months before the raid.
This is from the bad intention to target and criminalize
a harmless citizen peaceful-
ly expressing his own views.
Some might say the procedure was legal and just, but I
need to tell Your Honor that
the investigation method was
wrong from the beginning. As
Al Jazeera News said, Twitter is essentially an everyday
verbal action instantly from
your thoughts. In the middle of everyday conversation,
sometimes you bluff, joke,
and tease. Twitter is just like
that. But the law enforcement
just failed to understand that,
so they ended up selectively
and sporadically choosing my
tweets out of context to indict
me. This is just like cutting
out some slip of the tongue
from recorded casual spoken
conversation.
This case is a sad consequence of misunderstanding
and wrongfully investigating
Twitter. Once a new form of
media takes place, it should
be understood in its own way.
Even though the law enforcement says the raid was legal
and just, it was a typical predatory prosecution that overinvestigated a harmless citizen
to make themselves successful
spy hunters. Re-tweeting and
sharing on the Internet could
not be enemy-benefitting. RT
DOES NOT MEAN ENDORSEMENT.
Third, let me justify my activities.
As my defense attorney explained already, I belong to the
Korean Socialist Party, which
officially declared it is against
the North Korean regime.
I have been a loyal member
who regularly donated to the
party and joined its activism.
I do not agree with Kim Ilsung’s Juche (Self-Reliance)
philosophy, North Korea’s
nuclear plans, and its “Military First (Songun)” Policy.
These are my own beliefs, but
the National Security Law denies my identity. None of what
the Facts on Offenses Charged
part of my indictment letter
says is an enemy-benefitting
activity with the actor’s verifiable intention to support
North Korea. Although all my
posts are clearly ridicule and
jokes, in the investigation by
policemen/prosecutors
they
repeatedly questioned: “How
could this be a joke,” “No
third party would consider this
a joke,” etc. I ask Your Honor
on behalf of them. Who is the
legetimate “third party?”
What is the standard taste and
ideology for a legetimate witness? Who decides that standard? How could you call South
Korea a democracy if some authority feels free to define its
own standard personality?
How could a government
force a citizen to decode his/
her casual joke? This just
clearly violates my fundamental rights to freedom.
Nonetheless, I ended up being arrested and brought to
this Court, and now I have to
explain my activities.
North Korean cultural terms
like Juche, and Songun come
to me as cultural images, rather than the real ideology they
refer to. Young South Koreans
like me would just laugh and
ignore if someone shows them
North Korean propaganda videos, because the propaganda is
not convincing at all. That is
why TV comedians parodying
North Korean soldiers are not
arrested anymore. It is just old
slapstick comedy, that I was
arrested and brought to this
Court in the 21st century. This
case itself is disrespect to the
Court, and the National Security Law is a 1940s slapstick
comedy.
Just because I am critical of
the North Korean regime does
not necessarily mean I must
denounce it all the time. It
could be an object of wordplay,
satire, and reference. Banning
them completely just violates
my very very basic rights to
freedom.
Fourth, I argue that North
Korea does not legally constitute the legal definition of an
“anti-state group,” which my
lawyer already has argued.
What is the point of denying
a country acknowledged by the
international community? If
calling North Korea a neighboring “state” is illegal,
most of the TV news journalists would be NSL offenders.
To me, both Koreas are objects
of satire. Most South Koreans
would agree.
Lastly, I would like to discuss my views on the NSL.
This is an abusive act of
which the international community has demanded abolition for more than a decade. It
is my basic right to freedom of
thought to agree with international human rights groups
which demand abolition of the
McCarthyist law. A democracy must not make a harmless
citizen peacefully expressing
his/her own view into a refugee. As a South Korean citizen, criticizing a bad law of
my society comes first. I know
North Korea has abusive laws
of a simlar type. If I were born
in North Korea, I would have
been dragged to the labor camp
after campaigning against its
laws.
I am against the NSL as a
citizen of South Korea, and
this is based on my conscience.
If someone asks me why I do
not campaign against abusive
laws in North Korea, I would
say I am against them, but no
one has the right to question
other people on the priority
of their interests. I admit my
jokes about law enforcement
on Twitter after the police
raid were a bit too much, but
I still remain against the NSL.
In a country where fierce debate is going on about abolition
of the death penalty, the NSL
is an old-fashioned draconian law that mentions DEATH
EIGHT TIMES. I couldn’t
help disagreeing with this
law, for the sake of universal
human rights and freedom of
thought and conscience.
No matter what sentence
Your Honor would deliver, I
am sure this will be a dramatically historic case in the
development of South Korean
democracy, in terms of its significance.
Park Jung-geun
Feb 5 2012
존경하는 재판관.
나 피고 박정근은 최후변론을 하
기에 앞서 나는 이 법정 앞에서 오로
지 진실만을 말할 의무가 있다는 것
을 알고있음을 재판관에게 밝히는 바
입니다.
그리고 재판관에게 이 법정은 어떤
법정이 될지, 이 재판의 중요성이 어
느정도일지는 잘 모르겠으나, 이 재판
이 진행될수록 재판장의 권위가 얼마
나 떨어질지는 제 눈에 선합니다. 재
판장께선 이것을 받아들이셔야 할 것
입니다. 이 재판은 반세기가 훨씬 넘
게 이 남한사회를 주물거려 온 국가보
안법, 그것도 위헌요지가 가장 큰 7조
(찬양·고무)의 본질을 꿰뚫고 있는,
살점을 도려내고 뼈를 드러낼 재판이
될 것이기 때문입니다.
나는 첫째로 2011년 9월 21일 저
의 생업현장과, 자택에서 벌어진 압수
수색의 무리함에 대하여 설명해야 할
것입니다.
9월 21일 아침 10시 30분경, 경
기보안수사대는 저의 가게로 들어와
저의 핸드폰, 컴퓨터, CD, 책자 등을
검열하였습니다. 압수수색은 총 8시
간 정도가 소요되었습니다. 이들이 가
져간 것은 다른 것이 아니라 저의 부
친 되시는 분이 통일부의 허가를 받고
찍은 북한 사찰 사진이 들어있는 그
CD, 그 CD 위에는 ‘북0 출력본’
등의 문구가 적혀있었습니다. ‘북
한’과 관련되어보이는 자료들은 막
무가내로 가져가려 한 것이었습니다.
친구가 그려준 그림(이곳엔 1cm가량
의 인공기가 그려져 있었습니다. 하지
만 인공기는 이적표현물에 해당하지
도 않습니다.)도 가져갔고, ‘현대북
한’이라는 국내에 정식출판된 서적
도 가져갔습니다. 심지어 진보집권플
랜이라는 베스트셀러도 압수해갔습니
다. 그 외에도 납득할 수 없는 물품들
을 가져가서는 3일 후 돌려받았습니
다. 하드디스크를 포함하여 총 대여섯
개밖에 되지 못합니다. 심지어 하드디
스크에는 사이트를 우회접속하는 프
로그램인 프락시 서버도 없었고, 증거
로 쓸만한 자료도 발견되지 않았습니
다. 왜냐면 사용하질 않았으니까요.
검찰이, 그리고 보안수사대가 이야
기하는 물품은 <<사회주의문화건설
리론>>이라는 압수품입니다만 이 역
시 검찰조사시 사건에 넣지 않겠다는
소리를 들었습니다. 왜냐하면 이 역시
철저히 참고인 조사까지 한 결과 이
적목적이 성립되지 않기 때문이었겠
죠. 결론적으로 말씀드리자면 압수수
색은 무의미했습니다. 하지만 이런 무
의미한 압수수색을 한 이유는 있었겠
지요. 그 이유는 저 역시 잘 알고 있습
니다. 이어서 나는 두번째로 압수수색
의 이유와 그 부당함에 대해 설명해야
할 것입니다.
존경하는 재판장, 이미 검사가 말
했겠지만 저는 대남선전매체인 @
uriminzok의 트위터와 북한의 혁명
가 및 동영상, 그리고 이적동조성 글
을 올리고 취득 반포한 혐의로 이 법
정에 섰습니다만, 저는 검찰조사에서
도 밝혔듯이 이적목적이 전혀 없습니
다. “세상천지에 김정일을 암세포에
비유하는 사람이 어떻게 이적목적을
가지고 이적행위를 할 수 있겠습니
까? 또한 저는 이른바 이적단체에 가
입한 이력도, 학생운동 이력도 없습니
다.”라고만 이야기 하면 단순한 변명
이 되겠습니다.
먼저 재판장님께 반드시 드리고픈
말씀은 이것입니다. 경기보안수사대
는 저를 2010년 겨울부터 주시하기
시작하였습니다. 2010년 겨울부터
지금까지 저의 twitter를 캡쳐하여
범죄소명자료로 사용하였던 것이고
2011년 9월 21일 마침내 압수수색
을 한 것입니다. 재판장님은 twitter
의 특성이 어떤지 먼저 아셔야 할 것
입니다. twitter에 올라간 twit은 몇
달이 지나면 검색이 불가능합니다. 그
럼에도 보안수사대는 무작정 저의 트
윗을 저장하고 수사자료로 써왔습니
다. 이것은 수사당국이 어떻게든 엮어
보려는 심사로밖에 보이지 않습니다.
합법적인 절차였고, 정당한 자격이라
고 하기 전에 이는 애당초 시작부터
잘못된 수사방식입니다. 특히 twitter는 언어생활의 연장선상같은 것입
니다. 대화 중 헛소리도, 농담도, 장
난도 칠 수 있는 것입니다. twitter
는 그런 매체입니다. 그러나 수사당국
은 그런 특성을 이해하지 못하고 원하
는 자료만 선별하여 자료로 사용하였
습니다. 이를테면 녹취록에서 원하는
부문만 편집하여 사용하는 것과 다르
지 않습니다.
언어생활의
연장선상에
있는
twitter를 이런 식으로 수사하면서
나온 폐해인 것입니다. 새로운 미디어
가 나왔다면 그 미디어의 성격에 맞는
이해를 해야만 할 것입니다. 수사당국
은 정당한 자격으로 절 수사하였다고
하지만 이것은 국민을 먹이로 하는 포
식자의, 단순한 실적쌓기에 연연한 약
탈자의 시선에서의 정당성일 뿐입니
다. retweet과 단순 자료공유가 이
적행위가 될 수는 없습니다. 리트윗이
동의의 의미만은 아닌 것입니다.
셋째로 나는 내 행위의 정당성에 대
해서 설명해야 할 것입니다.
변호인이 이미 밝혔다시피 저는 “
反조선로동당”이라는 기치를 가진
사회당의 당원입니다. 당비도 꼬박 납
부해왔고 활동도 내내 해왔습니다. 저
는 김일성주의, 북핵문제, 선군정치
이론에 동의하지 않습니다. 이것은 제
신념인 것입니다만 이것마저 부정하
게 하는 것이 국가보안법 존재 자체임
은 동의합니다. 제 범죄 일람표를 보
시면 아시겠지만 도저히 이것이 이적
목적을 한 자의 행위라고 볼 수 없습
니다. 그저 농담이고 장난이었던 것을
저는 수차례 경찰조사와 검찰조사에
서 “이것이 어떻게 농담이 될 수 있
느냐”, “제 3자가 보기엔 그렇지 않
다”는 말을 수차례 들어야만 했습니
다. 제가 대신 묻습니다. 그 “제 3
자”는 누구이며 그 “제 3자”들
의 취향과 사상은 무엇입니까? 그것
을 마음대로 정하도록 권위를 부여받
은 자는 또 누구입니까? 그리고 이것
은 정녕 자유민주주의적 기본질서입
니까?
어떻게 농담을 장난을 설명하라는,
일반적 행동의 자유를 침해하는 행위
를 할 수 있느냔 말입니까.
그럼에도 불구하고 저는 이 법정에
서 그것을 설명해야만 하는 현실에 이
르렀고 그래야 하는 의무가 있습니다.
저에겐 북한이나 주체사상, 선군정
치 등의 단어들은 사상으로 다가온다
기 보단 이미지, 일종의 이미지로 다
가옵니다. 제 나이또래의 젋은 이들에
겐 북한의 매체를 보여주면 대부분 비
웃거나 무시하기 일쑤입니다. 왜냐하
면 별로 와 닿지 않는 내용들이 대부
분이기 때문이지요. 그래서 2000년
대 초반 공중파에서도 개그맨들이 북
한을 희화화 하는 개그를 해도 국가
보안법으로 잡혀가지 않는 것 아닐까
합니다. 이런 한국사회에서 제가 법정
까지 서게 되었다는 것은 그 자체가
코미디입니다. 이 법정의 존재 자체가
법정모독이며 국가보안법 자체가 코
미디인 것입이다.
제가 북체제에 비판적이라고 해도
맹목적으로 그들을 비난해야할 의무
는 없습니다. 그들은, 북한은 의화화
의 대상, 지적 유희의 대상, 대화의 대
상일 수도 있는 것입니다. 이것은 저
의 일반적 행동의 자유이며 수사당국
은 이런 자유마저 침해하려는 것입니
다.
넷째로, 북한은 반국가단체가 될 수
없다는 주장입니다.
이것은 변호사 의견서에도 나와있
고 저 역시 그 견해에 동의합니다. 아
니 동의하기 이전에 이미 국제사회에
서 국가로 인정한 국가를 제가 부정해
봤자 무슨 소용입니까. 방송에서도 분
단’국가’라고 표현하는 것을 위법
으로 삼는다면 방송사는 99.9%가 국
가보안법 위반입니다. 저에겐 남한이
나 북한이나 모두 희화화의 대상일 뿐
입니다. 이 주장은 저 뿐만이 아닌 대
부분의 사람들이 주장하고 있으니 더
설명하지 않겠습니다.
마지막으로 국가보안법에 대한 견
해를 설명해야 할 것입니다.
국가보안법은 이미 십수년 전부터
폐지 권고를 받아온 악법입니다. 국제
사회에서 많은 질타를 받는 법에 대해
국제시민으로서 반대, 폐지 입장을 견
지하는 것은 당연한 권리입니다. 이를
가로막는 것은 한 국민을 난민으로 만
들겠다는 심산으로밖에 보이지 않습
니다. 저는 남한 시민이기 때문에 남
한의 국가보안법의 폐단에 대해서 비
판하는 것입니다. 북한에도 역시 반공
화국법 같은 국가보안법과 유사한 법
이 있습니다. 제가 북한의 시민이었다
면 같은 법을 반대하다가 수용소로 끌
려갔을 것입니다.
저는 남한 시민이기 때문에 국가보
안법에 반대하는 것이고 이것은 저의
신념에 따른 행동입니다. 그러면 왜
북한의 국가보안법엔 반대하지 않느
냐고 반문하신다면 저는 당연히 반대
하는 입장이며, 하지만 그 일은 저 말
고도 할 사람이 있으며 누구도 그것
을 강요할 권리는 없습니다. 다만 입
건이후 항의의 목적으로 하였던 일련
의 행동들에 대해선 경솔했음을 인정
하나, 국가보안법의 폐단에 대한 저의
입장은 변하지 않습니다. 저의 신념이
기 때문입니다.
사형제 폐지 논쟁이 뜨거운 나라 대
한민국에서 국가보안법은 사형이라는
단어가 여덟번 등장하는 전 근대적인
법입니다. 보편적 인권, 사상, 양심의
자유 측면에서 이 법에 반대할 수 밖
에 없습니다.
재판장께서 어떠한 판결을 내리시
던 이 재판은 21세기 들어 대한민국
민주주의 역사에 길이길이 남을 판례
가 될 것입니다. 어떤 재판이든 중요
한 재판이 될 것이지만, 이 재판은 무
척이나 그 의미에 있어 중요할 것입
니다.
2012. 2. 5
박정근
The Desire To Capture Different Existences
Verv
15 June 2012
As I grow older I have become more acutely aware of
the limitations of my Being.
I’ve carved out my own path,
and it is a road that I am glad
that I am walking down, but
there is a certain lamenting
that it is the only road that
I can walk down. I am sure
we’ve all experienced the
desire to be more than one
thing, and it is painful that
we do not have the thousand
years of life that would enable us to live more lives. I’d
gladly beg God for the right
to live more than one life because I feel that there is too
much to learn for this short
time span -- about both the
Spiritual and the Mundane.
I am jealous that I’ll likely
never know at all the life of
a chef, or the life of a geologist or that of an artist or tattooist. More than this: I’ll
never know what it is like to
be born & raised as a Muslim or a Jew or a Hindu or any
number of other beliefs and
lifestyles. What would it be
like to live in the sharp and
penetrating Russian tongue,
or the soft lilting beauty of
Swedish? What of the rolling & often dramatic Spanish
of Mexico, or the more sloppy
Portuguese? What of the cutting & grating tones of the Inner Mongolian Chinese, or the
sing-song tones of the South?
To understand the throaty
Arabic or the ‘French of the
Middle East’ Persian… I regret that I only speak two languages well, but I know that
if the number were ever increased the ability in my second language would be compromised, something I am not
willing to sacrifice.
And even to be a girl -- what
would it be like to be one of
those lovely girls with precious hair and a delicate face,
inviting eyes and curvy hips?
What would it be like to look
into mirrors and prepare my
face? What would it be like to
look through feminine eyes at
brutal displays of masculinity,
or to have a man worthy of affection try to charm me? What
would it be like to be in larger
arms, beneath the larger beauty, being “taken?”
(Or even to struggle as the
awkward & ugly duckling, forever trying to mold & shape a
body that I hated... A sad existence, perhaps, but vanity
can always be overcome with
intellect, and with effort we
can all find places in the sun.)
I have a few female friends
with whom I am extremely close -- they are witty &
pretty & I know their secrets
& I see them when their faces
Fear reincarnation.
are plain and when their faces are like dolls; I know their
Grin of Mischief & their Shy
Smile. I know well about their
role, their ways of life... I am
jealous to some degree. What
would it have been to be one of
these Noble Women?
And what would it be like
to be a gay man, “top” or
“bottom?” Going out to
“those bars with the rainbow flags?” What is gay
chemistry like? What is it
like to have a ’secret’ that
might break your mom’s
heart and might earn you a
knuckle sandwich from the
local boys? Something I’ll
never know. Though I do
have my ideological stands
which prevent me from condoning such a lifestyle I have
to confess I’d only be interested in ‘experiencing gay
life’ in a society where it is
vaguely taboo -- not where
it’d earn me death like Iran,
or praise like San Francisco,
but a society where I was on
the ‘edge’ of it and engaging in the risky behavior... I
can see value in such a life.
In a sense, I chose such a life
at a young age, social rebellion often times seemingly
just for rebellion’s sake.
In struggle there is glory; in
Easy Life there is only subtle
victories whose meanings are
lost. I think any person would
rather live a life of Meaningful
Pain spotted with Meaningful
Pleasure than one where all
things are a mere exercise of
one’s undulating freedom &
comfort.
For me what has always
brought life together is Existential Romance. Those little
meetings of laughter & drinks
& when the chin tilts slightly
down and the lips slowly part
for small kisses. I’d like to
enjoy that in a million dif-
ferent contexts. But such a
thing is impossible -- part of
me thinks the ‘ideal’ reality would be one of Countless
Rebirths…
They say that ‘life is
pain,’ but I’ll endure a thousand lives gladly. Life is a lot
of pain but these are all in
contrast to the other moments.
I look forward to my Elder
Years. I look forward to the
Throat Cancer.
Sitting somewhere with a
bottle of Vodka and looking
at the setting sun illuminating the dying leaves of Autumn
while I drink deeply and feel
the Warm Numbness. Thinking of a thousand faces of the
past. I find the museum of my
memories to be enjoyable -and how great it will be when
the Story is almost done for me
& my friends, and I can look to
the next generation and see
the path they plod down.
I think the only sad thing is
that we cannot do it all again
in a different context with
the same knowledge to enjoy
Similar Fruits with Different
Mouths. We are limited in our
context...
Our existence is unfortunately limited and our context
is only that of a Single Human,
so part of the pleasure we must
take is the imagination of being Other People. I’ll try to
spend more time imagining the
Lives of Others and the beauty
of such existences that does
not meet the eye.
I think what drives me most
to want to Write a proper novel
is to capture the beauty of alternative forms of life which
I’ll never have the Honor of
enjoying.
I think what drives me most
to be a Lover is to try to ‘take
into myself’ the ‘Whole’
of another’s beautiful life,
and to consume it and make a
part of it me, even if it is only
for a short time. Your lover is
your ‘Better Half,’ and in
the recesses of my mind are
memories of Better Halves &
a better understanding of what
it was to be a different existence.
You could say we are driven
by a ’sex drive,’ or by some
sort of ‘ego’ that feels a reward when we get sex or get
pleasure from another, but
such a malicious way to view
it. It is a view that acts as if
there is not an intrinsic reward in social interaction
brought to its climax within
the context of the ‘social
animal.’
My proof against this is my
Friends.
I have no sexual drive or desire to be with them but whenever I see unique people with
good hearts & minds I desire
to spend so much time talking & being in their presence,
exchanging stories & making
new stories.
If it was all about ‘sex
drive’ then I would spend
my days in the loud clubs &
meat markets in different
neighborhoods looking for Air
Headed floozies that only can
give me their Shell of an existence, because their Shell is
essentially all that they have;
their cold, dumb, ignorant
eyes have no flame and they
flicker out when conversation
goes too far from the obvious,
material things in their lives.
There is no reason to get
their numbers & break bread.
My left hand is also a shell &
makes for a better companion as It make no demands
for pseudo-conversation or
breakfast.
I am grateful for my supersocial existence and I hope to
one day have enough money
to experience this freely in
many different places & environments for the purpose of
acquainting myself with this
world before I go away.
Be honest: you would.
It all ended with a
Recently the famous K-pop
band Big Bang surprised the
world (at least that small overhyped part of it that tolerates
K-pop) by coming out of the
closet as punk fashion fans.
While some might call them
poseurs, and others might say
that this is the Korean equivalent of a popular mainstream
act slumming and co-opting
an image that is despised by
proper Korean society, I’d
counter that -- wait, I just totally lost my train of thought.
I interviewed them about this
new development, or I would
have if they had any real connection to punk.
Broke: How did you discover
punk?
Big Bang: It was overseas. We
discovered that nobody over
there really likes K-pop. But
2NE1 had told us about this
small show down the street
from the stadium we were supposed to play at. When we got
there it was just a punk show
with kids drinking outside.
Nobody knew who we were,
but they were really nice and
the bands were great! The
next day we went to Hot Topic
and bought all our gear.
Broke: Be honest. Do you guys
actually like punk?
Big Bang: Are you kidding?
TOP is almost 25. We don’t
listen to kids’ shit. For us,
pop music is just an income.
And it’s been good--not as
great as we hoped--but it’s
soulless work.
Broke: Why the change to your
public image?
Big Bang: Look, our oldest
fans are already starting to
turn 18. We need to evolve to
keep their attention.
Broke: So, tell me about the
photo shoot. Did you have to
put on a lot of makeup and
consult designers?
Big Bang: It was actually pretty spontaneous. We were on
the tour bus all day, and when
it finally stopped we all rushed
out to take a piss. While we
were all up against the wall
relieving ourselves, the photographer from YG Entertainment snapped the picture.
Broke: What are the reactions like
when you dress up like punks?
Big Bang: Oh yeah, people are
afraid of us...until they figure out we’re BigBang. Then
we’re sexy.
Broke: How will this reflect in
your music?
Big Bang: For our next album,
we’re going full-on punk.
Apparently we’re going to
have a song with Rancid, and
we’ll cover the Germs on one
track. You might have to wait a
while, because we’re all still
learning how to play our instruments.
Broke: So, are we going to
start seeing Big Bang at Korean punk shows?
Big Bang: You mean we’re not
the first?! Oh crap...
Broke: I heard that it usually
costs between 1 and 1.5 million dollars US to get an endorsement from Big Bang. How
much do we, the punk community of Korea and the world,
owe you?
Big Bang: It’s okay, we’ll
give you a fair deal. How about
we just take 10% of all door
sales until you pay us off. Korean punk shows must make a
lot of money, right? I mean,
we sure cashed in by dressing
like Korean punks, so you guys
all must make a decent living.
Broke: You might be disappointed. How about I pledge
100% of the profits from sales
of this zine to paying you guys
for your “endorsement” of
punk?
Album Reviews
Chanter’s Alley Coin Rocker Boys
Broken
independent
Jon Twitch
Reviewing this EP is a
bit ridiculous, as I’ve had
the song “Old Jamestowne
Hall” on my playlist for
so long it feels like one of
those old classic songs of
the Korean punk scene.
If you haven’t heard it,
it’s a very well-crafted
song that must’ve taken a
lot of work, but it feels like
it popped into being as is,
with bagpipes all in place
and all the right vocals
coming on cue. If you like
Irish-style punk, you’ll be
impressed they pulled it off,
and if you’re not a fan of
that sort of thing, this song
might convert you.
The next few songs on
the album put the bagpipes
away and move away from
the Irish influence. “Nothing to Say” is a bit more of a
serious number, and “Clock
Strikes Nine” is a drinking
anthem for ESL teachers in
Korea who feel like they’re
in a rut.
The next song, “Another Beer,” is, yes, also
about drinking. This song
is a lot more fun than the
last two tracks, and fits in
more with what I think of
as their sound. It also features Youngsoon of Attacking Forces on guest vocals,
although it’s a bit tough
to hear his voice except for
one part of the song near the
end. Otherwise I think he’s
singing along with John’s
vocals in the background for
most of the chorus of the
song.
The album ends on yet
another
drinking
song,
“All for Me Grog,” which
brings out the bagpipes
again. This is another great
song and the lead vocals as
well as the chorus and even
the bagpipes all blend together well. I think this
one’s also a bit better as
a proper drinking song, and
it’s the most fun to sing
along with.
This EP shows this band
has
promise.
Hopefully
they’ll follow it up with a
full-length, but I hope they
don’t leave the songs from
this album off it for fear
they get lost to obscurity
like some of Suck Stuff’s
better stuff.
One Hundred Blossom Club
The Passionate Eve of the
Loss
independent
Jon Twitch
I was a bit surprised by this
CD. Probably mostly because
I think every time I’ve seen
them play, I was the promoter
and my mind was elsewhere.
Their sound is quite different from what I was expecting, which was more violent,
hard, and raw. Basically, more
Spiky Brats and less Cock
Rasher (the band contains
members of both, as well
as Patients and Dirty Small
Town).
I also just reviewed the
Essence EP before this, so
maybe that’s colouring my
bias, but I can hear more
of them in this than Spiky
Brats. Actually, probably the
closest comparison I could
make is to the Cock Rasher
CD from a few years back.
Both recordings are surprisingly well-polished, maybe
moreso than the respective
bands. This band is certainly
more beat driven whereas
Cock Rasher was more about
melody.
I was also surprised by
the variation of the songs.
While “RCV” is a fairly
standard,
almost
cliched
punk anthem (raise your
hand if your hometown was
ever self-described as River
City), and “(indecipherable Hanja) Rock ‘n Roll”
flirts with rockabilly leanings, but then it also reaches
surprising depths with “뜨거
운 상실의 전야 (The Passionate
Eve of the Loss),” the title
track, which I’m starting
to wish there was still time
for me to translate for the
“What You Say?” column.
I think it’s pretty obvious
who they’re referring to,
as the liner notes are peppered with references to
Yongwook, the frontman of
Dirty Small Town who took
his own life last year. Probably what works best on this
album is that they’re playing with genuine feelings
in these songs. Although
I think they’ve remained
relatively small in the music
scene, they’ve definitely
given us an album worth a
closer look.
Insert Coin
Sapiens7 Entertainment
Jon Twitch
This band has been around
for a while, but dbeing a pretty
solid band and having recorded
this full-length back in 2010,
I’m only finding out more
about them now.
When it comes to pop-punk,
it all kind of blends together in
my ear unless they have some
kind of gimmick, including actual talent. These guys do have
talent at composing songs, and
although there is a unified style
throughout their music, some
songs find stronger voices than
others. At the top of the list is
“A Restless Mood Go! Go!!
Go!!!” which is accompanied
by retro video game sound effects and a slightly higher energy level from the other songs.
“A Piece of Memory” is another one that does them justice, and it wouldn’t sound out
of place on some sentimental
Korean drama. They record
it twice on the album, once in
English and once in Korean,
and that’s where some of the
weaknesses in the album crop
up.
On a twelve-song album, they
have only three songs that are
mainly in Korean, and another two songs that mix English
and Korean, and in all honesty, I don’t think they have
the English skills to back it up.
Their English lyrics aren’t
very ambitious, instead tackling easy subjects, but the pronunciation of the lyrics is near
incomprehensible. Even their
name itself is confusing; did
they mean “coin locker?” I
suspect not, but the ambiguity
will hurt their image.
They are still excellent at
composing songs musicwise,
and they sound so much better in their own language. I just
wonder why they don’t seem to
see it.
No Excuse
You Gots to Ill
Townhall Records
Jon Twitch
No Excuse reminds me of
how Samchung and 13 Steps
used to sound, right when they
were at the threshold between
old school hardcore and metal.
There are plenty of breakdowns for audiences to pick up
change, and while some might
liken them to Cro-Mags or Deal
with it, to me I hear echoes
of Samchung circa “Rest in
Peace.” 13 Steps influences
might be easier to explain with
Dokyo13 on bass. It’s an era of
both bands that I miss, and this
album makes me a little nostalgic.
Just like 13 Steps, No Excuse sings primarily in Eng-
lish, and while there are
grammatical errors in the
lyrics, they still use strong
words, and vocalist Hwang
Kyusuck (also the manager
of Townhall Records) sings
the lyrics like he knows what
they mean. While the lyrics
on the new 13 Steps EP seem
to be addressing a listener
with an ultimatum or challenge, the lyrics here seem to
be more inwardly focused.
This album is actually two
EPs stitched together, one from
a 2009 demo and the rest recorded between May 2010 and
March 2012. Maybe because
of that timespan we get to see
years of hard work, rather than
a narrow selection of songs all
made at once.
Roadrunner
s/t
independent
Jon Twitch
Following up their first two
recordings on the Them and Us
compilation Roadrunner releases a three-song EP, one song of
which is re-recorded from the
compilation. In all honesty it
doesn’t feel quite as necessary
in the wake of the compilation.
Don’t get me wrong, every
band should endeavour to record their material, but a onesong-longer EP just seems like
a baby step.
“Set Your Goal,” the rerec-
ording, comes off a bit better
here, as the lead vocalist’s accent on the English songs has
softened. Gone is the embarrassing Blink 182 cover, although they give props in the
thank-yous. The second song
“It’s Alright” is alright,
and “Love You Forever” sets
a different pace on the album,
offering something new that
wasn’t on Them and Us.
This album sounds like it was
also at Club Spot, as was the
comp. They pull it off here, the
scene can’t keep relying on
this cheap alternative for long.
Korea Times
reports UFO
activity in
underground
punk zine
No Control
S/T
Jarip Music
Jon Twitch
No Control was long overdue
for a recording. They’ve stood
as one of the busiest bands in
the Indepedent Musicians’
Collective, but you know you
need to get your priorities
straight when even Christfuck
beats you to the merch table.
No Control is a band that I
respect, but they’re the kind
of band where you have to get
to know the songs before you
can really appreciate them.
This album was exactly what
we needed to understand their
sound.
Each of the songs have their
own character, without any one
standing out particularly more
than the others. Lead vocalist
Hwang Kyungha shows off the
versatility of his vocals, with
each song showing a slightly
different shade of his character. From the howling vocals
of “Sunflower” to the growl
of “International Way” to
the Find-the-Spot-esque roar
of “사장님개새끼 (Boss Son of
a Bitch),” this album never
moves around quite a lot while
staying thematically on point.
Part of me wants to compare
the versatility of the band to
the Bamseom Pirates CD, but
this is a band that crafts their
songs, the longest on the album clocking in at 7:37.
Even if they’re not as familiar to the usual Club Spot
crowd, this album will probably be looked back on as the
first of many releases of one of
the cornerstone bands of Korean punk.
T h e Es s en c e
The Door to Anywhere
Steel Face Records/Mirrorball Music
Jon Twitch
I bought this album just a little too late for inclusion in the
last issue. Too bad, because
this is definitely a band worth
watching, and they seemed to
be on their way up at the time.
Nowadays they’ve retreated
back a bit and resign to being
the opener for smaller shows.
Probably the biggest hurdle
they face is that most people
(both in Korea and in general
these days) don’t really know
what power pop is, or know it
when it’s staring them in the
face, or see its value. Which
is too bad, because it’s good
music to listen to, the Essence
replicate it well, and the genre
an interesting historic genre that had a lot of input into
early punk.
The Essence display several
key characteristics of power
pop such as strong melodies
and harmonies, crisp vocals,
and simplistic arrangements
driven by the drums, all the
while
dressed
impeccably.
It’s one of the longest-running subgenres of rock, beginning perhaps with the Beatles
and finding footing with bands
like the Who. There was a brief
revival in the late ‘70s to coincide with the resurgence of
mods alongside punk, and the
sound crossed the Atlantic
particularly in the ‘90s, influencing everything from American bands like Weezer and
Apples in Stereo and Canadian
bands like New Pornographers
and Sloan. Certainly there is a
little of all that in the Essence
-- they’re not quite as ballsout as the Who, and they’re
not quite as poppy as Apples
in Stereo, but they’re drifting
around somewhere in between.
It should be clear in the
opening notes of first track
“The Door to Anywhere” that
this album is going to be energetic, optimistic, and unashamedly modernist. It’s an
instrumental that serves as an
intro track, setting the mood
for the album. The first song,
“달밤의 산책 (Moonlit Walk),”
serves as a good example of
what’s ahead. “Into the Future” and “도시의 밤 (Night of
the City)” follow suit, while
“Les Enfants Terribles v1”
seems a bit fuzzier and the
English lyrics are a bit distracting.
It’s been too long since I
heard from these guys. Hopefully they’re working on a
full-length follow-up.
Reborn Sanullim
v/a
Reborn Sanullim
Sony Media
Jon Twitch
Sanullim was one of Korea’s great rock bands, made
of three brothers who were
late-comers to the psychedelic era of the ‘70s. They
stayed together for over 30
years, and over that time they
influenced a great many people, both through their music
and through their helpful nature. They only broke up with
the passing of drummer Kim
Chang-ik in 2008.
Shortly thereafter, the eldest brother Kim Chang-wan
started his own project, the
Kim Chang-wan Band, effectively keeping the legacy of
the three brothers alive.
This album collects a great
deal of Korean underground,
indie, and rock musicians together for a massive tribute
album. Some names should
be familiar to all of Broke’s
readers: Kingston Rudieska,
Galaxy Express, and Crying
Nut in particular. Kingston
Rudieska take a chance on “
가지마오 (Don’t Go),” in my
opinion one of their betterknown, more energetic songs.
And while it’s a jump from
‘70s Korean rock to ska, the
end product is a seamless creation. Galaxy Express do “무
지개 (Rainbow),” which starts
slow and builds into a more
typical Galaxy Express sound.
Crying Nut finishes the al-
bum with “아니 벌써 (Not Already),” in which they inject
a great deal more of their own
character into the song.
The great thing about Sanullim is that their versatile
songwriting opens their music
up to so many different reinterpretations. Alongside the
bands known to regulars of the
punk scene are other names
worth knowing, such as Jang
Kiha and the Faces, probably
the inheritors of Sanullim’s
position at the cusp of Korean
rock music. Not to mention
Kim Chang-wan himself, who
plays a restrained role only
contributing one song.
Many of the other songs are
considerably slower and might
not appeal to rock music fans
who don’t have an open mind,
particularly “나 어떡해” by
Lee Jinwoo, who transformed
an interesting rock song into
a piano solo. It’s interesting
otherwise to see how Sanullim’s voice shines through in
all the different songs.
I’m glad to see collaborations like this, and watch
Korea rediscover its musical roots. It puts the modern
underground scene in a different light, with perhaps a
longer history stretching back
to before the repressive government policies of the ‘70s.
And take it from me, the government is already rewriting
history to redefine that music
as a direct predecessor of Kpop.
13 Steps
Torture
GMC Records
Jon Twitch
The other week, I dug up
some old 13 Steps CDs, finding
recordings I didn’t remember I
had dating as far back as 2001.
Back then, Dokyo13’s voice
sounded much closer to Kiseok’s of the Geeks. Over the
last ten years, they’ve drifted through old school hardcore toward their more metal
sound now, but they’ve always
maintained a spot in my heart
as one of Korea’s main hardcore bands.
And more remarkable is how
Dokyo13’s voice has changed,
become more husky. It’s hard
for me to listen to their older,
more hardcore stuff done with
his new voice. But on this very
short EP, he can do a lot with
those shredded vocal chords.
It is probably because of his
voice that I don’t have a problem with the largely English
lyrics of this album, although
in his voice it sounds more like
some demonic language. The
first two songs are originals,
both written by Dokyo13 in
English. In real life his English
is middling, but somehow he
knows how to choose powerful
words and create strong images,
despite the occasional grammatical accident. The third
song is in Korean, and his lyrics whip by much more quickly,
with his rasping breaths overlapping at times. The album
ends with a cover of “Sick of
Talk” by Negative Approach
which wraps up pretty quickly.
After an afternoon of reviewing pop-punk CDs with bands
singing bad English lyrics with
strong accents in unnaturally
high-pitched voices, this was
exactly what I needed.
Mukymukymanmansu
2012
Beatball Records
Jon Twitch
If you’ve read my interview
with them, you already know
my thoughts on the band and
this album. They’re the sort
of band that puts on inconsistent performances, sometimes
really nailing it and sometimes laughing through their
songs. So it’s good to hear
the end product of their intentions.
Is the timing sometimes a
bit off? Do they sometimes
sound a little tone-deaf? A
little. But everything is executed reliably, and more surprisingly comes across as decently musical.
The songs have an imaginative range, both in style and
content. They sing about everything from head size to being a taxi driver, and it weaves
a pleasing tapestry that reminds me of Soo Sung Land by
Amature Amplifier.
They already made a video
for the first song, “Andromeda,” in which they seem to
name every insect they know,
which builds to a screaming
climax punctuated by what
sounds like a trumpet.
Many other songs, such as
track two, “7번 유형,” repeat
the formula of building until
they’re screaming, but there
are quiet moments on the album also, like the disarmingly soothing “2008년 석광동”
which seems like more of a
straight-up love song, and the
slightly more neurotic “머리
크기 (Head Size).” Both songs
are perhaps more fair assessments of their talents.
One of the other highlights
is their cover of “내가 고백을
하면 깜짝 놀랄거야” (“If I confess, you’ll be surprised”) by
Kim Chang-wan of Sanullim.
A song that’s been covered
many times, this version they
make their own by their own
screams.
Oh yeah, also worth mentioning is the album artwork,
which consists of, as I describe in the interview, the
two members in a sauna. It
ends up effectively unsettling,
more like an American Apparel photoshoot done on peyote.
Some bands sound better recorded than live, and while I
think this duo falls into this
camp, the recording has also
helped me really enjoy their
oddball live performances.
This very sad & disturbing photo was taken during an open-heart surgical operation. These poor
humans... are split open
and have their internal organs treated like a doctor’s playground. Please
share this photo with as
many people as possible so
we can increase awareness
of the importance of banning life-saving surgery &
preventing the unnecessary
use of visceral shock images in spreading your point
of view.
Crying Nut/
Galaxy Express
개구쟁이 (Brat)
Drug
Records/Mirrorball
Music
Jon Twitch
This six-track split album features one great song
by each band. That’s not so
bad, considering they include
two versions of one Crying Nut
song, and two of the Galaxy
Express songs don’t appear to
be originals, just rerecordings.
The album starts off with
“이사가는날 (Moving Day),” a
song that starts slow and builds
enough that over its four and a
half minutes, it’s earned its
moment of intensity. I’ll look
closer at the song elsewhere,
but it impresses me thematically, because, well, I’m me.
The second song, “Brave
Man,” is a bit more what
you’d expect out of a Crying Nut song. It’s energetic,
moreso than “Moving Day,”
but I’m less in love with the
Konglish chorus (“Bu-re-ibmen”), which sounds a bit too
unnatural in this context.
Galaxy Express excels at
what they do on “Oh Yeah!”
The song succeeds on the instrumental level, on the lyrical
level, and on the chorus level,
and is just a lot of fun.
After a quick start out of the
gate, the next song, “떠나는 날
(The Day I Left),” is considerably more restful. At first
the song has a bit too much of
a fan-club-service vibe, but by
the end it sounds like more of
a full song.
The third song, “지나고 나면 언
제나 좋았어 (As Time Passes, Always Been Good),” tones down
the energy even more, more
than I think is healthy for such
a short album. I think I’d be
more forgiving of it on a longer
release, because if I’m only
getting three songs by Galaxy
Express on this album, I want
them to be as action-packed as
possible, just like “Oh Yeah!”
The album ends with a long,
original version of “Moving
Day,” which adds 80 seconds
to the song but serves no other
purpose than to give you more
of a good song.
This album is worth collecting, and it’s a good example
of why Crying Nut and Galaxy
Express are great bands, but it
might find its way to the bottom
of your CD collection for a few
years, to be rediscovered sometime in the future.
I woke up this morning
came outside and saw an
oxymoron
sitting in my driveway.
What you say?
Jon Twitch
with help from 나선생님
In the first issue of Broke, Nevin Domer created the column
“Say What?!” Now we continue that tradition in this new column, “What you say?”
In this space we look at the lyrics of Korean punk (or miscellaneous) songs and do our best to translate them into English.
Sometimes this is...not easy.
이사가는 날 - Crying Nut
This song by Crying Nut struck a chord in me, and more helpfully it uses a few vocabulary words about urban renewal that are
right up my alley. It’s a poetic depiction of a neighbourhood
being deserted prior to demolition and the creation of soulless
new highrises.
이사가는 날
Moving Day
책 정리하다 예전에 껴둔 단풍잎이 떨어지네
Before the red maple leaves fall I arranged the books.
먼지가 쌓인 낡은 사진첩엔 어린 시절의 나 이빨 다 썩었었네
Dust-collected photo albums of youth with all my teeth rotted.
생각이 나겠지 옆집 그 아이가 너무 귀여워서 벨누르고 도망갔네
I remember the kid next door ringing the doorbell and running
away, which is cute.
재개발이 되면 집도 부술 텐데 주인 아줌마는 땅값 오른다고 좋데
If this place is redeveloped the houses will be destroyed and the
landlady is happy that the price of land will rise
가슴 아파도 떠나가야만 하네
It hurts my heart to leave.
단골 슈퍼도 문방구 누나도
The regular customer at the supermarket and the girl at the stationery store
가슴 아파도 떠나가야만 하네
It hurts my heart to leave.
잘들 있거라 오락실 친구들
Farewell game room friends.
이사가는 날
Moving Day
책 정리하다 예전에 껴둔 단풍잎이 떨어지네
Before the red maple leaves fall I arranged the books.
같이 걷던 그 길 언젠간 다시 오겠지
Someday we will come back to the road we walked together.
숨바꼭질하다 어두워 갔던 하늘
Playing hide-and-seek as the sky goes dark.
못 찾겠다 꾀꼬리 어디에 숨은거니?
I can’t find; where is the nightingale hiding?
(nightingale seems to be slang for the hiders pursued by “it”)
해는 이미 저물어서 아무것도 보이지가 않아
The sun already went down so we can’t see anything.
텅 빈 놀이터엔 푸른 별들만이 가득 모여드는데
The empty playground is filled only with gathering blue stars.
이사가는 날
Moving Day
책 정리하다 예전에 껴둔 단풍잎이 떨어지네
Before the red maple leaves fall I arranged the books.
Andromeda - 무키무키만만수
This seems to be the main song from Mukymukymanmansu’s
new album, being both track one and the first one to get a music video. It’s one of their more id-driven songs, and it comes
across as a stream-of-consciousness list of sort of gross things,
and there’s an elephant in there before they devolve to screaming the same word over and over again.
무당벌레 장구벌레 풍뎅이벌레
Ladybug larva worm beetle
무당벌레 장구벌레 풍뎅이벌레
Ladybug larva worm beetle
생각을 안한지 너무 오래됐네요
I haven’t been thinking about it too long
그래서 우리는 킬리만자로
So we are Kilimanjaro
독버섯 코끼리 바위의 연꽃
Toadstool elephant lotus of rock
벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레
BugBugBugBugBugBugBug
벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레
BugBugBugBugBugBugBug
벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레
BugBugBugBugBugBugBug
벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레벌레
BugBugBugBugBugBugBug
무키무키만만수 - 무키무키만만수
Okay, let’s face it, that last song didn’t tell us much at all. I
tackled their self-named song to see if it would reveal any hidden motivations. They seem to be playing with the distinction
between practical and theoretical
피하고 또 피했던 밴드결성
We avoided and avoided forming the band.
이제는 피할 수도 숨을 수도 없는
Now it can’t be avoided and hidden from.
지경에 왔네
The situation is on the verge.
기타도 장구도 잘 못치지만
We can’t play guitar or janggu well.
우린 잘할거야 괜찮을거야
We’ll do better and feel better.
가늘고 길게 갈거야
We’ll go long and thin.
무키무키만만수
Mukymukymanmansu
무키무키만만수
Mukymukymanmansu
우린무키무키만만수
We’re Mukymukymanmansu.
음악원이 왜 저래
Why are musician academies like that?
서초동이 왜 못해
Why can’t Seocho-dong.
이러지마 난 이론과야
Don’t do this. I’m a theory person (as opposed to practical).
그러니까 괜찮아
So it’s okay.
미술원은 원래 이래
Since the first art schools.
조형과는 원래 웃겨
The main mould was originally funny.
이래도 돼 난 실기과야
I can do this; I’m a practical person.
그러니까 나는 괜찮아
So I’m okay.
무키무키만만수
Mukymukymanmansu
무키무키만만수
Mukymukymanmansu
우린무키무키만만수
We’re Mukymukymanmansu
What’s Your Blood Type?
Jon Twitch
In 1901, an important medical discovery was made by
Karl Landsteiner, a Jew. Specifically, the ABO blood type
group. It was previously unknown why blood transfusions
would often fail, with certain
people more vulnerable than
others. Now, people could
be classified based on blood
type, making blood transfusions completely safe until the
spread of HIV.
Many people at the time favoured Aryans as the desired
humans, and once the decision was made, it was easy to
gather empirical evidence that
seemed to support it, because
SCIENCE! It didn’t take
long for someone to figure out
that Aryans were most likely
to have types A and O, while
type B was more common
among lesser races such as the
Asians, the Jews, and lower
mammals such as apes. Clearly blood type had a correlational relationship with other
things such as race, religion,
and maybe even personality.
Although this hypothesis was
quickly disproven, it excited
groups who enjoyed classifying humans.
One such group was especially enthusiastic, since they
liked Aryans but weren’t
too crazy about sharing their
country with Jews. In 1919
they formed the NSDAP to do
something about this, coming
to power in Germany in 1933
under the charismatic leader
Adolf Hitler, the quintessential sensitive perfectionist
having type A blood.
The German blood-type enthusiasts, now calling themselves Nazis, shared their
knowledge with their allies,
Japan, in 1927. The Japanese government looked into
the theory further, hoping to
breed supersoldiers, as they
were
currently
expanding
their empire.
Many of the people the Japanese conquered suffered from
inferior blood types. In particular, the Formosans of Taiwan were particularly known
for their cruel unwillingness
to be conquered, and it turned
out that this might have something to do with the fact that
41.2% of them had type O
blood. The Japanese government decided on a policy of
genocide by interbreeding to
literally fuck the resistance
out of future generations of
Taiwanese.
In contrast, the submissive
Ainu, who were much more
receptive to being conquered,
were shown to have only
Left: Type A. Right: Type B.
23.8% incidence of type O. To
this day, the Ainu are considered to be as Japanese as the
Japanese by everyone except
some of the Japanese.
A number of factors led to
the decline of this personality
theory of blood type: Hitler’s
cowardly suicide, the surrender of Axis forces, and last but
not least the scientific disproving of the theory.
It wasn’t until the 1970s
that it was brought back, this
time in a psychology book by
Nomi
Masahiko.
Although
Nomi did not have a medical
background, he made up for it
with his career as a lawyer and
a broadcaster, and his books
have reached widespread popularity despite their utter dismissal by the psychology community of Japan. He proposed
using blood types as a whimsical version of the Western
horoscope, used for sizing up
dating partners among other
things.
Today, Koreans have Nazi
eugenics and Japanese imperialism to thank for such a
whimsical way to measure your
compatibility with someone,
determine personality type, or
commit genocide if you want,
I guess.
Let’s look at the different
personality types associated
with blood types!
Type A!
Did you ever notice that
most breakdowns of blood type
lists include Hitler? That’s
because he was only the greatest type A ever!
Type A people are introverted, patient, punctual, and
perfectionists. They are sensitive and artistic, even if that
crummy Vienna Academy of
Art doesn’t recognise it.
Famous people with type
A: Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin,
Maximilien Robespierre, Kim
Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim
Jong-eun, Britney Spears
Career suggestion: look into
getting into art, or if that fails,
maybe politics.
What to look for in a romantic partner: Find another type
A, preferably one with blonde
hair or blue eyes. Consider
keeping it in the family, and
don’t write off half-nieces.
Type B
Type B people are greedy,
stingy with money, and generally untrustworthy. If you
buy something in a store run
by someone with a big nose
(or small eyes if you’re in
Asia), be sure to count all your
change.
Type B is also more frequent
in animals, so people with type
B are less than human.
Famous people with type
B: Anne Frank, Woody Allen,
Shimon Peres, TOP
Career suggestion: Hollywood or world banking
What to look for in a romantic partner: don’t breed!
Hungarians? I can’t think of
anything negative, so there
you go. Not quite the Aryan
superman, but still pretty decent. But be careful because
it’s also above the global average in less desireable places
like Taiwan, India, Israel, and
Hong Kong.
Famous people with type
AB: Drew Barrymore, Bela Lugosi, William Shatner, Monica
Seles
Career suggestion: acting,
tennis
What to look for in a romantic partner: Having AB means
it is possible for you to produce type B offspring. Stick
to an A partner, but be warned
there’s a one-in-four chance
your offspring will have type
B.
Type OB
If this is your blood type,
you really better give me your
keys. Seriously, don’t get behind the wheel. Here, have a
glass of water instead.
Famous people with type
OB: Ernest Hemingway, Alexander the Great, Amy Winehouse, Jack Kerouac
Career suggestion: novelist,
singer
What to look for in a romantic partner: screw-off top
So now you know the whole
story behind the theory of
personality and blood type.
Now, next time someone asks
you your blood type, what will
you say?
There is also the possibility that you can change your
blood type. Dr Morgan Pabst
PhD has an invention that involves mountain crystals that
can change your blood type for
a limited time, patent pending.
Type O
Like the savage Taiwanese who killed many imperial
colonists, type O personalities
are rebellious and disrespectful toward their superiors.
They are capable enemies but
good breeding stock.
Famous people with type
O: Chiang Kai-shek, George
Washington, Kim Ku, Elvis
Presley
Career suggestion: farmer,
fisher
What to look for in a romantic partner: consider finding
a nice Japanese man. Even if
you’re male.
Type AB
This is the rarest, so it’s
difficult to come up with colonial stereotypes for AB people.
It is remarkably more common in Hungary of all places,
so what’s the stereotype of
The Vienna Academy of Art is all just
a bunch of Type Bs.
This is good art.
No more ugly pictures!
by Millie and Buster
Hello, we are Jon’s cats. Some of you may remember us from photos
that show us snuggling each other, nipping out on catnip, or in some
other humiliating situation. DO NOT LAUGH. Laughing is considered
hostile to cats, and we will stick our paws in your open mouths to infect
you with whatever germs or parasites the media says we pick up in our
litter box. Your laughter is an insult to us.
Image is important, far moreso than personality or individual style;
just ask any Korean punk. When you see pictures of cats, you want respectful, decent poses that wouldn’t look out of place in an issue of GQ.
The best pictures of cats are ones with dignity and serenity, not ones
that make us look funny. After all, we see ourselves as no different than
the lion in the savannah. No more pictures of us yawning, sticking out
our tongues, winking, or in mid-motion. Just straight poses with good
solid posture. And give us warning so we can pose properly! We have
certain faces we like to make when our pictures are taken. Jon is a bad
photographer because he takes bad pictures of us.
People have come to expect a certain dignity from cats, but Jon’s pictures demean us, turning us from graceful creatures that were once worshipped by the ancient Egyptians into a cheap laugh. Stop this mockery!
Above: Buster is caught with his tongue out, looking
very foolish indeed. Outtake! Delete.
Left: This picture doesn’t even make sense. Millie appears to be upside-down. At least let her pose properly.
Bimonthly Bootfuck
Fucking cars. Who the
shit needs a car in this city
anyway? What possible use
could it be to you, unless
driving is part of your job
or you need to drive your
family around.
Otherwise, you pay a
significant portion of your
income for a flesh-filled
lump that sits on the road
waiting for traffic to ease
up.
Do you enjoy sitting in
traffic, idling your engine
and producing more carbon
dioxide just so you can sit
there impotently?
And then we have the
idiots who buy SUVs.
They were dumb enough in
sprawling North American
cities, but here they’re a
brick. Okay, I guess they
increase
your
survival
rate in case of accident
(and increase the fatality
rate of the other vehicle)
and they’re expensive so
they’re status symbols.
Big, fat metal status symbols that struggle to fit
their fat asses in a single
lane of traffic.
A car is the worst possible investment anyone
can make. Once you drive
it off the lot, it automatically halves in value, just
for associating with you.
And then there’s the repair costs. Did you know
that a minor smudging of
one part of your bumper
can cost a couple hundred
dollars to fix? And that’s
a part of the car that’s
specifically engineered to
bump into things. And of
course nobody will ever
change it, because you
never have to pay for the
repairs to your own car;
better to let it remain high
so you can fuck the hypothetical other driver. Soon
we’re gonna see people
driving cars around papered with the original
works of Da Vinci, just to
make a minor scrape that
much more of a job.
Repairs,
gas,
parking charges, insurance...
you’re just paying more
and more for the least efficient way to get around
this city.
Broke Crossword
by Jon Twitch
ACROSS
1 Radio station ___ eFM
4 Opposite of post7 ___ Legend
10 Powder
11 Comeback band
12 Velvet Underground
singer
13 Actor ___ Sharif
14 Speaker
15 Aid and ___
16 Go over again
18 Techno lover
20 ___ That Means
22 Walk slowly
25 Monarchist in Russia
28 Lucy ___
29 Explores an abandon-
DOWN
1 Domesticate
2 Boring word
3 Jot down
4 Castle ___ microbrewery
5 ___ and Cola
6 Galaxy ___
7 Type of husky
8 Electronics company
9 ___ matrix
10 Plan Nine actor
Johnson
12 Daum competitor
17 Opposite of he
19 Actress Gardner
21 Rice cake
22 Hawking’s
disease
23 Gangbuk-gu
dong
24 The BP in BPJC
26 Greaser enemy
27 ___ for tat
ment
29 Feeling of im30 Sora ___
portance
31 Japanese beer
32 Benedict XVI
34 Dye
and John Paul II
36 Presidential Adviser
33 All for ___
Pyun ___
34 Fancy outfit
38 Tent
35 Wage
39 No ___
37 Poet WB
43 Keanu's catchphrase
38 Skinny
44 US gun group
40 Jam Hut loca46 Songtan airbase
tion
47 ___ Christian Andersen 41 S in BDSM
48 ___ and dry
42 Finish
49 Anti-drunk group
43 Korea’s second
50 ___ Bak: Muay Thai
commercial broadWarrior
caster
51 Opposite of no
45 You’ll ___ the
52 Id partner
day