teens & tangs

deery-lou.
stalk /stawk/ v. 1. to pursue or approach stealthily 2. to hunt slowly and quietly 3. stride, walk in a stately or haughty manner 4. to move through or follow as if stalking prey

stalker /stawker/ n. 1. someone who walks with long stiff strides 2. someone who stalks game 3. someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions [syn: prowler, sneak]

it started with a song. a song that haunted every chamber of my mind whenever i heard it played. it became a quest. a quest to find our answers: what band is this? what are they saying? etc. band names were spinning around my head. an answer never came. it never failed that while out at the eagle kicking back a few the song would come on. the process would start again. i had almost given up on the quest. then one day after a trip to amoeba i got a call from d. he had found the song. it was on one of the cds he had just bought. after hanging up with him i raced back to amoeba for my own copy. the mystery was over, but the hunting just began.

from my first listen of imperial teen's "what is not to love" i was hooked. so was pevil and d. i had a band crush on one of the members. within months i had all of their cds. when the new one came out we went to the signing at amoeba records. by the time i got up there i was speechless. at the time they lived locally which was an added bonus. whenever i saw my bc [band crush] walking down the street i'd stop and stare. it resulted in me following bc for a few blocks then realizing what i was doing. i went to every show, or at least tried to. pevil, d, and i even drove to san jose's pride to see them play. wouldn't have been so bad had we not had to pay to enter a pride event. and the fact that it was san jose. pevil and i would drive around in her "geo" singing their songs. d and i would see the boys at the eagle. everything was grand. we joked about being obsessed fan. about my bc being my boyfriend. to an extent we had become stalkers. all in fun, though. we were like high school girls. eventually, like all things the band crush seemed to fade away. some of the members moved away and the band stopped playing around town so much. i would still see my bc walking around but the spark was gone. my stalker phase had ended. well that is until now...

imperial teen

last year jenny and i stumbled upon this k-band marihuana. instantly i liked want i heard. plus the visuals weren't so bad either. wink. wink. i was excited to have finally found an indie rock/experimental sounding k-band. especially since the majority of the k-music is all that k-pop. so sweet it makes your teeth hurt. after the gig the guys were hanging about. jenny went up to the lead singer and asked if they had a cd. with a little help from his friend, he told us it would be out in july. i was excited. from that point on i made it my mission to find out as much as i could about them. my attempts to find the cd proved fruitless. july came and went. still no cd to found. eventually i stumbled upon their website. unfortunately its all in korean so i really couldn't understand much of it. i had a friend translate the site. apparently there's was no cd yet. the band had gone through a line-up change and was in the midst of writing songs. plus they changed their name from marihuana to the mustangs. at least there was still hope to see them and for a cd to appear under the new name. while tooling around on the site i realized i could figure at least when they were playing next. afterall that is the most important thing. of course every time i remembered to check i had either missed them or there weren't any upcoming events. as time passed my daily visits to the site deteoriated. the mustangs were becoming a distant memory. i had mentioned them to my friends in hopes that maybe someone, somewhere would have some info. and then it happened. a few weeks ago chen told me they were playing at club aura on may 13. how excited was i--very. after nearly a year i'd be able to see them again. that night i went to their site and found out that they were playing on april 29 at liveclub ssam. SCORE! now i had two upcoming gigs to look forward too.

flyer for liveclub ssam gig

saturday. i ventured into seoul around 5ish. met up with chen and some other peeps for food at jenny's cafe. had myself a very yummy eggplant, brie, sun-dried tomatoes sandwichy. we wanted to hit the free market but by the time we got there it was closing down. chen wanted to buy a dress for the evening. so we did a bit of shopping. shopping with chen is like shopping with misty. good times! we stopped into the piercing store. while browsing the shop i kept thinking i needed to get something pierced. but what? i've had my ear pierced before and didn't like it too much. however, whenever i see guys with their ears pierced i want to do it again. maybe i'd like it better this time around. just not sure if i can pull it off. well i'll have to think about it some more. so finally with dress in hand, well actually we made a stop so she could change into it. we headed for liveclub ssam. when we got to the club it was fairly empty and very quiet. in between songs before the singer started talking you could literally hear a pin drop. i felt like i was in a library. shhh! no talking. it reminded me of a story misty told about talking at the catpower show and getting shushed by the people around her. the space was small but pretty cool. very inviting to see a band. though there was no smoking or drinking. hmmm. perhaps because its in an artist space. i'm still confused my koreans lack of enthusiasm though. everyone was sitting. at one point chen wanted to dance but decidced against it. a smart move. betsy/betsey/becky/betty joined us for the second act which the girls out front told us would be the mustangs. i got very excited. however when the band came out it didn't look like the same band i'd seen before. there was a girl in the group. i thought that maybe one of the guys looked familiar but wasn't sure. when they started to play the music was completely different than what i had remembered. i thought it was quite odd. perhaps they did a complete 360. although it was quite different i still enjoyed the music. we decided to stick around for the third band. it was a good thing we did too. betsy had stepped out and when she came back she told me that the last band was not the mustangs. they were coming on next. YEAH!!! which made complete sense since the last band sounded nothing like them. when the mustangs came out i knew it was them. the lead singer looked a little different with his long hair but i recognized the other guy. their set was amazing. i couldn't help but sit there with a giant grin on my face. oh how i miss seeing good live music. these guys definitely filled that need. now i have my new/old band crush for 2006. this time around i'll stay on top it. time to be a music stalker again. hehe.

the mustangs

after the set we went to club aura to meet a few peeps. while we were there the mustangs and some others from liveclub ssam arrived. this must be their hang out. guess where i'm going to be spending all my time. we stayed for a drink then left for the twain. club nana was hosting an animal benefits rock show. there were a few bands that chen wanted to see so off we went. the club was pack. pack with the kind of people i try so desperately to avoid. the rocktigers were playing when we arrived. they're a korean rockabilly band. they sounded pretty cool but i must confess that once i got my drink i went outside. couldn't really deal with the crowd. i went back in when the waking party started to play. thats one of the bands chen wanted to see. inside it was like a GIANT frat party. i looked around for the tri-deltas but couldn't find them. people were making out in the corner, high-fiving at the bar, and being plan old annoying. betsy got me a drink and off we went to hang outside. from club nana we went to j club to see yet more bands. by this time i was pretty much burned out on live music. seeing that everyone was taking off for hongdae i decided to stick it out with chen. while chen was watching jet echo i decidced to take a stroll through the twain. on my travels i got an invitation from a hooker to come inside the place she worked. i should have but didn't. i also had some random people tell me i should get a pita from the pita wagaon. i didn't. instead i meandered around, had a smoke, and watched peeps. a short time later i went back inside to meet up with chen who was rocking herself out. we stayed for a little longer to watch this country jamboree band that was playing next. seeing that their mixer or something blew all you could hear was the hobit [that's what chen called him] singing and the guitars. although they had a cello and other instruments you couldn't hear them. shortly after that we left to cab ourselves back to hongdae and to bed. before we were able to leave the twain a drunk whitey tried getting into our cab. i don't think he could find sorrity row.

sunday morning. i awoke feeling quite rested. when i looked at the clock i was surprised to see that it was already 11am. the blue windows definitely keep out the light. chen and i rallied and set out for some lunch. we made our way to choi's tacos. i had read about it in the korean herald. choi had spent some time in la so i figured if anyone could make a decent taco/burrito it had to be him. sure enough i was right. it was the most delicious burrito i had in some time. it even had sour cream and guacamole. i died and went to mexican heaven. the place was very tiny. it kind of reminded me of the taquerias in sf. right down to the mexican music they were playing. after our bellies were full we headed off for hongdae to check out the free market. we spent the rest of the day doing what i like to call "senseless" buying. we took a break from "senseless" buying and had some coffee at ordinary cafe. we spent a few hours there just chillin. then decided it was time to call it a day. which was good since i had zero money in my wallet. once again i bailed on going to the foreign market for tortillas. next time.

senseless purchases
1. white studded belt [white is the new black]
2. punk kitty pin
3. wrist band with picture and button attached [gift from chen. thanks babe]
4. handpainted t-shirt
5. handmade supper bunny cell phone charm
6. an evil taekwondo bear cell phone charm
7. stickers
8. no smoking matches

be well...