Photos (clockwise from top left): YB, From the Airport, Victim Mentality, Big Phony All photos courtesy of the artists
Korea Night II : Seoulsonic, a second showcase of Korean acts, has been added on Friday, March 20 at The Majestic (419 E 6th St). This will be the 5th annual Seoulsonic showcase.
Hosted by the cast of KTown Cowboys, a full-length comedy feature based on the popular web series which will be premiering at SXSW this year, this Seoulsonic showcase features a diverse range of talent ranging from KTown Cowboys star Bobby Choy’s Elliott Smith-meets-The Postal Service musical project Big Phony, to arena rock legend Yoon Do Hyun’s rock band YB, head-turning hair metal act Victim Mentality, moody electronic rock experimentalists HEO and the indie dance pop of The Solutions and From The Airport.
Doors will open at 7:00PM for both showcases. Music and Platinum Badge holders, as well as Music Wristband holders, will receive priority admission. If you haven't already, it's not too late to register.
By James Minor 2K15 SXSW Seoulsonic Showcase (Planning/Production/Promotions) : DFSB Kollective x Mandoo Entertainment International Agent : DFSB Kollective (From The Airport / Heo / Big Phony) International Digital Distribution : DFSB Kollective (From The Airport / Heo / Big Phony / YB)
Epik High / Courtesy of YG Entertainment After a Lady Gaga appearance at last year's show, the Korean music night returns with Hitchhiker, The Barberettes, Eastern Sidekick & more.
K-Pop Night Out returns to SXSW for what looks to be its bigger year after gaining big attention since its inaugural showcase in 2013. Acts like Epik High, Crayon Pop, Hitchhiker and more top Korean talent make up the impressive bill.
Epik High come to Austin after a fantastic comeback in 2014. After more than two years of silence, the hip-hop trio fired back with their excellent Shoebox album -- highlighted as one of Billboard's best releases of 2014 -- which earned the band their first No. 1 on the World Albums chart. Made up of Tablo, Mithra and DJ Tukutz, the veteran rap act has more than a decade together and will hit SXSW for their first Stateside show in years.
Another act making international waves, Crayon Pop also headlines the show. The quirky "Bar Bar Bar" girl group returns to America after spending their summer opening for Lady Gaga's Artpop tour. The group has stayed somewhat quiet since the trek, but members ChoA and Way did team up to release a new track "OK."
K-Pop Night Out should get a little more experimental this year thanks to Hitchhiker. The eccentric producer and remixer (who is signed alongside Girls' Generation, EXO and f(x) to SM Entertainment) had fans scratching and bobbing their heads to his "11" video earlier this year. K-Pop Night Out 2015 marks Hitchhiker's debut live performance.
Alongside the acts comes throwback-inspired female trio The Barberettes, the performance-art/electro-pop duo EE with the Korean rock scene represented by critically acclaimed indie rock band Eastern Sidekick and heavy rock outfit Asian Chairshot.
Last year's showcase was headlined by HyunA, Jay Park and Nell and saw Lady Gaga in attendance during her much talked about performance and keynote address.
K-Pop Night Out 2015 takes place on Thursday, March 19, at Elysium (705 Red River).
2015 KOCCA KPop Night Out Showcase (Planning/Production/Promotions) : DFSB Kollective x SL Communications International Digital Distribution : DFSB Kollective (EE / Eastern Sidekick)
Photos, clockwise from top left: Epik High, Hitchhiker, EE and Crayon Pop. All photos courtesy of the artists.
The annual KOCCA presented K-Pop Night Out returns for its third year at SXSW. The showcase will take place on Thursday, March 19 at Elysium (705 Red River).
This March, Hitchhiker, Epik High, Crayon Pop, The Barberettes, Asian Chairshot, EE and Eastern Sidekick will make the trip from Seoul. Once again, you’ll find your perception of Korean music challenged with the most engaging KPNO lineup yet.
Until recently, Choi Jin-woo was known as one of K-Pop’s top hit-makers as a producer, songwriter and remixer for Korean superstars such as Girl’s Generation, G-Dragon, EXO and SXSW alumni act f(x). Now the tables have turned with his new project Hitchhiker, a worldwide YouTube phenomena that’s thrust him into the spotlight with the amazingly bizarre “11” video and its accompanying polarizing earworm of a track. Seriously, just watch it. This will be Hitchhiker’s debut live performance.
Seoul’s Epik High are often credited as bringing hip-hop to the mainstream in Korea, and will be making their first SXSW appearance, supporting their eighth album, Shoebox, while K-Pop girl group Crayon Pop return to the US with their signature helmets and “Bar Bar Bar” dance in tow after touring with Lady Gaga on her Artpop tour.
The Barberettes, perhaps the most surprising of the bunch, create a time-warp of '50s and '60s girl group harmonies with a dedicated nod to The Shirelles, The Ronettes and The Kim Sisters.
Part performance troupe, part art collective, EE is a blur of eccentricity that comes across as a Korean hip-hop inspired version of The Knife, if you can imagine such a thing.
As always, Korean underground rock plays an important part of a K-Pop Night Out showcase. Asian Chairshot find common ground between Black Sabbath, Soundgarden and Radiohead with their Jeff Schroeder (Smashing Pumpkins) produced LP, while Eastern Sidekick come across as an edgier Korean version of The Strokes.
Don't miss the third annual K-Pop Night Out showcase at SXSW Music! Badges and hotel rooms are still available. Schedule is subject to change.
By James Minor
2015 KOCCA KPop Night Out Showcase (Planning/Production/Promotions) : DFSB Kollective x SL Communications International Digital Distribution : DFSB Kollective (EE / Eastern Sidekick)
From The Airport [Photo by David Reeve]My first order of business at Culture Collide Festival this year was to chat with the lovely trio from Sleep Thieves, whose music has been haunting me in the best way possible. They had set up in The Church, a stage located in the Methodist Church of Echo Park, and from there we looped around looking for a quiet spot to talk away from any active stages, until we ended up right back where we started. There is no room for quiet here, and to presume otherwise was offensively naïve (we did end up having a fascinating talk about giving creativity room to breathe and digital music and such and it’s coming next week).
Culture Collide Festival returned to Echo Park for a fifth year with some exciting off-screen developments. The festival split with Filter Magazine and handled the breakup by having crazy weekends in both San Fran and NYC. So for the first time this year, Culture Collide Festival toured to San Francisco and New York, taking its international line-up with it.
Meanwhile, the scene at Taix French Restaurant, the festival’s central hub, still felt as much like home as ever to Culture Collide regulars this past weekend. Its cozy corridors and closely-situated satellite venues filled with band members, press, and Echo Park locals merrily sampling stages alongside one another, making for delightful and often unexpected discovery adventures.
Long before you saw them, you heard them. South Korea’s From the Airport are a dynamic two-man show whose sound could be heard on the opposite side of the building. Part funk, part rap and nearly all digital, they directed the emotional flow of the room from two keyboards, a pair of mixers, a laptop and a guitar, which had presumably left no room for much of anything else in their luggage. With projected static washing over them and the Culture Collide logo behind them, Milo and Zee kept everything else on stage simple, save, of course, for the sunglasses. Their set included the song that brought the recognition, 2012’s “Colors”, and ended with “Flying Walls,” a single which is about to be released.
Down the street at Lot 1 Café, The Kokoro offered the breathy female vocals of Lee Triffon and keytar player Adi Feher interspersed with bursts of EDM, a tribal and futuristic mashup complete with geometric jewelry over abstract animal print leotards (with the latter reminiscent of last year’s femme fatale Louise Kahn of Terry Poison’s outfit… Tel Aviv seems to be deep into a spandex phase).
At the beginning of Echo Park locals’ Rainbow Jackson’s set at the Taix Champagne Room on Saturday (“we’re from right down the fucking street!”), there were sixteen people in the room who were not on stage, counting their sound guy. They rocked until the latecomers wandered in as though it made no difference, and by the time “Nightcrawler” took over the room, they had everyone hooked.
Listening to Sleep Thieves is akin to being lost in an enchanted forest at night. The Dublin-based three-piece produces layers upon layers of self-recorded sound which feels as though it expands to surround the listener. Vocalist and synthesizer player Sorcha Brennan stands before a gathering in the Lot 1 Café, her voice as melodic and sad live as on the recording as she sings “City of Hearts,” while behind her Keith Byrne and Wayne Fahy play and produce the music to match using synths, mixers and a drum pad.
“I felt that I was half alive/I counted twenty-four, twenty-five/I wanted/I wanted not to be lonely but still alone.” She dances lost in the moment, swaying trance-like among the echoes and reverberations, looking up at an envisioned sky, beckoning us to join her. She steps off the stage and dances facing it, like a member of the audience, taking it all in.
A seemingly keen ability to swing between tough and sweetly naïve is only part of what makes TKAY Maidza a force. With a sharp tongue and a two-year career under her belt, the eighteen-year-old rapper has been described as a second coming of Azelia Banks, and her song “U-Huh” had everybody’s attention during her set for Saturday’s Australian BBQ line-up at the Echo. With hip-length hair and black muffin top platform sneakers, the stage was hers. She didn’t just rap to the beat, she embodied it. Her every movement anticipated it, and it invigorated her. Before her last song, she smiled out at the crowd. “Shout out to everyone dancing up here in the front!”
Once the last primal scream was issued from the stage, it felt only fitting close the book on 2014’s Culture Collide and begin processing what had just happened.
Other highlights of the weekend include The Delta Riggs, Clap Your Hands Say Year, and Nina Personn, among others. Stay tuned, more on them to come…
This year for its fifth anniversary, Culture Collide, “a convergence of inspiration,” will not only be invading our fair city but also our sister to the north, San Francisco, as well as New York City with a series of stages and even more bands than years prior.
The festival’s name reflects its international line up and the bookers have searched far and wide to bring some of the most interesting underground scenes from around the globe to converge in one arena. It’s a rock ‘n’roll United Nations—and these are but a few of the bands we have our sights set upon.
Having a song called “Shut up and Dance” is like having me at hello. Dance inducing rock from of all places — South Korea — and played by the most unlikely crew of characters.
The complete Culture Collide schedule can be viewed here. Los Angeles Festival info can be gathered here.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 7:48AM | 
Photos (clockwise from top left): YB, From the Airport, Victim Mentality, Big Phony All photos courtesy of the artists
