Crayon Pop is still one of my favourite groups. They’ve just finished recording their comeback album which will be released in June, if I’m not mistaken. Teaser images have suggested a different, non-tracksuit, concept. Perhaps a bit sexier. We’ll see. That makes me think of a clip I saw of Crayon Pop where someone mentioned a sexy concept and how they wouldn’t be able to pull it off and Cho-a said: “I would” . I hope they keep their cute and sassy style, though.

They’ve also announced that they’ll be adding a sixth member for their Japanese promotions. Her name is Arisa.

So, to the main reason for this post. I’ve been waiting for Crayon Pop to release their song “1,2,3,4″ that they’ve been performing since last year, but it hasn’t been released as far as I know. I’ve heard the song in English and Japanese. Not in Korean so far. The Japanese version sounds a bit cutesier than the English version, but both are very good.

Here’s the Japanese version. … Continue reading

I was a bit sceptical about the drama series Gu Family Book judging by its first couple of episodes, which consisted of the back story for the main plot. However, I stuck with it to see when Suzy’s character would appear and after a few episodes the drama has really taken off. The main characters (Kang-chi, Yeo-wool and Chung-jo) are much more relatable.

Besides Suzy (the reason for my watching the drama in the first place), another beauty is Lee Yoo-bi, who plays Chung-jo … Continue reading

I started watching another Korean drama series the other day. It’s called Gu Family Book (구가의 서). The reason I checked it out is because Suzy (Miss A, Dream High) plays one of the main parts, which the teaser suggests is a pretty bad-ass martial artist. The main character is played by Lee Seung-ki (The King 2 Hearts), but I haven’t gotten that far yet.

Gu Family Book is a period/fantasy drama. I generally have a hard time taking these seriously, since … Continue reading

Last night I started watching the Korean drama series You’re the best, Lee Soon-shin (최고다 이순신). The main character is played by IU, which I admit is the reason I checked this drama out. She’s very adorable as Soon-shin, but the drama seems to be very good as well.

I’ve only watched two episodes, but the impression I’ve gotten so far is that the drama is about being brave when handling adversity, even though no one else believes in you and that “when a door closes, a window opens”.

… Continue reading

I’ve placed a bunch of orders from various places recently and now they’re starting to arrive . Today I got a package from Korea. It consisted of IU’s 2013 calendar, an IU button set and the Tae-yeon version of I Got a Boy. My two favourites. And enough bubble wrap to last a lifetime.

I know I’m super late in getting the I Got a Boy album. I blame YesAsia. I was set to order the Tae-yeon version from day one, but they decided to only sell the album with the version picked randomly. I had already bought the album on iTunes anyway. I wanted Tae-yeon!!

… Continue reading

There are a few things that bug me about Rainbow’s recent comeback and first “full-length album” release. First, the style isn’t very Rainbow-like. The first part of the album consists of mostly bland cutesy sugar pop. The title track is pretty decent, but the rest of the songs sound like something written for and rejected by label mate KARA.

It’s a shame that they don’t make better use of Woo-ri’s rapping. She’s actually quite good. I’d like to link to a clip of her speed rapping with Outsider, but the clip was taken off Youtube some time ago.

I accept that there are a certain amount of filler songs on an album, but when releasing an album in two parts, isn’t part one supposed to make me want to buy part two? I doubt they saved all the good stuff for the second part.

Rainbow’s been away for so long, I expected a bigger comeback. It doesn’t seem like they’ve been given enough attention by their label.

Rainbow are finally coming back with a new album. The album is called Rainbow Syndrome. It’s their first full-length album, but apparently it’s going to be released in two parts , with the first part being set for release tomorrow along with the music video for the title track Tell me tell me.

Teaser:

The sound of the song in the teaser sounds pretty familiar. I can’t quite pinpoint where I’ve heard the sound before. Hopefully it will flare out a bit in the full version.

I lo-ho-hove Woo-ri’s short hair!

edit: now the full music video is out

Last year YUI released new versions music videos for Feel my soul and Good-bye days consisting of old footage from her debut years. It’s interesting to see these old clips of her. I found new love for this and many of her other songs after listening to the covers on the She loves you album. When I watched her perform this song at her last live as YUI at the CDTV new year’s show, I thought that the captions were wrong, so I checked the CD booklet. Turns out that I’ve been singing the wrong lyrics all this time .

YUI ~ feel my soul~2012 ver.~

26MB 3:52 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

And appropriately last: Good-bye days. It’s one of my favourite songs. I love how you get to see YUI smile a lot in this video. I hope there’s more where that came from in her future projects.

YUI ~ Good-bye days~2012 ver.~

37MB 5:28 H.264/AVC 480×272 PSP Ready

(download | thm | preview)

These are the last PSP videos I’ll post. Like YUI, I’m moving on to something else. The blog will remain. There just won’t be any new PSP videos for download. Six years is plenty and I’m looking to focus my energy elsewhere.

Crayon Pop returned to Music Bank this week with Bing Bing. It’s their first song, but it was never promoted on the music shows. This version has a modified choreography to go along with their image from Dancing Queen. They’re a hoot to watch . It’s great to see that they’re back in the spotlight. I hope this will let them continue on and release new material.

Here’s a fancam from a mini showcase Crayon Pop did where you can see the new choreography better:

They’re definitely my favourite new group from 2012. I looked around for places to buy their singles, but it seems like they only were released digitally. Dancing Queen (which includes Bing Bing) is available on iTunes, but Saturday Night is only available in Korean online music stores (as far as I know).

Since YUI announced her indefinite hiatus from her activities as “YUI”, there have been many rumours flying around about what she’s doing next. There were some news about her performing at very small venues under the name Flower Flower and that she didn’t perform any YUI songs, only new/unreleased material.

There has been no official word and the whole thing seems to have leaked out earlier than intended. It’s hard for a big artist like YUI to perform at small venues if all her fans find out.

From the bits and pieces I’ve heard, she wasn’t given the artistic freedom that she wanted as YUI and started performing under a different name. There may have been some problems with her record company due to this, but either way she has now put “YUI” aside and will continue pursuing her music career under a new name. Supposedly she’s still under Sony, but the official word was supposed to be released by the end of the year (not now).

I also saw a recent picture of her with short blonde hair, but it was removed because it wasn’t supposed to have leaked, I guess.

I’m curious about what her new music sounds like. Less main stream for sure, seeing how she felt (according to the rumours) that she wasn’t allowed to do her songs the way she would have liked to.

Above is a longer version of the “YUI’s message to her fans” video that I posted a while back. It still doesn’t tell the whole story though, and we’ll have to wait a while longer for any kind of official announcement. It’s encouraging to hear that she’s moving on to something she appears to be enjoying.