Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
I met Sooyoung Park way back in 1993. His band Seam had played with Poster Children and The Fluid at Bogart’s in Long Beach and needed a place to stay. I offered my place, and from then on I’d see him on following tours, after various lineup changes, and on odd visits to each other’s city. As a result, he made appearances in Giant Robot magazine more than a few times. But before the crushing indie guitar attack of Chicago-based Seam, Sooyoung was in the much rawer (yet still polished) Oberlin band Bitch Magnet. The trio of Sooyoung, Jon Fine, and Orestes Morfin hasn’t played since 1989 but is rehearsing for All Tomorrow’s Parties “Nightmare Before Christmas” in Minehead, UK (invited by Battles) and a handful of other gigs in support of the deluxe remasters on Temporary Residence Records that drop on November 15. I took advantage of my friendship with the Singapore software developer to ask him some questions about the upcoming reunion shows and reissues. They’re way down the road, but they’re going to be awesome. MW: You seem to be pretty much out of music these days, so how did you get roped into playing some shows with Bitch Magnet? SP: We were talking to Temporary Residence about reissuing the Bitch Magnet back catalog, and my bandmates Jon and Orestes called me one night to talk about doing ATP and happened to catch me out drinking at a pub near my office. So I guess I semi-drunkenly agreed to it without fully appreciating how much work it would be to prepare. MW: When is the last time you actually sat down and listened to the music? SP: My guess is something like 7-8 years. I rarely listen to music I’ve made. MW: How do the songs stand up to you? You and your bandmates were really young when you guys wrote them! SP: Probably because it’s been more than 20 years since the records were released, I feel pretty detached from the music and songwriting. It’s almost like listening to a band that you’re intending to cover. One of the reasons I don’t listen to records I’ve played on is that I tend to focus on the flaws in the performances and recordings but I generally think the Bitch Magnet stuff holds up pretty well. MW: When I read the band’s Facebook updates regarding rehearsals in Vancouver, it kind of reminded me of when the Police got back together and started announcing events. Any weirdness at all, or was it just fun? SP: It was weird and fun. To me, practicing is always the best part of being in a band. MW: What’s it like going back to bass? Did you still have all the gear? the chops? SP: No gear or chops. I’m starting from scratch. MW: Does going back to the beginning (or close to it) remind you of why you got into music? Has it make you excited about making music in any way,...
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Every cat has a story.
This cat is just pretty. 3 years old and pretty small at guessing 7 or 8 lbs.
The Odd Couple. That’s a female orange cat. Usually they’re male. On the right, that’s Boo Boo. She’s 13 and has an “old face” and great character. It’s funny, the orange is the largest and Boo Boo is oldest, but somehow they’re best friends. Be part of a cats story and adopt one when you can.
Are you promoting civism or civet-ism? This is Sichuan Province’s way of promoting good citizenship — dress up your local nubile volunteers as skanky cats and unleash them in the subways. Dad is getting the message! It figures. Sichuan is known for spiciness, right? Looks like open solicitation to me… After the day was over, these women went home with Chairman Meow. Ba dump dump.
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A decade has passed since Al Qaeda’s attack on the World Trade Center. Multiple news sources have commemorated the event as a moment of self-reflection in which America and the world have evolved–for better or worse–in the Post-9/11 world. Salon ran a story by Matt Zoller Seitz describing some of the ways in which popular culture changed and reacted to the event. We know about America. How did the rest of Asia fare? Mark Austin recalled what it was like in the newsroom at the Daily Yomiuri when both planes struck America’s shoulders. Nothing too interesting to tell and as far as I know, no one has openly recalled on this anniversary of anniversaries how the War on Terror influenced Japanese pop culture. Let’s start with cinema. Battle Royale II: Requiem contained several less than subtle references to the landscape of the time. The most unsettling part about the sequel is that the survivors of the first film formed their own terrorist cell called the “Wild Seven.” The movie veered dangerously close to glorifying terrorism and resistance as a mode of existential relevancy. For video games, Konami released Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, shortly after the attacks. The moral ambiguity of the terrorist antagonists of the game didn’t cause any substantial changes or delays. However, developer Hideo Kojima had to make some last minute changes to the script and cut scenes where downtown “Arsenal Gear” devastated Ellis Island and downtown Manhattan. He further more removed a scene where the American flag fell on the Solidus’s corpse. Additionally, Japan’s Hip Hop scene had a few words of their own to say on the matter. The controversial rap group, King Giddra, released their single, “911,” on the first anniversary of the attack. They criticized the hypocrisy of America’s War on Terror and the Japanese government’s complicity in America’s grand agenda. With the exception of Hideo Kojima, these twoexamples represent a moment in which America’s position in the world came into question. To a certain extent, I wonder whether it marked a moment where Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution on the country’s pacifism came into question. As we all remember, 9/11 eventually led to the Iraq War and then Prime Minister Koizumi supported the invasion with a provision of troops from the Japanese Self Defense Force. America’s inability to secure an immediate victory further called the article’s legitimacy into doubt. If America couldn’t protect itself or prevail as a super power, then how are they going to safeguard Japan? No sooner than this, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a review of the constitution in 2007 to endow Japan with a stronger role in the world and bolster the country’s national pride. What I’m getting at is that 9/11 may have temporarily thrown the ball further into the Japanese Right’s court. K Dub Shine of King Giddra possessed some right wing views of his own. He produced the soundtrack to the Sakura of Madness film where a Neo-Tojo gang targets...
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We were just alerted, our friend, Dylan Williams passed away. Dylan published comics under Sparkplug and always fought the good fight. He always chose the work with his heart and operated his business that way too. He was always a great person. GR used to bunk underneath the Sparkplug folks at Comic-Con and we’ll miss the boss forever. (comicsbeat – Dylan Williams)
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