Since February, Korea Gig Guide has been co-presenting the Shake Shop concert series with Dream Dance Studio (which recently moved to a new location near Hapjeong Station). Dream Dance Studio specializes in bellydance lessons, so the idea behind the event is to mix bellydance with local indie music. Shake Shop Vol. 10 will take place tonight (Friday, November 29) at Club Freebird in Hongdae and will have Hollow Jan, My Way Killing, and the newly formed Mojo Project Sound System doing live collaborations with Dream Dance Studio director Eshe and her Navah troupe. Past versions of Shake Shop have started at 11 pm, but tonight’s gig will start at 8:30 pm.
Screamo/post-rock hybrid act Hollow Jan were one of the first Korean bands to be announced for next year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in Austin, Texas. They were also pegged by popular music rag Spin as one of the “See These” acts from SXSW’s initial lineup announcement.
“We couldn’t believe that we were invited to SXSW!” says bassist Jung Dong-jin. “We want to let the world know about our music scene, and we’re grateful for any opportunity that will let us do that.”
It’s been seven years since Hollow Jan released their excellent “Rough Draft in Progress” album. The sextet are nearly finished work on the disc’s follow up, which is titled “Days Off.” The seven-song effort should finally surface sometime in the next few months.
Although unfamiliar with bellydancing, the group were intrigued by the idea of pairing up with Eshe and Navah and are quite curious about how things will turn out.
“This is our first time doing a performance like this, and trying new and experimental things always makes us excited,” Jung says. “To be honest, we never thought bellydance would work well with music like ours. But the challenge of mixing different art forms always makes for interesting results. I think this is going to give people a different perspective on our music and their performances.”
My Way Killing is comprised of guitarist Gregor McGhee, bassist Nahm Sang-ah (3rd Line Butterfly), and drummer Son Kyung-ho (ex-The Moonshiners). The band came together in early August and played their first show shortly after that.
“Sang-ah, Kyung-ho and I thought for years about making some music together, but it never went any further than drunken talks on what kind of music we would like to play,” says McGhee. “So one morning I just woke up and said to Sang-ah, ‘Okay, enough is enough. Let’s do this.’ I called Kyung-ho to check his schedule and then called up Strange Fruit and asked them to book a gig for us sometime in the next two weeks.”
“I always wanted to try something different from 3rd Line Butterfly,” adds Nahm. “Funk is something I’ve never tried before. And Gregor definitely has funk in him. I’ve worked with Kyung-ho before and I loved playing with him. He has a great drum tone and touch. Also, in this band I get to play bass, which is a lot of fun!”
The trio’s noisy cuts easily fall into a number of different genres making it tough to pigeonhole their sound. Thankfully McGhee already has an apt comparison to help describe My Way Killing to folks.
“I often say punk funk but that’s kind of a shortcut really,” he says. “With music, I think the melody is central, and I like riffs, and something to dance to. But our band is young, so right now we play fast and we play loud – think Sonic Youth meets Prince.”
My Way Killing plan to release some before next summer and are now thinking about concepts and songs for the recording. They are also talking about doing some live dates in Europe at some point during 2014.
As for right tonight’s Shake Shop concert, both McGhee and Nahm are very much looking forward to working with Eshe and the shimmying sirens in Navah.
“I’m very curious to see how the dancers will interpret the songs we do,” says Nahm. “I believe if something has any sort of beat at all, you can dance to it. And I also believe that different genres and art forms are meant to be mixed.”
“Any opportunity to show our music under a different light is welcome,” says McGhee. “I’m really anticipating the show and am wondering what will happen. I watched some of Eshe and Navah’s performances with other bands and they were great. I’m sure those ladies can dance to anything ranging from absolute silence to white noise.”
Mojo Project Sound System will make their live debut at Shake Shop Vol. 10. The trio features guitarist Choi Hyun-seok (Apollo 18), bassist Seo Ho-sung (ex-The Plastic Day, ex- Momguamaum), and drummer Kim Yun-beom (ex-The Plastic Day, ex-Art of Parties). All three members have been friends for a long time and have played together at different times in the past.
“We’ve all known each other since high school,” says Choi. “We’ve worked together on different things before, so making a new band together seemed like a natural thing to do.”
Since they’ve only been playing together since early November, Mojo Sound Project System will be showcasing new material and also jamming on some tracks from The Plastic Day and Apollo 18 during their Shake Shop set.
“The idea to make Shake Shop our first show came to me while I was hanging out with Eshe one night,” says Choi. “We’re all good friends with Eshe and have collaborated with her on different things in the past. So I thought this would be a good way to start our new band.”
Shake Shop Vol. 10 takes place on Friday, November 29 at Club Freebird. The show starts at 8:30 pm and the cover charge is 15,000 won with one free drink. Eshe and Navah will perform alongside Hollow Jan, My Way Killing, and Mojo Project Sound System. For more information, check out the show’s Facebook event page here.
Here are the set times for tonight’s show:
My Way Killing 8:30 – 9:15
Navah 9:15 – 9:45
Hollow Jan 9:45 – 22:30
Mojo Project Sound System 22:30 – 23:00