October favs in kpop: Epik High, Ailee, Glen Check

Epik High's comeback totally beat my anticipation level for Big Bang's comeback this year. Epik High is a group that I would recommend to anybody and everybody. Their songs run deep and some are just great for laughs, but three members of the group are each so fun and amazing and talented. Their music has definitely resonates with people around the world and of all ages, and their story adds depth to what they do.

Their two comeback singles Up and Don't Hate Me are both fun tracks that are uplifting and encouraging. There is a story behind choosing their title tracks for the album, which I found quite amusing. To be honest I found the performance for Up more entertaining than the music video because of Tukutz at the end when he grabbed the mic and jumped around on stage with the other two. Don't Hate Me is just screams Epik High with how they executed the music video and the performance stage. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

Epik High - Don't Hate Me music video

Epik High - Up performance

They also released a behind the scenes/interview type video of them talking about each track of the album. Unfortunately YG hasn't put in any kind of english subtitles for them but check it out for some behind the scenes glimpses of their studio and music video recordings!

Ailee's comeback was also something that I was looking forward to. Her first single Heaven was amazing, and her run on Immortal Song 2 was perfect. She had proven to have a great voice and a wonderful performer, as well as have a sweet personality and she's so pretty o_o. Her new track I Will Show You is the perfect upbeat song to show off everything she's good at in a fun glitzy kind of way. Her music video is fun, but I was also impressed with all of her live performances because she's obviously not lip-synching and she sounds amazing. New girl crush right here.

Ailee - I Will Show You

I'm also going to add Glen Check here. This freakin band released a new EP called Cliché at the end of September, but I had been listening to it non-stop for the first half of October so what the hell. More amazing dirty electronic rock and roll type sound from my favourite new band of the year. Their '84 The Original is also reminiscent of the funky Jackson type era :)
How can you not love a band that puts out teasers like this?

Glen Check - Leather teaser

Check out the rest of their EP on youtube!

THEY'RE. SO. SMART. TVXQ, Ga-In

As in their idea for their performance promotions. The transition between the music video and the staging is flawless and they're both such creative ideas. I'm super impressed.

TVXQ - Catch Me Music Video


Catch me comeback performance


How awesome is that? No doubt, they look like crazy fools when taken out of the staging, lights and camera angles but I think it's such a great concept for their performances. And that dance is called the "hulk dance". LOL the things that people come up with... they're so ridiculous but its entertaining and these two are especially good at what they do.

Ga-In - Bloom music video (skip to 2:05 for the song)

Bloom performance

It's ridiculously sexy for Korean broadcasting but I think it really was genius with the props and choreography. She's such a tiny lady and she can't dance as fiercely as BoA so she really needs the table midst all her tall dance team. It also allows for less moving around that she has to do so she can maintain a steadier singing voice throughout the performance (compared to what the other idol singers are expected to do with their intense singing and dancing).

I'm really liking what I'm seeing in kpop this fall. Given, some of this stuff aren't actually my favourite songs (I'll make a separate post for that) but I'm seeing some great ideas and content that artists are coming out with and it has somewhat restored my faith in kpop.

CRAZYNO - 'Musiche' is not how it's actually pronounced

I've been really busy with school work and work work and other things, so I haven't really been in touch with the kpop world. So much that I completely missed Epik High's comeback single release D:

BUT to give myself a break today I watched my guilty pleasure show We Got Married, and at the end of the episode they showed a very short clip of this song.

Crazyno - 무식해 (Musiche)


By the clip that I saw (the scene where he's a crazy conductor) I thought it might have been Sungmin or Donghae from Super Junior, but it turns out he's a solo act from JFC Entertainment. He goes by the name of Crazyno and sings, raps, dances in a very hilarious manner. He has an even higher tone than G-Dragon's rapping voice which I find a little unnerving, but the music video is very entertaining and I had fun watching it.

Overall, big LOLs and I just had to share :)

oh.. and I guess the actual transcription would be [moo shik hae] for the Korean title, but he does say "music hae" in the song too....

[lyrics translation] Moody Sarah playlist: 그 애 참 싫다 (I really don't like her)

IU is magical.

This is a song from her spring mini-album Spring of a Twenty Year-Old, that wasn't promoted in the music video with the other two songs, "Peach" and "Every End of the Day". It's a song that I really like because of the honesty in the words. It's something that someone really wouldn't say out loud, but its been put into a song and really well articulated by IU's voice. She really has the power of playing different roles through her singing, and this has to be one of my favourites of her songs (the others are mostly from her EP Real).

IU - 그 애 참 싫다 (I really don't like her)

Is she still so great?
Does your heart still jump at just one call from her?
You would forget what you were talking about and your mind would wander
I become more surprised at your suddenly hardened expression
I've never met her before.. but I really don't like her

How much did you like her to be like this?
How much did you love her to be like this?
What about her did you like so much?
Really, why are you being like this?

You say you forgot it, that you erased all of it
That all of it is in the past, that you can't even remember it
When honestly, you kept her embraced in your heart
and tried to forget her when you couldn't even let her go?
I've never even met her, but I really don't like her

[Repeat]

How much did you like her to be like this?
How much did you love her to be like this?
Do you have to go as far as to hurt me too?
Really, how much longer are you going to be like this?

After leaving you so coldly, why is she calling you again?
But you're so frustrating too, letting it happen
And me, watching you be like this, still sticking by your side,
I'm the bigger fool, I'm the bigger fool for waiting for you

[Repeat]

How much did you like her to be like this?
How much did you love her to be like this?
Do you have to hurt me too?
I've never met her but I really don't like her

[Lyrics translation] Moody Sarah playlist: 혹시라도 들릴까봐 (Have you heard / Because you might hear me)

With school and work picking up, my schedule's getting packed and my procrastinating habits have been kicking in. As as a result, I have become dependent on music to get me through it all. Particularly, I've been gravitating to some sad but somewhat refreshing-type songs - perhaps my brain just wants a break from all the fast paced bumping bass tracks of the summer. It does affect me in that I get a bit quiet and broody, but I also blame that on my lack of sleep during the last week.

Anyways, since I hadn't posted in a while I thought I'd share my version of the translated lyrics of leeSA's Have You Heard. It was on the I Need Romance 2 OST, but I hadn't really paid much attention to it when I watched the drama. However, when I heard on shuffle leeSA's awesome voice I started to pay attention and the lyrics really came through to me. I liked that there was a story within it - a breakup with an untold story, the dumpee hopeful that it will be told in the future.

leeSA - 혹시라도 들릴까봐 (Because you might hear me)

Truthfully, I was the one that changed first
I wasn't even sorry then
Not being able to get through the day with my head straight
Those, those, those kinds of days, and
Days when I smile, smile, smile without meaning it, and
That day when I just had to get through everything

Your smile, as kind as always
My eyes, still enduring
Me, not being able to have told you even once
Look, look look, I'm this kind of person
Look at me, who is erasing you, crying
Me, who really isn't going to come back anymore

Do you regret it? Were you sorry?
Why weren't you there by my side then?
Someday, can you ask me, just once,
What had happened to me back then?

The days when I had more memories of you than of me
Back to that place, at your finger tips
The memories that remain, the memories still warm
All of those days of painful memories

While thinking that this is actually the end, that maybe you might change
So that my lying lips won't get caught

[Repeat]