I'm sure that this has probably been asked already but what are the decent indie bands in Korea and where can I find their music? I listen to Nell on a regular basis but other than them I really don't know much else about the indie scene in korea. Can someone help me out?

Do you mean indie as in the musical genre, guys with messy hair and horn-rimmed glasses singing about their unique indie-rock outlook, or indie as in independent from major labels?

Well, I think you've come to the right sub-forum to start your search. It depends on what you're looking for in the "indie" scene. Electro? Rock? Folk? Or do you not prefer any genre? Anyway, I would just thread hop and look up the artists on youtube. If you want some interesting reviews about K-indie music, you could check out theturninggate.com and read his Korean Soundwave entries.

I've been going to some shows here in Seoul and have found some good indie bands.

You can find a song or two from these bands on youtube or myspace....

Pink Elephant
Seogyo Group Sound
Pony
Pavlov
소규모 아카시아 밴드
Oriental Lucy


I've got more bookmarked on my old computer. I'll post them when I put em up...

What i'm mainly looking for is what you have described. Independent artists not part of major labels, folk, electro, rock. Technically music that's not part of mainstream korean pop music. Thanks for the suggestions.

Actually, what I meant was which genre you prefer. After looking up Perfume, I think you like electropop. For electropop, I recommend Humming Urban Stereo, Clazziquai, and Oldfish. I can't think of many off the top of my head, so I hope this helps. ( :

Edit
Okay, I think I sounded kinda stupid, but did you have Perfume listed before? I thought you did. XD

The best indie band in Korea, if you're to judge by pure talent and musicality, would probably be Omega 3. That their music is beyond awesome and that they're my very favorites in Korean music might make me a little biased though...

Also people into Nell tend to take a liking to Mot.

Actually, there are plenty of really, really good indie bands in Korea but finding their music isn't always that easy. Knowing what you're looking for makes it easier though (mrkwang is the place to buy it, but if you're more into downloading the bigger forums with download sections usually have some indie music, google might prove a very good friend, and then - of course - there's SoulSeek), so you might want to drop by Indieful ROK to pick up a few names. Click "samples" in the sidebar to find posts with links to places where the music can be sampled ^^

i love nell but i dont like Mot at all. lol. anyway, i would recommend my aunt mary, vanilla unity, nell (of course)..

by far for me i only have nell
they are the only indie so far that has caught my attention
and i like marystory they have awesome songs too!!

You can find more bands here: http://community.livejournal.com/korean_rock/

Also orienkorean @ youtube/imeem posts a lot of indie too.
http://www.youtube.com/orienkorean
http://orienkorean.imeem.com/

The Moonshiners and Galaxy Express are pretty popular indie punk/rock groups. I've seen a bunch of other shows, but I've forgotten the names of the bands.

-ginger

Im going to have to say Rocket Diary

http://www.dramabeans.com/media-stuff/ has a lot of drama OSTs (i know that's not what you're looking for, but just for future reference) and lots of downloads for different songs. A good portion of her songs are from kindie bands, so you can sort of sample them there.

I personally really like Spicy Soda, Peppertones, Misty Blue, As One, and Belle Epoque =]

i dont really know what to suggest, but i had tons of Sogyumo Acacia Band in my playlists and gotta say, they are awesome...dont know if it helps though...

Kite is pretty good...
and maybe Hot Potato too....
cus those are the only ones I know
besides Rocket Diary(just listened to them today and fell in love) and Nell

hi
i was wondering if anyone knew a few bands that were jazzy?
like...music you would hear in a cafe
thanks a million

oh geez,
yea its kinda hard to find really good korean indie bands.
i personaly like vanilla unity, rocket diary, and royal pirates(fading from dawn) they did like the best cover of wonder girl's nobody.
so yea.
:)

I can say Mary Story, Vanilla Unity, Band Pia and Rocket Diary :x

This is some great advice... go to the youtube for orienkorean, tons of great indie songs posted, also some hip-hop (like Seoulstar collab from Superman Ivy) but it's only really good music, some techno, some folk, some metal, some rock, great spread. Mostly light indie rock, I ended up subscribing because the user posts all sorts of great artists and new artists.

Just browse through those videos, lots of good stuff there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isJSegCe4_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isJSegCe4_w

Some of my favorites. 뜨거운 감자 is wonderful =)

i would def. recommend THE GREEN TEA. sooo good.

for live concert clips of various korean indie musicians of
mixed genre, you can check out my homepage. most are
currently performing live (not dead?) in hongdae:
www.myspace.com/rustykorea

sogyumo acacia band is one of my favorite bands, not only of korean indie, but of all music

Sugar Donut

is a good one.

or The Black Skirts.

that is alll for me as of now. Hahhah. D:

A few of my favorites are.

Dear Cloud
We've got Underwear and lots of girls (post-rock)
Witches
Daydream
Delispice
Bluedawn
Tearliner
Huckleberry Finn
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Loro's

WAAAAAH!
Korean Indie Bands!


It's weird, because with English music, I pretty much ONLY listen to indie stuff.
But then...with K-pop, I only listen to boy bands/generic stuff.
It's odd. -_____-
But I think I might try out these k-indie (haha) bands.
It'd be nice to listen to my real music taste.<3

wow...so many bands listed. yea....like some people said, i recommend my aunt mary, mary story, pink elephant, hot potato, phonebooth, vanilla unity, 20th century boy, and cool age. nell is a bit more mainstream than indie nowadays. some that aren't really rock are Lucite Tokki, taru, ji sun.

for those in korea, where would you go to see these bands perform?

I've never seen any club with any of those bands playing that you mentioned (aside from Phone Booth), but all the clubs where you can see live bands are in the area immediately in front of Hongik University/Hongdae. There's pretty well no live indie music anywhere else in the country.

I haven't heard a lot of alternative indie in any genre in Korea really its usually indie pop. The best stuff is usually in Seoul though. I did recently hear a great track by an indie band from Yeosu called 'Electric Fan Death' I can't remember the title of the track it was only a demo a friend of a friend showed me. But it was very different, less pop like. If they take off check them out.

Judging by the name I'd guess they're foreigners. They wouldn't be the first foreigner band to make fun of the Korean belief in fan death. I would be very surprised to see a Korean band risking that.

Outside of Seoul, the next best city for underground music is Cheongju. It just hasn't really taken hold in Busan or Daejeon or Daegu or anywhere.

Yes you are right, I've had a bit of a search for them and they are from the UK and only living in South Korea, should have guessed really with a name like that. Still they make good music about life in Korea if you want to check them out visit: myspace.com/electricfandeath. I'll keep looking for more.

oo thanks for the info. gotta check there when i go to korea in the fall. i think dear cloud performs at hongdae too^^

I recommend Nell (of course), Dear Cloud, Donawhale, Vanilla Unity, MoT, and Loro's.

There are a ton of foreigner bands these days that all play a bit more of a current, hipster-style of music than the local bands. Some are great, but there are too many cover bands, tribute bands, untalented bands, and "I'm tired of ajummas and fan death" bands to really go to foreigner shows. And generally they don't last long until they lose a critical number of their musicians to leaving the country.

The best I can think of off the top of my head are:
-Waking Party
-Sun Radio
-Saint John the Gambler
-Tear Jerks

Tear Jerks are breaking up this weekend, and I think Sun Radio is still around but the other two are defunct.

Check 'Monni's Sonnagi out at youtube. I absolutely love all of their songs in the first album

Vanilla Unity.
-cool songs
-unique styles

hello..
i was wondering if you guys herd of the melody? or taru? i happen to find some of their videos on youtube but other than that i cant find anything else..so if u guys have ne info on them?

sorry if its in the wrong section?

Mate (메이트) is a reallllllllllly good band.
highly recommend them

search them on youtube

same here n___n


i loving Mate at the moment.
they produce and write most of their own stuff (:

That could possibly be that popular music here is dominated by boy bands/generic stuff.

for indie i rlly like yozoh and the melody

I listen to a lot of non asian indie, and I really liked that group 'The Green tea'.

For now, i'm into mate.

Vanilla Unity
Mary Story
Achtung (is this counted)
BANDPIA is my favorite.
Rocket Diary
The APOP
Royal Pirates

and the list go on~

For some reason, I don't really feel the Korean Indie music. I love the American ones,
but the Korean ones are kind of ... dull I guess. I've been wanting to listen to some
bands though so hopefully people named a few good ones (haven't read anything in
this thread yet ;P)

I love:

(Bands from Pastel music)
- Belle Epoque
-Misty Blue
-Adult Child
-Bluedawn
-Tearliner

Ok I love pretty much everyone from Pastel Music. Pastel music is not necessarily an "indie" record label, but has a lot of Korean indie bands (like the ones I wrote above)

Here's their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/pastelmusicinc

Their official page: http://pastelmusic.com/

didn't read some of the replies, so if it's already been mentioned, pardon me =)


and LOVE pastel music<3 if you're new to "korean indie" music, would suggest picking up a couple album from them


<3
yozoh
lucite tokki
belle epoque
donawhale
izi

...t'is all i could think of atm, i'll add more later

Just wondering..
where do u guys GET krn indie music?? i have a hard time finding them..

Usually at concerts. There's only one record store in Korea, Hyang Music, that stocks local independent and underground music.

umm, let me rephrase that. where do u guys get/download indie music on the internet :]
i know some forums have a lot but there are some bands that i can't find at all
i know they have albums i just don't know where to dl them.. even w/. money

Then myspace might be your best bet.

i normally search it on youtube first,later on i will find the mp3..

as for korean indie scene, i like nell,taru,yozoh and ji sun.