Comments (0)

By ARKPop, August 14, 2011 3:13 pm

In this episode I refuse to stop playing Borderlands and poor Noelle has to edit around it.

News

• Weekly Ban update -
• TVXQ – “Before U Go”
• Kim Hyun Joong – “Please”
• Homme – “Still Eating Well”
• DJ DOC – “Tonight”
• KBS to hold a free concert with rumored superstars in attendance in New York’s Randall’s Island Park

• Debuts/Comebacks/New Releases

- Bang Yong Gook ft. Yang Yoseob (B2ST) – “I Remember”Dal Shabet – “Bling Bling”

- Mighty Mouth – “Racing Queen”

- Koyote – “If You Don’t Like It Now”

- SNSD confirmed to return in September
- Brown Eyed Girls still rumored to return in September
- New Girl Group “Swing Girls” debuting with “D-Cup Concept”

• Takaoka Sousuke apologizes for his tweets
• SISTAR’s Bora injures herself somehow, again.

Free Talk
The “Devaluation of idols” – What is wrong with being an idol? How are idols perceived by their peers in the entertainment industry and the public in general. Brought on by a recent Jaejoong interview in which he says he wants to be an idol forever.  Noelle had to fill her JYJ quota somehow.

Kpop Crystal Ball-

We gaze into the mysterious not-so-distant future to determine which members of popular idol groups will continue on to have prominent careers in the entertainment industry after their groups disband and which will fade into the background (or oblivion).  First up on the docket, we tackle Super Junior, and we have no idea if we even managed to point out all of the members.

Artist Spotlight-

Loveholic(s)

We talked about this underground Fluxus artist before but never gave them the spotlight, so we decided to let Noelle take it away.  As always, “Dramatic and Cinematic” is her favorite album by the group.

Founded by Kang Hyun Min, Lee Jae Hak and Jisun, the female vocalist Jisun departed in 2007 due to “creative differences”, however, that didn’t stop the other two members from continuing to create music.  They reformed as Loveholics and employed a rotating lineup of featured vocalists.

Sylvia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKHG7T0QJ9g

Butterfly as Loveholics

Miracle Blue as Loveholics

Garden

Want You Here

The Following Titles are Google Translated

Pollen/Flowerpot

You

Sunday, Partly Cloudy

Regular

Epik High ft. Jisun – Paris

Epik High ft. Jisun – One (Jung Ryeo Won is the actress in the video)

Opening Song: Sistar – SO COOL

Insert Songs:
Seo In Guk – Shake It Up
Super Junior – Marry U
Super Junior – Mr. Simple
Super Junior – It’s You
Super Junior – No Other
Loveholic – Separation is Not Separation
Loveholic – One Love

Closing Song: Kim Jaejoong – I’ll Protect You

Contact Info:

Tweet us at @ARKpopPodcast or shoot us an email at thealwaysrationalkpoppodcast@gmail.com and like us on Facebook. Until next week as always, we are your Kpop loving friends.

Comments (0)

By ARKPop, July 24, 2011 7:23 pm

In this episode, recorded a bit late due to Noelle’s cold, we accidentally get way off course several times, but the discussion itself should still be interesting.

News:

• Another list of songs banned for inappropriate content was released. They were banned for various reasons including: depictions of violence, alcohol consumption, and sexual content.

1. After School – “Funky Man”
2. B2ST – “Rainy Days” (Yoseob’s amusingly brave response here
3. Baek Ji Young – “I can’t drink”
4. DJ DOC – “Joy and Pain”
5. Jay Park – “Don’t Let Go”
6. Kang Seung Yoon – “You’re My Heaven”
7. Song Ji Eun – Going Crazy”
8. X-5 – “Fantasy”

Free Talk:
Beauty and Self-Image in Kpop. After reading last week about Hwayobi’s bout with Bulimia we tackle the Elephant in the room. We also talk a bit about plastic surgery and the perception of artists and actors that aren’t “natural.” Here are a few articles all within the last 6 years on plastic surgery in South Korea from Time Magazine, The Economist, The BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and a comment on some statistics.

Featured Artist:
LeeSsang, a duo made up of former Honey Family rappers Gary and Gil, and one of Noelle’s few favorite K-Hiphop artists. They reached mainstream success with “I’m not Laughing/smiling” and as of right now both members are cast members of popular variety shows. Their last release is their 6th album Hexagonal.

The Girl who can’t break up, The Boy who can’t leave ft. Hyori & Ryu Seungbum

I’m not laughing

Ballerino

Our Meeting ft. Jang Giha and the Faces

LeeSsang Blues

Opening Song: CHI CHI – Longer

Insert Songs:
e.Via – Mirro of My Soul (feat. Mini)
Leessang – I’m Not Laughing
Leessang – The Girl Who Can’t Break Up, The Boy Who Can’t Leave (feat. Jung In)

Closing Song: Goo Ji Sung – Goo Ji Sung’s Bad Guy (feat. K-Jun)

Comments (0)

By ARKPop, July 10, 2011 1:57 am

The first episode after I’ve returned from my epic(ly normal) vacation marks the return of Cheon Sang Ji Hee the Grace to mainstream Kpop. Only time will tell how well they’re received.

Opening Song: HyunA – Bubble Pop!

Concert News:

• Kpop Concert in Sydney, Australia
• Cube to launch a European/Latin (or South) American Tour maybe?
• Rain to have one last solo Korean tour before enlisting

After School Update:

• Subunits to be designated as Red and Blue to promote simultaneously and because Pledis is jerking us around with who will be in which group, I don’t care enough to link the news about it.
• Birdie Buddy to air perhaps in the next decade, maybe on tvN, maybe somewhere else. Let us know if it does.

Japan News:

• KARA sets a record for foreign female artist on the Oricon chart with “Go Go Summer”
• SNSD’s “Girls Generation” album goes certified Double Platinum in Japan.

Fabulous News:

• SBS to hold auditions for an idol group under their new (expensive) show “K-pop Star” with JYPE, SME & YGE to help in auditing the auditions (whatever that means) to begin airing on July 12th.

Comebacks/Debuts/New Releases:

- Oh hey, Super Junior’s Kim Kibum will be back, doing something, acting maybe?
- CSJH the Grace returns as a subunit with Sunday & Dana, not quite the full group return, but something is definitely better than nothing.

- HITT debuts

- MBLAQ’s G.O releases “Even in My Dreams”

- Miss A to return by the end of July (don’t you dare jerk me around)
- HyunA returns with her much talked about, much criticized (in English anyway) Bubble Pop promotions

Random JYJ news:

• They bought and refitted a studio to suit their purposes.
• Jaejoong bought an expensive Condo or something (for all I know Noelle is making this up)

Free Talk:

This week we’re taking a look at the Gaon chart for the first half of 2011, which is widely known as Korea’s attempt at creating a similar unarguable chart as Billboard or Japan’s Oricon. We don’t know much about the points system for the digital singles, but it is a good way for the International fan to see how different our tastes appear to be from the popular Korean taste.

Artist Spotlight:

Cheon Sang Ji Hee the Grace debuted in 2005 as the “female” DBSK, but really as a very talented female acapella group. It was composed of former solo singer Dana, former Isak & Jiyeon member Lina, Sunday, and ballet dancer, Stephanie. The group had one Korean album in 2007 named One More Time Ok? along with a few Korean singles. They also entered the Japanese market on the heels of their “older brothers” Dong Bang Shin Ki and became known as Tenjochiki. Their last major album release in Japan was in 2009 before they seemingly withdrew from that market as well.

After Stephanie became injured things became quiet on the news front, and then after recovery Stephanie took up ballet seriously again and is now performing as a dancer, while we get Dana and Sunday performing the first duties to bring the group back.

My Everything

Boomerang

Dancing in the Rain

The Club

Just For One Day

And as a bonus, here’s pre-CSJH Dana the Grace with Diamond ft. pre-DBSK Yunho

Insert Songs:
Jung Yong Hwa – You’ve Fallen For Me
CSJH The Grace – Boomerang
CSJH The Grace feat. Kim Jaejoong – Just For One Day (Japanese Ver.)
CSJH The Grace – Faith

Closing Song: G.O – Even In My Dreams

You can find us on twitter at @ARKpopPodcast, facebook or email us at thealwaysrationalkpoppodcast@gmail.com

Comments (0)

By ARKPop, June 27, 2011 11:47 am

2PM & 2NE1′s comeback in the same week, and more serious news for fans of YG family took precedence. Unfortunately, the free talk in this episode is quite serious and weighty. We also apologize for being late this week, but there was a typhoon in Manila that made recording on our usual day quite difficult.

News:

- After School to debut in Japan next month with “Bang.” and will also promote as two rumoured subgroups: After School Originals and Violet Girls.
- Kim Jaejoong to follow up his success on Jdrama “Sunao ni Narenakute” with his first Kdrama role in “Protect the Boss”
- Saem from Rania has an accident while recording their performance for KBS Music Bank, injuring her hip and ankle.
- 2NE1 releases “I am the Best” and performs it on Inkigayo

- M & D (Jungmo of Trax & Kim Hee Chul of Super Junior) release “Close your mouth”

- 015B releases Silly Boy ft. 4minute and Junhyung of B2ST

- 2PM returns with Hands Up and we saw that it was good

- Girl band Wind Hold Venus (whatever that means) to debut soon. They play musical instruments and are talented at horseback riding.
- T-ara to return with Roly Poly

- Crown J gets slapped with a restraining order after the alleged assault of his former manager
- Shin Sekyung and Jonghyun of Shinee are dunzo, which I’m sure irrationally pleases some fans.
Freetalk is a bit heavy again. This past week the police released a report stating that their conclusion is that Kang Daesung is responsibly for the death of Motorcyclist Hyun. Now of course, he still hasn’t been charged with any crime and it is possible that he will never have to serve jail time. However, this event will undoubtedly have a harsh effect on his mental state, and has already begun to. He’s been suspended from all of Big Bang’s activities until the end of the year, and we’re left to wait and see how Big Bang will be affected as a result.

Opening Song: Block B – Tell Them
Insert Song: Thelma Aoyama feat. 4Minute – Without U
Closing Song: Daesung – Baby Don’t Cry

You can find us on twitter at @ARKpopPodcast, on facebook at ARKpop on Facebook and of course email your thoughts to us at thealwaysrationalkpoppodcast@gmail.com

Comments (3)

By ARKPop, June 5, 2011 11:45 am

This past week in Kpop has been both interesting and controversial and as a result we have a lot to say. I apologize for the dips in quality in this episode, Noelle (our editor) badly needs a more powerful computer.

We kick it off as usual, with news.

- Drama Poseidon is canceled after various interruptions to filming, withdrawing of actors and broadcasting support by SBS.
- SME Opens official facebook page
- Lotte Duty Free CF “So I’m Loving You” is released.

- MBLAQ’s G.O. to release a digital single personally written and composed by him.
- N-Train’s debut gets discussed since we missed out on mentioning it last week.

The following is the MR Removed version of their first performance.

- Secret Releases the MV for Starlight Moonlight

- Kim Hyun Joong releases his MV for Please- 2NE1 performs Lonely for the First and Last Time on SBS Inkigayo and also claims the Mutizen

- Daesung’s Car Accident

Artist Showcase Report:

2NE1 had their first major showcase outside of Korea this past Saturday in Manila and our co-host Noelle was lucky enough to attend.  She didn’t oversleep this time. For those of us who weren’t able to be there and experience it for ourselves she relates what it was like.

Free Talk: This is not What the Internet is For.

Just in the past few days alone, there has been a lot of Internet related Shenanigans related to JYJ member Kim Junsu.

The first is the cyber bullying of his twin brother Kim Junho by those that claim to be a fan of Junsu.  We reported a while back about Junho’s signing with Avex for the beginning of his Japanese career.  Some fans felt personally slighted by his decision to sign with a company that has been seen as harming his brother and accused him of being a traitor and other things on twitter and the end result was that he closed his account.

The second is related to the song we posted on Friday.  This is the part where we discuss everything (that we know of) that’s been going on in fandom surrounding JYJ’s backup dancer Telisha Shaw.

Opening Song: CL & Minzy – Please Don’t Go
Insert Songs:
2NE1 – Can’t Nobody (Eng Ver.)
2NE1 – Lonely
2NE1 – I Don’t Care
JYJ – Empty
JYJ (feat. Kanye West and Malik Yusef) -Ayyy Girl
Telisha Shaw – Our Secret
JYJ – Nine
Closing Song: IU – Hold My Hand

As always we’re on twitter at @ARKpopPodcast you can email us at TheAlwaysRationalKpopPodcast@gmail.com” or find us on facebook here

Comments (12)

By ARKPop, June 3, 2011 11:34 pm

Why are we posting this song? Because we think that it’s interesting and we will be talking about this song in this week’s episode song discussed in Episode 13 here. Your thoughts? Share!

By the way, I tried transcribing the lyrics, but due to my limited time, I kinda did a not so good job at it since I had two lines left out (fill in the blanks, kiddies). I’ll update this post when my lovely co-host has time to help me, LOL!

It was unexpected
But so compelling
Now it’s our secret, baby
And I’m not telling
I’m your lover
We’re so in love
You’re my soul brother
And I can’t get enough

Who would have thought
When we met in L.A.
We’d be together,
All day, everyday
Now here we are
Overseas like super stars
Everybody knows who you are
Everybody knows who you are

No one has a clue
About our secret rendezvous
We’d be laid up in the room
Unbeknownst to the crew
How we took the Aston Martin
To your favorite secret spot
We go backseat watch my gears
Don’t you like your girl on top

I can’t even lie, I’m so excited
When you walk in, I can’t even hide it
And when they find out,
Whatchu think they’re gonna say?
I can hear them now all up in my face
How long this been girl
And why you didn’t you tell us?
Poor groupies, we make ‘em so jealous

Everybody thought I was just another dancer
Wait till you hear how your boy romanced her

It’s our secret
If we leak it
I’m not sure how long
We’ll keep it
Hush hush
Tell nobody
Just us, our two bodies
Down low lover, R. Kelly
Undercover, not really
‘Cause everybody notices
How we disappear every chance we get
We disappear every chance we get

I love secrets
But can we keep this?
It will be hard
Cos everybody’s stays in your business
When we’re alone
To me it feels so different
And if its wrong,
Well I don’t wanna hear it
In other words,
If I’m your girl,
then I’m on top, of the world
We’ll take it slow
And if it works
then we might let them know
then we might let them…

The worst thing that could happen
Is our secret is out
And we no longer talk
And we don’t work out
I know that’s sounding crazy, baby
But I’m just saying
But I’m just saying…
Can you keep a secret?

No one has a clue
About our secret rendezvous
We’d be laid up in the room
Unbeknownst to the crew
How we took the Aston Martin
To your favorite secret spot
We go backseat watch my gears
Don’t you like your girl on top

(Korean words I cannot decipher… I only got “nega micheosso” and “nado saranghae”)

It’s our secret
If we leak it
I’m not sure how long
We’ll keep it
Hush hush
Tell nobody
Just us, our two bodies
Down low lover, R. Kelly
Undercover, not really
‘Cause everybody notices
How we disappear every time we get
We disappear every chance we get

(More Korean… again, I only got “nado saranghae”)

Everybody thought I was just another dancer
Wait till you hear how your boy romanced her

We’re on twitter at @ARKpopPodcast you can email us at TheAlwaysRationalKpopPodcast@gmail.com or find us on Facebook here.

Comments (0)

By DameDrFoxyBrown, May 21, 2011 5:36 pm

Episode 11 remarks the amazing return of my normal voice, and we tackle something a little dearer to our hearts in the Free Talk.

News:

- Despite his previous statements in direct contradiction, 2NE1 will perform their ballad “Lonely” on Inkigayo (because, duh).
- TOP offered a role in upcoming drama “Our Happy Youthful Days”. We reminisce about his last role in a mainstream drama.
- JYJ vs. KBS (hypocrisy abounds)
- Alex to release his 2nd full length album on 05/24 (Noelle looks forward to more music to sleep to, I look forward to some good songs from Alex on his album, more Clazziquai, and more Horan.
- BEAST releases FACT AND FICTION (We’re disappointed, but we accept that this is their sound “maturing”, but we wish they’d waited till their 2nd full length album).
- J.Y. Park to hold his first fan meeting in 10 years
- X-5’s “Fantasy” deemed unsuitable for minors due to lyrics.

- ZE:A’s song “Be My Girl” is also deemed unsuitable for minors.

- Blady (Black + Lady. I don’t know either) releases a single ahead of their debut album

- 21-member A-Peace unveils “Lover Boy” MV

- Seo Taiji and leejiah’s drama goes on
- Miss A plans to release full length album next week
- Gaeko from Dynamic Duo marries his gf of 5 yrs

Our Freetalk is something that’s been weighing on our minds for a good while now.  We decided to break down some of the Benefits and Drawbacks to the passion of the Kpop fandom at large.  We discussed it both from the perceived perspective of the artists themselves (using our empathy and our imaginations), and from our perspectives as somewhat older Kpop fans.

Lastly, we spotlight Dynamic Duo as our artist this week.  Made up of two members, Choiza & Gaeko, they are no strangers to the underground rap scene, having been 2/3 of disbanded rap trio C(ritical)B(rain)Mass, and even though they’ve achieved a certain level of commercial/mainstream success, they’ve done it largely without compromising themselves by appearing on variety and other programs.  Some of my favorite DD songs to follow:

Chulchek/Attendance Check ft. Naul of Brown Eyed Soul

Beyond the Wall ft. Supreme Team

Gone ft. Joohee of 8Eight (A part of the New Ways, Always songs)

Go Back/Confession

Solo

Guilty (Gaeko Sings!)

Fireworks

U-Turn ft. Verbal Jint

잔소리 ft. Simon Dominic (Supreme Team)

One CBMass song, though there’s a version with Epik High, the only one I could find for streaming did not include them:

CB Mass – Around the Neighborhood/동네 한 바퀴

And lastly, a song which helped me discover A TON of other underground rappers. It has 26 different rappers on the track, including Choiza & Gaeko:
Half Penny (remix) ft. Sean2Slow, Topbob, Yankie, Koonta, Tablo & Mithra of Epik High, Garion (MC Meta, Nachal), Double K, Bizzy, Verbal Jint, Gaknaguene (a. k. a. Superman Ivy), LEO KEKOA/L.E.O, Dok2, paloalto, Young GM a.k.a Bizniz, Nukupshan(넋업샨) (now of Soul Dive), MYK, The Quiett, Kebee, Fana, P-type, Deepflow, Addsp2ch, Ignito, Simon Dominic & E-sens (Supreme Team), Maniac (formerly of Uptown, Now of New Dynasty), Joe Brown

Opening Song: B2ST – Freeze

Insert Songs:
Aziatix – Cold
Wonder Girls – Anybody (feat. Dynamic Duo, SAN E, J.Y Park)
Closing Song: Urban Zakapa – Always Be Mine

Comments (0)

By DameDrFoxyBrown, May 6, 2011 11:50 am

We’re trying something different for this episode, mostly because I’m going to be out of town and presumably away from a computer and a microphone this weekend. But on the other hand, hey, early episode.

Noelle and I tried our hand at being radio DJs due to the short notice for my plans this weekend and we’re hitting you with twenty examples of our taste in Kpop. Hope you enjoy.

Next week’s episode will be back to normal, I promise.

Includes:

BEAST – Lights Go On Again

Dynamic Duo – Ring My Bell ft. Naul

MC Mong – Invincible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN_tq4VQGP4

Younha – Audition

w & Whale – R.P.G. Shine

You can send us email replies at thealwaysrationalkpoppodcast@gmail.com or tweet us at ARKpopPodcast

Comments (0)

By ARKPop, April 30, 2011 5:59 pm

Welcome to the episode that falls apart because we suddenly realized that what we had lined up for Free Talk was not good enough, so we had to improvise, badly. The rest of the episode is good probably.

Download Episode 8 (right click and save as)

As always, first off the bat is news.

• Continue reading 'Episode 8 – [Untitled]'»

Comments (2)

By DameDrFoxyBrown, April 17, 2011 12:31 am

The seventh release and sixth official episode of The Always Rational Kpop Episode is here and it’s a bit of a doozy.  We spend a lot of time talking about comeback news and the fact that Block B hasn’t completely disappointed us.  We apologize for any inferiority in the recording as Noelle’s computer was experiencing complications from a heart murmur.  I also will apologize for my accent dipping in and out and changing, I don’t know what happened there.  Our “Free Talk” considers the American advance that everyone seems to be coveting so badly.

Continue reading 'Episode 6 – The American Dream'»