Taking Sides: ChoColat vs. Crayon Pop (Mid Year Singles, 2013)

[koganbot]

As you see, Crayon Pop have my top song. But for the long run I'd lay my bets on ChoColat. Crayon Pop have to rely on being insanely catchy every time out, while ChoColat only need reasonably good tunesmanship and dramatic timing and Melanie's passionate wail — all of which ChoColat can rely on.

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1. Crayon Pop "Bar Bar Bar"
2. Gaeko & Choiza & Simon D & Primary "난리good!!! (AIR)"
3. GLAM "I Like That"
4. Baauer "Harlem Shake"
5. MBLAQ "Smoky Girl."

Watch on YouTube

6. will.i.am ft. Britney Spears "Scream & Shout"
7. Evol "Get Up"
8. Cassie ft. Rick Ross "Numb"
9. Tiny-G "Minimanimo"
10. ChoColat "Black Tinkerbell"
11. Z.Hera "Peacock"
12. Miranda Lambert "Mama's Broken Heart"
13. 2YOON "24/7"
14. G-Dragon ft. Jenova "Crayon (Lam Suet Remix)"
15. Margaret Berger "I Feed You My Love"

Watch on YouTube

16. Sistar19 "Gone Not Around Any Longer"
17. Nyusha "Naedine"
18. Stromae "Papaoutai"
19. Baek Ji Young "떠올라"
20. D-Unit ft. Zico "Talk To My Face"
21. Psy "Gentleman"
23. Baek Ji Young "Acacia"
22. Baek Ji Young "I Hate It"
24. D-Unit ft. Vasco "Stay Alive"
25. Girl's Day "Expectation"

Watch on YouTube

26. After School "First Love"
27. Qri "Do We Do We"
28. Tyga ft. Wiz Khalifa & Mally Mall "Molly"
29. Rocko ft. Rick Ross & Future "U.O.E.N.O"
30. Gaeko "Rhythm Is Life"
31. Yelle "L'Amour Parfait"
32. Vixx "On And On"
33. A$AP Rocky ft. 2 Chainz, Drake, Kendrick Lamar "Fuckin' Problems"
34. Annie "Tube Stops And Lonely Hearts"
35. Bomba Estéreo "Caribbean Power"

Watch on YouTube

36. Pet Shop Boys "Axis"
37. T-ara, The Seeya, 5Dolls & Speed "Painkiller"
38. Tom Keifer "Solid Ground"
39. BoA "Between Heaven And Hell"
40. When Saints Go Machine ft. Killer Mike "Love And Respect"
41. Angel Haze "No Bueno"
42. Selena Gomez "Come & Get It"
43. GLAM "In Front Of The Mirror"
44. Fidlar "Cheep Beer"
45. Boram "Maybe Maybe"

Watch on YouTube

46. Lee Hyori "Miss Korea"
47. Delight "Mega Yak"
48. MYNAME "Just That Little Thing"
49. SHINee "Dream Girl"
50. Lim Kim "All Right"

Continuing the ChoColat/Crayon Pop theme: Both groups release very few tracks over a long period of time, all of high quality. (GLAM, with three singles, are attempting something similar. And Chi Chi do it/did it too (my uncertainty as to tense is due to my not knowing if they're still in business).) And both groups — as well as GLAM, Evol, Tiny G. Z.Hera, and D-Unit (and those are just from my top twenty) — are commercial flops. Or seem to be. They're barely charting. I don't know the business models, and these groups do have pockets of fans so maybe enough income to keep going if the agencies are committed to the music and not the megabucks.

The reason I put ChoColat and Crayon Pop in my title (as opposed to, say, Evol and Tiny G) is that they're the ones that a particular fan pocket — the lj/ilX K-pop klatch that I'm part of — is getting excited about this month. Our excitement won't help either group any, and they and their prime audience will never hear of us. But we're the ones who might be keeping their memory alive ten years from now in strange places — academia, bohemia — might keep 'em a part of history and therefore might give 'em a delayed musical impact. Or not.

Adventures in musical form: Baauer and, to a lesser extent, Psy made tracks that were bracingly nondevelopmental. I haven't followed through on Baauer or the genre "trap," where some people place him. The little I've heard of the latter doesn't have nearly the gripping, maddening tension of "Harlem Shake."

Gaeko under his own name raps his way around giant boulders and deep chasms — as opposed to in Dynamic Duo, where the raps tend to embed in moods and backgrounds.

GLAM: In the verses of "I Like That" the individual singers sound isolated, exposed, alone — and they like that.

Over on K-pop 2013 I had to resort to poetry to justify my tolerance for Lim Kim — though I thought the two T-arans everyone forgets about, Qri and Boram, did a better example of getting high impact out of low-impact vocals, maybe because their voices are genuinely light (not to mention weak).

Speaking of T-ara and impact, "Painkiller" demonstrates my T-ara thesis: that there's simply no explicable reason why T-ara are good so consistently. T-ara have top billing but their only presence is Soyeon in a mid-song verse and Jiyeon murdering herself in the video. Yet this track is better than anything I've heard by the Seeya or Speed or 5dolls that doesn't have T-ara in the credits. And it survives the Speedsters terrible rapping. Magic.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

Chuck's Singles List

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Frank - Here is the Top 60 So Far singles list I put up on facebook a week ago. Looks like we like "Harlem Shake" exactly the same! If I had waited a few more days, Roberto Junior Y Bandeño's "El Coco No" (which I had heard a few times but didn't know what it was) would've easily wound up in the top 10. And as I otherwise noted in a facebook comment, "If I actually spoke Spanish and could identify all the songs I love on La Jefa 107.7, there's a good chance my entire top 10 would be Regional Mexican."

1. 2Yoon – 24/7
2. Diego Herrera – Balada Boa
3. Yelle – L’Amour Parfait
4. Baauer – Harlem Shake
5. Equanya – Want Ad
6. Busy Signal – Bad Up Who
7. Vick Allen – I’m Tired Of Being Grown
8. Gerardo Ortiz – Dámaso
9. Vybz Kartel feat. Gaza Slim – Stop Gwan Like Yuh Tuff
10. Koban – Feed The Dogs
11. A$AP Rocky feat. 2 Chainz, Drake, Kendrick Lamar – Fuckin’ Problems
12. Taylor Swift – 22
13. Stromae - Papaoutai
14. Droop E feat. Nite Jewel & J. Satin – ‘N the Traffic
15. Tiny-G - Minimanimo
16. Focus – Father Bachus
17. Ashley Monroe – Like A Rose
18. Black Star Riders – Bound For Glory
19. Spice – Dun Wife
20. Jeanne Mas – Rebelle
21. Mr. Sam – Down At CeeCee’s
22. The Shrine – Whistlings Of Death
23. Action Bronson – Strictly 4 My Jeeps
24. Spice – Whining Time
25. Icona Pop – I Love It
26. J. Cole feat. TLC – Crooked Smile
27. Kadavar – Come Back Life
28. Bomba Estéro – Caribbean Power
29. Miranda Lambert – Mama’s Broken Heart
30. The Henningsens – American Beautiful
31. Kacey Musgraves – See You Again
32. Black Star Riders – Hey Judas
33. Mavericks – Born to Be Blue
34. Pistol Annies – Hush Hush
35. Kacey Musgraves – Blowin’ Smoke
36. Luther Lackey – When I’m Gone
37. Tom Keifer – Solid Ground
38. Mothership – City Nights
39. Lady Antebellum – Downtown
40. La Maquinaria Norteña – Y Yo Que
41. Will.I.Am feat. Britney Spears – Scream & Shout
42. Mayer Hawthorne feat. Jessie Ware – Her Favorite Song
43. The Band Perry – Done
44. Intocable – Te Amo (Para Siempre)
45. Jason Aldean – 1994
46. Holy Grail – Dark Passenger
47. Lomax – Swing It
48. G-Dragon feat. Jenora – Crayon (Lam Suet RMX)
49. Los Amos – Tengo Que Olvidarte
50. Annie - Tube Stops and Broken Hearts
51. Ghost B.C. – Secular Haze
52. Azaelea Banks – Yung Rapunxel
53. Psy – Gentleman
54. Julión Alvarez Y Su Norteño Banda – Tú No Tienes La Culpa
55. Carrie Underwood – Two Black Cadillacs
56. £1 Fish Man – One Pound Fish
57. Venomous Maximus – Path Of Doom
58. Mystikal – Hit Me
59. La Banda San Jose de Mesillas -- Haciendo el Amor
60. Key of Awesome – Start A Mumford Band!

Chuck's Top Albums So Far

[(Anonymous)]

And here is the Top 40 2013 Albums So Far list I put up on facebook a day later, followed by this disclaimer: "Way less hip-hop (none), K-pop (none), regional Mexican (none), dancehall (none) than my singles list so far. Way more metal. A good part of that is because of what I get paid to listen to these days, and what I get sent in the mail. I don't doubt that all of those genres have albums that would be on this list, if I actually had time to track down and hear them. I just don't know what they are, so feel free to tell me."

1. Ashley Monroe – Like A Rose (Warner Music Nashville)
2. Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer Different Park (Mercury)
3. Black Star Riders – All Hell Breaks Loose (Nuclear Blast)
4. Corsair – Corsair (Shadow Kingdom)
5. Mustasch – Sounds Like Hell, Feels Like Heaven (Metalville)
6. The Relatives – The Electric Word (Yep Roc)
7. Voivod – Target Earth (Century Media)
8. The Mavericks – In Time (Valory Music Co.)
9. Tom Keifer – The Way Life Goes (Merovee)
10. O.B. Buchana – Starting All Over (Ecko)
11. Pistol Annies – Annie Up (RCA)
12. Corsair – Ghosts Of Proxima Centauri (Shadow Kingdom)
13. Wayne Shorter Quartet – Without A Net (Blue Note)
14. Gary Allan – Set Me Free (MCA/Nashville)
15. Blood Ceremony – The Eldrtich Dark (Metal Blade)
16. Mothership – Mothership (Ripple)
17. Ceramic Dog – Your Turn (Northern Spy)
18. The Band Perry - Pioneer (Republic Nashville)
19. Hot Lunch – Hot Lunch (Tee Pee)
20. Teena Marie – Beautiful (Ume)
21. Lady Antebellum – Golden (Capitol Nashville)
22. Kadavar – Abra Kadavar (Nuclear Blast)
23. Manilla Road – Mysterium (Golden Road)
24. Piñata Protest – El Valiente (Saustex Media EP)
25. Five Horse Johnson – The Taking Of Black Heart (Small Stone)
26. (Various) – Twitch and Gloom: Dark Sounds From The Pacific Northwest (FlatField)
27. Shinyribs – Gulf Coast Museum (Nine Mile)
28. Clay Harper – Old Airport Road (Terminus)
29. Cauldron – Tomorrow’s Lost (Century Media/Earache)
30. Revelation – Inner Harbor (Shadow Kingdom)
31. Crime & the City Solution – American Twilight (Mute)
32. Bushman’s Revenge – Electric Komie – Live! (Rune Grammofon)
33. Stick Against Stone Orchestra – Get It All Out (MediaGroove)
34. Kill For Eden - Kill For Eden (Kill For Eden)
35. The Como Mamas – Get An Understanding (Daptone)
36. Holy Grail – Ride The Void (Prosthetic)
37. Gozu – The Fury Of A Patient Man (Small Stone)
38. Dug Pinnick – Naked (MVDaudio)
39. Hexvessel – Iron Marsh (Svart)
40. Ghost – Infestissumam (Seven Four Entertainment/Republic)

Re: Chuck's Top Albums So Far

[koganbot]

These'd be my top K-pop albums if I had to come up with a list, though I've listened to few of them enough to really know if they belong — though the Orange Caramel will make my P&J for sure (is their debut Japanese album, but only has five of thirteen overlaps with last year's Korean Lipstick, and of course those songs are now in Japanese):

1. Orange Caramel Orange Caramel (Avex)
2. D-Unit Affirmative Chapter.1 EP (D-Business Entertainment/Windmill Media)
3. After School First Love EP (Pledis Entertainment)
4. 4minute Name Is 4minute EP (Cube Entertainment)
5. Delight Mega Yak EP (BrosMedia Entertainment)
6. Lee Hyori Monochrome (B2M Entertainment)
7. SHINee Why So Serious? The Misconceptions Of Me (The 3rd Album, Chapter 2) (SM Entertainment)

After School tend to call their EPs "maxi singles" rather than "mini albums," but in fact their maxi singles have more songs (that is, actual distinct songs, as opposed to remixes and instrumentals) than most K-pop mini albums; in this instance, they've got six songs, three of which are ace. So I'm calling it an EP.

I think you'd enjoy the (well-titled) title song to Mega Yak (link is on my singles list); makes me imagine what'd happen if you put five Gillettes together in a room, 'cept since I don't know Korean I don't know whether or not they're all telling me my dick's too short and I'm so ugly that when I was born the doctor slapped my mama.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Have fallen behind on K-pop this year, particularly after a weird right turn into R-pop that I'm still recovering from. Will do albums first. Haven't decided whether I'll count *Nashville* given its 2012 release and my top 3 are not really feeling very "Top 3" to me, likely to change a lot before the end of the year.

1. will.i.am - #willpower
2. Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
3. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park
4. Flume - s/t
5. Cast of Nashville - The Music of Nashville Season One (Vol. 1)
6. Kitty - D.A.I.S.Y. Rage mixtape
7. Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose
8. Pistol Annies - Annie Up
9. Kate Nash - Girl Power
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito
11. DJ Mustard - Ketchup mixtape
12. Yo La Tengo - Fade
13. Chance the Rapper - Acid Rap mixtape
14. Skylar Grey - Don't Look Down
15. Disclosure - Settle
16. !!! - Thr!!!er
17. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience
18. The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law
19. Lee Hyori - Monochrome
20. Bangladesh - Ponzi Scheme mixtape

Not sure whether to count as an album: Brandy Clark - s/t -- this is the 11 tracks that she made available for download earlier this year. Swirling around with Ashley Monroe and Kacey Musgraves (who recommended her to Lex in an interview, who then tipped me off to her).

Singles are in a listenable "year-end mix" order via Spotify playlist:

RuPaul f. Big Freedia - Peanut Butter
Disclosure - When a Fire Starts to Burn [not a single yet but charted in the UK]
Margaret Berger - I Feed You My Love
Tegan and Sara - Closer
Daft Punk f. Pharrell - Get Lucky
Basement Jaxx - Back 2 the Wild
Paramore - Still Into You
Avril Lavigne - Here's to Never Growing Up
Little Mix f. Missy Elliott - How Ya Doin'?
Jonas Brothers - Pom Poms
Demi Lovato - Heart Attack
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege
A*M*E - Play the Game Boy
Betty Who - Somebody Loves You
Agnetha Faltskog - Dance Your Pain Away
Vali - Ben 'n' Jerry
Tweenchronic - Jump Rope
Eve - She Bad Bad
Ciara - Body Party
Duke Dumont f. A*M*E - Need U (100%)
Petula Clark - Cut Copy Me
Spinto Band - Shake It Off
Baauer - Harlem Shake

[koganbot]

As I told Chuck above, Orange Caramel's Orange Caramel will make my P&J albums ballot for sure (is their debut Japanese album, but only has five of thirteen overlaps with Lipstick, and of course those songs are now in Japanese).

[koganbot]

Oh, and as I'm sure I said to you before, I really want you to scroll upthread and click on MBLAQ's "Smoky Girl," which immediately makes me think Love vs. Money.

[koganbot]

Here's Jonathan Bogart's Q1 and Q2:

http://jonathanbogart.tumblr.com/post/46850449422/2013-q1-earnings-report

http://jonathanbogart.tumblr.com/post/54268173765/2013-q2-earnings-report

And I found this from Lex from early March or so:

http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/44710469406/january-february-2013-favourite-music-round-up

[azacab.livejournal.com]

I neglected "Smoky Girl" until now and I am sorry for that. I think you really underrate "All Right" but that's alright(har har har), also "Countryside Diary" and even "Can We Love?" are total jams. Aside from Banisuta, T-ara never misses.

Albums
1. The Knife - Shaking The Habitual
2. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City
3. Rachid Taha - Zoom
4. Rilo Kiley - rkives
5. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer, Different Park
6. Humming Urban Stereo - Sparkle
7. Orange Caramel - Orange Caramel
8. Tegan & Sara - Heartthrob
9. Disclosure - Settle
10. Ashley Monroe - Like A Rose

Singles
1. Daft Punk - "Get Lucky"
2. Vampy Weeks - "Ya Hey"
3. Betty Who - "Somebody Loves You"
4. pomDeter - "Call Me A Hole"
5. Glam - "I Like That"
6. Paramore - "Still Into You"
7. T-ara N4 - "Countryside Diary"
8. 4Minute - "What's Your Name?"
9. Kanye West - "Black Skinhead"
10. Tegan & Sara - "Closer"

[koganbot]

"T-ara never misses."

Well, QBS's "Like A Wind" is a very well-done track but it's the sort of J-pop ski-resort wash that goes in one ear and out the other.

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Meanwhile, Qri's Banisuta B-side not only sticks, it burrows in deeper. May worm its way into my top ten. Very strange arrangement, the vocals in the chorus almost competing with synths and stuff for attention, like through static. Works fine. Singing is kinda generic T-ara but weaker, which also works fine, the harmony on the chorus having a total zing and shiver.

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[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

Yesterday was Way's birthday. It was also, coincidentally, ChoA's birthday. :)

Here's Bar Bar Bar on Sketchbook, with even more fanchants and cheering and applause than usual:

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And here's Soyul teaching Japanese fans the fanchants for Dancing Queen:

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[koganbot]

I'm pleased that, among other things, they're finally doing some of the vocals live. They seem to be fine at it.

In case you didn't see, Crayon Pop got the meh treatment over at the Singles Jukebox. Am still hoping that Sonya will show up in the comments and dissent from the mehness.

When your faves are your faves' faves

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

This might make your head explode, but Tymee digs Crayon Pop (via omona).

[askbask.livejournal.com]

The first week of Bar Bar Bar's release western fans sighed as it landed outside the top 100 on Gaon.

Now it's #18 on instiz real time, #14 on melon and has gone viral in Korea. Dash hinted at it on ilxor but it has risen further.

[koganbot]

Yeah, we were tracking it over on the Crayon Pop thread, too. A rollercoaster: was in and then out of the top 100 and now it's back in again.

"Bar Bar Bar" got 23 readers votes at the Singles Jukebox. I've not been following the Jukebox a lot recently, so I don't know if that's rare, but that number sure seems higher than I'm used to seeing there.