Korea Gig Guide

Bulssazo’s Brief Return

By Shawn Despres

As Mark previously mentioned, Bulssazo will be opening for Nosaj Thing and Sighborg at DGBD on Saturday night (June 27).

This will be the Seoul trio’s first live appearance since November 22, 2008. Drummer Young Il Ko is currently completing his mandatory military service and guitarist Sang Chul Han and bassist Myung Hoon Seo have been busy with other things, resulting in several months of non-activity for the band. According to Han, ending their hiatus was not an easy choice, but ultimately playing with Nosaj Thing was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

“We are big fans of Nosaj Thing’s remix tracks and his singles so we wanted to support his Korean tour,” Han says in a short email interview with KGG.

Bulssazo have released two discs of awesome shoegazey post-rock goodness, 2005’s “Furious Five” and 2006’s “I Also Will Laugh at Your Disaster…” on Pastel Music. After a lineup change that saw Ko joining high school chums Han and Seo they opted to no longer perform tracks from those efforts. They penned new, instrumental songs, several of which were performed last year at the now defunct Skunk Hell, Bowie, and during their opening slot for Envy at Rolling Hall, and hope to record them, but Han admits that’s unfortunately unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Han is uncertain of what cuts Bulssazo will turn out on Saturday night saying they’ll adjust their set to suit the mood of the crowd. There’s a pretty high chance this will be their only concert this year. If things change and they do another show expect it to be intimate.

“Maybe we won’t play any more gigs, but if we plan something only our band will play,” Han states. “There won’t be any other bands on the bill. I know we have low sales and no ticket power, but I don’t care. Maybe we play to only five or six audience members, but it will be great. If less than 10 people come, I’ll pay for their dinner after the show and we can all talk together.”

I wouldn’t bank on a band this stellar drawing less than 10 folks, but if they did those lucky few patrons would definitely be in for a way-too-cool night.

Bulssazo interview with K.O.A Zine here.
My Bulssazo live review from May 2008 for Smashing Mag here.
Video clips of their July 2008 gig at Rolling Hall here.

Doors open at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night and Bulssazo are on first, so make sure you’re there EARLY. Tickets are 15,000 won (presale – ends tonight at midnight for Saturday/ Sunday shows) and 18,000 won at the door.

Los Angeles-based Korean-American electronic artist Nosaj Thing, whose new debut disc “Drift” has been attracting its fair share of positive press, and Sighborg also play on Sunday in Seoul at Daily Projects with Trampauline. There will be a pre-concert “meet n’ greet” BBQ at Daily Projects starting around 4 p.m. On July 3 Nosaj Thing and Sighborg will be at Urban in Daegu and they will close out their tour on July 4 in Busan at Vinyl Underground. For full details on all gigs, visit Super Color Super’s site.