Well Worth The Wait
Posted by: Shawn ˑ May 19, 2010 – 12:57 pmBy Shawn Despres
Formed in 2000, the awesome instrumental math-rock band Toe will play their first concert in Seoul at Live Club Ssam (Ssamzie Space) in Hongdae on Saturday night. Unfortunately, if you don’t already have tickets you’re not going to be able to see them because the gig is completely sold out.
While it’s taken the Tokyo quartet a decade to get to South Korea to perform, fans will only have a short wait for their next visit. Although it has not been officially announced by promoter Nine Factory yet, according to guitarist Hirokazu Yamazaki Toe will return in late July for an appearance at the second Jisan Valley Rock Festival.
The band are currently touring in support of their sophomore full-length, “For Long Tomorrow.” Issued in Japan through their own Machupicchu Industrias in December, the album was released in South Korea in February by BGBG Records. The music company is responsible for organizing Toe’s Live Club Ssam appearance as well.
“I don’t know why it has taken us so long to come to Seoul,” says Yamazaki with a laugh. “We always think that we want to go and play overseas more. This time BGBG Records invited us to come. They release a South Korean edition of our new CD. It is a big honour for us that they chose work with us and our helping us to play in Seoul.”
BGBG label mates Achime will open for Toe on Saturday. The local indie rock quartet definitely earned the spot as one of their members is directly responsible for Toe signing with BGBG.
“Sunwook Kwon from Achime contacted us,” shares Yamazaki. “He works at BGBG. I liked his band and he sent me some other CDs that BGBG had put out. We talked for a long time with him about releasing ‘For Long Tomorrow’ and then decided that BGBG would be a good fit for us in South Korea.”
Filled with wonderfully complex arrangements, “For Long Tomorrow” is a fantastic listen and further solidifies Toe’s reputation as one of the finest math-rock bands in Asia. It can be purchased in Seoul at Sinchon’s Hyang Music and at Purple Record in Hongdae.
Toe will have a new live DVD out in July and a remix album out before the end of the year. There’s no word yet on whether either will be available in South Korea. The group are considering recording an EP in the late fall and want to do an Asian tour in October that will hopefully include another stop here.
“We are very surprised that our first concert in Seoul is already sold out,” Yamazaki says. “We were so glad to hear this. We want to come back for more shows soon if there are people who want to see us again.”
Here’s a live clip of Toe’s “I Dance Alone” from 2006′s “RGBDVD”
If you are interested in reading more about Toe, please check out my January Japan Times feature on the group here.
