The Korea Times

RAS Korea makes connection with RAS Georgia

The Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) has a lengthy history, with the Great Britain and Ireland organization established in August 1824 to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." Many regional branches around Asia have nearly as long a history, including RAS Korea, which dates back to 1900. But new RAS branches are still forming, with the branch for the country of Georgia, located at the crossroads or Asia and Europe, founded just in 2023. Earlier this month, RAS Georgia Vice President Tamar Latsabidze visited Korea, during which she met with RAS Korea President Denny Park and former RAS Korea leader Rev. Steven L. Shields. The two sides sought to build ties among regional RAS branches. "Ms. Latsabidze envisions a vibrant network of RAS branches collaborating on educational and cultural exchanges, historical research and other scholarly initiatives," Shields told The Korea Times. "RAS Korea wholeheartedly shares this vision and is excited to build a relationship with RAS Georgia — and, in time

Jul 29, 2025By Jon Dunbar

RAS Korea makes connection with RAS Georgia

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Seoul punk band Fail Fast releases new EP

They promised failure, but the Seoul-based punk band Fail Fast is still going, one year later. Things have been moving fast for the band, which announced last month it was joining local punk label World Domination, Inc. (WDI). Now it's set to release its second mini-album, featuring seven tracks. When the band got its start last year, they wrote 10 initial songs, three of which went on their first recording, "The Prepared Not Scared EP." That album was recorded at Binary Studios by Jeff Moses, one of the two heads of WDI. For their next album, despite joining Moses' label, they went with a different producer. "Jeff is a great engineer and polished up the songs really well, and feedback was positive," Fail Fast front man Kevin Loesken told The Korea Times. "At one point, we decided that it'd be interesting to just record the rest of the songs we had written as well, but to record them intentionally grittier and rougher, to kind of show both sides of what the songs can sound like." So they went to Slant drummer Garrett, who has recorded a number of bands on the stage at his venue, Baby Doll

Jul 25, 2025By Jon Dunbar

Seoul punk band Fail Fast releases new EP

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US hardcore band Bootcamp ready for Korea tour

U.S. hardcore punk band Bootcamp is currently on an East Asian tour that is taking them through Japan, with two shows in Korea coming up this weekend. With three of four members identifying as fem, the band members expressed simultaneous wishes to set an example as fem punks and to move forward on gender issues. "In 2025 the tokenism of fem people in hardcore does absolutely nothing for the scene as a whole," Molly, Juliette and Dolly, three of the band's four members, said in a statement written for The Korea Times. "We want people to fuck with our music because they dig it and care about what we’re saying." At the same time, they acknowledged that society has not moved beyond gender-based discrimination, even in underground music. "A dynamic still exists where we are not perceived as tough or edgy enough, even though a band of all dudes easily gets perceived in that way," they said. "We also, on an unfortunately often basis, all have experienced people making us uncomfortable, even though men being weird to fem performers is perceived as having gone away." Bootcamp formed in the sprin

Jul 14, 2025By Jon Dunbar

US hardcore band Bootcamp ready for Korea tour

Global Community

Gallus Alice lets 'invasive Scottish words' loose in Seoul's punk scene

There is a new name circulating in Seoul's punk scene, based on an "invasive" idiom from Scotland: Gallus Alice is working to make their mark. According to bassist/front man Pete Wilson, "gallus" is a Scottish word for being "ballsy, brash or brazen." "Often, it’s given a wee bit of rhyming flash — 'Look at Gallus Alice over here!' — even having a second evolution to 'Gallus Alice fae the palace,'” he said. "I wanted to use a Scots dialect word as I don’t see a lot of Scottish culture in Korea. I like the idea of letting a few invasive Scottish words loose." The Alice part led the band down another rabbit hole, literally, as they took inspiration from Alice in Wonderland — "another expat struggling to understand what was going on around her." They commissioned a rabbit logo from Phoebe Munday, a tattoo artist in the U.K. Gallus Alice started off playing covers of punk, grunge and early 2000s alternative songs, having told Debaser Magazine that they like to pick the third- or fourth-most-recognizable song from a band, rather than its best-known — for instance, Nirvana's "Bre

Jul 8, 2025By Jon Dunbar

Gallus Alice lets 'invasive Scottish words' loose in Seoul's punk scene

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FINDING THE SCENE 7 7 more great live music venues in Seoul

When I listed the top 10 live music venues in Seoul last year, I warned that the fast turnover rate would likely make the list outdated very quickly. Amazingly, only one of those venues has since closed down. Over the past year, we've seen more venues open, and a few others rise in importance enough that they deserve mention. Here's a new list of more venues you should know about if you're looking for live shows. 7. Subriot The Studio HBC closed at the end of last year, and the space was bought by the owner of nearby indie bar Pet Sounds and jazz venue Boogie Woogie. It was supposed to open in mid-February, but delays pushed the opening show to March 22. Follow @subriot_hbc on Instagram for more information. 6. Binary Studios This venue is primarily a recording studio and practice space, but occasionally also hosts shows, with the audience usually capped at 50. It's a pretty small space, so even half of that makes the place seem full. It's run by Jeff Moses, frontman of melodic punk band ...Whatever That Means and co-owner with his wife Trash of punk label World Domination, Inc. Bands pe

Jul 7, 2025By Jon Dunbar

[FINDING THE SCENE 7] 7 more great live music venues in Seoul

Global Community

Inter-Korean propaganda leaflets examined in RAS lecture

Using propaganda leaflets in psychological warfare may sound like a thing of the past, but on the Korean Peninsula it's very much still a reality. Jacco Zwetsloot, a self-described "student of Korean propaganda techniques for over two decades," will give a lecture for Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea this Tuesday near central Seoul's Samgakji Station. "For more than 70 years, printed leaflets have been one of the most persistent — and often perilous — tools in the contest for hearts and minds between North and South Korea," he wrote in an online invitation to the lecture. "From Cold War-era air drops by airplane to modern balloon launches by South Korean civic groups, these slips of paper have carried urgent messages over barbed wire and beyond ideology. At times fiercely political and at others surprisingly playful — or even seductive — their goal has always been the same: to influence, to destabilize, to encourage defections and to provoke doubt." He will provide a discussion on the historical evolution of propaganda leaflets from both Koreas, the technologies and tactics use

Jul 6, 2025By Jon Dunbar

Inter-Korean propaganda leaflets examined in RAS lecture

Global Community

Is Paris Baguette really any better outside Korea?

EDMONTON, Canada — Despite its worldwide proliferation, the Korea-headquartered Paris Baguette (PB) bakery chain still gets a lot of flak in Korea, especially among foreign residents. Overly sweetened, inauthentic, low quality, these are the most frequent complaints lobbed at the 1988-founded company. Who puts sugar on garlic bread? Shouldn't pretzels be covered in salt, not sugar? Does PB even have baguettes? My first visit to a PB was probably in the late 2000s. I gravitated, as a stereotypical white person, toward a pastry with a hot dog sticking out of it and condiments that resembled ketchup and mustard on top, seemingly baked into it. After that experience, I only ever went a few more times, then stopped going to PB for a very long time. Many, like me, scoffed when PB began its overseas expansion, arriving first in Shanghai in 2004, then Los Angeles in 2005 and, after many other markets along the way, Paris itself in 2014. An audacious move that many consumers expected would not end well. But it must be doing something right, after celebrating the opening of its 600th overseas s

Jun 30, 2025By Jon Dunbar

Is Paris Baguette really any better outside Korea?

Global Community

With beach plans thwarted again, punk fest returns indoors as NOT A FEST!

The return of punk festival IT'S A FEST! (IAF) to the beach has been thwarted for the second year in a row. Instead of taking place at Hanagae Beach on Incheon's Muui Island, this year's festival is being moved indoors in Seoul. "Unfortunately, the problems between Hanagae and their local government are still ongoing," Jeff Moses, co-organizer of festival operator World Domination, Inc. (WDI), told The Korea Times. "These problems have nothing to do with us, but because of them, Hanagae hasn’t been able to host IAF! for the last two years." For this year, the organizers decided to name the event NOT A FEST! and hold it at Binary Studios, a basement recording studio in western Seoul's Mangwon-dong run by Moses. "We didn’t want to do nothing, but we also didn’t have the heart to put all the work into what would essentially be a big club show. So we decided to just book some great bands and have a small, less stressful weekend at Binary Studios," Moses said. Last year, the cancellation of IAF! came as more of a shock, and the organizers moved the entire festival lineup indoors at the

Jun 22, 2025By Jon Dunbar

With beach plans thwarted again, punk fest returns indoors as NOT A FEST!

Global Community

Hanokers promotes creative advocacy for refugees in Korea

South Korea accepts relatively few refugees and maintains one of the most selective asylum systems in the world. According to Ministry of Justice data released earlier this year, the acceptance rate for asylum seekers stands at just 2.7 percent. While a lucky few get their refugee status approved, they still face severe disadvantages, despite being entitled to the same extent of social security as a Korean citizen. Meanwhile, the general public's understanding of refugees' situation is poor, often even prejudiced. Various services, programs and resources exist here to try to fulfill the needs of those seeking asylum in Korea, which include offering a social community, mental health support and opportunities to make meaningful contributions to their new host country. One such organization working to fulfill these needs is Hanokers, a refugee-led initiative to provide a safe and welcoming space among people affected by conflict and displacement. Hanokers was founded by refugees from Ethiopia, Cambodia, Palestine, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as refugee rights act

Jun 19, 2025By Jon Dunbar

Hanokers promotes creative advocacy for refugees in Korea

Global Community

Taiwan punk band set to tear up Seoul, Daejeon

Taiwanese punk band Youth Tear Bomb is coming to Korea for two shows in Seoul and Daejeon this weekend. "Toward the end of last year, we started writing new material, and I suggested to the band that we tour Korea — not just to perform at local live houses, but also to spend time together like a band trip, since we rarely get that outside of rehearsals and shows," said Leo Chen, the band's vocalist and guitarist. The tour is the result of the band's friendship with Smoking Goose, a Daejeon-based melodic punk band that has toured Taiwan several times. "We’ve known Smoking Goose for around eight years and have often helped them arrange shows in Taiwan," Leo said. "Thanks to their support, we got the opportunity to do our first-ever international tour." Though he hasn't toured overseas, Leo said he's been to Korea three times so far. "I’ve seen quite a few live house shows there," he said. "The independent music culture in Korea is really fascinating and left a strong impression on me. And of course — the food! It’s one of the things our band is most excited about. Honestly, the Ko

Jun 16, 2025By Jon Dunbar

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Read more

RAS Korea makes connection with RAS Georgia

Seoul punk band Fail Fast releases new EP

US hardcore band Bootcamp ready for Korea tour

Gallus Alice lets 'invasive Scottish words' loose in Seoul's punk scene

FINDING THE SCENE 7 7 more great live music venues in Seoul

Inter-Korean propaganda leaflets examined in RAS lecture

Is Paris Baguette really any better outside Korea?

With beach plans thwarted again, punk fest returns indoors as NOT A FEST!

Hanokers promotes creative advocacy for refugees in Korea

Taiwan punk band set to tear up Seoul, Daejeon

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