Taiwan's No Party for Cao Dong brings party to Seoul's streets
Taiwan's No Party for Cao Dong is coming to Seoul this Friday / Courtesy of No Party for Cao Dong
By Jon Dunbar
It's a busy week for music lovers in Seoul, as Seoul Music Festival offers a full schedule of events.
is happening this Friday in multiple venues around the Hongik University area in western Seoul. It's not too different from a normal Live Club Day event, with 21 bands performing at eight venues, but this event is a little more global than usual, with visiting bands representing Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, China and Indonesia.
One of them is Taiwan's
(NPCD). The band is back in Korea following an appearance last year at the first
DMZ Peace Train Music Festival
in Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province.
“We had a very good impression on Korea and really enjoyed the beautiful mountains and river that were around,” the band members said in an email interview with The Korea Times conducted while on tour. “The music we heard was also incredible. When we found out that we had a chance to return for another festival, we were very excited!”
NPCD's music defies pigeonholing, as the band has been described as “indie rock,” “fusing post-rock with indie and metal,” “sardonic disco grunge,” “with hints of funk and dream pop,” among others.
“We've never strictly limited our sound within the lines of any particular musical genre,” the band said. “Instead of using a musical genre as a descriptor, we'd prefer to describe our music as a record of our own state of mind in each phase of life. As time goes on, the sound of our music changes as we grow.”
The band has gained attention as one of the Taiwan scene's breakout acts, and the band has been praised for its sophisticated music and expressive songwriting. They aren't afraid to tell it like it is, with lyrics grounded in real-life experiences.
“Making music is to document life and our most authentic self in the moment,” they said. “Music writing has become a habit for us, since we've been doing it for so long. … [It's] like a necessity in life. Music creation is the only goal that we've been so sure of until now. We're not sure what else we'd be doing if we weren't making music.”
Taiwan's No Party for Cao Dong performs at NXNE in Toronto, Canada, in June 2019. / Courtesy of No Party for Cao Dong
The band takes its name from Cao Dong Street. It is a place located on the side of a mountain in Taipei, their hangout place of their teen years.
“There were no houses, no attractions and no one living on the mountain, just the street, a few packs of dogs, a withered tree and seas of silvergrass,” they said. “Once upon a time, there were a bunch of teenagers who liked to fool around Cao Dong Street all the time: beers, skateboards, scooters, rock 'n' roll, cigarettes, piss, first kisses, friendship, aspirations, lost, shenanigans, sorrow and a whole bunch more of stories that they carried with them. Finally, some of them stopped returning, some stopped meeting up, some decided to pack up all the memories from the Street and continue moving on and some may have stopped caring. And just like that, the teenagers and the street have gradually dissolved into time and into life.”
NPCD will be playing this Friday at 8 p.m. at
, located south of Gwangheungchang Station on Seoul Metro Line 6. Other participating bands include Indonesian death metal band Deadsquad, Thai singer Phum Viphurit, and some great local bands such as Goonam, “kimchibilly” band Streetguns and punk band Crying Nut.
Tickets for entry to all performances cost 35,000 won, or 30,000 won in advance.