Seoul City Stomp throws all-vinyl soul music party

Thee Baron, right, spins vinyl while wearing a Shanghai Soul Club shirt. Courtesy of Thee Baron

Seoul City Stomp (SCS), an all-vinyl DJ collective specializing in soul and reggae, is throwing a party this Saturday, partly to celebrate Christmas, and also partly to welcome back one of its founding members, an American musician and DJ who wished to be identified only as Thee Baron.

Baron co-founded SCS in 2014 with Nah Beomju, also known by aliases such as Jude Nah and Bombed You, a ska musician who's been in various bands including reggae band the Pegurians, two-tone ska band the Rulerz and ska-punk band Skasucks.

Baron describes himself as a "multi-format/multi-genre DJ," who started DJing post-punk, 1960s soul, garage rock and glam in San Francisco in 2011. He came to Korea in 2013 and started DJing for Seoul Shindig — "and work as a dancing monkey teaching English," he added.

"I'll play whatever whenever — from obscure vinyl-only oldies at record bars to guilty pleasures at Club FF," he said.

Baron left in 2017, and Nah went to the U.S. in 2018.

SCS has been kept alive by British DJ Pablo Winchester who specializes in northern soul, and DJ Shinji from Japan who plays mostly reggae, both of whom were brought into the fold early in SCS' history. "Pablo and Shinji kept the soul fire alive," Baron said.

Baron ended up in Shanghai, which he describes as a very different experience from Korea.

"Shanghai is a must-visit city for partying. Wild crowds, bigger rooms and later nights," he said. "Shanghai was pretty wild when I moved there in 2017. Lots of excess. In 2018 there were a lot of crackdowns on drug users and sellers, and quite a few iconic clubs shut down. A lot of businesses didn't survive the big lockdown, but things are starting to come back."

In Shanghai, Baron kept spinning vinyl, founding Shanghai Soul Club (SSC) with DJ Sacco Vanzetti, who now runs Uptown Records Tokyo.

"I feel like the Johnny Appleseed of northern soul in East Asia ..." Baron laughed. "The party became a massive success, and I got to DJ with touring British northern soul DJs in Shanghai like Andy Smith, Ozsoul and Glen Walton."

He's not just DJing there, having also joined the local expat punk band Round Eye.

"I'm DJing less and playing live music more," he said. "China's punk scene has been exploding with the younger generation since the lockdowns ended."

The band is set to tour the Philippines and Hong Kong next month, with plans to record and tour the U.S. later in the year.

Thee Baron plays bass guitar for the punk band Round Eye in Shanghai. Courtesy of Thee Baron

He's back in Seoul this month to visit his Korean family, and as has happened several times over the past few years, he is teaming up again with SCS for another adventure through some of the best vinyl collections located in the country.

"I love visiting Seoul to see friends and family, but it's a bit harder to build up a crowd because there aren't so many expats or local people willing to dig a little deeper for oldies," he said. "The big advantage Seoul has, though, is that I haven't experienced any police raids in Korea. You're more or less left alone, which can be good or bad depending on who is leaving you alone."

Visit fb.com/seoulcitystomp or follow @seoulcitystomp on Instagram for more information about SCS and the show this weekend.