Punk label launches latest 'World Domination' plans at Club SHARP

The cover of "World Domination Vol. 4" / Courtesy of WDI Korea

By Jon Dunbar

Club SHARP, one of Seoul's main punk venues in recent years, is opening its doors once again this Saturday for a show by World Domination, Inc. (WDI), Korea's hardest-working punk label.

"Club SHARP is part of a trio of what most people consider the most important clubs in the local scene: SHARP, Hippytokki and GBN," said Jeff Moses, co-founder of WDI and also lead singer of the punk band …Whatever That Means (WTM). "We're just happy to be able to play at one of our favorite venues and help them make a little money to keep the lights on. Hopefully, things will continue to open more and more, and they can get back to having shows more regularly."

WTM will be headlining the show, which is the release party for "World Domination Vol. 4," the latest in a unique compilation series put out by the label. Each "World Domination" album, which is released on 7" vinyl and digital formats, features four bands from four countries playing one song each. The songs are recorded and mixed by each band locally, and then compiled together at Binary Studios, Moses' recording studio in Seoul. Then each band gets a box of 7" records to distribute in their local scene, thus raising the profile of each participating band in all four localities.

"The goal for these is to connect great bands from all over the world," Moses explained.

This time, Moses decided to put his own band on the compilation, after the three previous compilations each featured different bands based in Korea. WTM's contribution will be a song titled "Manic Episode."

...Whatever That Means performs in Suwon in June. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

"In the last year, we've had some friends go through really tough times," Moses said. "So this song is just a message of friendship and loyalty. Sometimes your life can completely blow up, and you may not handle it in a very good way initially, but that's when people who really care about you will work the hardest to stick by your side and give you whatever support you need. That's what this song is about."

Also on the four-song compilation is Iman's League, a Singaporean skatepunk band with close ties to the Korean scene.

Singaporean skatepunk band Iman's League play their first show in Korea at Channel1969 on Dec. 6, 2015. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

"Once WTM decided to be on this volume of World Domination, Iman's League was the first band we called," Moses said. "Iman's League has done a really great job of visiting Korea and Japan often enough that they almost become part of the local scenes. Trash and I have become such good friends with them over the years, and they decided to officially join WDI a few years ago, so we talk to them a lot. They're always talking about their next trip to Korea, and with things starting to open up post-pandemic, we're really hoping to get them up here soon."

Also on the comp is the Thailand-based melodic hardcore band Stay Awake, which Moses discovered through a music video posted on the pan-Asian punk portal Unite Asia, and Bare Teeth from France, which Moses describes as having "the kind of aggressive metal-influenced skatepunk style you hear from bands like Propagandhi and Belvedere."

Thailand-based melodic hardcore band Stay Awake / Courtesy of Stay Awake

"They actually contacted WDI a few years ago to see if we'd want to be the local distributer here in Korea for their last record," Moses said. "We get a lot of emails like that, but we rarely do it because people in the scene here aren't particularly adventurous when it comes to buying records of bands they've never seen live. But unlike a lot of other emails we receive, I was really impressed by Bare Teeth's music."

French punk band Bare Teeth / Courtesy of Bare Teeth

Moses is happy with this compilation stuffed with melodic punk rock from around the world, and seems to already be thinking about vol. 5, but first they have to sell a lot of 7" records.

"We're really happy that we're actually able to have a live show to release this album, even though it has to be a seated show," he said, referring to social distancing restrictions which mean only 30 tickets can be sold for each show and audiences are be required to watch the bands while seated.

While that doesn't sound ideal, he recalls what happened with WTM's previous release, the brilliant 10-song album "Revolving Doors." "We had to wait a full year to have a release show for our last full-length record because of the pandemic, and now I have hundreds of LPs sitting in storage that I don't know if we'll ever be able to get rid of. It was a real bummer because we all feel that it's our best album to date, and it just never really got a chance."

The release show this weekend will also feature the return of Bialy, WTM's guitarist from Poland who had been forced to suspend his activities with the band before they all got vaccinated.

The show will also feature fellow WDI band Smoking Goose, which just released its own second full-length album "About Extinction," Nov. 23, as well as hardcore band Turn For Our and "youth punk" band Sweet Gasoline.

Regarding the future for Korea's punk scene as the pandemic either eases off or prolongs, Moses said he's "given up on predicting how things are gonna go."

"Right now we're just waiting to see how the whole Living with COVID-19 policy is carried out. I'm hoping the government doesn't start closing things down again. If we're allowed to have shows, WDI will be planning a lot of shows this year."

He also teased on upcoming releases from WinningShot, TalkBats!, WTM, Iman's League and WDI's only Japanese band Green Eyed Monster.

Moses also mentioned WDI's punk festival "IT'S A FEST" held on Incheon's Muui Island, that started in 2019.

"As far as IT'S A FEST! goes, everyone knows we had it ready to go in 2020 but had to cancel because of the pandemic," he explained. "What most people don't know is that the entire festival was booked and planned for this past fall as well. We decided we weren't going to announce and cancel it again, so we were just in a holding pattern waiting to see what would happen. We were pretty hopeful at the beginning of summer but after the spike in cases during those later summer months, we were forced to cancel again. Our goal is to be back at Hanagae Beach on Muui Island in 2022."

WDI's next big release, expected to come out in late January, will be "Them & Us 3: Korea's Punks at Binary Studios," the latest in another compilation series featuring 22 songs by 11 local bands, with each band contributing an original song as well as a well-known cover from an overseas band.

Visit fb.com/wdikorea or wdikorea.com for more information or tiny.cc/wtmrelease2021 to reserve a ticket to the opening show.