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91 A t the end of a long alley in Hong- dae, at Double A Studios, it’s time for Birthday Party Like Shit II. It’s Yuppie Killer guitarist Iain Whyte and singer Tim Sean’s birthday, but nobody cares. Ev- eryone would have been there, anyway, to see Yuppie Killer, The Kitsches, Dead Gakkahs, Ani- mal Anthem, FIND THE SPOT, SAGAL, Konorrea, Durchfall and Huqueymsaw play. Double A Studios has become a regular venue for hardcore punk shows in Hongdae. What is normally a small, soundproof practice space also serves as a venue where the bands play, accompanied by a large parking lot where the punks smoke, talk and drink plastic cups of riot punch. Tonight is a special night: Along with the usual soju, cider, Hot Six and wine, there is Everclear in the riot punc h. Its effects are ugly, but then so are the bands. In Korea, being punk is not normal. Besides be- ing a form of fast and aggressive music, punk rep- resents a defiant attitude that contradicts traditional Korean values of deference, obedience and career ambition. The movement was a shock to the West when it first came out in the 1970s; in Korea, its pulse is so weak that punk’s existence has been threatened ever since it began. Kang Yong-jun, 29, is the singer for Banran, a hardcore band not playing tonight. He learned about rock ‘n’ roll when he was young, and from there he kept “digging, digging, digging” until he discovered hardcore — and never looked back. Kang complains about Koreans being “two- faced” and argues that their nationalism sometimes borders on “Nazi” territory. For him, hardcore is about giving two middle fingers to mainstream Ko- rean society. “I sing about anti-Korea things, which means people are really nationalistic here and most want convenience for everything,” Kang says. “For ev- eryone, getting a job in Samsung is their goal. Ev- erybody. Not just a few people, but every fucking person. … I’m so pissed off. I can barely meet peo- ple I can talk with.” With punk, Kang has a voice. ...whatever that means christfuck banran ‘If Korean kids ever realize how bad they have it, how pissed off they should be, this scene would explode. If there’s a country that needs punk rock, it’s Korea.’ Jeff Moses, ...Whatever That Means