Kauto-Tuned.

I feel like this the the most auto-tuned Kpop group I've heard yet. They also have the deepest rap voice I've heard in Kpop (sorry, TOP, you'll have to try harder).

I don't really like their videos too much (more dancing, B1A4, more dancing! although the dancing they do for like-it-like-it-like-it is pretty fun), but I find their songs really catchy and slightly different from normal Kpop fare.

EDIT: after watching this another two times, I'm kind of in love with the video, too, dancing or not. The tiger jacket is great and the boy trying to hold her hand is gorgeous. Tiger jacket boy is gorgeous too, and kind of looks like a cat. Which makes sense, right! Well done, stylists, well done.

Speaking of auto-tuning - I totally got to see The Gregory Brothers at Bumbershoot. They were basically just singing all their songs, playing with their videos (captioned) behind them. But it was pretty fun. And the girl in that group really does have an awesome voice. And if you don't know who I'm talking about, then.... 1) I bet you do, and you just don't know it. They're the ones who made all the Auto-tune The News videos, as well as the Hide-Yo-Kids, Hide-Yo-Wife Antoine Dodson song, the Double Rainbow song, and my personal favorite, Backin' Up:

New K-Pops

Once upon a time, I was very adamant about trying to limit my Kpop groups. I was only going to add one at a time, if at all. Because I knew how easily I became obsessed and was afraid I would spend literally ALL of my time researching their names and watching their entire back-catalog of videos.

Yeah, well, that rule kind of fell by the wayside pretty hard.

BUT, I haven't gotten crazy-obsessed with any of the newer groups yet. I like them and am watching the videos, but for the most part I don't know their names (yet). To this day there are only a few groups that I can name all the members of (Super Junior, Big Bang, Shinee, 2NE1, Fx).

But, there are some new videos and songs that I'm pretty into. I was always aware of but hadn't really invested much time into: Beast/B2st, TVXQ/JYJ/DBSK (they've got name issues), U-KISS, B1A4 , Boyfriend, ZE:A, CN Blue, FT Island. More time has been invested, but mostly just in a song or two.

And my new favorite favorites (as far as listening to these songs on repeat for the last 3 weeks) come from Teen Top, SS501, and Infinite.

Teen Top! Seriously, it stands for "Teenz on Top" or something equally horrible. Sigh. Korean band names are SO BAAAAD. I'm pretty sure they're all jail bait (one would assume, with a name like that, right?), but they've got this cool fucking clapping song:

AND then there's this masterpiece - SO catchily titled "No More Perfume On You". (Double sigh.)

But it IS hella catchy and fun, and there's an amazing amount of guyliner going on. I'm also in love with the dance. Just never never ever go find the English translation - it will ruin the song for you. That's why I didn't even post the real video here. You can tell just from the real video story line that its a pretty douchey song. So I'm ignoring that, because I can't speak Korean and thusly I can choose to ignore it. Also, I almost always like the dance version music video better.

As to why Wide-Eyes sings pretty much the whole fucking song, I have no idea. But he looks like a barbie doll, and I'm cool with watching him. And I LOVE watching little red-hair's smug little snarky face in the background the whole time.

I've been listening to this A LOT. I'm considering learning the dance and doing it in-place-of or in-addition-to a Zefron drag act at my choir's Talent-No-Talent show this year.

SS501. I have no clue what that stands name for. Probably something about how many members are in their band, their initials, their blood type, what kind of girl they want - who knows. I'm sure it stands for something both meaningful and idiotic. I don't care what they call themselves, because they have one of THE best k-pop songs of the year, hands down, in my opinion.

I realized one of the reasons this song is awesome is that you can tell they're saying "Love" - with a real English "L" sound! (I understand that this is difficult for most Asians, but when it's the main line of your chorus it's especially important to try extra hard. I'm looking at you, ShinEE. Stop "Ling Dinging" around your stages and take some time to learn how to say "Rrrrrr".)

Hold the phone, yall. Wikipedia has informed me, over the course of writing this post, on the intensely special meaning behind SS501's name:

"The name of the band is a combination of letters and numbers that have special meaning. The first “S” stands for “Superstar". The second “S” is an abbreviation for "Singer". The combination of 5, 0, and 1 symbolizes "five members united as one forever".^[1]SS501's official fan club name is Triple S (means SSS : Super Star Supporters)."

I feel my point has been proven.

Infinite. A band name that is almost normal. Well done, boys. I like Infinite because of this song, which is awesome and catchy (Oh!) enough to outweigh my dislike for the way it just kind of... ends. It doesn't fade out, it doesn't do one last chorus - they're just rapping, and then it's over. Whenever it comes on my ipod I'm really happy and then it's just GONE and I'm so confused. I had to listen to it multiple times on multiple formats before I actually believed that was the ending.

Infinite has some other good songs out there, too, but mostly I'm impressed with Sungjong, their little maknae (youngest in the group). He's easy to spot in the video because he's the one with the blue color pop (I fucking LOVE the video production/post-processing they did on that video. I know it's kind of cliche and not new in any way, shape, or form, but I love it anyway). He's the ladydancer of Infinite (I'm convinced that almost every boy band in Korea has at least one ladydancer (e.g. Heechul in Super Junior, Key in Shinee)), and the first time I saw the video below, I had no idea who it was.

I REALLY was hoping it was a girl and I was so prepared to be head-over-heels in love. Like, finally a rival to GD perhaps. And not that he's not awesome, because he so obviously is, but I just can't get that fired up about boys that are never going to be into girls... ... .. #sometimesgayboysmakemesad.

There are some solo acts that I've liked a lot recently, too, for either sound (and NOT dancing), or sound AND AWESOME DANCING. (HyunA and Jang Woo Hyuk, respectively.) But I'll spare you, as I think I'm done expanding on Kpop for the day.

SHUPERMEN

I fucking LOVE the little diddly vocal shit they're doing at the end of this. Seriously. When Yesung comes in at 2:50 my face split into a huge grin, especially as it's not in the live versions they've been doing.

BUM BUH BUM BUM, BUM BUM.

BUM BUH BUM BUM, BUM BUM.

So SuJu is back and tearing it up, with mostly kick-ass performances of SUPERMAN and Mr. Simple, for which I think SUPERMAN kicks everything's ass. It's just so fucking LOW and WAY MORE MASCULINE than pretty much anything I've ever encountered in Kpop (sans TOP's Turn It Up, that's the other one), especially in the genre of stuff produced by/for boy bands.

And then they go into Mr. Simple and that's cool too.

Yeah, Mr. Simple is the cousin of Sorry Sorry and Bonamana. Yeah, it's got weird lyrics that do not match the vibe of the choreography/music. Yeah, SuJu is pushing the easy-to-follow choreography really hard in all their interviews in an attempt to recreate the popularity of Sorry Sorry.

Do I still like the song? Yes.

Do I still love SuJu more than life itself? Hells Yes. (Even with Leeteuk's horrific hairdo. But sometimes its the faux-hawk and it is the hottest thing everrrrrrrr.)

They are kick-ass performers, you've got to give them that. Comparing their musicbank/inkagayo stages to other (admittedly newer) groups is just sad. There's so much more charisma, personality, and professionalism in their performances that there really is no comparison (unless we're talking about BigBang, but they're the other heavy hitters).

STOP TOUCHING YOUR FACE!

SuJu you have my heart, but please. PLEASE. I mean, I'm kind of just 8000 times amused at your "ubersexual" concept (seriously - that's officially their concept: "UBERsexual". I just keep laughing. I think omona_queer blog put it best when they described all their teaser photos as Pimps from the 80s), but the random face touching needs to exist only in this teaser video. Not in the actual video.

SPEAKING of the teaser, though.... and disregarding his face-touching shot, this is maaaaaybe the hottest I've ever seen Leeteuk look. He's all mohawked up at the beginning (he's the 5th one to appear). I'm excited for the hairdo. Also, is this teaser sung by Yesung? I'm assuming it is, although it could be someone else - either way, it's pretty gorgeous. Hurrah for Mr. Simple! I started listening to the new album last night, and after I catch up on my Daily Show episodes, I expect it's all I'll listen to today at work.

Here's some of those teaser photos, just to really give you the idea of how ridiculous their "concept" is (also, unfortunately, features the WORST hairdo i've ever seen Leeteuk have. Uhhhhg it's sooooooo bad).

Yesung. Pimp Yesung. Alright. I can dig it. I mean, it's totally crazy, but other than the fact that his face is all washed out and he looks like a ghost, he looks pretty hot in his pink spotted tank top and leather glove thing. And black neck muffler.

Sungmin. I can SO dig it. But that's pretty much my response to Sungmin at all times. With or without a bedazzled gun hung in his pants.

Siwon bein' his Korean Ken-doll self. And SM Entertainment knows how much the ladies loves them some Siwon-abs, so they just decided to stop teasing them. His facial expression is pretty awesome, though.

Ryeowook. What's best about this picture is the fact that I'm pretty sure this is the most masculine I've ever seen him look. For real. Who knew Ryeowook would look so good in bicycle shorts?

Leeteuk. Oh, Leeteuk, what have they done to you? This picture makes me sad. And I hope those ropes are really trying to be an undercover visual support of gay rights. That's the fantasy I'm living with that makes it so I can look at this picture long enough to comment on it.

And Heechul. Top hat, tie, AND a leather harness? Why not. You're motherfucking Kim Heechul. Milky-white skin will get you everywhere.

Not another one.

I may have to invest some time and learn all the names of ZE:A.... based solely on the adorable factor of this video:

I do feel like the larger the group, the sillier they're allowed to be for some reason? Or maybe ZE:A really takes after SuJu in the cheesy camp factor. Either way, I'm in. I'm so in.