Replay: Huckleberry Finn - 18일의 수요일

Revisiting music

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Over the last decade, Huckleberry Finn has proved to be a reliably awesome Korean indie rock band, featuring some intense, grungy alt rock, with kickass vocals from Lee Soyoung. However, the lineup for Huckleberry Finn was a little different on their debut album, 18일의 수요일 (Wednesday the 18th), Lee Kiyong being the continuing member, but also featuring Kim Sangwoo on drums and Nam Sangah taking lead vocals, both of whom would go on to form 3rd Line Butterfly.

This degree of talent was big enough to fill *two* bands later and it's apparent from listening to Huckleberry Finn's debut album that this combination was still quite potent, although it was also clear that there were two different strains of music present on this album, foreshadowing Nam Sangah's later departure.

The tracks by Lee Kiyong are classic Huckleberry Finn tracks, favoring distorted helicopter guitars and aggressive, deep vocals on the faster tracks, like on the explosive rockers "죽이다" and "풀", sounding like a musical relative of the late Nirvana. On the less intense tracks, like the band name track, the band becomes wonderfully mellow, although retaining edge thanks to the rock arrangements and expressive vocals.

In contrast, the tracks written by Nam Sangah are wilder, featuring her angular and unpredictable melodies and well the bouncy rhythms and touches of psychedlia that marked 3rd Line Butterfly's oeuvre. And yet the compatibility between the two songwriters is apparent on the Nam Sangah-written buzzy hardcore rocker "불을 지르는 아이". Nam Sangah is a fantastic vocalist for both types of music on the album, pressing the more disciplined for of Lee into her throaty, raw style and going wild for her own, with proto-Swallow Lee singing lead on the band name track.

All this is quite compelling and easily a starting place to end up following both Huckleberry Finn in its subsequent incarnation as well as 3rd Line Butterfly as both songwriters prove themselves. Quite simply, Huckleberry Finn rocks and they rock hard. And when they're not rocking hard, the potency of their expression via Nam Sangah's powerful voice and frequently interesting melodic choices is still captivating. This band, which debuted in the late 1990's is an essential of Korean indie rock, both in terms of the history of two prominent bands as well as simply continuing to be simply fantastic rock music. 9/10.

Tracklist:

1. 보도블럭
   
2. 첫번째 곡
3. 당당
4. 불을 지르는 아이
5. Huckleberry Finn
6. 풀
7. 갈가마귀
8. 사마귀
9. Teacher Says?
10. Work
11. 죽이다
    

Links:

• Available at iTunes