Pat Buchanan is Crying Nut

Pat Buchanan is Crying Nut. As I watched him sit there Sunday (7/1/7) morning putting a lot of pressure on his interviewer, to create a conversational template that would allow him to speak his mind without sounding bad, it sort of crossed my mind that it is difficult to placate Pat Buchanan. I don't know how many hundreds of hours I have put in with the regular Rx for this type of guy, that Rx appearing every weekday night at 11:35 on CBS, watching Dave certainly makes it easy to cope with superbad nerds like the Buke. A regimen like Dave will keep the nation healthy. But there's even more Rx available, material produced by people who grew up watching Dave, took to the programming, and know how to talk. Crying Nut, the band from Korea, is a good example. Too bad I haven't found the translated lyrics yet.

Yet, their YouTube video for their song "Circus Magic" is easy to follow and understand. It has that real verite/fake verite look, it's epic fakeness makes a very true response in the viewer; it's real good film making. If one invests too much in a video, one might walk away from the computer all jazzed up, too jazzed up to sit and think it out with a Miles Davis cd. When a media customer gets excited, it's up to media product like The Late Show to take the load off.

There's actually nothing fake about fake things. Pam cooking spray is real; Glade air freshener is real; Toni Basil is real; these are all real things with very fake qualities. The workday often includes real problems, problems with insurance coverage, construction equipment, lines of software; if one turns on the Late show, and the problems are fake, and the answers are fake, then why does one feel a real sense of relief?

Note: As far as I know, The Late Show is on every night in Seoul.

''''''''''''''''

Well, here are the lyrics for Circus Magic.

Yogijogi moyobosseyo
yogujogu golaboseyo
uridurun sokosu magic yuramdan

anyonhaseyo

...

Urinun crying nut todori sinsa
han manun peldogansan yuranhevoce
maundero chumur chumio toduro voceyo
ochapi uriegen neilun opda

Onuldo asul.asul jejunomjiman
gomgomhi senkahani nega gon i ne
nanjan.i kande.e whejultaginun
arumdata. sulpudoda. nabiroguda!

Urinun crying nut todori sinsa
han manun peldogansan yuranhevoce
maundero chumur chumio toduro voceyo
ochapi uriegen neilun opda

The new transliteration scheme is easy to follow. There are videos at YouTube of a big Christmas TV celebration featuring the band playing Christmas carols. If I ran the circus, Green Day and Dwight Yoakum would be playing on December 24. Lots of songs have what Western listeners might identify as a "Russian" sound; maybe "Central Asian" or actually "Altaic" might be a good word to use. At any rate, here is a big Cring Nut blurb at YesAsia (link):

Choson Punk Revisited Friday, November 17, 2006
Picked By Sanwei (See all picks by this editor)

The original Choson punkers have long lost their indie edge, but their rocking irreverence is as welcome as ever. After a long hiatus (courtesy of the South Korean army), the band regrouped last year and released their fifth album, The Cow of OK Pasture, earlier this year. There must be something about that military service because three and a half years after their slightly disappointing fourth album, Crying Nut is back in top form for The Cow of OK Pasture.

The album is everything you can expect from Crying Nut: loud, infectious rock tunes, rowdy lyrics, and manic energy. Their riotous grassroots folk punk - complete with accordion! - has grown a lot more polished and inventive with this album. The instruments and vocals all have their own places, and there are more snazzy arrangements and less of the chaotic noise of previous albums. If the boys have matured in implementation, they are thankfully still as immature and joyfully raucous as ever in presentation.

It is pretty hard to go wrong with this album. There are fun straightforward pop punk numbers, like "Bump" (Track 3) and "Bedwetter Generation" (Track 13). And if you've ever felt the overwhelming desire to chant "Luxembourg" - and really, who hasn't? - then there is always Luxembourg (Track 2). For slightly less riotous, Crying Nut-style folk, there is the relaxed accordion- and acoustic-guitar-driven "Bird" (Track 10), perhaps most suitable for lazy strumming on a beach, and "Myong-dong Calling" (Track 4), which is a far shot from London Calling, but still a decent mid-tempo reggae rock track with catchy guitar hooks. Where Crying Nut fabulously outdoes itself is when folk, rockabilly, polka, punk, and lunacy collide, as in My World (Track 11) and "Drink" (Track 5). Just for the record, I believe if a drunken circus cow drove his pick-up truck into an Irish pub and started an ad-hoc polka band, the result would sound something like "Drink".

It is easy to discount artists after they have stayed past their prime and, in Crying Nut's case, become suspiciously mainstream-friendly in the process. True, we will never again see the raw, anarchic Crying Nut of 1998, young, brilliant punk pioneers on the verge of breakthrough. But the 2006 Crying Nut has developed their signature musical style to a new level of circus magic. And there is always the accordion.