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| Green Eyed Monster / Courtesy of Green Eyed Monster |
By Jon Dunbar
Japanese skate punk band Green Eyed Monster is coming to Seoul this weekend for two shows. First the group will play at Club FF on Friday, and then on Saturday at Club Hippytokki.
The band connected recently with the Korean punk scene when Korean band …Whatever That Means toured Japan in September. Members of the Korean band found Green Eyed Monster on YouTube and made contact there. After the Korean band toured there, it was decided to bring the Japanese band here.
Tamako, the band's frontwoman, told The Korea Times the band name was actually a Shakespeare reference. The term appeared in Shakespeare's 1596 play "The Merchant of Venice" to denote jealousy as "the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on."
"I named it with a wish to be a cool band that would not be deceived by people," Tamako explained.
Green Eyed Monster is from Atsugi, a bedroom community in Kanagawa Prefecture about an hour outside Tokyo.
"There is not much of a punk scene in Atsugi," Tamako said. "We go on a tour to the city center."
Despite being outside the center of things, maybe the equivalent of living in Dongtan, the band still manages to play 80 shows a year.
Such a feat would be impossible in Korea, where there are not that many venues, and people would get tired of any band performing more than weekly. But Japan has more venues in more cities, with more people going to all of them.
"Many Japanese bands perform more than 100 times a year, to get more experience and get more people to know the band," Tamako said. "There are many venues in Japan that can do this."
Although the band is heavily influenced by Blink 182 and Tamako cites it for influencing her compositions, she says her lyrics are her own.
"My lyrics are like a daily diary," she said. "This is what happened to me when I wrote the lyrics. I have written my own solution and answer to the problem."
Tamako says she has struggled to stand out from the crowd due to her gender.
"Many Japanese punk bands are male. Because there are few women, it is often disadvantageous," she said. "Because there are many men, women are not accepted. Very few punk rock band women have succeeded in Japan."
Korea-Japan ties are at a low point, following a conflict that has spilled out into history interpretations, economic retaliation and defense cooperation. Korean consumers have boycotted many Japanese goods and travel to Japan. However, the Korean music scene has remained welcoming of Japanese bands.
Tamako said bilateral relations did not concern her.
"I'm not worried because political tensions are not relevant in music," she said. "Whether you like or dislike our music, no matter where the country is, it's people's taste. We go to deliver our music. Worry is unrelated to punk rock."
Green Eyed Monster will be performing at Club FF in Hongik University area Friday along with local bands WTM, Billy Carter and Winningshot.
On Saturday the band will be at Hippytokki for the 10th anniversary party of World Domination, Inc. (WDI), a label run by members of …Whatever That Means. The show will include all 10 WDI bands, as well as the debut of Ultralazy, fronted by the former bassist of legendary Korean punk band GumX.
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