While browsing to archive merch happenings like the freak I am, I happened upon something I never could have expected. Something I knew I immediately had to dig into. Something related to… ska.

The ska-propagators were none other than Weki Meki. More casual kpop fans may not have heard of this group as they never reached the level of popularity they deserve. However, two members of the girl group, Choi Yoojung and Kim Doyeon, made a name for themselves prior to Weki Meki’s debut as contestants on Produce 101. Finishing at 3rd and 8th place respectively, they ended up initially debuting in the popular temporary group I.O.I., so if you happen to recognize them- that’s why!

Weki Meki haven’t made a comeback in two years as of my writing this, and I’m bitter about it. Their contracts are set to end this year, and many fans have been speculating that they will not renew. Criminally underappreciated in the kpop scene, Weki Meki seems slated to come to a quiet end.

Back in May 2019 Weki Meki made a comeback. The single album was entitled Lock End LOL, and I’m still to this day trying to figure out what the hell that title means. The storyline of the music video for the single, “Picky Picky,” follows the girls forming their own band to compete in their private school’s upcoming battle of the bands. And Yoojung is head girl, so now we all know she’s the real boss here.

The physical album came in two editions. There was the Lock version, which contained pictures of the girls on a tennis court looking pretty. But the version of interest for today is the second, the LOL version. There’s two photoshoots featured in the LOL version. One is clearly on a set that their staff put together themselves, a school classroom covered in friendly graffiti and way too many Blondie posters. You would think the set designers would choose various cool band posters of the era, or just other female fronted bands or something, but it’s just like a dozen different Blondie posters plastered about.

There’s “Call Me” posters, and some good ol’ “Maria” posters featured on the set. Shout out to the Maria remake (? Cover?) in the movie 200 Pounds Beauty that I watched when I was like 11 after watching Dream High. Not necessarily connected to Weki Meki or anything but I thought it was interesting to mention.

Anyway, there was another location used to shoot that is an actual club rather than a set. How I know this is a real club? Well there’s not just Blondie posters, for starters.

When I first came across images from this photoshoot online, I saw the following image of Doyeon posing in front of the charming maximalist collage style free-for-walls you see at any self-respecting punk establishment. What immediately stood out to me was not only a poster for Stomp Fest, but a poster for what I could only make out as “Generation Ska.” My curiosity was instantly piqued.

I decided to go through the images to try and find all the bands whose stickers and flyers we can see in the photos. My first stop was the photos published in the album themselves. My second stop, the behind-the-scenes video of the photoshoot, disappointed me greatly when I saw that they censored the walls of the whole location really. Knowing what I know now, it makes sense, as there were certain things on the walls they would have to censor and I suppose it was easier to just ditch the whole thing.

Super Cool Findings

While looking at all the flyers and such, I was able to pinpoint precisely which club this is. It’s Club SHARP– a punk club in Mangwon-dong, Seoul. There also appears to be a SHARP Ink, a tattoo and piercing shop that is housed at the same address. Honestly it looks awesome from what I’ve seen, and now it’s on my list of places I want to go if I somehow ever get a chance to dip from the States. On to the photoshoot!

Okay so right off the bat, holy shit! It’s Milo and Allroy! I didn’t really expect to see Suyeon right next to two of my favorite band mascots, but here she is. Not only that, but the Madness logo is also spray-painted on the wall behind her. Who cares about that though- I mean c’mon, that’s Milo himself close enough to Suyeon to give her a little smooch.

So for those who don’t know, Milo is the mascot of the Californian hardcore punk band Descendents. He’s a caricature of their lead singer, Milo Auckerman, that one of their friends from high school, Roger Deuerlein, designed. Allroy is the mascot of the band All, which is actually just Descendents minus Milo while he was off getting a PhD in Biochemistry. Does this mean (mascot) Milo and Allroy are besties? Rivals? I don’t know.

Madness, on the other hand, are a ska band from North London. Their logo is just an M wearing a hat and isn’t really a character. It’s hard to compete with the sheer swagger of Milo and Allroy so let’s just move on.

While perusing the Club SHARP Facebook page, I was able to find a photo of the full wall and it’s pretty dope. Not only are Milo and Allroy there, but there’s also the Operation Ivy, Dead Kennedys, and Black Flag logos. Ramones also gets a shoutout, which we love to see. There’s even Sham 69, The Specials, and Adicts on the wall, as well as the phrase “Trojan skins”, so we have equal appreciation for the US and UK punk scenes it seems. Trojan skins most likely refers to Trojan skinheads, the original British movement associated with punk, ska, and reggae as well as not being a racist POS. In addition, there’s a shoutout to The Upsetters, the band of Jamaican reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry. The rest of the bands I could make out are actually from the Korean punk scene itself- Skasucks and Talkbats.

I can see why they decided to stage the photo the way they did, but I am a little bit bummed that we didn’t get to see Suyeon with the crossed-out swastika. It would’ve been a pretty cool “Suyeon hates nazi skinheads” moment. Another missed opportunity was the group shots on the stage, which cropped out the word sKaNKin much to my chagrin. The day a girl group adds skanking to their choreo is the day I die of laughter. I love it.

There’s a few other particular shots that interest me which display posters in the background behind the girls. Elly in front of a New Generation of Ska Fest poster, Yoojung and Doyeon in front of copious Club SHARP flyers… this is the stuff I’m here to see.

The Clueless-inspired outfits are extra fitting because they’re most likely very clueless as to what is going on in their surroundings! But that’s okay, I will mentor them in the ways of begging mommy for a pepsi.

My favorite of the flyers I saw in this photoshoot is the Physique x Scum Raid one with Leatherface on it. Not only do I like kpop and punk music, but I also like horror movies, so I’m really getting all sorts of stimulus from this image.

Below I have compiled all of the flyers I could find on the Club SHARP walls for my own enjoyment, and maybe even yours too. Who knows? Do you like graphic design?

The Flyers

Here’s that aforementioned Physique x Scum Raid flyer. There’s not one, but three Leatherfaces coming for you, and you better watch out.

When reading the lineup from this particular flyer, I was surprised to see Love X Stereo, a band I actually have listened to on Spotify for a while but never even realized is from South Korea at all. Because my favorite song of theirs has lyrics in English, I always assumed they were just western. Here it is below! But be forewarned- it is not very punk.

This poster is straight up dope. I’m obsessed with this biker creature.

This one is for a screening of a documentary entitled, “노후 대책 없다” which roughly translates to something like “No Preparation for Old Age.” Take that with a grain of salt because I’m a fool. I think that “노후 대책 없다” is actually also the title of a song by the band Find The Spot, hence the name of the documentary, but let me know if I’m mistaken. Anyway the flyer is also for a show featuring Cockrasher, The Kitsches, and Green Flame Boys. Using my hangul knowledge to read the name Cockrasher felt really rewarding to me personally. Much more exciting than stuff like Seventeen and even Weki Meki. Side note: Free beer is also pretty dope. And the Club SHARP logo up in the corner looks a lot like the Motorhead logo so that’s interesting.

This flyer is actually signed by the artist, Ryu. He’s one of the tattoo artists who works at Club SHARP.

That’s a hell of a lot of bands. It’s so many in fact, that I can’t really do blurbs on all of them. Instead, I have compiled these bands into alphabetical lists and made a playlist of their songs on YouTube for those who would like a place to start. That’s excepting the Western bands, they don’t get a playlist, because there’s already a crapload of those in existence for my english-speaking readers.

So, the Western bands:

Adicts, All, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Descendents, Madness, Operation Ivy, Ramones, Sham 69, the Specials, the Suicide Machines, the Upsetters

For the Korean bands:

#Dj-EJO, 1234 Dah!, Agari, Alzheimer’s Animals (망각의 동물), Arryam, b4d character, Billy Carter, The Brainbusters, Brigade, Burning Hepburn, Cerkkyu, Cockrasher, Crying Nut, DASOM, Ddul Dan, Dead Buttons, Distruggle, DOHYOTA, Drinking Boys and Girls Choir, Ego Function Error, Fat Toys, Fecundation, Find The Spot, FLUSH!!, Full Garage, Galaxy Express, Green Flame Boys (초록불꽃소년단), HORIM, Inner Fear (내면의 공포), Jinsung Jang, Johnny spark, the Kitsches, Krippled, Lazybone, Leper Temple, Love X Stereo, Long Time No Shit, L.P.P., Martyrs, Nahu, No Brain, Punk Drunk Love, Rudy Guns, the Rulerz, Rumkicks, SAMUI, Scum Raid, Shin Han Tae and Reggae Soul, Skasucks, Skawakers, Slant, Smoking Goose, South Carnival, Swaneater, TAEK, Talkbats, Teargas, Thee Mojo, Thunders, Wasted Johnnys

Here is the playlist!

And for the Japanese bands:

Coquettish, Crucial Section, Hisataka, Rollings, Speed! Noise! Hell!

As well as their little playlist!

Thus concludes this little deep dive of mine. I am excited to start looking into all these bands further and working on making pages on this site that make them more accessible to westerners. A lot of these bands even have female members which always gets me excited! Thank you to anyone reading!