Attacking Forces

It was January 25, 2004, the day after Skunk Hell, Korea's main punk club, had their first show. I woke up hungover and not totally sure I got back to my own bed. I had everything with me, the remains of my wrecked camera and all that. On the memory card was a recollection of things my own memory had blocked out. Oh, and there was something else new. A name/e-mail that I didn't remember getting. Yeong Soon, Kong Kyuk Dae, and contact info.

Who the hell was this? I asked a Korean female friend on MSN, and we agreed that Yeong Soon sounded like a girl's name, and Kong Kyuk Dae was possibly a university, as "Dae" is shorthand for university. It could be Konkuk University.

I don't know if she was pulling my leg, because Kong Kyuk Dae means "Attacking Forces," and Yeongsoon is one of the last guys I photographed that night. Here's me with him in a picture I have no memory taking.



Back in those days, the only people who went to shows in Korea were band members and people starting bands. It was a fiercely talented crowd but it meant no money for promoters as just about everyone there got comped at the door.

Attacking Forces was a rare band based outside of Seoul. Back then, there virtually was no punk scene outside Seoul, and it's still pretty well the same. The exception is the small inland university town of Cheongju, population just over half a million. There's basically no punk scene in larger Korean cities, including Busan, Korea's second largest city, but for some unknown reason this one little place has produced some of the best punk and hardcore of the peninsula.

Part of it is due to the management of MF Crew, a record label that supports local bands as well as other non-Seoul bands. Attacking Forces is the only skinhead band on that label.

The two skinhead members, Yeongsoon, the singer, and Jongo, the guitarist, are my favourite Koreans.



For a long time, Attacking Forces was a bit of a typical Asian cookie-cutter oi band, but then every single other Korean band doing that sound either broke up or turned metal. Part of the reason is Yeongsoon was conscripted when the scene was at its height, and when he came back everything had changed but him. Oh, except he lost a ton of weight. Now they always get a good rise at shows because they're a rare fun, uncomplicated band with memorable tunes.



There's one other story you must hear about guitarist Jongo. You wouldn't know it to look at him because he's a small guy, but he's the lightweight boxing champion of his entire province.

Apparently at the tournament, just before weigh-in, he was going to be the smallest guy in his weight class. Then he took a dump, and weighed in just at the top of the weight class below. So basically, he won this trophy for defecating.



Attacking Forces were working on an album just before Yeongsoon was sent up to the border fence. It sat in a box for two years before he returned and they finished laying down all the tracks. This was one long-assed recording several years in the making, but it was worth the wait. Download Beer, Blood, and Boots here.

Also included is a cover of "Dirty Old Town" by the Goo Gang Sung Gyo Orchestra, which is just a masturbation reference Yeongsoon made up when he was fooling around with some recording equipment at work one day.

Here's me with the AF boys back when I had my Abraham Lincoln chops.