I’m taking a break from writing for The Indy Review with my upcoming semester looming. It’ll begin the now familiar semester cycle that sees me bright eyed and optimistic embark on a quest with several dozen greenback students to return in 16 weeks bedraggled and shell shocked. Each semester is like an odyssey into unknown places as even the best made lesson plans go awry. The exciting aspect is that you simply press on and learn from the mistakes. On this odyssey I imagine I’ll have unique experiences that I was culturally unaware of. I’ll grow from the whole thing. This is also how I see Ssing Ssing.
Traditional Korean folk, rock, glam, and funk provide the vehicle for the odyssey. The guides channel traditional Korean cross dressing and wear elaborate costumes with powerful performances high in drama and expression. The band is SsingSsing. Their 15-minute Tiny Desk performance on NPR is a musical odyssey into lands I’ve seen but haven’t explored. I went along for the ride and stepped out of my genre comfort zones and dug their danceable folk glamrock. It was great.
They haven’t produced any new music since 2017 and their Facebook page was last updated in 2018 so perhaps they’ve gone their separate ways or are on hiatus.
Their four track, self-titled album received widespread accolades and their Tiny Desk performance brought them a lot of acclaim. My writing for The Indy Review has done the same. So, hopefully both me and Ssing Ssing are just going on hiatus.
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