8 Asians

I grew up LOVING taiko drums. I remember trips with my family to festivals in LA’s Little Tokyo in the summers to watch taiko groups performing. My dad had taiko albums playing on our stereos at home all the time, and when he wasn’t playing them, I would borrow them so that I could listen to them on my own. So when my friends the band Random Ninjas started up as a rock band integrating [...] Continue »

00:00 – 03:00 – Welcome & Intro by Nicki Sun 03:00 – 17:45 – Interview with Far East Movement (FM) 17:45 – 19:50 – FM’s opening remarks 19:50 – 22:55 – Beastie Boys tribute 22:55 – 24:50 – Additional remarks by FM – from interns to artists 24:50 – 28:50 – Girls on the Dancefloor 28:50 – 30:40 – Additional remarks by FM – hitting number one on Billboard 30:40 – 35:05 – Like a [...] Continue »

It’s hard to imagine that an Asian American more than 40 years ago performed in  four Billboard top 10 hits, including two #1 songs and one #2, but Larry Ramos of the folk/soft rock group The Association, actually achieved that.  Ramos was a co-lead vocalist on Windy, which topped the charts four 4 weeks.   He was also a co-lead on Never My Love, which was the second most played song on radio in Television [...] Continue »

Growing up in Manila in the late 90s and going to international school (long before MP3 file-sharing became the norm), I had an opportunity to hear a wide variety of music most people stateside had never heard of from around the world, a statement that indie music hipster snobs often flaunt to annoy others. Whether it was my Scandinavian friends introducing me to The Shermans and Eggstone, or discovering the Manila underground thanks to news [...] Continue »

If you would guess the first Asian or Asian American music act to make the Billboard Hot 100, you might think of Jay Sean, Bruno Mars, or the Far East Movement, but the earliest I know about is The Rocky Fellers, whose hit Killer Joe reached 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.  The Rocky Fellers were made up of four brothers, Tony, Junior, Eddie, and Albert Maligmat, and their father, Doroteo.  I learned about [...] Continue »

For those wanting to turn a blind eye to PSY’s latest release Gentleman may be pleasantly surprised to know that it would be worth at least the 5 minutes for the music video. There are a lot of the same silly “Dress Classy, Dance Cheesy” schtick found throughout the video including the various cameo returns of Yellow-suit guy (Yoo JaeSuk) and Elevator humping guy (Noh Hongchul). Gone is Hyuna, replaced with a far more formidable [...] Continue »

Come kick off the 15th Season of one of the longest running free public arts series in downtown Los Angeles, highlighting new work in visual and performance arts from the Los Angeles and Asian American artistic community in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Now celebrating 15 years, the Tuesday Night Cafe series is one of the longest-running free arts spaces in Downtown Los Angeles/Little Tokyo. The space features multidisciplinary arts and performances, including music, poetry, theatre, [...] Continue »

A music video directed/written/composed by Korean American students has became a Golden Tripod Nominee for the Campus Moviefest, the world’s largest student film festival. Says Captain Vincent Ryu: We won best soundtrack in our school, Emory University, and will be competing against 15 other schools in the nation for best soundtrack. The top 5 teams will have their films screened at the Hollywood Campus Moviefest. It is an opportunity for us Korean/Asian Americans to be [...] Continue »

With less than a week away, I am looking forward to attending the Center for Asian American Media’s Film Festival, better known as CAAMFest. As a Jeremy Lin fan, I’m of course looking forward to seeing LINSANITY, the documentary, which has been covered extensively with generally rave reviews. But I’m also looking forward to the open night party at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum as well. There is plenty going on, as CAAMFest 2013′s [...] Continue »

Duke University graduate Douglas Kim recently launched a parody of the song “Rockin the Suburbs” by Ben Folds. As someone who was a management consultant, made the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event, but is now involved in media and entertainment, Doug shares his perspective on Asian Americans today. Says Douglas: The video is social commentary on how I as an Asian American view myself in light of American media and [...] Continue »

The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man. – Frank Herbert, Dune In Dave Eggers’ foreword to Kurt [...] Continue »

By Simon Tam A few years ago, I filed a trademark application for my band, The Slants. The US Trademark Office rejected it, claiming it was disparaging towards Asians. I was baffled: I’m Asian. At first, we fought it by collecting testimonies and letters of support from Asian American organizations; having several independent surveys done (they showed the majority of Asian Americans supported us), getting linguistics studies, and so on. Over the years, we have [...] Continue »