We really enjoyed Ride With Me, the latest full length from Seoul-based band Table People, describing their sound as “who-gives-a-damn lyrics and spiky guitar solos… Pavement meets the original post-punk generation”. So, when our pal Henry Demos told us he had produced a new single and asked if we’d like to stream it at WTD, we pretty were excited. But unfortunately, there is a catch as the single heralds the end of Table People. Saturday sees their farewell show in Strange Fruit, Seoul. So now we’re both sad and honoured to be one of the final resting places the band will know, a place outside of Seoul for their ghosts to linger and live on in all their analogue glory.
‘Funny Man Routine’ is not as spiky as anything on Ride With Me, Henry Demos swooping in and smoothing over the edges with fuzzed-out reverb. The vocals sound naive and unsure, less swaggering rock demigod, more odd and eccentric outsider, part Withered Hand, part Evangelicals. Think of the track as a lo-fi surf rock, dream pop encore, simultaneously sunny and strange, capped off with the final lines which are funny and weird and sad all at once.
“Doing my funny man routine for the football team at school.
If I showed them the sad parts, would they walk out on me.
So I showed them the sad parts and they fell in love with me.
So I showed them the sad parts and they cried for me”
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You can buy ‘Funny Man Routine’ now from Table People’s Bandcamp page on a pay-what-you-can basis. If you’re in the area, be sure to get to Strange Fruit for 9pm in order to catch Nice Legs, JuckJuck GRUNZIE and Table People’s last hurrah. It’s 5000won + free pizza and Table People merchandise, so you’d be a fool not to go (unless, like us, you’re 9000 miles away). All the details are here.