Jang Kiha and the Faces

With the K-pop onslaught on Japan's pop charts showing no sign of abating, here's a timely reminder that not all of the music produced by our closest Asian neighbour involves studiously preened pretty boys and girls with implausibly long legs. Jang Kiha is the darling of South Korea's indie scene, a drummer-turned-frontman with a gift for spiky melodies and wryly comic lyrics (check this subtitled version of recent single 'I've Watched TV'). The internet-fueled success of signature song 'Cheap Coffee' in 2008 turned Jang Kiha and the Faces into the kind of band who could sell out shows in under an hour, and their profile has only continued to rise since then: they played above Jimmy Eat World on the main stage at this year's Jisan Valley Rock Festival and recently topped the inaugural Olle Music Indie Awards. Support for their first Tokyo date (they play again at O-East on Oct 21) comes from screwball underground rockers Totsuzen Danball, a group who started life before Jang Kiha was even born.