A few months ago I discovered 怕胖團 PaPun Band, a contemp punk rock band from Taiwan. Currently the lineup features lead singer 閃亮 (謝侃均), bassist 大寶 (黃怡瑋)and drummer 老外 (魏敦華）組成。They debuted in 2007 and over the years have steadily put out work and built a strong fan base for themselves at home. But like most alternative music, it’s hard to find these things if you’re not in the scene unless you know where to look, and luckily for me, I stumbled upon them in a vlog I follow.
Since then I’ve revisited their discography often because there’s honestly, a song for every mood in there. Although their sound is officially punk rock, they venture out of the genre often to softer contemplative sounds, acoustic-driven tracks, nonsensical chaotic energy, playful and grounded music and everything in between.
Lyrically they have a wide swing as well, giving attitude, offering social commentary, playful diss tracks, tongue-in-cheek youth stories, dramatic narratives and also sentimental dreams and heartbreak songs. In their songs you can feel a very affirming, all judgments withheld embrace of the kind of shit you do in your 20s. Listening becomes this cathartic experience of not only feeling seen in some way, but also that maybe it’s okay you were a dumb shit in your youth. PaPun says, just find lots of other friends to be dumb shits with! Woo!
Literally. This band is everything. There are some bands that are just meant to experienced in real life, PaPun is one of those bands.
I’ve only put in a small selection of songs from their discography, and admittedly, many come from my favourite album of theirs, 青春只差兩撇 Two Steps Away From Youth which came out in 2016. But you’ll be seeing lots of their music in future mixtapes and SOTDs from me, no doubt 😛
烏天黑地 一場大雨下著 霓虹燈女人和毒品 A big storm rains on a woman, drugs in the red traffic light of the night
擁擠的街 惡臭裡傳來一陣香氣 是誰在那裡 Amongst the crowd on the street, a fragrance floats in the stench, who is there?
追逐你的身影 轉角 你躺在血泊裡 I chase your shadow, turn the corner and see you lying in your blood
透過紅色倒影 我看見自己 Through my inverse reflection in the red, I see myself
今天發現你 交了新男朋友 Today I discovered you have a new boyfriend
仔細看一看 長得還很像我 If I look closely, he kinda looks like me
你怎麼可以 交了新男朋友 How could you have a new boyfriend
雖然當初是我先跟你說分手 Even though back then, I broke up with you first
常問該怎麼做 拼了命努力尋找 最後還是很寂寞 寂寞 I often ask what I should do, try my hardest to find and still in the end I’m lonely, so lonely
嘗試用時間來量 發現這其實不長 我比你想像堅強 I try to use time to measure, and discover it’s not that long, turns out I’m stronger than you imagined
抱歉我不想跟你道歉 Sorry I don’t want to apologize to you
大不了再見永遠都不要再見 No big deal, let’s never see each other again
我不會後悔 但是我希望你會很後悔 I won’t regret, but I really hope you will regret
我想要 Macbook Pro I want a MacBook Pro
但是我 沒有錢 But I don’t have money
但是我 沒有錢 去買它 But I don’t have money to buy it
我想要 Macbook Pro I want a Macbook Pro
但是 一台要七萬 But one costs 70,000NTD
我又沒有男朋友在Apple上班 Nor do I have a boyfriend who works at Apple
該怎麼辦 What should I do?
今天陪太陽走在路上 腦中的大雨一直一直下 Today I accompanied the sun on the road, but it rained nonstop in my head
身邊的朋友一個一個一個發熱發光 All my friends around me are dazzling one by one
我確定這是我第一專長 只不過沒有什麼人欣賞 I am sure this is my best talent, only nobody appreciates it
是不是時候該把它留在遺憾的心房 Is it time to leave it as a regret in my heart?
PaPun released a statement around this song saying one day they had some sort of chaotic energy going on and made this song about zombies. There are no lyrics available anywhere for this song but it vaguely narrates a dude waking up to find out he’s a zombie. It’s hilarious, chaotic af and a total bop.
Our JxMs 