About The Black Skirts

검정치마 (The Black Skirts) is a Korean indie pop band. Characterized by catchy, melody-oriented tunes, and frank, sometimes even cynical lyrics, 검정치마 has been likened to bands such as The Strokes and Phoenix, incorporating shoegaze, punk, pop and other styles into their own sound. Formed in 2004 in New York, they started out with three members, but eventually drifted apart, leaving frontman 조휴일(Cho Hyu-Il, also Bryan Cho) as the sole member. Making his way back to Korea in 2006, 조휴일 undertook the entire production process into his own hands, writing songs in between performing at Hongdae clubs. Making his way back to the US in the hopes of releasing an album, he started his recording in the studio. In 2008, on 조휴일's return to Korea, 검정치마 released its first album, "201", on the indie record label RubySalon. It proved to be a big hit in the Korean indie scene, hitting 10,000 copies in sales and earning the band the 2009 Korea Music Award (the Korean equivalent of the Grammy) for 'Best modern rock album'. 검정치마 was also nominated for "Best modern rock single", "Album of the year", "Song of the year", and "Newbie of the year". 검정치마 parted with its label, RubySalon, in January 2010, along with Galaxy Express and Telepathy. A remastered special edition of their debut album, "201" is currently being distributed by Sony. 조휴일 is currently taking a break from touring to work on 검정치마's next album. Keyboardist Im Yoojin (임유진), with the band from 2008 to 2010, went solo in 2011 as Neon Bunny (야광토끼).