A sun-slicked highlight of 2019’s Green Man festival were Say Sue Me, a South Korean shoegazey, dream-pop band currently barrelling through a European tour. Three schoolfriends originally formed the group’s skeleton in 2012 – guitarist and songwriter Kim Byung-kyu, bassist Ha Jae-young, and drummer Kang Se-min – before they introduced themselves to Choi Su-mi at a Busan teashop, after loving the lilting tones of her speaking voice. Two years later, her wistful, subtly edgy vocals lit up We’ve Sobered Up, a debut album full of songs with sounds – and song titles – ripe for nostalgic teen movies (Bad Feeling and I Know I’m Kind of Boring are among the best).
An EP, Big Summer Night, followed, but in 2015 came a tragedy that would break many bands: their drummer ruptured his skull after an accidental fall and was left in a coma. They took two years off in shock but regrouped to release an EP named after him, Semin, which raised funds for his medical care. They also finished the album they began with him, When We Were Together. Its seven-minute finale Coming to the End is a slow-building, quiet-to-loud, Yo La Tengo epic, culminating in Se-min’s last recording on drums. Now they have released a new single, George & Janice, full of the hopeful brightness of bands like the Concretes. A new album comes in 2020, and they embark on a seven-date UK tour later this month.
Say Sue Me tour the UK from 23 September to 2 October
