Damnably: We’re A Happy Family

April 11. 2022 | By Wayne Jessup

Based in Stratford, London, the label known as Damnably has spent years refining its international reach, and approaches critical mass with upcoming releases from Kyoto, Japan’s Otoboke Beaver, Say Sue Me (Busan, South Korea), and Hazy Sour Cherry (Tokyo).

OTOBOKE BEAVER

The time finally appears to be now for Otoboke Beaver. The Japanese quartet spent years of scrabbling around the demands of their day jobs in offices, garnering a rep for their intense live shows, and finally going full-time as a band, when Covid struck and they were back to square one. Undeterred, they applied their fierce determination and focus to streaming gigs and a new batch of songs. Super Champon comes out 5/6, and a March US tour has been bumped back to  November along with UK/Euro dates pushed from this May to 2023, but after this long a wait, it will only be sweeter. Prepare yourself with their upcoming live stream celebrating the birthdays of Accorinrin and Kahokiss on 4/16. Tickets can be obtained through their Bandcamp page. Below, plunge yourself into Super Champon with their latest single “Pardon?”, and the first blast, “I Am Not Maternal”.

SAY SUE ME

It’s been no less a hard-won journey for Say Sue Me, emerging from an indie scene that thrived in the shadows of K-Pop. Two EP’s: Big Summer Night and We’ve Sobered Up, (combined together as a self-titled compilation), showed their growth, weathering the loss of their drummer, and led to their stunning breakthrough debut LP, Where We Were Together. A fine covers EP, It’s Just A Short Walk and some notable singles, including the dual versions of “Good For Some Reason”, and “So Tender”, from the Korean television drama Nevertheless, found them stretching out, laying the table for their new LP The Last Thing Left. It comes out 5/13 on Damnably and their longtime Korean home Electric Muse, backed up by US live dates, originally set for May, but pushed back to November. Check out the new video for “Around You” below, as well as their tribute to Damnably label heads George and Janis, entitled, of course, “George & Janice”.

HAZY SOUR CHERRY

Coming together in 2018 from disparate bands in the Tokyo scene to form Hazy Sour Cherry, the core of the quartet is Tsuzumi and Jun Ham, joined by drummer Karin, and most recently, bassist Chiba. Breaking through with their debut full-length Tour De Tokyo, their forthcoming LP Strange World is due in June, with preorders available through their Bandcamp page. See the band in action below and take a deeper dive with their set from last spring’s Damnably anniversary shows.

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