Ee

Ask any of the four members in the San Francisco-based band, Ee, to describe their music and you'll end up with four different responses, each emphasizing one aspect of the group’s collective aesthetic. That's because Ee's membership is wound with the tension of four diverse musical passions that form the core of the band's sound. This sonic tension, a fluid mixture of textured pop, improvisational post-rock, torrential washes of noise and droning instrumentals (sometimes all within the span of a single song), gives Ee the quality to both embrace and challenge the indie rock status quo whence they came.

Ee began in 1999, after founding member Tobin Mori's (guitar/vocals) previous rock endeavor, Korea Girl, disbanded. Soon after the fallout, Tobin assembled a lush, albeit shortlived, five-piece to record Ee's debut album, Ramadan (Currycore Records). However, in the spring of 2000, Ee's line-up went through a dramatic transition when previous members of the band decided to part and go their separate ways.

The empty slots were soon filled by Che Chou on bass guitar and Peter Nguyen on drums, forming the nexus of Ee version 2.0. Having toured previously as a bassist for Korea Girl, Che put his search for musical adventures in Chicago on hold, and headed back to SF. He was eager to augment Ee's already laid-back sound with his love of all things instrumental. Peter's contribution to Ee as a drummer was something neither had expected. An active member of the noise-core outfit Total Shutdown, Pete's urgent drumming style gave Ee's mellow, melodic musings a bombast and a bite. In early 2001, Sooyoung Park, a recent Chicago transplant and front man for rock’n roll band Seam, joined Ee on lead guitar and keyboards to complete the line-up.

Ee is currently in the studio recording their second LP, tentatively titled "For 100 We Try Harder," scheduled for release fall 2002 on Asian Man Records. A four-track EP, dubbed "Tinyspot" (also on Asian Man) kicks off their three-week U.S. tour in April 2002.

by Che