Sunny Day Real Estate
Diary and LP2 reissues
(Sub Pop/Stomp)
Sunny Day Real Estate lasted just three years in its first incarnation, and yet the young Seattle quartet’s landmark 1994 debut and 1995 follow-up quickly acquired legend status. The band also had a colossal impact on thousands of emo bands, for better or worse. To coincide with Sunny Day’s present trip down the reunion trail, those hallowed first two albums have benefited from remastering and re-release by Sub Pop, the label that issued them in the first place.
To absorb them today is both nostalgic and weirdly current. Sunny Day occupied the intersection of so many influences, mingling the cerebral post-hardcore of Fugazi and raw hurt of Rites of Spring with Shudder to Think’s unnerving artiness and Slint’s quiet-loud dynamics. Conversely, the past 15 years have seen its own unique sound turn up everywhere, permeating both underground and mainstream rock.
Most notably, Sunny Day Real Estate brought the drive of hardcore and scope of classic rock together with an unspoken, intuitive element that was thoughtful and mysterious rather than macho or angry. Credit for that often goes to the arching, androgynous voice and bold playing of singer-guitarist Jeremy Enigk - who joined the band when he was just 18 - although guitarist-singer Dan Hoerner was just as capable of combining the beautiful and the crushing. Bassist Nathan Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith, both later lured by David Grohl into the Foo Fighters, were tidal, evocative, and tough to draw a bead on. Together they struck upon something poetic and heavy with feeling, letting listeners fill in the emotional gaps around the band’s suggestive fragments of lyrics.
Of these two albums, Diary remains the stone-cold classic. Its opening pairing of ‘Seven’ and ‘In Circles’ still slays every time, and the whole album is so cathartic, musically tense but lyrically freeing. LP2 (or the pink album), then, offers unwieldy structures and time signatures for more of a prog-rock vibe. The standout ‘Theo B’ is poppy and streamlined at first but suddenly grows sneering and twisty, exemplifying the album’s restlessness. There’s less focus on the lyrics and vocals and more on the musical interplay, making it perhaps more of a musician’s album.
Thrust into the post-Nirvana feeding frenzy at a tender age and with no real experience – the band signed to Sub Pop after its second show – Sunny Day was on the verge of collapse before it was time to record a second album but managed to follow through with LP2, despite members not even submitting artwork or even a title. Thus the final title, which was contract-speak for a second album, and the nearly blank pink sleeve, a passing idea of Goldsmith’s. The band ultimately reformed in 1997 – sans Mendel, who is still in the Foo Fighters today – and released two more albums (including the excellent How It Feels To Be Something On - Ed), only to implode again in 2001. This year’s reunion is the first featuring the original lineup.
These reissues are as solid you’d expect from Sub Pop, each adding to the band’s mythology with an oral history featuring the members, producer Brad Wood (who helmed both album), Sub Pop owner Jonathan Poneman, Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, and Shudder To Think’s Craig Wedren. Diary contains two bonus tracks from the band’s debut 7-inch, one of which appears in a different form on LP2, which has it's own two bonus cuts - but it’s the albums themselves that are worth treasuring. It’s the sound of rock exploding in a hundred directions at once, and though slightly dated and achingly familiar, it’s as convincing now as it ever was.
Doug Wallen
The recently reunited original lineup of Sunny Day Real Estate are playing the 2010 Soundwave festival. Ace.