Sunny Day Real Estate Reissues on the Way!
When Sunny Day Real Estate collapsed in early 1995, few would have predicted the impact the Seattle band’s music would still be having over a decade later. Now, more than 15 years since Sub Pop released Sunny Day’s landmark debut album Diary, the band’s original lineup is reuniting this fall to deliver its emotionally charged epics for live audiences once again.
A passion to create uncommonly expressive rock’n'roll fueled Jeremy Enigk (guitar/vocals), Dan Hoerner (guitar/vocals), William Goldsmith (drums) and Nate Mendel (bass) from the earliest incarnations of Sunny Day Real Estate. Hoerner, Goldsmith and Mendel formed the band as a trio in 1992 and went by three other names before settling on the permanent moniker. It was quickly clear they’d all stumbled upon something new and exciting. Enigk’s yearning, high-register voice was a direct contrast to Hoerner’s primal delivery, imbuing the music with a previously unrealized level of emotion, and when Mendel returned from tour, it was decided Sunny Day would henceforth be a quartet, with Enigk on lead vocals.
The band’s Sub Pop debut LP, Diary, proved a remarkably consistent seller, eventually exceeding 230,000 units to make it the label’s seventh-biggest release of all time. Unfortunately, internal tensions were threatening Sunny Day’s existence; the band had essentially stopped practicing, and it would barely last another couple of months.
Sunny Day had already committed to recording again in early 1995, but it didn’t have enough brand new material to constitute a full album, provisionally titled LP2. To compensate, the band revisited one song from the Diary sessions (“Rodeo Jones”) and another (“8″) that had already been released on a seven-inch single.
By spring 1995, LP2 was finished, and so was Sunny Day Real Estate. Enigk immediately began work on his first solo album. Mendel and Goldsmith were crushed, but quickly accepted Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl’s invitation to hit the road that spring on his maiden tour with his new project, Foo Fighters. Sunny Day turned the album in to Sub Pop with no title or artwork, leaving the label to figure out how to release a highly anticipated record from a band that no longer existed. LP2, forever to be dubbed The Pink Album because of that cover art, was released on Nov. 7, 1995.
The expanded reissues of Diary and LP2 will coincide with the fall 2009 reunion tour will coincide, which will be the focus of the live set lists. “There was a time I refused to play Sunny Day songs in my solo shows, because I didn’t think it was fair to the band,” Enigk says. “But the fans desired to hear the songs, and I felt like I had to give something back. To see them excited when I start playing ‘In Circles,’ is an amazing feeling. But it’s not the same playing them without William, Dan and Nate. Now, it’s really exciting to hear the real essence again.”
