Last night Ear Candy caught wind of a strong rumor that Sunny Day Real Estate, one of the most influential and underappreciated post-grunge groups to come out of Seattle, has reunited with its original members and plan on touring this year.
The band got together in 1992 and released “Diary” in 1994, an album I discovered after Kurt Cobain killed himself and upon first listen I immediately fell in love with every song on the album. Unfortunately, after a few lineup changes and some reported struggles with its label, Sub Pop, the group disbanded in 2001. The original SDR lineup included Jeremy Enigk. Nate Mendel, William Goldsmith and Dan Hoerner and they are credited with being one of the grandfathers of emo. Now before you go blaming these guys for AFI, My Chemcial Romance and all those other emo bands, they aren’t responsible for that type of emo. Think more along the lines of “Pinkerton” emo and you’ve got it.
If a few of those names in their lineup sound familiar it’s because Mendel is the bass player in Foo Fighters and Goldsmith used to the drummer for the Foos before he left the group and some guy named Taylor Hawkins stepped in behind the kit. Oh yeah, and Enigk has had a pretty decent solo career too but not as noteworthy as the non-SDR days of Hawkins and Goldsmith.
There has been no official word on when the band will tour, but according to my source, current KEXP and former 107.7 The End jock Marco Collins, the original lineup is rehearsing and planning on touring.
