Heavy Rotation: Week Ending September 25, 2009

01. Starflyer 59 – Dial M, (Tooth & Nail.2008)
02. Peter Bjorn And John – Living Thing, (Wichita.2009)
03. “Skeleton Closet” by Holy State, (Holy Roar.2009)
04. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass, (Capitol.1970)
05. Vivian Girls – Everything Goes Wrong, (In The Red.2009)
06. Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary, (Sub Pop.1994)
07. Zoos of Berlin – “Taxis”, (independent.2009)
08. Brendan Benson – My Old, Familiar Friend, (ATO.2009)
09. The Fiery Furnaces – I'm Going Away, (Thrill Jockey.2009)
10. Kurt Vile – Constant Hitmaker, (Gulcher.2008)

On Wednesday night (09/23), I saw the re-united Sunny Day Real Estate play at the legendary First Avenue. If you follow my Twitter feed, you likely saw some of my reactions in real time. Without getting into the particulars of the show (see link below for a nice review and great pictures), the band sounded solid, tight, and seemed to be having a great time playing their tunes. Jeremy Enigk's vocals were confident, it seems that he's more of a singer, yet still draws out certain notes in that raw-ish rasp. On the records, the stop/start, loud/soft dynamics are always intense and jarring. The performance was even more so, it was truly awesome. For me the highlights of the evening were those three big songs from Diary: “Seven”, “In Circles”, and “Shadows”. [Btw, in honor of the truly inspiring show, I am resisting snarky comments about crying, tight sweaters, beards, black rimmed glasses, and self-hugging. It's tough for me.]

Say what you want about emo (the crimes of the plethora of SDRE wannabes that came out in the mid-90s or the travesty of what is being deemed emo today), SDRE had the songs to match their passion (no matter how pretentious or overdramatic). The kids seem to think the more bonkers the vocals or the idiotic the changes, the better. SDRE had the perfect balance – see “Shadows” for one perfect example. Their influence is undeniable – their music led kids to form bands, they never realized the success that their inferior followers did (i.e. Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, etc.). They are The Velvet Underground of the 1990s.

Let the Emogasm Continue: Recap: Sunny Day Real Estate reunion show at First Avenue from The Onion A.V. Club by Pat O'Brien; Photos: Jenn Barnett


p.s. I was bummed they didn't play a single song from The Rising Tide – a much bitched about and, imho, misunderstood record (prog-emo? Peter Gabriel-era Genesis meets Led Zeppelin with a hint of grunge and classic SDRE? KILLER.) Then again, I believe that was a bad time for the band – then again, they had a lot of bad times. Oh well.

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