sunny day real estate

thrasher
nov. 98
by joseph epstein



Never mind the searing 100 degree July heat or the fact that the show didn't start for another nine hours. Kids lined up around the block with obvious anticipation at New York's Irving Plaza for just the second SDRE show in four years. More than any other band in the post-grunge, post-hardcore mid nineties, Sunny Day defined emo-core. And with such a legacy, it's no wonder there were some feelings of stage fright. "I was a little bit trepidant beforehand because we were going to play for an entirely new set of people," admits guitarist Dan Hoerner in an interview a few days after the show. Sunny Day emerged in 1992 as an amalgamation of singer/guitarist Jeremy Enigk's anguished lyrics, Dan Hoerner's lush guitar work, and the throbbing cacophony of drummer William Goldsmith and bassist Nate Mendel. Quite simply, Sunny Day sounds like a lullaby in a thunderstorm. But "there was a lot of anger and a lot of hostility," says Hoerner. "We had huge issues with each other and we were at each other's throats." After two groundbreaking releases in 1994 and 1995, internal strife forced the quartet to go their separate ways. Enigk recorded Return of the Frog Queen, a collection of pop-oriented, fairytale symphonics. Meanwhile, Goldsmith and Mendel joined former Nirvana bassist Dave Grohl to form the Foo Fighters while Hoerner, an active environmentalist, found solace living off the land on his sixty acre farm in Eastern Washington. But when talk emerged of putting together a collection of unreleased and rare material, Enigk and Hoerner, who had been in touch after the band's demise, began working on a few new songs to include on the compilation. As the two got down to work, chemistry took over and they penned Sunny Day's newest full length record, How It Feels To Be On Something. "It blew Jeremy and I away how quickly the music happened between us," Hoerner recalls with boyish excitement. "I was like 'Hey, Jeremy, listen to this...' and he would start playing along with it, singing not like Jeremy Enigk anymore but like some kind of fucking cosmic cathode ray tube or something." But don't quite call this a reunion. Sunny Day Real Estate is a new band, according to Hoerner. While Goldsmith came quickly back into the fold, bassist Mendel decided to continue with the Foo Fighters. In need of a new bassist, Sunny Day tapped former Mommyheads' bassist Jeff Palmer after a long, exhaustive search. "Everyone else had wilted in front of Sunny Day, but Jeff took control and didn't wither. That was the selling point," Hoerner says. Still, the soft-spoken Hoerner was a little uneasy after playing the band's first show in four years, and asked if I liked the new record. It's as if Willy Wonka was asking the kids who visit his factory if they liked his chocolate bars. How It Feels To Be On Something is a carefully crafted set of chaotic orchestrations, echoing the band's emerging maturity and a new outlook. Unlike the sonic barrage of their acclaimed debut Diary, or the pop rock pitter-patter of Sunny Day's self-titled follow up, the new songs are as desolate and spare as they are furious and frenzied. The album tortures the band's Beatles sensibility with mind-numbing anxiety and a well practiced sense of desperation. While Hoerner and his cohorts have been notably reserved in the past by entertaining few, if any, press requests, Hoerner talks about the band in the third person, as if Sunny Day is its own entity or a sovereign separate from the played-out union of modern rock. Clearly, Sunny Day Real Estate is larger than the sum of its parts. "This is what happens when the collective speaks," says Hoerner. Given its cult-like status, you could almost understand Hoerner's anxiety about playing the band's new material for fans eager to rock to songs they know. "I was the kid who always thought the green Clash record was the best one," he jokes. "I had them all, but none of them touched me the same way that one did." While Sunny Day premiered new tracks like "Pillars" and "Guitar and Video Games," the quartet closed with the classic "In Circles," generating an inspiring singalong. "It was nice to be on the stage and hear the crowd louder than the singer," Hoerner says with a smile, no doubt relieved.

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