I recently uncovered a load of random Sunny Day… well, everything. For example, I’d been trying to find a picture of the infamous Nordstrom ad the band did when they first got together, and the searches would usually be futile. But, with the website sunnydayrealestate.net fixed up, it’s online, as clear as day:
That SDRE ad that was supposed to be a joke (from the band's perspective)... notice the "singer" they hired on the left
The big treasure trove I came upon is thanks to a little hint from Verbicide magazine on Twitter. It lead to enigk.com (as in Jeremy Enigk) which contains a variable treasure trove of little heard songs from their previous incarnations, Jeremy’s solo stuff, live recordings, demo tapes etc. Again, something of a conundrum in many ways, and now that Sub Pop is reissuing their first two albums with a handful of those rare tracks, I’ll probably buy them in a remastered version.
But, all things aside, literally a treasure trove for super-fans, and a lot of the stuff has been online for quite awhile. Sure, The Empty Set and Chewbacca Kaboom didn’t quite have what Sunny Day had (it was the trio of Dan, Nate, and William before Jeremy joined, with various name incarnations before settling on SDRE, starting w/Empty Set and then going to Chewbacca Kaboom), but it’s a fascinating listen nonetheless. And the self-produced Flatland Spider 7″?! That thing isn’t even getting the reissue treatment, which makes it an even more fantastic find.
There is plenty of material on there to keep any super fan happy and overwhelm anyone with a case of the SDRE curiosities. It was also a great reason to delve online, looking for some of the members previous bands. (Reason For Hate anyone? The hardcore band that had Jeremy on guitar and William as part of a drum team bears a resemblance to their later work together only in that it cemented their status of having been reared in hardcore.) May the great finds continue!
Sunny Day Real Estate – “Flatland Spider”:
Reason For Hate – “Kill The Itch”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAacGdLK1LE&feature=related]
