Sunny Day Real Estate
It’s been a long time since I could even listen to Diary again. In my senior ye
ar of high school, this was THE album, the soundtrack of my life, and all that. But then, every other band in existence decided to glom onto this sound, diluting it and changing what was one of the last original ‘emo’ bands into something laughably derivitive, even though it was a sound they helped create.
Some 12 years later, though, it still stands up. As with every great and influential album that is considered a cornerstone of a genre, Diary will continue to be one of the most brilliant works not only to come out of emo, but also as an inspiring rock album on its own.
Further releases may not have been nearly as consistent, as band members shifted and/or found religion, although there are moments of brilliance on all of the albums (like “eight” from LP2, and “every shining time you arrive” from how it feels to be something on). The Rising Tide has always been the most difficult album for me to really get through and digest, partly I think because the band itself had changed so much and broken up and reformed twice (?) before this came out.
Members later went on to play in the Foo Fighters, which doesn’t seem like much of a leap if you really think about it. After all, SDRE were labelmates with Nirvana for a very short time (although probably not overlapping, I have to think that Dave Grohl still pays attention to Sub Pop releases). Jeremy Enigk continues to have a solo career, and the splinter project The Fire Theft, released one album and EP earlier this decade.
I was hoping for a reunion for Sub Pop 20, which wasn’t realized. I actually expected a lot of reunions or one off type shows from ex Sub Pop bands, but unfortunately, Flight of the Conchords as headliners was the best they could come up with (nothing wrong with them, of course, but who else was hoping for a Sleater-Kinney reunion? Not just me, I’m sure.)
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