Days were golden…

alternateorg on June 11, 2001

Sunny Day Real Estate broke up. Again. For those of you unaware of one of the better bands of the 90s, here’s a quick history:

In 1994 (the year of good music), Sunny Day’s Diary was released. A landmark album by all accounts, it helped kickstart the somewhat current emo movement. Unfortunately, it also set the stage for a staple behaviour of emo bands: breaking up as soon as success hits. As the followup to Diary was being recorded, the band broke up because, well…the lead singer turned Christian.

How embarassing.

The posthumous release, known as LP2, or the Pink album, continued Sunny Day’s goodness. The lead singer put out a suprisingly un-Christian solo record, and the bass player and insanely good drummer joined the fledgling Foo Fighters. Against all odds, the band started to gravitate back towards one another. The bass player remained in Dave Grohl’s successful outfit, while the other members put out the most impressive rock record since Radiohead’s OK Computer. The album, How it Feels to be Something On, disappointed many of their earlier fans with its strong Beatles feel, yet it was hailed by critics. A live record followed, and now 2000’s The Rising Tide will apparently be the last Sunny Day Real Estate record.

Another one of my favorites, No Knife, is reportedly on the verge of breakup as well. This is all very, very disappointing to me.

Reader interactions

12 Replies to “Days were golden…”

  1. kev June 11, 2001 at 9:34 am

    One of my favorite lines ever: ‘December’s tragic drive / The time is poetry.'<br.

    Just runs a little to close to reality, no?

  2. ddmmyy June 11, 2001 at 12:47 pm

    fuck. this sucks. SDRE, at the drive-in… the most innovative bands in rock are all collapsing. Are we just waiting for Radiohead and Fugazi now?

  3. 808 June 11, 2001 at 3:02 pm

    Good bands that are still together;
    Sebadoh
    Samiam
    Toadies
    Portishead
    Tricky
    ?

    Its not “all” bad…

  4. ddmmyy June 11, 2001 at 7:13 pm

    “all’ was pretty broad. hey, Bad Religion might be good again, Brett Guerwitz is back… who knows.

  5. 808 June 11, 2001 at 9:42 pm

    I hope… The last BR record pretty much sucked.

  6. kev June 11, 2001 at 10:08 pm

    i dunno… i liked ‘a streekid named desire’ an awful lot.

  7. kev June 11, 2001 at 9:34 am

    One of my favorite lines ever: ‘December’s tragic drive / The time is poetry.'<br.

    Just runs a little to close to reality, no?

  8. ddmmyy June 11, 2001 at 12:47 pm

    fuck. this sucks. SDRE, at the drive-in… the most innovative bands in rock are all collapsing. Are we just waiting for Radiohead and Fugazi now?

  9. 808 June 11, 2001 at 3:02 pm

    Good bands that are still together;
    Sebadoh
    Samiam
    Toadies
    Portishead
    Tricky
    ?

    Its not “all” bad…

  10. ddmmyy June 11, 2001 at 7:13 pm

    “all’ was pretty broad. hey, Bad Religion might be good again, Brett Guerwitz is back… who knows.

  11. 808 June 11, 2001 at 9:42 pm

    I hope… The last BR record pretty much sucked.

  12. kev June 11, 2001 at 10:08 pm

    i dunno… i liked ‘a streekid named desire’ an awful lot.

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