Hudson Mohawke, “Ooops”

Considering my feelings for Timbaland’s original “Oops” beat (that is: it’s fucking amazing), I can’t believe how much I love this remix.

via The Fightins

I’ve been trying to hold onto posting this until I’ve gotten my ass in gear and officially launched my MP3 blog (because the internet needs another one of those). But that’s taking far longer than it should and I really want you to hear this. A cross between Sleepytime Trio and Q And Not U? Yes please.

Not Cool, “Um, You Didn’t Do That In Souncheck”

Visit Not Cool here.
Pre-order the 7″ here.

Lately, there’s been a lot written about Sunny Day Real Estate. Obviously, when a band this influential and important to so many people announces a proper reunion tour (their first shows with all original members since their disbandment in 1994), there can be a lot of noise. And, loathe as I am to add to this, I can’t help it. Without even realizing it, I’ve found myself deep in a re-obsession with SDRE. Hours have been wasted pouring over liner notes, Wikipedia pages, setlists, demos, interviews, and arguing fruitlessly for LP2’s place as the better of the band’s two landmark albums. I’ve blown money on reissues of albums I already have memorized and am fully prepared to be reduced to a blubbering idiot the moment the first notes of “Red Elephant” hit me at their show at the Fillmore.

Let’s back up. There was a moment in time (let’s say 1992-1996) when I would have said Sunny Day Real Estate was my favorite band of all time. Had I truly loved music my entire life, this would be lofty praise. But as a guy who only had SDRE to blame for his caring about music in the first place, it’s been tough to look back on those years and determine whether or not these guys were actually as amazing and groundbreaking as I believed them to be or if they were simply important to my musical development. The progression of SDRE as a band didn’t help matters.

Obviously, there’s no point in retelling the entire history of Sunny Day Real Estate. But here’s what’s important to my story: for all intents and purposes, the band had broken up before even finishing LP2. Jeremy went on to release a solo album which I absolutely adored as an entity entirely unrelated to SDRE; its songs existed in stark contrast to the band’s recorded output and even featured prominently a 21-piece orchestra. His subsequent touring stripped this number down to 10, a number still large enough to absolutely destroy me all four times I’d seen them live (”… at least we had timing at all” = total breakdown). But as this was happening, rumors of an SDRE reunion were bubbling and none of them involved Nate. I was worried.

And then it happened. They released How It Feels to Be Something On to absolute critical praise. And I hated it. In hindsight, I guess I didn’t hate it; I just didn’t want it. It sounded nothing like either the SDRE I obsessed over or the Jeremy Enigk solo material that I loved. It was just something else. I didn’t need it. I listened to it a handful of times and never even thought to see them on that tour.

Subsequent versions of the band would release other albums – one as The Fire Theft and another, The Rising Tide, as SDRE. Both were horrible. Add to this the fact that Sunny Day Real Estate was often blamed for their part in turning “emo” into a four-letter word and I was having a difficult time putting my feelings for them into perspective.

When I heard that all four members were reuniting for a tour, I begrudgingly bought a ticket in order to right the wrong of never having seen the band play. But then some pieces started to fall into place. I began to realize that Nate never played on HIFTBSO. That Sub Pop was re-releasing Diary and LP2 to coincide with the tour. That this tour could very well be about those two records. And then video of a pre-tour secret show and the setlist from the first official show came in:

1. “Friday”
2. “Seven”
3. “Red Elephant”
4. “Song About an Angel”
5. “Grendel”
6. “Shadows”
7. “Iscarabaid”
8. new song
9. “J’Nuh”
10. “Sometimes”
Encore:
11. “In Circles”
12. “48″
13. “Spade and Parade”

HOLY SHIT. 7 songs from Diary. 4 from LP2. 1 from an early 7″. One new song. Nothing from HIFTBSO. Nothing from The Rising Tide. And in watching the videos, it’s obvious that these guys mean it. This tour is undoubtedly for me and my friends and all the other sad sack teenagers who wore out their copies of the Diary liner notes. And I have begun losing sleep with excitement to finally see Sunny Day Real Estate.

But what’s the final verdict on this band? Well, after many hours spent diving headfirst into re-obsession, I think it’s this: Sunny Day Real Estate were an amazing band. Not amazing for the time. Not amazing for being so young. Not amazing for being different. Just amazing. 15 years removed from the shock of how foreign it all sounded to me, I’m still floored by the fact that these guys built two nearly flawless documents of what raw emotion in music could (and perhaps should) sound like. They are undoubtedly the most important band in my entire life; every record I purchased after Diary was because of Diary. And although it’s been a very long time coming, I am unspeakably excited to finally see them live. Look for me. I’ll be the 14 year old in the very front.

Coda:
My friend Chris introduced me to SDRE back in high school and we’ve spent the past couple of weeks obsessively discussing the band as though we were teenagers again. He challenged himself to figure out what his top five favorite SDRE songs were. And it got me thinking about the same. Sadly, this list will be wrong five minutes from now when I think about it again. But as of right now, I would go with these (2009 remastered versions attached):

5. “Theo B”

4. “Spade and Parade”

3. “Seven”

2. “Red Elephant”

1. “Waffle”

Wait, no… only one song off of Diary? Let me think about this some more. “Song About an Angel” has got to be in there somewhere, right? Hmm…

via The Fightins

But now, it’s back to this: me sharing with you music that you probably already know about and are tired of. This time, it’s Jellyfish.

Inexplicably, I’ve been on a big power pop kick of late. I’ve been spending a lot of time digging around eBay and specialized power pop blogs to feed this new obsession, much to the chagrin of iPod’s straining hard drive. But I’ve always avoided Jellyfish, despite 1993’s Spilt Milk being held in such high regard. Why? Well…

1) have you ever seen pictures of these guys? Seriously. Why would I listen to anything made by THIS?
2) the drummer-as-lead-singer thing is ALWAYS a bad idea. Even worse, this one STANDS UP WHILE HE PLAYS.

The obvious Beach Boy obsession (both in vocal harmonies and production value) is a little off-putting, as well, but truth be told, these were dumb reasons for avoiding such a phenomenal record. I’m glad I’ve finally conceded. Andy Sturmer’s vocals are really great and the Beach Boy flairs (and occasional total rip offs) have quickly grown endearing to me. The songwriting is pretty flawless as is the musicianship and the feeling of Jon Brion looming over the entire project (even if his participation was, in fact, minimal) is comfortable and nice.

Better late than never, right? (I’m embedding a live performance thanks “embedding disabled by request” bull shit.)

BONUS:

PS: My obsession with power pop spawned an introduction to the genre over at my day job. It’s obviously just a surface-scratcher, but I like it.

I feel like it captures Seaside Heights just perfectly: glitz and fun with a not-so-subtle undertone of crippling sadness in the eyes of three bears who have apparently decided life was just too hard to handle.

Back to San Francisco on Wednesday.