Sunny Day Real Estate will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their influential debut album Diary by performing it in its entirety throughout 2024, including at a special SPIN Dayparty event on the afternoon of March 16 in Austin, Tx. Pre-sale tickets for that show, which will also feature the Get Up Kids and special guests, will be available tomorrow (Jan. 23). Additional SPIN events in Austin will be announced in the coming weeks.
As tipped here last week, the Seattle-reared Sunny Day Real Estate is not only releasing their first new song in a decade, “Novum Vetus,” on Friday, but have also recorded a live-in-the-studio, song-for-song rendition of Diary at Seattle’s famed London Bridge Studios. That project, which also includes a live take on “Novum Vetus,” will be released digitally and in a limited vinyl run on May 3, although the latter will also be sold at the upcoming shows. For pre-order information, click here.
While they created hugely influential, genre-defining and emotionally resonant music such as Diary and 1995’s colloquially titled The Pink Album, Sunny Day Real Estate’s members have often incongruously been their own worst enemies, with a variety of interpersonal dramas resulting in three breakups and reunions and at least one aborted album throughout their on-and-off, three-decade existence. The group, which remains led by original members Jeremy Enigk, Dan Hoerner and William Goldsmith, reunited to tour in 2022 after a 12-year break.
Hoerner teased the seven-minute “Novum Vetus” and the idea of a Diary re-record during an interview with SPIN that fall, revealing that the former was an unfinished piece of music from a brief period in 1997 when original bassist Nate Mendel was considering rejoining the band during work on what became the following year’s How It Feels To Be Something On.
“We’ve been working on it for a while,” he said. “It’s beautiful. It’s huge. I’ve been writing lyrics for it, and I think they’re timely. They speak to where Sunny Day is at right now and the path we’ve gone down together. We’ll see how it translates.”
The original concept for the Diary re-record was to track it at the Hoerner-owned Spokane, Wash., venue the Big Dipper when it was empty and afterwards finish it in a proper studio. Instead, it appears the group completed the project entirely at Seattle’s London Bridge Studio, where beloved grunge-era albums from fellow Seattle bands such as Pearl Jam’s Ten and Temple of the Dog’s self-titled debut were put to tape. It’s technically SDRE’s first album since 2000’s The Rising Tide, after which the band broke up for another eight years.
Although Diary tracks such as “In Circles,” “Seven,” “Song About an Angel” and “48” have been staples of SDRE shows for 30 years, many have rarely been performed in concert, including “9” (only four times) and “Round” (three). “We found ways to open up every song and add expansive elements to them,” Hoerner said of the modern-day take on the project. “It’s going to be a whole new album.”
Here are Sunny Day Real Estate’s Diary 30th Anniversary tour dates:
March 13: Lawrence, Ks. (Liberty Hall)
March 14: Oklahoma City (Beer City Music Hall)
March 16: Austin, Tx. (Stubb’s / SPIN event)
May 1: Raleigh, N.C. (Lincoln Theatre)
May 3: Gainesville, Fl. (High Dive)
May 7: Washington, D.C. (Howard Theatre)
May 9: Philadelphia (Theatre of Living Arts)
May 12: Boston (Big Night Live)
May 15: New York (Irving Plaza)
Aug. 14: Dallas (Echo Lounge)
Aug. 17: Denver (Summit)
Aug. 20: Seattle (Showbox)
Aug. 21: Portland, Or. (Pioneer Square / PDX Live Series)
Aug. 23: Seattle (Showbox)
Sept. 25: Chicago (House of Blues)
Sept. 28: Minneapolis (Fillmore)
Oct. 15: San Francisco (August Hall)
Oct. 18: Los Angeles (Belasco)
